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President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday tapped Gail Slater, an antitrust veteran and economic adviser for JD Vance, to lead the Department of Justice’s antitrust division and take charge of a full docket of blockbuster monopoly cases against companies including Google, Visa and Apple.

Slater is expected to continue the department’s crackdown on Big Tech, including cases brought during Trump’s first term in the White House, Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform.

“Big Tech has run wild for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little Tech!” Trump said.

Slater served on the White House’s National Economic Council in 2018, where she worked on Trump’s executive order on national security concerns over Chinese telecommunications equipment.

Before joining Vance’s office, Slater worked at Fox Corp. and Roku.

Vance, the vice president-elect, has said antitrust officials should take a broader approach to antitrust enforcement, and praised the work of Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan.

Slater grew up in Dublin, Ireland, and began her law career in London at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which brought her to Washington.

She spent 10 years at the FTC, first as an antitrust attorney where she brought cases to block mergers including Whole Foods’ acquisition of organic grocer Wild Oats, and later as an adviser to then-commissioner Julie Brill, who later became an executive at Microsoft.

Slater also represented Big Tech companies including Amazon and Google at a now-defunct trade group called the Internet Association.

She is still viewed as an antitrust hawk among Washington tech skeptics, who welcomed her appointment.

Garrett Ventry, a former adviser to Republicans in Congress and founder of GRV Strategies, said Slater’s nomination shows Trump is “serious about taking on Big Tech.”

“Antitrust enforcement is here to stay,” Ventry said.

The Tech Oversight project, a group that backed the work of Biden’s DOJ antitrust chief, Jonathan Kanter, said the nomination shows antitrust has staying power as a bipartisan political issue.

“Gail Slater is a strong candidate to continue that work,” said Sacha Haworth, the group’s executive director.

Slater will take over a number of high-profile cases in which some of the world’s largest companies are accused of illegally building and protecting monopolies.

Trump said Slater will “ensure that our competition laws are enforced, both vigorously and FAIRLY, with clear rules that facilitate, rather than stifle, the ingenuity of our greatest companies.”

The appointment would put Slater in charge of the DOJ’s bid to make Google sell off its Chrome browser and take other measures to curb its dominance in online search.

The DOJ filed the case in 2020, during the first Trump administration. But the proposals for fixes came under Kanter.

The judge overseeing the case has said Trump officials will not get extra time to reevaluate the proposals ahead of an April trial.

Google faces a second battle with the DOJ over its online advertising technology, while Apple faces allegations that it monopolized the US smartphone market.

Kanter also filed the DOJ’s first case alleging algorithmic price fixing against property management software company RealPage.

In another case, the DOJ is seeking to break up LiveNation and TicketMaster over practices that prosecutors say harm eventgoers and artists.

Slater would have wide latitude over the cases, though most are also being pursued by bipartisan state coalitions.

A case the DOJ brought in September alleging Visa unlawfully dominates the market for debit card payment processing does not involve state antitrust regulators.

Slater would also be in a position to continue or end probes, such as an investigation into Nvidia, the chip company that rode the artificial intelligence boom to become one of the world’s most valuable companies.

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Cadillac is the luxury EV leader, but will it last without the $7,500 tax credit?

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Cadillac is back and selling a surprising number of electric vehicles in the US. With a full lineup of electric SUVs, Cadillac now claims to be the leading luxury EV brand in the US. Can it keep it up even after the $7,500 federal tax credit expires?

After launching seven new electric vehicles this year, GM claimed that Cadillac became the leading luxury EV brand by market share. However, that doesn’t include Tesla due to its “pricing structure.”

Cadillac is coming off its best first-half sales since 2008, selling more vehicles across all 50 states. Nearly one in four Cadillacs sold in the US this year were EVs.

GM’s luxury brand is now selling more electric vehicles than some of its biggest rivals, including Porsche, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Rivian, and Volvo.

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According to the latest data from Cox Automotive, Cadillac sold over 11,700 EVs in Q2, up 62% compared to last year. Through the first six months of the year, it has sold nearly 20,000 electric vehicles. In comparison, Porsche has sold almost 7,200 EVs in the US, Mercedes sold about 8,000, and Audi has sold just over 11,500.

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2026 Cadillac Optiq EV (Source: Cadillac)

With an electric SUV in nearly every segment, including the entry-level Optiq, a midsize Lyriq, a three-row Vistiq, and the even larger Escalade IQ and IQL models, Cadillac is seeing an influx of buyers from other brands.

Cadillac prepares for the EV tax credit to expire

Around 70% of Cadillac’s EV buyers are from other brands, according to GM, and about 10% are former Tesla drivers. With big policy changes coming under the Trump administration, Cadillac, like the entire industry, will likely face some hurdles.

The administration already raised tariffs on imported vehicles and other auto parts, and at the end of September, the $7,500 federal EV tax credit is set to expire.

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2026 Cadillac Vistiq electric SUV (Source: GM)

In response to the changes, many automakers are shifting back to hybrid and gas-powered vehicles. Cadillac is no exception.

“They’ll have to have both for a number of years now,” according to Sam Fiorani, the vice president of AutoForecast Solutions. Fiorani explained (via The New York Times) that “The gas-powered vehicles make the money, and the EVs bring them a new market.”

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Cadillac ESCALADE IQL electric SUV (Source: Cadillac)

Cadillac was initially expected to have an all-EV lineup by the end of the decade. Thanks to the policy changes, Cadillac could continue offering hybrid and ICE vehicles for several more years.

Fiorani said that although GM planned to retire the gas-powered Escalade, it’s now due for a refresh that will be sold “well into the next decade.”

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Cadillac LYRIQ luxury trim (Source: Cadillac)

Earlier this year, Cadillac’s global vice president, John Roth, said during a media briefing that the company was in a better position than most with the policy changes.

All Cadillac vehicles are built in the US, except the Optiq, which is built in Mexico. According to Roth, the policy changes will have “very limited impact, if you will, on the Cadillac brand.” If anything, Roth said, it could be an opportunity for the luxury automaker.

If you’re looking to get ahead of the $7,500 EV tax credit expiration, we can help you get started. Check out our links below to find Cadillac’s electric SUVs in your area.

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Australia Post begins largest electric van pilot in its history

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Australia Post is advancing its commitment to achieve Net Zero emissions across its operations by 2050 with the introduction of 36 new Mercedes-Benz eVito electric vans, expanding its existing fleet of over 5,000 EVs already in active service.

With an efficient 60 kWh battery and 85 kW (about 115 hp) electric motor, Mercedes’ eVito electric van is ideally suited to the sort of stop-and-go work of a delivery vehicle. What’s more the company’s factory upfit program, Merceds-Benz Vans Courier Solutions, makes it easier than ever for delivery and contractor fleets to spec out their vans exactly the way they need them.

And, even though the eVito’s 60 kWh battery is rated to “just” 261 km (162 miles), the sort of low-speed, high-regen duty cycle Australia Post is going to be putting it through should mean drivers see much better real world range than that — which is precisely the sort of information this 36 van pilot is meant to uncover.

“This is our largest electric van trial to date,” explains Australia Post Chief Sustainability Officer, Richard Pittard. “It’s a meaningful step forward as we continue building a modern, sustainable delivery network that meets the evolving needs of our customers while reducing our environmental impact.”

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Australia Post currently operates more than 3,600 three-wheeled electric delivery vehicles (EDVs), 1,500 e-bikes, nearly 200 UBCO DUTY electric motorcycles, and several Mitsubishi eFUSO electric box vans at its larger logistics centers.

The new eVito vans, once deployed at scale, will operate primarily in highly populated metro areas, where their positive impact on local air quality will be felt by the greatest number of people, and their respiratory health, as well.

Electrek’s Take


Mercedes eVito; via Australia Post.

This kind of deployment should be exciting to EV enthusiasts for a number of tried-and-true reasons, but this one is particularly exciting to Americans because we have an Administration actively pretending that electric postal vehicles aren’t ready for prime time. The success of programs like this one from Australia Post are just more egg in the face of these anti-EV clowns, and few things make me happier.

You can check out the official Mercedes-Benz Vans Australia eVito specs and measurements in the detailed brochure, below, then scroll on down to the comments and let us know what you think of MB’s baby Sprinter.

Mercedes eVito Specs


SOURCE | IMAGES: Australia Post.


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Affirm stock surges 20% as CEO Levchin notes continued consumer strength

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Affirm stock surges 20% as CEO Levchin notes continued consumer strength

Affirm posts earnings and revenue beat for Q4

Affirm stock popped 20% Friday after the buy now, pay later firm beat Wall Street’s expectations across the board in its fiscal fourth-quarter results. The stock was already up 31% this year heading into the report, outpacing the Nasdaq’s 12% gain.

CEO Max Levchin told CNBC on “Money Movers” Friday that the company is “firing on all pistons.”

Earnings came in at 20 cents a share and nearly doubled analyst expectations, with revenue also topping estimates at $876 million, up 33% from a year earlier.

Net income was $69.2 million for the quarter, compared with a loss of $45.1 million in the same period last year.

“You can see that consumers are transacting more and more frequently,” Levchin told CNBC. “The consumer growth itself, the merchant growth, all these things compound to just drive usage more and more.”

The firm also offered higher guidance for fiscal 2026 and upbeat guidance for the current quarter.

Levchin noted strength in the consumer and momentum in the U.S. on an investor call Thursday.

“We feel quite excellent about our ability to get paid back on time,” he said.

Going into the print, the big question was whether losing Walmart to rival Klarna would drag on results. Instead, Affirm’s key volume metric jumped 44% from the year-ago quarter and beat the street by nearly a billion dollars, helped by its partnerships with Shopify and Amazon.

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Affirm, which went public in 2021, faces intensifying competition in e-commerce as Klarna gains share and prepares for an IPO — even as Affirm deepens ties with major retailers, including a deal with Apple last year.

Affirm’s business is closely tied to consumer spending, with its online loans popular among sellers of electronics, apparel and travel.

After contracting in the first quarter on an import surge ahead of President Donald Trump‘s April tariffs, the U.S. economy expanded 3.3% in the second quarter, stronger than initially estimated, as consumers and businesses held up despite tariff volatility.

The company has also been making a big push to win share at the point of sale with the Affirm Card — its biggest bet for driving broader usage.

That strategy is gaining traction: card GMV grew 132% to $1.2 billion, active cardholders nearly doubled to 2.3 million, and in-store spend surged 187%. Zero-percent APR loans more than tripled and now account for about 14% of card volume.

Levchin downplayed concerns about 0% APR loans, with 50% of new users entering the Affirm ecosystem through the “compelling” rate.

“These 0% deals are still underwritten every time,” he told CNBC on Friday. “If we think the person cannot afford to borrow money, we will very sadly and compassionately tell them, ‘Hey, this isn’t for you. It’s not going to work out.’ “

Levchin also highlighted artificial intelligence as a bright spot, noting that early deployments of Affirm’s new AdaptAI system have already delivered an average 5% lift in merchant volume — underscoring the company’s long-standing use of machine learning to power credit scoring and checkout optimization.

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Affirm year-to-date chart.

Affirm shares surge 14% as card adoption and merchant AI drive upside

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