Israel and Hamas appear to be seriously negotiating an end to the war in Gaza and the return of Israeli hostages. A leaked truce proposal hints at concessions by both sides following months of stalemated talks. Israeli leaders are weighing whether to accept a deal that would delay or prevent their planned ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. That scenario would fall short of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledges of “total victory” and the destruction of Hamas. Meanwhile, Hamas’ militant leaders must decide if they should give up the hostages, the group’s biggest bargaining chip. Freeing the 100 remaining captives could secure a long-term truce, but not necessarily a permanent end to the war.

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.

DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Herbert Rubinstein was 5 years old when he and his mother where taken from the Jewish ghetto of Chernivtsi and put on a cramped cattle wagon waiting to take them to their deaths. It was 1941, and Romanians collaborating with Germany's Nazis were rounding up tens o…

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.