American-Israeli Reunites With Family

After 584 harrowing days in Hamas captivity, Edan Alexander, 21, was freed Monday and reunited with his family in Tel Aviv in a tearful hospital rooftop embrace. See photos here.

Edan, a New Jersey native who moved to Israel at 18, was just 19 and serving in the Israel Defense Forces when he was captured during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

His mother, Yael, wept with joy as they spoke for the first time since his capture, while his father, Adi, recalled their desperate efforts to bring him home—“knocking on every door, on the president’s door, the previous one, this one,” until it worked.

Now recovering from months of torture, malnutrition, and isolation, Edan shared his first Instagram post, smiling with a beer in hand, captioned “Home Sweet Home.” The family plans to return to Tenafly, New Jersey, where Edan hopes to watch his little brother play basketball and finally get back to the life he was forced to leave behind.

After Transplant, Mother and Daughter Graduate

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, mother Nija Butler and daughter Ambrealle Brown achieved a powerful milestone together—graduating from nursing school after Nija donated a kidney to save her daughter’s life.

Ambrealle had struggled with kidney disease for years, facing kidney failure before her mother donated a kidney in Louisiana’s first robotic kidney transplant procedure.

The surgery gave Ambrealle a second chance and allowed both women to pursue their nursing dreams.

In April, they graduated from the Baton Rouge General School of Nursing, with Brown starting in a burn ICU, and Nija continuing her work in psychiatry.

Zookeeper Raises Baby Gorillas

Alan Toyne, a former zookeeper at Bristol Zoo, has released a new memoir, Gorillas in Our Midst, sharing the extraordinary story of how he became a stand-in dad to two baby gorillas rejected by their mothers. See photos here.

After complications during birth left the infants in need of care, Alan brought them into his home, feeding them, teaching them to climb, and even eating dinner side by side.

The hands-on approach was a first in the U.K., helping the young gorillas grow up among their kind with the social skills they needed to thrive. Toyne calls the experience unforgettable—and now, readers can see why. 

Here is more info about his memoir.

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A hairless rabbit named Rufus from Germany is melting hearts online thanks to a rare genetic mutation—and a mustache that makes him look like everybody’s grandpa.

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“When I first brought Afia home—gorillas all eat at the same time—so when we had our tea, we’d all eat together, having our dinner with a gorilla at the table.”

—  Alan Toyne describing the quirks of living with a gorilla.