America has culture — just ask the World Cup fans discovering Waffle House



Forget the final score. The real World Cup upset this summer is how many international fans are discovering that America is, against all odds, kind of great — especially in a "why does this gas station have 40 kinds of jerky and also a Wi-Fi password printed on the receipt" way — and they're documenting their delightful experiences on social media.

The breakout star of the bunch is a German fan known on X as Freddy who has been chronicling a six-week road trip across the U.S. and Canada, following Germany's national team, and has picked up hundreds of thousands of followers in his trek.

‘The European mind can't comprehend this.’

Freddy's Atlanta stop hit the respectable tourist beats — Stone Mountain, the MLK National Historical Park, some "Stranger Things" filming locations — and then immediately abandoned all dignity for Taco Bell, which he called "the holy land."

A 1 a.m. Waffle House visit got a perfect 10/10 — food, prices, and staff included.

His Wendy's stop in Tennessee produced the single best exchange of the whole tour. His order somehow came back under the name "John," and when he posted his haul of burgers and fries, the official Wendy's account replied with one demanding question: "WHERE IS THE FROSTY."

He also fit in a Walmart run for water, socks, and USA soccer merch and somehow found time to watch the NBA Finals at Chili's amid all this.

Before a single World Cup match had kicked off, Freddy watched the War Eagle fly over Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium and called it the most "the European mind can't comprehend this" moment of his life.

One of Freddy's posts got enough traction that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy shared it on X, writing: "There's no better way to see our country than on a road trip! Because to LOVE AMERICA you have to SEE AMERICA."

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) invited him back for football season. When he posted from the Gulf Coast, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis welcomed him to Florida — but couldn't let it go that Freddy had called the Gulf "the sea."

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Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images

Freddy is not even the only German on this beat. Finn Agostinelli has been touring Chicago — the Riverwalk, "the Bean," and a visit to Portillo's so good that he posted a petition to get one opened back home in Hamburg.

His best moment came at Macy's, where he had ducked in to find a restroom and instead found himself staring up at an enormous American flag. "I respect how proud Americans are of their country," he wrote. "Unimaginable back home in Germany."

Texas, for its part, did not go unnoticed either. A group of Japanese fans told KDFW their assessment of the state in six words: "Texas is good — everything is big." Which checks out. Everything is bigger in Texas.

And in a tradition that has followed Japan's national team since its 1998 World Cup debut, Japanese fans were spotted picking up trash in the stands after a 2-2 game against the Netherlands in Dallas, a habit rooted in a saying that a bird leaves no trace when it flies. Stadium staff, presumably, were thrilled — and possibly a little confused.

Meanwhile, a young Swedish fan named Elsa Thora landed in Indianapolis and immediately discovered ranch dressing, which, by the tone of her posts on X, may have been a bigger moment for her than the actual soccer.

"Why did no one tell me ranch sauce is like crack? EUROPE WE NEED RANCH ASAP," she said.

Elsa screamed at a school bus in Indiana, posted a photo of Twinkies and Combos pretzels with the caption "I feel like I'm in a movie," and has been working her way through Trader Joe's ever since.

She also discovered that Amish people are, in fact, real.

Not every discovery has been a hit, though. Elsa also found shampoo locked behind anti-theft barriers at a store, a security measure uncommon in much of Europe, and called it her first negative experience of the trip.

She's not alone on the friction front. Scottish fan Shaun Cumming arrived in New York after flying from Edinburgh and was blunt about the cost of everything — especially after a $150 Uber ride into Brooklyn.

He also noted to Newsweek that Americans are noticeably more open than people back home.

"People here are very positive, enthusiastic, and they're not shy at all," he said. "They will tell you how they feel for good or for bad. And sometimes for British people, it can catch us off guard a little bit."

Cumming had no complaints about the food. He said American cooking is simply better seasoned than what he's used to: "Here, you get flavor, you get fed well, they put a lot spices, herbs and seasoning into their food in general, which just makes it really good" — and that the regional variety is what stuck with him most.

RELATED: Trump and Mamdani are on a collision course about ICE at the World Cup

Joe Lamberti/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Underneath all of it is something that keeps surprising people more than the food: the locals.

A tourism expert told Fox News that visitors driving nine hours across Texas are running into "overwhelming American kindness," often from small-town residents who have no idea why someone with hundreds of thousands of followers just pulled into their gas station.

A New Jersey deli owner gave a couple of British tourists a free lunch, and Alabama firefighters gave other British fans a station tour and sent them off with free gear.

Waffle House has been open at 1 a.m. for 50 years. Buc-ee's has always been enormous. Ranch dressing has been sitting in American refrigerators, unremarked upon, since the Reagan administration. Perhaps the deli owner who fed the British tourists wasn't doing anything he wouldn't do for a local who looked lost.

What's new is that someone finally pointed a camera at it.

For years, the conversation about America — at home and abroad — has been almost entirely about Washington: the politics, the division, the sense that the country is somehow failing itself. But that was never the whole country.

The actual texture of American life — the diners, the gas stations, the absurd portion sizes, the stranger who will drive you to a game because your Uber didn't show — was always there, underneath all of it, completely unaffected by whatever was happening in D.C.

This summer, a few hundred thousand people from somewhere else have seen the real America: big, weird, generous, a little much.

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Teen accused of brandishing knife amid carjacking definitely picks wrong woman to victimize



An accused knife-brandishing teen most definitely chose the wrong female to carjack over the weekend in Yonkers, New York.

Around 12:45 p.m. Sunday, police got a call requesting assistance at the Mobil gas station at 838 Kimball Avenue, police said.

The suspect will be charged with robbery in the first, second, and third degree, as well as fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and second-degree menacing, police said.

The call was from an off-duty New York state trooper.

An investigation revealed that when the off-duty trooper was done refueling her vehicle, a male approached her, brandished a knife, and entered the driver’s seat of her vehicle, police said.

While the trooper was off-duty, she sure wasn't unarmed — and as you might expect, she wasn't going to let the crook get away without a fight.

With that, the trooper fired one shot from her off-duty firearm, striking the suspect in the left arm — and the round continued into his torso, police said.

The suspect accelerated the vehicle toward the rear of the gas station, drove through a shed and fence at the end of the property, and then came to a stop in the parking lot of the adjacent apartment building at 1296 Midland Avenue, police said.

The suspect then fled from the stolen vehicle and ran toward Midland Avenue, police said.

However, Yonkers Police officers quickly located the suspect at the entrance to 1328 Midland Avenue and placed him into custody without incident, police said, adding that a knife was recovered from the suspect at the time of arrest.

RELATED: Deadly shoot-out between off-duty cop and male who pistol-whipped him caught on police dashcam video

Medical aid was rendered at the scene, and the suspect was transported to an area hospital where he was treated for non-life-threatening gunshot wounds; he was in stable condition, police said.

The suspect is a 17-year-old Yonkers resident, police said.

The suspect will be charged with robbery in the first, second, and third degree, as well as fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and second-degree menacing, police said.

The Yonkers Police Department's Detective Division Major Case Squad is leading the criminal investigation while the New York State Police is conducting an internal review, police said.

As the trooper was the victim, police said no identifying information will be released about her other than she was a female off-duty state trooper assigned to Troop NYC.

A state police spokesman said the trooper is a 12-year veteran who suffered minor injuries in the incident and was treated at a hospital and released, according to the Rockland/Westchester Journal News.

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Video: Woman pulls male intruder out of her car, throws him to the ground with ease — while her amazed husband watches



Astonishing surveillance video from a Hollywood gas station shows the moment when a woman pulled a male intruder out of her car and threw him to the ground with ease.

The woman, Star Carter, was sitting in the driver's seat of her red Alfa Romeo at the gas station Tuesday when a male stranger walked up and tried to open her passenger door, KCBS-TV reported.

'It was just like that Kendrick Lamar verse [from "Peekaboo"] was playing in my head, you know like, "Bing bop boom bop boom bop bam!"'

Her husband, Michael Carter, was pumping gas at the time and was on the other side of car.

"I stood up and was like 'Get outta here!' and then I walked around this way," Michael told KCBS, motioning toward the passenger side of the car.

But after Michael got back in the passenger seat, the crook sneaked back and opened the driver-side rear door closest to the gas pump and actually got into the back seat, video shows.

"I'm wrestling with him inside the car," Michael told the station, "and I'm kinda pushing him and pushing him, and all I know is he just disappeared."

With that, Star's husband smiled and told KCBS that "I'm looking over the back, and I said, 'Oh ... ohhh!'"

Michael's, shall we say, starstruck reaction was due to the fact that his wife got out of her driver's seat, got to the back door, ripped the intruder right out the car, and tossed him to the ground.

"I don't condone violence, but I do condone self-defense," Star told KCBS in the aftermath.

RELATED: Check out 14 times regular folks turned the tables on violent crooks over the last year: 'Thank God we had our guns'

Star described what song was on her brain's playlist in that moment, telling the station that "it was just like that Kendrick Lamar verse [from 'Peekaboo'] was playing in my head, you know like, 'Bing bop boom bop boom bop bam!'"

With a laugh, she added to KCBS, "That's all I remember. I'm so embarrassed."

Wisely, the intruder ran off after Star introduced him to the concrete.

But she also had some parting advice for him: "I just said, 'Don't you ever do no stupid [word redacted in KCBS video] like this again!'"

The station said the Carters actually continued their night out, going to a comedy show at the Hollywood Improv.

The couple's unsurprised daughter later told KCBS that "my mommy, she was in like fight or flight — but she definitely fought, and he definitely took flight."

Star added to the station that she believes the intruder was on drugs at the time of the incident: "I don't know what this dude is capable of doing at all."

In the end, her husband was grateful that Star stood up to the crook.

"She is indeed my hero," Michael noted to KCBS with a laugh in the aftermath. "Thank you, Star!"

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17-year-old idiot brags on Instagram about killing 14-year-old in shooting — which naturally leads cops right to him: Report



A 17-year-old male last week bragged on Instagram about killing a younger teen in a Washington, D.C., gas station shooting — and that led police right to him, WRC-TV reported.

What are the details?

Surveillance camera images caught the shooting outside the Crown gas station at 14th and Euclid Streets NW around 11:30 p.m. Nov. 3, the station said.

WRC said video showed an individual wearing a ski mask and holding a gun — believed to be 17-year-old Lorenzo Thompson — who then opened fire near the gas station's doorway. The gunman fired 12 rounds toward three individuals on scooters in the parking lot, the station said.

Two victims were shot and hospitalized, WRC said, adding that one of them — 14-year-old Niko Estep — died.

More from the station:

Court documents claim that three days later, Thompson appeared in an Instagram live appearing to brag about the crime while wearing the same Moose Knuckle jacket and Jordan Retro sneakers seen on the gunman in the gas station video.

In a search of his bedroom, authorities said they uncovered an ammunition magazine of the same caliber as the gun used to kill the victim.

Thompson is being charged as an adult with second-degree murder while armed.

That ain't all

WRC, citing court documents, said video of the shooting shows a man in a hooded black jacket and a woman with red braids wearing a white parka just stood there and didn't do anything to intervene in the shooting.

What's more, the station added that the woman in question also followed the gunman as he rode a scooter to the parking lot prior to the shooting and then wheeled his scooter back to a nearby apartment building after the killing.

That apartment building was later determined to be the suspect’s home address, WRC reported.

Court documents also say an officer who arrested the teenage suspect for a prior robbery told detectives that the shooter in the gas station video looks like Thompson — and the officer also identified the suspect's mother, the station said.

“Officer Whitfield looked at the still shot of the female with red braids for approximately 15-20 seconds before he stated that it looked like Lorenzo Thompson’s mother,” the documents read, according to WRC.

Thompson is so far the only individual charged in Estep’s murder, the station said.

A motive for the deadly shooting was not immediately revealed, WRC reported, adding that police said detectives are continuing to investigate and that additional charges would come from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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Off-duty firefighter wrestles felon who pulled gun on him. Felon's girlfriend grabs dropped gun, fatally shoots firefighter — and she's facing no criminal charges.



Warning: graphic content.

An off-duty firefighter in Missouri was shot and killed outside a gas station earlier this month after wrestling with an angry customer who eventually pulled a gun on him. However, prosecutors have declined to charge the customer's girlfriend, who shot the firefighter, claiming that she shot him to defend her boyfriend's life.

At around 2:30 p.m. on October 6, Anthony "Tony" Santi, a 41-year-old Kansas City firefighter, was in a gas station in Independence, Missouri, when a fellow customer became irate with the female attendant because the store did not have the brand of cigars he wanted.

The customer, Ja’Von Taylor, 23, then hurled expletives at the unnamed store clerk, causing a disturbance. The clerk asked Taylor to leave the store, but he refused. Santi then intervened and demanded that Taylor leave. Tensions between the two men became heated, and they began fighting inside the store, though they eventually took the scuffle outside.

At some point, Taylor went to his vehicle and took out a firearm. Taylor and Santi then struggled to grab hold of the weapon. Santi eventually managed to get Taylor into a choke hold underneath him. Meanwhile, Taylor's girlfriend, who had been sitting in Taylor's vehicle, had exited the car and begged Santi to stop wrestling with Taylor.

"Stop, sir, stop," she yelled. "Get off! My kids [are] in the car! Stop! [You’re] killing him!"

The woman, whose identity has not been released, picked up the gun, which had fallen to the ground, and then aimed it at Santi. She warned him that she would use it, and she eventually did, firing one round into Santi's back.

A witness filmed the episode, which may have lasted for as long as 10 minutes. Though the video does not show the actual shooting, the content in it is graphic.

\u201cGraphic Content \ud83d\udea8\u26a0\ufe0f\n\nA Kansas City woman has been set free of charges tonight after protecting her boyfriend in a fight with a firefighter. The young lady seconds later killed the firefighter which has now been declared as self defense. \u26a0\ufe0f\u201d
— KC Discover (@KC Discover) 1666144853

The woman shot Santi moments after the conclusion of the video. After the shot, Santi got up off the ground and walked back into the store, where he collapsed and died.

After reviewing the video, Jackson County prosecutors declined to press charges against the woman, arguing that she could reasonably claim self-defense.

"We grieve with the family and community over this tragic loss of life of Mr. Santi," the prosecutor’s office wrote in a statement. "Missouri law governs this case, specifically self-defense and defense of others, leading us to decline charges after a careful review."

"If a case is declined, it’s just because we don’t believe there’s sufficient evidence to get to that highest burden of proof," Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker explained to reporters.

Kevin Jamison, a Missouri attorney who has practiced law for 40 years and who "wrote Missouri’s book on weapons and self-defense," according to WDAF-TV, also weighed in on why prosecutors may have declined to press charges in this case.

"Technically it's called the defense of justification and your justification is you are saving the life of another person," Jamison said.

He added that the woman likely had only limited knowledge about the "circumstances" of the fight, causing her to believe that Santi posed a threat to Taylor's life.

"The girlfriend is only constrained by what she reasonably believed to be the circumstances. If she didn’t see the start of the fight, all she knows is her boyfriend is getting strangled," he said.

Though the unnamed girlfriend will not face prosecution, Taylor will. He has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He had previously been convicted of first-degree robbery, though the date of his conviction and the length of his sentence remain unclear.

Santi joined the Kansas City Fire Department 11 years ago. He loved "nature and being outdoors" and his dog, Donnie, and he especially loved his daughter, "the light of his life," according to an obituary.

KCFD declined to comment on the decision not to prosecute the woman.

Good guy with a gun saves the day again, this time, killing a robber who held a knife to the throat of a Missouri gas station clerk: 'I don't think I honestly had a choice'



Another "Good Samaritan" with a gun saved the day again, this time, shooting and killing a man who was holding a gas station attendant at knife point.

Last Saturday, the concealed carrier pulled up to a QuikTrip service station in St. Charles, Missouri, about a half-hour outside St. Louis, and used the restroom. After he walked out of the store and returned to his car, however, some suspicious activity from another driver prompted him to remain at the gas station rather than pull away.

The customer with the gun, who has asked to remain anonymous, told reporters that he saw the driver of a black SUV enter the store and immediately grab the clerk and hold a knife to her throat.

"I saw him grab her and drag her to the front to the counter, something wasn't right when I saw that, so me being concealed carry, I had my gun on me and I just waited," he said.

"I walked up to the door and I saw him with a knife to her throat," he continued. "She was emptying out the cash register and I took a step in and peeked my head in to ask if everything was okay. I couldn't see his face but he was saying yes, but I could see her face she was saying no, she was scared."

The man said that the suspect then charged straight at him, still wielding the knife, so the man pulled out his gun and shot the suspect four times. Once the suspect fell, he and the clerk both called police.

“I don’t think I honestly had a choice. He already had a knife at her throat, he could’ve pulled out something bigger than what I had. Then, you would’ve had two people dead instead of one,” he said.

When police arrived, emergency medical teams transported the suspect — later identified as Lance Bush, a 26-year-old homeless man from St. Louis — to the hospital, where he died.

Bush is believed to have robbed at least one other gas station earlier that morning by holding a knife to the throat of the attendant and forcing her to give him money from the register. The black SUV he was driving had also been reported stolen on Friday.

“Taking somebody’s life is not an everyday thing, neither is saving someone’s life,” the man with the gun said.

When asked why he elected to confront the robber rather than call police from the safety of his vehicle, he replied, "Instinct I would say. Instinct that’s just it. I guess knowing that I’m protected, I can protect somebody else."

British Petroleum divests from Russian state-owned oil ventures



The British Petroleum Company (BP) plans to sell its nearly one-fifth stake in the state-owned Russian oil company Rosneft.

BP plans to liquidate its 19.75% stake in Rosneft “with immediate effect” following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sky News reported.

Bernard Looney, BP’s chief executive, will also resign from his role on Rosneft’s board along with another BP executive, Bub Dudley.

The chairman for BP, Helge Lund, said, “Russia’s attack on Ukraine is an act of aggression which is having tragic consequences across the region. BP has operated in Russia for over 30 years, working with brilliant Russian colleagues. However, this military action represents a fundamental change.”

“It has led the BP board to conclude, after a thorough process, that our involvement with Rosneft, a state-owned enterprise, simply cannot continue,” Lund continued, “We can no longer support BP representatives holding a role on the Rosneft board.”

He added, “The Rosneft holding is no longer aligned with BP’s business and strategy, and it is now the board’s decision to exit BP’s shareholding in Rosneft. The BP board believes these decisions are in the best long-term interests of all our shareholders.”

Russia’s economy has been in a freefall since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine.

In response to the Russian invasion, leaders of Western nations have proceeded to implement a wide array of sanctions on the Russian economy.

The Western sanctions specifically target Russia’s financial institutions. President Joe Biden issued sanctions that target Russia’s two largest banks, Sherbank and VTB, which will make it effectively impossible for Russians to conduct transactions through the American financial system.

Biden’s sanctions restrict nearly 80% of Russia’s banking assets.

On Saturday, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States issued a joint statement that announced their intention to remove Russia from the SWIFT telecommunication network.

Kicking Russia out of SWIFT will significantly damage the Russian economy and make long-term recovery incredibly difficult. This move will economically isolate Russia and prevent Russian businesses and banks from engaging in international transactions.

Natural gas and fossil fuel exports make up more than 80% of Russia’s GDP. Restricting Russia’s ability to sell fuel to the rest of the world will effectively cripple its economy.

The Russian ruble also continues to lose value rapidly.

To try and stabilize the cratering Russian economy, the Russian central bank said that it would intervene in the foreign exchange market and expand the list of securities that it is willing to accept as collateral.

Russia’s removal from SWIFT will put the Russian central bank in a tight bind as it will not be able to freely manipulate Russian monetary policy to offset inflation and the economic impact of Western sanctions.