Hostage exchange, wild pig invasion, and fast food domination.

Happy Saturday! Today’s edition is 685 words, a 2 ½ minute read.

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Today’s Big Story

Israel and Hamas exchange hostages on first day of ceasefire

Hamas freed 24 hostages and Israel released 39 prisoners on Friday — the first of a four-day pause in fighting in Gaza.

• Details: Thirteen Israeli women and children as well as 10 Thai nationals and one Phillipino were handed over to Israel after nearly four weeks of captivity. Simultaneously, Israel returned 24 Palestinian women and 15 teenagers held in its jails in West Bank and East Jerusalem.

• Cease-fireish: The pause allowed some Palestinians in South Gaza to return to their homes and retrieve belongings. However, the Israeli military still holds most of northern Gaza. People displaced from that area were warned to stay away and not allowed to collect their things. Still, hundreds of Palestinians tried walking north on Friday. Two were shot and killed and 11 were injured.

• Extended peace: Humanitarians are hoping the brokered pause will encourage a permanent peace agreement between the two sides. However, Israel said it’s determined to continue the war until all Israeli hostages are freed and Hamas is destroyed.

Saturday’s Quick Hits

• South African Olympic Runner Oscar Pistorius was granted parole on Friday, nearly 11 years after being convicted for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. He will be released on Jan. 5, but will be monitored through the rest of his sentence which ends in 2029. (More)

• Charleston elected its first Republican mayor since the Reconstruction era in the 1870s. William Cogswell defeated incumbent Democratic Mayor John Tecklenburg by 2 percentage points in Tuesday’s runoff. A total of 569 votes separated the two candidates. (More)

• Wild Canadian pigs are threatening to spill over into the United States. These particular hogs have a knack for survival and breed rapidly, making them difficult to eradicate. Wild hogs are invasive and cause nearly $2.5 billion in damage in the U.S. every year. (More)

• Rioters clashed with over 400 police in Dublin, Ireland on Thursday after a 5-year-old girl was seriously injured in a knife attack earlier in the day. Two other young children and a woman were also hospitalized. Police are blaming “far-right ideology” and “hooligan tendencies” for the riot. (More)

• New York Mayor Eric Adams is being accused of sexual assault according to a legal summons filed on Wednesday. A woman claims Adams assaulted her in 1993 when they both were working for the City of New York. Adams denied the allegations. (More)

• The job market may be cooling off. Retailers plan on hiring the same number or fewer seasonal employees than last year over concerns about higher labor costs and potentially weaker consumer spending due to inflation, rising interest rates, and diminished savings. (More)

Weekly Dose of Positive

• The Cherokee Nation's first female principal chief, Wilma Mankiller, is being honored with a Barbie doll in the "Inspiring Women" series. She held the position from 1985 to 1995 and revitalized the tribal government while advocating for healthcare and housing. The doll celebrates her achievements, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. (More)

• LA start-up Ambercycle is tackling the environmental impact of polyester in clothing. They've developed a method to extract and repackage polyester from used clothes, aiming to reduce the 65% of clothing that ends up in landfills within a year of being purchased. (More)

• A research team identified a promising pain-relief molecule called CBD3063, which outperforms pain medications gabapentin and pregabalin without causing harmful side effects. The molecule is a potential breakthrough for safe and effective chronic pain management, warranting clinical trials. (More)

• Joanna Maniti conceived the idea for a non-profit to help homeless children while on a mission trip to the Philippines. Taking initiative, she founded Cherish Hearts International while studying at USC. The organization has now successfully built an orphanage on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. (More)

Bonus Material

This geographic game asks you to guess which city is more north.

Ranked: Fast food brands with the most locations.

How to fix your stuff.

How travelers can hunt for Mexico’s lost Mayan cities.