Hamas says it's sending a delegation to Egypt as soon as possible to continue talks in the latest sign of progress in the fragile cease-fire process. The group’s supreme leader Ismail Haniyeh said Thursday he had spoken to Egypt’s intelligence chief and Hamas negotiators would travel to Cairo "to complete the ongoing discussions with the aim of working forward for an agreement.” But chances for the deal are entangled with the question of whether Israel can accept an end to the war without reaching its stated goal of destroying Hamas. The stakes in the cease-fire negotiations were made clear in a new U.N. report that said if the war in Gaza stops today it will still take until 2040 to rebuild.

Millions of voters in England and Wales have cast their ballots in an array of local elections. The voting on Thursday was the last big test before a U.K. general election that all indicators show will see the Conservative Party ousted from power after 14 years. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will hope he can point to some successes including in a couple of key mayoral races. That would douse talk that the Conservative Party will change its leader once again before the United Kingdom's main election. The leader of the main opposition Labour Party will be hoping that the party is on course to sweep to power for the first time since 2010.