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 …

McConnell defers vote on Senate health-care bill after McCain surgery  —  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) put off plans late Saturday to vote on a bill to overhaul the nation's health-care system next week, after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced he would be at home recovering from surgery …

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

‘Simply Unworkable’: Insurers Blast New Provision In Senate Health Bill  —  The industry sounds just as angry as the patient advocates.  —  Two organizations representing the U.S. health insurance industry just called a new provision of the Senate Republicans' health care proposal …

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.

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?

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 …