June 2026

June 2026 issue

Lawsuits and user bans threaten social media and internet free-speech protections. Ethan Zuckerman asks: do these platforms really harm young people? Plus, Isabel Hilton on the new star wars and Kate Clanchy on Kathleen Stock

Past issues

Illustration by Gregori Saavedra

Information Technology

The social network in the dock

It is far from proven that social media platforms cause teenagers harm

Ethan Zuckerman

Editor’s Picks

An Iranian IRGC speedboat approaching a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz in April. Image: Alamy

The Iran war has left the UK poorer than it hoped to be

Image: Shutterstock/Prospect

The depopulation bomb about to hit Britain

Illustration by Owen Pomery

The new race for space

Here, at last, is Sylvia Plath

Jeremy Noel-Tod

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Sheila Hancock: I thought I might faint in front of all the Dames

Obituary: A brimful of Asha Bhosle

Regulars

Illustration by David McAllister / Prospect

Editorial: The necessity of local politics

Letters: June 2026

Stephen Collins’s cartoon strip: Starmer’s Palantir subscription box

Stephen Collins

Illustration by Michael Rea

Slavoj Žižek: “I am resigned to the paradox that we need censorship sometimes to preserve freedom”

Argument

Péter Magyar after winning the election in Hungary. Image: Alamy

The quiet triumph of the button-down conservative

Group hug: the Artemis II crew after returning from their mission. Photo by Alamy

Artemis II’s science of resistance

An Iranian IRGC speedboat approaching a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz in April. Image: Alamy

The Iran war has left the UK poorer than it hoped to be

Image: Shutterstock / Prospect

Embedded with Reform: In Wales, on the campaign trail

Sally Hayden’s diary: Fragments of life in Beirut

Features

Illustration by Gregori Saavedra

The social network in the dock

Ethan Zuckerman

Image: Shutterstock/Prospect

The depopulation bomb about to hit Britain

llustration by Prospect. Source: Shutterstock

The radicalisation of the American liberal

Illustration by Owen Pomery

The new race for space

Image: Steve Best

Seriously funny: how standups conquered politics

Matthew d’Ancona

People

Image: Courtesy of Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier

‘I have nightmares about our oceans dying’: The photographers defending nature

Image: Katherine K. Westerman

Michael Connelly: AI is going to destroy literature

Image: UN Photo/Manuel Elías

Hala Al-Karib: Sexual violence is meant to crush the spirit

Yassmin Abdel-Magied

The Culture

Here, at last, is Sylvia Plath

Jeremy Noel-Tod

Illustration by Karagh Bryne

What Dylan and the Beatles meant to each other

Christopher Bray

Image: Smith Archive

The age of Auden

Illustration by David McAllister. Source: Macondo / Alamy

Go gentle: assisted dying and the old

Books in Brief: what to read this May

Image: Mihaela Bodlovic

Copper-bottomed, ocean-going opera

‘Euphoria’ has betrayed its characters

Imogen West-Knights

A meeting of minds: Michael Frayn’s ‘Copenhagen’. Image: Marc Brenner

Theatre through time

Hans Werner Henze. Image: Lebrecht Music & Arts

Classical notes: Difficult, but easy

Lives

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Sheila Hancock: I thought I might faint in front of all the Dames

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Mindful life: Depression made me feel like everyone hated me

Illustration of Tilly Lawless by Clara Nicoll

Sex life: Friendship shouldn’t come with obligation

Illustration by Clara Nicholl

Second life: I am an expert in ‘Restroom Censorship’

Vitali Vitaliev

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Young life: I have been made redundant for the second time in my twenties

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Clerical life: The Church’s cartoons for children are rubbish!

Rural life: The hills of my Welsh village are alive with the sound of music

Obituary: A brimful of Asha Bhosle