Claim of dementia could derail former Abercrombie CEO’s sex trafficking case Can his legal team’s claims that he has late-onset Alzheimer’s disease and dementia put a pause in the sex trafficking trial of former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries? Read more on NPR

Delta apologizes – again – after another stowaway boards a flight without ticket The incident marks the second time in less than a month that an unticketed passenger was discovered on a Delta Air Lines flight, this time en route to Hawaii. Read more on NPR

Photos from Azerbaijan jet crash suggest a missile strike, according to experts The Embraer 190 with 67 passengers and crew was flying from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to Grozny in Chechnya, Russia, when it crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38 people. Read more on NPR

New leaders in Damascus call for cordial Syria ties with a resistant Israel “Our problem is not with Israel. We don’t want to meddle in anything that will threaten Israel’s security,” Damascus Governor Maher Marwan tells NPR. Syria and Israel have never had diplomatic ties. Read more on NPR

Rescue team ends search for a man overboard from Norwegian Cruise Line ship The tragedy marks the 19th overboard incident on a cruise ship this year, with only two passengers successfully rescued. Read more on NPR

Global stories from 2024 that we loved … but that you may have missed These stories didn’t get huge numbers of views, but readers who found them stayed with them for what qualifies as an eternity on the online clock. Here are our underappreciated favorites. Read more on NPR

How a fox skull shape conquers the snow Research explains how foxes hunting mice can plunge down into the snow at high speeds without injuring their poor little snouts. Read more on NPR

Top global TikToks in 2024: Mr. Bean disciple, lip-sync for their life, baby hippo! Scenes from some of the most popular TikToks from the Global South in 2024: a dancing teen from the Philippines; an homage to Mr. Bean, that cute baby pygmy hippo. Read more on NPR

South Korea’s acting president impeached. And, how the ‘Beyoncé Bowl’ did on Netflix South Korea’s acting president has been impeached less than a month after the impeachment of his predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, for imposing martial law. And, how’d the “Beyoncé Bowl” do on Netflix? Read more on NPR

More than 10,000 migrants died in 2024 trying to reach Spain by sea, aid group says The migration route that connects West African nations with the Spanish Canary Islands remains the deadliest in the world, according to a Spanish aid organization. Read more on NPR