DOHA/CAIRO — Negotiators were scheduled to meet in Doha on Tuesday to finalize details of a plan to end the war in Gaza after US President Joseph R. Biden said a ceasefire and hostage release deal he has championed was on “the brink” of coming to fruition.

Mediators gave Israel and Hamas a final draft of an agreement on Monday, an official briefed on the negotiations said, after a midnight “breakthrough” in talks attended by envoys of both the outgoing U.S. president and President-elect Donald Trump.

“The deal … would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started,” Mr. Biden said in a speech on Monday to highlight his foreign policy achievements.

If successful, the ceasefire deal would cap over a year of start-and-stop talks and lead to the biggest release of Israeli hostages since the early days of the conflict, when Hamas freed about half of its prisoners in exchange for 240 Palestinian detainees held by Israel.

The official briefed on the talks, who did not want to be identified, said the text for a ceasefire and release of hostages was presented by Qatar to both sides at talks in Doha.

“I think there is a good chance we can close this … the parties are right on the cusp of being able to close this deal,” Mr. Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the ball was in Hamas’ court. He is due to present a post-war plan for Gaza on Tuesday, Axios reported.

Hamas said it was keen to reach a deal to end the fighting, which upended the Middle East.

An Israeli official said negotiations were in advanced stages for the release of up to 33 hostages as part of the deal. Ninety-eight hostages remain in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters: “There is progress, it looks much better than previously. I want to thank our American friends for the huge efforts they are investing to secure a hostage deal.”

“The negotiation over some core issues made progress and we are working to conclude what remains soon,” a Hamas official said.

Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and most of its population displaced.

The warring sides have broadly agreed for months on the principle of halting the fighting in return for the release of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian detainees held by Israel. But Hamas has always insisted a deal must lead to a permanent end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel has said it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled.

INAUGURATION SEEN AS DEADLINE
Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration is now widely seen as a de facto deadline for a ceasefire agreement. Mr. Trump has said there would be “hell to pay” unless hostages held by Hamas are freed before he takes office.

Mr. Blinken said negotiators wanted to make sure Mr. Trump would continue to back the deal on the table so the attendance at the ceasefire talks of Mr. Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, along with Mr. Biden’s envoy Brett McGurk, has been “critical.”

An Israeli official who briefed reporters on the proposed deal said its first stage would see 33 hostages set free, including children, women, some of whom are female soldiers, men above 50, and the wounded and sick.

On the 16^th day of the ceasefire, negotiations would start on a second stage during which the remaining living hostages — male soldiers and men of military age — would be released and the bodies of dead hostages returned.

The deal would see a phased troop withdrawal, with Israeli forces remaining in the border perimeter to defend Israeli border towns and villages. There would be security arrangements in the Philadelphi corridor, along the southern edge of Gaza, with Israel withdrawing from parts of it after the first few days of the deal.

Unarmed North Gaza residents would be allowed back, with a mechanism to ensure no weapons are moved there. Israeli troops will withdraw from the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza.

The Israeli official said Palestinian militants convicted of murder or deadly attacks would also be released but numbers would depend on the number of live hostages, which was still unknown, and they would not include fighters who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. — Reuters

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles firefighters braced for high winds overnight into Tuesday, gusts that could fuel two monstrous wildfires that have already leveled entire neighborhoods, killed at least two dozen people, and burned an area the size of Washington, D.C.

Dry, dangerous Santa Ana wind gusts reached 30 to 50 mph (48 to 80 kph) later on Monday, but the red flag warning was not due to start until 10 p.m. PST (0600 GMT) with the peak winds that could hit 75 mph (120 kph) starting around 4 a.m. Tuesday (1200 GMT), said David Roth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.

More than 8,500 firefighters attacked the fires from the air and on the ground, preventing the conflagrations at either end of Los Angeles from spreading overnight.

“This setup is about as bad as it gets,” and Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley told Angelenos, “We are not in the clear.”

Officials said the state was pre-positioning firefighting crews in vulnerable areas, not just in Los Angeles but also in other Southern California counties that were also under elevated fire danger.

The two main wildfires erupted last week, fueled by hurricane-force winds bringing dry air from the inland deserts.

At least 24 people have died in the fires since then, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner reported.

The wildfires have destroyed or damaged more than 12,000 structures, turning entire neighborhoods into smoldering ash and piles of rubble, leaving an apocalyptic landscape.

As of Monday, more than 92,000 people in Los Angeles County were under evacuation orders — down from a previous high of more than 150,000 — while another 89,000 faced evacuation warnings.

The Palisades Fire, which wiped out upscale communities on the western flank of Los Angeles, burned 23,713 acres (96 square km) and was 14% contained, a figure representing the percentage of the fire’s perimeter that firefighters have under control.

The Eaton Fire in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains east of the city consumed another 14,117 acres (57 sq km) and was 33% contained, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) reported.

A third fire of 799 acres (3.2 sq km) north of town was 95% contained and three other fires in the county have been fully brought under control in recent days.

The Eaton fire damaged the Altadena home of Lorraine Bryan, 63, and destroyed two other dwellings on her property. She told Reuters she worries about getting additional doses of insulin that she needs to manage her diabetes.

“I’m worried about insurance and about rebuilding and getting back on my feet,” Ms. Bryan said Monday, standing in the doorway of her charred home. “I need my medication. I’m trying to see who can help us.”

DEATH AND ARRESTS
Deputies are finding human remains every day as they search through burned-out parts of Altadena, where the Eaton fire first ignited, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.

“It is a very grim task,” Mr.Luna said, adding that he expected the confirmed death toll to rise in the days ahead.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has said the firestorm could rank as the most devastating natural disaster in U.S. history. It is already the costliest wildfire in terms of insured losses.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman on Monday said 10 people had been arrested in connection to the fires. Nine people were arrested for residential burglaries of fire-stricken areas. One other person was arrested for arson, for allegedly attempting to light a tree on fire in the city of Azusa, about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

U.S. Senator Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, said during a Monday press conference there was “a special place in hell” for looters.

Flanked by law enforcement personnel, he added: “And if the folks behind me have anything to say about it, there’ll be a special place in jail for you too.”

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was sued on Monday on claims that it failed to properly manage water supplies critical to fighting the deadly Palisades Fire, a court filing showed. Residents who sued allege the department should have maintained water in a nearby reservoir, which was dry at the time the fire first erupted last Tuesday.

AID AND POLITICS
“Our hearts ache for the 24 innocent souls we have lost in the wildfires across Los Angeles,” said U.S. President Joseph R. Biden, who announced additional disaster assistance for California, covering costs fowr debris removal and emergency protective measures.

But top Republicans in the U.S. Congress are considering imposing conditions on disaster aid, accusing the state’s Democratic leadership of mismanaging water resources and forests.

California Governor Newsom and other top Democrats in the state have come under withering criticism for their handling of the fires.

President-elect Donald Trump planned to visit the disaster zone after he is inaugurated next week, a source familiar with the planning said.

With thousands of homeowners facing a costly rebuilding, large commercial banks including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have announced plans to ease mortgage repayment conditions for the afflicted. Insurers are looking at historic losses. — Reuters

HONG KONG — The average temperature in China’s coastal waters rose for a second consecutive year in 2024 to a record 21.50 degrees Celsius (70.7 degrees Fahrenheit), authorities said, in a year that was the world’s hottest since records began.

China describes itself as one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, and is coming under increasing pressure to adapt to rapidly changing weather patterns and sea levels that are rising faster than the global average.

The country faced a slew of extreme weather events last year, from the violent passage of Super Typhoon Yagi across southern Hainan in September to the strongest storm to strike Shanghai since 1949.

The average annual sea surface temperature increased 0.15 Celsius over 2023 and 1.16 Celsius over what it called a normal year average from 1981 to 2010, China’s National Marine Environmental Forecasting center said on its official Wechat account on Jan. 10.

Ocean warming will lead to “frequent extreme weather and climate events”, the centre said, warning of the potential threat to livelihoods.

“Ocean warming contributes to one-third of global sea level rise, and coastal and low-lying areas face increasingly serious risks related to sea level rise, such as land erosion,” it said.

The center said it would “closely monitor” global sea temperatures in 2025.

Global temperatures in 2024 exceeded 1.5 C above the pre-industrial era for the first time, bringing the world closer to breaching the pledge governments made under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, scientists said on Friday. — Reuters