British lawmakers to vote on landmark assisted dying law
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Crucial Vote Looms for UK’s Historic Assisted Dying Bill
British lawmakers are slated to vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. If passed, the bill could redefine social policy in England and Wales. The bill aims to allow terminally ill adults with less than six months to live the option of assisted dying.
The bill, backed by Labour lawmaker Kim Leadbeater, surfaced after an initial vote saw 330 MPs in favor and 275 against. Under stringent conditions, including self-administered medication and oversight from two doctors and a multi-disciplinary panel, the legislation faces substantial scrutiny. Amendments have been made, dropping judicial involvement and setting up independent advocates for vulnerable groups.
Despite the progress, opposition remains vocal, citing concerns over potential coercion of the elderly and disabled, with calls for better palliative care as an alternative. The free vote will cross party lines, and its outcome may significantly impact future legislative and ethical frameworks in the UK.
(With inputs from agencies.)
British lawmakers to vote on landmark assisted dying law
British lawmakers hold final debate ahead of historic vote on assisted dying. Vote expected at about 2:30 p.m. (1330 GMT) If it goes in favour, the proposed new law will have cleared its biggest parliamentary hurdle. It would pave the way for Britain to follow Australia, Canada and other countries. A vote against would stop the bill in its tracks, but supporters say the law needs to catch up with public opinion. The law was proposed under a process led by an individual member of parliament rather than being government policy, which has limited the amount of parliamentary time allocated to it. It was last considered in 2015, when lawmakers voted against it. If the law passes, it would be the biggest social reform in the country for a generation. The bill has been amended and some lawmakers have publicly changed their position, citing changes to provisions that they say weaken protections for vulnerable people. Four Labour lawmakers switched sides to oppose the bill, joining the dozens who earlier this month said there had not been enough time to debate the details of such a consequential law change.
Item 1 of 8 A supporter of the assisted dying law for terminally ill people, wearing Campaign for Dignity In Dying t-shirt and cap, sits next to placard lying on the ground, on the day British lawmakers are preparing to vote on the bill, in London, Britain, June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
Summary Law would be biggest social reform in a generation
Some worry over protections for most vulnerable
Leading backer says it will give dignity to terminally ill
LONDON, June 20 (Reuters) – British lawmakers held their final debate ahead of a historic vote on Friday on whether to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill people, in what would be a major step toward the biggest social reform in the country for a generation.
The vote is expected at about 2:30 p.m. (1330 GMT) and if it goes in favour, the proposed new law will have cleared its biggest parliamentary hurdle. That would pave the way for Britain to follow Australia, Canada and other countries, as well as some U.S. states in permitting assisted dying.
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A vote against would stop the bill in its tracks.
Last November, lawmakers voted 330 to 275 in favour of the principle of allowing assisted dying, but since then the bill has been scrutinised and amended, and some lawmakers have publicly changed their position, citing changes to provisions that they say weaken protections for vulnerable people.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government is neutral on the legislation meaning politicians can vote according to their conscience rather than along party lines. Last year, Starmer voted in favour of the legislation and has indicated he continues to support it.
The law was proposed under a process led by an individual member of parliament rather than being government policy, which has limited the amount of parliamentary time allocated to it.
Some lawmakers have said that such a major social change should be allocated more parliamentary time for debate and involve a greater degree of ministerial involvement and accountability.
If Friday’s vote is in favour, assisted dying stays on the road to legalisation, a process that could still take months.
The Labour lawmaker who proposed the new law, Kim Leadbeater, said there could be a reduction in the number of members of parliament who support the bill on Friday compared with last year’s vote, but that she was confident it would still be approved.
Opening the debate, Leadbeater said that the legislation was “desperately needed” and would provide dignity and compassion to people suffering. She argued it had robust safeguards that made it practical and safe.
“This is not a choice between living and dying. It is a choice for terminally ill people about how they die,” she said.
On Thursday, four Labour lawmakers switched sides to oppose the bill, joining the dozens who earlier this month said there had not been enough time to debate the details of such a consequential law change.
“The bill before us simply does not do enough to safeguard people who may want to choose to live,” the four lawmakers said in a letter.
Leadbeater said her biggest fear was that if the legislation was voted down, it could be another decade before the issue returns to parliament. It was last considered in 2015, when lawmakers voted against it.
PUBLIC SUPPORT
Opinion polls show that a majority of Britons back assisted dying, and supporters say the law needs to catch up with public opinion.
Under the proposed law, mentally competent, terminally ill adults in England and Wales with six months or less to live would be given the right to end their lives with medical help.
In the original plan, an assisted death would have required court approval. That has been replaced by a requirement for a judgement by a panel including a social worker, a senior legal figure and a psychiatrist, which is seen by some as a watering down.
Lawmakers have also raised questions about the impact of assisted dying on the finances and resources of Britain’s state-run National Health Service and on the need to improve palliative care.
If the vote passes, the proposed new law is sent to the House of Lords, parliament’s upper chamber. But the unelected Lords will be reluctant to block legislation that has been passed by elected members of the House of Commons.
Reporting by Sarah Young and Andrew MacAskill Editing by Andrew Heavens and Frances Kerry
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Ukraine and Russia exchange POWs in latest swap
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted images of the freed Ukrainian troops, smiling and draped in the national flag. Most had been held captive since the early months of Russia’s February 2022 invasion, he said.
Reuters
Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners of war on Thursday, officials from both countries said, the latest round of swaps under an agreement struck in Istanbul.
A Ukrainian prisoner of war (POW) reacts after a swap, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, at an unknown location in Ukraine, on 19th June, 2025. PICTURE: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted images of the freed Ukrainian troops, smiling and draped in the national flag, most of whom had been held captive since the early months of Russia’s February 2022 invasion, he said.
The Ukrainian POWs exchanged on Thursday were sick or injured, according to Kyiv’s coordinating council for POWs. The Russian POWs would also be sent for treatment and rehabilitation, Moscow’s defence ministry said.
Neither Ukraine nor Russia, whose talks on ending the war have yielded few results besides the exchange of prisoners or remains, provided an exact figure of how many POWs had been exchanged.
Longer exposure, more pollen: climate change worsens allergies
The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has found that a shifting climate has already begun altering the production and distribution of pollen and spores. As winter frost thaws earlier and spring weather gets warmer, plants and trees flower earlier, extending the pollen season. Around a quarter of adults in Europe suffer from airborne allergies, including severe asthma, while the proportion among children is 30 to 40 percent. In Japan, the government announced a plan in 2023 to combat allergies caused by the archipelago’S many cedar trees, which includes felling cedars to replace them with species that have been planted with less pollen-causing species. In parts of France, authorities have planted “pollinariums,” gardens packed with the main local allergen species, such as hazelnuts and maple trees, to combat the problem. In Switzerland, a tie-up with MeteoSwiss allows patients and doctors to match personal allergy profiles with maps of allergens throughout the country.
The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has found that a shifting climate has already begun altering the production and distribution of pollen and spores.
As winter frost thaws earlier and spring weather gets warmer, plants and trees flower earlier, extending the pollen season, numerous studies have shown.
Air pollution can also increase people’s sensitivity to allergens, while invasive species are spreading into new regions and causing fresh waves of allergies.
More and more people, particularly in industrialized nations, have reported developing allergy symptoms in recent decades.
Around a quarter of adults in Europe suffer from airborne allergies, including severe asthma, while the proportion among children is 30 to 40 percent.
That figure is expected to rise to half of Europeans by 2050, according to the World Health Organization.
“We’re in crisis because allergies are exploding,” said Severine Fernandez, president of the French Allergists’ Union.
Whereas previously an allergic person would endure only what is commonly known as hay fever, albeit sometimes for years, “now that person can become asthmatic after one or two years,” Fernandez said.
‘No doubt that climate change is having an effect’
Climate change affects allergy patients in multiple ways, according to a 2023 report by the WMO.
Rising levels of carbon dioxide, one of the main heat-trapping gases produced by burning fossil fuels, boost plant growth, in turn increasing pollen production.
Air pollution not only irritates the airways of people exposed, but it also causes stress to plants, which then produce more “allergenic and irritant pollen.”
Nicolas Visez, an aerobiologist at the University of Lille, said each plant species reacted differently to a variety of factors such as water availability, temperature and CO2 concentrations.
Birch trees for example will wither as summers get hotter and drier, while the heat causes a proliferation of ragweed, a highly allergenic invasive plant.
“There’s no doubt that climate change is having an effect,” Visez said.
In a study published in 2017, researchers projected that ragweed allergies would more than double in Europe by 2041-2060 as a result of climate change, raising the number of people affected from 33 million to 77 million.
The authors suggested that higher pollen concentrations as well as longer pollen seasons could make symptoms more severe.
‘AutoPollen’ program
A Europe-wide “AutoPollen” program under development aims to provide real-time data on the distribution of pollen and fungal spores.
In Switzerland, a tie-up with MeteoSwiss allows patients and doctors to match personal allergy profiles with maps of specific allergens throughout the country.
In parts of France, authorities have planted “pollinariums,” gardens packed with the main local allergen species.
These provide information on the very first pollen released into the air so that people can start taking antihistamines and other protective measures in a timely manner.
“Hazelnuts have started to bloom as early as mid-December, which wasn’t the case before,” said Salome Pasquet, a botanist with the association behind the pollen gardens.
“That’s really because we’ve had very mild winters, so flowering has come earlier,” she said.
Some countries are taking an interventionist approach — cutting off the pollen at the source.
In Japan, the government announced a plan in 2023 to combat allergies caused by the archipelago’s many cedar trees, which includes felling cedars to replace them with species that produce less pollen.
Countries in Europe are also more mindful of species in the environment, both native ones that have been planted and invasive newcomers like ragweed.
Preference is given to species with a lower allergenic potential, such as maple or fruit trees.
“The idea is not to stop planting allergenic species,” Pasquet said, but to be mindful of creating diversity and avoiding having “places where there are rows of birch trees, as was the case a few years ago.”
It was birch trees in a client’s garden that originally set off symptoms for Simon Barthelemy, an architect who lives near Paris.
“I had a major eye allergy, and it’s been a recurring problem every year since,” he said.
“I’m on antihistamines, but if I don’t take them I get itchy eyes, I’m very tired, I cough… I can’t sleep at night.”
New study says planting trees alone to offset effects of fossil fuels is not enough
CNN goes behind the scenes of a federal holiday in New Hampshire, New Hampshire to see what it’s like to be a part of a national holiday. CNN’s Jim Boulden takes a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to be part of one of the biggest federal holidays of the year. The process of creating a federal holidays is called a “national debate” and involves a series of questions and answers from the public, the media, the government and the researchers. The results are published in a book called “The Federal Holidays of 2014: A Nation at War,” published by Simon & Schuster, $24.99. The book is based on a book of the same name by the same author, “A Nation At War: The Nation at war, by Simon and Schuster.” The book, published in 2014, is a collection of interviews with people who have been involved in the federal holidays and the events that led up to them.
PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire: Juneteenth celebrations unfolded across the US on Thursday, marking the day in 1865 when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Texas and attracting participants who said current events strengthened their resolve to be heard.
President Donald Trump honored Juneteenth in each of his first four years as president, even before it became a federal holiday. He even claimed once to have made it “very famous.”
But on this year’s Juneteenth holiday on Thursday, the usually talkative president kept silent about a day important to Black Americans for marking the end of slavery in the country he leads again.
No words about it from his lips, on paper or through his social media site.
The holiday has been celebrated by Black Americans for generations, but became more widely observed after being designated a federal holiday in 2021 by former President Joe Biden, who attended a Juneteenth event at a church in Galveston, Texas, the holiday’s birthplace.
The celebrations come as Trump’s administration has worked to ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, or DEI, in the federal government and remove content about Black American history from federal websites. Trump’s travel ban on visitors from select countries has also led to bitter national debate.
In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Robert Reid waved a large Juneteenth flag at the city’s African Burying Ground Memorial Park, where African drummers and dancers led the crowd in song and dance. Reid, 60, said he attended in part to stand against what he called Trump’s “divide and conquer” approach.
“It’s time for people to get pulled together instead of separated,” he said.
Jordyn Sorapuru, 18, visiting New Hampshire from California, called the large turnout a “beautiful thing.”
“It’s nice to be celebrated every once in a while, especially in the political climate right now,” she said. “With the offensive things going on right now, with brown people in the country and a lot of people being put at risk for just existing, having celebrations like this is really important.”
Juneteenth’s origins and this year’s celebrations
The holiday to mark the end of slavery in the US goes back to an order issued on June 19, 1865, as Union troops arrived in Galveston at the end of the Civil War. General Order No. 3 declared that all enslaved people in the state were free and had “absolute equality.”
Juneteenth is recognized at least as an observance in every state, and nearly 30 states and Washington, D.C., have designated it as a permanent paid or legal holiday through legislation or executive action.
In Virginia, a ceremonial groundbreaking was held for rebuilding the First Baptist Church of Williamsburg, one of the nation’s oldest Black churches.
In Fort Worth, Texas, about 2,500 people participated in Opal Lee’s annual Juneteenth walk. The 98-year-old Lee, known as the “grandmother of Juneteenth” for the years she spent advocating to make the day a federal holiday, was recently hospitalized and didn’t participate in public this year. But her granddaughter, Dione Sims, said Lee was “in good spirits.”
“The one thing that she would tell the community and the nation at large is to hold on to your freedoms,” Sims said. “Hold on to your freedom and don’t let it go, because it’s under attack right now.”
Events were planned throughout the day in Galveston, including a parade, a celebration at a park with music and the service at Reedy Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church that Biden attended.
Galveston Mayor Craig Brown presents former President Joe Biden with a commemorative plaque during a Juneteenth event at the Reedy Chapel AME Church on June 19, 2025, in Galveston, Texas. (AP Photo)
During a Juneteenth speech in Maryland, Gov. Wes Moore announced pardons for 6,938 cases of simple marijuana possession, which can hinder employment and educational opportunities and have disproportionally affected the Black community.
Moore, a Democrat who is Maryland’s first Black governor and the only Black governor currently serving, last year ordered tens of thousands of pardons for marijuana possession. The newly announced pardons weren’t included in that initial announcement because they’d been incorrectly coded.
In New Hampshire, Thursday’s gathering capped nearly two weeks of events organized by the Black History Trail of New Hampshire aimed at both celebrating Juneteenth and highlighting contradictions in the familiar narratives about the nation’s founding fathers ahead of next year’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
“In a time when efforts to suppress Black history are on the rise, and by extension, to suppress American history, we stand firm in the truth,” said JerriAnne Boggis, the Heritage Trail’s executive director. “This is not just Black history, it is all of our history.”
What Trump has said about Juneteenth
During his first administration, Trump issued statements each June 19, including one that ended with “On Juneteenth 2017, we honor the countless contributions made by African Americans to our Nation and pledge to support America’s promise as the land of the free.”
When White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked during her Thursday media briefing whether the president would commemorate the holiday this year, she replied, “I’m not tracking his signature on a proclamation today.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a press briefing at the White House in Washington on June 19, 2025. (REUTERS)
Later Thursday Trump complained on his social media site about “too many non-working holidays” and said it is “costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed.” Most retailers are open on Juneteenth, while federal workers generally get a day off because the government is closed.
New Hampshire, one of the nation’s whitest states, is not among those with a permanent, paid or legal Juneteenth holiday, and Boggis said her hope that lawmakers would take action making it one is waning.
“I am not so sure anymore given the political environment we’re in,” she said. “I think we’ve taken a whole bunch of steps backwards in understanding our history, civil rights and inclusion.”
Still, she hopes New Hampshire’s events and those elsewhere will make a difference.
“It’s not a divisive tool to know the truth. Knowing the truth helps us understand some of the current issues that we’re going through,” she said.
And if spreading that truth comes with a bit of fun, all the better, she said.
“When we come together, when we break bread together, we enjoy music together, we learn together, we dance together, we’re creating these bonds of community,” she said. “As much was we educate, we also want to celebrate together.”