June 2, 2025

Good morning. Here's the news you need to start your day:

Ukraine: Russian and Ukrainian delegations are expected to meet in Istanbul today for a second round of peace talks.
Poland: A nationalist won the Polish presidential election. He won't set policy, but he can veto legislation from the centrist government.

Weather: A giant cloud of Saharan dust is headed for Florida.

More news is below. But first, we have the latest on an attack in Colorado.

AN ATTACK IN COLORADO

A sheriff's officer in dark green gear and a helmet alongside a dog next to a line of crime scene tape.

At the scene of the attack. Michael Ciaglo for The New York Times

Eight people have been hospitalized with burns and other injuries after a man used what officials described as a "makeshift flamethrower" in Boulder, Colo., yesterday to attack demonstrators honoring Israeli hostages. Here's what to know about the attack:

Suspect: A 45-year-old man, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was taken into custody. Witnesses said the assailant yelled "Free Palestine" during the attack. The F.B.I. is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism, though there was no immediate indication that Soliman was linked to any particular group.
Victims: The injured, who range in age from 52 to 88, were participating in a weekly event called Run for Their Lives, a demonstration held in cities around the world to call attention to the Israeli hostages in Gaza. Two are in serious condition, officials said.
Response: This attack, less than two weeks after a gunman killed two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, is likely to intensify deep unease in the Jewish community in the U.S. "It is unfathomable that the Jewish community is facing another terror attack," Colorado's governor, Jared Polis, said. "I condemn this vicious act of terrorism, and pray for the recovery of the victims."

Paula sits on a bed with three pillows behind her back, propping her up. She has long dark hair, is wearing blue and white pajamas and has a bandage on her right forearm. Her right hand is wiping away tears.

Paula Ritchie on the morning of her death. Oliver Farshi for The New York Times

A merciful death

By Adam B. Kushner

I'm the editor of The Morning.

I grew up in the '80s and '90s and remember being fascinated by the controversy around Jack Kevorkian. He was a Michigan doctor who argued that sick people should be allowed to die on their own terms rather than suffer through a grueling illness. Was he a traitor to his oath to "do no harm"? Or was he an angel of mercy, letting victims of disease exercise one last bit of agency over their failing bodies? Kevorkian, who went to prison for helping dozens of people with "physician-assisted suicides," seemed so radical at the time.

Now his ideas are commonplace. Ten states and lots of Western nations have assisted-dying laws. But they're mostly built for people with a life-ending diagnosis.

Canada is trying something more. There, a patient can have a state-sanctioned death if she is suffering — but not necessarily dying — from an illness. For the cover story of yesterday's New York Times Magazine, Katie Engelhart followed one woman's journey to die. It's a nuanced portrait of a person racked with pain and a tour of some controversial bioethics. I spoke with Katie about the difficulty in knowing what's right and what's wrong when people suffer.

Your story has so much intimate detail about the struggles of the main character, Paula Ritchie. How did you get her to confide in you?

Paula was, in her own words, "an open book." The first time I called her, we talked for nearly three hours. She had applied for medical assistance in dying, or MAID, after suffering a concussion, which led to dizziness and insomnia and pain that never went away. I knew that Paula would be an interesting case study, in large part because of the complexity — the messiness, really — of her life. She was the kind of patient whom opponents of MAID worry about. Paula had a mix of physical and psychiatric conditions: chronic pain, chronic fatigue, bipolar disorder, depression. She had a history of childhood trauma. She lived below the poverty line. She was very lonely.

You watched Paula die. I was moved, reading about her last moments. What was it like to see that?

I was trying to be as small a presence as possible in the room. I sat in a folding chair at the foot of her bed. As a reporter, the experience was doubly intense: I was there to do a job — to gather information — but I was also experiencing the moment as a human being, sitting in a room full of suffering. I said very little to Paula and she said very little to me, although she did briefly reach for my hand as she was getting ready for her injections.

Wow, that's intense. Aside from witnessing a person's death, you also talked to a lot of doctors and lawyers about Canada's law, which says a patient can qualify for MAID if she's suffering. What constitutes suffering?

Patients must have a serious disease or disability; be in an advanced state of decline; and have intolerable "physical or psychological suffering." The law doesn't define exactly what it means to suffer or how a clinician should judge it. MAID assessors are instructed to "respect the subjectivity of suffering."

So Canada's law is not just for people who are imminently dying.

In the United States, patients need a "terminal" diagnosis — and a prognosis of six months or less. In Canada, they don't have to be dying at all. People can qualify with, say, multiple sclerosis or chronic pain conditions like fibromyalgia.

This is tricky terrain! One cancer psychiatrist told you, "If you want to allow people to end their lives when they want to, then put suicide kits in hardware stores."

Yeah, it's not really "aid in dying" if the patient isn't dying. It's something different.

Someone in pain today might feel better tomorrow. You talk about how patients with spinal cord injuries adjust and often become glad to be alive.

Right. Opponents of MAID say it should be a last resort, something that is allowed only after a patient has tried everything to get better. But the Canadian law doesn't require this. As one MAID assessor told Paula: "It's not my role to force you to do anything, even if I genuinely think it would really help you."

Some worry that poor and disabled people might pick MAID because it's easier than living. Is there any truth to that?

I spent a lot of time looking into this. It's not as straightforward as saying marginalized people are being forced into it. But of course money and social factors influence people's health — and the choices they make about it.

How many Canadians end their lives each year through the state's program?

The latest data is from 2023. That year, nearly 15,000 patients whose deaths were "reasonably foreseeable," and 622 patients whose deaths were not, chose MAID. Overall, about one in 20 Canadians died this way.

Read Katie's story here.

THE LATEST NEWS

War in Ukraine

A soldier in front of a damaged building.

Near the front line in eastern Ukraine. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

Expectations are low for today's peace talks in Istanbul, and the fighting has intensified: Ukraine launched a large-scale drone attack against air bases across Russia yesterday, one of its broadest assaults of the war.
The attack targeted airfields in five regions, Russian officials said, reaching thousands of miles beyond the border. Ukrainian officials said the drones had launched from trucks smuggled inside Russia.
The drone attack followed a Russian strike on an Ukrainian military training base that killed at least 12 soldiers.

Tariffs

President Trump is expected to double his levies on foreign steel and aluminum this week, even as U.S. courts question his tariffs' legitimacy.
Prominent conservative lawyers contributed to a brief that helped imperil Trump's tariffs. It was another sign of a deepening rift between the president and the conservative legal movement, Adam Liptak writes.
Decades ago, the U.S. allowed the factories that turn rare earth metals into magnets to move to China. Now, China is limiting supplies.
When Trump imposes tariffs, the likely effects aren't always clear. The Times compiled a list of the imports the U.S. relies on most from 140 countries.

OPINIONS

American democracy is failing because too many Americans believe in the myth that strongmen get things done, Jonathan Sumption writes.

Wonder Bread, Nesquik and doughnuts: Here's how a U.S. cabinet secretary inspired Peter Mehlman's sudden craving for the foods of his childhood.

Here are columns by Margaret Renkl on fences and M. Gessen on a man Vladimir Putin couldn't kill.

Catch up on the biggest news, and wind down to end your day.

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MORNING READS

Tonje Thilesen for The New York Times

Slippery science: A team of middle schoolers is helping researchers count tiny, almost invisible baby eels.

Cockney campaign: Inside the effort to protect pie and mash, a working-class British dish with deep roots.

Vacation inspiration: Test your travel knowledge with this quiz.

Metropolitan Diary: That car is going to hit us.

Your pick: The most clicked article in The Morning yesterday was about Tim Walz's atonement-and-explanation tour.

Trending: The live-action remake of "Lilo & Stitch" has become one of the most profitable movies in years.

Lives Lived: Guy Klucevsek was a masterly accordion player who helped expand the instrument's repertoire well beyond polkas and other traditional fare. He died at 78.

SPORTS

Golf: Scottie Scheffler protected his lead at the Memorial, a win that almost felt predetermined. His victory is again drawing comparisons to some of the greats.

Tennis: American men are no longer a joke at the French Open. Read how they've found their Grand Slam footing on clay.

ARTS AND IDEAS

Roger Kisby for The New York Times

It was a Comic Con for the Jane Austen set. The production company Focus Features recently held a party in Pasadena to celebrate the 20th anniversary of one of its most beloved films: Joe Wright's 2005 adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice." Attendees dressed in their Regency era-inspired finest and heard the pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet perform the movie's soundtrack. (There were tears.) See inside.