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US captures Nicolas Maduro, Gold & Silver lost ground as cryptocurrency recovers, X under fire due to AI generation of obscene contents, BYD dethroned Tesla, and more.

January 04, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time:7 minutes

Hello!🐦‍⬛

Happy New Year to all our readers. We’re kicking off the first edition of 2026 with a look at the series of events that shaped the last few days of December 2025 and the first few days of January 2026.

United States Military Captures Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro 🇺🇸 💥 🇻🇪

  • On early Saturday, January 3, 2026, the U.S. military launched a mission titled "Operation Absolute Resolve" to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

  • U.S. Special Forces utilized over 150 aircraft and specialized teams to infiltrate Maduro's compound after months of intelligence gathering and rehearsals.

  • The mission involved technical maneuvers that plunged Caracas into darkness while helicopters flew low to avoid detection.

  • Maduro was apprehended by forces who "bum-rushed" him before he could successfully retreat into a steel-reinforced safe room.

  • The former leader and his wife, Cilia Flores, were initially taken to the USS Iwo Jima before being transported to the United States.

  • According to reports, the military action resulted in the deaths of at least 40 people, including soldiers and civilians.

  • Maduro arrived in New York on Saturday evening and is expected to face narco-terrorism charges in a federal court.

  • President Donald Trump stated that the U.S. will temporarily govern Venezuela with a designated team of officials including Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth.

  • Trump proposed using Venezuela's oil infrastructure to generate revenue and reimburse the U.S. for the costs of the military operation.

  • In Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez (vice president) was sworn in as interim leader, though she demanded Maduro's release and denounced the strike as an illegal aggression.

  • The military operation caused widespread Caribbean travel disruptions, resulting in the cancellation of hundreds of holiday flights.

  • International reactions were polarized, with Russia and China condemning the use of force while Israel and Argentina expressed support.

  • Legal scholars have labeled the mission an "act of war" and criticized the lack of prior authorization from the U.S. Congress.

  • General Dan Caine confirmed that U.S. troops had practiced the extraction for months on a replica of the presidential compound to ensure success.

Raven Bites🐦‍⬛

News/Events/Politics

  • North Korea launched multiple ballistic missiles towards the sea on Sunday, its neighbours said, just hours before South Korea’s president was due to leave for China for talks expected to cover North Korea’s nuclear program. (more)

  • Saudi warplanes strike UAE-backed separatists in southern Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen demands the withdrawal of separatist forces from the two governorates as part of de-escalation efforts. (more)

  • National security advisers from Europe and other allies visited Kyiv on Saturday to discuss security guarantees and economic support as a U.S.-led diplomatic push to end the nearly 4-year-old war in Ukraine intensifies. (more)

  • The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense has said its aircraft joined France in striking an underground facility in Syria that had likely been used by the ISIL (ISIS) group to store weapons, as the group appears to be resurgent after a period of relative dormancy in the region. (more)

  • Iran’s leader says rioters ‘must be put in their place’ as protest death toll reaches at least 15. Khamenei said officials only talk to protesters, not rioters in regards to the economic crisis. (more)

  • The foreign ministers of Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkiye, Pakistan and Indonesia warned that “deteriorating” conditions in Gaza had left nearly 1.9 million displaced Palestinians particularly vulnerable. They have called on Israel to allow “immediate, full, and unhindered” deliveries of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip as winter storms lash the bombarded Palestinian enclave. (more)

Economics/Business/Crypto

  • Gold and silver prices lost ground on Wednesday as investors booked profits after a historic annual rally and exchange operator CME Group hiked the margins on precious metal futures for the second time in the space of a week. (more)

  • European markets close mixed on last trading day of 2025; Defense stocks rose. (more)

  • China manufacturing activity expands for the first time since March, beating expectations. (more)

  • Cryptocurrency market signals notable recovery with significant gains across top assets. (more)

  • Ilya Lichtenstein, Bitcoin hacker behind massive crypto theft, credits Trump for early prison release. (more)

Technology

  • India has ordered Elon Musk’s X to make immediate technical and procedural changes to its AI chatbot Grok after users and lawmakers flagged the generation of “obscene” content, including AI-altered images of women created using the tool. (more)

  • Meta Platforms is acquiring Manus, a Singapore-based AI startup that’s become the talk of Silicon Valley since it debuted last spring with a demo video that showed an AI agent doing things like screening job candidates, planning vacations, and analyzing stock portfolios. (more)

  • Chinese auto giant BYD on Friday dethroned U.S. rival Tesla as the world’s biggest seller of electric vehicles on a calendar-year basis. (more)

  • Chinese tech giant Baidu plans to spin off its artificial intelligence chip subsidiary, Kunlunxin, and list an IPO in Hong Kong, as more domestic chipmakers seek funds amid Beijing’s push for semiconductor self-sufficiency. (more)

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