significant

Hamas agreeing to release the remaining hostages, albeit subject to negotiations and certain conditions being met, will give real hope to the family members in Israel who have been desperate for this kind of news for a very long time.

In its statement responding to the US peace proposal, the group agreed to “release all Israeli prisoners, both living and dead, according to the exchange formula contained in President Donald Trump’s proposal, provided the field conditions for the exchange are met”.

That formula, outlined by Trump at the White House earlier this week, proposes an immediate end to the fighting and the release within 72 hours of all living Israeli hostages held by Hamas – as well as the remains of hostages thought to be dead – in exchange for hundreds of detained Gazans.

There are believed to be 48 hostages still being held in the Palestinian territory by the armed group, only 20 of whom are thought to be alive.

The acceptance by Hamas of another key part of the US peace plan, the idea of handing over the governance of Gaza to Palestinian technocrats, is also clearly significant.

But there are plenty of other elements of the lengthy, 20-point proposal that are glaring by their absence.

The most notable of those is the requirement that Hamas lay down its arms.

The Israeli government will now be poring over the wording of the statement to glean the true intent.

It will need to decide whether it sees this as a genuine good faith acceptance of some of the key points of the deal, or merely an attempt to buy time and reopen long drawn out negotiations.

Given that it came just a few hours after President Donald Trump issued his final ultimatum for Hamas to agree by Sunday evening or face “all hell”, some members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet are likely to be deeply sceptical.

That is particularly true now the US president has called on Israel to immediately stop the bombing of Gaza.

“Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE,” Trump said shortly after the Hamas statement was released.

“Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly,” he said. “Right now, it’s far too dangerous to do that.”

The Israelis will not like the last paragraph of his statement suggesting Hamas would retain a role in negotiations over the long term future of Gaza.

The Hamas statement is significant, no doubt. In a video message released later on Friday, Trump said it was a “big day” and thanked a series of countries which he said had helped him put the proposal together.

But there is still a huge amount of detail to be worked through before peace in the region becomes anything like a reality. And the president appeared to acknowledge this was not a done deal.

“We’ll see how it all turns out,” he said. “We have to get the final word down and concrete.”

Chichester City FC and former Arsenal striker Billy Vigar has died after sustaining a “significant brain injury”.

Vigar, 21 and from Worthing, was injured during a game at Wingate and Finchley on Saturday in the Isthmian League Premier Division.

It is thought the injury was caused when he collided with a concrete wall, but the club has not confirmed this.

Vigar’s family said on Thursday they were “devastated that this has happened while he was playing the sport he loved”.

“After sustaining a significant brain injury last Saturday, Billy Vigar was put into an induced coma,” the family said.

“On Tuesday, he needed an operation to aid any chances of recovery. Although this helped, the injury proved too much for him and he passed away on Thursday morning.

“The responses to the original update show how much Billy was loved and thought of within the sport.”

Vigar was a graduate of the Arsenal academy, and also had spells at Derby County, Hastings FC and Eastbourne Borough.

In latest development of his weapons arsenal, Kim supervised the test of a new solid-fuel rocket engine for North Korea’s ICBMs.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen a test of a new rocket engine designed for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that he described as marking a “significant change in expanding and strengthening” the country’s strategic nuclear forces.

The country’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Tuesday that the successful test marked the ninth and final ground test of the solid-fuel rocket engine, built with carbon fibre and capable of producing 1,971 kilonewtons of thrust – a measure of propulsive force which is more powerful than earlier North Korean rocket engines.

The KCNA said that Kim expressed satisfaction after Monday’s test, calling the “eye-opening” development of the new rocket engine a “significant change” in North Korean nuclear capabilities.

The announcement that tests on the solid-fuel rocket are now complete comes a week after Kim visited the research institute that developed the engine, and where he unveiled that a next-generation Hwasong-20 ICBM is currently under development.

The development of North Korea’s ICBM arsenal adds to Pyongyang’s efforts in recent years to build weapons that pose as a viable threat to the continental United States, according to defence analysts.

Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions are seen as a means to bolster North Korea’s status as a nuclear power and give it leverage in negotiating economic and security concessions with the US and other world powers.

North Korea also marked the 77th anniversary of its founding on Tuesday, by the current leader’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung.

In a separate report, KCNA said that Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to Kim and called for strengthened “strategic communication” between Beijing and Pyongyang.

“The Chinese side is ready to join hands in promoting the China-DPRK friendship and the socialist cause of the two countries through the intensified strategic communication and brisk visits and close cooperation with the DPRK side,” Xi wrote, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Last week, Kim joined Russian President Vladimir Putin and Xi in Beijing for China’s Victory Day Parade commemorating the end of World War II.

Analysts have said that the rare trip to an international gathering of world leaders was a diplomatic win for Kim, who has fortified his alliance with Russia and China.

As President Trump declared Washington, D.C., a crime-ridden wasteland in need of federal intervention last week and threatened similar actions in other Black-led cities, several mayors compared notes.

The president’s characterization of their cities contradicts what they began noticing last year: that they were seeing a drop in violent crime after a pandemic-era spike. In some cases the declines were monumental, due in large part to more youth engagement, gun buyback programs and community partnerships.

Now members of the African American Mayors Assn. are determined to stop Trump from burying accomplishments that they already believed were overlooked. And they’re using the administration’s unprecedented law enforcement takeover in the nation’s capital as an opportunity to disprove his narrative about some of the country’s greatest urban enclaves.

“It gives us an opportunity to say we need to amplify our voices to confront the rhetoric that crime is just running rampant around major U.S. cities. It’s just not true,” said Van Johnson, mayor of Savannah, Ga., and president of the African American Mayors Assn. “It’s not supported by any evidence or statistics whatsoever.”

Trump has deployed the first of 800 National Guard members to the nation’s capital, and at his request, the Republican governors of three states pledged hundreds more Saturday. West Virginia said it was sending 300 to 400 Guard troops, South Carolina pledged 200, and Ohio said it would send 150 in the coming days, marking a significant escalation of the federal intervention.

Beyond Washington, the Republican president is setting his sights on other cities including Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and Oakland, calling them crime-ridden and “horribly run.” One thing they all have in common: They’re led by Black mayors.

“It was not lost on any member of our organization that the mayors either were Black or perceived to be Democrats,” Johnson said. “And that’s unfortunate. For mayors, we play with whoever’s on the field.”

The federal government’s actions have heightened some of the mayors’ desires to champion the strategies used to help make their cities safer.

Some places are seeing dramatic drops in crime rates

Trump argued that federal law enforcement had to step in after a prominent employee of his White House advisory team known as the Department of Government Efficiency was attacked in an attempted carjacking. He also pointed to homeless encampments, graffiti and potholes as evidence of Washington “getting worse.”

But statistics published by Washington’s Metropolitan Police contradict the president and show violent crime has dropped there since a post-pandemic-emergency peak in 2023.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson scoffed at Trump’s remarks, hailing the city’s “historic progress driving down homicides by more than 30% and shootings by almost 40% in the last year alone.”

Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, where homicides fell 14% from 2023 to 2024, called the federal takeover in District of Columbia a performative “power grab.”

In Baltimore, officials say they have seen historic decreases in homicides and nonfatal shootings this year, and those have been on the decline since 2022, according to the city’s public safety data dashboard. Carjackings were down 20% in 2023, and other major crimes fell in 2024. Only burglaries have climbed slightly.

The lower crime rates are attributed to tackling violence with a “public health” approach, city officials say. In 2021, under Mayor Brandon Scott, Baltimore created a Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan that called for more investment in community violence intervention, more services for crime victims and other initiatives.

Scott accused Trump of exploiting crime as a “wedge issue and dog whistle” rather than caring about curbing violence.

“He has actively undermined efforts that are making a difference saving lives in cities across the country in favor of militarized policing of Black communities,” Scott said via email.

The Democratic mayor pointed out that the Justice Department has slashed more than $1 million in funding this year that would have gone toward community anti-violence measures. He vowed to keep on making headway regardless.

“We will continue to closely work with our regional federal law enforcement agencies, who have been great partners, and will do everything in our power to continue the progress despite the roadblocks this administration attempts to implement,” Scott said.

Oakland officials this month touted significant decreases in crime in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2024, including a 21% drop in homicides and a 29% decrease in all violent crime, according to the midyear report by the Major Cities Chiefs Assn. Officials credited collaborations with community organizations and crisis response services through the city’s Department of Violence Prevention, established in 2017.

“These results show that we’re on the right track,” Mayor Barbara Lee said at a news conference. “We’re going to keep building on this progress with the same comprehensive approach that got us here.”

After the president gave his assessment of Oakland last week, Lee, a steadfast Trump antagonist during her years in Congress, rejected it as “fearmongering.”

Social justice advocates agree that crime has gone down and say Trump is perpetuating exaggerated perceptions that have long plagued Oakland.

Nicole Lee, executive director of Urban Peace Movement, an Oakland-based organization that focuses on empowering communities of color and young people through initiatives such as leadership training and assistance to victims of gun violence, said much credit for the gains on lower crime rates is due to community groups.

“We really want to acknowledge all of the hard work that our network of community partners and community organizations have been doing over the past couple of years coming out of the pandemic to really create real community safety,” Lee said. “The things we are doing are working.”

She worries that an intervention by military troops would undermine that progress.

“It creates kind of an environment of fear in our community,” she said.

Patrols and youth curfews

In Washington, agents from multiple federal agencies, National Guard members and even the United States Park Police have been seen performing law enforcement duties including patrolling the National Mall and questioning people parked illegally.

Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said the National Guard troops will not be armed, but he declined to elaborate on their assignments to safety patrols and beautification efforts.

Savannah’s Johnson said he is all for partnering with the federal government, but troops on city streets is not what he envisioned. Instead, he said, cities need federal assistance for things like multistate investigation and fighting problems such as gun trafficking and cybercrime.

“I’m a former law enforcement officer. There is a different skill set that is used for municipal law enforcement agencies than the military,” Johnson said.

There has also been speculation that federal intervention could entail curfews for young people.

But that would do more harm, Lee said, disproportionately affecting young people of color and wrongfully assuming that youths are the main instigators of violence.

“If you’re a young person, basically you can be cited, criminalized, simply for being outside after certain hours,” she said. “Not only does that not solve anything in regard to violence and crime, it puts young people in the crosshairs of the criminal justice system.”

A game of wait-and-see

For now, Johnson said, the mayors are closely watching their counterpart in Washington, Muriel Bowser, to see how she navigates the unprecedented federal intervention. She has been walking a fine line between critiquing and cooperating since Trump’s takeover, but things ramped up Friday when officials sued to block the administration’s naming its Drug Enforcement Administration chief as an “emergency” head of the police force. The administration soon backed away from that move.

Johnson praised Bowser for carrying on with dignity and grace.

“Black mayors are resilient. We are intrinsically children of struggle,” Johnson said. “We learn to adapt quickly, and I believe that we will and we are.”

Tang writes for the Associated Press.

Trump’s administration halts mRNA vaccine development, sparking WHO fears for emerging pandemic preparedness.

The decision by US President Donald Trump’s administration to terminate 22 federal contracts for mRNA-based vaccines is a major blow to a hugely promising platform, the World Health Organization said.

“This is, of course, a significant blow,” WHO immunisation figurehead Joachim Hombach told the UN correspondents’ association ACANU on Thursday.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announcement that it will wind down mRNA vaccine development activities under its biomedical research unit is the latest development under US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a long-time vaccine sceptic who has been making sweeping changes to reshape vaccines, food and medicine policies.

“mRNA vaccines are a very important technology and platform which has served us extremely well for COVID. We also know there is very promising work going on in relation to influenza vaccines,” Hombach said. “From our perspective, the platform is particularly useful in relation to developing vaccines against emerging and pandemic threats, because these platforms can be very rapidly adapted.”

Unlike traditional vaccines, which often use weakened or inactivated forms of the target virus or bacteria, mRNA shots deliver genetic instructions into the host’s cells, prompting them to produce a harmless decoy of the pathogen and train the immune system to fight the real thing.

The US health department’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority is “terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu”, Kennedy said.

Hombach, executive secretary for the WHO’s strategic advisory group of experts on immunisation, called for work on the development of mRNA vaccines to continue around the world.

“This is, from our perspective, an unfortunate and untimely move, but we are confident that the research endeavour will continue because it’s an extremely promising technology,” he told reporters.

Shortly after his inauguration in January, Trump signed an executive order directing the United States to withdraw from the WHO, an organisation he has repeatedly criticised over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority helps companies develop medical supplies to address public health threats, and had provided billions of dollars for the development of vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

HHS said the wind-down includes cancellation of a contract awarded to Moderna MRNA.O for the late-stage development of its bird flu vaccine for humans and the right to buy the shots, as previously reported in May.

The US health agency said it was also rejecting or cancelling multiple pre-award solicitations, including proposals from Pfizer PFE.N, Sanofi Pasteur SASY.PA, CSL Seqirus CSL.AX, Gritstone and others.

Kennedy said the department is terminating these programmes because data show these vaccines “fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu,” but did not offer scientific evidence.

“We’re shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate,” Kennedy said.

In total, the decision affects 22 projects worth nearly $500m, the agency said.

HHS said the decision follows a comprehensive review of mRNA-related investments initiated during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Thomas Frank has had time to brace himself for Son Heung-min’s departure – but the long-term unavailability of Maddison is extremely unwelcome, to say the least.

Son’s farewell match in South Korea earlier this week was marred by the latest knee injury suffered by Maddison.

The anguished expression on his face said it all, and the sympathy lies with him.

But spare a thought for Frank, who in his first season in charge, faces losing two key attacking players.

You’d imagine that Spurs will give big consideration to entering the market for a new attacking midfielder.

Had their move for Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White ended successfully then the requirement to enter the market for offensive reinforcements would be significantly less pressing.

Such attacking quality is hard to come by. Expensive, too.

Mohammed Kudus, signed from West Ham this summer, has played centrally before and could provide an option.

But Spurs will have to do something to replace Maddison’s contribution.

June 27 (UPI) — Iran officially acknowledged its nuclear sites had sustained “serious and significant damage” from U.S. air and missile strikes last weekend.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that while the extent of the damage was still being assessed by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, it was undeniable that the losses were substantial and that the country’s nuclear facilities “have been seriously damaged.”

The admission by Araghchi in an interview with Iranian state television on Thursday came amid conflicting reports on the efficacy of the unprecedented military action launched by the United States against three nuclear sites on June 21.

Earlier Thursday, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khanamei claimed the opposite of his foreign minister, saying damage to the sites had been minimal and instead hailing the “damage inflicted” by Tehran’s “victorious” retaliatory strike on the United States’ Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar on Monday.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has said the strikes using 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs and long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles “completely and fully obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program — although public briefings have focused on the “primary site,” a key underground uranium enrichment plant at Fordow, with few details forthcoming on the facilities at Natanz and Esfahan.

U.S. officials have pushed back on a leaked preliminary report by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency that assessed the strikes had only set back Iran’s nuclear development by a few months at most, with the White House calling its findings “flat-out wrong.”

Araghchi said inspectors from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, might never be allowed back into Iran.

Iranian lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday, effectively banning any future cooperation with the IAEA, which Tehran has accused of carrying out reconnaissance on behalf of Israel and the United States.

The legislation has been waived through by the Guardian Council and will go forward to President Masoud Pezeshkian’s desk for him to sign into law, or veto.

“Without a doubt, we are obliged to enforce this law. Iran’s relationship with the agency will take a different shape,” Araghchi warned.

The independent London-based Iran International said Tehran was considering quitting the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

However, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei on Thursday, reasserted Iran’s right to pursue peaceful nuclear development afforded to it by the treaty, according to state-run Press TV.

Citing Article IV of the 1968 agreement, he said Iran was determined to keep its nuclear program going “under any circumstances.”

The statement came a day after Trump, announcing fresh Iran-U.S. talks, said he wasn’t interested in existing or new agreements because the only thing the U.S. would be asking for was “no nuclear.”

Araghchi took to social media to claim Iran had conducted itself honorably and abided by international diplomatic norms, contrasting its record against that of European countries and the United States in particular, accusing Washington of treachery for attacking when Iran-U.S. talks were still in play.

“Our diplomatic legitimacy was undeniable. In every conversation I had with foreign ministers, they either approved Iran’s rightful position or were forced into silence. We stood firm, and even adversaries acknowledged our position,” he said in a post on X.

“We have had a very difficult experience with the Americans. In the middle of negotiations, they betrayed the negotiation itself. This experience will certainly influence our future decisions.”

Araghchi confirmed no resumption of talks was planned despite Trump saying Wednesday that the two countries would meet “next week.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at her regular briefing Thursday that nothing was “scheduled as of now,” but that communication channels between the United States and Iran remained active.

Israeli military says it shelled targets in Syria in response to a pair of projectile launches.

Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned an Israeli strike on the Syrian province of Deraa, saying that it caused “significant human and material losses”, the state news agency SANA reports.

The strike came after the Israeli military said that two projectiles had crossed from Syria towards Israel on Tuesday, and fell in open areas in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights, though the Syrian Foreign Ministry said these were “reports that have not been verified yet”.

The ministry reiterated that Syria has not and would not pose a threat to any party in the region.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the projectiles.

“We believe that there are many parties that may seek to destabilise the region to achieve their own interests,” the ministry added.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he held Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa responsible for the projectiles.

“We consider the president of Syria directly responsible for any threat and fire towards the State of Israel, and a full response will come soon,” Katz said.

Syria and Israel have recently engaged in indirect talks to ease tensions, a significant development in relations between states that have been on opposite sides of the conflict in the Middle East for decades.

Several Arab and Palestinian media outlets circulated a claim of responsibility from a little-known group named the Muhammad Deif Brigades, an apparent reference to Hamas’s military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024.

The statement from the group could not be independently verified.

The Israeli army said it attacked southern Syria with artillery fire after the projectiles launched at Israel.

Residents said that Israeli mortars were striking the Wadi Yarmouk area, west of Deraa province, near the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The area has witnessed increased tensions in recent weeks, including reported Israeli military incursions into nearby villages, where residents have reportedly been barred from sowing their crops.

Israel has waged a campaign of aerial bombardment that has destroyed much of Syria’s military infrastructure. It has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and taken more territory in the aftermath of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s removal in December, citing lingering concerns over the past of the country’s new government.

Around the same time that Israel reported the projectiles from Syria, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile from Yemen.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said they targeted Israel’s Jaffa with a ballistic missile. The group has been launching attacks against Israel in what they say is in support of Palestinians during the Israeli war in Gaza.

The Finnish Aviation Union has announced three strikes among workers at Helsinki Airport over the coming weeks, with Finnair the airline most impacted by the industrial action

Finnair has grounded 110 flights, impacting 8,000 customers, on a single day of a three-day strike.

Brits flying to Finland are facing travel chaos yet again, as the Finnish Aviation Union (IAU) has announced three fresh strikes on May 30, June 2, and June 4 at Helsinki Airport. This is Finland’s seventh aviation strike in under a month.

The industrial action is predicted to impact just shy of 30 UK flights across the three days. As the summer getaway kicks off, this latest wave of strikes will have ripple effects across Europe. The IAU, representing ground handling, baggage, catering, maintenance, and customer service staff, will strike over wage disputes with PALTA in 4-hour staggered shifts, leading to full-day disruptions.

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According to the IAU, the average earnings of Finnair Group employees rose by 6.4 percent between 2020 and 2023. During that same period the national average increase across all sectors was 10.4 percent.

The strikes are designed to maximise disruption, with union officials organising the walkouts at strategic times across a six-day window. The result is a wave of residual disruption: cancelled flights one day, incomplete baggage delivery the next, and last-minute rerouting throughout.

Palta, which represents employers, has argued that most employee groups were ready to accept the mediator’s proposed increases, Helsinki Times reports. It has said that the IAU is demanding adjustments beyond what others have asked for.

The cancelled direct flights from the UK will see nearly 5,400 passengers affected. Since Helsinki is a direct transit hub for Brits flying to Asia, the Baltics and Northern Finland. According to Air Advisor, 11,400 UK passengers will be affected.

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Key UK routes likely to be impacted include London Heathrow to Helsinki, Manchester to Helsinki, and Edinburgh to Helsinki.

The IAU strikes are not the only ones impacting European aviation customers this week. The May 30 to June 4 strikes align with Italy’s May 28 aircrew/taxi strikes, creating a rare “Nordic-Mediterranean Disruption Corridor”, disrupting Helsinki, Milan, and Rome hubs. This will strain Frankfurt and Amsterdam connections, adding excessive pressure on these hubs.

Anton Radchenko, aviation expert and founder of AirAdvisor, said: This is no longer a strike story, it’s a system failure story. Helsinki has now had more strikes in 30 days than most countries have in a year. This represents something far more serious than a few cancelled flights: they signal a system on the brink. Helsinki Airport, once considered one of the smoothest hubs in Europe, is now suffering from chronic unpredictability. For UK passengers, this isn’t just about Finland, it’s about how a local dispute can derail an entire travel experience across Europe.

“The most worrying aspect is the deliberate spread of these strikes. By placing them days apart, IAU is stretching airline operations beyond recovery: think of aircraft out of position, bags not making it to destinations, and crew timing out. It matters because this kind of disruption doesn’t stay in Finland; it ripples across hubs like London Heathrow, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam, making it even more chaotic.”

Affected passengers should check the airline’s website and mobile app for alternative flight options and manage their bookings accordingly. Finnair has told impacted customers that they will be supported with rebooking options to minimize inconvenience.

Finnair has been contacted for comment.

Russia and Ukraine are poised for talks in Turkiye on Thursday, even though the prospects of President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting directly for the first time in three years were dashed by the Kremlin late on Wednesday.

United States President Donald Trump, who had earlier indicated that he might join the negotiations, will also not attend, according to American officials.

Here’s what we know about the talks, what prompted them, who’s expected to attend, and why the negotiations matter:

Why are the talks being held?

On Sunday, Putin proposed the idea of direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Turkiye, instead of the rounds of indirect talks that the US and others have tried to mediate between the neighbours at war. Putin referenced direct talks that took place in 2022 while pitching for their resumption.

“It was not Russia that broke off negotiations in 2022. It was Kyiv. Nevertheless, we are proposing that Kyiv resume direct negotiations without any preconditions,” Putin said on Sunday.

In February 2022, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Shortly after, Russia and Ukraine held talks in the Turkish capital, Istanbul.

According to Zelenskyy, the talks fell apart because Russia demanded that Ukraine concede the Donbas region, which spans Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions – parts of which Russia occupied during its invasion. Zelenskyy added that Russia wanted Ukraine to surrender long-range weaponry, make constitutional amendments to declare neutrality and significantly reduce its armed forces. “There were never any negotiations; it was an ultimatum from a murderer,” Zelenskyy said at the time.

While Zelenskyy had earlier held that any peace agreement would require Russia to give up Ukrainian territory it had occupied, in December last year, Zelenskyy said the “hot phase” of the war could end if NATO offered security guarantees for the part of Ukraine currently under Kyiv’s control.

He added that the return of land that Russia has occupied could be diplomatically negotiated later.

“The pressure that the US has exerted to attempt to bring an end to the fighting in Ukraine has evolved over time,” Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at the London-based Chatham House think tank, told Al Jazeera. “It appears that the most recent elements in that evolution, particularly in terms of European solidarity with Ukraine, have led Russia to engage in direct talks.”

Putin’s recent push for talks came a day after Ukraine’s four major European allies gave Putin an ultimatum to accept an unconditional 30-day ceasefire or face renewed sanctions. This ultimatum came after leaders of the European countries, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland, visited Kyiv.

They gave Putin a deadline until May 12. On Sunday, May 11, Putin – without committing to a ceasefire – said: “We are committed to serious negotiations with Ukraine. Their purpose is to eliminate the root causes of the conflict, to establish a long-term, lasting peace for the historical perspective.”

Where are they being held?

The talks are being held in the Turkish city of Istanbul, which straddles the boundary between Asia and Europe.

What role did Trump play in this?

The four European leaders – Britain’s Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Friedrich Merz and Poland’s Donald Tusk – said that they had briefed Trump about their ultimatum to Russia over a phone call and suggested that he was on board.

But after Putin called for direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow, Trump issued a statement on his Truth Social platform asking Ukraine to meet with Russia “immediately”.

Trump ran his campaign for the 2024 election on the promise to bring a swift end to the Ukraine war. The Trump administration held multiple meetings, starting February, with Russian and Ukrainian representatives separately in Saudi Arabia in attempts to broker a deal.

Also in April, the Trump administration indicated that it was taking a step back from providing security guarantees to Ukraine. The Trump administration said it wanted Europe to take the lead in supporting Ukraine’s defence instead, noting that the US had other priorities, including border security.

In recent weeks, however, Trump and his team, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have expressed growing frustration at the lack of meaningful progress in negotiations and have threatened to walk out of efforts to mediate peace.

Explaining his insistence that Ukraine join the May 15 Istanbul talks, Trump argued: “At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible, and if it is not, European leaders, and the US, will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly!”

Who will be there?

“I supported President Trump with the idea of direct talks with Putin. I have openly expressed my readiness to meet. I will be in Turkiye. I hope that the Russians will not evade the meeting,” Zelenskyy wrote in an X post on Monday.

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy announced he will be in Ankara on Thursday, where he will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The talks with Russia, however, are supposed to be held in Istanbul subsequently.

Trump has said he will send Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg to attend the talks in Istanbul.

Russia on Wednesday night announced its team for the meeting. Vladimir Medinsky, a close Putin aide and former culture minister who also led previous rounds of unsuccessful talks with Ukraine in 2022, will lead Moscow’s team. With him will be Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin and the director of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Igor Kostyukov.

Trump’s earlier offer to attend the talks himself had been welcomed by Kyiv. “All of us in Ukraine would appreciate it if President Trump could be there with us at this meeting in Turkiye. This is the right idea. We can change a lot,” Zelenskyy had said.

However, late on Wednesday, US officials clarified that Trump would not be attending.

The US president is currently in the Middle East, where he spent Wednesday in Qatar, after visiting Saudi Arabia a day earlier. On Thursday, Trump will be in the United Arab Emirates before returning to Washington.

What does Putin’s absence mean?

Zelenskyy had earlier said he would be present at the talks only if Putin also attended. “Putin is the one who determines everything in Russia, so he is the one who has to resolve the war. This is his war. Therefore, the negotiations should be with him,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Tuesday.

With Putin now no longer poised to attend, it is unclear if Zelenskyy will personally participate in the talks or whether he will leave it to his team to join the negotiations.

Yet, in many ways, Zelenskyy scored over Putin by throwing down the gauntlet and asking him to attend.

“Zelenskyy has presented a challenge to Russia to show that it has genuine interest; it is up to Russia whether it meets this challenge or not,” said Giles.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had also pledged to urge Putin to attend the talks.

What’s on the table?

It is difficult to predict what might specifically be discussed in the Turkiye talks.

“It would be rash to predict whether there will be any meaningful discussion at all, since the acceptable outcomes for both are still far apart,” Giles said. “Russia wants to neutralise Ukraine as an independent sovereign state, while Ukraine wants to survive.”

At the moment, Ukraine has proposed an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, while Russia has insisted that a series of its demands be accepted before it joins such a truce. Moscow said that it wants assurances over the monitoring mechanism for a ceasefire, and that a truce won’t be used by Ukraine to rearm and mobilise more soldiers. Instead, Putin has announced brief, unilateral ceasefires in recent days that Ukraine says Moscow never actually adhered to.

“We do not rule out that, during these negotiations, it will be possible to agree on some new truces, a new ceasefire and a real truce, which would be observed not only by Russia, but also by the Ukrainian side. [It] would be the first step, I repeat, to a long-term sustainable peace, and not a prologue to the continuation of the armed conflict,” Putin said on Sunday.

How significant are these talks?

Giles said that if the talks happen, “they will be a significant step forward”.

He added: “Anything that has been referred to as peace talks [ so far] has not been anything of the sort,” describing the two parallel discussions that the US has had with Russia and Ukraine.

On March 19, the US, Ukraine and Russia announced a 30-day ceasefire on attacks on Russian and Ukrainian energy infrastructure, and on March 25, they agreed on a Black Sea deal, halting the military use of commercial vessels and the use of force in the Black Sea. Both sides, however, traded blame for violating the terms of those agreements, which have now expired.

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta issued a stark warning Tuesday to immigration detention centers across the state, notifying them they need to make “significant improvements” to comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention standards.

Bonta sounded the alarm as the California Department of Justice released a 165-page report that found all of the state’s six privately-operated immigration detention facilities are falling short in providing mental health care for detainees. The report documents deficiencies in medical recordkeeping, suicide prevention strategies and use of force against detainees with mental health conditions.

As President Trump ramps up his deportation agenda and escalates his showdown with Democratic-led states and cities over immigration enforcement, Bonta signaled that California would not let up scrutinizing facility conditions for detained immigrants.

“California’s facility reviews remain especially critical, in light of efforts by the Trump Administration to both eliminate oversight of conditions at immigration detention facilities and increase its inhumane campaign of mass immigration enforcement, potentially exacerbating critical issues already present in these facilities by packing them with more people,” Bonta said in a statement.

GEO Group, a private company that operates four of California’s immigration detention facilities, disputed the report’s findings.

“GEO strongly disagrees with these baseless allegations, which are part of a long-standing, politically motivated, and radical campaign to abolish ICE and end federal immigration detention by attacking the federal government’s immigration facility contractors,” a GEO Group spokesperson said in a statement.

“This report by the California Attorney General is an unfortunate example of a politicized campaign by open borders politicians to interfere with the federal government’s efforts to arrest, detain, and deport dangerous criminal illegal aliens in accordance with established federal law.”

The report is the agency’s fourth review of California’s privately-operated immigration detention facilities since legislators passed a 2017 law, Assembly Bill 103, requiring the state Department of Justice investigate conditions at detention centers through 2027. Previous reports have also found mental health care services to be inadequate.

But the report released Monday, which focuses on mental health, comes at a critical moment with the Trump administration promising to carry out the largest deportation program in U.S. history and reducing federal oversight of conditions at such facilities.

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security shuttered its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, which were tasked with reviewing detention conditions and responding to complaints of civil rights violations.

At the same time, California facilities are holding more people than they were two years ago, the report noted. There were 3,100 being held in California facilities on April 16. Two years ago, it was 2,303. Of those people currently being held, only four were identified as having criminal records, according to the report.

“Future increases in population levels at detention facilities will have implications for the facilities’ ability to provide for health care and other detainee needs,” the report said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement it did not have “not reasonable time to adequately review” the report’s finding, but “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement takes its commitment to promoting safe, secure, humane environments for those in our custody very seriously.”

“Routine inspections are one component of ICE’s multi-layered inspections and oversight process that ensures transparency in how facilities meet the threshold of care outlined in contracts with facilities, as well as ICE’s national detention standards,” the spokesperson added. “In general, inspection teams provide report findings to agency leadership, in part, to assist in developing and initiating corrective action plans when discrepancies are identified.”

The spokesperson added that ICE encourages reporting detention facility complaints to its detention reporting and information line — (888) 351-4024 — a toll-free service with trained operators and language assistance.

Talia Inlender, deputy director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law, said the report raised “a huge red flag” and she was disappointed to see facilities fail on basic issues such as recordkeeping.

“It really highlights the importance of California’s role in providing this oversight as, unfortunately, federal oversight is being significantly diminished at the moment,” Inlender said. “If these problems are already existing at the existing capacity that we have now, it should be a big red flag that we’re going to have — if we don’t already — an extreme humanitarian crisis on our hands.”

For its investigation, the California Justice Department staff worked with a team of correctional and healthcare experts to examine a range of conditions of confinement — including use of force, discipline, access to healthcare and due process — in the state’s immigration detention facilities.

The report found that recordkeeping and the maintenance of medical records at all six facilities were deficient, noting that the poor recordkeeping was “especially concerning given the critical nature of the records and the high degree of confidentiality these records require.”

At Adelanto and Desert View Annex, files showed healthcare providers entered conflicting diagnoses and prescriptions that did not correspond to the diagnosis, the report said. At Golden State Annex, medical providers documented inconsistent — and sometimes conflicting — psychiatric diagnoses.

Every facility also fell short in suicide prevention and intervention strategies, the report said, with standard suicide risk assessments not consistently administered at Imperial, Golden State Annex and Mesa Verde.

Detainees also faced delays in securing adequate medical care at most facilities. At Desert View, staff were lax in managing infectious diseases, the report said, while at Mesa Verde, detainees experienced prolonged wait times for critical off-site care.

Investigators found that individuals with mental health diagnoses experienced disproportionate use of force. Staff at several facilities did not adequately review health records and consider mental health conditions — as required by ICE’s standards of care — before engaging in calculated use-of-force incidents.

Facilities generally did not conduct mental health reviews, required by ICE’s detention standards, before placing detainees in solitary confinement, the report said. Some individuals spent more than a year in isolation — a situation which the report said presents heightened risk to those with underlying mental health conditions.

The report singled out Mesa Verde facility’s pat-down search policy as a particular cause for concern. Detainees who were subjected to pat-downs anytime they left their housing unit, the report said, described the searches as invasive and inappropriate and said it discouraged them from obtaining medical and mental health services and meals.

Investigators also raised concerns with due process, flagging reports that detainees could not meaningfully participate in court hearings because staff had not given them prescribed medication or other needed treatment.

A spokesperson for GEO said that its support services include “around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access, dietician-approved meals and specialty diets, and recreational amenities.” Its services are monitored by ICE and other groups within the Department of Homeland Security to ensure strict compliance with ICE detention standards.

Detainees at locations where GEO provides healthcare services are provided with “robust access to teams of medical professionals,” the spokesperson said, and can access off-site medical specialists, imaging facilities, emergency medical services, and local community hospitals when needed.

“Healthcare staffing at GEO’s ICE processing center is more than double that of many states’ correctional facilities,” the spokesperson said.

Inlender said she hoped the report would be a call to action for the state to protect immigrants in detention centers. But she also noted that California has a 2020 law, AB 3228, spearheaded by Bonta during his time in the Assembly, that allows people to sue private detention operators in state court for failing to comply with the standards of care outlined in the facility’s contract.

“It is, of course, an uphill battle and it’s a lot to ask of individuals who are already in a very vulnerable position to come out and have to bring these suits,” Inlender said. “But I do think it is a very important tool for accountability and I hope that it will be used.”