El Paso Airport Closed After Military Shot Down Random Party Balloon

The FAA briefly closed the airspace over El Paso, Texas, after the military used a high-powered laser to shoot down what appeared to be a drone but was actually just a party balloon. 

CBS reports that the Pentagon wanted to use the technology to practice shooting down drones near Fort Bliss, which is next to El Paso International Airport. Despite meetings scheduled to discuss safety issues, DOD officials wanted to test the laser quickly, claiming that legal requirements over the protection of facilities from unmanned aircraft had been satisfied.

The anti-drone laser was launched earlier this week near America’s southern border to target what was thought to be foreign drones. Instead, a party balloon was shot down.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford then decided to close El Paso’s airspace Tuesday night without telling the White House, the DOD, or the Department of Homeland Security, according to unnamed sources. Bedford reportedly told officials that the airspace would be closed until the Pentagon resolved its issues with the FAA. 

Initially, the restriction on planes flying below 18,000 was set for 10 days, something that hasn’t been in place since the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Any aircraft that violated the restriction could have been shot down. 

Wednesday morning’s airspace closure caused a brief panic among government agencies, as even emergency medical evacuations were halted. When the discussion reached the White House, the FAA lifted the restriction within minutes. 

“The FAA and [Department of War] acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region. The restrictions have been lifted and normal flights are resuming,” Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a statement. 

The DOD failed to communicate with the FAA in this instance, which has happened before during Trump’s second term. Just over a year ago, a military helicopter collided with a passenger plane near Ronald Reagan National Airport and killed 67 people. This time, a brief airspace closure and a downed party balloon seem to be the only repercussions (that we know about). Hopefully, this is an isolated incident and not evidence of a more serious issue.  

Donald Trump is considering blowing up the USMCA free trade agreement between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Bloomberg reports that the president is asking staff why he shouldn’t withdraw from the agreement, which he signed during his first term as president, according to unnamed sources.

Interestingly, the U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, told Fox Business on Tuesday that renewing the 2019 agreement was not in the country’s best interests, and that the Trump administration wanted to negotiate separately with Canada and Mexico.

“Generally speaking, these negotiations are going to proceed bilaterally and separately. The Mexicans are being quite pragmatic right now; we’ve had a lot of discussions with them. With the Canadians, it’s more challenging,” Greer said. 

Mexican Prime Minister Claudia Sheinbaum dismissed the idea of the U.S. withdrawing from the USMCA when asked about it during a press conference Wednesday.

“We don’t believe it, and it has never been said in the calls, because it is very important to them,” Sheinbaum said. 

Trump’s tariff uncertainty in 2025 has already made the USMCA shaky and undermined the deal in Mexico and Canada, and his antagonization of Canada by calling it the “fifty-first state” hasn’t helped either. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has embarked on an economic policy independent of the U.S., beginning talks with China, but he said Tuesday that he had a “positive” conversation with Trump that touched on the USMCA. He didn’t offer any details, though.  

Under the terms of the agreement, there has to be a mandatory review before it can be extended on July 1. Trump wants more concessions from Canada and Mexico for that to happen. If the U.S. decides to pull out of the deal, it would have to give six months’ notice. The decision would also put $2 trillion in goods and services in jeopardy.

American businesses wouldn’t take the news well, as much of the U.S. depends on trade with Canada and Mexico. But Trump has paid little attention to what actually hurts the economy, causing havoc in the markets with his whimsical tariffs and tanking job growth. It seems that he doesn’t care that messing up a deal he made seven years ago could have even worse consequences.

Attorney General Pam Bondi was unable to maintain her composure as GOP Representative and Epstein Files Transparency Act co-sponsor Thomas Massie pressed her over the Justice Department’s mistakes and complicity in obscuring the Epstein files.

“Behind me I have three documents … that are emblematic of the massive failure of the DOJ to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” Massie said at the House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday.

Massie walked Bondi through DOJ documents that identified Epstein’s victims, and redacted the co-conspirator status of Epstein confidant Les Wexner and other men in a 2019 FBI document.

“The title of this [file] is ‘child sex trafficking.’ ‘Co-conspirators,’ fully redacted. And by the way, Les Wexner is in this,” Massie said, revealing Wexner’s picture under the redaction. “Your deputy attorney general said, ‘Ooh, well he appears hundreds of times in the files.’ But he doesn’t appear in this file until I forced you to release it, where he’s listed as a ‘co-conspirator’—not to tax evasion, but to child sex trafficking.”

Massie then moved on to the FBI documents in which some survivors gave witness statements and identified their alleged abusers. The DOJ completely redacted the names, leaving the page entirely black.

“Are you able to track who in your organization made this massive failure, and released the victims’ names? Are you able to track who it was that obscured Les Wexner’s name as a co-conspirator in an FBI document?” Massie asked.

“I believe Wexner’s name was listed more than 4,000 times,” Bondi replied.

“Yeah, I already told you that. This is where he’s listed as a co-conspirator—”

“Can I finish my answer? Come on!” Bondi said. “We corrected that within 40 minutes. You’re acting like everybody’s trying to cover up Wexner’s name—”

“Reclaiming my time—”

“I’m gonna answer this question, this isn’t how this works,” Bondi claimed. “He’s a political joke and I need to give my answer on that! Within 40 minutes, Wexner’s name was added back—”

“Within 40 minutes of me catching you red-handed!” Massie replied.

“Red-handed?” Bondi said, laughing. “There was one redaction out of over—”

“Where he’s listed as a co-conspirator!”

“This guy has Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Bondi said. “You’re a failed politician.”

Massie then played a clip of FBI Director Kash Patel telling Congress there was “no credible information” that anyone besides Ghislaine Maxwell helped Jeffery Epstein traffic women and girls.

“Is that your position as well?” asked Massie.

“My position is: Any victim who comes forward, of course we would love to hear from them. 1-800-CALL-FBI.” Then she did what she’d been doing the entire hearing: deflect.

“Did you ask [former Attorney General] Merrick Garland that the last four years? Did you talk about Epstein the last—”

“Reclaming my time,” said Massie.

“You don’t get to reclaim time!” Bondi shouted.

“I’m glad you’re asking about Merrick Garland, because this is bigger than Watergate. This goes over four administrations. You don’t have to go back to Biden. Let’s go back to Obama, let’s go back to George Bush,” Massie said. “This cover-up spans decades, and you are responsible for this portion of it!”

Bondi tried to interrupt and filibuster, but to no avail—although Massie’s time ended shortly after.

Of course, Bondi never answered the question regarding her position on “no credible evidence” of co-conspirators. She didn’t answer any of Massie’s questions at all. Instead, she called the Republican representative a hypocrite because he voted against some AI porn bill—something no one was even talking about.

For the entirety of this exchange, Bondi pushed a claim about Wexner that is facetious at best. Of course we know that Wexner was in the files thousands of times. But the first document (dated 2019) that listed Wexner as a sex trafficking co-conspirator was redacted by the Bondi DOJ in the file release—weeks after Patel said under oath that there was no evidence of any other co-conspirators.

Instead of doing anything remotely appropriate for the Office of the Attorney General, Bondi was confrontational, temperamental, and absolutely useless. She didn’t offer any straight answers as to why Wexner’s co-conspirator status was redacted, or why Patel said what he said. It’s obvious that was her plan the whole time.

Attorney General Pam Bondi once again relied on a cheat sheet of personal attacks against Democratic lawmakers in order to dodge questions during a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday.

As Democratic lawmakers posed tough questions about Donald Trump’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein, two women perched in the audience behind Bondi referred to a massive white binder and then passed notes forward instructing her which page of her own “burn book on Democrats” to turn to, Migrant Insider’s Pablo Manriquez reported on X.

Bondi’s pathetic reliance on her burn book was perhaps most clear during her humiliating interaction with California Representative Ted Lieu—and may have caused her to lie under oath.

Lieu asked Bondi point-blank if Trump had ever attended one of Epstein’s parties with underage girls. There was a long pause as the two women hurriedly skimmed through their binders.

“This is so ridiculous,” Bondi finally stammered. “And they are trying to deflect from all the great things Donald Trump has done. There is NO EVIDENCE that Donald Trump has committed a crime; everyone knows that!”

“I believe you just lied under oath,” Lieu replied, pointing out that there was “ample evidence” to suggest Trump had committed a crime in the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice. Ironically, that’s precisely the kind of mistake Bondi could’ve avoided had she actually been referring to real notes and not a collection of prewritten comebacks that could get her a good “gotcha moment.”

“Don’t you EVER accuse me of a crime,” Bondi threatened.

Lieu referred to a tip to the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center, which contained allegations that Trump and Epstein had both sexually assaulted a woman, who was later killed. “You need to interview this witness immediately,” Lieu said.

“You have not held a single man accountable. Shame on you; if you had any decency you would resign right after this hearing concludes,” he added angrily.

“May I respond?” Bondi asked Chairman Jim Jordan, flipping through the large white binder in front of her. Lieu pointed out that he hadn’t actually asked a question. Not to worry, Bondi wasn’t actually planning to provide any answers.

“He doesn’t want to talk about the horrific crime in California,” she cried. “He does not want to talk about crime in his state!”

Jordan quickly moved on.

Bondi continued her embarrassing display as she levied personal attacks against other Democratic lawmakers. When Representative Zoe Lofgren pressed Bondi on the FBI’s redaction of Trump’s name in the Epstein files and the agency’s failure to collaborate with local law enforcement on investigations into the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Bondi flew off the handle.

“I find it interesting that she keeps going after President Trump, the greatest president in American history. And if they could maintain their composure, this isn’t a circus, this is a hearing,” Bondi said, appearing much more upset than Lofgren. She then complained that Lofgren hadn’t said how much money she took from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and never posted criticism of Joe Biden on social media.

“There was no question asked,” Lofgren said.

When Representative Jamie Raskin asked whether she’d be willing to make a joint-task force to investigate crimes, Bondi pouted with her arms crossed before ranting about a completely separate “sextortion” case in Raskin’s district.

Representative Ted Lieu accused Attorney General Pam Bondi of lying under oath Wednesday, catching the Trump official in a bind after she claimed no evidence existed of young girls at parties attended by the president.

The California lawmaker highlighted that, under Bondi’s direction per a July 2025 memo, the Justice Department had “not uncovered evidence” that warranted investigations against “uncharged third parties.”

He then referred to recently released images of ex-Prince Andrew, depicting the disgraced British royal on all fours, towering over one of Epstein’s victims.

“These two photos staring you in the face are evidence of a crime and are more than enough evidence to predicate an investigation against former Prince Andrew,” Lieu said. “So I ask you, Attorney General Pam Bondi, why did you shut down this investigation last July and why have you not prosecuted former Prince Andrew?”

Bondi skirted the question, opting instead to bring up her Biden-era predecessor, former Attorney General Merrick Garland, who Lieu agreed had “dropped the ball” in investigating the Epstein files. As Bondi shouted into the microphone, Lieu changed the topic to Donald Trump, playing a clip of Trump and child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein together at a party.

“Like former Prince Andrew, Donald Trump attended various parties with Jeffrey Epstein,” Lieu said. “I want to know were there any underage girls at that party or any party with Jeffrey Epstein?”

But Bondi was speechless, shaking her head.

Eventually, she spoke: “This is so ridiculous. And that they are trying to deflect from all the great things Donald Trump has done.”

“There is no evidence that Donald Trump has committed a crime, everyone knows that,” Bondi insisted, raising her voice about how Trump has led the most “transparent” administration to date.

Lieu’s next move put Bondi in check.

“I’m going to put up another document from a witness who called the FBI’s National Threat Operation Center, because I believe you just lied under oath,” Lieu said.

“Don’t you ever accuse me of a crime,” Bondi snapped.

“It’s all on video tape. You said there’s no evidence of a crime, I’m showing you a witness statement who called in to the FBI,” Lieu said, citing the testimony of a limo driver who allegedly overheard Trump in 1995 telling someone named “Jeffrey” on his cell phone about “abusing some girl.”

That same driver told the FBI that he knew a woman who claimed to be abused by Epstein, though she “later had her head blown off” in an instance that investigating police said could not have been suicide.

“No one at the Department of Justice interviewed this witness. You need to interview this witness immediately,” Lieu said.

In reaction, Bondi turned to the massive white binder in front of her, picked up a page, and accused Lieu of focusing on the Epstein files in order to deflect from crime in his district.