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| Good morning. Capitol Hill grapples with legal drama, Saudi Arabia seeks an unusual execution and European lawmakers worry about Facebook. |
| Here's the latest: |
 Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times |
| • Disarray in D.C. |
| A day after President Trump's former campaign manager was convicted of fraud and his personal lawyer pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, the White House grappled with developments that may seriously threaten Mr. Trump's presidency. Possible outcomes include impeachment or indictment. |
| In Congress, Republicans were shaken by the two cases and what they could mean for the midterm elections. Senior party leaders even urged candidates to speak out about the wrongdoing surrounding the president to protect themselves, creating the first real rift between the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill. |
| One case even reverberated across borders. Paul Manafort's conviction on tax and bank fraud charges prompted Ukraine to open an investigation into his political consulting clients there. |
| Separately, in the U.S., the Democratic National Committee said it was alerted of an attempted hack of its voter database. The last time the D.N.C. was hacked, in 2016, the episode was traced to Russia. This time, however, the identities of the culprits are unclear. |
| _____ |
 Human Rights Watch |
| • A rare execution, even for Saudi Arabia. |
| The kingdom is seeking the death penalty for a 29-year-old female human rights activist, Israa al-Ghomgham, above, for instigating protests. While Saudi Arabia has one of the highest execution rates in the world, calling for capital punishment for a woman in a nonviolent case is extremely unusual. |
| Ms. Ghomgham's case "sets a dangerous precedent for other women activists currently behind bars," Human Rights Watch said. |
| It is yet another example of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's crackdown on dissent, poking holes in the reformist image he has been seeking. |
| Separately, Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil giant, Aramco, suspended plans to go public, a deal that would have been the biggest initial offering on record. |
| _____ |
 Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times |
| • Air pollution is shortening your life. |
| Depending on where you live, the air you breathe is shaving months, even years, off your life, according to a new study. |
| In Egypt and India, where air pollution is high, the average life expectancy is cut by 1.9 and 1.5 years, respectively. In the U.S., air pollution shortens a life by four months. |
| The study comes at a time when President Trump is loosening environmental protections. This week, the Trump administration unveiled plans to overhaul regulations of coal-burning power plants. And, according to the administration's own analysis, that policy shift could lead to as many as 1,400 premature deaths a year by 2030 and up to 15,000 new cases of upper respiratory problems. |
| _____ |
 Beck Diefenbach/Reuters |
| • "Facebook can be used to manipulate elections, that's a fact." |
| European lawmakers are worried that the social media giant may have an impact on European Parliament elections next year, after it revealed that its platform was being used for misinformation campaigns around the world. |
| The news added momentum in Europe, where there are more Facebook users than the U.S., to pass more social media regulations in the next few months, including rules to remove terrorist content and to restrict how voters are targeted online. |
| Business |
 Jialun Deng |
| • Quit avocados. Ride bikes instead of taking taxis. Drink beer instead of cocktails. These are some of the new rules consumers in China are adopting as its economy slumps and the future looks bleaker. |
| • Will China end up changing Google? The Silicon Valley giant once prided itself on being unconventional and having a strong moral compass. But, our tech columnist writes, if Google decides to launch a censored version of its search engine in China, it will become an "utterly conventional corporation." |
| • The U.S. bull market hit a milestone on Wednesday: At 3,452 days, it was arguably the longest on record and among the great booms in American history. But slow recovery of prices for homes and stagnant incomes mean most Americans aren't celebrating. |
| • Here's a snapshot of global markets. |
| In the News |
 Ricky Arnold/NASA, via Afp |
| • Hawaii is bracing for Hurricane Lane to make landfall. It's now a Category 4 storm that forecasters say could bring strong winds, floods and high surf. [The New York Times] |
| • Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, has resurfaced in the first audio recording of him to be released in nearly a year. It called on followers to continue attacks on Westerners that "break their hearts." If deemed authentic, the recording would quell rumors of Mr. Baghdadi's death. [The New York Times] |
| • South Korea said it would soon open a diplomatic office in North Korea, despite concerns that Pyongyang has yet to take clear steps toward denuclearization. [The New York Times] |
| • Germany's foreign minister, Heiko Maas, called in a sharply critical opinion piece for the European Union to come together to counter U.S. policy. "We can no longer rely on Washington to the same extent," he wrote. [Handelsblatt] |
| • A new study offers a glimmer of hope for people with skin cancer that has spread to the brain. A combination of two drugs that activate the immune system worked to shrink brain tumors in melanoma patients. [The New York Times] |
| • Reindeer herders in Sweden are asking the government for aid to help the animals survive a crippling drought. [The Guardian] |
| Smarter Living |
| Tips for a more fulfilling life. |
 Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times |
| • Recipe of the day: Make BLT tacos once, and you'll want them for dinner every week. |
| • Women and men peak at different ages on dating sites. |
| • How to ask for help (and actually get it). |
| Noteworthy |
 Bettmann/Getty Images |
| • In 1951, Doria Shafik, second from the right above, led 1,500 women into Cairo's all-male Parliament and demanded that women receive the right to vote and hold office. It was granted, and she went on to become one of the most influential women in the Arab world. Yet, few Egyptians today know her name. Here's why. |
| • The Netherlands is pioneering an unorthodox approach to dementia: simulated bus rides and visits to the beach, rooms that have been decorated to look like a patient's childhood home and activities like dancing and singing. "It's really about all the little things that make a normal life," said one health care professional. |
| • Berlin wants to keep drug users away from its train stations and deter antisocial behavior. The solution? Blast "atonal music" that most people find unpleasant. |
| Back Story |
 Egan-Polisen, via Pressens Bild/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
| Forty-five years ago today, an escaped convict burst into a busy bank in Stockholm, fired at the ceiling and shouted in English, "The party has just begun!" |
| The man, Jan-Erik Olsson, took four employees hostage, and a tense, six-day standoff followed. |
| But the police were stumped by the terrorized hostages' apparent sympathy for their captor, behavior that is now widely known as Stockholm syndrome. |
| In a phone call set up with Sweden's prime minister, one hostage said she felt safe with Mr. Olsson but worried that "the police will attack and cause us to die." |
| The authorities agreed to some of Mr. Olsson's demands: a getaway vehicle, hundreds of thousands of dollars and the release of another convict, who joined Mr. Olsson at the bank. |
| After 130 hours, the police pumped tear gas into the vault and the captors surrendered. The hostages pleaded with the authorities: "Don't hurt them — they didn't harm us." |
| Evaluating the hostages after their release, psychologists compared the experience to wartime shell shock, and they soon coined the term Stockholm syndrome. It wasn't until the next year, with the abduction of the American heiress Patty Hearst, that the term went into wide use. |
| Joumana Khatib wrote today's Back Story. |
| _____ |
| Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. |
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| What would you like to see here? Contact us at europebriefing@nytimes.com. |
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