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West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin – whose state’s banner industry, coal mining, has been largely unionized and been central to the US labor movement since soon after its inception – today called the proposed $4,500 union-made EV tax credit “wrong” and “not American.”

The $4,500 union-made EV credit is a section of the proposed $12,500 federal EV tax credit, part of the pending Build Back Better act.

Manchin’s comments came at an event at Toyota’s West Virginia components plant, announcing a new $240 million investment into the plant where the company produces gas engines and transmissions. Toyota said today that it plans to build a hybrid transaxle in the plant, but did not commit to building pure electric vehicle components. Notably, Toyota was named the world’s third-worst company in terms of climate lobbying just last week as a result of its anti-EV lobbying efforts.

At the event, Manchin made a number of comments regarding the proposed EV credit that seem incongruous with reality. He stated that “we shouldn’t use everyone’s tax dollars to pick winners and losers,” a common talking point used to oppose government intervention in competitive environments. Toyota Motor North America CEO Ted Ogawa echoed these remarks by saying the company merely wants “to compete on an equal, level playing field with all automakers.”

However, the Build Back Better Act’s union-made EV provision does not specify particular companies, merely that those companies must be covered with a collective bargaining agreement. This does not exclude Toyota or any other automaker – all they need to do is unionize (they’ve built union-made cars in America before), and it will get the credit just like any other car company would.

As for opposing “picking winners and losers,” here is a list of winners picked by Manchin and posted on his website three weeks ago. The Tygart Hotel in Elkins and local investors Davis Trust Company, Freedom Bank, Pendleton Community Bank, and Woodlands Development and Lending surely appreciate that you picked them to win $1.75 million in tax dollars for their for-profit private venture just last month, Joe. Or have you had a change in heart on public appropriations since then?

Manchin also said that the union-made requirement is “not how we built this country,” despite the current two most unionized sectors of the US economy being government and construction jobs.

Unions also built Manchin’s state, West Virginia. Coal mining has been a banner industry, a keystone to West Virginia’s economy for more than a century, and West Virginia coal miners were among the earliest advocates for labor organization in the United States. Coal mining is an exceedingly dangerous job, rife with both acute and chronic difficulties for workers, and coal barons have a tendency not to respect their workers when given the option – recall when Bob Murray paid for science denial instead of his workers’ wages as his company went bankrupt.

For much of the 20th century, the middle class in West Virginia was buoyed by well-paying union coal jobs. Those jobs were well-paying due to the blood, sweat, and tears of union agitators who earned concessions from an industry that would have loved to continue treating them like indentured servants.

Manchin states that his opposition to the union-made requirement means he’s “fighting for his constituents,” but his constituents have benefitted from unions for a very long time and would benefit from higher unionization rates. They would also benefit from cheaper electric vehicle availability and from cleaner air due to faster EV adoption.

Meanwhile, there is no way in which the union-made requirement damages Manchin’s constituents. Toyota does not build non-union EVs in West Virginia (they build engines and transmissions – and it’s the only automotive assembly plant in the state), so no West Virginia vehicle manufacturing will be “missing out” on these credits due to the union-made requirement.

What has damaged his constituents are the actions of the fossil industry, which is always trying to reduce worker safety and pay, and the prime bulwark against these efforts are worker unions.

But despite all reality showing otherwise, Manchin still says that a provision that will help his constituents and his country is “not American.” Why is this? A possible explanation is that Manchin is heavily invested in fossil fuels, earning roughly half a million dollars personally every year from coal dividends (placing him in the company of the very same coal barons who oppose unionization). He is also the top Congressional recipient of fossil fuel money. In the words of famous labor advocate Upton Sinclair: “it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

Despite this article’s focus on one man’s comments, it should be noted that Manchin is not the only anti-worker, anti-environment Senator holding up this bill. All fifty republicans are assumed to be automatic “nay” votes to any effort made to improve the American economy and environment, in typical republican party fashion.

Despite that those republican Senators have collectively received 28 million fewer votes than the Democratic Senators who support these investments into America, Senator Manchin (290k votes, <.1% of the US population) has cast himself into the position of sole decider on a bill whose provisions are overwhelmingly supported both by Americans and by Manchin’s constituents. In a country where we claim that all people should receive equal representation, one would think that such broad public and electoral support for an initiative should indicate that it sail towards passage.

There’s certainly something “not American” going on here, but that “something” is not the $4,500 EV credit. It’s a set of minority representatives holding up a bill that is supported by and will benefit the vast majority of this country. It’s a can’t-do attitude of government inaction, driven by conservative attempts to damage the American economy with the hope that by hurting America they can electioneer their way into making the majority party look bad. It’s the constant work over the last century that conservative politicians and business leaders have done to delegitimize unions leading to lower union membership, lower real wages, and the erosion of the American middle class.

Those are the things that are “wrong,” here, Joe – not the EV tax credit. Now get out of your constituents’ way and vote for the right thing.


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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs faces sentencing – how much time is he expected to serve?

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Sean 'Diddy' Combs faces sentencing - how much time is he expected to serve?

Sean “Diddy” Combs is set to be sentenced over prostitution-related charges next week.

The hip-hop mogul has already served just over a year in prison after being arrested in New York in September 2023.

Following his high-profile trial earlier in 2025, he was found guilty of two counts of transportation for engagement in prostitution – but cleared of the more serious charges of sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

Combs, 55, was one of the most influential hip-hop producers of the 1990s and 2000s, the founder of Bad Boy Records and a Grammy-winning artist in his own right.

Now, he faces up to 20 years in jail – although his defence team is arguing for much less.

Here is everything you need to know ahead of his sentencing.

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How the Diddy trial unfolded

What is transportation to engage in prostitution?

During the trial, the court heard details of sexual encounters called “freak offs” by Combs – also referred to as “hotel nights” – which involved his girlfriends and male sex workers.

The rapper would “orchestrate” these encounters between the women and the sex workers, while he watched. Sometimes, these sessions would take place in different states across the US, as well as abroad, and Combs would pay for the sex workers and the women to travel.

He was found guilty of two charges – one relating to sex workers he paid for while in a relationship with singer and model Cassie Ventura, and another relating to sex workers who took part in sessions with Jane*, a woman he was later in a relationship with who was not identified during the trial.

The charges fall under America’s Mann Act, which prohibits interstate commerce related to prostitution.

What about the other charges?

Combs fell to his knees when the verdict was delivered. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg
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Combs fell to his knees when the verdict was delivered. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg

Combs was found not guilty of two counts of sex-trafficking, relating to both Cassie and Jane, and one count of racketeering conspiracy.

This means while jurors believed Combs broke the law over using sex workers, they did not find the sexual encounters involving the women were non-consensual, which is what prosecutors had argued.

Both Cassie and Jane gave evidence, telling the court they felt manipulated and coerced, and sometimes blackmailed, into taking part in the freak offs during their relationships with the rapper. However, defence lawyers argued these were consensual encounters and part of a “swingers lifestyle”.

“The men chose to travel and engage in the activity voluntarily,” defence lawyers said in legal submissions after the verdict. “The verdict confirms the women were not vulnerable or exploited or trafficked or sexually assaulted during the freak offs or hotel nights.”

Brian Steel is among the lawyers on Combs's defence team. Pic: Reuters
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Brian Steel is among the lawyers on Combs’s defence team. Pic: Reuters

What is racketeering?

Racketeering broadly means engaging in an illegal scheme or enterprise, and the charge falls under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act (RICO) in the US. According to the US justice department’s definition of RICO statute, it is also illegal to “conspire to violate” the laws.

Prosecutors alleged Combs led a racketeering conspiracy “that engaged in sex trafficking, forced labour, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice, among other crimes”. However, jurors also cleared him of this charge.

Had he been found guilty of the more serious charges, he could have faced life in prison.

Cassie Ventura gave evidence during the trial. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg
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Cassie Ventura gave evidence during the trial. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg

Will Combs be jailed for 20 years?

Each charge of transportation to engage in prostitution carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, so in theory he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

However, it is thought his sentence will be less than this. Following the verdict, prosecutors said he should be sentenced to at least four to five years.

The music mogul has been denied bail several times since his arrest and again since the trial.

Combs and Cassie at the 2017 Met Gala. Pic: zz/XPX/STAR MAX/IPx 2017/AP
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Combs and Cassie at the 2017 Met Gala. Pic: zz/XPX/STAR MAX/IPx 2017/AP

What do his lawyers say?

Following the trial verdict, both prosecutors and the defence team have made arguments to the judge about sentencing.

Most recently, Combs’s lawyers submitted a legal submission to the court calling for the rapper to be jailed for no more than 14 months – which after time already served would mean him walking free almost immediately.

Before this, they called for Combs to be acquitted or for a retrial on the prostitution-related charges. The US government “painted him as a monster”, they said, but argued his two-month trial showed the allegations were “not supported by credible evidence”.

The rapper’s lawyers have argued that, to their knowledge, he is “the only person” ever convicted of the Mann Act charges for the conduct he was accused of in court.

What has the judge said?

US District Judge Arun Subramanian heard the trial and will sentence Combs. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg
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US District Judge Arun Subramanian heard the trial and will sentence Combs. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg

Judge Arun Subramanian, who presided over the trial, will decide Combs’s fate.

He has previously decided several times not to grant bail, saying the hip-hop mogul’s team have failed to show sufficient evidence he is not a flight risk and also citing admissions of previous violence made during the trial.

During her opening statement, Teny Geragos, who is on Combs’s defence team, described him as “a complicated man” and conceded he could be violent. However, she argued, this was not the charge against him.

Will Combs try to revive his career after ‘unspeakable shame’?

Diddy performing at the MTV Video Music Awards in September 2023. Pic: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
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Diddy performing at the MTV Video Music Awards in September 2023. Pic: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

Despite being convicted of the prostitution-related charges, his lawyers hailed the verdict a “victory”, given he was cleared of the more serious allegations. In interviews since, they have said he is planning a return to music with a New York gig.

However, in legal submissions, they have also said the trial brought Combs “unspeakable shame and monumental adverse consequences” and that his “legacy has been destroyed”.

Read more:
The rise and fall of Sean Combs

After allegations against him were made public, Combs was removed from the boards at three charter schools he created in Harlem, the Bronx and Connecticut and was also stripped of an honorary doctorate degree from Howard University, which plans to return his prior donations, they said.

He was also forced to return the key to the city of New York that was previously presented to him by the mayor, and his career has “collapsed”.

As well as this case, he is also still facing several civil lawsuits – and has “mounting legal bills” from defending these and the criminal charges, his lawyers have said.

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Jimmy Kimmel’s show back on Sinclair and Nexstar thanks to viewer feedback

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Jimmy Kimmel's show back on Sinclair and Nexstar thanks to viewer feedback

Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show will return to ABC affiliates belonging to Sinclair and Nexstar after the two major network operators took his programme off-air over his comments in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

Kimmel was accused of being “offensive and insensitive” after using his programme, Jimmy Kimmel Live, to accuse Donald Trump and his allies of capitalising on the killing.

Disney-owned ABC suspended the show last week following threats of potential repercussions from the Trump-appointed head of the Federal Communications Commission.

Sinclair, which controls 38 ABC affiliates from Seattle to Washington DC, called on Kimmel to apologise to Mr Kirk’s family over the comments and asked him to “make a meaningful personal donation” to Turning Point USA, the nonprofit that the conservative activist founded.

Actor Gregg Donovan holds a sign that says "Welcome Back Jimmy". Pic: AP
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Actor Gregg Donovan holds a sign that says “Welcome Back Jimmy”. Pic: AP

On Tuesday, Disney announced the return of the programme after backlash to its suspension, but both Sinclair and Nexstar, which own more than 20% of ABC affiliates, initially said they would not resume airing the show.

Kimmel criticised the ABC affiliates who preempted his show during his TV return, saying: “That’s not legal. That’s not American. It’s un-American.”

Three days later, the two major network operators announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live would return to their TV stations after the week-long boycott.

More on Jimmy Kimmel

The move came after Sinclair received “thoughtful feedback from viewers, advertisers and community leaders”.

In its statement, the company pointed to its “responsibility as local broadcasters to provide programming that serves the interests of our communities, while also honouring our obligations to air national network programming.”

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Protests held outside company buildings in support of Kimmel

Nexstar, which controls 28 ABC affiliates from Kansas to New Orleans, said in a similar statement that it was airing content that is “in the best interest of the communities we serve”.

Both companies said their decisions were not affected by influence from the Trump administration or anyone else.

The president had criticised the programme’s return on Tuesday, writing on Truth Social that he “can’t believe” ABC gave Kimmel his show back and hinted at further action.

“Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE,” Mr Trump wrote.

“He is yet another arm of the DNC (Democratic National Committee) and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we’re going to test ABC out on this.”

Donald Trump criticised the return of Kimmel's show. Pic: Reuters
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Donald Trump criticised the return of Kimmel’s show. Pic: Reuters

During Kimmel’s first show since being taken off-air, the presenter said it was “never my intention to make light of” Mr Kirk’s death.

“I don’t think there’s anything funny about it,” he said as he choked up.

“Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. That was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make”.

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Trump: ‘Looks like we have a deal’ to end war in Gaza

Speaking on Tuesday night’s show, Kimmel said he understood why the remarks “felt either ill-timed or unclear, or maybe both”.

New episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live air Monday to Thursday, and Friday night’s rerun will be of Tuesday’s show, meaning viewers of Sinclair stations will be able to watch Kimmel’s emotional return to the air.

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Prince of Wales says 2024 was ‘hardest year’ of his life

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Prince of Wales says 2024 was 'hardest year' of his life

The Prince of Wales has told Schitt’s Creek star Eugene Levy that 2024 was the “hardest year” of his life.

The future king told the Hollywood star about last year, which saw his wife, the Princess of Wales, and his father, the King, both undergoing treatment for cancer.

The pair were catching up over a pint in a pub as part of Apple TV+ series The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy, which will air next month.

The Prince of Wales and Eugene Levy in a pub in Windsor. Pic: PA
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The Prince of Wales and Eugene Levy in a pub in Windsor. Pic: PA

In the episode Living The Royal Life In The UK, William tells Levy: “I’d say 2024 was the hardest year I’ve ever had.

“Life is said to test us as well and being able to overcome that is what makes us who we are.”

Eugene Levy and the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle. Pic: PA
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Eugene Levy and the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle. Pic: PA

The preview of the episode also saw Levy invited to “pop down” to Windsor Castle for a private tour by the prince.

Levy, 78, can be seen reading out an invitation saying: “I heard that your travels have brought you to the UK and I wondered if you might like to see Windsor Castle?

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“If you’re free at 10 tomorrow, why don’t you pop down to the Castle for a private tour.

“Would be great to see you!”

Read more from Sky News:
Hackers ‘behind nursery cyber attack’ reveal details of threat

Elon Musk and Prince Andrew named in latest Epstein files release

Pic: PA
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Pic: PA

After touring the castle, Levy asks William what he does when he is at home, and the prince laughs and replies: “Sleep. When you have three small children, sleep is an important part of my life.”

New episodes of The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy will premiere weekly until the finale on 31 October 2025.

The special episode with William will air on 3 October.

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