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President Donald Trump said Saturday that US forces had captured Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro after bombing the capital Caracas and other cities in a dramatic climax to a months-long standoff between Trump and his Venezuelan arch-foe.In a series of fast-moving events, Caracas was rocked by explosions, accompanied by the sound of attack helicopters, around 2:00 am (0600 GMT).The strikes, which targeted a major military base and an airbase, among other sites, continued for nearly an hour, AFP journalists said.”The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” Trump said on Truth Social, around two hours after the attacks began.Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a post on X that Maduro and his wife would face “the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts” over drug and terrorism charges.Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau hailed “a new dawn for Venezuela,” on X adding: “A tyrant is gone.”The Venezuelan government accused the United States of an “extremely serious military aggression” and called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said she did not know the whereabouts of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, speaking to Venezuelan TV by telephone.  Rodriguez demanded that Washington provide “proof of life” of Venezuela’s leader of the past 12 years, whose re-election in 2024 elections was widely dismissed by the international community as fraudulent.Russia, a leading Venezuela ally, condemned the “armed aggression” and demanded “immediate” clarity about Maduro’s fate, its foreign ministry said in a statement.US Senator Mike Lee quoted Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a call as saying that Maduro would “stand trial” in the United States, where he is wanted on charges of drug trafficking.Trump said he would give a news conference at 11:00 am (1600 GMT) at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, where he is on vacation.Venezuelan opposition leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Maria Corina Machado, had yet to react to the latest events.In a post on X on December 31, the US-backed Machado had expressed confidence that 2026 would bring “consolidation of our nation’s liberty.” – A ‘brilliant’ operation -Venezuelans had for months been bracing for attacks on its territory, following repeated threats by Trump to escalate his campaign against Maduro’s administration.Trump hailed a “brilliant” operation which involved “a lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people,” in a brief phone interview with The New York Times.Fort Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, situated in the south of Caracas, and Carlota airbase in the north were among the targets of the strikes.La Guaira, north of the capital, where Caracas’ airport and port are located, was also struck. “I felt like (the explosions) lifted me out of bed, and I immediately thought, ‘God, the day has come,’ and I cried,” Maria Eugenia Escobar, a 58-year-old resident of La Guaira, told AFP.The government said Maduro had declared a state of emergency but the 63-year-old socialist, who as recently as Thursday offered to cooperate with the United States, was nowhere to be seen.The defense ministry accused the United States of targeting residential areas and announced a “massive deployment” of its military resources.Iran, Cuba and Colombia’s leftist leader Gustavo Petro condemned the attacks, while the EU’s top diplomat urged restraint in a call with Rubio.Meanwhile, Spain offered to mediate in the crisis in an attempt to broker a negotiated and peaceful solution.Petro said he was deploying troops to the border with Venezuela.No casualty figures were immediately available.Residents of Caracas rushed to their windows and terraces to try to make sense of events as the bombings began.Others hid in safe, windowless spaces, fearful of breaking glass.Some social media users celebrated Trump’s claims that he deposed the unpopular Maduro, while others rejected what they saw as Trump’s war-mongering.- ‘They’re bombing’ -Francis Pena, a 29-year-old communications professional living in eastern Caracas, told AFP that he was sleeping and his girlfriend said “they’re bombing.””I can’t see the explosions, but I hear the planes. We’re starting to prepare a bag with the most important things at home — passport, cards, cash, candles, a change of clothes, canned food,” Pena said.Trump deployed an aircraft carrier and several warships to the Caribbean late last year as part of what he initially presented as an anti-drug smuggling campaign.But in recent weeks, he has had made no secret of his hope to unseat Maduro from his position.On Monday, Trump said it would be “smart” for the Venezuelan to step down and announced that the the US had hit and destroyed a docking area for alleged Venezuelan drug boats.The Trump administration has also accused Maduro of heading a drug cartel.Venezuela rubbished the claims, saying Washington was seeking to overthrow him because Venezuela has the largest known reserves of oil on Earth.As part of an escalating pressure campaign, Washington informally closed Venezuela’s airspace, imposed more sanctions and ordered the seizure of tankers loaded with Venezuelan oil.US forces have also carried out numerous strikes on boats in both the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September, targeting what Washington says are drug smugglers, that have killed at least 107 people, according to the US military.

Donald Trump returned to office vowing to be the peace president. Nearly a year later, he is embracing war on multiple fronts.Trump on Saturday ordered large-scale military strikes in Venezuela and announced that leftist leader Nicolas Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country.The raid to kick off the new year comes after the US military on Christmas Day hit Nigeria, in what Trump said was an operation targeting jihadists who had attacked Christians.And hours before the attack in Venezuela, Trump warned of another US intervention in a third region, saying US forces were “locked and loaded” if Iran’s clerical state kills protesters who have taken to the streets.The enthusiasm for war would seem at odds for a president who has loudly declared that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for supposedly ending eight wars, a claim that is highly disputable.In his second inaugural address on January 20 last year, Trump said: “My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.”But soon after, Trump rebranded the Defense Department as the “Department of War.”Both Trump and his aides insist that military muscle is the path to real peace.”We’re making peace through strength. That’s what we’re doing,” Trump told a rally last month in Pennsylvania.”Peace through strength” was famously a catchphrase of Ronald Reagan, as he promoted a massive military build-up at the end of the Cold War, and was attributed to the Roman emperor Hadrian who built up defenses.But the strategy was generally understood as a way to prevent war from beginning.- ‘So-called nation-builders’Making his love of force even more striking, Trump has not only described himself as a peacemaker but has spoken for years against US interventionism.Declaring “America First,” he cast himself as a different kind of Republican than the party’s last president George W. Bush, whose administration he castigated as warmongers over the Iraq invasion of 2003.In a speech in Riyadh in May, Trump said that “so-called nation-builders wrecked far more nations than they built” and failed to understand countries where they intervened.In one key difference with Bush, Trump has made no pretense of long-term commitment. He last year ordered the bombing of Iranian nuclear sites in support of an Israeli attack as well as strikes in Syria in retaliation for the killings of US forces.But like Bush, Trump cares little about UN or other international conventions on war. The Trump administration argues that Maduro faced a warrant for drug charges in the United States, but Maduro’s government is a UN member, even if most Western countries consider him illegitimate following elections riddled with irregularities.Senator Ruben Gallego, a Democrat and Iraq war veteran, called Venezuela the “second unjustified war in my lifetime,” although he agreed Maduro was a dictator.”It’s embarrassing that we went from the world cop to the world bully in less than one year. There is no reason for us to be at war with Venezuela,” he said on X.In one irony, the latest Nobel Peace Prize, so coveted by Trump, went to Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, whose name the US president did not appear initially to know.Trump, however, has won one peace prize since taking office.FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, presented Trump last month with a prize from football’s governing body ahead of the US co-hosting the World Cup.Infantino said that Trump, who has taunted migrants from developing countries and threatened violence against domestic opponents, was being recognized for his “exceptional and extraordinary actions to promote peace and unity around the world.”

President Donald Trump said Saturday that US forces had captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro after launching a “large scale strike” on the South American country.Trump’s stunning announcement follows months of steadily mounting US military and economic pressure on leftist leader Maduro and his country’s oil-export-dependent economy.”The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” Trump said on Truth Social.”This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement.”Trump added that he would give a news conference at 11:00 am (1600 GMT) at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, where he is nearing the end of a two-week Christmas and New Year’s vacation.In a brief phone interview with The New York Times, Trump hailed the “brilliant” operation. “A lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people,” the paper quoted Trump as saying.The US army’s elite Delta Force unit carried out the operation to seize Maduro, CBS News reported. US officials did not immediately confirm the report.The US military action was now complete, with Maduro having been arrested to “stand trial” in the United States, a US senator quoted Secretary of State Marco Rubio as saying.”He anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in US custody,” Senator Mike Lee, a Republican initially critical of the operation, wrote on X after what he said was a telephone call with Rubio.The Trump administration in August offered a $50 million reward for information leading to the capture of Maduro, whom it accuses of leading the alleged “Cartel of the Suns” drug trafficking organization.- ‘Justice for his crimes’ -Rubio’s number two hailed a “new dawn” for Venezuela.”A new dawn for Venezuela! The tyrant is gone. He will now — finally — face justice for his crimes,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau wrote on X.The White House meanwhile reposted a video on X of Trump saying in October that Maduro “doesn’t want to fuck around with the United States.”Trump has given differing arguments for his campaign against Venezuela, including the claim that the country is a major drug exporter to the United States and that Venezuela seized US oil interests.The Republican leader has not explicitly called for Maduro’s ouster but the US government, along with many European nations, does not recognize the Venezuelan leader’s legitimacy. Trump said in December “it would be smart for (Maduro)” to step down and has also said that the Venezuelan leader’s “days are numbered.”The US president’s claim of Maduro’s capture comes two days after Maduro attempted to engage with Trump, offering cooperation on fighting drug trafficking and illegal migration.A huge naval and aerial presence has been established in the Caribbean, including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and other warships.US forces have seized two tankers at sea as part of an oil blockade on Venezuela and killed more than 100 people in aerial strikes to destroy small boats accused of drug trafficking.Trump said on Monday that the United States had hit and destroyed a docking area for alleged Venezuelan drug boats, in what was the first known strike on Venezuelan soil of the campaign.

President Donald Trump said Saturday that US forces had captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro after launching a “large scale strike” on the South American country.”The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” Trump said on Truth Social, around two hours after explosions rocked Venezuela’s capital Caracas.There was no confirmation from Venezuela’s government of the fate of the leftist Maduro, in power since 2013.His government accused the United States of an “extremely serious military aggression” which follows a months-long campaign of increasing military and economic pressure by Trump.In a dramatic night of fast-moving events, Caracas was rocked by explosions, accompanied by the sound of helicopters, around 2:00 am (0600 GMT).The blasts continued for nearly an hour, AFP journalists said.Trump said he would give a news conference at 11:00 am (1600 GMT) at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, where he is on vacation.- A ‘brilliant’ operation -In a brief phone interview with The New York Times, he hailed a “brilliant” operation which involved “a lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people.”Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, situated in the south of Caracas, and Carlota airbase in the north were among the targets of the strikes.AFP saw flames and huge plumes of smoke billowing from Fuerte Tiuna.Blasts were also heard in La Guaira, north of the capital, where Caracas’s airport and port are located. “I felt like (the explosions) lifted me out of bed, and I immediately thought, ‘God, the day has come,’ and I cried,” María Eugenia Escobar, a 58-year-old resident of La Guaira, told AFP.”Venezuela rejects, repudiates, and denounces before the international community the extremely serious military aggression perpetrated by the current government of the United States of America against Venezuelan territory and people,” the government said.The government said Maduro had declared a state of emergency but the 63-year-old socialist was himself nowhere to be seen.The defense ministry accused the United States of targeting residential areas and announced a “massive deployment” of its military resources.The leftist president of neighboring Colombia, Gustavo Petro, called on X for an emergency meeting of the United Nations and said he was deploying troops to the Venezuela border.As the strikes began in the dead of night, residents of Caracas rushed to their windows and terraces to try to make sense of events.Others hid in safe, windowless spaces, fearful of breaking glass.Videos shared on social media showed helicopters silhouetted against the night sky.Power has been cut in certain parts Caracas, according to residents.- ‘They’re bombing’ -Francis Pena, a 29-year-old communications professional living in eastern Caracas, told AFP that he was sleeping and his girlfriend woke him and said “they’re bombing.””I can’t see the explosions, but I hear the planes. We’re starting to prepare a bag with the most important things at home — passport, cards, cash, candles, a change of clothes, canned food,” Pena said.Trump, who deployed an aircraft carrier and warships to the Caribbean as part of what he initially presented as an anti-drug smuggling campaign, had repeatedly threatened strikes on Venezuelan soil.On Monday, he said it would be “smart” for Maduro, whose re-election in 2024 was widely dismissed by the international community as fraudulent, to step down.He also said the United States had hit and destroyed a docking area for alleged Venezuelan drug boats.Maduro had said Thursday he was open to cooperation with Washington.The Trump administration has accused Maduro of heading a drug cartel, but the Venezuelan leader denied any involvement in the narcotics trade, saying Washington was seeking to overthrow him because Venezuela has the largest known reserves of oil on Earth.In an apparent bid to force him out, Washington in recent weeks informally closed Venezuela’s airspace in recent weeks, imposed more sanctions and ordered the seizure of tankers loaded with Venezuelan oil.US forces have also carried out numerous strikes on boats in both the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September, targeting what Washington says are drug smugglers.The strikes have killed at least 107 people, according to the US military.

Dreams about the vast potential of artificial intelligence will collide with cold, hard reality as the Consumer Electronics Show kicks off in Las Vegas on Tuesday.Science fiction portrays AI as superintelligence that can operate faster and better than people can, and do it autonomously.However, the technology for now is being put to work at very specialized tasks — in gadgets that translate languages during conversations, say, or monitor health symptoms, or provide information on people’s surroundings through smart glasses.Even AI being built into humanoid robots remains a work in progress, with human tele-operators overseeing their operation remotely.”The gap between AI technology hype and customer experience expectations will widen at CES 2026,” predicted Forrester principal analyst Thomas Husson.”If software and AI models move at the speed of light, energy and hardware move at the speed of physics.”Nonetheless, he expects CES to feature an array of “AI-powered smart everything devices” for consumers, including televisions, home appliances, personal computers, vehicles, and wearables such as rings that monitor health.Analysts expect the annual trade event, which drew more than 142,000 attendees last year, to be a sprawling affair with vendors pitching products from humanoid robots and exoskeletons to AI-infused toys and huge autonomous mining vehicles.With thousands of exhibitors, the week-long gathering includes connected cars, heavy equipment and AI shows. Demos, presentations and meetings will take place in a massive convention center as well as ballrooms and suites throughout the city.”There’s no question that some of it is going to be AI washing,” Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart said of hype expected at CES.”But we will also see genuinely useful features driven by advances in machine learning that provide new capabilities into a range of products, everything from phones to TVs to wearables to digital health to cars.”Smart glasses, like those from Meta in a partnership with Ray-Ban, will likely kick-start an AI wearables race with some 10 percent of consumers trying them by the end of this year, according to Husson.Greengart said he expects an emphasis on personal computers because of a rivalry among Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm to produce chips that provide lots of AI capability while trimming power use to extend battery life.Greengart cautioned that there is a “huge cloud hanging over the PC industry” due to soaring prices for computing and memory chips.With chip makers focused on serving needs of AI data centers, supplies of basic building blocks for laptops or gaming consoles have dwindled as prices have soared, according to Greengart.”AI is definitely a story that overlays CES in terms of new capabilities, but also new price pressures,” Greengart said.- Trade war pressure -And while major Chinese consumer electronics companies like Lenovo, Hisense, and TCL are slated to take part in CES, many small manufacturing firms from that country will be absent due to the trade war with the United States, according to the analyst.”There is definitely a smaller presence from Chinese vendors than there has been under past administrations,” Greengart said, referring to US President Donald Trump.”This is very much a geopolitical thing.”Electronics companies have been grappling with frequent, unpredictable strategy shifts when it comes to US tariffs, he said.”It’s been very distracting and very difficult in areas where the president of the United States has basically changed tariffs or imposed tariffs over 100 times since being sworn in,” said Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Technology Association which runs CES.Still, CES remains a gathering at which deals get made and meeting face-to-face has value, according to Greengart.”CES isn’t where you go necessarily to find the next big thing.””But what you do see at CES is a clear view on the trends and where investment in the industry is happening.”

Tesla’s sales fell in 2025, the company reported Friday, ceding its position as the world’s biggest electric vehicle maker for the year to Chinese auto giant BYD.The American company led by Elon Musk logged 418,227 deliveries in the final three months of the year, taking its full-year sales figure to around 1.64 million EVs.This marked a drop in sales of more than eight percent compared with 2024.A day prior, BYD said that it sold 2.26 million EVs last year.Analysts had expected Tesla’s sales in the final quarter to slow less, to 449,000, according to a FactSet consensus.The pullback comes amid the elimination of a $7,500 US tax credit at the end of September 2025, with industry watchers noting it will take time for EV demand to rebalance.But even before then, Tesla had seen sales struggle in key markets over CEO Musk’s political support of US President Donald Trump and other far-right politicians. Tesla has also been grappling with rising competition from BYD and other Chinese companies, and from European giants.Shenzhen-based BYD, which also produces hybrid cars, unveiled record EV sales in the past year on Thursday.Known as “Biyadi” in Chinese — or by the English slogan “Build Your Dreams” — BYD was founded in 1995 and originally specialized in battery manufacturing.The automotive juggernaut has come to dominate China’s highly competitive market for new energy vehicles, a term used to describe various vehicles from fully electric ones to plug-in hybrids. China is the world’s largest market for new energy vehicles.BYD is now looking to expand its presence overseas, as increasingly price-wary consumption patterns in China weigh on profitability.While BYD and other Chinese EV producers come up against hefty tariffs in the United States, the company’s success is picking up in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and in Europe.Tesla only narrowly beat BYD in annual EV sales in 2024, with the US company’s 1.79 million outpacing the latter’s 1.76 million.Tesla shares closed 2.6 percent down in New York on Friday.Analysts at Wedbush Securities noted that Tesla’s quarterly sales figure remained better than some had speculated.They flagged that the company faces a “more difficult demand environment following the end of the EV tax credit while Europe remains a headwind to its deliveries.”The company still sees challenges obtaining certain regulatory approval in Europe — relating to self-driving technology — with sales potentially rebounding once the regulatory hurdles are cleared.”Sales around smaller and emerging markets have started to see larger growth metrics than expectations which look to offset the declines in key regions like China and Europe,” Wedbush analysts said.

British tech campaigner Imran Ahmed on Friday decried a US visa ban as “punishment” for his organization’s work combating disinformation and holding major online platforms accountable, telling AFP that Washington’s actions amounted to “tyrannical behavior.”Ahmed, a US permanent resident, heads the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit watchdog that researches the harmful effects of online disinformation. He was among five European figures whom the State Department recently said would be denied visas.The department accused the group of attempting to “coerce” tech platforms into censoring Americans’ viewpoints, a charge they reject. The European Union and several member states strongly condemned the US sanctions.The US announcement came after the International Fact-Checking Network said last month it was “deeply concerned” by reports the State Department had instructed staff to deny visas to people engaged in fact-checking and content moderation.AFP spoke with Ahmed after he sued President Donald Trump’s administration in a New York court.The interview was edited for length and clarity.QUESTION: How do you interpret the US visa restrictions over “censorship” concerns?ANSWER: This appears to be a punishment for my advocacy and for the research that CCDH does, looking into social media platforms, looking into AI platforms, identifying harms, informing the public, and then urging lawmakers and regulators, both in the US and globally, to take action.Governments are the only entity that can censor people with the threat of overwhelming force. A nonprofit speaking — that’s the opposite of censorship. That’s what the First Amendment is there to protect — our ability to speak, without fear or favor. However, in this instance, it does appear that I’m being punished precisely for my speech, which would be an act of censorship.QUESTION: How do you seek to challenge the visa ban?ANSWER: What we’ve done initially is take up a restraining order against the government to prevent them from taking any action against me, detaining me or arresting me, and that’s important, because previously, when the Trump administration has sought to cancel green cards for legal permanent residents, it has arrested them through ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement). It has sent them hundreds or thousands of miles away from their friends, family and support networks. And we wanted to make sure that did not happen in this instance.The first Trump administration was under no obligation to award me an extraordinary ability visa, and it did. My green card (permanent residency) has been given to me because I’m married to a US citizen and I have American children now, and they have to abide by both the law and the constitution in how they treat me as a legal permanent resident, and that’s precisely why we’ve gone to court.QUESTION: Why has disinformation research emerged as a political lightning rod?ANSWER: We do vital research that shows the potential harms of online platforms, and we know that that puts the noses out of joint for some very powerful people. In the past, we’ve been sued, for example, by Elon Musk, which was unsuccessful for him. And so we expect this kind of scrutiny from big tech. What we didn’t expect was that the combination of big tech and big money means that the government itself is now seeking to punish us for our speech.QUESTION: Musk, who owns the platform X, has praised the US sanctions, saying: “This is so great.” What personal toll have the sanctions taken on you?ANSWER: I think it takes a sick mind to celebrate a father being taken away from their children, or to call it great. Organizations like CCDH have done studies showing that the hate speech after Elon Musk took over that platform soared.That kind of research is vital. It’s a crucial part of American discourse. Advertisers have the right to know where their content is appearing next to and they have a right to take decisions as to where they place their adverts. That is fundamentally the freedom of association.I have two jobs. I have one which is to continue to ensure that the watchdog brief of CCDH continues, and the second job is to make sure that we do not accept governments behaving in this sort of way. This is tyrannical behavior, and we need to ensure that we’re standing up against it.

A staffer at Disney World in Florida was hailed as a hero after he blocked a 400-pound (180-kilogram) rubber boulder that was bouncing toward the audience at an Indiana Jones-themed live show.”Woah! That’s heading right for us!” an audience member can be heard saying on a YouTube video of the incident on Tuesday as the weighty object bounces off its track.The boulder bashes into the staff member who had moved to try to block the prop from bouncing into the audience, knocking him down. Colleagues rush to his aid and quickly get him to his feet, with blood visible on his scalp.Disney confirmed the incident happened during an “Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular.” It said a performer was injured when a prop moved off its track. “We’re focused on supporting our cast member, who is recovering,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement to AFP on Friday.”Safety is at the heart of what we do, and that element of the show will be modified as our safety team completes a review of what happened,” the spokesperson added. The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular is staged at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. A blog post on the company’s website says the boulder is made of rubber and weighs 400 pounds.The boulder chasing Indiana Jones is an iconic scene from 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark” — the first installment of the popular movie franchise about a daring archaeologist. It starred Harrison Ford and was directed by Steven Spielberg.

A woman has died after a rare suspected mountain lion attack on a hiking trail in Colorado, an incident that would mark the state’s first such fatality in decades if confirmed.Two big cats potentially involved in the suspected New Year’s Day mauling were euthanized, state wildlife officials said.At around 12:15 pm on Thursday, hikers on the Crosier Mountain trail in Larimer County spotted a mountain lion near a person lying on the ground, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) spokeswoman Kara Van Hoose said.”As they started to get closer, they started to scare the lion from the area by throwing rocks at the animal, and it eventually went away,” Van Hoose told reporters. “One of the witnesses is a physician, and did not find a pulse.”Wildlife officials, sheriff’s deputies, park police and volunteer firefighters launched an extensive search — joined in the air by a state biologist who was carrying out an annual deer survey by helicopter.”We also contacted houndsmen to bring in dogs to help track scent from lions, which is a really effective way to find mountain lions,” said Van Hoose.One animal was shot at the scene but died only after fleeing, being rediscovered and shot again. A second lion near the scene was also killed, under state policy requiring any wildlife involved in human attacks to be euthanized to ensure public safety.Mountain lions are highly territorial, making it likely only one was involved in the attack.Pathologists will carry out necropsies on the animals, looking for neurological disease like rabies or signs of human DNA. The county coroner will release the identity of the victim and cause of death. Van Hoose stressed that mountain lion attacks are exceedingly rare, with only 28 reported since 1990 in Colorado, and the last fatality in 1999. Mountain lions are more visible in winter as they follow deer and elk to lower elevations, she added. If lions are spotted, make noise to scare them, hold objects overhead to appear bigger and start backing away from the animal. Colorado is home to roughly 3,800 to 4,400 mountain lions — a figure that excludes kittens. Once considered big game, their population has grown since 1965 as a result of supportive management practices.Mountain lions have the widest geographic range of any native mammal in the Americas apart from humans, stretching from western Canada to Argentina. Previously found across the United States, they are now extinct or endangered in the east, with the western states forming their stronghold.Adults are more than six feet (1.8 meters) long, weighing 130 pounds (60 kilograms) or more, with black-tipped tails. Their staple diet are deer, and they hunt by stealth often pouncing from trees or overhanging rocks.

Tesla’s sales fell in 2025, the company reported Friday, ceding its position as the world’s biggest electric vehicle maker for the year to Chinese auto giant BYD.The American company led by Elon Musk logged 418,227 deliveries in the final three months of the year, taking its full-year sales figure to around 1.64 million EVs.This marked a drop in sales of more than eight percent compared with 2024.A day prior, BYD said that it sold 2.26 million EVs last year.Analysts had expected Tesla’s sales in the final quarter to slow less, to 449,000, according to a FactSet consensus.The pullback comes amid the elimination of a $7,500 US tax credit at the end of September 2025, with industry watchers noting it will take time for EV demand to rebalance.But even before then, Tesla had seen sales struggle in key markets over CEO Musk’s political support of US President Donald Trump and other far-right politicians. Tesla has also been grappling with rising competition from BYD and other Chinese companies, and from European giants.Shenzhen-based BYD, which also produces hybrid cars, unveiled record EV sales in the past year on Thursday.Known as “Biyadi” in Chinese — or by the English slogan “Build Your Dreams” — BYD was founded in 1995 and originally specialized in battery manufacturing.The automotive juggernaut has come to dominate China’s highly competitive market for new energy vehicles, a term used to describe various vehicles from fully electric ones to plug-in hybrids. China is the world’s largest market for new energy vehicles.BYD is now looking to expand its presence overseas, as increasingly price-wary consumption patterns in China weigh on profitability.While BYD and other Chinese EV producers come up against hefty tariffs in the United States, the company’s success is picking up in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and in Europe.Tesla only narrowly beat BYD in annual EV sales in 2024, with US company’s 1.79 million outpacing the latter’s 1.76 million.Tesla shares dipped 0.5 percent in early trading in New York on Friday.Analysts at Wedbush Securities noted that Tesla’s quarterly sales figure remained better than some had speculated.They flagged that the company faces a “more difficult demand environment following the end of the EV tax credit while Europe remains a headwind to its deliveries.”The company still sees challenges obtaining certain regulatory approval in Europe — relating to self-driving tech — with sales potentially rebounding once the regulatory hurdles are cleared.”Sales around smaller and emerging markets have started to see larger growth metrics than expectations which look to offset the declines in key regions like China and Europe,” Wedbush analysts said.