The UK is on the brink of legalising assisted dying, a historic change that would have far-reaching ethical and legal implications.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater's private members' bill, introduced to the House of Commons today, would permit assisted dying for terminally ill people in England and Wales. At a second reading next month, MPs will be given a free vote, as euthanasia is considered a matter of conscience.

What is assisted dying?
Assisted dying is a form of euthanasia  in which a terminally ill person receives "lethal drugs from a medical practitioner, which they administer themselves", said the BBC. It differs from assisted suicide, which is helping another person end their life whether they are terminally ill or not, and is currently illegal across the UK.

How would the proposed law work?
The Choice at the End of Life for Terminally Ill Adults Bill is "expected to have strict eligibility criteria", said The Guardian. These would include confirmation of a patient's mental competence, assessment by two independent doctors and likely a requirement for drugs to be self-administered.

The proposed new law would apply only to patients in England and Wales with six months or less to live. A residency requirement might also be included. Alex Allinson, a GP and politician currently leading an assisted dying bill for the Isle of Man, told The Telegraph that a minimum residency was needed to ensure the island does not "become a suicide tourism hotspot similar to Switzerland's Dignitas clinic".

Why is Canada being cited as a warning?
Canada introduced assisted dying for terminally ill people in 2016, and in 2021 extended legislation to those with an incurable illness or a serious chronic health condition, even if it isn't life-threatening: "a far more nebulous definition", said The New Statesman. By 2027, it may also include those in severe mental distress.

Opponents of the UK's bill have cited Canada's expanding permissiveness as an example of a "slippery slope" towards people feeling pressured to end their lives, especially the elderly, vulnerable and poor. About 36% of Canadians who applied for medically assisted death said they believed they were a "burden on family, friends or caregivers", according to a report by Health Canada.

For Elon Musk, declining global fertility rates are "not just a crisis, but the crisis", said Bloomberg. In 2022, the multibillionaire X and Tesla owner tweeted that "a collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces, by far".

His solution – to father more children – is part of a growing trend among other Silicon Valley "bros" towards a controversial brand of "pronatalism". Musk has fathered at least 12 children with three women, while the billionaire founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, claims his sperm donation to a fertility clinic has resulted in children for more than 100 couples.

A social imperative
For the pronatalist movement, having many children is "not an individual choice, but a societal imperative", said Luke Munn, a digital cultures expert from the University of Queensland, on The Conversation. Higher birth rates "are necessary to maintain population levels, support economic growth, and preserve cultural and national identities".

Pronatalism has found fans among "a loose confederation of religious conservatives, libertarian techies and blogger bros", said Bloomberg. Supporters aim to economically and politically incentivise parenthood, but for Silicon Valley pronatalists in particular the objectives are somewhat different.

Genetic largesse
Many of these elites are in an "emerging class of right-wing progressives who view technology as the natural solution to and means of childbearing itself", said Emma Waters, from the Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation. These entrepreneurs "tend to promote, in practice if not in speech, a selective pronatalism: more babies of a certain kind".

Musk is among a growing number of Silicon Valley investors in fertility technology and research into how to "reverse reproductive ageing, overcome infertility, and optimise child selection". The goal is not necessarily halting demographic decline, but "ensuring that their future children are the healthiest, smartest, and best potential children they can be".

They may talk about saving humankind, but their genetic largesse is down to a "mix of narcissism, altruism and dreams of immortality", said the Financial Times. "Some may also believe their genes are more valuable than most and that exceptionalism can (and must!) be passed down."

"It's hard to think of a better casting choice than the great Lennie James" as Barrington Walker in BBC One's adaptation of Bernardine Evaristo's 2013 novel "Mr Loverman", said Pat Stacy in the Irish Independent. "You can't visualise anyone else" as the "dapper, roguish" septuagenarian, driving around in his "gleaming Daimler".

Walker, known as Barry to his friends, has been married to the "God-fearing" Carmel (Sharon D. Clarke) for half a century, but their marriage is clearly "under strain". She is "fed up" with her husband's antics; he regularly stays out late drinking before "rolling home" in the early hours.

It turns out Barry has been the "secret lover" and "soulmate" of his best friend, Morris (Ariyon Bakare), since their boyhood in Antigua, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. This is the story of a "good life built on lies"; their happiness is "almost palpable" when on screen together, but the "50 misspent years are tragic and their effects corrosive".

Despite its painful examination of the community's deep-rooted homophobia, this is no "miseryfest". "There is plenty of light as well as shade", much of which is provided by Barry and Carmel's "high-maintenance drama queen" younger daughter Maxine (Tamara Lawrance).

All in all, "Mr Loverman" is a "wonderfully complex" show that threads together issues spanning from sexuality and racism to marital breakdown and infidelity, said Jeff Ingold on the i news site. It's "rare and powerful to see two elderly Black gay men on-screen in love – and having sex". The series should be "celebrated" as part of the "changing cultural tide" bringing these stories to the mainstream.

The drop in inflation is good news for Rachel Reeves
Kate Andrews for The Spectator
The surprise fall in inflation to a three-and-a-half-year low of 1.7% "isn't game-changing for the government or the Treasury", writes Kate Andrews. But the "prospect of lower borrowing costs in the future" makes Rachel Reeves' upcoming Budget "slightly easier to balance". And, "crucially", the "signal" that rate cuts send to the markets "will help her sell her plan to further loosen the fiscal rule, to allow for more borrowing for capital spending".

Keir Starmer is too scared to admit it: immigrants are a force for good
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown for the i news site
Contrary to what "millions of Britons believe", exiles and other migrants tend to be "highly aspirational", writes Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, and "most will strive to better themselves and add value to society". Following this summer's riots, Keir Starmer condemned xenophobic "populism". But "he did not make an unequivocal commitment to asylum rights" and "all too soon", the two main parties were "bickering over who would be tough enough" to "control" immigration. "Migrant bashing is now mainstream."

Scammers be damned, I still love my landline – we had good times
Carol Midgley for The Times
A new survey suggests that "more than half of calls" made to landlines are from scammers, but "I reject the findings", writes Carol Midgley. "A full 100% of calls to my landline" are from some form of "morally bankrupt bullshitter". So "why not just get rid of it then, I hear you cry". But I don't want to "brush away" all the "fond memories" of the landline. Besides, "I know the minute I get rid of it there will be a global tech collapse".