NewsBytes

UK lawmakers backed a bill to allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales to choose to end their lives in a historic vote in Parliament that takes it a step nearer to becoming law. Members of Parliament voted 314-291 to back the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill following an impassioned and respectful debate. The bill now goes to the unelected House of Lords, which can amend or delay policy, though it can't overrule the lower chamber. The bill would allow terminally ill adults over age 18 in England and Wales, who are deemed to have less than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death. The terminally ill person would have to be capable of taking the fatal drugs themselves.

Pope Leo XIV warned that artificial intelligence could negatively impact the intellectual, neurological and spiritual development of young people as he pressed one of the priorities of his young pontificate. History's first American pope sent a message to a conference of AI and ethics, part of which was taking place in the Vatican in a sign of the Holy See's concern for the new technologies and what they mean for humanity. In the message, Leo said any further development of AI must be evaluated according to the “superior ethical criterion” of the need to safeguard the dignity of each human being while respecting the diversity of the world's population. He warned specifically that new generations are most at risk given they have never had such quick access to information.

Amid the ongoing conflict with Ukraine and new conflagration in West Asia sparked by Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, Russia is skeptical about the prospects of an early summit between President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump. "The issues that need to be resolved are so complicated and have so many nuances that first, homework needs to be done at the expert level," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.  "Only then, the possibility of a highest-level meeting could be discussed in order to finalise the results of this homework,” he added. He was speaking to journalists in St. Petersburg, which has become the power centre for three days as President Putin, accompanied by his key officials, is attending the International Economic Forum (SPIEF25) -  dubbed as Russia's Davos.

China, Pakistan and Bangladesh have agreed to advance cooperation based on the principles of good-neighbourliness, equality and mutual trust at the inaugural trilateral meeting of their foreign ministry officials. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong, Bangladeshi Acting Foreign Secretary Ruhul Alam Siddique and Additional Foreign Secretary of Pakistan Imran Ahmed Siddiqui attended the meeting held at the Chinese city of Kunming, capital of Southern Yunnan province, where China is holding its annual South Asia expo. Pakistani Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch participated, via a video link, in the first phase of the meeting on Thursday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry press release said. China's new strategic initiative to bring closer the two estranged South Asian countries in India's immediate neighbourhood comes a month after a similar trilateral mechanism meeting was held with Pakistan and Afghanistan.