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Ukraine and Russia carried out massive air strikes targeting each other’s military infrastructure on Sunday as Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would dispatch a team of negotiators to Istanbul for another round of peace talks.

The Ukrainian President’s confirmation followed days of speculation over whether Kyiv would attend after Zelenskyy accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of doing “everything” to sabotage the talks, which are due to take place on Monday.

Ahead of the talks, both sides launched some of the most ambitious air attacks since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, hit four airfields deep inside Russia that were home to a number of strategic bombers used in air raids, according to one of its officials.

“SBU drones are targeting aircraft that bomb Ukrainian cities every night. At this point, more than 40 aircraft have reportedly been hit,” the official told the Financial Times, adding that drones struck four Russian military airfields in “one co-ordinated operation” thousands of kilometres away from the front line.

Aircraft were “burning” at the Belaya airfield, located in south-eastern Siberia about 5,500km east of the Ukrainian border; at the Olenya air base on the Kola Peninsula near Murmansk; Dyagilevo air base 200km south-east of Moscow; and Ivanovo airfield, 300km north-east of the Russian capital, the official said.

Video footage filmed by a Ukrainian reconnaissance aircraft and shared by the official appeared to show one Russian airfield in flames and drones attacking several planes. In another video, the voice of SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk is heard approving the attacks.

According to people familiar with the operation, the attack, codenamed Spiderweb, was planned more than a year in advance and “personally supervised” by Zelenskyy. It used dozens of small “first-person view” drones armed with explosives.

The SBU smuggled the drones into Russia, followed later by small wooden mobile cabins, the people said. The drones were then concealed under the roofs of the structures, which had been loaded on to lorries. On Sunday, the roofs were remotely opened and the drones launched towards Russian military airfields.

“This is exactly what we need to win the war, which is an asymmetric conflict — military creativity like that,” said Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

In recent days Zelenskyy has blasted Putin for failing to provide a “memorandum” outlining Russia’s conditions for peace. The memo had been promised to Kyiv and Washington ahead of the next round of negotiations.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s delegation would again be led by defence minister Rustem Umerov and that Russia had received his terms already. The president said he was seeking a full and unconditional ceasefire, the release of all prisoners, the return of Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia and an agreement for him to meet Putin.

“The key issues can only be resolved by the leaders,” he said.

Russia’s delegation will be led by Vladimir Medinsky, who headed up failed talks with Ukraine in the war’s early months in 2022 as well as the most recent meeting in Istanbul last month. Igor Kostyukov, head of Russia’s military intelligence agency, deputy foreign minister Mikhail Galuzin and deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin will also join the talks alongside a ground of Russian experts.

Moscow on Sunday launched 472 drones over Ukraine overnight in its largest drone attack since 2022, according to Ukraine’s air force. Explosions were reported in the cities of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, while air defences were activated over Kyiv.

Russian forces also launched three ballistic missiles and four cruise missiles, according to the Ukrainian air force, which said strikes had been recorded in 18 locations. Three cruise missiles and 382 drones were either shot down or jammed with electronic warfare devices.

One missile strike on a military training ground in the country’s east killed 12 people and injured more than 60. Ukrainian ground forces did not disclose the location of the strike or the missile used.

Russian ground forces have stepped up their latest offensive in the Ukrainian region of Sumy, where they control at least 110 square kilometres of territory, according to DeepState, a war-monitoring group linked to the Ukrainian military.

Zelenskyy told reporters earlier this week that Moscow had gathered more than 50,000 troops in the area for a possible offensive towards the regional capital. Ukrainian authorities ordered the mandatory evacuation of 11 villages in the area.

Lawsuits, next-day countersuits, backtracking and mass confusion. International students find themselves at the center of a dizzying legal landscape as the Trump administration continues to crack down on immigration.

Here’s what to know as the Trump administration keeps attempting to put up legal barriers to international students’ ability to study in the U.S.

What’s the latest?

Just Wednesday, a judge granted Harvard an extension on an injunction that blocked the administration’s attempt last week to stop the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign-born students.

An estimated 4,700 or more foreign-born students have been impacted since the Trump administration began revoking visas and terminating legal statuses in March. A few have also been detained in high-profile cases.

In just the past two weeks, students across the country were granted a nationwide injunction against the administration. Some scholars have been released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well. Meanwhile the State Department announced that it is “aggressively” targeting an additional group of Chinese scholars out of national security concerns.

But in spite of its legal losses, the federal government has doubled down on its efforts to target international students. On Tuesday, the Trump administration stopped scheduling new student visa interviews for those looking to study in the U.S., according to an internal cable seen by NBC News. Meanwhile, the State Department is preparing to expand its social media screening of applicants, the cable said.

The next day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the government would be looking to revoke the visas of Chinese students “with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.”

It’s still unclear what “critical fields” the administration will be looking into and what types of connections to the CCP are under scrutiny. The State Department referred NBC News to comments by spokesperson Tammy Bruce during a news briefing Thursday in which Bruce said the department does not discuss the details of its visa process due to privacy concerns.

“We use every tool that we have to vet and to make sure we know who’s coming in,” Bruce said. “In this particular case, the United States is putting America first by beginning to revoke visas of Chinese students as warranted.”

How did the Trump administration revoke the visas and statuses of international students?

For months, there was mass confusion among schools and international students about the criteria the government used to abruptly terminate visas and statuses, with little to no notice to students. But in late April, the Department of Homeland Security revealed at a hearing that it used the National Crime Information Center, an FBI-run computerized index that includes criminal history information.

The agency said fewer than two dozen employees ran the names of 1.3 million foreign-born students through the index, populating 6,400 “hits.” And from there, many students experienced terminations of their records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), which maintains information about nonimmigrant students and exchange visitors.

The method was sharply criticized by legal and policy experts, who pointed out that the database relies on cities, counties, states and other sources to voluntarily report their data. This means that it may not have the final dispositions of cases, potentially leading to errors in identifying students.

At another hearing in April, Elizabeth D. Kurlan, an attorney for the Justice Department, said that going forward, Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not be terminating statuses based solely on findings in the crime information center. She also told the court that ICE would be restoring the legal status of international students who had their records terminated until the agency developed a new framework for revocations.

Shortly afterward, an internal memo to all Student and Exchange Visitor Program personnel, which is under ICE jurisdiction, showed an expanded list of criteria for the agency to terminate foreign-born students’ legal status in the U.S., including a “U.S. Department of State Visa Revocation (Effective Immediately).” Though students would typically have the right to due process and defend themselves before their status is terminated, visa revocation itself is now grounds for the termination of status, according to the memo.

The administration has also taken aim at students who have been active in pro-Palestine protests, including Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk, who were both detained in March. Öztürk has since been released from ICE custody.

“Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,” Rubio said at a news conference in March.

Has anyone been successful in challenging the Trump administration?

Students across the U.S. from Georgia to South Dakota have been winning their lawsuits against the Trump administration, with judges siding with plaintiffs and allowing them to stay in the U.S.

Last week, a judge issued an injunction blocking the Trump administration from terminating the legal statuses of international students at universities across the U.S. It’s the first to provide relief to students nationwide.

The day after the Trump administration terminated Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification — a move that would force the university’s foreign students, roughly a fourth of its student body, to either transfer or lose their legal status — the Ivy League school sued the administration. And hours later, a judge issued an injunction.

In addition to Öztürk, others who were detained are no longer in ICE custody, including Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri and Mohsen Mahdawi, a U.S. permanent resident who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

The judge in Khan Suri’s case ruled that his detention was in violation of the First Amendment, which protects the right to free speech, and the Fifth Amendment, which protects the right to due process.

What might be next for international students?

Though the recent nationwide injunction provides some relief, students can still be vulnerable to visa revocation. Legal experts say the temporary restraining order blocks the government from arresting or detaining students, or terminating their legal statuses. But it’s possible that visas can still be revoked. And many expect the Trump administration to hit back.

“This is a federal district court decision. It is not a final decision, and it seems likely that the executive branch will appeal this decision,” Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School.

Mukherjee also added that the Chinese international students referred to in Rubio’s new statement are likely not protected by the injunction either.

“What they’re likely to claim in court in defense of this policy is that the secretary of state and the executive branch deserves deference with regard to quote, unquote, foreign affairs,” Mukherjee said.

However, with backlash already brewing, Mukherjee said she expects that the policy will be challenged legally, with immigration attorneys and activists arguing that it is unconstitutional.

Legal experts said that with many decisions surrounding international students’ fate far from decided, foreign-born scholars should first and foremost remain in the country. She also said it’s important to seek legal counsel in the event that students are also eligible for other forms of relief, including asylum or other humanitarian visas.

Razeen Zaman, director of immigrant rights at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said it’s particularly important for American citizens to speak out against the immigration policies on behalf of foreign-born students, as many of these students may not be able to push back themselves.

“You have to have a certain amount of resources to be able to do that. You have to have a certain amount of connections. There’s even some people who are too afraid to seek counsel,” Zaman said. “U.S. citizens have the most protections. … And the reality is, even if you’re stopped at the border, they do have to still let you in as a U.S. citizen.”

And given how the Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of more than 500,000 immigrants from four Latin American countries, Zaman said, it’s likely that even more groups will be targeted without fierce advocacy and protest.

“This is about the First Amendment today. It’s Chinese people, the CCP, whoever they decide is tied to the Chinese government,” Zaman said.

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US envoy Steve Witkoff has rejected Hamas’s response to a fresh ceasefire proposal in the Gaza war as “totally unacceptable”.

Hamas had earlier responded positively to the release of a comparable number of Israeli hostages, but raised “clarifications” regarding the overall deal, according to a diplomat briefed on the talks.

The militant group also insisted that its goal was still to permanently end the war, secure a comprehensive Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza, and guarantee increased humanitarian aid flows.

“I received the Hamas response to the United States’ proposal. It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward,” Witkoff said in a statement.

“Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week.”

Witkoff’s new proposal called for a 60-day pause in the fighting, the release of half the 58 remaining Israeli hostages, 20 of whom are still alive, and “good faith negotiations” over a permanent halt to the war.

The Trump administration indicated this week that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted the terms, although he has consistently rejected ending the fighting before Hamas is completely destroyed.

Netanyahu’s office on Saturday night said that while Israel had accepted the proposal, “Hamas continues to stick to its refusal,” and vowed “to continue operations for the return of our hostages and the defeat of Hamas.”

The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday confirmed that Hamas’s military chief, Mohammed Sinwar, and several other senior commanders were killed in a May 13 air strike in the city of Khan Younis in south Gaza. According to the IDF, the group was targeted while in a tunnel located below the grounds of the city’s European hospital.

Sinwar took overall command of Hamas’s forces last year, after most of the group’s other top leaders — including his brother, Yahya — were previously killed by Israel.

Also on Saturday, Israel blocked the entry of several Arab foreign ministers to the occupied West Bank, calling it a provocative move aimed at promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The Israeli veto came ahead of a visit on Sunday to Ramallah, the administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority, by a high-level delegation including Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister.

It would have been the first official visit by a senior Saudi official to the territory which was seized by Israel during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Successive US administrations have sought to normalise relations between the kingdom and Israel.

Other members of the delegation included the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain — all Arab states that have diplomatic ties with Israel.

An Israeli official said with regard to the refusal to allow the Arab delegation into the West Bank that the Palestinian Authority “intended to host . . . a provocative meeting of foreign ministers from Arab countries to discuss the promotion of the establishment of a Palestinian state . . . [that] would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the Land of Israel”.

“Israel will not co-operate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security,” the official added.

International pressure on Israel has intensified in recent weeks, primarily over its renewed offensive in Gaza and the dire humanitarian conditions in the enclave.

Much of the international community views the West Bank, alongside East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, as the basis of a future Palestinian state.

France and Saudi Arabia are set to host a summit in New York next month on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with several western governments, including the UK, considering recognising a Palestinian state.

Jordan’s foreign ministry said that the denial of entry to the delegation was a “blatant violation of Israel’s obligations as the occupying power” in the West Bank and reflected “the extent of the Israeli government’s arrogance, its disregard for international law and its continued illegitimate measures and policies”.

The Palestinian ambassador in Riyadh told Saudi state news television channel Al-Ekhbariya on Friday that the “rare” visit sought to mobilise support for a two-state solution ahead of the conference in New York.

On Thursday the Israeli government announced the creation of 22 new settlements across the West Bank, the biggest expansion in years of an enterprise that many governments consider illegal.

Israeli ministers described the decision as a “decisive response” to Palestinian militancy and a “strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state”.

Nearly 500,000 Jewish Israelis have settled in the West Bank over the past five decades. About 3mn Palestinians live in the territory under Israeli military rule and partial autonomy administered by the Palestinian Authority.

Additional reporting by Ahmed Al Omran in Jeddah and Andrew England in London