In late April, a team from the Heritage Foundation visited Israel to discuss their policy paper, Project Esther, a proposal to rapidly dismantle the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States.

The conservative Washington-based think tank is best known for spearheading Project 2025, a proposed blueprint for President Donald Trump’s second term that called for reshaping the federal government and an extreme expansion of presidential power.

Drafted in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel in 2023 and the mounting protests against the war in the Gaza Strip, Project Esther outlined an ambitious plan to fight antisemitism by branding a broad range of critics of Israel as “effectively a terrorist support network,” so that they could be deported, defunded, sued, fired, expelled, ostracized and otherwise excluded from what it considered “open society.”

Project Esther’s architects envisioned outcomes that at the time might have seemed far-fetched. Curriculum it believed to be sympathetic to a “Hamas support” narrative would be taken out of schools and universities, and “supporting faculty” would be removed. Social media would be purged of content deemed to be antisemitic. Institutions would lose public funding. Foreign students who pushed for Palestinian rights would have their visas revoked, or be deported.

Once a sympathetic presidential administration was in place, the plan said, “We will organize rapidly, take immediate action to ‘stop the bleeding,’ and achieve all objectives within two years.”

Since the inauguration, the White House and other Republicans have called for actions that appear to mirror more than half of Project Esther’s proposals, a New York Times analysis shows, including threats to withhold billions in federal funding at universities and attempts to deport legal residents.

After Trump was inaugurated, his administration unfurled a series of directives, some of which closely resembled some of the actionable steps outlined in Project Esther. Administration officials moved to revoke student visas and deport activists who had criticized Israel. They began monitoring immigrants’ and visa applicants’ social media. They ordered an investigation of student protesters at Columbia University and reportedly planned to share that information with immigration agents.

Russia unleashes one of its largest drone barrages

Russia targeted Ukraine on Sunday with one of its largest drone bombardments of the war, an apparent show of force only a day before President Donald Trump is expected to talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin as Trump pushes Russia to accept a ceasefire deal.

The drone barrage, in which an estimated 273 exploding drones and decoys were recorded in the skies across Ukraine, killed a woman and injured several other people.

It came hours after Trump said Saturday that he would talk with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has agreed to an unconditional and immediate ceasefire, as well as the leaders of the NATO alliance. Putin has dragged his feet on agreeing to any temporary truce, adding preconditions that he knows Ukraine will not accept.

On Sunday, Zelenskyy met in Rome with Vice President JD Vance in their first encounter since a contentious White House meeting in February. The Sunday sit-down also included Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The White House said in a statement that the meeting focused on the current status of negotiations toward a ceasefire.

Britain, EU to meet for summit today

Brexit tore the United Kingdom and the European Union apart. Now, President Donald Trump’s America is prodding them back together.

Five years after Britain formally exited the European Union, their leaders are moving cautiously toward a new era of cooperation. In an event that has been billed as a major reset of relations, the two sides will meet for a summit Monday in London.

They are expected to announce a landmark defense and security agreement intended to bolster military security in Europe as the United States downgrades its commitment to the continent. Negotiators could also announce plans to relax some rules on food trade and to deepen energy cooperation.

Admittedly, reaching agreement on the shape of the new relationship has not been easy. Despite the high stakes on defense, more prosaic concerns, including fishing rights and a plan for youth travel between countries, have remained painful sticking points.

But Monday’s event aims to underscore the commitment of the two partners to working together during an increasingly fraught geopolitical era.

Reward increased for escaped inmates

Officials increased the reward for the capture of seven inmates who escaped from a New Orleans jail by fleeing through a hole behind a toilet as at least a dozen law enforcement agencies pressed their expansive search for the men for a third day on Sunday.

FBI Special Agent Jonathan Trapp said at a news conference that seven of the 10 men who originally escaped on Friday are still at large and that the FBI is offering $10,000 per inmate instead of the $5,000 previously announced. He said he believes members of the public may be aiding the men, and authorities will arrest those found aiding or abetting them.

The men range in age from 19 to 42 and face a variety of charges including aggravated assault, domestic abuse battery and murder.

Tentative deal reached to end train strike in N.J.

An agreement was reached Sunday to end New Jersey’s first statewide transit strike in more than 40 years just three days after it started, New Jersey Transit and a union spokesperson said.

The terms of the deal with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen were not immediately available. An announcement by Gov. Phil Murphy was expected Sunday night.

Jamie Horwitz, a spokesperson for the union, said its members would return to work Monday. But New Jersey Transit said its trains would not run again until Tuesday because it needs 24 hours to inspect all of its equipment before restarting.

The agency said that instead, on Monday, it would rely on its original strike contingency plan.

The engineers still must ratify the terms of the new contract, which they have failed to do once already.

Pro-EU centrist wins Romania’s presidency

In a setback for Europe’s surging nationalist forces, Nicusor Dan, a centrist mayor and former mathematics professor, on Sunday won the presidential election in Romania, defeating a hard-right candidate who is aligned with President Donald Trump and has opposed military aid to Ukraine.

With more than 98% of ballots counted, preliminary official results gave 54% of the vote in the presidential runoff to Dan, 55, the mayor of Romania’s capital, Bucharest. His opponent, George Simion, a nationalist and fervent admirer of Trump’s who had been widely seen as the front-runner, drew only 46%.

As he slipped behind Dan in early counting, Simion told supporters that “we are the clear winners of these elections.” He called for national protests should the final count show him as the loser, railing against what he said was an attempt “to steal the victory of the Romanian people.”

Dan’s victory will probably calm fears in Europe’s political mainstream that Romania, which borders Ukraine and plays a vital role in defending NATO’s eastern flank against Russia, might join Hungary and Slovakia in opposing help for Ukraine and in cozying up to Moscow.

Envoy: Iran must give up nuclear enrichment

President Donald Trump’s chief Iran negotiator said Sunday that Tehran must give up all enrichment of nuclear fuel in any deal over the fate of the country’s nuclear program, a demand that was swiftly rejected by his Iranian counterpart in the talks.

Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, told ABC’s “This Week” that enrichment was “one very, very clear red line” for the administration, the most direct statement yet from the White House that it would not permit Iran the capability to produce enriched uranium, even for the nuclear power plants it says it wants to build.

Within a few hours, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed Witkoff’s demand, accusing him of trying to negotiate the deal in public and repeating Iran’s long-running argument that it will never give up its right to enrichment under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Iran is a signatory to the 1970 treaty, though the U.S. and Israel contend it has manipulated its provisions to become a “threshold” nuclear state, enriching fuel to just below the purity needed to produce a nuclear weapon.

“If the U.S. is interested in ensuring that Iran will not have nuclear weapons, a deal is within reach,” Araghchi wrote in a social media post. “Enrichment in Iran, however, will continue with or without a deal.”

Maryland governor vetoes reparations bill

Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland has vetoed legislation that sought to make recommendations on how to remedy the harms caused by slavery and racial discrimination, a notable setback in the movement for reparations delivered by the nation’s only sitting Black governor.

The move sets Moore apart from other Democratic governors who have approved similar measures in recent years and comes as the party grapples with the role that identity politics played in its widespread electoral losses last year.

The bill would have created a commission to research how many Maryland residents have ancestors who were enslaved in the state and recommend reparations that could have included formal apologies, monetary compensation, property tax rebates, college tuition waivers or assistance buying a home, among other possibilities.

— From news services