Canadians upset with President Donald Trump’s tariffs now have an outlet for their anger – a ‘rage room’ business now offers the ability to ‘smash’ the U.S. leader; kind of.

Rage Room: Halifax, in the Nova Scotian capital, announced on its website that ‘until the tariffs come off, we understand you might have a little extra rage that you want to let out.’

The ‘Smash the Tariffs’ promotion offers customers portraits of Trump to ‘smash,’ discounts on other ‘smashables.’

Customers who order any package of smashables at the business, about 600 miles northeast of Boston across the Bay of Fundy, receive a Trump portrait for free, and with a $5 donation to a Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, food bank, they can also smash likenesses of Vice President JD Vance and DOGE leader Elon Musk.

Efforts to reach Rage Room: Halifax were unsuccessful on Tuesday, as it was closed as scheduled.

However, owner Terry LeBlanc told Vancouver-based national broadcaster Global News that his view is ‘we’re entertainment first.’

‘Normally, I don’t really get political. However, I feel with everything going on in the world and what’s happening these days … this is needed,’ he told the network.

If customers are able to relieve stress and be entertained, then it is a ‘win,’ he said.

A social media post advertising the new promotion invited Canadians ‘fed up with the chaos’ and news cycle to come and enjoy the ‘perfect way to let it out.’

In its report, CTV News described a 14-year-old boy placing a framed picture of Trump on a table, while bedecked in a mask for protection, as he leveled a baseball bat at the mogul’s portrait and ‘obliterated’ it.

The boy was asked by the outlet why he wanted to smash the portrait and responded, ‘it’s about how he’s treating this country (Canada),’ as his sister soon smashed another Trump portrait with a golf club.

The girl said Trump is ‘not a very smart man’ and that the rage room allowed her to safely release frustrations.

Typical smashable packages have descriptors such as ‘Anger Management’ and ‘Parental Leave,’ according to CTV.

Customers are also regularly asked what their top smashable was during their visit. As of late, it has been Trump’s likeness.

When asked about the rage room, White House spokesman Kush Desai said, ‘Fortunately, Canadians won’t have to worry about President Trump’s tariffs anymore when Canada becomes our 51st state.’

The Secret Service, which often probes issues regarding presidential protection, did not respond to a request for comment for the purposes of this story. 

Canadian news coverage has shown state stores removing American bourbon and other uniquely U.S. products from their shelves in response to Trump’s tariff actions.

Liberal Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in recent public remarks ‘there is a limit given the relative size of our economies to the extent that we should match U.S. tariffs,’ adding that the U.S. economy is 10:1 larger than Canada’s – before criticizing Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre for his plans to deal with the tariff matter.

On Monday, Poilievre lamented that both U.S. and Canadian workers will be hurt by the tariffs and slammed Carney and predecessor Justin Trudeau for a ‘lost liberal decade.’

‘Let’s solve this problem,’ Poilievre said while gathered with blue-collar workers in L’Orignal, Ont.

President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for at least 90 minutes about ending the war in Ukraine, the White House said.

The call, which began at 10 a.m. ET, was ‘going well,’ White House spokesman Dan Scavino said at 10:54 a.m. ET. He added at 11:32 a.m. that it was still ongoing.

The White House said around 12:52 p.m. that the call was over, though it would not say initially exactly when each side hung up.

It comes after Trump said last night that ‘Many elements of a Final Agreement have been agreed to, but much remains.’ 

‘Thousands of young soldiers, and others, are being killed. Each week brings 2,500 soldier deaths, from both sides, and it must end NOW. I look very much forward to the call with President Putin,’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social account. 

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that the two leaders would speak about the war in Ukraine but that there are a ‘large number of questions’ regarding normalizing U.S.-Russia relations, according to The Associated Press. 

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.

‘Ukraine expressed readiness to accept the U.S. proposal to enact an immediate interim 30-day ceasefire to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The ball is now in Russia’s court,’ Bruce said during a State Department briefing.

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. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. 

Fox News’ Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.

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

Konanki, 20, has been missing since the early morning hours of March 6, when she went swimming in the ocean with the witness, identified as 22-year-old Joshua Riibe of Iowa, outside the RIU Republica resort in Punta Cana after drinking at a hotel bar. She has yet to be located.

‘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.

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 is expected to have a hearing Tuesday in which a judge will rule on whether he can return home, sources said.

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.

A hearing on the habeas petition is expected to be held Tuesday afternoon, sources said, but the timing could change.

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance knocked recent globalization efforts that use ‘cheap labor as a crutch’ while simultaneously hampering innovation on the global scale during a Tuesday tech and artificial intelligence speech. 

‘Our workers, the populists, on the one hand, the tech optimists on the other, have been failed by this government,’ he said. ‘Not just the government of the last administration, but the government in some ways of the last 40 years, because there were two conceits that our leadership class had when it came to globalization.’

Vance explained that recent globalization efforts falsely assumed that world leaders could ‘separate the making of things from the design of things,’ citing the belief was that poorer nations would create goods such as cellphones, while wealthier nations would move ‘further up the value chain.’

‘Now, we assume that other nations will always trail us in the value chain, but it turns out that as they got better at the low end of the value chain, they also started catching up on the higher end. We were squeezed from both ends. Now, that was the first conceit of globalization,’ he said. 

Vance said the efforts have led to an addiction to cheap labor that has halted innovation. 

‘Cheap labor is fundamentally a crutch, and it’s a crutch that inhibits innovation,’ he said. ‘I might even say that it’s a drug that too many American firms got addicted to. Now, if you can make a product more cheaply, it’s far too easy to do that rather than to innovate. And whether we were offshoring factories to cheap labor economies or importing cheap labor through our immigration system, cheap labor became the drug of Western economies.

‘And I’d say that if you look in nearly every country, from Canada to the UK that imported large amounts of cheap labor, you’ve seen productivity stagnate,’ he said. ‘And I don’t think that’s that’s not a total happenstance. I think that the connection is very direct.’ 

Vance argued that ‘innovation is key to winning the worldwide manufacturing competition, to giving our workers a fair deal and to reclaiming our heritage via America’s great industrial comeback.’

The American Dynamism Summit is an annual tech summit hosted by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The event, which is in its third year, acts as a bridge between California’s Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. 

Vance headlined the event at the Waldorf Astoria and was joined by other notable speakers during the summit, such as Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, General Bryan P. Fenton, who serves as U.S. Special Operations Command commander, and Democratic New York Rep. Ritchie Torres. 

Vance also spoke out against industry and world leaders who are championing strict regulations on AI due to concerns over the tech, saying their worries are based ‘on a faulty premise.’ 

‘This idea that tech-forward people and the populists are somehow inevitably going to come to a loggerheads is wrong,’ he said. ‘I think the reality is that in any dynamic society, technology is going to advance.’ 

The vice president compared the rise of AI to the proliferation of ATMs in the 1970s, which sparked concern that bank tellers would be obliterated, similarly to how some workers are concerned AI could push them out of their jobs.  

‘I think there’s too much fear that AI will simply replace jobs rather than augmenting so many of the things that we do now,’ he said. ‘In the 1970s, if you go back a little ways, many feared that the automated teller machine, what we call the ATM, would replace bank tellers. In reality, the advent of the ATM made bank tellers more productive, and you have more people today working in customer service in the financial sector than you had when the ATM was created.’ 

‘Now they’re doing slightly different jobs, of course. Yes, they’re doing more interesting tasks also,’ he continued. ‘And importantly, they’re making more money than they were in the 1970s.’

Vance attended a separate tech summit in February in Paris, called the AI Action Summit, where he railed against Europe’s ‘trepidation’ of artificial intelligence, and regulation of it as hampering the future of innovation and jobs. 

‘Now, at this moment, we face the extraordinary prospect of a new industrial revolution, one on par with the invention of the steam engine or Bessemer steel,’ he said in the Paris speech. ‘But it will never come to pass if overregulation deters innovators from taking the risks necessary to advance the ball, nor will it occur if we allow AI to become dominated by massive players looking to use the tech to censor or control users’ thoughts.

‘And as AI creates new jobs and industries, our government, businesses and labor organizations have an obligation to work together to empower the workers not just of the United States but … all over the world,’ he added. ‘To that end, for all major AI policy decisions coming from the federal government, the Trump Administration will guarantee American workers a seat at the table, and we’re very proud of that.’ 

President Donald Trump announced a massive artificial intelligence infrastructure plan on his second day in office in January, explaining that tech firms Softbank, OpenAI and Oracle joined forces for a project called Stargate, which is working to build U.S.-based data centers to power artificial intelligence. There was an initial $100 billion investment in the project, with plans to expand to $500 billion across the next four years. 

Trump additionally signed an executive order on his third day in office called, ‘Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.’ The executive order rescinded previous Biden-era AI policies that Trump said ‘established unnecessarily burdensome requirements for companies developing and deploying AI’ that handcuffed the private sector. 

‘American development of AI systems must be free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas,’ the White House said of the executive order. ‘With the right government policies, the United States can solidify its position as the leader in AI and secure a brighter future for all Americans.’ 

 Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy contributed to this report. 

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to reform the incentive structure for Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), arguing that it drives up patient costs by encouraging them to favor higher-priced drugs while withholding potential savings.

Led by physician and GOP Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, the group introduced the ‘Delinking Revenue from Unfair Gouging (DRUG) Act’ on Tuesday, requiring that PBMs in the commercial market only charge a flat fee for their services related to a specific prescription drug, versus letting them continue to charge a percentage of the drug price. 

PBMs are third-party intermediaries between insurance companies, drug manufacturers and pharmacies that serve to control drug prices and access. The current incentive structure for PBMs, according to the DRUG Act’s sponsors, encourages them to drive up the list price of drugs to increase profits.    

‘Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) have excessive influence over the prices patients pay at the pharmacy counter,’ said Miller-Meeks. ‘Local Iowa pharmacies are closing due to greedy PBM practices, impacting proximity and access to medications for Iowans. The DRUG Act will put downward pressure on prescription drug prices and insurance premiums by removing the incentive for PBMs to drive up the list price of medications.’

According to the Iowa Pharmacy Association, PBMs have been using opaque reimbursement models that often pay back pharmacies less than the list cost of a drug and the services provided to dispense it. 

As a result of these practices, pharmacies in Iowa and across the country have been forced to close, the association said in a January report. Twenty-nine Iowa pharmacies and 2,300 pharmacies nationwide closed their doors in 2024, according to the association.  

While PBMs have played important roles in making drugs more widely available, through decades of mergers and acquisitions, the three largest PBMs now manage nearly 80% of all prescriptions filled in the U.S., according to a 2024 report from the Federal Trade Commission. 

The DRUG Act’s reforms serve to address this anti-competitiveness, which the bill’s sponsors say will also help lower costs.

‘Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) contribute to high drug costs because they are incentivized to steer patients towards drugs that are more profitable for PBMs, but may be less clinically effective for consumers,’ said Rep. Nannette Barragán, D-Calif., one of the bill’s co-sponsors. ‘This broken system disproportionately harms low-income individuals, seniors, and those with chronic illnesses who rely on life-saving prescriptions to manage their health.’

Rep. Donald Norcross, D-N.J., another co-sponsor of the DRUG Act, said families in his district ‘are crying out for relief from high prescription drug prices.’

‘Americans deserve access to quality health care and affordable prescription drugs,’ Norcross said. ‘The DRUG Act reins in prescription drug prices by removing the incentive for pharmacy benefit managers to drive up costs, increasing transparency and prioritizing patients over profits.’

The White House maintains that President Donald Trump does not use an autopen to sign legally binding documents like pardons — after Trump accused former President Joe Biden of having used the mechanical device to sign such documents. 

A White House official confirmed to Fox News Digital Tuesday that the Trump administration’s official policy during both his terms has beento use Trump’s hand signature on every legally operational or binding document. 

Trump told reporters on Air Force One Sunday that while he uses an autopen for correspondence, it’s shameful to use one when signing documents such as pardons. 

‘We may use it, as an example, to send some young person a letter because it’s nice,’ Trump said. ‘You know, we get thousands and thousands of letters, letters of support for young people, from people that aren’t feeling well, etcetera. But to sign pardons and all of the things that he signed with an autopen is disgraceful.’

Trump also claimed on Sunday that the courts must decide whether Biden’s use of an autopen for executive orders and pardons means they are void. 

An autopen is a device that physically holds a pen and is programmed to replicate a person’s signature. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel determined in 2005 that the president is permitted to use an autopen to sign bills into law, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a ruling in February that said the absence of ‘a writing does not equate to proof that a commutation did not occur.’

‘The constitutional text is thus silent as to any particular form the President’s clemency act must take to be effective,’ the circuit court said in its opinion. 

Trump raised the issue of Biden utilizing an autopen to sign pardons — including some for lawmakers who served on the House Select Committee to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — in a social media post on Sunday. Trump claimed in the post that the pardons were ‘VOID’ and accused Biden of not having knowledge of their signing. 

‘In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them! The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime,’ Trump said in his post. 

A spokesperson for Biden did not provide comment on the record to Fox News Digital. 

On March 6, the Oversight Project with conservative think-tank The Heritage Foundation released a report claiming that it conducted an analysis of Biden documents, and found that a majority of documents signed during his administration used an autopen. 

‘Our findings suggest widespread use of an autopen to sign clemency warrants throughout the Biden Presidency,’ the Oversight Project said in a memo released March 17. ‘This apparent use raises concerns about: whether President Biden personally authorized each official act; whether or which unelected staff controlled the autopen device; and whether they acted with his approval.’ 

On Trump’s inauguration day, Biden signed pardons for the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Gen. Mark Milley, whom Trump has accused of committing treason, as well as those involved in the Jan. 6 Select Committee investigation that conducted a probe into the attack.

Trump historically has railed against the select committee, and was indicted in August 2023 for attempting to overturn the 2020 election results that culminated in the attack on the Capitol. However, special counsel Jack Smith dropped the case against Trump in November 2024 after Trump won the presidential election.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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.

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.