The Latest on the sentencing hearing in the Chicago terrorism case of Adel Daoud. (all times local):
2:20 p.m.
A 25-year-old who sought to detonate a car bomb outside a crowded Chicago bar has apologized during a sentencing hearing for agreeing to the terrorism plot, saying he no longer harbors a desire to kill.
Adel Daoud stood in orange jail clothes and leg chains in Chicago federal court Wednesday, telling his judge he listened this week in disbelief to secret FBI recordings of him talking about killing non-Muslims. He said he kept asking himself, "Can that really be me?"
Daoud was arrested in a 2012 FBI sting after trying to ignite the bomb he believed would kill hundreds. Undercover agents supplied the fake bomb.
Wednesday concluded a three-day sentencing focused on whether agents manipulated a mentally fragile Daoud. Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman said she'll take until Monday to mull over a sentence and announced it then.
12 a.m.
A multiday sentencing hearing is wrapping up for a suburban Chicago man convicted of terrorism for trying to detonate what he thought was a powerful bomb next to a crowded bar.
After two days of testimony for the prosecution, attorneys for 25-year-old Adel Daoud get their chance Wednesday to call witnesses as they seek leniency for their client. Daoud entered an Alford plea in November.
Daoud is accused of trying to ignite the fake bomb in downtown Chicago in 2012 when he was 18. The device was provided by undercover agents as part of an elaborate FBI sting.
Prosecutors want a 40-year prison term for Daoud. The defense says agents manipulated a mentally fragile Daoud. They say that he should be released as soon as a mental health treatment program can be developed for him.
NEW YORK (AP) — Tesla lost its crown as the world’s bestselling electric vehicle maker on Friday as a customer revolt over Elon Musk’s right-wing politics, expiring U.S. tax breaks for buyers and stiff overseas competition pushed sales down for a second year in a row.
Tesla said that it delivered 1.64 million vehicles in 2025, down 9% from a year earlier.
Chinese rival BYD, which sold 2.26 million vehicles last year, is now the biggest EV maker.
It's a stunning reversal for a car company whose rise once seemed unstoppable as it overtook traditional automakers with far more resources and helped make Musk the world's richest man.
For the fourth quarter, sales totaled 418,227, falling short of even the much reduced 440,000 target that analysts recently polled by FactSet had expected. Sales were hit hard by the expiration of a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle purchases that was phased out by the Trump administration at the end of September.
Tesla stock was down nearly 3% at $436.85 in afternoon trading Friday.
Even with multiple issues buffeting the company, investors are betting that Tesla CEO Musk can deliver on his ambitions to make Tesla a leader in robotaxi services and get consumers to embrace humanoid robots that can perform basic tasks in homes and offices. Reflecting that optimism, the stock finished 2025 with a gain of approximately 11%.
The latest quarter was the first with sales of stripped-down versions of the Model Y and Model 3 that Musk unveiled in early October as part of an effort to revive sales. The new Model Y costs just under $40,000 while customers can buy the cheaper Model 3 for under $37,000. Those versions are expected to help Tesla compete with Chinese models in Europe and Asia.
For fourth-quarter earnings coming out in late January, analysts are expecting the company to post a 3% drop in sales and a nearly 40% drop in earnings per share, according to FactSet. Analysts expect the downward trend in sales and profits to eventually reverse itself as 2026 rolls along.
Investors have largely shrugged off the falling numbers, choosing to focus on Musk's pivot to different parts of business. He has been saying the future of the company lies with its driverless robotaxis service, its energy storage business and building robots for the home and factory — and much less with car sales.
Tesla started rolling out its robotaxi service in Austin earlier this year, first with safety monitors in the cars to take over in case of trouble, then testing without them. The company hopes to roll out the service in several cities this year.
To do that successfully, it needs to take on rival Waymo, which has been operating autonomous taxis for years and has far more customers. It also will also have to contend with regulatory challenges. The company is under several federal safety investigations and other probes. In California, Tesla is at risk of temporarily losing its license to sell cars in the state after a judge there ruled it had misled customers about their safety.
“Regulatory is going to be a big issue,” said Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, a well-known bull on the stock. “We're dealing with people's lives.”
Still, Ives said he expects Tesla's autonomous offerings will soon overcome any setbacks.
Musk has said he hopes software updates to his cars will enable hundreds of thousands of Tesla vehicles to operate autonomously with zero human intervention by the end of this year. The company is also planning to begin production of its AI-powered Cybercab with no steering wheel or pedals in 2026.
To keep Musk focused on the company, Tesla’s directors awarded Musk a potentially enormous new pay package that shareholders backed at the annual meeting in November.
Musk scored another huge windfall two weeks ago when the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a decision that deprived him of a $55 billion pay package that Tesla doled out in 2018.
This story has been corrected to show that BYD sold 2.26 million vehicles last year, not 2.26.
AP video journalist Mustakim Hasnath contributed to this report from London.
FILE - The Tesla logo is displayed at a Tesla dealership Thursday, Mar. 13, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
