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Peruvian fisherman rescued after 95 days at sea survived on diet of cockroaches, fish and turtle blood

Keeping hope alive wasn’t easy. His morale dwindled along with his food supply. It reached a point where he thought he didn’t want to live anymore.

“I even got a knife three times. Three times I got the knife because I couldn’t take it anymore,” he said. “But I told myself: Calm down, Gatón. You can do it. You can do it.”

He said he had packed enough supplies to last him a month. And after those first 30 days at sea, he was ready to head back to land. But that’s when his boat’s motor stopped running. He tried many times to get it to work again, but to no avail.

From there, he knew he had to ration the few scraps of food and water he had left, hoping it would last him long enough for someone to find him. But after another month or so, his rations ran out. So, he turned to drastic measures.

“After January and February, that’s when I started eating roaches and birds, various kinds of fish that happened to jump into the boat.”

He said he had to hunt those birds in the middle of the night. Around 1 or 2 a.m. they would rest on top of his boat and fall asleep. Once they did, he got a club, snuck up behind them and “pop.”

“I didn’t want to do it but I didn’t have a choice. It was my life.”

At one point, he even had to hunt a turtle – not for its meat but for its blood since he didn’t have anything else to drink.

Not long after that, a hopeful sign finally arrived.

He was about to fall asleep inside his boat. But just 30 minutes later, he heard a loud voice screaming his nickname: “Gatón!”

It was a rescue worker on a helicopter.

“That’s when I said (to God): You did it! You did it!”

The people on board the helicopter gestured to him that another boat would arrive soon to take him home.

After about an hour, as night fell, he finally saw the lights of the boat. He was going home.

“It was something sensational,” he said.

After those excruciating 95 days, he now says he has a newfound appreciation for life.

“I will tell my story worldwide, so the world knows that God is everything in this life, that we put our hand on our chest and fill ourselves with love, give love. That is what we need here on Earth.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Hungary’s new anti-LGBTQ+ law bans Pride events and sparks protests

A new anti-LGBTQ+ law banning Pride events and allowing authorities to use facial recognition software to identify those attending the festivities was passed in Hungary on Tuesday, leading to a large demonstration on the streets of Budapest.

Several thousand protesters chanting anti-government slogans gathered after the vote outside Hungary’s parliament. They later staged a blockade of the Margaret Bridge over the Danube, blocking traffic and disregarding police instructions to leave the area.

The move by Hungarian lawmakers is part of a crackdown on the country’s LGBTQ+ community by the nationalist-populist party of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump.

The measure, which is reminiscent of similar restrictions against sexual minorities in Russia, was passed in a 136-27 vote. The law, supported by Orbán’s Fidesz party and their minority coalition partner the Christian Democrats, was pushed through parliament in an accelerated procedure after being submitted on Monday.

Opposing legislators led a vivid protest in the legislature involving rainbow-colored smoke bombs.

At the protest outside parliament, Evgeny Belyakov, a Russian citizen who immigrated to Hungary after facing repression in Russia, said the legislation went at the heart of people’s rights to peacefully assemble.

“It’s quite terrifying to be honest, because we had the same in Russia. It was building up step by step, and I feel like this is what is going on here,” he said. “I just only hope that there will be more resistance like this in Hungary, because in Russia we didn’t resist on time and now it’s too late.”

What does the law say?

The bill amends Hungary’s law on assembly to make it an offense to hold or attend events that violate Hungary’s contentious “child protection” legislation, which prohibits the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to minors under 18.

Attending a prohibited event will carry fines up to 200,000 Hungarian forints ($546), which the state must forward to “child protection,” according to the text of the law. Authorities may use facial recognition tools to identify individuals attending a prohibited event.

In a statement on Monday after lawmakers first submitted the bill, Budapest Pride organizers said the aim of the law was to “scapegoat” the LGBTQ+ community in order to silence voices critical of Orbán’s government.

“This is not child protection, this is fascism,” wrote the organizers of the event, which attracts thousands each year and celebrates the history of the LGBTQ+ movement while asserting the equal rights of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

Following the law’s passage Tuesday, Budapest Pride spokesperson Jojó Majercsik told The Associated Press that despite Orbán’s yearslong effort to stigmatize LGBTQ+ people, the organization had received an outpouring of support since the Hungarian leader hinted in February that his government would take steps to ban the event.

“Many, many people have been mobilized,” Majercsik said. “It’s a new thing, compared to the attacks of the last years, that we’ve received many messages and comments from people saying, ‘Until now I haven’t gone to Pride, I didn’t care about it, but this year I’ll be there and I’ll bring my family.’”

Government crackdown

The new legislation is the latest step against LGBTQ+ people taken by Orbán, whose government has passed other laws that rights groups and other European politicians have decried as repressive against sexual minorities.

In 2022, the European Union’s executive commission filed a case with the EU’s highest court against Hungary’s 2021 child protection law. The European Commission argued that the law “discriminates against people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Hungary’s “child protection” law — aside from banning the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality in content available to minors, including in television, films, advertisements and literature — also prohibits the mention of LGBTQ+ issues in school education programs, and forbids the public depiction of “gender deviating from sex at birth.”

Booksellers in Hungary have faced hefty fines for failing to wrap books that contain LGBTQ+ themes in closed packaging. Critics have argued Orbán’s campaign amounts to an attempt to cut LGBTQ+ visibility, and that by tying it to child protection, it falsely conflates homosexuality with pedophilia.

Hungary’s government argues that its policies are designed to protect children from “sexual propaganda.”

Is Orbán trying to distract the electorate?

Hungary’s methods resemble tactics by Putin, who in December 2022 expanded Russia’s ban on “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” from minors to adults, effectively outlawing any public endorsement of LGBTQ+ activities.

Orbán, in power since 2010, faces an unprecedented challenge from a rising opposition party as Hungary’s economy struggles to emerge from an inflation and cost of living crisis and an election approaches in 2026.

Tamás Dombos, a project coordinator at Hungarian LGBTQ+ rights group Háttér Society, said that Orbán’s assault on minorities was a tactic to distract voters from more important issues facing the country. He said allowing the use of facial recognition software at prohibited demonstrations could be used against other protests the government chooses to deem unlawful.

“It’s a very common strategy of authoritarian governments not to talk about the real issues that people are affected by: the inflation, the economy, the terrible condition of education and health care,” Dombos said.

Orbán, he continued, “has been here with us for 15 years lying into people’s faces, letting the country rot basically, and then coming up with these hate campaigns.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Peru’s president ‘seriously considering’ extending death penalty amid crime surge

The Peruvian government declared a state of emergency on Monday in the provinces of Lima and Callao to stem a rise in crime, in a move that follows the killing of a popular musician over the weekend.

President Dina Boluarte also floated the possibility of extending the use of the death penalty in Peru to address the country’s security problems.

The declaration and Boluarte’s statements came after Paul Hambert Flores García, singer of the cumbia group Armonia 10, was shot dead while traveling with his bandmates in their bus.

Peru’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that police are treating the shooting as a deliberate attack.

On Sunday, the Ministry of the Interior said it had deployed several units of the Peruvian National Police to identify and capture those responsible for the shooting, which they have classified as a deliberate attack.

“To these damned murderers, I say that I am seriously considering the death penalty,” Boluarte said Monday at an event to mark the start of the 2025 school year.

It was the latest instance in which the president has publicly thrown her support behind extending the use of the death penalty. Previously she did so in December 2024, following the murder of a girl.

Peru’s death penalty is currently used only for crimes of treason in cases of war and terrorism, according to the Constitution. If it were to be extended to include other crimes, Peru’s Constitution and the Penal Code would need to be reformed. To move forward with that, Peru would also have to disassociate itself from the international Pact of San José, which establishes limits on the death penalty.

Furthermore, the president would need to secure the necessary votes from legislators, which she has been unable to obtain for some of her other initiatives.

Following Boluarte’s statements, the Council of Ministers declared a state of emergency in Lima and Callao for 30 days, authorizing the deployment of Peru’s Armed Forces to support the National Police.

Peru is experiencing a serious security crisis. Several public schools reported days ago that they were being extorted by criminals, prompting them to propose virtual classes, according to state television station TV Perú.

In September 2024, transportation unions, which also reported being extorted by criminals, carried out a workers strike as a warning to the Boluarte government and marched toward Congress. At that time, a state of emergency was also declared in several parts of the country.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Clashes erupt in western India as Hindu groups demand demolition of Mughal ruler’s tomb

Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew in parts of a western Indian city on Tuesday, a day after sectarian clashes were sparked by Hindu nationalist groups who want to demolish the tomb of a 17th-century Muslim Mughal ruler.

Clashes between Hindus and Muslims in Maharashtra state’s Nagpur city broke out on Monday during a protest led by Hindu nationalist groups demanding the demolition of the tomb of Aurangzeb, a Muslim Mughal ruler who has been dead for more than 300 years.

Lawmaker Chandrashekhar Bawankule said at least 34 police personnel and five other people were injured and several houses and vehicles were damaged during the violence. Senior police office Ravinder Singal said at least 50 people have been arrested so far.

Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra’s top elected official, said the violence began after “rumors were spread that things containing religious content were burnt” by the protesters, referring to the Quran.

Aurangzeb’s tomb is in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar city, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Nagpur. The city was earlier called Aurangabad, after the Mughal ruler.

Aurangzeb is a loathed figure among India’s Hindu nationalists, who accuse him of persecuting Hindus during his rule in the 17th century, even though some historians say such stories are exaggerated.

As tensions between Hindus and Muslims have mounted under Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, scorn for Aurangzeb has grown. Modi has made references to Aurangzeb in the past, accusing him of persecuting Hindus.

Such remarks have led to anxieties among the country’s significant Muslim minority who in recent years have been at the receiving end of violence from Hindu nationalists, emboldened by a prime minister who has mostly stayed mum on such attacks since he was first elected in 2014.

Tensions over the Mughal ruler have intensified in India after the release of Bollywood movie “Chhaava,” an action film based on a Hindu warrior who fought against Aurangzeb. The film has been lambasted by some movie critics for feeding into a divisive narrative that risks exacerbating religious rifts in the country.

While there have long been tensions between India’s majority Hindu community and Muslims, rights groups say that attacks against minorities have become more brazen under Modi. They also accuse Modi of discriminatory policies towards the country’s Muslims.

Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party denies this.

Hindu extremists have also targeted Muslim places of worship across the country and laid claim to several famous mosques, arguing they are built on the ruins of prominent temples. Many such cases are pending in courts.

Last year, Modi delivered on a longstanding demand from Hindu nationalists — and millions of Hindus — when he opened a controversial temple on the site of a razed mosque in northern India’s Ayodhya city. The 16th-century Babri mosque was demolished in 1992 by Hindu mobs who believe Ram, one of Hinduism’s most revered deity, was born at the exact spot.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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US designates South Korea a ‘sensitive’ country over mishandling of lab data

The US energy department put South Korea on a watchlist because visitors to its laboratories mishandled sensitive information, Joseph Yun, the acting US ambassador, said on Tuesday.

The designation, which relegated the US ally to the lowest tier of a list that includes China, Iran, Israel, Russia, Taiwan, and North Korea, sparked controversy and debate in Seoul, which said it had not been notified by Washington.

“South Korea was put on this list because there was some mishandling of sensitive information,” Yun said in remarks to the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.

He did not elaborate on the issue, but said more than 2,000 South Korean students, researchers, and government officials visited US labs last year.

The designation was limited to the department’s facilities, Yun added, and did not have wider implications for cooperation between the allies.

“It is not a big deal,” he added. “There were some incidents because there were so many South Koreans going there.”

This week the US energy department confirmed it had designated South Korea a “sensitive” country in January, but did not explain why.

Vice ministers in Seoul were set on Tuesday to brief acting President Choi Sang-mok on their response, while Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun is expected to ask for South Korea to be dropped from the list when he visits the United States this week, government sources have said.

In a report last year, the US energy department said it had fired a contractor who tried to board a flight to South Korea with “proprietary nuclear reactor design software” owned by the Idaho National Laboratory.

That individual, who was being investigated by US law enforcement, had been in contact with an unnamed foreign government, the report said, without identifying the country.

It was not immediately clear if that case contributed to the designation. Officials in the energy department and state department were not immediately available for comment.

The US decision to add South Korea to the list was taken by the previous Biden administration, a spokesperson for the US Department of Energy (DOE) has said.

It came as South Korean officials increasingly raised the prospect of some day pursuing their own nuclear weapons, and in the aftermath of a shock martial law declaration in December that threw the country’s leadership into crisis.

On Monday, however, Seoul’s foreign ministry said the DOE decision was understood to have stemmed from “security-related matters” linked to a research center, and not South Korea’s foreign policy.

The DOE spokesperson said the designation, due to take effect in April, set no new restrictions but mandates internal reviews before cooperation or visits to listed countries.

Meanwhile, Yun called on South Korea to help reduce the US trade deficit with Seoul, which has more than doubled since the first Trump administration. “To the new administration in Washington, that is troubling,” he said.

South Korea needs to scrap barriers in the agriculture, digital and service sectors, he added.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Turkey orders detention of Istanbul’s mayor, a key rival of President Erdogan, and 100 others, prosecutors say

Turkish authorities have ordered the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a key rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, along with around 100 other people, prosecutors said on Wednesday, according to state-run news agency Anadolu Agency.

The order comes just days before the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) is scheduled to hold a primary election, where Imamoglu was expected to be chosen as its presidential candidate.

“I am saddened to say, a handful of people who are trying to steal the will of the people, have sent the dear police, the security forces implicating them in this wrongful doing,” Imamoglu said in a video posted to X on Wednesday.

“Hundreds of police officers have been sent to the door my house — the house of the 16 million people of Istanbul.”

The move to detain the mayor of Turkey’s largest city, a key political battleground, comes after Istanbul University said on Tuesday it had annulled Imamoglu’s degree over irregularities, dealing a blow to the opposition days before it was set to pick him as its presidential candidate in the next election.

Without a university degree, Imamoglu of the main opposition CHP, cannot stand as a candidate for president.

Imamoglu said the university’s decision was illegal and outside its jurisdiction, and that he would launch a legal challenge “The decision of the Istanbul University Board of Directors is UNLAWFUL” he said. “The days when those who made this decision will be held accountable before history and justice are near.”

Imamoglu was elected mayor of Turkey’s largest and most populous city in 2019. The next presidential vote is scheduled for 2028, but early elections are likely.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Trump, Putin on same page about Iran’s nuclear weapon capabilities, White House says

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are in sync when it comes to Iran obtaining nuclear weapons, according to the White House. 

Trump and Putin, who spoke over the phone Tuesday morning about how to draw an end to the war in Ukraine, agreed that Iran must not obtain access to weapons permitting Tehran to obliterate Israel, the White House said. 

‘The leaders spoke broadly about the Middle East as a region of potential cooperation to prevent future conflicts,’ the White House said in a statement after the call. ‘They further discussed the need to stop proliferation of strategic weapons and will engage with others to ensure the broadest possible application. The two leaders shared the view that Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel.’

Meanwhile, Russia is urging the U.S. to loosen its sanctions on Iran, which have crippled Tehran’s economy. Representatives from Russia met with Chinese and Iranian counterparts in Beijing Friday, and pressed the U.S. to withdraw the ‘unlawful’ sanctions and resume nuclear discussions, according to a statement from the three countries. 

‘The three countries reiterated that political and diplomatic engagement and dialogue based on the principle of mutual respect remains the only viable and practical option in this regard,’ China’s Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu read aloud in a joint statement Friday. 

Russia has maintained a cozy relationship with Iran and has utilized Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine. For example, Russia started to employ the Iranian-made Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 series drones in 2022 to hit Ukrainian artillery targets and areas of Ukraine’s electricity distribution grid, according to the nonprofit organization Washington Institute for Near East Policy. 

The Defense Intelligence Agency also released a report in 2023 detailing how Iran had given Russia access to ‘hundreds’ of one-way attack air drones. Although Iran denied that the drones originated from Tehran, the Defense Intelligence Agency said it obtained debris from attacks in Ukraine that ‘clearly prove Iran’s support to Russia.’ 

Trump cautioned in February he believed that Iran was ‘close’ to developing a nuclear weapon, and his administration reinstated a maximum pressure campaign against Iran through sanctions targeting Iran’s oil exports in February. 

Additionally, Trump revealed March 7 that a nuclear deal with Iran could emerge in the near future and that he sent a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urging Tehran to agree to a nuclear agreement. 

 

Failure to do so could mean military intervention, he said. 

‘I would rather negotiate a deal,’ Trump told Fox Business in an interview March 9. ‘I’m not sure that everybody agrees with me, but we can make a deal that would be just as good as if you won militarily.’ 

‘But the time is happening now, the time is coming up,’ he said. ‘Something is going to happen one way or the other. I hope that Iran, and I’ve written them a letter saying I hope you’re going to negotiate, because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing for them.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Iowa witness held in missing American student case appears in Dominican court

PUNTACANA, Dominican Republic – A key witness in the March 6 disappearance of University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki from a Dominican Republic resort arrived in court for a hearing on Tuesday afternoon in his bid to go home.

Joshua Riibe arrived in court in the Dominican Republic, where he has been held in the disappearance of Konanki, 20, who has been missing since the early morning hours of March 6. Riibe has not been named a suspect in the case, which has been considered a missing person case and not a criminal one.

He appeared with his father as prosecutors argued that the witness’ freedom has not been limited while he has been held in the Dominican after his passport was confiscated, and he has the right to walk around the RIU Republica resort without issue.

Lawyers and prosecutors screamed at each other during a very heated hearing on Tuesday after Riibe’s counsel submitted photos of him surrounded by police and patrol cars.

Riibe is not paying for lodging; the RIU allowing him to remain there for free.

His lawyer, meanwhile, said the prosecutor is playing with the court and the public opinion. His lawyer claimed that Riibe always has police around for his safety, but today that haven’t taken care of him. 

The 22-year-old Iowa man and his father also had the opportunity to testify Tuesday.

‘Ever since my passport was taken, it’s very rare I’m alone.’

— Joshua Riibe

Riibe said on Sunday, he woke up and went to get breakfast, and when he returned to his hotel room, police ‘showed showed up saying that they were p—ed we didn’t tell them.’

He added that police eat with him, and officers went ‘crazy’ when he and his father went to the American embassy.

‘So we had to wait in the lobby for the tourist police to arrive to get escorted,’ he said. ‘That same day, I had another meeting, and when we grabbed lunch, the police [were] there. The issue is that we only have [one] method of communication, so every time they need us, we have to be in the room. I can’t go anywhere. I really want to be home. Hug my family and friends.’

Ribbe also said he ‘hugged’ Konanki’s parents before they left the Dominican and returned home to Virginia.

‘I understand there is an investigation, and I’ve cooperated, but haven’t been allowed to leave,’ he told the court on Tuesday. ‘When Sudiksha’s parents left, they said goodbye and even hugged me. She thanked me for saving her daughter the first time. All I’ve been doing is waiting in my hotel room to be interviewed but at this point. I just want to be home.’

Meanwhile, Dominican authorities returned Riibe’s friend’s passport on Tuesday afternoon.

Konanki went swimming in the ocean with the witness, identified as 22-year-old Riibe of Iowa, outside the RIU Republica resort in Punta Cana after drinking at a hotel bar. She has yet to be located.

Riibe has been detained in the Dominican since then and filed a writ of habeas corpus on Monday, challenging his de facto detention in the country. He arrived in court for a hearing Tuesday in which a judge will rule on whether he can return home, sources said.

The State Department confirmed to Fox News Digital earlier on Tuesday that it was assisting a witness in University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki’s March 6 disappearance from the Dominican Republic.

‘We take seriously our commitment to assist U.S. citizens abroad and are providing consular assistance,’ the State Department said in a statement when asked about Riibe’s Monday filing of a writ of habeas corpus. ‘Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.’

Konanki had gone to the beach with a group of seven other friends after a night of drinking. Six of her friends returned to the RIU Republica around 6 a.m., leaving the 20-year-old student alone with Riibe, who was also on spring break at the RIU Republica and is believed to be one of the last people to see her alive.

Riibe, who is considered a witness in Konanki’s disappearance, apparently told Dominican authorities that while they were swimming, a large wave crashed over them, according to a translated transcript of his interview to police shared with Fox News. 

He said he tried to help her and last saw her wading through knee-deep water. He then began vomiting up seawater and noticed that Konanki was no longer in sight and assumed she had returned to her hotel room. Riibe said he fell asleep in a beach chair before eventually returning to his room. 

Hotel surveillance footage shows Riibe returning to his hotel room around 9 a.m. on March 6.

Konanki’s parents, Subbarayudu and SreeDevi Konanki, are not disputing Riibe’s account of what happened, according to a letter they sent to Dominican police on Monday. Her father had previously asked police to investigate all possibilities.

‘Following an extensive search, Dominican authorities have concluded that Sudiksha is believed to have drowned,’ her parents wrote in a letter to La Policia Nacional, the country’s national police force, Monday night. ‘Her clothes were discovered on a beach near where she was last seen. The individual last seen with her is cooperating with the investigation, and no evidence of foul play has been found.’

They said they made the request after ‘much deliberation’ and thanked supporters for the international search effort.

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia, where Konanki is from, issued a statement sharing her family’s belief that she drowned.

‘While a final decision to make such a declaration rests with authorities in the Dominican Republic, we will support the Konanki family in every way possible as we continue to review the evidence and information made available to us in the course of this investigation,’ the sheriff’s office said.

Riibe, a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota who has not been accused of a crime but is considered a crucial witness in the case, has been held under surveillance at the resort since Konanki was reported missing.

His family has called his continued required presence in the country ‘irregular.’

Riibe is not accused of a crime, but authorities confiscated his passport while investigating his account of what happened.

Fox News’ Mara Robles contributed to this report.

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Trump, Putin agree to begin ceasefire negotiations in Middle East, White House says

President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for at least 90 minutes Tuesday about ending the war in Ukraine, the White House said, noting that the two leaders agreed that ‘negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East.’

The two leaders also agreed to a ceasefire against energy infrastructure, both sides said. Trump described the call as ‘very good and productive’ on Truth Social.

‘Many elements of a Contract for Peace were discussed, including the fact that thousands of soldiers are being killed, and both President Putin and President Zelenskyy would like to see it end,’ Trump wrote on social media. ‘That process is now in full force and effect, and we will, hopefully, for the sake of Humanity, get the job done!’

The call began at 10 a.m. ET, according to White House spokesman Dan Scavino. The White House then said around 12:52 p.m. that the call was over, though it would not say initially exactly when each side hung up.

‘Today, President Trump and President Putin spoke about the need for peace and a ceasefire in the Ukraine war. Both leaders agreed this conflict needs to end with a lasting peace,’ the White House said in a statement after the call. ‘They also stressed the need for improved bilateral relations between the United States and Russia. The blood and treasure that both Ukraine and Russia have been spending in this war would be better spent on the needs of their people.
 
‘This conflict should never have started and should have been ended long ago with sincere and good faith peace efforts. The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace,’ it continued. ‘These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East.’

‘The leaders spoke broadly about the Middle East as a region of potential cooperation to prevent future conflicts. They further discussed the need to stop proliferation of strategic weapons and will engage with others to ensure the broadest possible application. The two leaders shared the view that Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel,’ the White House also said. ‘The two leaders agreed that a future with an improved bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia has huge upside. This includes enormous economic deals and geopolitical stability when peace has been achieved.’

During the call, Putin said a complete cessation of military aid to Ukraine was a key condition for ending the war, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported, citing the Kremlin.

Putin backed the idea from Trump of a mutual 30-day pause of strikes on energy infrastructure and gave that command to his military, according to TASS. It also reported that Russia will return 23 seriously wounded Ukrainian soldiers to Kyiv as a gesture of goodwill. 

Trump said last night that ‘Many elements of a Final Agreement’ to end the Ukraine war ‘have been agreed to, but much remains.’ 

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Monday that ‘the ball is now in Russia’s court’ to accept a U.S.-proposed ceasefire deal that Ukraine agreed to last week.

The U.S.-backed proposal, which includes an immediate 30-day ceasefire and guaranteed resumption of U.S. military aid and intelligence to Ukraine, was finalized during diplomatic talks in Saudi Arabia last week.

The last time Trump and Putin spoke was in mid-February. 

‘I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. We discussed Ukraine, the Middle East, Energy, Artificial Intelligence, the power of the Dollar, and various other subjects,’ Trump said at the time. 

‘We both reflected on the Great History of our Nations, and the fact that we fought so successfully together in World War II, remembering, that Russia lost tens of millions of people, and we, likewise, lost so many!’ Trump continued.  

‘We each talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together. But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,’ he also said. 

Fox News’ Alec Schemmel and James Levinson contributed to this report.

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Dominican judge rules in Iowa witness’ favor in missing American student case

PUNTACANA, Dominican Republic – A Dominican Republic judge on Tuesday evening ruled in favor of witness Joshua Riibe’s writ of habeas corpus in the March 6 disappearance of University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki from a Punta Cana resort.

Riibe appeared in court in the Dominican Republic, where he has been held in the disappearance of Konanki, 20, who has been missing since the early morning hours of March 6. Riibe has not been named a suspect in the case, which has been considered a missing person case and not a criminal one.

The 22-year-old appeared with his father as prosecutors argued that the witness’ freedom has not been limited while he has been held in the Dominican after his passport was confiscated, and he has the right to walk around the RIU Republica resort without issue.

It was not immediately clear when Riibe would be able to leave the country. Riibe will have another hearing on March 28, when he is expected to receive an explanation about the location of his passport. He can move freely within the Dominican Republic until then.

Riibe’s lawyers had said his passport was confiscated, but prosecutors argued that he lost his passport. Meanwhile, Dominican authorities returned Riibe’s friend’s passport on Tuesday afternoon.

Lawyers and prosecutors screamed at each other during a very heated hearing on Tuesday after Riibe’s counsel submitted photos of him surrounded by police and patrol cars.

Riibe is not paying for lodging; the RIU allowing him to remain there for free.

His lawyer, meanwhile, said the prosecutor is playing with the court and the public opinion. His lawyer claimed that Riibe always has police around for his safety.

The 22-year-old Iowa man and his father also had the opportunity to testify Tuesday.

‘Ever since my passport was taken, it’s very rare I’m alone.’

— Joshua Riibe

Riibe said on Sunday, he woke up and went to get breakfast, and when he returned to his hotel room, police ‘showed up saying that they were p—ed we didn’t tell them.’

He added that police eat with him, and officers went ‘crazy’ when he and his father went to the American embassy.

‘So we had to wait in the lobby for the tourist police to arrive to get escorted,’ he said. ‘That same day, I had another meeting, and when we grabbed lunch, the police [were] there. The issue is that we only have [one] method of communication, so every time they need us, we have to be in the room. I can’t go anywhere. I really want to be home. Hug my family and friends.’

Ribbe also said he ‘hugged’ Konanki’s parents before they left the Dominican and returned home to Virginia.

‘I understand there is an investigation, and I’ve cooperated, but haven’t been allowed to leave,’ he told the court on Tuesday. ‘When Sudiksha’s parents left, they said goodbye and even hugged me. She thanked me for saving her daughter the first time. All I’ve been doing is waiting in my hotel room to be interviewed but at this point. I just want to be home.’

Konanki went swimming in the ocean with the witness, identified as 22-year-old Riibe of Iowa, outside the RIU Republica resort in Punta Cana after drinking at a hotel bar. She has yet to be located.

Riibe has been detained in the Dominican since then and filed a writ of habeas corpus on Monday, challenging his de facto detention in the country. He arrived in court for a hearing Tuesday in which a judge will rule on whether he can return home, sources said.

The State Department confirmed to Fox News Digital earlier on Tuesday that it was assisting a witness in University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki’s March 6 disappearance from the Dominican Republic.

‘We take seriously our commitment to assist U.S. citizens abroad and are providing consular assistance,’ the State Department said in a statement when asked about Riibe’s Monday filing of a writ of habeas corpus. ‘Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.’

Konanki had gone to the beach with a group of seven other friends after a night of drinking. Six of her friends returned to the RIU Republica around 6 a.m., leaving the 20-year-old student alone with Riibe, who was also on spring break at the RIU Republica and is believed to be one of the last people to see her alive.

Riibe, who is considered a witness in Konanki’s disappearance, apparently told Dominican authorities that while they were swimming, a large wave crashed over them, according to a translated transcript of his interview to police shared with Fox News. 

He said he tried to help her and last saw her wading through knee-deep water. He then began vomiting up seawater and noticed that Konanki was no longer in sight and assumed she had returned to her hotel room. Riibe said he fell asleep in a beach chair before eventually returning to his room. 

Hotel surveillance footage shows Riibe returning to his hotel room around 9 a.m. on March 6.

Konanki’s parents, Subbarayudu and SreeDevi Konanki, are not disputing Riibe’s account of what happened, according to a letter they sent to Dominican police on Monday. Her father had previously asked police to investigate all possibilities.

‘Following an extensive search, Dominican authorities have concluded that Sudiksha is believed to have drowned,’ her parents wrote in a letter to La Policia Nacional, the country’s national police force, Monday night. ‘Her clothes were discovered on a beach near where she was last seen. The individual last seen with her is cooperating with the investigation, and no evidence of foul play has been found.’

They said they made the request after ‘much deliberation’ and thanked supporters for the international search effort.

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia, where Konanki is from, issued a statement sharing her family’s belief that she drowned.

‘While a final decision to make such a declaration rests with authorities in the Dominican Republic, we will support the Konanki family in every way possible as we continue to review the evidence and information made available to us in the course of this investigation,’ the sheriff’s office said.

Riibe, a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota who has not been accused of a crime but is considered a crucial witness in the case, has been held under surveillance at the resort since Konanki was reported missing.

His family has called his continued required presence in the country ‘irregular.’

Riibe is not accused of a crime, but authorities confiscated his passport while investigating his account of what happened.

Fox News’ Mara Robles and Nate Foy contributed to this report.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

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