Woman who stayed at same resort as missing student recalls several red flags
A traveler who was at the resort in the Dominican Republic on the same day University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki vanished is claiming there was “no communication” from the hotel regarding beach safety, leaving it “kind of just left up to your own discretion.”
D’Lani Sweeney spoke to NewsNation as the search remains ongoing for the missing 20-year-old, who was last seen entering the beach early Thursday morning at the Riu Republica Resort in Punta Cana, according to La Policia Nacional, the country’s national police force. On Monday, ABC News reported that Konanki may have drowned, citing law enforcement sources.
“I remember the waves being a lot bigger than they normally were. Me and my friends were on the beach and I remember telling them that I was not going to go into the ocean because I know I can swim, but not that well enough to feel safe in the ocean,” Sweeney said. “I know a couple friends that did go in, but they weren’t in for a while and there weren’t as many people in the ocean as we normally would see.”
“There was no communication from the resort at all of, you know, this is our beach safety, to be safe. It was kind of just left up to your own discretion,” she added. “One night there was like a security guard whistling at people to come in from the beach that were going in, but that was the only night that I had seen it and we went practically almost every day down to the beach to take pictures.”
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A video captured by Sweeney showed a red flag posted at the beach, warning swimmers of rough conditions in the water.
Sweeney also told NewsNation that the resort was suffering from multiple issues during her recent stay, including prolonged power outages, and that she believes “100 percent” that the conditions might have prompted others such as Konanki to spend more time at the beach than normal.
“I know people that got locked out of their rooms and because of the power being for hours, days on end, the customer service was not able to help them or regenerate their cards to work on their room, so people were sleeping in other people’s rooms, they were sleeping on the pool chairs, they were sleeping by the beach, they were staying out as long as they could because there was no AC in the rooms and the rooms would get 80 degrees plus.”
When asked about the claims Tuesday, RIU Hotels did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
“At RIU Hotels, we are deeply concerned about the disappearance of one of our guests,” the resort operator told Fox News Digital in a statement yesterday.
“We would like to express our deepest sympathy to the family and friends during this incredibly difficult time. The safety and well-being of our guests are our highest priority, and we are fully committed to doing everything in our power to assist in this situation,” it continued.
POLICE REVEAL MALE FRIEND IS UNDER INVESTIGATION FOLLOWING KONANKI’S DISAPPEARANCE
“Our team is providing full support to the authorities in the search, and an emergency protocol has been activated to ensure that all necessary measures are taken. Additionally, we have established an internal communication channel so that any of our employees, across our five hotels in Punta Cana, who may have relevant information can share it with us or the authorities,” RIU Hotels also said.
Konanki is originally from India but is a legal permanent U.S. resident from Loudoun County, near Washington, D.C., according to authorities. She is 5 feet, 3 inches tall, with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a brown bikini, hoop earrings, bracelets and an anklet.
Dominican police have said they are investigating one of Konanki’s friends and are looking to corroborate claims from a “young man” who was also in the water on the day of her disappearance.
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When asked if there is any reason to suspect foul play, a spokesperson for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia told Fox News Digital, “We have to consider all possibilities and U.S. law enforcement is looking at everything.”
The Trump presidency could turn out to be a wasted opportunity
Where are We the People in all of this? That is what I have found myself wondering in recent days. In my youth, the focus was mostly local. Washington, D.C. seemed so far off. The news on TV was local. Nowadays, it seems like the inverse of all that. Washington, D.C. seems to be in the center of our orbit. When was the last time any of us watched the local news?
The danger in this shift from local issues to national issues is that it has led too many of us — We the People — to become dependent on Washington, D.C. for the changes in our lives. It is true that what is going on in D.C. right now under the Trump administration is bringing massive changes to our lives. However, it is also true that most of the pressing problems facing us are local in our communities.
My fear is that a heavy focus on D.C. will end up with far too many people doing nothing on the local level. If that were to happen, then the Trump presidency will become a wasted opportunity. Trump is only one man and he only has four years to turn around a deep state so entrenched in corruption — ideological to monetary. But We the People number the millions and what we want for the federal level should also be what we want for the local level.
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Perhaps my perspective is different than most. I live and work on the South Side of Chicago and I have seen what happens to a people that has come to rely far too heavily on the government, especially on the federal level. I’ve see how far too many people surrendered their will and believed their government would come and save them. Instead, things got worse.
One can only imagine where the people in my neighborhood would be today if they had believed and invested in themselves and took charge of their local communities? Would we have the same lack of small businesses, homeownership, and lack of quality schools that we have now? I can say with absolute certainty: no.
Don’t make the mistake that we did. I have only begun to reverse this decline and restore the focus to the local level by building a massive community center and it took us 60 years to get to this point. I knew the problem facing us was local and the solution had to be local. After all, the problem lives locally, not nationally. It would seem to be common sense but when you look around America, you see how many people have forsaken their communities.
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Parents have surrendered their children to activist teachers. Parents never attended school board meetings and woke up one day to learn that these elected officials cared more about ideology than teachers. Citizens voted in local politicians with national aspirations instead of local ones. Newspapers shrunk and the local news became national. And on.
We need that local flavor back. I believe this is the missing piece in this new American mandate that the election of Trump has made possible. We must do our part on the local level. We must move outside of our home and engage with the people in our community. We must leave our echo chambers and entangle with the diversity of thought outside our doors.
Most of all, we must look to ourselves as individuals. What is our individual talent? How can we make a local impact on the individual level? I knew this woman who went to the local library every Friday and read with local children. For one year, she read with one kid. She shared her life story. He shared his. She had never met a kid from the projects. He had never met anyone who survived the Holocaust.
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That kid went off to college. She still continued to go to the library every Friday and has done so for over 30 years. What started off small has grown into an effort that impacted so many in the local community. And all it took was one individual.
What are you going to do for your community today?
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US urged to act after former al Qaeda terrorist taking helm in Syria leads to mass slaughter
JERUSALEM—The former al Qaeda terrorist and current Interim President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, failed to stop a massacre of over 1,000 Syrians, including Christians, that unfolded last Thursday and continued over a period of days.
Al-Sharaa and his organization, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a U.S.-designated Sunni terrorist organization, toppled former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December.
Christian leaders and human rights activists have cast strong doubts on the capability of al-Sharra’s Islamist regime to build a democracy that can protect vulnerable religious minority groups.
“This is a warning that the Syrian government is not ready for prime time if it can’t protect a handful of vulnerable Christians who had absolutely nothing to do with this violence except being its victims,” Rev. Johnnie Moore, the president of The Congress of Christian Leaders, told Fox News Digital.
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After shocking online video footage showed Islamists engaging in massacres of Syrian Alawites—a minority religious population—al-Sharra claimed he would “hold accountable, firmly and without leniency, anyone who was involved in the bloodshed of civilians”. He added, “There will be no one above the law and anyone whose hands have been stained with the blood of Syrians will face justice sooner or later.”
Moore said, “It is a clear demonstration that this new government has failed at the first task of any government, which is to protect its citizens.”
He said that foreign fighters acting either at the direction of the Syrian government or embedded within it or behaving in an out-of-control way “indiscriminately and grotesquely killed countless civilians, including a number of Christians, that we personally verified were killed. And the numbers are rising.”
Moore said, “The new government in Syria may not be ISIS, but they are ‘Islamists.’” Al-Sharaa was also once a member of the Islamist State terrorist movement.
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Moore lambasted the posture of the Europeans toward the hardcore Syrian Islamist regime by noting the European governments seem to be rewarding the regime in Damascus.
“And for this to happen within 24 hours of the United Kingdom announcing that they are waiving sanctions on the Syrian national bank and over 20 other entities is a warning sign to the entire Western world and the EU commission is continuing with its plans do a funding conference in the near future to help the new Syrian government.”
Moore continued, “The response from the U.S. should be the exact opposite. The United States should send a very, very clear message to the new Syrian government that there will be zero sanctions relief and there will be zero normalization of its treatment to the new Syrian government until it proves that it’s going to be able to protect all the citizens of Syria, including its vulnerable Christians.”
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Moore noted that during the Syrian civil war, Christians were killed and displaced. In December, the Center for Religious Freedom’s Nina Shea and Moore discussed on Fox and Friends the threat to Christianity in Syria after rebels took over the capital and the U.S. role in protecting Christians.
The Christian population in Syria has shrunk considerably since the start of the 2011 Syrian civil war. There are an estimated 300,000 Christians in the war-torn nation. Prior to the Syrian civil war, the Syrian Christian community numbered 1.5 million.
JD Vance responds to his cousin’s scathing critique over Oval Office feud
Vice President JD Vance responded Monday to a scathing critique from his cousin Nate of his strategy for the Russia-Ukraine war.
Nate Vance, who has spent years as a volunteer fighter for Ukraine against Russia, spoke to the French publication Le Figaro on Sunday about his thoughts on the combative exchange between President Donald Trump, the vice president and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month.
Although he considered his cousin a “good guy” and “intelligent,” Nate Vance called the scene “an ambush of absolute bad faith.”
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“Just because I’m related to you doesn’t mean I’m going to stand by and watch you get my comrades killed,” Nate Vance said. “When JD justifies his distrust of Zelenskyy by the ‘reports’ he has seen, I thought I was going to choke.”
Nate Vance was also offended by Vance calling Zelenskyy “disrespectful” and saying the Ukrainian leader “should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end” to the Russia-Ukraine war.
“Donald Trump and my cousin clearly believe they can placate Vladimir Putin,” Nate said. “They are wrong. The Russians are not about to forget our support for Ukraine. We are Vladimir Putin’s useful idiots.”
Nate Vance added that he had left messages with his cousin’s office on the topic, given his experience on the front lines in Ukraine.
“I could have told him the truth, without pretense, without personal interest. He never tried to find out more,” Nate Vance said.
Nate Vance made similar comments on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” on Monday, saying he was “surprised” by what he saw in the Oval Office scene.
“There‘s a certain level of decorum that should be reached. And, you know, I‘m not naive enough to think that, you know, national leaders don’t debate behind closed doors,” Nate Vance said. “But when you do that and you publicly, you know, kind of ridicule someone in public that they have to almost defend themselves…it was really disappointing to see it for me.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Vice President Vance said that he never spoke publicly about his cousin’s service because he “didn’t want to endanger his life more than it already was.”
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“As far as his criticisms, I have no interest in arguing with him in public, but I do feel the need to address one issue in particular: his failed effort to contact me. I am unsure why Nate felt the need to reach out to my Senate office, rather than to his mom, dad, or sister, all of whom I am in contact with regularly,” Vance said.
The vice president added that he “always considered Nate the toughest guy [he] knew” and that he was “always happy to talk to him.”
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Judge orders Trump admin to pay ‘unlawfully’ restricted $2,000,000,000 in USAID funds
A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to pay the remainder of foreign aid owed to contractors for completed work, noting in a new court ruling that the administration likely violated the separation of powers doctrine by “unlawfully impounding” nearly $2 billion in funds appropriated by Congress.
U.S. District Court Judge Amir Ali, a Biden appointee, said in the ruling that the Trump administration likely exceeded its constitutional authority in attempting to block the payments owed by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to grant recipients and foreign aid contractors.
“Here, the executive has unilaterally deemed that funds Congress appropriated for foreign aid will not be spent,” Ali said.
“The executive not only claims his constitutional authority to determine to spend appropriated funds, but usurps Congress’ exclusive authority to dictate the funds should be spent in the first place.”
SCOTUS RULES ON NEARLY $2 BILLION IN FROZEN USAID PAYMENTS
Ali said the limits of the case, which focuses solely on projects completed before Feb. 13, prevent him from ordering the administration to make payments on other work, or ordering the reinstatement of other contracts.
As of last Friday, that amount owed by the government stood at around $671 million. It is unclear whether additional payments have been made, though Ali ordered the plaintiffs to file a joint status report by March 14 apprising the court of the Trump administration’s compliance with the order.
Plaintiffs were also told to propose a schedule for next steps in this matter. “The Court is prepared to hold a prompt hearing at the request of the parties to address any feasibility concerns,” Ali said in the 48-page order.
Ali also dedicated a large portion of the 48-page ruling to arguments that the Trump administration likely usurped its executive authority under the Constitution in ordering a blanket freeze on nearly all foreign aid payments in a Jan. 20 executive order, and a memo just four days later that curtailed foreign aid funding and restructured existing contracts.
White House and State Department officials did not immediately respond to the Fox News’s request for comment on the status of the remaining payments, or if the amount owed still stands at $671 million.
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Ali had previously ordered the Trump administration to pay all owed foreign aid funds for previously completed work, totaling $1.9 billion, by Feb. 26 at 11:59 p.m.
The Supreme Court took up the case for emergency review last week, but ruled 5-4 to reject the administration’s request to extend the freeze. Instead, the court remanded the case back to the D.C. federal court and Ali to hash out the specifics of what must be paid and when.
But the bulk of last week’s hearing in D.C. federal court, which stretched on for more than four hours, focused largely on the government’s role and review of all foreign aid contractors and grants, which Trump administration lawyers told Ali they had already completed and made final decisions for.
Lawyers were also pressed over whether the Trump administration can legally move to terminate projects whose funds are allocated and appropriated by Congress – something Ali referenced specifically in his ruling.
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“The provision and administration of foreign aid has been a joint enterprise between our two political branches,” he said. “That partnership is built not out of convenience, but of constitutional necessity.”
These arguments – and the ruling from Ali – could eventually kick the issue back up to the Supreme Court, should the government move to appeal any part of the memo or the allegations.
Wife of 49ers star shares devastation after release: ‘Just rip out our hearts’
The opening day of NFL free agency began with some shocking moves and key additions.
For the San Francisco 49ers, the biggest shocker was the news that the organization had informed nine-time Pro Bowl fullback Kyle Juszczyk of their intentions to release him before the start of the league year on Wednesday.
ESPN first reported the news on Monday.
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Juszczyk, 33, has been a powerhouse in the 49ers’ offense since he was first brought on in 2017 by head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch. During that time, he earned eight of his nine Pro Bowl nods and was a first-team All-Pro in 2023.
Monday’s news sent shock waves around the league, including from those closest to the 12-year NFL veteran.
“Day one juice,” Niners tight end George Kittle, who was drafted by San Francisco the same year Juszczyk signed, said in a post on Instagram.
“My brother,” running back Christian McCaffrey added in a post of his own.
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However, the most vocal following the news was Kittle’s wife, Claire Kittle, who also shared a close relationship with Juszczyk’s wife, Kristin Juszczyk.
“Just rip out our hearts why don’t you,” she said in a post, sharing a photo of the two couples together.
Claire Kittle also shared Juszczyk’s many accolades in the same post, later adding in another, “It’ll never make sense.”
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“I thank the Lord for bringing us together in 2017,” she continued. “You boys are everything an organization could dream of, on and off the field. I’m so proud of you.”
Juszczyk was due a $4.1 million salary this season. The Niners will instead take on a $3.6 million dead cap charge with the release.
Ben Affleck shuts down teenage son’s request for $6K shoes: ‘You’re broke’
Ben Affleck will make sure his children know the value of a dollar.
When speaking with Access Hollywood at the premiere of “The Accountant 2” at the SXSW film festival, the 52-year-old actor humorously addressed a video that went viral recently, featuring his teenage son admiring a $6,000 pair of Dior Air Force 1s.
“That’s what happens when you tell a motherf—er they have to mow a lawn,” he told the outlet. “All of a sudden they don’t want those shoes, and he was like, ‘But I always said they were tough.’”
He asked the reporter if she had any children, then explained, “It’s always some grift why I need to be … I’m like, ‘Man, you do not need thousand-dollar shoes!’ He’s like, ‘We have the money.’ I’m like, ‘I have the money, you’re broke!'”
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In the original video, Affleck and his son Samuel, 13, could be seen browsing various pairs of shoes at a sneaker convention, where Samuel spotted the Dior shoes. Upon seeing the hefty price tag, Affleck told his son, “That’s a lot of lawns you gotta mow there.”
The “Gone Girl” actor shares Samuel with his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner, along with two older daughters; Violet, 19, and Seraphina, 16.
Their eldest daughter, Violet, graduated from high school in May 2024 and has spent the past school year studying at Yale. Garner shared her reaction to her daughter’s graduation on Instagram at the time, posting a series of photos, including a teary-eyed photo of her cheering on Violet during a graduation event.
“Tell me you have a graduate without telling me you have a graduate,” she wrote in the caption. “(Bless our hearts).” The remaining photos featured her crying while on a plane and another one of her wearing “2024” glasses.
Affleck and Garner first announced their split to the public in 2015, after 10 years of marriage, and later finalized their divorce in 2018. Although they have both moved on and have dated, and in his case, married other people, they remain close as co-parents.
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“When you have children with somebody you’re connected to them forever,” he told “Good Morning America” in February 2020. “And I’m very lucky she is the mother of my children. I’m very grateful and respectful of her. Our marriage didn’t work, and that’s difficult. Both of us really believe that it’s important for kids to see their parents respect one another and get along, whether they’re together or not.”
The couple have been spotted together many times over the years, most recently on a paintball outing with one of their children. While the internet is swirling with reconciliation rumors, a source told Fox News Digital they had “a bunch of good energy around them,” and that “you can just tell they were mainly there for their kid.”
Video footage from the paintball event shows Affleck hugging Garner from the side as she points her paintball gun at a target off-screen. He later picks up his own paintball gun, after Garner does not return the hug.
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“Many couples who are divorced and co-parenting stand with distance between their bodies as a way to maintain emotional distance,” body language expert, Nicole Moore, told Fox News Digital. “However, Ben and Jen’s bodies appear to be actively leaning in toward one another, indicating that they still share emotional intimacy.“
Following their divorce, Affleck rekindled his romance with Jennifer Lopez. The two were married for roughly two years, before finalizing their divorce in February 2025. Garner has been linked to John Miller, chairman of CaliGroup, since 2018, and although they took a break at one point, People reports they have been together since 2023.
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Elon Musk’s interview with Larry Kudlow prompts swift response from Dems online
Democrats provoked a response from the White House on Monday after arguing that Elon Musk, who is advising President Donald Trump, wants to cut Social Security and Medicare.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was among the Democrats who homed in on Musk’s remarks about targeting fraud in federal benefit programs that the billionaire made during an exclusive interview with FOX Business’ Larry Kudlow on Monday.
“There were howls of protest and denial from the GOP any time we pointed out that Republicans want to cut Social Security,” the former Biden administration official said in a post on X. “Now the most powerful official in the White House goes on TV and calls it ‘the big one to eliminate.’”
The White House responded in a post on X, saying that Musk specified going after fraud in entitlement spending.
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“Pete Buttigieg is Ivy League educated and allegedly smart. So can he not hear Elon say ‘waste and fraud in entitlement spending’ or is he lying to you?” wrote Alex Pfeiffer, deputy assistant to the president and principal deputy communications director.
Musk, who is leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under Trump, drew the ire of Democrats when he described federal benefit programs as rife with fraud and suggested they would be a primary target to slash government spending during Monday’s interview.
“Most of the federal spending is entitlements,” Musk said, suggesting that $500 billion to $700 billion in waste needed to be cut. “That’s the big one to eliminate.”
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Other Democrats took issue with Musk’s responses and argued the Tesla and SpaceX CEO wants to cut Social Security and Medicare.
“Musk said the quiet part out loud: he’s going after your Social Security and Medicare. Period,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., wrote on X. “Mark my words. They will make you pay in every part of your life.”
Democrat podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen wrote, “Elon Musk just said he wants to cut Social Security and Medicare, calling them ‘entitlements’: ‘That’s the big one to eliminate.’”
The White House Rapid Response team also countered Democrats and media reporting on Musk’s responses, saying that Musk was “clearly talking about the WASTE in the programs.”
“Lying hacks. He was talking about waste, fraud, and abuse — of which there is $500+ billion every year,” the account posted on X.
The billionaire entrepreneur pushed back against those who have criticized DOGE over its access to federal systems, including the Treasury Department’s payment system, as well as moves to cancel federal contracts and make cuts at various agencies.
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“What we’re adding here is caring and competence,” he said. “There’s a massive amount of fraud of, basically, people submitting Social Security numbers for Social Security benefits, unemployment, Small Business Administration loans and medical care. We’re trying to put a stop to all of that.”