What to know as Israel and Hamas exchange hostages and prisoners and Trump visits the Middle East

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By The Associated Press

In a critical day for the Middle East, Hamas released the 20 living Israeli hostages it still held and Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners under a breakthrough Gaza ceasefire deal.

U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration brokered the deal, made a whirlwind visit to the region, first to Israel where he addressed the parliament to repeated applause. He landed Monday afternoon in Egypt for the “Summit of Peace” where world leaders are to discuss the ceasefire plan.

More ramped-up aid was being readied for Gaza, much of which is in ruins after two years of war that began when Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 as hostages. In Israel’s ensuing offensive, more than 67,600 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

What we know and what remains unknown:

All living hostages have been released

Monday was day 738 since the hostages were taken, a number many Israelis have updated daily on strips of adhesive tape worn in a national commemoration.

Twenty living hostages were returned Monday to Israel to be reunited with their families and then transferred to hospitals, the Israeli military said.

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Hamas first released seven and then 13 hostages. Israel meanwhile said it had freed over 1,900 Palestinian prisoners under the truce agreement. The ceasefire in the two-year Israel-Hamas war is the first phase of a plan brokered by the Trump administration.

Hamas said it will deliver on Monday four of the 28 remains of Israelis it holds in Gaza. It appeared unlikely that the other remains will be returned by the end of the day. Medical experts and advocates say that would be crucial to begin the healing process for many families, and for the Israeli society at large.

One ceasefire document contains stipulations for remains that aren’t returned within 72 hours of the end of the fighting — a deadline that expired around noon Monday. On Sunday, Israel said “an international body” will help locate the remains if they are not released on Monday.

Palestinian prisoners released

Buses carrying dozens of freed Palestinian prisoners arrived Monday in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run Prisoners Office said.

They were the first to be released of about 1,700 people that troops seized from Gaza during the war and have held without charge, as well as about 250 Palestinians serving prison sentences. At least 154 of the Palestinians had been deported to Egypt from the West Bank as per stipulations in the deal.

Many are members of Hamas and the Fatah faction who were imprisoned over shootings, bombings or other attacks that killed or attempted to kill Israelis, as well as others convicted on lesser charges. They’ll return to the West Bank or Gaza, or be deported elsewhere.

Aid expected to surge in Gaza

Humanitarian organizations have said they’re preparing to surge aid into the Gaza Strip, especially food that’s been in short supply in many areas.

That included some 400 trucks from Egypt on Sunday that will have to undergo Israeli inspection before being distributed in the strip. The Israeli defense body in charge of humanitarian aid in Gaza said around 600 trucks of aid per day will be entering soon, under the ceasefire agreement.

The world’s leading authority on food crises said in August that the Gaza Strip’s largest city was gripped by a famine that was likely to spread across the territory without a ceasefire and an end to restrictions on humanitarian aid.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said famine was devastating Gaza City — home to hundreds of thousands of people. That famine was expected to spread south to the cities of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis by around now if the situation did not change.

The larger task of rebuilding Gaza is daunting, as much of it is in rubble and most of its two million residents displaced.

After a red-carpet welcome in Israel, Trump heading to Egypt

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog greeted Trump, first lady Melania Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, as well as adviser Steve Witkoff, a key envoy.

Trump met with families of hostages and spoke at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, which welcomed him as a hero with standing ovations and chants of his name.

“Generations from now, this will be remembered as the moment that everything began to change,” Trump told lawmakers in his the speech. “Now it is time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East.”

Afterwards, Trump flew to Egypt, where he was briefly escorted by Egyptian warplanes before touching down Monday afternoon in Sharm el-Sheikh. At the resort town on the Red Sea, he was set to co-host with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi a summit with leaders from more than 20 countries on the future of Gaza and the broader Middle East.

Daunting issues remain unsolved

The ceasefire and release of hostages is the first step in the plan proposed by Trump. Competing demands remain on the next steps, casting uncertainty on whether the conflict is indeed over.

Israel wants Hamas to disarm, and Hamas wants Israel to pull its troops out of all of Gaza. The future of Gaza’s government, which has been in Hamas’ hands for two decades, also remains to be worked out.

Gaza’s Health Ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half of the 67,600 in Gaza deaths were women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, and the United Nations and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

T.J. Oshie joins ESPN’s NHL coverage and will call the Olympics on NBC

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GRAND FORKS, N.D. — T.J. Oshie is beginning a new career — on television.

The former Warroad High and UND star forward, who retired from a 16-year NHL career last spring, has joined ESPN as an in-studio NHL analyst for the 2025-26 season.

Oshie was on ESPN’s opening night coverage this week.

“My dad fell asleep to @SportsCenter almost every night of my childhood,” Oshie wrote on Twitter/X. “He would have loved this!”

Oshie got a taste of ESPN broadcasting during the playoffs last season. He joined for a night during the conference finals.

He’s also adding a major assignment this winter.

Oshie will join NBC’s team to call the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

Oshie played in the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. He famously scored four shootout goals to help the Americans beat the Russians in a pool play game.

Oshie will call games as an analyst alongside play-by-play announcers Brendan Burke and Chris Vosters.

The Olympic Games are scheduled to be played from Feb. 6-22. NHL players will suit up for the first time since 2014.

Oshie played three years at Warroad High from 2002-05, winning state championships as a sophomore and a senior.

He moved on to play three years at UND from 2005-08, reaching three NCAA Frozen Fours.

Oshie played 1,010 NHL regular-season games for the St. Louis Blues and Washington Capitals. He won the Stanley Cup with the Capitals in 2018 and spent his day with the Cup in Warroad.

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Photo in back of Minnesota cop car leads to marriage

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PARK RAPIDS, Minn. — Ethan Ingberg was driving back home from his job at the Erickson Medical Clinic in Park Rapids last December when his car started acting up.

By the time he hit Menahga, it was crawling along at 40 miles per hour. So, he called his friend, Akeley Police Chief Jimmy Hansen, for help.

Ingberg, 23, drove the sputtering car to Akeley, dropped it off at a mechanic and hopped in Hansen’s squad car for a ride back to his home in Wadena.

“Jimmy couldn’t let me sit in the front because he had stuff there, so I had to sit in the back, where the criminals sit,” Ingberg said.

Then, he snapped a selfie and jokingly posted it on his Instagram without explanation.

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Genesis Cabral Gusmão, 20, was living in her home country, Aruba, at the time. She had followed Ingberg on Instagram after seeing they’d attended the same Christian missionary school in Georgia.

She said she was surprised she was following somebody who would find themselves in the back of a squad car, so she commented on the post.

Through long conversations, the couple realized they had a lot in common, and eventually entered into a long-distance relationship.

“Before you know it, he’s buying tickets to Aruba to meet the parents,” Hansen said.

Ethan and Genesis were married on Sept. 21.

“It’s interesting, with me being from the Caribbean where it’s warm, and I’m in my own world down there, how I got to be with someone all the way up in Minnesota,” said Genesis, whose last name is now Ingberg. “Two different cultures, two different worlds connected, but we are of the same spirit.”

The couple said Jimmy and Sarah Hansen were their godparents at their wedding. The Hansens’ four daughters, Lola, Bella, Lena and Svea, were bridesmaids.

“It seems like a match made in heaven,” Hansen said.

The couple now live in Wadena and work at Wadena Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Dozens rescued as remnants of typhoon hits Alaska while nor’easter brings flooding to East Coast

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More than 30 people were rescued and three people remain unaccounted for in western Alaska after the remnants of Typhoon Halong brought hurricane-force winds and flooding strong enough to sweep away entire homes in coastal communities, authorities said.

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Rescue aircraft were sent to the tiny Alaskan villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, where there were reports of people possibly unaccounted for, said Jeremy Zidek, spokesperson for the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

“We have received reports that people’s homes have floated away and that people were potentially in those homes,” Zidek told The Associated Press.

In Kwigillingok, at least 18 people were rescued and three people remained unaccounted for, Alaska State Troopers said in a social media post on Sunday evening. In Kipnuk, at least 16 people were rescued and troopers had received secondhand reports of people who were unaccounted for. They were working with local officials to determine how many people were missing. Search efforts were expected to continue overnight as conditions allowed.

According to the nonprofit Coastal Villages Region Fund, nearly 600 people in Kipnuk were taking shelter at a school while around 300 people in Kwigillingok were sheltering in a school there. The area is among one of the most isolated in the U.S., where some communities have few roads and residents use boardwalks, boats and snowmobiles to get around, Zidek said.

“Every effort will be made to help those hit by this storm. Help is on the way,” Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a statement.

On the East Coast, forecasters warned that major coastal flooding was likely Monday in the mid-Atlantic, particularly from Virginia to New Jersey, with strong onshore winds, high surf and high tides. Coastal flooding was expected to peak Monday afternoon and improve gradually into Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

A nor’easter churned its way up the East Coast over the weekend, washing out roads and prompting air travel delays. Dangerous surf conditions were expected to continue Monday, bringing strong rip currents and beach erosion along many East Coast beaches, the weather service said. Wind gusts in excess of 55 mph remained possible along New Jersey, Long Island and southern New England through Monday afternoon.

New Jersey was under a state of emergency starting Saturday night. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued an emergency declaration for eight southern counties in her state as the storm gained strength Sunday evening. She urged people to monitor forecasts and avoid travel. The Columbus Day Parade in New York City was canceled.

In Delaware, emergency management officials activated the state National Guard on Sunday in response to rising floodwaters and harsh winds. A voluntary evacuation order was issued for the town of Bowers Beach, where the Murderkill River flows into Delaware Bay.

In North Carolina’s Outer Banks, an area that’s seen significant storm damage this season, ocean overwash spread across Highway 12 near Buxton, the Dare County Sheriff’s Office posted online Sunday. The North Carolina Department of Transportation said crews were working to clear the highway that was closed on Ocracoke and Hatteras on Sunday.

The waves were ferocious at the Hatteras Island town of Buxton, where several beachfront homes have fallen into the water in recent weeks. One house was losing its pilings Sunday and appeared close to collapsing.