Authorities investigating racist texts sent to dozens of black Americans across the US
Dozens of black Americans have received text messages telling them they had been “selected” to pick cotton “at the nearest plantation”.
The messages invoking slavery were sent to university students from colleges including Ohio State University, Clemson University in South Carolina, the University of Southern California and Missouri State University, according to Sky’s US partner network NBC News.
But other black men, women and children were recipients of the messages in several other states including New York, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Tennessee.
The first messages were sent the morning after the US election, with some referencing president-elect Donald Trump.
The FBI said in a statement on Thursday that it is aware of the texts and has been in contact with the US Department of Justice. It also encouraged people who receive the messages to report them to local law enforcement.
The Federal Communications Commission also said it is investigating alongside federal and state law enforcement.
The attorney general’s office in Virginia condemned the messages on Wednesday and directed anyone who “believes themselves to be under threat” to contact law enforcement. Police departments and leaders in cities across the country have also addressed the situation.
It is unclear who is behind the mass messages, what motivated them, or how they obtained the phone numbers.
But some of the anonymous numbers appear to be tied to TextNow, a text messaging service that allows users to obtain untraceable “burner” phone numbers.
Pic: iStock
A TextNow spokesperson said in a statement that it is aware of the messages.
“As soon as we became aware, our trust and safety team acted quickly, shutting down the accounts involved within the hour,” the Canada-based company said.
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“TextNow is proud to be an inclusive service offering free mobile text and data to millions of Americans. We do not tolerate or condone the use of our service to send harassing or spam messages and will work with the authorities to prevent these individuals from doing so in the future.”
Major communications providers AT&T and Verizon both said it was an industry-wide problem.
Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill said that whoever sent the messages used a VPN to obscure their origin.
Alyse McCall, a University of Alabama student, said she “started crying” after receiving one of the messages.
Alyse McCall
“This is truly disgusting and whoever is sending it out is vile. No one should ever think to send that message or receive that message. It made me sick to my stomach,” she said.
A University of Alabama spokesperson said the “disgusting” texts “have been reported to authorities”.
Meanwhile, Monet Miller, a publicist from Atlanta, said she “genuinely felt scared” after she was sent a message.
The text sent to her read: “Greetings Monet M, you have been selected to pick cutton [sic] at the nearest plantation.
“Be ready at 12pm SHARP with your belongings. Our Executive Slaves will come get you in a Brown Van, be prepared to be searched down once you’ve enter [sic] the plantation. You are in plantation group S.”
The racist message received by Monet. Pic: Monet Miller/NBC
Brian Hughes from the Trump campaign denounced the texts and said it is “absolute nonsense” to link the president-elect to the messages.
“If we can find the origin of these messages which promote this kind of ugliness in our name we will obviously take legal action to stop it,” Mr Hughes said in a statement.
“President Trump built a diverse and broad coalition of support, with voters of all races and backgrounds,” he added.
“The result was a landslide victory for his common sense mandate for change. This will result in a second term that is beneficial to every working man and woman in our nation.”
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The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) condemned the messages, adding that it believes the texts were a product of the president-elect’s rhetoric.
“The unfortunate reality of electing a president who, historically has embraced, and at times encouraged hate, is unfolding before our eyes,” the statement read.
NAACP president Derrick Johnson added: “These messages represent an alarming increase in vile and abhorrent rhetoric from racist groups across the country.”
The US has launched its eighth strike against an alleged drug vessel – this time in the Pacific.
The US defence secretary Pete Hegseth revealed the “lethal kinetic” strike on social media.
In a video shared by Mr Hegseth, a small boat carrying brown packages explodes after being struck.
According to the US war secretary, the action killed two “narco-terrorists”, taking the death toll from all the strikes to at least 34 people.
“Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a designated terrorist organisation and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific,” said Mr Hegseth.
“There were two narco-terrorists aboard during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed, and no US forces were harmed.”
Mr Hegseth likened the alleged drug traffickers to the group behind the September 11 attacks, Islamist terror organisation Al Qaeda.
Pete Hegseth, pictured addressing a meeting at NATO on October 15, has revealed another strike on an alleged drug boat. Pic: AP
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“Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people,” Mr Hegseth said. “There will be no refuge or forgiveness – only justice.”
The seven previous US strikes had all targeted vessels in the Caribbean.
Amid a US military build up in the region and anxiety that Mr Trump may order military action against Venezuela, which the US president accuses of narcoterrorism, President Nicolas Maduro.has denied any connection to drug smuggling and said the boat strikes were a pretext for regime change.
There are no plans for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to meet in person in the near future, according to a White House official.
The US leader later shed further light on the issue when asked why his planned summit in Hungary had been put on hold.
He said he did not want to have a wasted meeting, telling reporters in the Oval Office he had not made a determination about the talks he had wanted to hold.
The presidents last week agreed to meet in Budapest after a phone call Mr Trump called “extremely frank and trustful”.
The US leader suggested it was possible it could happen within a fortnight, though no date was set.
However, it appears that’s now off the table – and there are fears the meeting could be shelved altogether due to Russia‘s rigid stance on the Ukraine war.
The White House official, speaking to Sky’s US partner network NBC, said secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had spoken on Tuesday.
The call was described as “productive” but the official added there was no plan for the presidents to meet “in the immediate future”.
The last Trump-Putin meeting was in Alaska in August, but it ended without any meaningful progress towards a ceasefire.
The Budapest plan was announced shortly before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to Washington last Friday to try to get approval for long-range Tomahawk missiles.
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Why Tomahawks are off the table
Mr Zelenskyy accused the Russian leader of acting out of fear Ukraine could get the green light and the ability to hit targets far deeper into Russia.
In his nightly address on Tuesday, he said Russia “almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy” after it became clear Mr Trump had backed away from any decision on the Tomahawks.
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Professor Michael Clarke answers your questions on the Ukraine war.
Two US officials told Reuters that plans for the Budapest meeting had stalled over Russia’s insistence any peace deal must give it control of all of the Donbas region.
Those terms are said to have been reiterated over the weekend in a private communique known as a “no paper”.
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The Kremlin’s refusal to budge effectively rejects Mr Trump’s latest assessment that the frontlines should be frozen as they are.
The president shifted position last week after previously telling the UN General Assembly that Ukraine could win back all the land it has lost.
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Ukraine and European nations issued a joint statement on Tuesday insisting “international borders must not be changed by force” and accusing Russia of “stalling tactics”.
But, in an apparent effort to keep the US leader onside, it added: “We strongly support President Trump’s position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations.”
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Trump: ‘We can end this war quickly’
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov gave the impression his country was in no rush to arrange another Trump-Putin meeting, saying on Tuesday “preparation is needed, serious preparation”.
Such talk is likely to increase concerns Russia does not want to stop fighting and is “playing” President Trump – all while continuing to launch drone barrages at Ukrainian cities.
Russia currently holds about a fifth of Ukraine after its invasion in February in 2022. It also annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
Meanwhile, NATO’s secretary general Mark Rutte is travelling to Washington to meet with President Trump on Wednesday.
He will “discuss various aspects related to NATO’s support to Ukraine and to the US-led efforts towards lasting peace”, an official for the alliance said.
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