Falling birth rates lead to higher wages and GDP productivity per worker according to an optimistic but radical theory espoused by a group of Anglo-American economists.
According to their just published paper, a slump in birth rates makes us all richer because it forces companies to develop new technology to fill the gap left by fewer workers.
Then, as companies struggle to hire from a smaller pool of talent, they are forced to increase wages.
The paper shows that countries with the lowest birth rates have experienced the biggest rise in the use of new technology and automation.
“Robot deployment in Japan, South Korea and China exceeds 40 robots per 1,000 workers, which is nearly four times the global average,” says Maria Vassalou, the head of Pictet Research Institute in Switzerland.
David Miles, of the UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility, says people who write about low fertility rates as posing some sort of “economic and fiscal disaster,” are, “almost completely wrong-headed”.
The European Parliament called for an end to the escalating persecution of Christians in Nigeria, citing a recent massacre where jihadist Fulani militants killed over 20 Christians in an overnight raid on 22 June.
The urgent resolution was debated last Wednesday and passed on Thursday in an overwhelming vote of 510 to 1 in support,
The attack on Kawel village which killed the pastor of a local church along with members of his congregation is among the latest in a long pattern of targeted violence against Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt.
“No community should have to bury its pastor and its children because they follow Christ. The massacre in Kawel is not an isolated tragedy. It is part of a devastating and well-documented pattern of violence against Christians in Nigeria,” said Sean Nelson of the legal advocates Alliance Defending Freedom.
“We commend the European Parliament for continuing to hold Nigeria accountable to protect the Christians and religious minorities who have faced relentless violence and persecution for far too long, particularly in the Middle Belt region where the persecution of Christians is most devastating.”
President Emmanuel Macron has announced that French-speaking Christian schools in Syria which had been closed by the previous regime will reopen with funding from the French State.
He made the remarks during a joint press conference in Damascus with the new Syrian President, Ahmed al-Sharaa.
This came at the end of a landmark visit, the first by a Western leader, since the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
While underlining a renewal of economic, cultural and educational cooperation, Macron said the two leaders spoke about “how important it is to have French-speaking Christian schools which under the former regime had to close their doors”.
“And we are willing to work with L’Oeuvre d’Orient [A Catholic charity under the patronage of the Archbishop of Paris] to make sure that they will be able to open their doors once again. And we are willing to ensure that these schools will be able to teach and educate young girls and boys throughout the country”, he said.
France has long had close connections with the Middle East, particularly in Lebanon, Syria and Armenia.
In 2022, President Macron announced a doubling of funding from €2 million to €4 million for Christian schools in the region.
The French Senate has rejected an assisted suicide bill for the third time.
It is now up to Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to confirm whether the lower house, the National Assembly, may pass the legislation anyway regardless of the Senate’s disagreement.
The final reading of the text is scheduled for July 15.
Alain Milon, a member of the conservative Republicans, spoke scathingly about the proposed legislation.
“Major challenges always begin with exceptions. Lifting the ban on killing under the pretext of giving patients the freedom to die and end their suffering is to abandon a fundamental principle upon which our society is built,” he said.
Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris recently issued a press release stating that “reason and fraternity cry out in favor of a priority and generous promotion of palliative care.”
“Today, there is still time to renounce taking this path, which is not that of a fraternal future,” he added, also reiterating that “more than help to die, our society needs help to live.”
New data show that over 65,000 abortions have taken place in Ireland since the repeal of the 8th amendment and the introduction of a law in January 2019 that permits abortion for any reason up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. The vast majority of abortions in all countries take place before 12 weeks.
The Department of Health has reported that there were 10,600 abortions in 2025 which means the procedure ends the life of 1 in every 6 babies in the womb in Ireland.
Pro-Life Campaign spokesperson Eilís Mulroy called the figures a “sobering indictment” and “a truly intolerable situation that follows directly from both the actions and failures of the Government”.
She specifically criticised that there is no State-backed service whose sole purpose is to ensure that women conflicted about abortion can access timely information and practical support if they wish to continue their pregnancy.
Instead, she said the agencies responsible operate “as a de facto fast-track service to abortion”.
“We hear from women all the time who regret their abortions and describe feeling rushed, pressured, or carried along by the process, only to be left feeling abandoned and failed by the State afterwards”.
The last entirely Christian town in the Holy Land is facing what its parish priest describes as an unprecedented threat to its land, its people and its historic Christian presence.
After months of appeals over repeated violence targeting Taybeh, in the occupied West Bank, Father Bashar Fawadleh says hardline Israeli settlers have begun constructing an illegal outpost.
Often a precursor to a permanent settlement, he argues that the move is intended to impose “a new reality” by force and to pressure the people of Taybeh into leaving their land.
Existing only a few metres from residential homes, Father Fawadleh says families fear living under constant intimidation as roving gangs of marauding settlers have harassed locals with impunity.
The town has spent months drawing international attention to its plight but, despite these efforts, threats, disruptions and sporadic violence has continued.
The Parish Priest has again appealed for concrete steps, not just rhetoric, warning that if Taybeh were to lose its people, the world would lose an ancient living Christian community.
A whole new mindset is needed to stop the devaluation of life in the womb, according to a leading Irish bishop.
Kevin Doran of Achonry and Elphin was speaking in advance of the Rally for Life in Belfast last weekend.
He told the assembled congregants there is a need to promote “a new way of thinking and speaking about pregnancy, not as a burden or a crisis, but as a gift from God and as a privilege”.
He said every single human being has “infinite dignity”.
It is “not given to us by the State, or by our parents. Neither the State, nor our parents, nor anybody else can take it away. It is inalienable.”.
Nonetheless, he lamented that, while holding firmly to their own rights, people have “found excuses to deny the fundamental rights of others, on the basis of their colour, their sex, their ability or disability, or simply because they live in their mother’s womb, awaiting birth”.
In response, he called upon Christians to speak the truth about life clearly and respectfully and “contribute to changing the mindset of society” so that life in the womb also is valued in accord with its great dignity.
The start of July has marked “Death Day” as a leading think tank warns that the number of babies born in England and Wales every year will now be outpaced by deaths.
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) suggests that the threshold at which deaths first outnumbered births was crossed on July 1st.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) expect 2026/27 to see 584,000 babies born compared to 588,000 deaths.
The CSJ warns that while the nation begins a new demographic era, politicians are asleep at the wheel as the shift accelerates concerning trends in the economy, public services and the nation’s ability to pay the bills.
The think tank also highlights the “tragedy of missing parents” – those dreaming of starting a family and yet unable to do so because of the rising the costs of having children, decline in marriage and scant affordable housing.
The CSJ’s Baby Bust report found that around three million women aged 16 to 45 today are projected not to have children under current trends, translating to 600,000 fewer mothers than if Britain had maintained the fertility patterns of their grandparents’ generation.
This is despite demographers consistently finding that the two-child family remains the aspiration in Britain.
US states can prohibit biologically male athletes who identify as women or girls from competing against female athletes, the US Supreme Court ruled in a 6–3 decision on Tuesday.
In the majority opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that individual states did not violate federal US civil rights legislation prohibiting sex-discrimination, or the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, by determining athletic eligibility based on biological sex, rather than “gender identity.”
He likewise ruled that schools need not make an exception for biological males who have taken puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.
Even the three dissenting judges agreed in part with the ruling.
The result upholds the constitutionality of such restrictions in at least 27 of the fifty US States.
The International Olympic Committee in March announced a new policy under which men who believe themselves to be women will be forbidden from competing in the women’s category.
Bishop Denis Nulty has said Catholic education is “critical” and schools which remain under the Church’s patronage must be “unapologetically Catholic”.
A just completed, major survey of parents shows most school communities would remain Catholic, while a minority, clustered mainly around middle-class urban centers, would switch to a non-denominational ethos.
Catholic leaders support the divestment of schools where parents desire it, but want the remaining schools to wholeheartedly embrace their faith-based identity.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic about the primary school survey process, Bishop Nulty said some people “may consider whether they want to continue our patronage after the survey when the results come out and they’re disseminated and looked at and evaluated”.
“But I don’t see huge change. I don’t see demand for huge change at all. I think people are quite happy.”
However, Bishop Nulty said Catholic schools must ensure their identity is genuine and lived in practice. “The important thing is to make sure our schools are Catholic and live the faith and are not just tokens,” he said.
Asked how Catholic ethos can be maintained, he said prayer should be part of daily school life, and that teachers and staff should “feel supported in their faith”.
