3 Things To Know Today

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Photo: Science Photo Library RF

1 Ron DeSantis' Presidential Campaign Launch Melts Down in Twitter Glitches

The live Twitter Spaces event last night to announce the presidential campaign of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made headlines more for the technical problems during the event than the announcement itself. According to data from Twitter, around 600,000 people tried to join in as the event was starting, which Twitter owner Elon Musk said was “melting the servers,” and led to several crashes of the platform during the event. The attendance dropped to around 140,000 after most of the tech problems were resolved. “I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback,” DeSantis said as he made his announcement before taking questions from various conservative figures. DeSantis’s competition for the White House immediately jumped in to make political use of the problems with the event, with President Joe Biden tweeting a link to his fundraising page with the comment “This link works.” The DeSantis campaign said that he “broke the internet – that should tell you everything you need to know about the strength of his candidacy,” while Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told NBC News “Glitchy. Tech issues. Uncomfortable silences. A complete failure to launch. And that’s just the candidate!”

2 Tina Turner Dies At Age 83

Anna Mae Bullock, better known to the world as iconic soul, rock and pop singer (and occasional actress) Tina Turner, has died at the age of 83. The “What’s Love Got To Do With It” reportedly succumbed to a long battle with multiple illnesses, including an intestinal cancer diagnosis in 2016 and a kidney transplant the following year. Turner passed away in her residence near Zurich, Switzerland. “With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model,” said spokesman Bernard Doherty in a statement.

3 Nearly Every State and D.C. Sue Telecom Company Over Billions of Robocalls

It’s rare to see this amount of agreement among states, but almost every state and the District of Columbia are on the same page when it comes to Avid Telecom, a company accused of making over 7.5 billion robocalls to people on the National Do Not Call Registry. The attorneys general of every state except Alaska and South Dakota, along with the AG from D.C., have joined a suit against Avid Telecom’s owner Michael Lansky and vice-president Stacey Reeves. The company allegedly helped make calls using spoofed or invalid caller ID numbers, with over eight million calls appearing to come from government and law enforcement agencies. The suit alleges that the company sells data, phone numbers, dialing software, and expertise to help its customers make mass robocalls. Some of the alleged scams outlined in the suit as having been assisted by Avid Telecom included scams about the Social Security Administration, Medicare, auto warranties, Amazon, DirecTV, credit card interest rate reduction, and employment. The attorney generals are seeking a jury trial, temporary and permanent injunctive relief, civil penalties, restitution, statutory damages, attorney’s fees and costs, and other relief. The Federal Trade Commission says that phone scams resulted in a median per-person loss of $1,400 in 2022. Attorneys for the company maintain it’s done nothing wrong and say they look forward to defending themselves in court.


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