A second round of nuclear talks between the United States and Iran continues to be held in Oman's Muscat, Iran's state news agency IRNA said on Monday quoting Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei as saying.Tehran and Washington have said they held "positive" and "constructive" talks in Oman on Saturday and agreed to reconvene this week.

Hamas said on Monday it was studying the proposal it received from mediators for a ceasefire in Gaza, adding it will submit its response "as soon as possible."Egypt earlier received an Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in the Strip, the state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV cited sources as saying on Monday, after talks ended in Cairo without a breakthrough.

The US Department of Education said on Monday it was freezing about $2.3 billion in federal funds to Harvard University over the school's decision to fight White House demands, including that it shut down diversity, equity and inclusion programs."Harvard’s statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation's most prestigious universities and colleges - that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws," said a department task force on combating antisemitism in a statement.The task force said it was freezing $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contract value to Harvard.

A US judge in Vermont on Monday ordered the Trump administration not to deport a Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist who was arrested upon arriving for an interview for his US citizenship petition.District Judge William Sessions ordered President Donald Trump and other senior officials not to remove Mohsen Mahdawi from the United States or take him out of the state of Vermont.US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials did not immediately respond to a request for information.Mahdawi, born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank, was a Columbia University student who plans to return for a master's degree in the fall of 2025, according to the request from his lawyers to keep him in Vermont.

White House special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Monday that a diplomatic agreement with Iran will depend on working out details around verification of the country's uranium enrichment and weapons programs."This is going to be much about verification on the enrichment program, and then ultimately verification on weaponization," Witkoff said in an interview on Fox News' Hannity. "That includes missiles, the type of missiles that they have stockpiled there, and it includes the trigger for a bomb."

Chinese police in the northeastern city of Harbin have accused the United States National Security Agency (NSA) of launching "advanced" cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games in February, targeting essential industries.Police added three alleged NSA agents to a wanted list and also accused the University of California and Virginia Tech of being involved in the attacks after carrying out investigations, according to a report by state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday.The NSA agents were identified by Xinhua as Katheryn A. Wilson, Robert J. Snelling and Stephen W. Johnson. The three were also found to have "repeatedly carried out cyber attacks on China's critical information infrastructure and participated in cyber attacks on Huawei and other enterprises."The detailed allegations come as the world's two largest economies spiral deeper into a trade war that has already spurred travel warnings for Chinese tourists going to the US and halted imports of US films into China.