With the start of the New Year squarely behind us, it’s once again time for the annual CES trade show to shine a spotlight on the latest tech companies plan on offering in 2026. The multi-day event, organized by the Consumer Technology Association, kicks off this week in Las Vegas. Advances across industries like robotics, healthcare, vehicles, wearables, gaming and more are set to be on display. Artificial intelligence will be anchored in nearly everything, again, as the tech industry explores offerings consumers will want to buy. In 2025, more than 141,000 attendees from over 150 countries, regions, and territories attended the CES. Organizers expect around the same numbers for this year’s show.

As 2025 wraps up, The Associated Press has curated a list of memorable stories and enjoyable reads published this year. You may have missed them in the flurry of news and the busyness of living. There are storybook endings and heartbreak. Some are stranger than fiction, and others take you behind the scenes. Even if you read them the first time around, the stories on this “in case you missed it” list are worth revisiting.

Nigerians have welcomed back 130 children and teachers who were released after being seized in one of the largest mass abductions in the country’s history. Some of the children appeared to be malnourished or in shock on Monday as they arrived at a government ceremony. Police said they were freed Sunday, a month after gunmen stormed their Catholic school in Niger state’s Papiri community in a predawn attack. Authorities said plans were underway to reunite the children with their families before Christmas. Officials did not say whether a ransom — common in such abductions — had been paid.

When recruits were punched and tackled during a role-playing exercise at the Texas game wardens academy last year, they were taking part in a longstanding police training tradition that critics say should be retired. At least 13 of the cadets reported injuries that day, including concussions, a torn knee and a broken wrist. Two needed surgery, and one resigned in protest. A state investigation later found nothing wrong with the drill, which its supporters say is intended to teach recruits to make good decisions under stress. The experience may have been traumatizing for some, but it was not unique. Since 2005, drills intended to teach defensive tactics at law enforcement academies have been linked to at least a dozen deaths and hundreds of injuries, some resulting in disability.

Thirty years ago, Claudio Neves Valente and Nuno F.G. Loureiro were classmates with bright futures. Both excelled in physics and made their way from their home country of Portugal to the U.S., settling on the campuses of prestigious East Coast universities. But Neves Valente’s path took a darker turn than his former peer. Investigators say the 48-year-old fatally shot two students last week at Brown University, where he was a graduate student in the early 2000s. They say he later gunned down Loureiro, who led one of the largest laboratories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Neves Valente’s was found dead Thursday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.