1. The Israeli government is expected to convene a Cabinet meeting on Thursday afternoon to formally approve a ceasefire and hostage release deal with the Islamic group Hamas. The two sides agreed to the first phase of the US-proposed peace plan for the Gaza Strip in the latest round of indirect talks that began in Egypt on Monday. Egypt is one of the mediators for the negotiations. US President Donald Trump announced on social media on Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had both signed off on the first phase of his peace plan.
2. Japanese scientist Kitagawa Susumu, one of the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry, says he hopes to tell people in an easy-to-understand way about the molecular materials he has created. Kitagawa and two other scientists were selected for the prize on Wednesday. They were recognized for developing “a new form of molecular architecture” by making new substances with extremely tiny holes. The substances are called metal-organic frameworks.
3. Real wages in Japan are down for the eighth straight month as price rises continue to outpace pay growth. Preliminary data released by the labor ministry on Wednesday show inflation-adjusted pay in August fell by 1.4 percent from the same month last year.