U.K. Parliament Presses Ahead With Assisted Suicide Bill

Happy Wednesday! If you’re still feeling pumped after seeing Gladiator II, boy do we have an Airbnb experience for you. 

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• South Korea’s opposition parties began taking steps toward impeaching President Yoon Suk Yeol after he declared martial law on Tuesday night. In the face of fierce pushback by opposition lawmakers, members of Yoon’s own party, and protesters, martial law was lifted on Wednesday after the legislature voted unanimously to reject the declaration. The South Korean constitution allows for the president to declare martial law during a national emergency, but it also empowers the National Assembly to overturn the declaration. Yoon justified the move by citing gridlock in the country’s legislature–which is controlled by the opposition party—particularly concerning the national budget, and impeachment proceedings against prosecutors and other government officials. “I will crush the anti-state forces and normalize the country as soon as possible,” Yoon said in a speech Tuesday night. 
• The Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday announced a ban on the exports of rare minerals to the U.S. The materials—gallium, germanium, and antimony—are used in semiconductor manufacturing and a number of defense applications. Exports of graphite will also be subject to stricter controls. “To safeguard national security interests and fulfil international obligations such as non-proliferation, China has decided to strengthen export controls on relevant dual-use items to the United States,” the ministry said in a statement.
• The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday issued sanctions on “35 entities and vessels” that facilitate the illegal sale of Iranian oil. The sanctions target a network of oil tankers and ship management firms that transport the illicit oil. The Treasury Department said the move “imposes additional costs on Iran’s petroleum sector,” profits from which the Iranian government uses to fund its nuclear program and its terror proxies that have targeted Israel, the U.S., and international shipping over the last year.
• A Secret Service agent detailed to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen fired a weapon near Yellen’s home early Tuesday after confronting a group of individuals apparently trying to break into cars along the street. The Secret Service said in a statement that “there is currently no evidence to indicate anyone was struck” by the gunfire, and the individuals fled the scene. The agency also said “there was no threat to any protectees during this incident. 
• President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team signed a memorandum of understanding with the Biden administration on Tuesday, allowing the transition team to coordinate with federal agencies to aid the transition. Coordination between the transition and these agencies—typically including those whom the president-elect has indicated he’ll nominate to lead them—apparently typically begins in mid-November, though it’s not clear why there was a delay. The transition team, however, did not sign an agreement with the General Services Administration, which would have provided the team with federal funds to pay for its operations. The Trump team did sign a memorandum of understanding with the Justice Department, which theoretically allows the FBI to begin background checks on people the president has promised to nominate to fill key roles. 

Assisted Suicide Laws Are Spreading 

For some, it was a step toward ending “profound human suffering.” For others, it was a move to legitimize the state-sponsored death of the sick and vulnerable. Last week, 234 members of Britain’s Labour Party were joined by nearly 100 members of other parties to form a 330-vote majority in favor of a bill .legalizing assisted suicide in England and Wales. 

If the bill clears the multiple readings and series of amendments needed for a bill to pass British Parliament—a big if—the United Kingdom will join a growing trend in the Western world. Canada, Germany,  Spain, and several U.S. states have all recently legalized assisted suicide, and it has been legal in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Oregon for decades. Advocates of patient autonomy hail these laws as wins for “death with dignity,” and the right for a person to alleviate their own suffering before death. But critics warn that weakening cultural norms against suicide risks creating a slippery slope. 

The bill under consideration in the Parliament, formally called the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, was introduced in October …

As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,702-word story on assisted suicide legislation is available in the members-only version of TMD.

Worth Your Time

• We’re only at the beginning of the evaluations of Joe Biden’s legacy. Writing for his Substack Sanity Clause, Joe Klein offered his own theory of Biden’s presidency: the permissive father who lacked the strength to truly lead. “Clinton said no to Sistah Souljah,” he wrote. “Barack Obama trashed his pastor. Biden allowed his crazies to romp, unpunished, unscolded. He couldn’t stop his LatinX Activists from promoting open borders. He couldn’t call out ‘anti-racists’ for the racists they are. He never lectured Black Lives Matter on the black lives lost to black gang-bangers, not the police. He couldn’t say, as Peggy Noonan suggested, ‘No boys on girls teams.’ …  No, Biden was the ultimate permissive father—here’s where Hunter comes in—in a country nauseated by institutionalized permissiveness. His doddering presence fit the larger image: pop’s around the bend.”
• Writing for The Atlantic, George Packer outlined the defining features of our current political epoch. “The 2024 election has shown that the dominant political figure of this period is Donald Trump, who, by the end of his second term, will have loomed over American life for as long as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s dozen years as president,” he argued. “We are living in the Trump Reaction. By the standard of its predecessors, we’re still at the beginning. … For two and a half centuries American politics alternated between progressive and conservative periods, played between the 40-yard lines of liberal democracy. The values of freedom, equality, and rule of law at least received lip service; the founding documents enjoyed the status of civic scripture; the requisite American mood was optimism. Although reaction has dominated local or regional (mainly southern) politics, it’s something new in our national politics—which explains why Trump has been misunderstood and written off at every turn. Reaction is insular and aggrieved, and it paints in dark tones. It wants to undo progress and reverse history, restoring the nation to some imagined golden age when the people ruled. They want a strongman with the stomach to trample on the liberal pieties of the elites who sold them out.” 

Presented Without Comment

CNN: Trump Press Secretary Pick Removed Post Praising [Mike] Pence on January 6, Then Ran for Congress as an Election Denier

Also Presented Without Comment 

NBC News: Michelin-Starred Chef Makes Christmas Plea to Thieves Who Stole $30K Worth of Pies

It was “crumby” for Tommy Banks when his van containing $30,000 worth of pies was stolen, but instead of begging for his products to be returned to him, the Michelin-starred chef has appealed to the thieves to donate them to people in need.

“I know you’re a criminal, but maybe just do something nice because it’s Christmas and maybe we can feed a few thousand people with these pies that you’ve stolen, do the right thing,” Banks said in an Instagram video Monday, shortly after they were taken.  

In the Zeitgeist

The top stars of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf are looking to make nice after years of division in the sport. The PGA’s Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler will tee it up against Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka for a “grudge” edition of “The Match” on December 17. Here are the highlights from the ninth edition of the series played earlier this year.

Toeing the Company Line

• In the newsletters: Nick wondered (🔒) whether Democrats should recommit to norms or emulate Trumpism in their tactics. 
• On the podcasts: Jonah is joined by Free Press columnist Eli Lake to discuss Trump’s selection of Kash Patel to run the FBI. 
• On the site: Mike takes a look back at Biden’s term, comedy writer Jeff Maurer examines the challenges of joking about a second Trump presidency, and Jonah diagnoses the media’s problem.