The Western world could use more babies, but creating children by any means necessary, as French President Emmanuel Macron recently suggested, is not a sustainable solution.

France, like many European and North American countries, suffers lagging replacement rates that threaten to undermine the nation’s structure and culture. To combat this alarming trend, the French government, at the behest of Macron, started formulating a policy plan earlier this year that would further subsidize assisted reproductive technology (ART) to replenish the country’s flailing fertility.

France’s largely socialized health care system already fully funds IVF for anyone who wants a baby. As a result, more than 4 percent of the nation’s babies are born after conception in a test tube.

Macron hopes that “relaunching” France’s birth rate with promises of free fertility tests and more taxpayer-funded in vitro fertilization (IVF) will invigorate the population to procreate by whatever means necessary.

“Until recently, we were a country for which this was a strength […] It’s been less true in recent years,” Macron admitted in January after learning that his country saw a 6.6 percent drop in births from 2022 to 2023.

Macron’s plan may appeal to the rising number of rich, famous, and political who believe that science and technology alone will revive birth rates and improve on humanity’s biological limitations. There is, however, a dark side to his proposition.

France’s sponsorship of test-tube babies sentences at least 150,0000 embryos to their deaths each year on taxpayers’ dime and is responsible

A pair of top House Republicans are demanding the Department of Justice (DOJ) open up a criminal probe into former Trump attorney Michael Cohen for allegedly lying to Congress.

On Wednesday, the GOP chairmen of the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling on federal law enforcement to examine Cohen’s 2019 testimony to Congress as evidence of perjury. Lawmakers first made the criminal referral on Feb. 28, 2019.

“Cohen’s testimony is now the basis for a politically motivated prosecution of a former president and current declared candidate for that office,” wrote James Comer, R-Ky., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, in the joint letter. “In light of the reliance on the testimony from this repeated liar, we reiterate our concerns and ask what the Justice Department has done to hold Cohen accountable for his false statements to Congress.”

Comer and Jordan outlined six specific times they say Cohen lied to federal lawmakers, including claims that he never committed fraud (Cohen pled guilty to fraud charges in 2018). Cohen was sentenced to three years behind bars following the guilty plea deal with federal prosecutors on charges of tax evasion, making false statements to banks, and violations of campaign finance laws.

Lawmakers said Cohen even admitted last year to lying to Congress in 2019.

“At a hearing in the politicized lawsuit brought by the New York Attorney General against President Trump, Cohen admitted to lying under oath during a 2019 deposition before [House Permanent Select Committee

As protests erupted on college campuses across the country, many of them turning violent, videos of the demonstrations went viral on social media showing they were not merely “pro-Palestinian,” but blatantly anti-American. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, amid the chaos between the two sides was a moment of patriotism from an unexpected group of young men.

On Tuesday morning, pro-Hamas demonstrators managed to replace the American flag on Chapel Hill’s quad with a Palestinian flag. But they were faced with opposition from another small group of students: the fraternity members of Pi Kappa Phi. Videos and images of the men circulated on social media with many people commending them for protecting our nation’s flag. After weeks of appalling demonstrations by American college students, the character displayed by these young men should give us some hope for saving the republic.

Brendan Rosenblum, a junior and Jewish student at UNC-Chapel Hill, had water bottles thrown at him as he stood in the middle of the quad by with an Israeli flag while protesters tried to replace an American flag with a Palestinian one. Classes today have just been cancelled. pic.twitter.com/hUkPTXtLxj

— Bryan Anderson (@BryanRAnderson) April 30, 2024

As the president of Phi Gamma Delta during my time at Michigan State University, the connection between patriotism and members of Greek life comes as no surprise. While they might be inconsequential to some, I learned a lot about this connection during my four years spent deeply involved with my