February 2018

February 2018 issue

Should we be worried about tech giants? In this month's issue, John Naughton explains how they've created a new surveillance capitalism. Plus: Samira Shackle on collective punishment after Islamic State, Shahidha Bari on monstrous men and Salman Rushd...

Past issues

Essays

Lies, collusion and disappearing images: in China, digital censorship is getting sneakier

In Italian politics, gerontocracy rules. Still. Photo: Getty

The decline and fall of Italian politics

Can editors keep publications intellectually rigorous in the age of the tech giants? Photo: PA

Death by a thousand clicks: how big tech is ruining literary culture

Unorthodox diplomacy: the churchmen keeping Anglo-Russian relations alive

Bored by talk of "net neutrality"? Here's why you should care

Hannah Jane Parkinson

The problem of loving art in the age of Weinstein

Michel Barnier illustrated by Tim McDonagh

Who is Michel Barnier? Meet the EU's chief Brexit negotiator

Christine Ockrent

©MARTIN PUDDY/GETTY IMAGES

The new surveillance capitalism

From Russia with love: foreign interference with our politics on online channels could become a big issue for our time. Photo: Prospect composite

The ballot bots: as our politics goes online, can our laws keep up?

The bureaucracy of Isis

Regulars

Stephen Collins's cartoon: Trump's nuclear button

Stephen Collins

Editorial: The internet's prying profiteers

Marilyn Monroe is just one woman whose diary discusses bad behaviour in Hollywood.

Sexual harassment in Hollywood is anything but new

Les misérables: why are the French so cheerless?

Tom Clark & Jay Elwes

Things are getting better—and worse. Photo: PA

Salman Rushdie: "When people stop believing in truth, demagogues come forward"

This is why it might be worth putting some of your money behind early-stage companies. Photo: flickr/The investing risk it's worth taking

The investing risk it's worth taking

Big game hunting in the 1960s. Photo: PA

Can trophy hunting ever be justified?

Michael Petrou & Alice Crary

Opinions

Labour's Jeremy Corbyn travelling by train. Photo: PA

It's time for a radical intervention on transport

Building is costly—but we can't afford to not. Photo: PA

We need a rail infrastructure that really connects the UK

The Dome of the Rock at sunrise. Photo: Nabeelah Jaffer

Detained at the border, I vowed to eat a banana in Jerusalem

A May Day protestor in privately-owned Paternoster Square. Photo: PA

Whose streets? Private ownership of public space could curb our right to protest

Junior doctors protest against contract changes. But is there actually a chance the NHS will collapse? Photo: Flickr/Rohin Francis

How the NHS will die

Arts & Books

Jesmyn Ward's new novel focusses on the legacy of slavery in the South. Photo: PA

Sing, Unburied, Sing is a lyrical tale with harsh truths to tell

In Wounds, a veteran BBC correspondent turns to his own family's historic battle

Wendell Steavenson

Simon Schama. Photo: PA

Belonging: The Story of the Jews traces a cultural diversity—and a shared memory

A new book reveals the day-to-day working of our unconscious

Antonio Melechi

A glass of wine being poured. Photo: Fabio Ingrosso/Wikimedia Commons

How blending makes our wines better

Whether it's "Remoaners" or your wife's lover, this is why we love to pin our problems on others

Things are getting better—and worse. Photo: PA

Salman Rushdie: "When people stop believing in truth, demagogues come forward"

"Crime Alley" by Dave Givvons shows a fight scene between Superman, Batman and the Green Arrow. Photo: Dave Gibbons

The new age of comics

Apples are harvested in an orchard. But do we even really care where our fruit and veg come from?

In a Paris market, fresh produce brings home the cost of convenience

Wendell Steavenson

Success in Afghanistan was short-lived. Photo: Getty

Theo Farrell's Unwinnable shows Britain never had a chance in Afghanistan

What next for our universities? David Willetts' outlook is optimistic. Photo: Flickr

Academics will likely hate David Willetts' new book—but it should give us hope

Brendan Cox at a Great Get Together event. But how can self-declared "cosmopolitans" best bring people together? Photo: PA

As Western politics is reshaped by hatred, cosmopolitans mustn't become part of the problem

A French Supermarket in Tahiti. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Why even being bad at a second language is pleasurable

Fire and Fury has already sold in record-breaking numbers. But why is the book such a success? Photo: PA

Why Fire and Fury has become a smash hit—and Donald Trump may not mind in the least

Society and Culture