Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is one of the financial forces behind the Slate truck, a cheap bare-bones electric vehicle that some experts say could shake up America's growing EV industry. The new vehicle is the "bare minimum of what a modern car can be," said The Verge. It seats two people, has no touchscreens or radio and can go just 150 miles in a single charge. But it will cost only around $20,000, at least as long as existing tax credits for EVs stay in place. And Slate Auto is pitching the truck as an attempt to "create a new category of vehicle with a huge focus on personalization." 

'Potential Tesla killer'
Many EV buyers "want more affordable options," said The Street. The current cheapest model, the Nissan Leaf, has a base price near $30,000. Elon Musk has "made big promises" about a $25,000 budget EV from Tesla but has repeatedly pushed back a production date. So Slate's low price point makes it a "potential Tesla killer."

EV truck companies that promise to "revolutionize or disrupt the industry" have "come and gone," said CarBuzz. But Slate seems to be offering something different: If you "just need a runaround little electric truck" for getting around, "that's all you pay for." If you want to add a radio or transform the vehicle into a five-seater, it's designed to be "infinitely upgradable and customizable." If this works, Slate could serve as a "wrecking ball" in the EV industry.

A cheap EV is a "good thing" during a nationwide "affordability crisis," said Motor1. Slate is also backed by Bezos, however, whose companies have a history of union-busting and have been accused of anti-competitive practices. 

Truck arrives at 'volatile time'
Slate announced yesterday that it will build the vehicle at a former printing plant in Indiana, said Business Insider. The first deliveries are expected near the end of 2026. 

The truck arrives at a "volatile time" during America's trade wars and President Donald Trump's antipathy to the industry. But plans to build in Indiana may insulate it from the "turmoil facing other startups and established automakers," said TechCrunch.

The Catholic Church's conclave to select the next pope will begin May 7, with some wondering if the church will continue down the path of non-European pontiffs by electing an African pope. This speculation opens up new questions of how a pope from Africa could change the continent.

What did the commentators say?
The "question of how Africa's rising Catholic population might shape the next papacy and the church's future has become more timely than ever," said The New York Times. The recently deceased Pope Francis was the first non-European pope in over 1,000 years. And the election of the first African pope could "usher in an era of conservatism, in line with the traditional views of many African Catholics."

About 280 million Africans, or a fifth of the continent's population, are Catholic, making up 20% of the world's Catholics. An African pope would be "reflective of the church's evolving global demographic footprint," said Newsweek. It could also help to change perceptions of the continent, as a Black pope would "revive the Christian faith in Africa and change people's views of Africa, by showing that an African can hold this office," said Charles Yapi, a Catholic priest in the Ivory Coast, to Reuters. 

The selection of an African pope would be "widely interpreted as a continuation of Francis' track record of standing up for the poor and oppressed, migrants and civilians fleeing war," said Reuters. But even if the next pope isn't African, African Catholics will be "expecting more frequent visits," said Tafi Mhaka at Al Jazeera. The Catholic Church has "inflicted unimaginable horrors on Africans," and the next pope "must address" its role in the "transatlantic slave trade and the colonization of the continent."

What next?
Some of the African candidates considered potential popes are Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, the archbishop of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana; Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea; and Cardinal Ignace Bessi Dogbo, the archbishop of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. All but Turkson are mostly conservative. 

But conclaves are hard to predict, so it's unclear if any of them have a real chance. Pope Francis' focus on diversifying church leadership does "feed these distinct probabilities," said Bruce Morrill, the chair of Roman Catholic studies at Vanderbilt University, to ABC News. But there "really is no way to make any solid prediction."