Hamas on Monday released all 20 living hostages who were held in Gaza for more than two years.
The big picture: President Trump declared the war in Gaza over following a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal in the two-year campaign that killed more than 67,000 Palestinians.
President Trump is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday, two sources familiar with the planning told Axios.
Why it matters: The two will discuss what weapons should be supplied to Ukraine, specifically if the U.S. should provide game-changing long-range Tomahawk missiles to the war-torn country.
Sixteen people were killed in an explosion Friday at an industrial plant in Tennessee that processes ammunition and explosives, authorities said.
The latest: Officials confirmed the deaths on Saturday. Investigators are still working to determine the cause of the blast.
Driving the news: The explosion took place Friday morning at the Accurate Energetic Systems in the Bucksnort area of Tennessee, which is about 60 miles southwest of Nashville.
After some 16 years and hundreds of shows, comedian Marc Maron hosted the final guest on his popular WTF podcast: former President Barack Obama, who used the platform to urge institutions to stand up to the Trump administration.
The big picture: The former president, whom President Trump has continued to criticize nearly a decade after he left the White House, rarely wades into political spats — though he has recently delivered direct rebukes to the administration.
Twelve people were killed, and at least 40 people were injured after shootings marred three different high school events in two states over the weekend.
The big picture: The shootings mark another devastating weekend in America, and underscore the pervasiveness of gun violence across the country.
Three scholars have been awarded the Nobel prize for economics for work that shows how societies become more prosperous over time, describing and modeling how technological innovation fuels growth.
The big picture: The award comes at a moment of worry that some of the underpinnings of future growth — like biomedical research and science funding — are under assault in the U.S., raising questions about future innovation.
"The laureates' work shows that economic growth cannot be taken for granted," John Hassler, chair of the prize committee, said in the announcement.
"We must uphold the mechanisms that underly creative destruction, so that we do not fall back into stagnation," he said.
During his address to the Israeli parliament on Monday, President Trump went off script and urged President Issac Herzog to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is standing trial on three corruption charges.
Why it matters: It's a stunning intervention in Israel's domestic politics and judicial system, made from the Knesset podium. Trump has weighed in on Netanyahu's trial before, but in his speech he went further than ever before to boost his ally's domestic political standing.
At President Trump's request, Egyptian president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi invited Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Gaza peace conference in Sharm el-Sheikh that will begin later on Monday.
Netanyahu declined the invitation, citing a Jewish holiday.
Why it matters: Netanyahu's participation at the conference could have turned it from a symbolic event to endorse Trump's Gaza plan, to a more meaningful diplomatic event — with the potential to boost Trump's ambitions of expanding the Abraham Accords after the war.
Hamas released all 20 living Israeli hostages on Monday morning as part of the Gaza peace deal brokered by the Trump administration.
Why it matters: The Israeli hostages, most of them civilians, were held in captivity in Gaza for more than two years. Finally, all of the hostages who survived are now free.
President Trump landed in Israel on Monday amid the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Trump said on Sunday that the war in Gaza was over and expressed confidence that the ceasefire he brokered several days ago will hold.
Why it matters: Trump spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Israel — the first stop on his Middle East trip. His remarks were also an implicit warning to Israel and Hamas not to violate the deal.
President Trump told Axios in a phone interview from Air Force One en route to Israel that the Gaza peace deal "could be the biggest thing I was ever involved in."
The big picture: As Trump was speaking with Axios, Israel was preparing for the imminent release of the last 20 live hostages held by Hamas. Meanwhile, Trump's peace plan should end a war that has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry.
About 600 Centers for Disease Control employees in offices dealing with health statistics, injury and violence prevention, congressional outreach and human resources are out of work as a result of the Trump administration's mass layoffs of agency workers late Friday, sources familiar said.
Why it matters: While the administration has since rescinded more than half of the approximately 1,300 termination notices it sent, the upheaval from the layoffs that are still taking effect could undermine efforts to protect public health.
