Senator Darline Graham, appointed to fill the Senate seat of her late brother, Lindsey, gently disagreed with the president’s decision to exempt Russia from the sanctions legislation.

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The White House inquiry is focused on diverging accounts from Richard Grenell and Alina Habba Mildon about a $17 million transfer from a government account in the African country to a Texas defense firm.

© Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

The White House inquiry is focused on diverging accounts from Richard Grenell and Alina Habba Mildon about a $17 million transfer from a government account in the African country to a Texas defense firm.

© Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

Plus, Katie Zacharia’s ouster, A.O.C. on the trail, and another tense debate in Maine.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

Two Trump allies — Alina Habba Mildon and Richard Grenell — are locked in a raging dispute that has its roots in the battle for a share of the spoils in Venezuela.

© Al Drago for The New York Times

Two Trump allies — Alina Habba Mildon and Richard Grenell — are locked in a raging dispute that has its roots in the battle for a share of the spoils in Venezuela.

© Al Drago for The New York Times

Statehouses make health-care policy, guide education, and may redraw congressional districts ahead of 2028. With the stakes high, more than 6,100 legislators will be elected Nov. 3.

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Two tankers caught fire within about 12 hours off Sulina, Romania’s port at the mouth of the Danube, Romanian authorities reported. The crew of one said a drone hit it inside Romania’s territorial waters, while Bucharest says it is still checking whether drones were involved. Bulgaria, where drones sank ships in its economic zone this month, says it lacks proof that Russia launched them.

For months, Russia has struck civilian ships on the sea route that carries most of Ukraine’s farm exports, while its drones have repeatedly crossed into Moldova and Romania during attacks on Ukraine. As long as Bucharest and Sofia wait for drone wreckage before naming anyone, Russia, the party Bulgaria’s own prime minister says the logic points to, pays no price for extending its war on Ukraine’s trade routes into NATO members’ waters.

Seven sailors missing after the second fire

The San Marino-flagged chemical tanker Wine Trader reported a fire in its superstructure around 07:00 on 15 October while anchored in Romanian territorial waters about 13 nautical miles southeast of Sulina, Romania’s Naval Authority said. By midday, five of its 12 crew had been recovered and seven were still missing.

Hours earlier, at 01:34, a drone entered Romanian airspace over the country’s waters southeast of Sulina for about a minute before vanishing from radar, the Defense Ministry said. Authorities have not named a cause for the fire, though unnamed sources

The South Carolina representative’s former fiancé and two of his business associates were charged on Wednesday with sex crimes and voyeurism in connection with a 2018 incident.

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Steve Pajcic, a lawyer and philanthropist in Florida, started a group that is airing ads in Kansas and South Carolina. Florida and Mississippi are next.

© David Robert Elliott for The New York Times; Sarah Warnock/Associated Press; Sean Rayford for The New York Times; Zack Wittman for The New York Times

A Turkish businessman once allied with the Maduro regime has tied the knot with President Trump’s former personal lawyer, Alina Habba, at the same time he is seeking to retain a big contract in Venezuela.

© Todd Heisler/The New York Times