WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
Assisted dying vote, Trump buys time, and the people who raffle their homes

 
today's politics story

MPs prepare to vote on assisted dying bill

What happened
The UK Parliament is poised for a landmark decision on assisted dying as Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill reaches its final reading in the Commons today. The proposed legislation would legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults with fewer than six months to live, subject to a sign-off from two doctors and an expert panel. Supporters believe the bill will pass, but recent shifts in MP positions have narrowed last year's 55-vote majority, making the outcome uncertain.

Who said what
Leadbeater (pictured above, centre) warned that a defeat would likely delay any future law change for a decade, calling the legislation "the most robust in the world". Keir Starmer supports the bill, but Cabinet members Wes Streeting and Shabana Mahmood oppose it. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called it "a bad bill" and urged her MPs to reject it.

This is a "momentous bill", said The Guardian's editorial board, but one that "needs further attention". Leadbeater has led a "strong campaign, but concerns about the likely impact on vulnerable people remain". This bill "must not pass", countered The Telegraph in its own leading article. A "rushed parliamentary process" has produced a framework "riddled with flaws" that is "unfit for purpose".

What next?
If passed, the bill moves to the House of Lords, where Labour peer Charlie Falconer is expected to lead. Proponents hope for royal assent by October, followed by a four-year implementation period.

 
 
today's international story

Trump to decide on Iran attack 'within two weeks'

What happened
Donald Trump has given himself – and the Tehran regime – a couple of weeks of breathing space in which to reach a compromise before the US joins Israel in launching strikes on Iran. The US president acknowledged that there was a "substantial chance" of future negotiations. Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued their offensive yesterday, hitting Iranian nuclear targets, including a complex in Arak and facilities near Natanz, following Iranian missile strikes that damaged, among other sites, a hospital in southern Israel.

Who said what
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy, was in contact with Iranian officials, although details were withheld. She said any potential nuclear deal must prohibit uranium enrichment.

"Two weeks" is one of Trump's "favourite units of time", said The New York Times. "It can mean something, or nothing at all." But Trump's "wariness over bombing Iran" is due in part to concerns about creating "another Libya", unnamed White House insiders told The New York Post.

What next?
Iran remains under cyberattack and a near-total internet blackout. Israeli concerns are also mounting over their own dwindling supplies of missile interceptors.

 
 
Today's archaeology story

'Dragon Man' skull gives glimpse of lost humans

What happened
An ancient skull found near Harbin in northeast China may finally reveal the face of a "long-vanished" human species that lived alongside Homo sapiens. The "remarkably well-preserved" skull, first discovered in 1933 and subsequently nicknamed "Dragon Man", has now been linked to Denisovans, said The Times, making it the first complete Denisovan skull known to science.

Who said what
Xijun Ni, co-author of two new studies in Science and Cell, said it was a "special feeling" to "give the Denisovan a face" after finding tiny traces of Denisovan DNA on the skull. Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum called the findings "potentially very important", but cautioned that they needed further scrutiny.

Denisovans, an extinct sister species to modern humans, were first identified in 2010 from a finger bone uncovered in Siberia's Altai Mountains. DNA analysis showed that they left a genetic legacy in many modern humans.

What next?
The find may help identify other fossils across East Asia and encourage further molecular research.

 
 

It's not all bad

Armando López Pocol has spent 25 years reforesting Guatemala’s highlands, planting up to 25,000 trees a year through the Chico Mendes Project. Despite fires – including some suspected cases of arson – and no government funding, he and his volunteers persist, boosting both the environment and local economy through ecotourism and education. His work is "vital for local communities", said The Guardian. "We all just want a green planet," Pocol told the newspaper.

 
 
under the radar

The people who raffle their homes

House prices are beyond the reach of many people, but there's an increasingly popular low-cost way to win yourself a place on the property ladder: the raffle.

For as little as £2 a ticket, you can get a chance to win a house from a seller taking this "non-traditional route" that allows them to swerve estate agents and viewings, and "laborious" conveyancing paperwork, said The i Paper.

There are even sites set up to host house raffles. The UK platform Raffall allows sellers to set a minimum threshold for ticket sales, which must be met for their property to be won. If ticket sales don't meet the threshold, the sellers can give 50% of the ticket revenue to the winner instead, and keep 40% for themselves, with 10% going to Raffall. Or they can give the house away anyway and keep more of the ticket sale proceeds.

Ticket prices may be small, but the stakes are high, and there's big money to be made. Since it was launched 10 years ago, Raffall has, it claims, hosted more than 46,000 raffles, distributing more than 130,000 prizes and bringing in nearly £50 million in revenue for home sellers.

The property raffle industry is "largely unregulated" in the UK, said The Guardian, because most raffles are classed as free draws or prize competitions, which means they don't have to abide by the strict licensing conditions laid down by the Gambling Act 2005.

 
 
on this day

20 June 1840

American inventor Samuel Morse patented his telegraph. Scientists in China this week announced that information could potentially be stored in ice for millennia simply by making subtle changes to the shape and position of internal bubbles, which can then be converted into binary or Morse codes.

 
 
Today's newspapers

Donald Trump will "allow a window for diplomacy" and decide on whether the US will join Israel's war with Iran within two weeks, reports The Guardian. The Times says this "reprieve" is a "step back from the brink". The shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, has made an "emotional appeal" against assisted dying, says the Daily Mail, but the Daily Express reports a plea from a supporter of the reform urging MPs to "allow us the choice to have a good death". Gary Glitter accepts he's a "danger" to children, says The Mirror, reporting that the convicted sex offender has accepted the latest Parole Board decision to keep him in jail.

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Ozzy bottles himself

Ozzy Osbourne is set to play his final gig in Birmingham next month – and a few lucky fans could take a piece of him home for £355. The Black Sabbath legend is selling 10 cans of iced tea that he's already drunk from and resealed at the gig. Buyers will then be able to do as they please with the DNA held inside, although Liquid Death's PR team had one suggestion: "Use this DNA to try to clone Ozzy in the future and enjoy him for hundreds of years to come."

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Jamie Timson, Sorcha Bradley, Ross Couzens and Chas Newkey-Burden, with illustrations by Marian Femenias Moratinos.

Image credits, from top: Wiktor Szymanowicz / Future Publishing / Getty Images; Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times / Getty Images; Hebei GEO University; Illustration by Marian Femenias Moratinos / Getty Images.