Judge Timothy J. Kelly had worked as counsel for Senator Charles E. Grassley, who called him a “very talented attorney” in 2017.

© Tom Williams/CQ Roll Cal, Associated Press

Official boasts about the number of projects completed under the EU’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan conceal a more complicated picture.

The plan to create a fund that could have funneled taxpayer money to the president’s allies drew repeated scrutiny, including a rare rebuke from Senate Republicans.

© Jason Andrew for The New York Times

Romania’s main political parties set aside their differences temporarily to pass one of the pieces of legislation needed to unlock 770 million euros of much-needed EU funds.

Romania’s pro-European parties are failing to compromise over reforms needed to secure EU funds, while political instability and economic struggles are strengthening the challenge from the far right.

The judge, Amit P. Mehta, blasted the administration’s request for a dismissal in the case, saying it bestowed “unearned grace” on the Oath Keepers defendants “by wiping their records clean.”

© Jason Andrew for The New York Times

The president vowed to push for the payout fund if Senate Republicans fail to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general, reigniting a dispute over the settlement.

© Pete Marovich for The New York Times

The criminal referral could provide a catalyst for a prosecution of Mr. Smith, who as special counsel became a top target of the president’s retribution campaign.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

The Justice Department had balked at the disclosure, saying that the government had not acknowledged the special counsel’s subpoenas and that grand jury information was secret.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Senators in both parties say the state’s 2020 Senate election is a long-settled issue.

© Mike Stewart/Associated Press

Todd Blanche’s nomination is broadly a referendum on President Trump’s vision of the Justice Department as a projection of his power.

© Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times

The sharp-witted South Carolinian repaired relations with President Trump to advance his foreign policy goals, was willing to cut deals with Democrats and tried to insert himself into every legislative fight.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Judge Timothy J. Kelly, a federal judge in Washington, noted that he had little choice but to accept the Trump administration’s move to end the case.

© Jason Andrew for The New York Times

Ex-presenter of BBC Radio 4 show complains in Guardian of ‘gratuitous gratitude’ and ‘gushing’ between host and guest

For more than three decades, John Humphrys delighted and infuriated listeners in equal measure as he confronted the nation’s politicians in his trademark, pointed style on the Today programme.

Now a listener himself, the former presenter of the BBC’s flagship radio news show is just as pointed in his assessment of the current incarnation of the programme. His verdict? It’s irritating.

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© Photograph: Karen Robinson/The Observer

© Photograph: Karen Robinson/The Observer

© Photograph: Karen Robinson/The Observer

Event Strategies, Inc., a longtime vendor to President Trump’s campaigns, is organizing the Great American State Fair and the July 4 celebrations.

© Alex Kent/The New York Times

New reports this week indicated that federal agents knowingly let fentanyl flood the streets of New Mexico as they pursued larger drug cases.

© Nina Riggio for The New York Times

As President Nicusor Dan's second prime ministerial nominee in 40 days takes steps toward forming a government, Romania's political crisis reveals how democratic tools can be weaponised to make governance itself impossible.

Two sets of lawyers noted that while senior department officials said the fund would not move forward, they declined to offer assurances that this would hold in the future.

© Eric Lee for The New York Times

The group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, doubled down on its request to a federal judge to issue a formal order stopping the fund from being set up.

© Eric Lee for The New York Times

PM secured re-election despite devastating military defeat to Azerbaijan and political and economic pressure from Moscow

For most candidates, campaigning on the loss of an ancestral homeland and advocating reconciliation with a longtime enemy would amount to political suicide. Not in Armenia.

On Sunday, the prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, secured re-election in the Caucasus nation of 3 million people, despite having led Armenia through a devastating military defeat to Azerbaijan just three years ago.

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© Photograph: Karen Minasyan/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Karen Minasyan/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Karen Minasyan/AFP/Getty Images