texts

Oct. 21 (UPI) — Paul Ingrassia withdrew his nomination on Tuesday to head the Office of Special Counsel after his Republican support in the Senate crumbled following the release of his racist and inflammatory text messages.

Ingrassia announced his decision in a post on X just a day after Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters that the 30-year-old lawyer and political commentator did not have enough support in the chamber and asked the White House to rethink his nomination.

“I appreciate the overwhelming support that I have received throughout this process and will continue to serve President Trump and this administration to Make America Great Again!” he wrote.

The development is a rare instance of Senate Republicans publicly drawing a line with President Donald Trump over his picks for who works in his administration.

Ingrassia has been nominated by Trump to lead the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency responsible for protecting government whistleblowers and investigates complaints of wrongdoing.

His nomination began unraveling after Politico reported on Monday on a series of his texts where he said he had a “Nazi streak” and that the federal holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs.”

Ingrassia used an Italian slur for Black people, according to Politico. He also wrote “Never trust a chinaman or Indian” in reference to former Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Following the report, Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rick Scott of Florida and James Lankford of Oklahoma all signaled that they would not vote to confirm Ingrassia, Semafor reported. Republicans hold a 53-seat majority in the chamber.

For the most part, Trump’s controversial nominees have cleared the chamber and Republicans even changed the chamber’s rules to overcome Democratic opposition. However, Trump recently withdrew his nomination of E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Ingrassia serves as the Trump administration’s go-between with the Justice Department and previously represented Andrew Tate, who has been accused of human trafficking, money laundering and other charges, which he denies.

Ingrassia performed poorly in a meeting with committee staff ahead of a confirmation hearing, Axios reported.

“There’s just some different statements he’s made in the past that need clarification,” Lankford told the news outlet at the time.

The deluge of conspiracy theories began almost the moment authorities revealed the text messages allegedly sent by the suspected assassin of right-wing American activist Charlie Kirk.

After prosecutors in the US state of Utah published alleged text exchanges between 22-year-old Tyler Robinson and his romantic partner on Tuesday, countless social media users, including numerous prominent influencers, cast doubt on their authenticity.

Some outright claimed that the texts, in which Robinson appears to confess to killing Kirk, had been fabricated by authorities.

Many of the posts suggested that the language and tone of the exchanges did not match someone of Robinson’s age, and the account of the shooting was too forthcoming and detailed to be believable.

Notably, at a time of extreme political polarisation in the US, the conspiracy theorising united figures on the left and right.

Matt Walsh, a right-wing commentator and podcast host with millions of followers on X and YouTube, suggested the exchanges had been scripted to absolve Robinson’s transgender partner of any involvement in the shooting.

“This feels like a strategy they cooked up from watching too much TV,” Walsh said on X.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox has said that the partner, described as a “male transitioning to female”, had no advance knowledge of the crime and has been cooperating fully with authorities.

Steven Bannon, US President Donald Trump’s former adviser, said on his podcast that he was “not buying” the texts, describing them as “too stilted, too much like a script”.

On the other side of the political spectrum, Majid Padellan, a progressive influencer who goes by Brooklyn Dad Defiant on social media, said he did not believe for “one second” that the texts had been written by Robinson.

“I didn’t know him personally, but I know that no 22 year old writes text messages like this,” Padellan said on X.

“This feels like that Steve Buscemi skateboard meme ‘How do you do, fellow kids?”’

Liberal commentator Joanne Carducci, who posts under the moniker JoJoFromJerz, noted that the official narrative around the assassination had prompted rare agreement across the ideological divide.

“No one is buying these text messages. No one on the left or the right,” Carducci said on X.

“We cannot agree on a damn thing anymore. But we agree on this. If that doesn’t speak volumes, nothing does.”

The Utah County Attorney did not respond to a request for comment about the claims online.

Speculation and conspiracy theories have become a routine feature of the reaction to high-profile acts of violence in the US in the polarised and trigger-happy landscape of social media and online forums.

After a gunman shot dead a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband in June, right-wing conspiracy theorists claimed that the shooting had been perpetrated by a left-wing extremist or carried out on behalf of the state’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz.

The alleged gunman, Vance Boelter, espoused staunchly conservative views on issues including abortion and LGBTQ rights.

The 2022 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas; the 2018 high school shooting in Parkland, Florida; and the 2017 Las Vegas shooting all spawned right-wing conspiracy theories, including the claim that the attacks had been staged to give the US government a pretext to curtail gun rights.

While many conspiracy theories have been driven by a particular ideological faction, Kirk’s assassination is the latest event to fuel unfounded claims with “cross-ideological appeal”, said Eric Oliver, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago who studies conspiracy theories.

Claims about Robinson fit the mould of theories about the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the pharmaceutical industry, which also cut across partisan and ideological lines, Oliver said.

“People are also really emotionally charged by this, both on the left and the right, and will often gravitate to stories that rationalise their fear, rage, or feelings of powerlessness,” Oliver told Al Jazeera.

The “extraordinary circumstances” of Kirk’s murder, including a relative lack of information about Robinson, had also left a vacuum that was being filled by people “already suspicious of anything either the government does or this administration does”, Oliver added.

The transcripts of Robinson’s alleged texts released by prosecutors provided some of the clearest indications yet of a possible motive for assassinating Kirk, who was lauded by conservatives but seen as an inflammatory figure on the left for his right-wing stances on immigration, abortion and transgender rights, among other issues.

Robinson allegedly told his partner that he had “had enough” of Kirk’s “hatred” and “some hate can’t be negotiated out”.

Authorities previously announced that they recovered bullet casings inscribed with a number of politically-charged and internet subculture-influenced messages, including “Hey fascist! Catch!”

Prosecutors, who allege Kirk was targeted over his “political expression”, have charged Robinson with aggravated murder and six other charges.

That the released details of Robinson’s alleged communication with his partner after Kirk’s assassination have only further fuelled conspiracies is not surprising, suggest experts.

“Many people have a worldview in which conspiracies are going on all the time and explain our social and political circumstances – those people believe lots and lots of conspiracy theories and exist on both the right and left,” said Joseph Uscinski, a professor of political science at the University of Miami, whose research focuses on conspiracy theories.

And though conspiracy theorising has become rampant on social media, the platforms themselves are not the problem, Uscinski said.

“People have worldviews; some of those worldviews make conspiracy theories easy to believe, whether those people are on social media or not,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Conspiracy theories existed long before social media and may have been more prominent then. We have to remember that people seek out content on social media that they like; they are not necessarily persuaded by social media content as much as they are attracted to content that tells them what they already believe.”

A BOSS has been branded as being “beyond diabolical” over the text messages they sent to an employee regarding her maternity leave.

Ben Askins, a UK career expert, regularly shares videos calling out questionable workplace behaviour to his social media sites.

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In a recent post, Ben highlighted an “ugly” response to a pregnant woman’s “reasonable” request for maternity leave where he branded her employer as being in “the top three of the worst bosses I’ve come across”.

Ben shared the text exchange to his TikTok account which has since notched up nearly 590,000 views.

The text message exchange begins with the pregnant employee confirming that her manager had received her “email about maternity leave requests for February”.

The boss then replied: “I saw it, and I wanted to talk to you about it.

“Is there any way you’d consider reducing how long you want to take?

“If you are sure you are going to go ahead with it, would you be open to discussing it all. I am just a bit worried about the costs from our side.”

Clearly taken aback by her manager’s reaction, the female employee tried to justify her reason for taking her legally-entitled maternity leave.

To help ease the situation, she offered to be as helpful as possible to the person who would temporarily filling her position.

She wrote in reply: “Oh ok, um I was kind of hoping to take as much time as possible.

“This is my first child and wanted to get as used to being as parent as possible, especially as my family lives quite far away.”

She added: “I will ensure all my responsibilities are handed over seamlessly and help interview for mat cover but I really do want to take the full amount.”

The boss though continued to badger his employee over the “burden” she was allegedly creating by going on maternity leave.

He wrote: “The challenge is that this is a small company, and it’s quite a burden to have to pay both your mat leave and your mat cover.

“I am just not sure how we can cope.”

The woman though continued to advocate for her rights and even offered to assist her employer while she was off on leave.

She said: “I appreciate that but this isn’t fair to put on me, I am happy to support but I am well within my rights to do this.

“I will try and support however I can, make sure everything is in place for a smooth handover and can also be on call for emergencies if that helps?”

The concerned employee then ended the message by saying: “Is my pregnancy going to be a problem for my role in the company?”

The boss then responded: “Not at all! Your pregnancy is absolutely fine by me, we are a family company.”

However, they then continued: “[J]ust not ideal timing for me that is all. But if you are not going to help out and reduce the time then nothing really further for us to talk about I guess.”

As Ben read out the series of text message in the video, he couldn’t help interject with his own comments about the situation, calling the manager out for their “disgusting” behaviour.

Ben also claimed the boss in this case was “fully aware of what he’s doing”.

He said: “He’s trying to use guilt to basically get her to kind of waive her rights [to take the full length of maternity leave]… because you can then sort of go, ‘Oh no, she agreed with it.”

Ben also added the woman’s request was perfectly “reasonable” and noted she had gone above and beyond by offering additional assistance in regard to the recruitment and handover to her replacement.

The expert also added that it was not the woman’s “problem” the business may struggle financially due to her leave entitlement and it was her right to take maternity leave.

Ben said: “That is not her f**king problem, that is your problem.

“If she’s not an equity holder, she’s not a director in the business, it’s not her company, that is a YOUR problem.”

The clip has gained a lot of attention, along with nearly 1,000 comments, many outraged by the behaviour of the boss.

One person wrote: “This is the kind of boss that makes you start looking for another job while you’re on leave.”

Another added: “She should not even have to justify anything.”

A third said: “The gaslighting and guilt is beyond diabolical.”

Others took issue with the manipulative language used by the boss in the text exchange.

One commenter said: “’Not ideal timing for me.’ Yea, I mean sheesh, couldn’t think of your boss while conceiving your baby?”

Another asked: “Did they just suggest she get an abortion for the sake of the company’s bottom line?!?”

While a third posted: “’If you’re not going to help out’ is an insane thing to say especially after she already stated she’s more than happy to arrange cover and everything else before she leaves.”

From the video, it is unclear what jurisdiction the worker was in, but many commentators noted that maternity leave was a legal employment right in a number of countries, including Australia, and the employee may have grounds to take legal action.

One commentator wrote: “Wow… save this, go to an employer lawyer. Get settlement, enjoy!”

Another opined: “This is a slam dunk mat discrimination case. Employers need to understand that claim awards are potentially unlimited.”

Other commentators used the opportunity to relate their own horror stories about requesting maternity leave.

One person wrote: “I had a line manager refuse to discuss it with me because ‘your baby could still die right up until the end’.”

Another commentator added: “My old manager tried to convince me to have an abortion… they wondered why I didn’t want to go back after having my baby.”

While a third said: “My old boss tried to tell me I only got half maternity time with my second child cos I’d already done the full maternity bonding time with my first.”

While most comments expressed outrage by the response of the boss, there were some commentators who said they understood where the employer was coming from.

One reply said: “Whilst he’s being improper, you can’t avoid the fact that small companies will avoid employing women of childbearing age to reduce costs.”

Another commentator said: “For small businesses, maternity leave – even if protected by law – can have a massive impact on the company, especially if it’s not performing well financially.”

Someone else posted: “[S]o many companies like this don’t like hiring young women because the potential for taking maternity leave is high.”

One comment from a disheartened female worker gained more than 1,600 likes which said: “We’re judged by society if we don’t want kids and then punished by work when we do.

“We’re judged for working 9-5 and having a career with kids but then also judged if we stay home full time with kids. Women can’t win.”

Under the Fair Work Act, all employees in Australia are able to get up to 12 months unpaid parental leave, if they have completed at least 12 months of continuous service with their employer.

The Paid Parental Leave scheme is run by Services Australia which provides financial support to eligible working parents to take time off work so they can care for a newborn or recently adopted child.

Some employees are able to receive parental leave payments from the Australian Government Parental Leave Pay, while others will get employer funded parental leave payments.

In some cases, it is possible a person can receive both.

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NATO Chief Mark Rutte also said Europe would increase defence spending in a ‘BIG way’ thanks to US pressure.

United States President Donald Trump has shared a series of texts from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte praising his attacks on Iran and the pressure he placed on allies to increase their military spending.

Trump shared Rutte’s texts in a screenshot posted to his social media website, Truth Social, on Tuesday, as he travels to a NATO summit in the Netherlands.

“Mr President, dear Donald, Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do. It makes us all safer,” the message reads.

Afterwards, Rutte defended Trump’s decision to share what appeared to be private messages. The NATO chief added that his tone in the messages – which some said seemed to mimic Trump’s own style of writing – was “appropriate”.

The messages highlight European efforts to form a productive relationship with Trump, who has frequently said the continent must spend more on its military capabilities. He has also questioned the value of the US’s economic and security partnerships with NATO allies in Europe and Canada.

The texts also underscore the widespread praise Trump has received from European leaders for his bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, even though those strikes are considered by many to be illegal under international law.

In his messages, Rutte commends Trump for pushing European nations to increase their military spending, stating that NATO members have agreed to boost such spending to 5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP).

“Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win,” said Rutte, adding that Trump had achieved what “NO American president in decades could get done”.

Trump had been pushing for increases to NATO defence spending since his first term, from 2017 to 2021. He has long accused NATO allies of taking advantage of the US by relying on its military might.

Previously, NATO members had agreed to a spending goal that represented 2 percent of their GDP. Trump had pushed for that to be raised to 5 percent, with 3.5 percent of that sum dedicated to “hard defence” investments like weaponry.

Some countries, however, including Spain, have pushed back against the calls to increase military spending, calling the demand “unreasonable”.

“There’s a problem with Spain. Spain is not agreeing, which is very unfair to the rest of them, frankly,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on his way to the two-day meeting.

Trump, meanwhile, has continued to send mixed signals about his commitment to NATO, a mutual defence alliance created during the Cold War. It has been a cornerstone of US and European cooperation ever since.

Trump has long signalled ambivalence towards Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, NATO’s founding document. That article includes a mutual defence clause that requires NATO members to consider an attack on one country to be an attack on the group as a whole.

When pressed about his commitment to Article 5 on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that there could be “numerous definitions” of the clause. Rutte, asked about the comment, said he had “no doubt” that the US was committed to mutual defence.

Criticisms of NATO are not new or unique to Trump. Sceptics have pointed out that the threat it was created to balance against, the USSR, had long ceased to exist. Proponents, meanwhile, have argued the alliance serves as an important bulwark against modern-day military aggression.

But Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 breathed new life into the organisation, expanding its ranks with the addition of countries like Finland and Sweden and prompting increased calls for greater defence spending.

Some of Blake Lively‘s text messages with friend Taylor Swift could be disclosed in court, in a recent development of the actor’s winding legal battle against her “It Ends With Us” co-star Justin Baldoni.

U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman on Wednesday filed an order denying the “Gossip Girl” alumna’s request to keep her messages with Swift out of litigation, according to legal documents reviewed by The Times. “Given that Lively has represented that Swift had knowledge of complaints or discussions about the working environment on the film, among other issues, the requests for messages with Swift regarding the film and this action are reasonably tailored to discover information that would prove or disprove Lively’s harassment and retaliation claims,” reads the order.

Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios filed a request for production connected to the Lively-Swift texts in February, asking for “‘all documents and communications related to or reflecting Lively’s communications with Taylor Swift” about their 2024 romantic drama and subsequent legal proceedings.

The “It Ends With Us” co-stars have engaged in a legal back-and-forth for months after Lively accused director Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of the film and accused his team of orchestrating a smear campaign against her in December. The allegations first surfaced in a report from the New York Times. She formally sued Baldoni in federal court on Dec. 31. Baldoni and nine other plaintiffs — including his crisis PR team and executives at Wayfarer Studios — hit back that same day with a $400-million countersuit against Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” star Ryan Reynolds, and a separate defamation complaint against the New York Times.

Liman dismissed Baldoni’s complaints, which failed to meet legal standards, earlier this month. The judge said in his Wednesday order that “Lively’s motion is rooted in the broader concern that the Wayfarer Parties are using demands for communications with Swift not ‘to obtain information relevant to claims and defenses in court, but to prop up a public relations narrative outside of court.’ ”

Wednesday’s order also denied Baldoni’s cross-motion to compel Lively to produce documents connected to the production.

Baldoni’s team subpoenaed Swift earlier this year but eventually withdrew it after the singer and her legal reps dismissed it as an “unwarranted fishing expedition,” according to Variety.

In a statement shared with multiple outlets, a representative for Lively reacted to this week’s order, claiming, “Baldoni’s desire to drag Taylor Swift into this has been constant dating back to August 2024” and is an effort to influence the singer’s fan base. In the past, the devoted league of Swift supporters known as Swifites have banded together to criticize the singer’s high-profile exes and in recent years, rallied against Ticketmaster over allegations of fraud, price-fixing and antitrust violations.

“We will continue to call out Baldoni’s relentless efforts to exploit Ms. Swift’s popularity, which from day one has been nothing more than a distraction from the serious sexual harassment and retaliation accusations he and the Wayfarer parties are facing,” the spokesperson added, according to People.

Representatives for Swift and Baldoni did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

MAYCI Neeley is a household name since appearing on the hit reality TV show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, but now, she has revealed the heartbreaking story of her first love.

While her life may seem picture perfect with a doting husband, two kids, and another on the way, she has now shared her tragic past.

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She’s often seen on Instagram posing with her husband, Jacob Neeley, but he isn’t the biological father of the nine-year-old son, though.

Before her marriage, Mayci was in a relationship with Arik Mack. Then her life changed forever.

In 2015, Mayci, who was just 19, was at university on a tennis scholarship when she found out she was pregnant.

Mayci described Arik as a bit of a wild guy” who was “so full of life.”

So she had concerns about him settling down with the arrival of their baby.

But he assured Mayci he was ready to be a dad and marry her.

While Mayci says she didn’t want to give up her tennis career, she decided to leave university and move back to her families home for support.

Arik decided to stay at the university, which was in a different city in Utah.

“Being away from Arik was harder than I thought. My hormones were all over the place,” she told The Mirror.

“On 24 March 2015, Arik and I had a fight. The pressure on us had become too much and we started to argue over text.”

“Little did I know that Arik was driving while texting me. Frustrated, I stopped replying to his messages.”

Mayci didn’t think much of it when he stopped replying, that was until she checked social media later that day.

Tragic Realisation

While scrolling through Instagram, she noticed a series of tribute posts to her boyfriend.

She saw a post that read: “I’ll miss you, Arik”, which had a photo of him.

The next post said, “RIP.”

Shocked by what she was seeing, she called his father, who confirmed Arik had tragically passed away due to texting and driving and had been killed on impact.

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Reflecting on that time of heartbreak, the reality TV star said: “I was 13 weeks and 5 days pregnant. Me and him got into a disagreement.

I remember calling him and hoping he would answer.

Mayci Neeley

“Mainly me, I was upset with him, and we were sending texts back and forth and one of his texts was unfinished at the end of it.

“I remember calling him and hoping he would answer. And the worst part of it was just hearing the dial tone and being like, ‘Please God, answer the phone.’ And I called his dad and his dad told me that he passed away in a car accident… It was the most traumatic time of my life.”

“I was utterly destroyed. I had no idea that he was driving – I never would have replied to him if I knew,” she continued.

“Arik was my best friend and suddenly, he was gone.”

“My baby would never be held by their father. It was too much to bear.”

Tragically, Mayci found out the day after he boyfriend died that she was having a baby boy.

The pregnant teen sank into a deep depression as she tried to cope with the grief while carrying their only child, Hudson.

The loss of the life she had imagined with Arik was too much for Mayci, who also revealed she received negative comments from those around her.

I didn’t want to live, to be honest.

Mayci Neeley

“You’re young, you have plenty of time to find a father for your son,” said one, while another quipped: “At least you’ll never have to co-parent.”

In September 20115, Mayci gave birth to their son and says he saved her life.

Speaking on the show, Mayci said: “I truly feel like he was my first love, and it just destroyed me.

“I didn’t want to live, to be honest, and if it wasn’t for my son, I don’t even know if I’d be here today.”

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Finding Love Again

Mayci decided to make the brave decision to go back to university while navigating being a single mum.

When Hudson was seven months old, Jacob Neeley came into her life after meeting through mutual friends.

“I was terrified of getting hurt again but after four months, I couldn’t deny my feelings any longer. He was kind and funny and made me feel safe,” she wrote for The Mirror.

The pair began dating and were engaged in November 2017 before getting married in 2018.

Jacob has since gone on to adopt Hudson, and he and Mayci had a daughter through IVF called Harlow.

Now Mayci is pregnant again and announced the news on social media.

“Baby #3 is on the way and we couldn’t be happier!” she wrote in an Instagram post.

May 15 (UPI) — Criminals could be using AI to send malicious texts and voicemails impersonating United States officials, the FBI warned Thursday.

“Since April 2025, malicious actors have impersonated senior US officials to target individuals, many of whom are current or former senior US federal or state government officials and their contacts,” a release from the FBI said.

The bureau warned recipients not to assume that these calls and texts are authentic. The techniques are known as smishing and vishing and attempt to establish a rapport with the recipient before trying to get them to divulge sensitive personal information.

Once the scammers have established trust, they attempt to get victims to switch to a different messaging platform via a hyperlink and try to access personal financial and other sensitive information, the bureau said. And also attempt access to other information related to current or government officials.

The FBI did not disclose which officials have been target or whether any were convinced to divulge personal or government information.

May 14 (UPI) — The European Court of Justice Wednesday ruled there was no plausible reason to block The New York Times from getting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s texts with a Pfizer executive.

The commission blocked the texts from being released to the newspaper, claiming it did not hold them.

“The Commission decision refusing a journalist of The New York Times access to the text messages exchanged between President von der Leyen and the CEO of Pfizer is annulled,” the court ruling said.

The court said Matina Stevi, a journalist with The New York Times, requested access to all text messages between von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla between Jan. 1, 2021, and May 11, 2022.

The texts were secret messages before a multi-billion-dollar vaccine deal was reached between the European Union and Pfizer.

The commission rejected the request for the texts on the grounds that the commission did not hold the requested documents.

But the court ruling said Stevi and The New York Times “succeeded in rebutting the presumption of non-existence and of non-possession of the requested documents.”

The court added that the commission “has not given a plausible explanation to justify the non-possession of the requested documents.”

The court found the commission should have provided a more detailed explanation on why the documents were withheld.

The commission has the right to appeal the decision.

“The commission will now closely study the General Court’s decision and decide on next steps. To this effect, the Commission will adopt a new decision providing a more detailed explanation,” it said in a statement.

“Transparency has always been of paramount importance for the commission and President von der Leyen. We will continue to strictly abide by the solid legal framework in place to enforce our obligations.”

HEC Paris Business School law professor Alberto Alemanno said the court decision would enhance accountability for EU leaders.

“This judgment provides a fresh reminder that the EU is governed by the rule of law, with its leaders subject to the constant scrutiny of free media and of an independent court,” Alemanno said.

Dutch MEP Raquel Garcia Hermida-van der Walle called the court decision a “slam dunk for transparency.”

“People just want and are allowed to know how decisions are made, it is essential in a democracy. Even if it was done over a text message,” she said.