Trump Campaign Paid Don Jr.'s Lawyer $50,000 Two Weeks Before Email Scandal … About two weeks before the release of emails showing Donald Trump Jr. seeking opposition research from attorneys representing the Russian government, his father's reelection campaign began paying the law firm …

After McCain surgery, vote on Senate health-care bill cast into doubt  —  Senate Republican leaders' plans to vote on a health-care bill next week were upended late Saturday when the office of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the senator would be in Arizona next week recovering from surgery to remove a blood clot from above his left eye.

Comey's Writing a Book, and Publishers Are Eager to Pay Big Money for It  —  James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director who was fired in May by President Trump, is writing a book about his experience in public service, including his tumultuous and brief tenure in the Trump administration.

Soviet Veteran Who Met With Trump Jr. Is a Master of the Dark Arts  —  MOSCOW — Rinat Akhmetshin, the Russian-American lobbyist who met with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower in June 2016, had one consistent message for the journalists who met him over the years at the luxury hotels where he stayed in Moscow …

Kamala Harris meets with Democratic elite in Hamptons  —  MORE FROM: … The Democrats' “Great Freshman Hope,” Sen. Kamala Harris, is heading to the Hamptons to meet with Hillary Clinton's biggest backers.  —  The California senator is being fêted in Bridgehampton on Saturday …

Maryam Mirzakhani, Stanford mathematician and Fields Medal winner, dies  —  Stanford mathematics professor Maryam Mirzakhani, the first and to-date only female winner of the Fields Medal since its inception in 1936, died July 15 after a long battle with cancer.  Mirzakhani was 40 years old.

Huge Manafort Payment Reflects Murky Ukraine Politics  —  KIEV, Ukraine — Paul J. Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, recently filed financial reports with the Justice Department showing that his lobbying firm earned nearly $17 million for two years of work for a Ukrainian political party with links to the Kremlin.

Lessons on Labor Economics for the Owner of a Roofing Company in Nebraska  —  The NYT shows us that the skills shortage is real in an interview with Sarah M. Smith, the owner of a roofing company in Nebraska.  In the interview, Ms. Smith explains why she needs foreign workers, on H2-B visas …

Catholic journal criticizes Trump ‘value voters’  —  Things Donald Trump has said about the Pope  —  STORY HIGHLIGHTS  —  (CNN)Two close confidants of Pope Francis have written an article in a Jesuit journal that strongly criticizes some American religious supporters of President Donald Trump …

Iran Dominates in Iraq After U.S. ‘Handed the Country Over’  —  BAGHDAD — Walk into almost any market in Iraq and the shelves are filled with goods from Iran — milk, yogurt, chicken.  Turn on the television and channel after channel broadcasts programs sympathetic to Iran.  —  A new building goes up?