Man seen with missing Pittsburgh student will receive passport back, prosecutors say
ABC News
(PITTSBURGH) — Joshua Riibe, the 22-year-old Minnesota college student who was with University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki the night she went missing on a spring break trip to the Dominican Republic, will receive his passport back on Thursday, a source in the prosecutor’s office told ABC News.
Riibe — who is considered a witness and not a suspect in Konanki’s disappearance — had his passport and cellphone taken away as he was being interviewed over the last several days.
Earlier Wednesday, Riibe’s legal team confirmed to ABC News they were trying to get a new U.S. passport for Riibe from the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic so he could leave the country.
“The U.S. Embassy is in communication with Mr. Riibe, his family, and his lawyer and is providing all appropriate consular assistance,” the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic told ABC News.
A Dominican judge ruled during a habeus corpus hearing Tuesday that Riibe is free to move without police surveillance around the Dominican Republic, because he is only a witness of an accident, not a suspect. But the judge did not give Riibe his passport back, because he said it was not in his jurisdiction to hand over the passport. The judge did not specify whose jurisdiction it is to give the passport back.
“I can’t go anywhere. And I really want to be able to go home, talk to my family, give them hugs, tell them I miss them,” Riibe said in court on Tuesday. “I understand I’m here to help, but it’s been 10 days and I can’t leave.”
If the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic issues Riibe a new passport, he will be able to use it to leave the country.
Riibe said in court on Tuesday that he is “ready to go home and go back to my life.”
Authorities have said they believe Konancki died by drowning in Punta Cana early on March 6, officials told ABC News.
Riibe, who met Konanki that night, told prosecutors the two went swimming and kissed in the ocean. The two were then hit by a wave and pulled into the ocean by the tide, according to a transcript provided to ABC News from two Dominican Republic sources.
Riibe said he held Konanki and tried to get them out of the water. He said he tried to “make sure she could breathe the entire time,” which prevented Riibe from getting in enough air and he “took in a lot of water.”
Once they touched the sand, Riibe told prosecutors Konanki got up to get her belongings, but “she was not out of the water since it was up to her knee” and was “walking at an angle in the water.”
“The last time I saw her, I asked her if she was OK,” he told prosecutors. “I didn’t hear her response because I began to vomit with all the water I had swallowed. After vomiting, I looked around and I didn’t see anything. I thought she had taken her things and left.”
Riibe said he then passed out on a beach chair, woke up several hours later and returned to his hotel room.
Konanki’s family sent a formal request on Monday to Dominican police requesting they declare their daughter dead, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation.
On Tuesday evening, Dominican Republic’s Civil Defense said they are significantly scaling back the search-and-rescue efforts.
The judge will decide if Riibe will be charged with anything in a full ruling on March 28.
(NEW YORK) — SpaceX said that the hydraulic system issue that postponed the Starliner mission on Wednesday has now been fixed and that the crew is once again cleared for take-off on Friday.
The mission will bring the next crew up to work on the International Space Station (ISS) and begin the return of a pair of astronauts back to Earth.
The launch Wednesday was abruptly postponed less than 45 minutes before liftoff due to a problem with a ground support clamp arm on the Falcon 9 rocket.
The clamps hold the rocket on the pad and if they don’t open evenly, could cause the rocket to tip slightly.
NASA’s Ken Bowersox told ABC News that while in this instance, the teams thought there was a low probability of a serious failure, they ultimately decided to not take any chances at all.
As of Thursday evening, SpaceX said ground teams have resolved the issue and successfully flushed a suspected pocket of trapped air in the system.
SpaceX said it’s now targeting a launch on Friday at 7:03 p.m. ET. The company predicts a 95% chance of favorable weather conditions for the launch attempt.
Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams have been in space since June 2024 after they performed the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner. When they launched, they were only supposed to be on the ISS for about a week.
However, NASA and Boeing officials decided to send the uncrewed Starliner back to Earth in September after several issues and keep Wilmore and Williams onboard until early 2025 when Crew-10 was ready to launch on the Dragon spacecraft. Wilmore and Williams are set to return in the Crew-9 capsule.
The pair integrated with the ongoing Crew-9 mission aboard the ISS and could not return to Earth until Crew-9 completed its six-month mission and were replaced by Crew-10.
Wilmore and Williams assisted the crew with research and other responsibilities. However, NASA officials said the pair were using up more supplies meant for the ISS crew.
Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said that NASA teams spent all summer looking over the data on Starliner and felt there was too much risk with regard to the vehicle’s thrusters.
During a press conference in September, Wilmore said he and Williams did not feel let down by anything during the mission.
“Let down? Absolutely not,” Wilmore said. “It’s never entered my mind. It’s a fair question. I can tell you, I thought a lot about this press conference … and what I wanted to say and convey.”
“NASA does a great job of making a lot of things look easy,” he said, adding, “That’s just the way it goes. sometimes because we are pushing the edges of the envelope in everything that we do.”
If the mission is successful, it’s unclear when exactly Wilmore and Williams will return to Earth on Crew-9.
The crew consists of two NASA astronauts, an astronaut from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and an astronaut from Russia’s Roscosmos.
SpaceX will share a live webcast of the mission beginning one hour and 20 minutes prior to liftoff on its website and on its X account. NASA will also air coverage on its X account.
“During their time on the orbiting laboratory, the crew will conduct new research to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit humanity on Earth,” SpaceX said on its website.
SpaceX’s contracted missions are part of the larger Commercial Crew Program at NASA, which are certified to perform routine missions to and from the ISS.
Martin Pope/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Israel’s renewed campaign of strikes against Hamas in the Gaza Strip will continue until all remaining hostages are released, an Israeli official told ABC News.
Palestinian health officials said that at least 420 people were killed — including more than 130 children, according to UNICEF figures — when Israel renewed its bombardment of the coastal territory overnight Tuesday, marking the collapse of a ceasefire with Hamas that began in January.
On Tuesday, an Israeli official told ABC News of Hamas, “They got hammered last night and they’re going to continue to be hammered until we get the hostages out.”
The official described the Israel Defense Forces’ renewed attacks against Hamas in Gaza as a “different form of negotiating”, and said Israel had “not closed the door” to talks resuming via mediators if Hamas is willing to accept further hostage-prisoner swaps.
The official did not say whether Israel is planning a renewed ground incursion into Gaza.
An Israeli official told ABC News on Tuesday that the offensive will continue “as long as necessary,” and will “expand beyond air strikes.”
Wednesday brought fresh strikes in Gaza. The IDF said it attacked what it called “a Hamas military site in northern Gaza where preparations were being made to fire projectiles at Israeli territory.”
The Israeli navy also “struck several vessels in the coastal area of the Gaza Strip,” which the IDF said were slated for use by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Israel’s renewed campaign in Gaza marked the end of nearly two months of relative quiet in the region, which has been devastated by intense fighting since October 2023. The ceasefire saw 33 Israeli hostages released from Gaza in return for the release of nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
Fifty-nine hostages are believed to remain in Gaza — 24 of whom are presumed to be alive. Edan Alexander is the last American-Israeli hostage still thought to be alive.
Several members of Hamas’ administrative and civil wings were killed in the renewed strikes. They included Deputy Minister of the Interior Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Abu Tuffah and Deputy Minister of Justice Omar Al-Hatta.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that his country would act against Hamas “with increasing intensity.”
“From now on, negotiations will only take place under fire,” he said in a statement. “Hamas has already felt the presence of our force in the last 24 hours and I want to assure you: This is just the beginning.”
“The military strike on Hamas and the release of our hostages are not contradictory goals — they are goals that are intertwined,” Netanyahu said.
The renewed offensive prompted major protests in Israel, including from the families of those still being held hostage in Gaza.
“The greatest fear of the families, the kidnapped and the citizens of Israel has come true,” the Hostage Families’ Forum said in a statement issued on Tuesday. “The Israeli government has chosen to give up on the kidnapped.”
ABC News’ Guy Davies, Jordana Miller, Diaa Ostaz, Samy Zyara and Dana Savir contributed to this report.
LONDON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hit back at President Donald Trump’s call for the country to hold fresh presidential elections following Tuesday’s historic Russia-U.S. talks in Saudi Arabia.
The U.S.-Russia talks in Riyadh — to which Ukraine was not invited — represented “an important step forward” toward ending Russia’s three-year-old invasion of its neighbor, according to a State Department readout.
Hours after the talks concluded, Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago that Zelenskyy’s public approval rating was “down to 4%,” failing to provide a source for the figure. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also repeatedly framed Zelenskyy as illegitimate, citing the postponement of the country’s 2024 presidential elections due to martial law.
During a Wednesday press conference in Kyiv, Zelenskyy challenged Trump’s claim, pointing to respected recent surveys showing him polling consistently above 50% with voters and describing Trump’s assertion as Russian “disinformation.”
“If someone wants to replace me right now, then right now won’t work,” Zelenskyy said. “If we are talking about 4% then we have seen this disinformation, we understand that it comes from Russia. And we have evidence.”
The president said he would conduct opinion polls for trust ratings for world leaders, including Trump, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Zelensky said he took Trump’s comments “calmly” and that Ukraine would help get the president out of information “isolation”.
Hours after the U.S.-Russia discussions concluded with a commitment to continue talks, Russia launched a major missile and drone barrage into Ukraine. Ukraine’s air force reported 167 drones and two Iskander ballistic missiles launched into the country, with 106 intercepted and 56 more lost in flight.
Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov reported a “massive enemy strike on a densely populated area of the city” causing electricity, heating and water outages.
Zelenskyy said in a post to social media that the strike targeted “civilian energy facilities,” in keeping with longstanding Russian doctrine. “For nearly three years now, the Russian army has relentlessly used missiles and attack drones against them,” he said.
“Just yesterday, after the notorious meeting in Riyadh, it became clear that Russian representatives were once again lying, claiming they do not target Ukraine’s energy sector,” Zelenskyy continued.
“Yet, almost simultaneously, they launched another attack, with drones striking electrical transformers,” he wrote. “And this is during winter — it was minus 6 degrees Celsius at night.”
“We must never forget that Russia is ruled by pathological liars — they cannot be trusted and must be pressured,” the president said.
Kyiv’s exclusion from the Saudi talks have badly unsettled Ukraine and its European allies. Trump was unapologetic when speaking with reporters Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, just as Odesa came under attack.
“They’ve had a seat for three years and a long time before that,” Trump said of Ukraine, suggesting Kyiv could have made a deal with Moscow to avoid the huge loss of lives and land.
Trump said he believes he has “the power to end this war,” while falsely claiming Ukraine started the conflict against Russia. The war began when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, a campaign that followed eight years of cross-border Russian aggression in Crimea and Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
“I think it’s going very well,” Trump said of U.S. efforts to end the war. “But today I heard, oh, ‘Well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it three years — you should have never started it.”
Speaking on Wednesday, Zelenskyy criticized the Trump administration’s recent demand for a treaty that would hand over 50% of Ukraine’s natural resources to the U.S., in exchange for no security guarantees. Trump himself has repeatedly said he wants $500 billion worth of Ukraine’s rare minerals to pay back the U.S. for its support during Russia’s invasion.
Zelenskyy said such a demand was “not serious”, and corrected Trump’s claim that the U.S. has provided more money than Europe.
“There wasn’t a word there about security guarantees,” he said. “There is nothing precise there. I can’t sell the state.”
Zelenskyy said that if Ukraine cannot join NATO, it needs a strong army backed by Western weapons and air defense. He said Ukraine was looking for a troop contingent from European countries to help protect Ukraine after a ceasefire, but warned that Ukraine’s own troops needed to be backed by air defense, which only the U.S. can provide.
“Only the Americans, President Donald Trump, have this protection, this air defense, it’s exclusively from them, and that’s what’s important,” Zelenskyy said. “We have a map that shows us this, but we are ready for dialogue, for discussion, about what quantity, how much is needed. We’ve calculated everything; we’ve figured it all out. So this is essentially the main point of what we are requesting.”
Zelenskyy suggested on Tuesday that the U.S.-Russia talks in Riyadh merely revived ultimatums issued by Moscow in the early stages of its invasion.
“I have the impression that there are now some negotiations happening and they have the same mood, but between Russia and the United States,” Zelenskyy said during a visit to Turkey.
“Again, about Ukraine without Ukraine,” he added. “It’s interesting, if Ukraine didn’t yield to ultimatums in the most difficult moment, where does the feeling come from that Ukraine will agree to this now?”
“I never intended to yield to Russia’s ultimatums and I don’t intend to now,” Zelenskyy added.
In Riyadh, the U.S. and Russia agreed to appoint as-yet unnamed special representatives to continue peace talks, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Addressing the Russian parliament on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov — who led Moscow’s team in Riyadh — told lawmakers that “the atmosphere is positive, the intentions are correct, we will see how the situation develops further, what decisions will be made.”
He added, “The main thing is to meet, listen and hear, make decisions that will be realistic.”
Putin aide Yuri Ushakov told the state-controlled Channel One television channel that Trump’s Ukraine-Russia envoy — Keith Kellogg — would negotiate a settlement with Kyiv and European nations.
Kellogg arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday morning, where he is expected to hold talks with Ukrainian leaders.
Kellogg told reporters his “mission is to sit and listen” and then report back to Trump. He parried questions about whether Trump is siding with Putin, saying that Trump wants to end the war because “he understands the human suffering” it is causing.
Kellogg added that he agrees with Trump that the war would never have begun if he had been president at the time.
ABC News’ Fidel Pavlenko, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
