Mediators in talks for a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel are making a last-ditch effort to revive stalled negotiations as the Middle East braces for an Iranian attack on Israel.

The high-stakes meeting set to take place on Thursday will have Qatar, Egypt and the United States present a plan to implement a ceasefire-hostage deal proposed by US President Joe Biden in May – but unresolved differences over last-minute demands presented by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a looming military escalation threaten to derail the process.

Here’s what we know about the status of the talks so far.

What is Biden’s proposal?

In May, Biden laid out a three-phase proposal the administration said was submitted by Israel that would pair a release of hostages from Gaza with a “full and complete ceasefire” and a release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

The first phase would last six weeks and include the “withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza” and the “release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, the wounded in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners” and the implementation of a temporary truce.

Phase 2 would allow for the “exchange for the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers” and a permanent end to the fighting.

In Phase 3, a “major reconstruction plan for Gaza would commence and any final remains of hostages who’ve been killed will be returned to their families,” the US president said.

It is unclear how many of the original hostages set for release are still alive.

What are the key remaining sticking points to Biden’s proposal?

Despite an initial positive reaction from Hamas and Israel, both sides failed to agree on the implementation of the finer details of the proposal including the sequencing of the hostage-prisoner exchange, the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released and how far back Israeli forces should withdraw in Gaza.

Netanyahu has repeatedly stymied the deal as far-right members of his ruling coalition threaten to collapse the government despite pressure from the US and families of hostages.

Ahead of a meeting in Rome last month, the Israeli prime minister presented 11th-hour demands, asking for a mechanism to bar armed men from entering northern Gaza from the south, and the continued Israeli control of the Philadelphi corridor, a strip of territory on the Gaza-Egypt border.

A senior US administration official, speaking to reporters this week, said the “bulk of the work” has been done for the deal, but it’s unlikely that it will be signed at Thursday’s meeting as both sides still have positions on “four or five issues.”

The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Why have the talks stalled?

US officials had said that talks had reached an advanced stage until Hamas’ political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in Tehran in late July in an explosion Iran blamed on Israel. Israel hasn’t confirmed or denied responsibility, but Iran has vowed vengeance.

There were concerns that the assassination would throw a wrench in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas. The militant group replaced Haniyeh with Yahya Sinwar, the hardline Hamas leader in Gaza who is one of Israel’s most wanted men. While Haniyeh, a relative moderate, lived in Qatar and was susceptible to pressure from his host country, Sinwar is believed to be deep underground in a tunnel in Gaza and is hard to reach.

Why are Thursday’s talks so important?

Thursday’s ceasefire talks are the result of a major diplomatic effort by mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US to push for a last-ditch effort to end the war and free the hostages as Iran prepares to attack Israel.

The urgency of the talks was highlighted by the three mediators, who issued a rare joint statement last week calling on the warring parties to return to negotiations and offered what they called a “final bridge proposal” to overcome the remaining sticking points. The details of that proposal have not been made public.

Israel has agreed to send a delegation to the talks, and Hamas has indicated that it is still interested in a deal, requesting a plan to implement the offer proposed by Biden in July, instead of engaging in additional negotiations.

In parallel, US and Middle East diplomats have been mobilizing to dissuade Iran from launching an attack on Israel that could lead to a wider regional war. Both Iran and the US have said that that lines of communication between them are open through intermediaries.

There have been some indications that Iran may abandon plans to attack Israel if a ceasefire deal is reached. But the country’s mission to the United Nations said on Saturday that Tehran’s retaliation is “totally unrelated to the Gaza ceasefire.”

The lack of clarity on whether the Israeli prime minister will adhere to Biden’s May proposal, the source added, suggests time is running out to strike a deal before an Iranian attack. Qatar and Egypt, the source said, may not have enough influence to push Hamas to compromise.

Where just hours ago there were thick rows of trees, now stumps protrude and smoke still rises from scorched soil. On one road in Chalandri, a hilltop village above Athens, a family returns to see their house charred, with bedsheets – left on the line to dry in the sun – now blackened. The teenage son is in tears.

Next door, inside the office of an events company, firefighters found the burned body of the first person to be killed in the blaze. The unnamed woman who perished had worked at the company for 20 years, and had shut herself in the bathroom as the fire swept through the village. Outside, the ground is strewn with roses, now burned, which would have been used to decorate this summer’s weddings and baptisms organized by the company.

Greece’s worst wildfire of the year has eased for now, but firefighters are still working to put out the last of the blaze. After the fire started over the weekend, it tore through more than 156 square miles (400 square kilometers) of forests in the Attica region and up to the suburbs of Athens. Thousands of residents were evaucated.

Although wildfires have become an annual occurrence in Greece, none have reached so close to Athens, a city of more than 3 million people. Residents in nearby villages said they were shocked by how fast the fire had spread.

Another resident said she couldn’t understand how a fire which began more than 40 kilometers (25 miles) away reached the village so quickly. Her car, like scores of others lining the roads that climb out of Athens, was burned. The rubber of the tires, the glass of the windows and fabric of the seating was scorched away, leaving just a carcass of blistered metal.

Emergency crews worked through the night to try to extinguish the fire, which began Sunday afternoon near the town of Varnavas. More than 700 firefighters, nearly 200 vehicles and 35 water-bombing aircraft were deployed to battle the blaze, Greek public broadcaster ERT reported.

Despite the efforts of fire crews, they were hugely aided by the dying down of the wind on Tuesday, which had reached up to 40 mph (65 kph) over the weekend. The fire hazard threat level was set to level 4 out of 5 on Tuesday, and is forecast to fall to a level 3 on Wednesday for the Athens region, according to the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection in Greece. Winds are, however, expected to pick up again on Thursday.

Once the winds and the worst of the blaze abated, residents in Chalandri returned to inspect the damage. A woman named Sophia, whose house was mostly spared but whose awnings were burned, despaired: “This was our land. This was our air and our breath. And it’s completely gone.”

Although wildfires are common in Greek summers, climate scientists say that unusually hot and dry weather linked to global warming make the blazes fiercer and more common. Greek authorities have battled dozens of blazes already this summer after enduring its hottest June and July on record.

“In the next year we will have many incidents like this one, and we must find solutions in the way of evacuating,” said Xypolitas, the mayor.

The family in Chalandri whose house was burned said the government was providing emergency accommodation for two nights, but then they would be left to their own devices.

Mohammad Abu Al Qumsan quivered and gasped in disbelief. His eyes glazed over before he fell limp in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza.

“I beg you. I beg you. Let me see them,” he cried out to health officials at the medical facility on Tuesday.

“She just gave birth. Please let me see her.”

Hours earlier, the Palestinian father-of-two left his apartment in Deir al-Balah to collect birth certificates for his three-day-old twins – Aysal and Aser, a boy and a girl. But while he was out, he said, he received a phone call that an Israeli strike had hit his home, killing the two babies, along with his wife, Jumana.

In another scene, Al Qumsan can be seen kneeling beside the shrouded bodies of the deceased, before performing Islamic funeral prayers with rows of worshippers. His wife, a pharmacist, and the twins were among at least 23 people, including a nine-month-old baby, killed in several Israeli strikes in the area, according to hospital officials.

“May God unite you together in paradise my dear,” said one imam. “I swear to God you will be reunited with them in paradise and be with them forever.”

Just days earlier, Jumana had published a post on Facebook celebrating the birth of her twin babies, describing them as a “miracle.” The couple were married last summer, before the Israel-Hamas war began.

“Together forever,” she wrote in an earlier social media post announcing their wedding, in July 2023.

Israel launched its military offensive on October 7 after the militant group Hamas, which governs Gaza, attacked southern Israel. At least 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 others abducted, according to Israeli authorities.

Since then, Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians – including more than 16,400 children, 115 of them newborns – and wounded more than 92,000, according to the Ministry of Health there.

‘Unrelenting’ war on children

Al Qumsan is one of hundreds of thousands of survivors who have no time to mourn their loved ones against the backdrop of a 10-month Israeli offensive that has killed entire families, deepened a humanitarian crisis, and turned cities into wastelands.

At least 1.9 million people have been displaced, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. The entire population of more than 2.2 million people have been exposed to the risk of famine and disease.

The UN’s children’s agency, UNICEF, warned the “unrelenting” war in Gaza “continues to inflict horrors on thousands of children,” having estimated that there are at least 17,000 unaccompanied or separated children in Gaza.

“I was shocked by the depth of suffering, destruction and widespread displacement in Gaza,” said Salim Oweis, a communications offer for UNICEF, said Friday. “The footage the world sees on television gives an important peek into the living hell people are enduring for over 10 months.

“What it does not fully show is how behind the crumbled buildings – whole neighbourhoods, livelihoods and dreams have been levelled to the ground.”

While it is too early to determine with any certainty what caused a devastating airplane crash in Brazil last week, air disaster experts say the incident bears similarity to a landmark crash 30 years ago that triggered major safety reforms.

Friday’s Voepass 2283 flight from Cascavel, near Brazil’s border with Paraguay, to Guarulhos in São Paulo state, crashed after flying through an area where “severe icing” was forecast between 12,000 and 21,000 feet, according to a publicly available alert to pilots.

The flight was cruising at 17,000 feet, according to data from FlightAware, when the pilots appeared to lose control.

Numerous videos posted on social media show the turboprop ATR 72 in an apparent flat spin as it spiraled toward the ground with no visible forward movement. All 62 passengers and the crew were killed when the plane crashed near Vinhedo, making it 2024’s deadliest crash of a commercial airliner.

In-flight icing can “distort the flow of air over the wing and adversely affect handling qualities,” according to Federal Aviation Administration documents, triggering an airplane to “roll or pitch uncontrollably, and recovery may be impossible.”

“Icing is perhaps the leading theory,” said former NTSB co-chair Bruce Landsberg. “As we progress through the investigation, things will start to solidify.”

A crash in 1994

The French-Italian ATR 72 has “checkered record” Goelz said. On October 31, 1994, an ATR 72 crashed in Roselawn, Indiana; the American Eagle flight 4184 had encountered severe, in-flight icing from freezing drizzle.

All 68 people on board were killed.

Significant testing followed that crash, and the Federal Aviation Administration mandated a modification to the deicing system on the front edge of ATR 72 wings as well as more training for pilots on severe ice encounters.

Today, and in the light of the Voepass incident, Goelz says, “I think the question of whether this plane is safe in icing is worth a serious revisit.”

There are roughly 800 ATR 72s flying worldwide today, according to Goelz. But no major airlines in the United States currently operate the ATR 72, meaning travelers in the US are unlikely to encounter them domestically, but could very well fly in one while traveling abroad.

The ATR 72 utilizes deicing “boots,” designed to expand and physically break apart ice that accumulates on wings. Jet airliners often use heat ducted from the engines to melt ice on the wings, known as bleed air.

“Turboprop aircraft don’t do as well as jet aircraft in severe weather conditions,” said Landsberg, who is writing a book on aviation safety including the Roselawn crash. “A jet likely would not have been at that altitude.”

Following reports of Friday’s crash, ATR said it was aware of an accident and is working to support investigators.

“Our first thoughts are with all the individuals affected by this event. The ATR specialists are fully engaged to support both the investigation and the customer,” the statement said.

Until investigators from Brazil and France begin to seriously dig into the crash, the cause will remain a mystery, Landsberg says. “Aviation safety doesn’t lend itself to quick answers.”

A charity working with homeless people in Auckland, New Zealand unknowingly distributed candies filled with potentially lethal doses of methamphetamine in its food parcels after the sweets were donated by a member of the public.

The Auckland City Mission told reporters on Wednesday that staff had started to contact up to 400 people to track down parcels that could contain the sweets — which were solid blocks of methamphetamine enclosed in candy wrappers. New Zealand’s police have opened a criminal investigation.

The amount of methamphetamine in each candy was up to 300 times the level someone would usually take and could be lethal, according to the New Zealand Drug Foundation — a drug checking and policy organization, which first tested the candies.

Methamphetamine is a powerful, highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. It takes the form of a white, odorless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder that easily dissolves in water or alcohol.

Ben Birks Ang, a foundation spokesperson, said disguising drugs as innocuous goods was a common cross-border smuggling technique and more of the candies might have been distributed throughout New Zealand.

The sweets had a high street value of NZ$ 1,000 ($608) per candy, which suggested the donation by an unknown member of the public was accidental rather than a deliberate attack, Birks Ang said.

The City Missioner, Helen Robinson, said eight families, including at least one child, had reported consuming the contaminated candies since Tuesday. No one was hospitalized and Robinson said the “revolting” taste meant most had immediately spat them out.

The charity’s food bank only accepts donations of commercially produced food in sealed packaging, Robinson said. The pineapple candies, stamped with the label of Malaysian brand Rinda, “appeared as such when they were donated,” arriving in a retail-sized bag, she added.

Auckland City Mission was alerted Tuesday by a food bank client who reported “funny-tasting” candy. Staff tasted some of the remaining candies and immediately contacted the authorities.

The candies had been donated sometime in the past six weeks, Robinson said. It was not clear how many had been distributed in that time and how many were made of methamphetamine.

Some of those who had received the food parcels were clients of the charity’s addiction service and the news that drugs had been distributed had provoked distress.

“To say that we are devastated in an understatement,” Robinson said.

Rinda did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will not run for a second term as leader of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) next month following a series of political scandals that have fueled calls for him to resign.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Kishida said it is necessary to present the LDP as a “changed party.”

“Transparent and open elections and a free and vigorous debate are more important than ever. The most obvious first step, to show that the LDP will change, is for me to step aside,” he said.

“I have made the heavy decision with a strong desire to move forward with political reform, because the people’s trust is what makes politics work.”

The LDP, which has held power almost continuously since its founding in 1955, has in recent months been embroiled in one of Japan’s biggest political scandals in decades.

Two of the most influential factions in the LDP have been accused of failing to properly declare their income and expenditure and, in some instances, allegedly rerouting political funds to lawmakers as kickbacks.

During nearly three years in office, Kishida has vowed to take anti-corruption measures and institute party reforms, including dissolving factions and taking disciplinary action against any corrupt lawmakers.

Concerns about Japan’s economy, including the weakening of the yen against the US dollar, have also undermined confidence in Kishida’s economic policies.

He had previously denied he would step down as party leader despite public criticism and sinking disapproval ratings.

His decision to quit comes a month before LDP elections are slated, with the date in September yet to be announced.

His successor will be tasked to lead the world’s fourth-largest economy at a time of increasing living costs, which has been exacerbated by a weak yen.

Japan has been at the center of US President Joe Biden’s alliance building in the Indo-Pacific. American officials have seen a willing partner in Kishida, who has significantly shifted the country’s defense posture in recent years and provided ongoing support to Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.

This story has been updated with additional information.