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Joe Biden’s administration reached an agreement to dole out a staggering $6.1 billion in government support for semiconductor manufacturer Micron Technology to produce advanced computer memory chips in New York and Idaho.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) personally pursued US-based Micron to build what will ultimately be a set of four chip factories near Syracuse in the town of Clay, according to Fortune.

It will be the biggest memory chip plant in America, Schumer said, per Fortune. For the Syracuse area, this is the best thing thats happened probably since the Erie Canal.

Aside from the government support, Micron is expecting to invest $100 billion of its own over the next two decades in the upstate New York endeavor, which is set to create 9,000 factory jobs and 40,000 construction jobs.

Biden has touted Micron’s ambitious plans as “another win for America, and another massive new investment in America spurred by my economic plan.”

The 81-year-old Democratic president has also touted that his term has bolstered what he’s called a historic manufacturing boom,” and his administration has vowed for 20% of the worlds advanced chips to be made in the United States.

As part of the effort, the Biden administration has also restricted the flow of chips into China, which has emerged as a leader in semiconductor chip manufacturing.

He reiterated in Pittsburgh on Wednesday that he’s confident on getting tougher on China — especially when it comes to preventing the exportation of advanced technologies that could undermine our national security,” according to the Associated Press.

The world’s largest chip firm, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) — whose clients include Apple, Intel and Nvidia — has factories across China, including in Nanjing and Shanghai.

Biden noted that he delivered a similar message to Chinese President Xi Jinping during previous conversations, telling him, Youll use them for all the wrong reasons, so youre not going to get those advanced computer chips.

The Biden administration’s multibillion-dollar funding for Micron — whose top corporate owners include Vanguard, which initially pushed environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies but has since increasingly rejected the initiative — comes from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act.

The law, passed by Biden in 2022, allows for investment tax credits that helps American manufacturing companies stay competitive in the global market, according to a White House fact sheet.

Immediately upon the CHIPS and Science Act’s approval, Micron announced a $40 billion investment into memory chip manufacturing, while tech rival Qualcomm partnered with semiconductor firm GlobalFoundries for a $4.2 billion investment in the industry.

Micron has also since announced plans for a $15 billion memory chip plant in its hometown of Boise, Idaho, Fortune reported.

The 2022 CHIPS and Science Act is also slated to allow additional government support to be handed out to facilities being developed by Intel, TSMC and Samsung, among other tech giants.

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Entertainment

Snoop Dogg says he hopes to open burger van at Celtic Park

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Snoop Dogg says he hopes to open burger van at Celtic Park

Snoop Dogg says he hopes to set up a burger van at Celtic’s stadium and wants to serve fans himself.

The US rapper, 53, has described the football club’s supporters as “special” and the best fans in European football.

And Snoop, who played Glasgow‘s OVO Hydro arena in 2023, has also said he strongly identifies with the club’s mascot Hoopy the Hound.

He said a fast-food van at Celtic Park would become a foodie “Paradise” which is a nickname for the ground in the Parkhead area of the city.

Celtic Park. Pic: AP
Image:
Celtic Park. Pic: AP

Snoop told the Sunday Mail: “I would love to bring a pop-up burger [van] to a sports stadium to show fans that food at stadiums can be good.

“It’s got to be Celtic Park, man. The secret to a good burger is the love in the preparation. The ground beef has got to be mixed with some secret spices, then add a good quality cheese and some maple-cured bacon.

“The Celtic fans are gonna love it, and to make sure they are just right, Snoop is going to be serving them himself.”

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But he said he would not be taking his culinary ventures to Rangers – Celtic’s Old Firm rivals at Ibrox.

The Drop It Like It’s Hot star told the paper: “Am I going to bring my burgers to Rangers as well? Nah, I think we will give that a miss.”

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The musician has previously spoken of investing in Celtic, similar to Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds’s involvement with Wrexham FC.

Snoop has already published a cookbook and claims to have spoken to chef Gordon Ramsay about a possible venture in Glasgow together.

The keen sports fan worked as a correspondent for NBC at the Paris Olympics last year, and has launched two youth football leagues, as well as being a vocal advocate for pay equality for female athletes.

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Sports

Rays’ Franco charged with gun possession in D.R.

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Rays' Franco charged with gun possession in D.R.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco, who’s currently on trial on charges including sexual abuse of a minor, was charged Sunday with illegal possession of a handgun, prosecutors said.

Franco was arrested Nov. 10 in San Juan de la Maguana after an altercation in a parking lot. No one was injured during the fight, and the handgun, a semiautomatic Glock 19, was found in Franco’s vehicle, according to a statement from the Dominican Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The handgun was registered in the name of Franco’s uncle, prosecutors said in the statement. After the arrest, Antonio Garcia Lorenzo, one of Franco’s lawyers, said that because the gun was licensed, “there’s nothing illegal about it.”

Prosecutors requested that Franco stand trial on the gun charge.

When reached by ESPN on Sunday night, the Rays said they had no comment on the matter.

The 24-year-old Franco’s trial in the sexual abuse case — involving a girl who was 14 years old at the time of his alleged crimes — is ongoing. The charges in that case include sexual abuse of a minor, sexual and commercial exploitation against a minor, and human trafficking.

According to prosecutors, Franco kidnapped the girl for sexual purposes and “sent large sums of money to her mother.”

Franco, who is on supervised release, faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

Franco was playing his third major league season when his career was halted in August 2023 because of the allegations. He agreed to an 11-year, $182 million contract in November 2021. He is currently on Major League Baseball’s restricted list.

ESPN’s Juan Arturo Recio contributed to this report.

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UK

‘Ordering a woman to be sexually exploited is as easy as ordering a takeaway’: How trafficking victims are being sold online

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'Ordering a woman to be sexually exploited is as easy as ordering a takeaway': How trafficking victims are being sold online

*Sarah thought she was going to a job interview to become a waitress.

Warning: This story includes graphic descriptions of sexual exploitation and abuse, including rape

Instead, she was lured to a strange man’s flat and held against her will for six months.

“One of the very first things he did was ask for me to hand over my passport to check that I had the right to work,” she says. “I remember him asking me kind of odd questions, like, ‘do you like sex?’

“I remember him taking me into another room within this flat and closing the door behind him, then locking the door. And then I was raped.

She says her passport was used to create an online profile to advertise her for sex.

She had no control over the adverts, no access to the accounts, and was repeatedly abused by her trafficker and the men who booked her through the website.

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“My abuser would say: ‘This man would like to see you, he’s booked you, but he’s requested sloppy seconds. Okay? I am going to rape you again so that when you go and see this man, you will take that to that man’,” she tells Sky News.

Sarah says she was forced to take on different names to match her trafficker’s rotating online personas.

She ultimately escaped after threatening to scream unless her abuser let her go.

“He just glared at me, furious,” she recalls. “But he opened the door. That was the moment I had. That was the moment I took. I ran out and never saw him again.”

Sarah’s abuser is now in prison. But the website that he used to facilitate her abuse is still operating.

A Sky News investigation has uncovered thousands of potential indicators of sexual exploitation on two of the UK’s most prominent adult service websites, raising serious concerns about how traffickers may be using these platforms to advertise and abuse victims like Sarah.

Analysis of more than 50,000 adverts on AdultWork and Vivastreet – two of the country’s largest escorting platforms – revealed a high concentration of red flags linked to organised exploitation, including repeated use of the same contact numbers, and/or duplicated advert text, across adverts for different women in different geographical locations.

Analysis of more than 50,000 adverts on AdultWork and Vivastreet revealed a high concentration of red flags indicating exploitation
Image:
Analysis of more than 50,000 adverts on AdultWork and Vivastreet revealed a high concentration of red flags indicating exploitation

These patterns, highlighted by the Sex Trafficking Indication Matrix (STIM), a research tool used to identify signs of trafficking, suggest some profiles may be linked to coercive networks.

In one case, the same phone number appeared in eight separate adverts for at least five different women, all listed with identical ages, nearly identical descriptions, but different photographs and spread across multiple UK regions.

Ads analysed by Sky News on the two adult service websites
Image:
Ads analysed by Sky News on the two adult service websites

Neither platform is accused of criminal activity, but experts and campaigners say the scale and nature of these indicators are red flags for potential abuse.

Prostitution is legal in England and Wales. But the controlling of prostitution for gain, sometimes called pimping, and the more severe crime of trafficking, are not.

“These platforms make it as easy to order a woman to be sexually exploited as it is to order a takeaway,” said Kat Banyard, director of campaign group UK Feminista.

“There are big questions for national policing to answer about why it is that this important investigation has had to be done by Sky News, and why it wasn’t national policing that was launching an investigation to uncover the scale of potential criminality on these sites.”

Over several months, Sky News used STIM indicators to assess escorting adverts across two platforms. On Vivastreet alone, more than 7,000 were linked to phone numbers that appeared multiple times – more than half the total number of listings at the time.

On AdultWork, over 1,000 ads were found to contain duplicated descriptions.

In one example on AdultWork, the same wording was used in 357 different listings – a sign that content may have been copied and pasted to cover for multiple individuals under a single operator.

The websites told us duplication can reflect legitimate activity, such as touring sex workers using aliases. However, opponents say their structure allows abusers to hide in plain sight.

Sky News can also reveal that officials at the Home Office met representatives from escorting websites 25 times between 2017 and 2024, under the previous Conservative government.

Critics argue these discussions have failed to lead to meaningful safeguards or regulation.

A Home Affairs Committee report in 2023 was highly critical of this kind of engagement.

And in parliament, pressure is building to take stronger action. Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi has tabled an amendment to the Policing and Crime Bill that would seek to ban such websites altogether.

“This is a thriving, multibillion-pound industry, and we’re acting like there’s nothing to see here,” she says.

“It’s horrific, and I think more people need to be speaking out about it – this gives parliamentarians the opportunity to discuss and debate it on the floor of the house.”

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In a statement, a Vivastreet spokesperson said: “Experts are clear that indicators that may suggest exploitation can have innocent explanations.

“For example, it is a fact that many sex workers use different names and personas, and ‘touring’ – moving for short periods of time to different areas to take bookings – is a well-known practice.

“We take safety extremely seriously and deploy industry-leading security measures to detect, report, and remove potentially exploitative content, including new requirements that all adult category advertisers must undergo age and ID verification.”

AdultWork said: “Sexual exploitation is not tolerated in any form.

“We have strict internal policies in place to reinforce this and we are continually updating our internal systems for detecting accounts and requesting additional documents for evidence of legitimacy.

“We make it a priority to fully cooperate and comply with all law enforcement requests. Additionally, any indications or reports of trafficking are fully reviewed and if we find them to be suspicious, we proactively contact law enforcement.”

Whether escorting platforms can be better regulated – or whether they should be outlawed entirely – remains a point of national debate.

But with mounting evidence of potential exploitation and growing political scrutiny, campaigners say inaction is no longer an option.

“These platforms are so poorly moderated and poorly regulated,” Sarah says. “No one can sit behind a screen and know if someone’s being coerced or is at the mercy of a predator.”

*Sarah’s name has been changed to protect her identity

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