Trump leaves Iowa Republicans with big bill after no-show at charity event
Former president Donald Trump reportedly further strained his relationship with Republican party leadership in Iowa after failing to show up for senator Joni Ernst's annual "Roast and Ride" charity. Except for Mr Trump, eight of the GOP 2024 presidential election hopefuls were present at the senator's charity event last month – a combination of barbecue-rally and motorcycle rides that kick off a busy summer campaign season heading into the first-in-the-nation caucuses. Florida governor Ron DeSantis, former vice president Mike Pence, US senator Tim Scott, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and other candidates dressed for the occasion in leather and reached out to supporters. Mr Trump declared that he would not participate in the event but his campaign had expressed interest in sending videotaped remarks to be played for the crowd, according to a New York Times report. However, the former president failed to send the videotape, allegedly leaving Ms Ernst’s operation with a large bill that was wasted on renting screens for the purpose of showing the tape. The former president also potentially ruined the senator's plan to use a motorcycle helmet signed by all of the Republican candidates to sell tickets to the event. The event organisers sent the helmet to Mr Trump, who returned it later than expected and had added the numbers '45' and '47,' signaling he would be the next president. The helmet was never used, the newspaper said. The presidential hopefuls during the event all tiptoed around mentions of the 45th president. Ms Haley repeated a version of a line she has been using as a candidate that seems to allude to Mr Trump and his political career as replete with controversies. “It’s time for a new-generation leader. We’ve got to leave the baggage of the negativity behind,” she said. Meanwhile, Mr Trump in Iowa earlier this week attacked the Florida governor as an enemy of corn-based ethanol in his largest campaign event in the state. The former president spoke to more than 1,000 Iowans and Nebraskans packed into the event hall inside Mid-America Center. Mr Trump declared himself “the most pro-farmer president that you’ve ever had” at the event, which was aimed at promoting his administration’s agricultural record. “I fought for Iowa ethanol like no president in history,” he said. Read More Trump and DeSantis begin eyeing Super Tuesday states as they prepare for 2024 long game Trump says ‘damaged’ DeSantis is ‘desperately trying to get out’ of 2024 race Trump lawyer Alina Habba leaves his defence team in New York fraud case Mexico's president breaks with tradition in quarrel with scrappy opposition upstart A competitive race for an open House seat is taking shape in a Michigan battleground district Trump wanted to tap phones of White House aides, new book claims
1970-01-01 08:00
Ex-Indiana attorney general enters GOP governor's race after groping case derailed 2020 reelection
Former Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill is entering the 2024 Indiana governor’s race nearly three years after his reelection bid was derailed by allegations that he drunkenly groped four women during a party
1970-01-01 08:00
Sarah Silverman and other authors sue ChatGPT creator over claims it stole their texts
Two of the world’s biggest artificial intelligence firms are being sued by celebrities including Sarah Silverman. The writers claim that ChatGPT creator OpenAI and Facebook parent company Meta used their text to train their artificial intelligence systems, without permission. “Since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT system in March 2023, we’ve been hearing from writers, authors, and publishers who are concerned about its uncanny ability to generate text similar to that found in copyrighted textual materials, including thousands of books,” wrote Joseph Saveri and Matthew Butterick, the lawyers behind the class-action complaint. Mr Saveri and Mr Butterick have already launched legal proceedings against GitHub Copilot, an AI coding assistant, as well as Stable Diffusion, the popular AI image generator. They call the systems “industrial-strength plagiarists” on a website built to track and promote that work that also includes the complaints that have been filed in California. Last week, the two lawyers launched class-action lawsuits against OpenAI, arguing that it was remixing the “copyrighted works of thousands of book authors—and many others—without consent, compensation, or credit”. That complaint was initially launched on behalf of two authors, Paul Tremblay and Mona Awad, who have since been joined by Sarah Silverman, Chris Golden and Richard Kadrey. The lawsuit alleges that their work had been downloaded from “shadow library” websites that make it possible to download large amounts of text in bulk. They were then used to train the ChatGPT and LLaMa systems made by Meta and OpenAI, it claims. The suit shows that ChatGPT will summarise those authors’ books when prompted, infringing copyright and not giving any of the copyright information about the books, the lawyers claim. The authors “did not consent to the use of their copyrighted books as training material”, the lawsuit says. OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment from The Independent. Meta declined to comment. Read More Will.i.am hails AI technology as ‘new renaissance’ in music Instagram Threads hits 100 million users SpaceX smashes reusable rocket record as Elon Musk makes bold Starship claim
1970-01-01 08:00
Jabeur on revenge mission against Rybakina after hammering Kvitova
Ons Jabeur crushed two-time champion Petra Kvitova 6-0, 6-3 to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals on Monday, immediately setting her sights on revenge...
1970-01-01 08:00
Actor Hill Harper announces US Senate bid in Michigan
Actor Hill Harper announced on Monday his plans to run for US Senate in Michigan to fill retiring Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow's seat.
1970-01-01 08:00
Ex-Juventus president Andrea Agnelli banned for another 16 months
Former Juventus president Andrea Agnelli has been banned from soccer for another 16 months after he was charged with fraud for the way he handled player salary cuts during the coronavirus pandemic
1970-01-01 08:00
Travis Scott announces 'Utopia' livestream from Egyptian pyramids
Travis Scott is heading to Egypt and you can join him.
1970-01-01 08:00
Hunter Biden prosecutor says Justice Dept didn't interfere in probe
By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON The federal prosecutor overseeing the criminal case against U.S. President Joe Biden's son
1970-01-01 08:00
Trump Is Unelectable, Says $3.6 Million Ad Campaign Tied to Influential Group
A new super PAC aligned with the conservative Club for Growth is speaking directly to Donald Trump’s supporters
1970-01-01 08:00
The Barcelona youngsters who could impress Xavi in pre-season
The five youngsters that could impressive manager Xavi Hernandez during Barcelona's pre-season tour of the USA.
1970-01-01 08:00
Europe signs off on a new privacy pact that allows people's data to keep flowing to US
The European Union has signed off on a new agreement over the privacy of people’s personal information that gets pinged across the Atlantic, aiming to ease concerns about electronic spying by American intelligence agencies
1970-01-01 08:00
Elon Musk jet-tracking account moves to Twitter rival Threads
One of Elon Musk's least-favorite Twitter users is moving to Meta's competing platform Threads.
1970-01-01 08:00
