Tag: American

Mexican authorities reveal bizarre reason they believe Australians, American were murdered on surfing vacation

Mexican authorities say two Australians and an American were killed on a surfing trip because thieves wanted the tires from their truck. Relatives of those killed confirmed their identities on Sunday, the Associated Press reported.

The latest details in the case come after a fourth body was discovered during a search for the missing men in Baja California. State prosecutors have not officially confirmed the identities of the missing men, but have said the victims’ family members are viewing the bodies to see if they can be identified by sight.

The corpses were found decomposing after the thieves dumped them into a remote well about 50 feet deep, some four miles from where the men were killed, authorities said. The well also contained a fourth cadaver that had been there much longer.

Chief state prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez said the probability that the corpses belong to the missing men is “very high,” noting that they still appeared to be identifiable by sight. “If they say that they are not completely certain that it is their relative, we would then have to carry out genetic testing.”

UTAH HUNTER FINDS SKELETAL REMAINS OF MAN MISSING SINCE 2019 IN REMOTE MOUNTAINS

The three men, brothers Jake and Callum Robinson from Australia and American Jack Carter Rhoad, were on a camping and surfing trip along a stretch of coast south of the city of Ensenada when they went missing last weekend.

Andrade Ramírez theorized the killers drove by and saw the foreigners’ pickup truck and tents and wanted to steal their tires. But “when [the foreigners] came up and caught them, surely, they resisted.”

She said that’s when the killers would have shot the tourists.

The thieves then allegedly went to what she called “a site that is extremely hard to get to” and allegedly dumped the bodies into a familiar well. She said investigators were not ruling out the possibility the same suspects also dumped the first, earlier body in the well as part of previous crimes.

“They may have been looking for trucks in this area,” Andrade Ramírez said.

MAN CONVICTED OF KIDNAPPING GIRLFRIEND, SUFFOCATING HER IN NEVADA DESERT

The thieves allegedly covered the well with boards. “It was literally almost impossible to find it,” Andrade Ramírez said, and it took two hours to winch the bodies out of the well.

The site where the bodies were discovered near the township of Santo Tomás was near the remote seaside area where the missing men’s tents and truck were found Thursday along the coast. 

On Sunday, dozens of mourners, surfers and demonstrators gathered in a main plaza in Ensenada, the nearest city, to voice their anger and sadness at the deaths.

“Ensenada is a mass grave,” read one placard carried by protesters. “Australia, we are with you,” one man scrawled on one of the half-dozen surf boards at the demonstration. A woman held up a sign that read “They only wanted to surf — we demand safe beaches.”

Baja California prosecutors had said they were questioning three people in the case, two of them because they were caught with methamphetamines. Prosecutors said the two were being held pending drug charges but continue to be suspects in the case. 

A third man was arrested on charges of a crime equivalent to kidnapping, but that was before the bodies were found. It was unclear if he might face more charges.

The third suspect was believed to have directly participated in the killings. In keeping with Mexican law, prosecutors identified him by his first name, Jesús Gerardo, alias “el Kekas,” a slang word that means “quesadillas,” or cheese tortillas. 

Andrade Ramírez said he had a criminal record, and that more people may have been involved.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Despite Iranian attack killing American abroad, Biden pursues nuclear deal with ayatollah's regime

The Iranian regime’s recent drone attack on an American base in Syria, which resulted in the murder of a U.S. contractor, has not deterred the Biden administration from pursuing the controversial nuclear pact with Tehran that would dramatically enrich the coffers of the Islamic Republic.

The White House remains wedded to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – the formal name for the Iran nuclear deal – that “would allow Tehran to access up to $275 billion in financial benefits during its first year in effect and $1 trillion by 2030.”

Veteran Iran experts have argued that the JCPOA is no longer tenable because it is riddled with serious defects about deterring Iran’s malign behavior, including failing to stop Tehran’s ongoing drone attacks against Americans. Iran’s regime was caught enriching uranium to 84% purity in February – just 6% short of weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon.

IRAN COULD PRODUCE NUCLEAR WEAPON IN MATTER OF MONTHS, SENIOR DEFENSE OFFICIAL CLAIMS

Jason Brodsky, the policy director of the U.S.-based United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI), told Fox News Digital, “The JCPOA framework is not a viable one for the United States. Those who say diplomacy is the most sustainable way of dealing with the Iran nuclear [deal] ignore the history of the last seven-plus years, where world powers have spent more time trying to salvage it than it was ever fully implemented. This is because of a lack of bipartisan support in the United States for the JCPOA paradigm as well as Tehran’s lethal non-nuclear behavior.”

While the U.S. State Department claims the JCPOA is not a priority, it reportedly continues to propose ways to inch toward an agreement. Axios recently reported that the White House is discussing a temporary deal that provides Tehran with some economic sanctions relief in exchange for a freeze of elements of its alleged atomic weapons program.

When asked about the reported interim deal proposal, a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “We are in constant contact with our allies and partners, including the E3, but we’re not going to detail diplomatic conversations or respond to rumors, many of which are simply false.”

E3 is an abbreviation for France, Germany and Britain.

The spokesperson added, “The JCPOA has not been on our agenda since September, when Iran turned its back on a deal that was on the table, but we are still very much open to diplomacy.”

The spokesperson continued, “As the president has made clear, the United States is committed to never allowing Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. We believe diplomacy is the best way to achieve that goal, but President [Joe] Biden has also been clear that we have not removed any option from the table.”

When asked about a report that diplomats from France, Germany and Britain conducted secret talks with Iran last month in Norway, the U.S. spokesperson reiterated its earlier response: “We are in constant contact with our allies and partners, including the E3, on Iran, but we’re not going to detail diplomatic conversations or respond to rumors, many of which are false. For instance, there have been no meetings of the P5+1 and Iran since August.”

The P5+1 is an abbreviation for the United States, France, Britain, China, Russia and Germany.

US AIR DEFENSES DOWN DURING SUSPECTED IRANIAN DRONE STRIKE IN SYRIA THAT KILLED ONE AMERICAN

The spokesperson added, “Of course, we remain greatly concerned by the expansion of Iran’s nuclear activities, including the operation of advanced centrifuges and accumulation of highly enriched uranium. Iran has no credible peaceful purpose to be undertaking these activities.”

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that the Biden administration “does not have a desire to solve the Iranian nuclear problem but to manage it.”

Despite the clerical regime’s mass human rights violations, furnishing lethal drones to Russia in its war against Ukraine, and enriching uranium to near military-grade usage, Biden’s “Iran policy continues to be defined by the JCPOA,” said Taleblu.

Taleblu said the Biden administration’s “maximum deference” to Iran’s rulers over the last 18 months “paved the way to where we are.” He added that the policy permitted Tehran to make “irreversible gains” with respect to its nuclear weapons program. The Iran expert also said the Biden administration “selectively enforces oil sanctions” against Tehran.

He urged that the U.S. government provide “maximum support” to the Iranian protesters opposed to the theocratic state because the U.S. “can’t form an Iran policy in isolation from what is happening on the ground in Iran.”

According to the State Department, the Trump administration is to blame for the current state of affairs with the Islamic Republic: “Let’s also not forget that it was the previous administration’s decision to unilaterally leave the JCPOA that contributed mightily to where we are today, with Iran no longer adhering to the constraints of the deal and rapidly advancing its nuclear program,” the State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

Israeli Brig. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, a senior researcher at the Israeli Defense Security Forum and expert on Iran, told Fox News Digital that the perception in the region is “America is weak and not willing to support its allies.” He cited the example of Saudi Arabia’s rapprochement with Iran’s regime that bypassed the U.S. altogether – Communist China brokered the diplomatic deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

BIDEN ON BACK FOOT AS IRAN PROXIES HIT US TROOPS IN SYRIA, CAN ‘EXPORT MORE, NOT LESS ATTACKS’

Kuperwasser said the “U.S. dreams of going back to the JCPOA, which means the Iranians think they can go further and test the waters in various issues.” He said the “Iranians have showed more self-confidence in their attacks on American bases in Syria and led to the death of one American.” He added that Hezbollah recently attacked Israel – the Iranian regime’s chief strategic partner is the U.S.-designated terrorist movement Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The U.S. government has defined Iran’s regime as the world’s worst international state sponsor of terrorism.

Kuperwasser said the message being delivered to the Iranians right now is: “They can get away with more than murder.” He continued, “The key is to put pressure on Iran now to stop their nuclear project. The worst thing right now is to revive JCPOA because it gives them a lot of money. They will be able to produce nuclear weapons in the future with JCPOA.”

Kuperwasser bemoaned the American government’s passive posture. He said the U.S. did not take any steps against Iran’s regime at the last session of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for its enrichment of near weapons-grade uranium. IAEA spokesperson Fredrik Dahl declined to provide a comment to Fox News Digital whether progress has been made in stopping Iran’s enrichment.

Kuperwasser said the main problem is Iran’s nuclear program and its enrichment of uranium, that America needs to “look at the entirety of the problem.” He said that the way to avoid a military confrontation with Iran’s regime is to “show credible military options.”

Brodsky, the Iran expert for UANI, said, “Military options need to be on the table and Tehran needs to believe we are serious about their use if Washington hopes to effectively deter the Islamic Republic. This entails more aggressively targeting Iran’s regime after its attacks on U.S. forces – not just retaliating against its proxies but also Iran’s regime itself. The U.S. government should also be giving serious consideration of an updated AUMF [Authorization for Use of Military Force] focused on Iran, as that is the threat that is most significant today. Just having the AUMF against Iran on the books would be a deterrent in and of itself.”

Iran’s mission to the U.N. did not respond to a press query.

American soccer journalist Grant Wahl dies while covering FIFA World Cup in Qatar

Famed American soccer journalist Grant Wahl died while covering the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. He was 48. Wahl reportedly collapsed while covering the Argentina-Netherlands quarterfinal. After paramedics performed CPR for several minutes at the scene, he was taken to a hospital. Wahl’s brother, Eric, announced his death on Instagram and made an emotional plea … Continue reading American soccer journalist Grant Wahl dies while covering FIFA World Cup in Qatar

New York Times' Paul Krugman insists 'Bidenomics' have benefited American workers with 'huge employment boom'

Liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman continued to defend President Biden at every turn, arguing on Monday that “Bidenomics” has benefited American workers. 

Krugman, who was mocked last month for claiming the economy is experiencing a “Biden boom” despite record 40-year-high inflation, penned a column published Monday headlined, “Has Bidenomics Been Good for Workers?” 

“President Biden has presided over a huge employment boom that, according to Friday’s employment report, is still in progress. That’s simply a fact, although stating it (like pointing out that we aren’t in a recession at the moment) guarantees that I will receive a truckload of hate mail,” he wrote. “By Biden’s second Labor Day, the U.S. economy had added substantially more jobs on his watch than it did in the Trump administration’s first 37 months — that is, before Covid-19 put the economy into a temporary coma.”

NEW YORK TIMES’ PAUL KRUGMAN MOCKED FOR CLAIMING THE ECONOMY IS EXPERIENCING A ‘BIDEN BOOM’

Krugman then admitted “many of the job gains under Biden probably reflected a natural recovery from lockdowns, and in general it’s easier to add many jobs when you start, as Biden did, from a position of depressed employment,” but quickly reverted to fawning over the president.

“On the other hand, employment has recovered faster than almost anyone expected,” Krugman wrote before noting that inflation is an issue but “Bidenomics has been good for American workers, whether they know it or not.”

Krugman has denied that America is in a recession, despite the GDP experiencing two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the technical definition of a recession. The liberal columnist – who also recently defended Biden’s school loan handout – believes “two big conceptual issues” are essential when evaluating the effects of rising employment on Americans.

NYT’S PAUL KRUGMAN SKEWERED FOR COMPLAINING THE SUPREME COURT IS ‘ON THE SIDE OF CIVILIZATIONAL COLLAPSE’

“First, do we look at the wages of only fully employed workers, or do we consider the gains to Americans who would have been unemployed or working reduced hours but for the Biden boom? Second,” he continued. “How much of the inflation the U.S. economy has suffered since Biden took office do we attribute to the boom, as opposed to things that would have happened whatever his policies had been?”

The liberal Times columnist answered his own questions by declaring, “If we include wage gains due to the rising share of Americans with jobs and the rising number of hours for those employed, the Biden boom has, unambiguously, been good for workers’ incomes… the biggest gains went to the lowest-paid workers. So the Biden boom didn’t just increase overall incomes; it reduced inequality.”

Krugman also dismissed workers who already had jobs when Biden took office losing purchasing power because of inflation because the issues “have a lot to do with global forces and little, if anything, to do with U.S. policy.” 

NEW YORK TIMES COLUMN SUGGESTS DEMS SAVED ‘CIVILIZATION’ WITH CLIMATE PROVISIONS IN SPENDING BILL 

“So, yes, the Biden boom has been good for workers. More Americans — a lot more Americans — got jobs, and while those who were already employed suffered a decline in real wages, that decline reflected events in global food and energy markets, not U.S. policy,” he wrote. 

Krugman concluded the glowing piece by noting that an extended period of high unemployment could erase whatever gains American labor had made during the Biden administration but reminded readers that he approves of the president’s to-date economic plan. 

“So far, Bidenomics has indeed helped workers,” he wrote. 

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Fox News’ Joe Silverstein contributed to this report.