S its a seinfeld shutdown. Im michael smerconish. When we have been here before, it was for understandable reasons. In the 90s it was about spend ing cuts. 2013 the issue was bipartisan disagreement over the Affordable Care act on president obamas watch. In 2018 the issue was president trumps desire to build a wall on the mexican border. But this time, the American Enterprise institute has started to recefer to the impasse as th seinfeld shutdown. It dates fwook georges pitch to tv executives. I think i can sum up the show for you with one word. Nothing. Nothing . Nothing. What does that mean . The show is about nothing. Indeed like the series, it is a shutdown about nothing to which i would add nothing except polarization. Well get to the impact that it all has on the military in just a moment. Also on todays program, police say an online influencer live streamed the widespread looting in philadelphia this week and encouraged the targeting of specific stores. Ill discuss the thorny is
why have birth rates declined dramatically and how much does it matter? stephen shaw, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. let s start with a basic fact. the world s population is still rising. at some point later this century, it s going to get to about 9.7 billion. and we can see the immense strain that our planet is already under in terms of resources, in terms of fragile ecosystems. and yet you seem to be saying that we as a species need to focus on having more babies. why? well, just to be clear, the reason the world s population is still growing has got nothing to do with births. births peaked in the planet around ten years ago, at around 143 million. today, that s down to around 135. we re already past peak birth as a planet. so, why is, confusingly, this total population increasing? it s because, thankfully, people are living out their lives. people are not dying the way they would have done before particularly in poorer, less developed parts of the world
but now, data scientists and demographers, like my guest today, stephen shaw, say we re actually facing a disastrous spiral of de population. why have birth rates declined dramatically and how much does it matter? stephen shaw, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. let s start with a basic fact. the world s population is still rising. at some point later this century, it s going to get to about 9.7 billion. and we can see the immense strain that our planet is already under in terms of resources, in terms of fragile ecosystems. and yet you seem to be saying that we as a species need to focus on having more babies. why? well, just to be clear, the reason the world s population is still growing has got nothing to do with births. births peaked in the planet around ten years ago, at around 143 million. today, that s down to around 135. we re already past peak birth as a planet. so, why is, confusingly, this total population increasing? it s because, thankfully, people are
The number of babies born in Japan in 2023 fell to a record low from a year earlier as the country's population shrank by its largest ever margin, government data shows