🌎 Absolute Resolve

Maduro pleads not guilty after US capture

This one has more twists than a telenovela. Over the weekend, US special forces carried out a military operation in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

The two were immediately transported to New York to face federal charges, including narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking, appearing in their first court appearance yesterday afternoon.

How did the operation unfold?

Early Saturday morning, at around 1:30 am local time, the US launched Operation Absolute Resolve, a highly coordinated military and law enforcement mission.

After months of extensive planning, intelligence gathering, and preparation, the raid developed rapidly:

• In the dead of night, more than 150 US military aircraft, including fighters, bombers, and drones, took out Venezuelan air defenses (watch video) and cleared a path for US helicopters to reach Maduro’s location.

• At 2:01 am local time, the Delta Force counter terrorism unit arrived at Maduro’s compound, successfully intercepting him and his wife before they could enter a safe room.

• After Maduro’s capture, nearby residents reported multiple explosions detonating in Caracas as a firefight broke out between US military aircraft and the Venezuelan military (see verified video).

• US forces then safely exited the country, transferring Maduro and Flores aboard the ISS Iwo Jima (see photo) to be taken back to New York to face criminal charges.

The entire operation took roughly two-hours, from start to finish, and saw no US service members killed. See other photos from the operation here, read more about how it unfolded here, and watch Venezuelans around the world react to Maduro’s capture here.

What happens now?

Maduro, who was indicted by the US for narco-terrorism charges in 2020 and remained in power after Venezuela’s latest election despite evidence that he lost, pleaded not guilty to several federal charges in court yesterday.

• Maduro told the court he was “captured” and insisted he remains “the president of my country,” denying the charges and arguing he was unlawfully taken from Venezuela.

• Maduro and Flores will remain in custody as the US legal process unfolds. Their next court date is scheduled for March 17.

Was Maduro’s capture legal? While the Trump administration framed the raid as a federal law enforcement action that did not require congressional approval, some critics claim it violated international law. However, legal precedent suggests that the prosecution of Maduro and Flores is unlikely to be prevented.

Who will lead Venezuela? Trump suggested the US would temporarily oversee Venezuela ahead of open elections, adding that US oil companies will be involved in expanding Venezuela's oil infrastructure. But, as of writing, Maduro loyalists led by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez remain in charge and have publicly condemned the strike while calling for his release.

Tesla is no longer the world’s top EV seller

The EV throne officially has a new occupant. For the first time in history, Elon Musk’s automaker sold fewer EVs in 2025 than its most prominent rival, China’s BYD, marking a symbolic shift in the EV market.

The rise of a king

The milestone means BYD, which started as a rechargeable battery manufacturer in the 1990s, has surpassed Tesla to become the world’s largest seller of electric vehicles, largely due to their opposing trajectories:

• Tesla’s global sales slid in 2025, reporting only 1.64 million EVs sold, down about 9% from 2024.

• Meanwhile, BYD moved roughly 2.26 million EVs, an almost 28% increase from the year prior.

BYD’s success comes as Tesla’s annual deliveries fell for a second straight year, driven in part by the expiration of a $7,500 EV tax credit in September that sent Tesla’s orders down 16% in the final quarter of 2025.

What else helped BYD’s surge? The combination of China’s huge EV market, supportive policies, and BYD’s low prices and wide array of models helped drive up its deliveries. The company also expanded outside of China, selling more than 1 million EVs overseas for the first time last year, and sales in the UK (its largest international market) surging 880% in September.

Is this the end for Tesla? Not exactly. The company $TSLA ( ▼ 0.36% ) is still one of the most valuable automakers in the world, and despite its EV sales tanking (which account for around 75% of Tesla’s revenue), its stock still increased 11% last year.

Researchers think they have discovered the earliest human ancestor

But could it hit a sick ollie if given the chance? I bet not. For decades, researchers have debated whether a seven-million-year-old fossil was bipedal, a trait that would make it our earliest known human ancestor.

Now, a new analysis is offering powerful evidence that it walked upright, a claim that could change the biological map of human history.

What does the analysis say?

The long-contested fossils belong to the ape-like species Sahelanthropus tchadensis, and were discovered in Africa in the early 2000s. Early research found inconclusive evidence that it was bipedal and could be classified as a human ancestor, according to a lead researcher.

However, in the new study (read here), anthropologists found much better evidence that it may be our oldest common ancestor:

• A recent 3D scan of the thigh bone and femur found multiple signs that the species walked upright, including a femoral tubercle that has only been found in human ancestors.

Despite that, not all scientists are convinced: Some critics argue that the available fossils are poorly preserved or may not show features unique to bipedal walkers, while others point out that occasional two-legged movement doesn’t necessarily mean habitual upright walking.

But, if it really did walk upright regularly… it pushes the emergence of bipedalism, one of the earliest and most crucial steps (pun intended) of human evolution, back to nearly 7 million years ago, about the same time scientists think the human lineage diverged from that of chimps and bonobos.

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Scientists made human lungs from a single cell

And, believe it or not, it costs less than your rent. Scientists have recreated a human lung on a plastic chip from a single donor’s stem cells for the first time, an invention that could vastly improve personalized medicine.

How does it work?

Unlike previous “lung-on-a-chip” models, the new version uses cells from a single person to recreate the key features of human lungs, making it possible to mirror a person’s lung function… all on a tiny microchip.

• The chip can imitate breathing motions by stretching and relaxing the tissue, essentially copying the cycle of inhaling and exhaling.

How does one make such a device? The chip is built from pluripotent stem cells, or, in layman’s terms, cells that can be turned into nearly any tissue type. These cells are then grown on a thin membrane inside a device with tiny channels, which allow air to flow on one side and liquid to flow on the other, copying how air and blood meet in real human lungs.

Why is this important?

Because all cells in the chip come from a single donor (instead of the more common mixed cell systems), it provides a powerful new way to study lung function, disease progression, and drug responses without relying on animal testing or other, less precise methods. Using the new tech:

• Researchers could create bespoke chips for patients, a step toward personalized medicine.

• Doctors could better understand how genetic differences influence responses to infection, lung damage, or treatments.

Looking forward: Scientists hope that within the next few years, it will help researchers study respiratory diseases like tuberculosis and test new therapies more safely and efficiently than the traditional methods used today.

Strange things are happening at the box office

Nothing says cultural event like paying $20 for popcorn to see a TV finale you can watch for free at home. After nearly a decade, Stranger Things is still pulling in massive crowds… but this time at the box office. The Netflix original series finale generated a surprisingly strong box-office performance during its limited theatrical run over the holiday weekend.

Upside-down earnings

The special event was shown in roughly 600 theaters across North America on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, and the event brought in a huge amount of money… without even selling a single ticket.

How is that possible? Netflix avoided charging for theater tickets because of residual contracts involving the show’s cast and typical streaming safeguards. Instead, fans reserved seats by purchasing concession vouchers.

For example, AMC charged about $20 per voucher that included access to the screening plus food and drink credits, effectively forcing viewers to gorge on popcorn and other snacks.

And all that stress eating ended up generating a lot of money:

• The atypical approach brought in well over $25 million for movie theatres during the two-day run, with some estimates nearing $30 million.

Theatres were sure happy about it: The unique model allowed theater owners to keep nearly all of the revenue, giving cinemas a rare and timely boost during a traditionally slower post-holiday period.

Catch up on this week’s weird news

 > See five new species discovered in 2025, what experts think will happen in 2026, why you should start ignoring things, and other events that could stun the world this year.

 > Photographers around the world captured stunning images of this weekend’s Wolf Supermoon rising over landmarks and landscapes from London to New York to Mecca.

 > Scientists have created the first-ever 3D map of the interior of Mexico’s Popocatépetl volcano, the country’s most active volcano, located about 40 miles from Mexico City and responsible for 15 major eruptions since 1519.

 > A growing number of Americans are hiring workers to handle tedious store or online returns for them after the holiday season, with one gift returning service, Taskrabbit, seeing a 62% spike in orders compared to last year.