Russia on Monday denied firing on civilian infrastructure after a deadly strike on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rig that killed 20 people, including nine children.

"No strikes are carried out on social facilities and social infrastructure," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a briefing call when asked about Friday's attack.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday rejected direct negotiations with the United States as "meaningless", after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would prefer direct talks with the Islamic republic.

Trump had called last month on Tehran to hold negotiations on its nuclear program with Washington, but threatened to bomb Iran if diplomacy fails.

A Russian ballistic missile strike on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's home city of Kryvyi Rig killed 18 people, among them nine children, authorities said.

Sixty-one people were injured, the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Sergiy Lysak said Saturday after emergency operations were completed overnight.

After giving a red carpet welcome this week to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity in Gaza, Hungary announced it would quit the court.

Should Hungary follow through with its withdrawal from the world's only permanent global court for war crimes and genocide based in The Hague. It will become only the third country in the institution's history of more than 20 years to do so. The process will take more than a year.

Britain and France on Friday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in ceasefire talks aimed at halting his country's invasion of Ukraine and demanded a swift response from Moscow after weeks of U.S. efforts to secure a truce.

A Russian drone attack late Thursday on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, killed five civilians and dramatized the diplomatic insistence on a ceasefire. Emergency crews carried black body bags from a burning apartment building as onlookers wept and hugged in the dark. Some of the 32 injured, bloodied and in shock, limped out into the street or were carried on stretchers as flames shot from the windows of their homes.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said military chiefs from France and Britain were visiting Kyiv Friday for talks on a possible troop deployment to secure any ceasefire.

"There will be at some point a need for military capacity or reassurance, whenever peace is reached. And this is the reason why our army chiefs will be in Kyiv today in order to advance this work," Barrot said on the sidelines of a NATO meeting.

A crackdown on foreign students is alarming colleges, who say the Trump administration is using new tactics and vague justifications to push some students out of the country.

College officials worry the new approach will keep foreigners from wanting to study in the U.S.

Top congressional Democrats on Thursday protested the reported firing of Gen. Tim Haugh as director of the National Security Agency, with one lawmaker saying the decision "makes all of us less safe."

The Washington Post reported late Thursday that Haugh and his civilian deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble, had been dismissed from those roles. Haugh also headed U.S. Cyber Command, which coordinates the Pentagon's cybersecurity operations. The Post report cited two current U.S. officials and one former U.S. official who requested anonymity.

World leaders are reacting with dismay, threats of countermeasures and calls for swift negotiations to make trade rules fairer in response to the sweeping new tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump. But initial moves have been measured, suggesting key trading partners hope to avoid outright trade wars with the world's biggest economy.

Asian markets fell in Thursday trading and U.S. futures tumbled, setting up what could be a brutal trading day in the U.S. as investors brace for the economic shocks.

The conviction of one of the most powerful figures of the European far right for embezzling EU Parliament funds has sent shockwaves around the continent and beyond. But Marine Le Pen's case is just one example of transparency problems that have plagued the legislature.

From Budapest to Washington, Le Pen's political allies cried foul over this week's French court-mandated five-year ban on seeking political office that could block her chances of securing France's presidency in 2027.