August/September 2026

August/September 2026

Young Britons are locked out of housing and jobs and crushed by the cost of living. Marie Le Conte argues that it’s time they were given back their future. Elsewhere, Alona Ferber visits Israel ahead of key elections and Jen Stout reports from Ukraine

Past issues

Illustration by Gregori Saavedra

Politics

Britain’s next generation is all grown up

Alienated, ignored—and stuck at home with mum and dad. Young adults are locked out from the future they’re ready to shape

Editor's Picks

The site where an Iranian ballistic missile hit in Tel Aviv, Israel. Image: Alona Ferber

Inside the battle to oust Benjamin Netanyahu

Illustration by Prospect / David McAllister. Source: Alamy

Trump’s Anthropic spat has made the case for AI sovereignty

Ethan Zuckerman

Illustration by Benny Douet

Life at the end of the metaverse

“Dear Listener, stay with me, because you won’t be bored”—Emily Wilson. Image: Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania

Why do we keep retelling ‘The Odyssey’?

Fiammetta Rocco

Photography by Graeme Green

Ben Okri’s dream state

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Mindful life: Searching for wisdom in a time of tragedy

Regulars

Illustration by David McAllister / Prospect. Sources: Alex Segre, Alamy

Editorial: Our next prime minister must govern for the young

Letters: August/September 2026

Stephen Collins’s cartoon: Dating the algorithm

Stephen Collins

Illustration by Michael Rea

Rhun ap Iorwerth: We underrate street and protest art

Argument

Keir Starmer and his former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. Image: Alamy

Labour’s hardest war is with the electorate

Illustration by David McAllister / Prospect. Source: Alamy

A social media ban would set children free

Illustration by Prospect / David McAllister. Source: Alamy

Trump’s Anthropic spat has made the case for AI sovereignty

Ethan Zuckerman

Image: Alamy/Shutterstock/Prospect

Embedded with Starmer: After me, the resignation

A British Army Ajax vehicle: digitised, armoured, tracked—and plagued by problems. Image: Alamy

The true cost of Britain’s bad deals

© NASA Photo/ Alamy

The Paine threshold for today’s America

Sarah Churchwell

Sophia Smith Galer’s diary: America, lost in translation

Sophia Smith Galer

Features

Illustration by Gregori Saavedra

Britain’s next generation is all grown up

Sunset over the Dnipro river and Kyiv’s Left Bank, on 31st May 2026. Image: Jen Stout

Ukraine is under attack—but defiant

Illustration by Benny Douet

Life at the end of the metaverse

The site where an Iranian ballistic missile hit in Tel Aviv, Israel. Image: Alona Ferber

Inside the battle to oust Benjamin Netanyahu

Illustration by Prospect. Photos courtesy Dante or Die

If Andy Burnham wants to understand England, he should take a taxi

Images: Katherine Stewart / Shutterstock

The time I tried to live forever

Katherine Stewart

Illustration by Prospect

Britain’s citizens of nowhere

A torn Polymarket poster in downtown Los Angeles. Image: Nathan Dehnert

Polymarket is America, America is Polymarket

People

Photography by Graeme Green

Ben Okri’s dream state

“There is no fear in death, but there is reality”: Sue Black. Photography by Morgan Silk

Sue Black: I think of death as female

Image: Courtesy of Watermelon Pictures

Misan Harriman: Protests are full of hope

Kate Shemirani, nurse turned conspiracy influencer

In 2017, former FBI Director James Comey testified in front of the US Senate Intelligence Committee about possible Russian involvement in the election of Donald Trump. Image: Orjan Ellingvag / Alamy

James Comey on Trump: I refused to go away

Culture

Illustration by Björn Griesbach

Inside Bluebeard’s castle: Wynn-Williams, Roberts Giuffre and Pelicot

Illustration by David McAllister / Prospect. Source: Alamy

Unempathetic man: the importance of Gad Saad

Matthew d’Ancona

Illustration by David McAllister / Prospect

Now’s the time for Confucian wisdom

Siri Hustvedt in Stockholm earlier this year. Image: TT News Agency

The imaginative grief of Siri Hustvedt

Alex Peake-Tomkinson

Facing the truth: detail from “Self-Portrait with Masks” (1899) by James Ensor

The philosophy of how we look

Frank Cottrell-Boyce on the campaign trail for books and storytelling. Image: PA Images

Frank Cottrell-Boyce, childhood’s standard bearer

Lucy Lethbridge

Change in action: Boris Karloff is transformed into Frankenstein’s monster at the hands of Hollywood makeup artist Jack Pierce, 1932. Image: Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo

We live in the age of change

“Dear Listener, stay with me, because you won’t be bored”—Emily Wilson. Image: Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania

Why do we keep retelling ‘The Odyssey’?

Fiammetta Rocco

Illustration by Bloc

That many-talented man: Christopher Nolan

Alexander Larman

Image: CBW / Alamy

Reassessing Keith Jarrett’s famous Köln Concert

“Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red” (1943) by Barbara Hepworth. Image: The Hepworth Wakefield / Mark Heathcote

Barbara Hepworth’s blues

Detail from the cover of a paperback edition of Roger Penrose’s ‘The Emperor’s New Mind’

Classical notes: Humanity’s sake

Lives

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Long life: Doctors these days are so sexy!

Illustration by Clara Nicholl

Second life: Coming back to Britain from France depresses me

Vitali Vitaliev

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Young life: Why gen Z women should ditch the ‘office siren’ look

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Mindful life: Searching for wisdom in a time of tragedy

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Clerical life: The Church hasn’t moved beyond the ballad of the Tithe pig

Illustration of Tilly Lawless by Clara Nicoll

Sex life: A trip to Turkmenistan

Rural life: I will no longer be ashamed of being materialistic

David Hockney at his studio in Los Angeles in 1988. Image: David Montgomery via Getty Images

Obituary: David Hockney

David McAllister