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FAA abruptly halted El Paso flights over Defense Department’s plans for anti-drone technology
El Paso International Airport
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The Federal Aviation Administration abruptly grounded all flights in and out of El Paso International Airport in Texas on Wednesday for 10 days — and then lifted the order hours later — over anti-drone technology the Department of Defense was testing, according to a person briefed on the matter.
The two agencies were scheduled to discuss safety precautions later this month, but the Department of Defense sought to use the technology earlier the person said. The FAA closed airspace early Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Trump administration official said the Department of Defense disabled Mexican cartel drones that had breached U.S. airspace. The Pentagon declined to provide further detail, including about the possible wreckage of the drone.
The Trump administration said there was no threat to commercial air travel currently.
The airport sits next to Biggs Army Airfield and is near the Mexican border, about 12 miles from Juarez, Mexico.
A person briefed on the matter earlier Wednesday said that the Department of Defense was testing laser counter-drone technology.
The FAA initially halted flights in El Paso until late Feb. 20 and the ban applied to a 10-nautical-mile area around the airport. The FAA hadn’t immediately disclosed the security reasons for the temporary sudden halt or why it was set for so long.
Security personnel outside El Paso International Airport after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration lifted its temporary closure of the airspace over El Paso, saying all flights will resume as normal and that there was no threat to commercial aviation, in El Paso, Texas, U.S., February 11, 2026.
Jose Luis Gonzalez | Reuters
While the FAA regularly halts flights at airports for weather, traffic or even rocket launches, a security issue is highly unusual, as is announcing such a long effective airspace closure.
El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson called the temporary grounding a “major and unnecessary disruption” and called for better communication from the federal government.
Lawmakers question disruption
Some lawmakers criticized the Trump administration for how the sudden order played out.
Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington, the ranking member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and Rep. André Carson of Indiana, ranking member of the subcommittee on aviation, called it “unacceptable.”
“While we’re not happy with the disruption, we commend the FAA for taking swift action to protect travelers and ensure the safety of U.S. airspace,” they said in a joint statement. “We look forward to pursuing a bipartisan solution that strengthens interagency coordination and ensures that the Department of Defense will not jeopardize safety and disrupt the freedom to travel.”
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Texas Democrat whose district includes much of El Paso, said the move to suddenly close airspace was “unprecedented.”
“There was no advance notice provided to my office, the City of El Paso, or anyone involved in airport operations,” she said in a statement.
Nearly 3.5 million passengers passed through the airport in the first 11 months of 2025 and it is served by Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, United Airlines and Frontier Airlines, according to airport data.
There were 1,314 departures scheduled for the El Paso airport this month, according to aviation data firm Cirium, including about 40 departures on Wednesday.
Southwest has 23 flights scheduled at the airport Wednesday, out of more than 3,000 systemwide. The airline said Wednesday it is resuming operations to and from El Paso and encouraged travelers to check its website for updated information.
“Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of its Customers and Employees,” it said.
United said it didn’t cancel any flights and that it canceled an earlier travel waiver.
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UBS has inaugurated a GCC in India, underlining the country’s rising prominence as a global hub for corporate shared services, technology, and high-value operations
GCC
UBS has inaugurated a new Global Capability Centre (GCC) in India, underlining the country’s rising prominence as a global hub for corporate shared services, technology, and high-value operations. This development comes amid robust growth in India’s GCC ecosystem, which now spans more than 1,700 centres employing over 1.9 million professionals, and is projected to expand to 2,400 GCCs with 2.8 million jobs by 2030, according to the FICCI-ANAROCK report Workplaces 2025: India Commercial Real Estate Reimagined.
India’s GCC Market on a Growth Trajectory
India’s GCC market, valued at USD 64 billion in 2024, is expected to reach USD 105–110 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 10%. The sector’s rapid expansion has been fueled by demand from IT/ITeS, BFSI, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and ER&D.
Bengaluru continues to dominate the GCC landscape, hosting over 875 centres, nearly 29% of India’s total GCCs, driven by its deep talent pool, mature ecosystem, and global investment appeal. Other key cities include Pune, Delhi-NCR, and Hyderabad, while emerging Tier 2 cities such as Jaipur, Kochi, Indore, Coimbatore, and Surat are increasingly attracting GCC investments, marking the next frontier of growth.
In 2025, GCCs accounted for over 32.5 million sq. ft. of leased office space out of a total 80.5 million sq. ft. across India’s top seven cities. The top 7 cities collectively now hold around 800 million sq. ft. of Grade-A office stock, with Bengaluru and NCR accounting for nearly half the total supply.
PropTech and AI Driving the Future of Offices
A parallel trend accelerating GCC growth is the adoption of PropTech and AI in India’s commercial real estate, as highlighted in Cushman & Wakefield’s report From Square Footage to Smart Footage. Over 2,200 PropTech firms now operate across India’s commercial building lifecycle, introducing technologies that improve operational efficiency, digital connectivity, wellness, and sustainability.
AI-enabled workplace solutions and certifications such as WELL, WiredScore, and green building ratings have become baseline expectations for Grade-A offices, with 52% of India’s office stock green-certified by H1 2025. Institutional ownership, including REITs, now commands around 90% of REIT-owned office portfolios with digital and sustainability standards embedded.
GCCs are leading the demand for such digitally enabled workspaces, particularly for AI, cloud, and data-centric functions, which are expected to nearly double their share by 2030, pushing landlords and developers to offer future-ready, compliance-ready campuses.
Economic and Policy Tailwinds
India’s attractiveness as a GCC hub is further reinforced by the Union Budget 2026, which introduces a uniform safe harbour margin of 15.5% across IT services, and increases the threshold from ₹300 crore to ₹2,000 crore. This simplifies compliance and incentivises the migration of high-value tech functions to Indian GCCs.
The IFSC model has also proven popular, particularly for financial services GCCs, offering tax benefits for up to 20 years and automated, rule-driven approvals. These measures, along with India’s skilled workforce and cost efficiencies, have transformed GCCs from purely cost centres to strategic hubs, handling complex, high-value operations for global corporations.
As India’s GCC footprint expands beyond metro cities into Tier 2 centres, the sector is expected to fuel office leasing, job creation, and infrastructure development over the next decade. The combination of robust real estate supply, PropTech adoption, and supportive policy frameworks positions India to consolidate its status as a preferred destination for global capability centres, drawing both multinational corporations and institutional real estate investors.
Anuj Puri, Chairman of ANAROCK Group, summarised: “India’s GCC market is not only growing in size but also in strategic importance. With rising demand for premium workspaces, skilled talent, and digital capabilities, India is set to remain the preferred hub for global corporations over the next decade.”
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February 12, 2026, 12:53 IST
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WhatsApp says the move aims to push its 90 million users in Russia to a “state-owned surveillance app”.
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The UK economy is expected to have grown modestly again in the last three months of 2025 amid pressure from budget uncertainty, according to economists.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) will shed light on how the economy fared when it reveals the latest UK GDP (gross domestic product) data for December, and the final quarter and year as a whole, on Thursday.
Economists have broadly predicted that the economy grew by 0.1% in the quarter, following growth of 0.1% in the third quarter.
But some have suggested that fourth-quarter growth could tip slightly higher after stronger-than-expected activity in November and that clarity following the autumn budget could have supported firms in the run-up to Christmas.
It comes after previous figures from the ONS showed that the economy contracted by 0.1% in October and then expanded by 0.3% in November as the manufacturing sector was boosted by recovering production at Jaguar Land Rover after its major cyber attack.
But December is predicted to have seen no growth, according to estimates by Pantheon Macroeconomics.
A number of industry surveys also pointed towards weak data for December, such as the month’s construction industry PMI survey data which showed a continued deep decline across housing, commercial construction and civil engineering.
But others suggested that improved certainty following the budget may have helped drive a rise in spending, albeit still at modest levels.
Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said: “it is likely that economic activity picked up after the budget once that cloud of uncertainty shifted to the rearview mirror in December.
“Plus, there could have been an improvement in the services sector with consumers spending on things like food and beverages, retail, and hotels around the festive season.”
The fourth quarter as a whole hampered by worries about the budget has seen key indicators point towards an improvement in the key services sector, as consumer spending rises.
Robert Wood, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said GDP growth “could tip to 0.2%” as a result, but held his prediction of 0.1%.
He said: “We think the broad thrust from activity in the services sub-sectors in December indicates that budget uncertainty is already fading quickly.”
Investec experts are pencilling in growth of 0.2% for December and 0.2% for the fourth quarter as a whole.
This would leave annual growth at 1.4%, up from 1.1% in 2024.
Sandra Horsfield, at Investec Economics, said: “The big picture is that the UK economy had defied the gloomy popular narrative and outperformed expectations during 2025 – our forecast equates to GDP growth of 1.4% for the full year, whereas the consensus forecast in January 2025 had been for 1.2% GDP growth.
“We project a similar story of resilience and outperformance relative to consensus for 2026, as utilities investment and, eventually, housebuilding accelerate – the latter with a little help from further falls in interest rates too.
“The consensus forecast for this year is 1%, against our own forecast of 1.3%.”
Nevertheless, the broader outlook for UK growth is still muted.
The Bank of England said on Thursday last week it believes the economy grew by 1.4% last year, reducing its previous estimate of 1.5%.
It also cut its growth forecast for 2026, from 1.2% to 0.9%, and for 2027, from 1.6% to 1.5%.
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