Merino scores then sees red as Arsenal come back to draw 2-2 at Liverpool

Arsenal gave champions Liverpool a reminder of why they were the only team to challenge them in their romp to English football’s Premier League title as they hit back from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Anfield.

Liverpool were dominant in the first half on Sunday, with a header by Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz’s tap-in in the space of 90 seconds putting them 2-0 ahead.

Arsenal looked deflated after being knocked out of the Champions League semifinals in midweek, but mustered an admirable response after the break, with Gabriel Martinelli’s header reducing the arrears just after half-time.

Mikel Merino then headed in a rebound to make it 2-2 in the 70th minute after Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard’s piledriver was pushed against the woodwork by goalkeeper Alisson.

Merino was sent off nine minutes later for a lunging tackle on Dominik Szoboszlai, but the 10-man visitors clung on for a point and almost won it as Odegaard sent a shot just wide of the post deep in stoppage time.

Liverpool also thought they had won it at the death when Andy Robertson fired in from close range, but the goal was disallowed for a foul in the build-up.

Arne Slot’s side, who wrapped up their record-equalling 20th English title two weeks ago, have 83 points from 36 games, with Arsenal second on 68 and still not guaranteed a top-five finish that would ensure Champions League football next season.

Apart from Arsenal’s comeback, the other main talking point from an entertaining tussle was a decidedly mixed reaction to Trent Alexander-Arnold when he came off the bench.

Liverpool’s right back, who announced this week that he would leave at the end of the season, was booed by a large number of fans angry at his decision to leave on a free transfer.

While that put something of a dampener on the day, Liverpool had been buoyant in the first half as they looked determined to lay down a marker for next season.

Arsenal were caught napping in the 20th minute when Robertson was given far too much space to measure his cross, and the unmarked Gakpo headed past David Raya.

Soon afterwards, it was 2-0 as Szoboszlai raced on to a through ball and calmly set up Diaz to score.

Diaz had earlier been denied by a great save from Raya and also failed to make contact with another good effort while Raya also tipped a Curtis Jones effort around the post.

Arsenal were not about to roll over, though, and Martinelli glanced in Leandro Trossard’s cross as the visitors turned the tables after half-time with Liverpool switching off.

While Mikel Arteta’s league campaign has tailed off badly, allowing Liverpool to ease to the title, they showed spirit and were rewarded as Merino earned them a deserved point.

Elsewhere in the Premier League on Sunday, a 2-0 win for Newcastle United over top-five rivals Chelsea moved the Magpies closer to a return to the Champions League next season.

With just two rounds of the season to go, Eddie Howe’s team leapfrogged Manchester City and are up to third in the standings.

But Nottingham Forest’s Champions League chances were hit by a 2-2 draw against relegated Leicester that appeared to spark an angry reaction from owner Evangelos Marinakis towards manager Nuno Espirito Santo in an on-field exchange after the match.

Fragile truce holds between India, Pakistan after days of fierce exchanges

A ceasefire between India and Pakistan appears to be holding, after both sides accused each other of initial violations, as an uneasy calm has taken hold following days of the worst eruption of fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours in decades.

The Indian military sent a “hotline message” to Pakistan on Sunday about violations of an agreed-upon ceasefire, informing it of New Delhi’s intent to respond if this was repeated, a top Indian army officer said.

India’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) was speaking on Sunday as a fragile 24-hour-old ceasefire appeared to be holding after both sides blamed the other for initial violations on Saturday night.

The truce announced on Saturday halted several days of missiles and drones being fired at each country across their shared border, killing almost 70 people.

Diplomacy and pressure from the United States helped secure the ceasefire deal when it seemed that the conflict was spiralling towards a full-scale war. Within hours of its coming into force, there were explosions in Indian-administered Kashmir, the centre of much of last week’s fighting.

Blasts from air-defence systems boomed in cities near the border under a blackout, similar to those heard during the previous two evenings, according to local authorities, residents and witnesses.

“Sometimes, these understandings take time to fructify, manifest on the ground,” Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, the Indian DGMO, told a media briefing, referring to the truce. “The [Indian] armed forces were on a very, very high alert [yesterday] and continue to be in that state.”

The Indian army chief had given a mandate to its commanders to deal with “violations of any kind” from across the borders in the best way they deem fit, Ghai added.

He said his Pakistani counterpart called him on Saturday afternoon and proposed the two countries “cease hostilities” and urgently requested a ceasefire.

There was no immediate response to the Indian comments from Pakistan. Early on Sunday, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry had said that it was committed to the truce agreement and blamed India for the violations.

US President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire on Saturday, saying it was reached after talks mediated by Washington.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said India and Pakistan had also agreed to start talks on “a broad set of issues at a neutral site”.

While Islamabad has thanked Washington for facilitating the ceasefire and welcomed Trump’s offer to mediate on the Kashmir dispute with India, New Delhi has not commented on US involvement in the truce or talks at a neutral site.

India maintains that disputes with Pakistan have to be resolved directly by the two countries and rejects any third-party involvement.

On Sunday, Trump praised the leaders of both countries for agreeing to halt the aggression and said he would “substantially” increase trade with them.

Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan each rule a part of disputed Kashmir but claim it in full, and have twice gone to war over the Himalayan region.

India blames Pakistan for an insurgency in its part of the territory, but Pakistan says it provides only moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiri separatists.

‘A tough night in border areas’

Among those most affected by the fighting were residents on either side of the border, many of whom fled their homes when the fighting began on Wednesday, two weeks after a deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam that India said was backed by Islamabad.

Pakistan denied the accusation.

Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid, reporting from Lahore, Pakistan, said it was “a tough night for a lot of people in the border areas”.

“People said there was shelling in the early hours of the morning and throughout the evening, even after the announcement of ceasefire,” Bin Javaid said.

Although people are cautious, they’re “not coming back yet to their homes because they believe that this is not over yet”, he said, adding that there has been damage in several villages across the Line of Control.

Overall, however, “there’s jubilation and celebration,” Bin Javaid added.

In the Indian border city of Amritsar, home to the Golden Temple revered by Sikhs, people returned to the streets on Sunday morning after a siren sounded to signal the resumption of normal activities following the tension of recent days.

“Ever since the terrorists attacked people in Pahalgam, we have been shutting our shops very early and there was an uncertainty. I am happy that at least there will be no bloodshed on both sides,” said Satvir Singh Alhuwalia, 48, a shopkeeper in the city.

Another local resident noted the “calm” and “happiness” throughout the Kashmir Valley since the ceasefire announcement.

“You can feel it in the air … but there seems to be a bit of fear, as well. Will it hold, given the past history of both these nations?” asked Muteeb Banday.

“[Kashmiris] want … long-lasting peace, so that we can go and live our lives, think about our future, make our lives better.”

In some border areas, however, people were asked not to return home just yet. In the Indian-administered Kashmir city of Baramulla, authorities warned residents to stay away due to the threat posed by unexploded munitions.

“People here are hosting us well, but just as a bird feels at peace in its own nest, we also feel comfortable only in our own homes, even if they have been damaged,” said Azam Chaudhry, 55, who fled his home in the Pakistani town of Khuiratta and has now been told to wait until Monday before returning.

In Indian-administered Kashmir’s Uri, a key power plant that was damaged in a Pakistani drone attack is still under repair.

Sudan’s army and RSF paramilitary launch attacks across war-ravaged nation

Multiple attacks by Sudan’s armed forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have struck various locations across the country now in its third year of a civil war.

At least nine civilians, including four children, were killed and seven injured in attacks on Sunday by the RSF in el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state in western Sudan, according to the Sudanese army.

During a sweep of the city, the SAF killed six RSF members and destroyed three combat vehicles, according to the statement. There was no immediate comment from the RSF on the army report.

El-Fasher is the last major city held by SAF in Darfur. For over a year, the RSF has sought to wrest control it, located more than 800km (500 miles) southwest of the capital, Khartoum, from the SAF, launching regular attacks on the city and two major famine-hit camps for displaced people on its outskirts.

In the meantime, Sudan’s civil defence forces announced on Sunday that they have full control over fires that erupted at the main fuel depot and other strategic sites in Port Sudan, the seat of the army-backed government, which has come under daily drone attacks blamed on the RSF over the past week.

The fires caused by a drone strike on the fuel depot on Monday had spread across “warehouses filled with fuel”, the Sudanese army-aligned authorities said, warning of a “potential disaster in the area”.

The Red Sea port city had been seen as a safe haven from the devastating two-year conflict between the SAF and RSF before the drone strikes began on May 4.

The attacks have damaged several key facilities, including the country’s sole international civilian airport, its largest working fuel depot and the city’s main power station.

On Tuesday, Sudanese authorities accused the RSF of being behind the drone strikes. The RSF has not commented on the allegations.

Port Sudan is the main entry point for humanitarian aid into Sudan. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the attacks “threaten to increase humanitarian needs and further complicate aid operations in the country”, his spokesman said.

Sudan’s army launched air strikes on the RSF in el-Khuwei in West Kordofan state and the state of West Darfur late on Saturday. El-Khuwei was captured by the RSF last week.

Activists and Sudanese accounts shared a video clip on social media showing the Sudanese army and their allied forces announcing that they had regained control over el-Khuwei after battles with the RSF on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency.

Witnesses also reported drone strikes on Sunday, targeting the airport in Atbara, a city in the northern state of River Nile.

The RSF has been battling the SAF for control of Sudan since April 2023. The civil war has killed more than 20,000 people, uprooted 15 million and created what the UN considers the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Is due process different for undocumented immigrants as Trump claims?

In a recent TV interview, United States President Donald Trump said he did not know whether he needed to uphold the US Constitution.

Trump was answering a question on NBC News last week about whether undocumented immigrants in the US are entitled to due process.

“They talk about due process, but do you get due process when you’re here illegally,” Trump asked the interviewer, Kristen Welker, NBC’s Meet the Press moderator.

“The Constitution says every person, citizens and noncitizens, deserves due process,” Welker responded.

She then asked Trump whether he agreed with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said noncitizens are entitled to due process.

Trump: “I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.”

Welker: “Well, the Fifth Amendment says as much.”

Trump: “I don’t know. It might say that, but if you’re talking about that, then we’d have to have a million or two million or three million trials.”

Welker: “But even given those numbers that you’re talking about, don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?”

Trump: “I don’t know. I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said. What you said is not what I heard the Supreme Court said. They have a different interpretation.”

That was not the first time Trump had brushed aside immigrants’ due process rights.

In an ABC News interview marking Trump’s first 100 days in office, correspondent Terry Moran asked Trump, “But in our country, even bad guys get due process, right?”

Trump answered, “If people come into our country illegally, there’s a different standard.”

During a May 1 speech at the University of Alabama’s commencement ceremony, Trump said, “Judges are interfering supposedly based on due process, but how can you give due process to people who came into our country illegally? They want to give them due process. I don’t know.”

Days later, while announcing that the 2027 NFL (National Football League) draft will be in Washington, DC, Trump said, “The courts have, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, they said, maybe you have to have trials. Trials. We’re gonna have five million trials? Doesn’t work … Past presidents took out hundreds of thousands of people when needed … They didn’t go through any of this.”

Despite Trump’s dismissal of and questions about due process for immigrants, the US Constitution, legal experts and decades of court decisions agree: immigrants, regardless of how they entered the US, legally or illegally, have due process rights.

What those rights look like varies depending on how long a person has been in the US and what their legal status is.

What are due process rights?

Due process generally refers to the government’s requirement to follow fair procedures and laws. The Constitution’s Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments protect “any person” against being deprived by the US government of “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”.

“People have a right to be heard, and there are certain steps that need to be taken before someone can, say, be jailed,” Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a lawyer and policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, said.

Several court rulings have determined that due process rights are extended to all people in the US, not just US citizens or immigrants in the country legally. The US Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act dictate the process the government must use to afford immigrants due process rights.

In immigration, due process generally refers to “appropriate notice [of government action], the opportunity to have a hearing or some sort of screening interview to figure out, are you actually a person who falls within the law that says that you can be deported”, Katherine Yon Ebright, a lawyer at the Brennan Centre for Justice’s Liberty and National Security programme, said.

For example, if the government seeks to deport people who are undocumented, the government generally must give them a charging document known as a “notice to appear”. Eventually, immigrants go before an immigration judge to present evidence and make a case that they qualify for some form of relief against deportation, such as asylum.

Without due process, legal experts say, US citizens could also be deported.

“The whole point of due process is to determine whether you’re the kind of person who can be subject to deportation,” Ilya Somin, a George Mason University constitutional law professor, said. “If there is no due process, then the government can simply deport people or punish them at will … Because how can you show that you’re actually a US citizen if you’re not getting any due process?”

How do due process rights differ for noncitizens compared with US citizens?

Even though all people in the US have due process rights, for noncitizens, the specifics of the process and the extent of protections vary. The term noncitizen applies to people with legal documents as well as those without any documents, including people here on visas, with lawful permanent status or without a legal immigration status.

There is a “sliding scale of different protections that people can have depending on what their [immigration] status is”, Yon Ebright said.

Noncitizens are not entitled to government-appointed lawyers during immigration proceedings, for example. And some immigrants who recently entered the US without a legal document do not have to appear before a judge before being deported; these cases are subject to what is called the expedited removal process.

Under expedited removal, certain people can be quickly deported without a court case. However, people who express fear of persecution if they return to their home countries are referred to immigration officers, who determine whether the immigrant is eligible for asylum or other deportation protections. Immigrants who pass the “credible fear” screening are referred to an immigration court where they can present their case.

In the past, people were placed in expedited removal if they were within 100 miles (about 161km) of the border and within two weeks of their entry. In January, Trump expanded expedited removal for anyone who cannot prove they have been in the US for more than two years.

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime power that Trump invoked in March, allows the government to deport “alien enemies”. He has used that law to deport people his administration says are members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, without immigration court hearings. The Trump administration has deported hundreds of people under the law.

However, the US Supreme Court ruled against the administration on April 7, saying it must give immigrants notice that they will be deported under the Alien Enemies Act, and give them “reasonable time” to challenge the deportation in court.

Although expedited removal and the Alien Enemies Act limit people’s due process protections, they do not eliminate them. “There are no exceptions to due process,” Bush-Joseph said.

Additionally, noncitizens who are charged with crimes receive the same due process protections as US citizens in criminal court, Somin said.

“All of the protections of the Bill of Rights apply [in criminal court],” Somin said. “There has to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt. He or she is entitled to a jury trial, rights against self-incrimination, right to counsel and so on.”

Why are immigrants’ due process rights making headlines now?

The Trump administration faces several court cases dealing with deportations and immigrants’ due process rights. They include challenges over Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act and the government’s mistaken deportation of a Salvadoran man.

Administration officials have criticised judges and rejected immigrants’ due process protections.

“Due process guarantees the rights of a criminal defendant facing prosecution, not an illegal alien facing deportation,” White House adviser Stephen Miller posted on X on May 5.

The Trump administration’s comments about due process are centred on his promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in US history. The administration’s current deportation pace is below its goal of one million people each year, the Migration Policy Institute said in an April 24 analysis.

Nayna Gupta, policy director of the immigrant rights advocacy group American Immigration Council, said the Trump administration is attempting to “get around those obstacles and those requirements” of due process “just to meet some target [deportation] number”.

To reach Trump’s goal of one million deportations annually, the administration would need to deport people who have lived in the US  for years and have no criminal convictions (whom past administrations have not prioritised for deportation).

Past presidents were also required to uphold noncitizens’ due process rights, but deportation processes moved more quickly under administrations that focused on people who had recently crossed the border illegally, Bush-Joseph said. That option is more limited for the Trump administration because undocumented immigration has reached historic lows under Trump.

Trump is correct that deporting millions of people living in the US without legal documents would require millions of court cases, Tara Watson, director of the Centre for Economic Security and Opportunity at the Brookings Institution, said. That has long been the case.

Millions of immigration court cases are backlogged. And the Trump administration has fired several immigration judges who would hear these cases.

The administration’s goal for mass deportation does not change due process rules and standards.

“It is true that due process slows down the machinery of deportation, but due process is also what separates democracies from dictatorships,” Watson said.

Our ruling

Trump said, “If people come into our country without documents, there’s a different standard [for due process].”

All people in the US, regardless of their immigration status, have due process rights, based on the US Constitution and decades of court decisions. That applies whether they entered the US legally or without any documents.

For noncitizens, people’s due process protections vary based on their legal status or how long they have been in the US. Legal experts say, despite due process variations, there are no exceptions to due process requirements for immigrants.

Israel kills 13, including children, amid dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza

The Israeli military has killed at least 13 Palestinians, including several children and women, in Gaza as it continues to starve the besieged enclave.

Among the victims since dawn on Sunday were three Palestinians killed in a drone strike on a vehicle and two killed in a bombing near residential towers located west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Another two people were killed in artillery shelling of a home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City in the north while the body of a man was recovered near the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza after Israeli warplanes bombed the area a day earlier.

The Israeli military also attacked the Islamic University building in Khan Younis.

The latest killings in the daily Israeli bombardment of Gaza came as the enclave has seen no food, water, medicine or fuel enter the territory for 70 days due to Israel’s blockade.

The 2.3 million residents of Gaza are surviving on fast-dwindling supplies and charity kitchens, which have been gradually forced to shut down as they run out of food and hunger spreads.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned on Sunday that the longer the blockade continues, the more irreversible harm is being done to Palestinians.

“UNRWA has thousands of trucks ready to enter and our teams in Gaza are ready to scale up the delivery,” the organisation said.

Hamas said in a statement on Sunday that Israel is committing a “complex crime”.

Israel’s security cabinet this month approved a plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip and force another mass displacement of Palestinians.

Israel has also proposed taking over any future humanitarian aid distribution, which would, it said, involve creating designated military zones.

The Humanitarian Country Team, a forum that includes UN agencies, warned that the plan is dangerous and would “contravene fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Sunday that the country would accept a new US mechanism that would start delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.

A group of American security contractors, former military officers and humanitarian aid officials is proposing to take over the distribution of food and other supplies in Gaza based on plans similar to those designed by Israel.

The plan has been criticised for bypassing the UN and aid groups with expertise in aid delivery and creating only four distribution points that would force a large number of Palestinians to travel to southern Gaza.

According to the latest figures by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on Sunday, at least 52,829 Palestinians have been confirmed killed and 119,554 wounded by Israeli military attacks since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel, which killed an estimated 1,139 people and resulted in more than 200 people taken captive into Gaza.

Pope Leo XIV called for an immediate ceasefire, entry of humanitarian aid and release of all those held in Gaza during his first Sunday blessing since his election as pontiff.

Israel to pay soldiers more before Gaza expansion

The Israeli military planned to intensify its ground occupation of Gaza on Sunday, pulling the Paratroopers Brigade back from its incursions into Syria to be redeployed to Gaza.

The paratroopers have been operating in the occupied Golan Heights and inside Syria since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December.

Israel withdrew the Nahal Brigade from the occupied West Bank – which has also been under assault for months – in its intended and self-proclaimed push to “conquer” Gaza.

But thousands of Israeli reservists and other members of the Israeli military and security agencies, along with thousands of Israelis demonstrating in the streets, have been calling for an end to the war to bring back all captives.

To address the growing dissatisfaction among soldiers, the Israeli government on Sunday approved a “comprehensive benefit plan” for reservists worth about 3 billion shekels ($838m) that is slated to include a series of economic and social benefits.

The army welcomed the plan approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying in a statement that it is a reflection of soldiers’ “exceptional contribution” to Israeli society.