Mediators from America, Egypt and Qatar will gather in Doha on Thursday to discuss a ceasefire in Gaza. Israel has said it will send a delegation. Hamas has not: it says there is nothing to discuss beyond the ceasefire proposal it offered in July. But the two sides still disagree on core issues, including whether Israeli troops would withdraw from Gaza completely. Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has spent months trying to sabotage any possible deal to ensure his own political survival.

The talks in Qatar’s capital are not only meant to end the ten-month war in Gaza. Mediators also want to prevent Iran and its allies from retaliating against Israel for assassinations in Beirut and Tehran last month. President Joe Biden thinks Iran will hold back if there is a ceasefire in Gaza. Some Iranian officials have made similar comments. If the talks fail, the fear is that a bigger regional war may follow.

It has been a rollercoaster of a year for Japan. On Wednesday the prime minister, Kishida Fumio, said that he would step down next month, amid dismal polling numbers. On August 5th the stockmarket suffered its biggest fall since 1987. And the Bank of Japan, which abandoned its longstanding negative interest-rate policy in March, raised its benchmark interest rate to 0.25% in July.

The economy has had a shaky post-pandemic recovery. It shrank by an annualised 2.9% in the first quarter of 2024, mainly because of sluggish private consumption. But on Thursday figures showed annualised growth of 3.1% in the second quarter, much faster than was expected.

It is not just economic and political tremors that Japan fears: warnings of a mega-earthquake on its Pacific coast, even if it does not come, may put off tourists and drag down consumption. The government may end its week-long earthquake alert on Thursday. If it does, the country will breathe a sigh of relief.

Pupils in England, Northern Ireland and Wales receive their A-level exam grades on Thursday. If Scottish grades, released last week, are any indication, many will be disappointed: pass rates in that country have returned roughly to pre-covid levels after several years of lenient marking.

But the deepest frowns will be on the faces of university leaders . Foreign students, who pay higher fees than natives, seem to have cooled on Britain: the number of applications for study visas was 15% lower in July than a year earlier. The government has frozen tuition fees paid by British students, so incomes to universities are falling in real terms. The new Labour government seems disinclined to raise fees. That would anger students and could increase the cost to the state, since most students pay for tuition by taking out subsidised loans, and not all of the money is paid back. Expect loud, eloquent grumbles.

Kashmir has long stood apart from the rest of India. That is partly down to geography: its valley, where most of its residents live, lies deep in the Himalaya mountains. It is inaccessible to India’s vast railway network.

That will change on Thursday, when the first train will enter Kashmir via the Chenab Bridge, timed to mark India’s 78th independence day. Opened earlier this year by Narendra Modi, India’s infrastructure-obsessed prime minister, the structure, which stands 359 metres above the Chenab river, is the world’s highest rail bridge. It is meant to attract greater trade and tourism to the region.

Locals, however, have more pressing concerns. Militancy in the region has surged in the past month. Three soldiers were killed in attacks this week. In 2019 Mr Modi’s government controversially took over the administration of the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir, partly to promote peace and stability there. Recent events suggest that might be a bridge too far even for Mr Modi.

For just four days starting on Thursday something remarkable will sprout in the Belgian capital. Close to a million fresh blooms will be laid out in the city centre to form the Brussels Flower Carpet. Created every two years since 1986, the brightly-coloured display of dahlias and begonias celebrates Belgian traditions of flower cultivation and decorative design.

Viewed from the tower of the Gothic town hall that dominates the city’s main square, the 70-metre-long floral arrangement looks like a lush carpet. Previous editions have featured designs that evoked African tribal art, pre-Columbian Mexico and Turkish kilims. This year’s pattern, created by Océane Cornille, a Belgian street artist, is a tribute to Brussels itself. Titled “Rhizome”, it references Art Nouveau, the playful, swirling and plant-like decorative style that first flourished in the city before taking hold in fin-de-siècle Paris and Edwardian London.