Thursday, Oct 3, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering the latest developments in Washington, a major ruling against Facebook in Europe, and new details about lung damage in e-cigarette users.

By Chris Stanford

President Trump called his opponents "corrupt" and "dishonest" on Wednesday. Doug Mills/The New York Times

‘We’re not fooling around,’ Democrats warn

Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was among several Democratic leaders who told the Trump administration on Wednesday not to obstruct their impeachment inquiry.

They announced plans to issue subpoenas by Friday if the White House did not comply with requests for information. (We recently wrote about what happens if subpoenas are ignored.)

Kurt Volker, who until last week was the special envoy for Ukraine, is expected to testify before a House committee today. Mr. Volker had put Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, in touch with the government in Ukraine, whose leader was later asked by Mr. Trump to investigate a political rival, Joe Biden.

The Daily: Today’s episode is about Mr. Giuliani’s work in Ukraine.

Related: The whistle-blower whose complaint led to the impeachment inquiry alerted Mr. Schiff days before it was filed, although a spokesman said the lawmaker had not seen its content beforehand.

Yesterday: Mr. Trump denounced the whistle-blower, Mr. Schiff and the news media during two increasingly angry appearances at the White House. Watch here.

Another angle: When he was a member of Congress, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused the Obama administration of obstruction during the inquiry into the killing of a U.S. ambassador in Benghazi, Libya. He’s now being called obstructive himself.

Is age still just a number for candidates?

Gerontologists say there’s no way to definitively address whether there should be an upper age limit for the presidency, but the question was renewed after Bernie Sanders, 78, was hospitalized.

It was unclear on Wednesday when the Democratic presidential candidate would return to the campaign trail after he had two stents inserted to treat a blocked artery.

What’s next: The Democratic debate on Oct. 15 will feature 12 candidates, the largest-ever field on one stage. The Times’s National editor, Marc Lacey, will be one of the moderators, and would like to know what you think he should ask.

Related: In an experiment, 526 voters from across the ideological spectrum spent a weekend last month talking politics, with little bickering and no partisan labels.

Asylum seekers who turned themselves in to Border Patrol agents in Texas in February. Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

U.S. to collect DNA from immigrants

Genetic samples collected from hundreds of thousands of people taken into immigration custody each year would be added to a national criminal database under new government plans, officials at the Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday.

Until now, immigrants have been exempt from a 2005 law authorizing the collection of DNA data, and advocates said changing that could raise privacy concerns for an already vulnerable population.

Trump administration officials did not provide a timeline for the rollout of the regulation.

Related: The Times Magazine examined how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pick their targets in the age of big data.

Yesterday: President Trump denied a Times article that said he had discussed fortifying barriers along the Mexican border with a reptile-filled moat. A Times spokeswoman said, “We are confident in the accuracy of the reporting.”

Europe’s top court rules against Facebook

Countries can order the company to take down content and restrict worldwide access to that material, the European Court of Justice ruled today.

The decision has implications for whether national governments can expand content bans beyond their borders and places more responsibility on social media platforms to police their sites.

Background: The case was brought by a former Austrian politician who had sought the removal of disparaging comments about her that had been posted on an individual’s personal Facebook page. A court had ruled the comments defamatory.

If you have 6 minutes, this is worth it

The middle class crunch

Paul Windle

Most Americans believe that they fall somewhere in the middle class, but what it takes to achieve the markers of such a lifestyle has become more challenging.

Four families gave us a glimpse at their monthly budgets, and their stories illustrate how a middle-class existence has shifted.

Here’s what else is happening

Vaping effects: Lung damage in some people who became ill after vaping nicotine or marijuana products resembles a chemical burn, doctors reported.

New Brexit plan: Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain presented European Union officials with a detailed proposal to withdraw from the bloc by the end of the month. Its prospects are uncertain, as the plan drew a swift, negative response from Ireland.

Manhattan traffic ban: Starting today, passenger cars, including taxis and Ubers, will be largely prevented from using 14th Street, a major crosstown route that carried 21,000 vehicles a day.

Pool photo by Tom Fox

Snapshot: Above, Brandt Jean embracing Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer who was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday for murdering Botham Jean, his brother, in his own apartment. Brandt Jean had asked the judge’s permission to hug Ms. Guyger after addressing her from the witness stand.

Baseball playoffs: The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Oakland A’s in the American League wild card game. The National League’s division series begin tonight: Braves versus Cardinals and Dodgers versus Nationals.

Late-night comedy: The hosts followed up on a water-filled trench at the border with Mexico. “They actually got a quote for the moat, which also sounds like the name of the most xenophobic Dr. Seuss book ever,” Trevor Noah said.

What we’re looking at: This Instagram account dedicated to roly-poly animals. “Just because,” writes our briefings teammate Remy Tumin.

Now, a break from the news

Michael Kraus for The New York Times

Cook: Polenta with mushrooms in a soy-butter sauce is meatless but hearty.

Go: “Freestyle Love Supreme,” whose creators include the team behind “Hamilton,” is an “exultant master course in the fine art of hip-hop,” our critic writes. It’s playing at the Booth Theater in Manhattan.

Watch: In “Judy,” Renée Zellweger plays several versions of Judy Garland near the end of her life: worried mother, needy lover, disaster, legend. Here’s our review.

Read: Demi Moore’s memoir “Inside Out” debuts at the top of our hardcover nonfiction and combined print and e-book nonfiction best-seller lists.

Smarter Living: A top tip to be a more ethical consumer is to look for companies with B Corp certification, which means they were vetted for social and environmental responsibility. Shopping secondhand is another simple way to avoid creating more waste.

And our tech columnist recommends trying out Google’s new privacy tools.

And now for the Back Story on …

The march of history

Today, Germany commemorates the reunification of East and West 29 years ago, amid the collapse of Soviet communism and the end of the Cold War.

A segment of what remains of the Berlin Wall. John MacDougall/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The political upheaval of the late 1980s was so profound that one analyst, Francis Fukuyama, theorized that it was “the end of history” — his shorthand for the idea that the Western system of liberal democracy had triumphed and would be “the final form of human government.”

It was a catchy meme, but it didn’t quite work out that way.

Even after the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, Chinese communism remained intact, and the decades since have witnessed plenty of dictators, ultranationalism, and government-sponsored as well as independent terrorism.

In other words, history kept on going.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Chris

Thank you
Melina Delkic helped compile today’s briefing. Mark Josephson, Eleanor Stanford and Chris Harcum provided the break from the news. Victoria Shannon wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about Rudy Giuliani and Ukraine.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Dryly humorous (three letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Jason Stallman, an executive producer of The Times’s TV program “The Weekly,” talked about how the series is produced.