May 2023

May 2023 issue

Fox News conspired against US democracy. Now the channel—and its owner, Rupert Murdoch—could face the consequences. Danny Dorling asks whether we have passed peak inequality, while Nick Macpherson and Ann Pettifor debate whether austerity was a mistake

Past issues

© Sara Morris Photography

Media

How Fox and Murdoch are destroying US democracy

After the 2020 election, Fox News gave airtime to an outright fiction: that Biden had stolen the presidency. As the company is sued over what it broadcast, legal documents reveal how far the Murdochs will go to keep America’s biggest channel on top

Matthew d’Ancona

People

Illustration of Mina Guli by John Watson

The runner completing 200 marathons to highlight the water crisis

Illustration of Joshi Herrmann by John Watson

Could email newsletters keep local journalism alive?

Róisín Lanigan

Photo of Sarah Baxter © Jez Coulson / Insight

The case for returning the Elgin Marbles

Photo of Ruth Miller © Guardian / Eyevine

The middle-aged woman behind Leicester’s new punk rock scene

Illustration of Ian Livingstone by John Watson

How Ian Livingstone conquered the gaming industry

David McAllister

Columns

© Bill McConkey

Starmer’s Sunak problem

© Vincent Kilbride

An internet with less surveillance could be possible. This is how

Ethan Zuckerman

Modern capitalism actively funnels cash to a small elite, says Baggini. Image: A Room with Views / Alamy Stock Photo

Should we ban billionaires? A philosopher investigates

© Nurphoto SRL/Alamy

Diary from Ukraine: When grief evaporates

Sevgil Musaieva

Cuck—the linguistic backstory to the alt-right’s favourite insult

Regulars

Ian Bostridge: I'd love to sing with Edith Piaf

The Prospect Grid: May 2023

Stephen Collins’s cartoon: King Charles’s coronation

Stephen Collins

Prospect puzzle and crossword—May 2023

Letters: May 2023 edition

Essays

United front: the west’s continued supply of tanks and other arms will prove decisive in helping Ukraine defeat Russia on the battlefield © Getty Images

Learning to live with Russia

What a load of bollards: Oxfordshire County Council’s plans to reduce urban traffic have led to protests © Stephen Bell / Alamy Stock Photo

What is freedom? 15-minute city conspiracies show just how little some understand it

Stuart Jeffries

Have we reached peak inequality?

Nick Macpherson and Ann Pettifor

Was austerity worth it? We asked two economic heavyweights

Nick Macpherson & Ann Pettifor & Alan Rusbridger & Alex Dean

© Sara Morris Photography

How Fox and Murdoch are destroying US democracy

Matthew d’Ancona

Culture

Sonny Rollins on the Williamsburg Bridge, 1961 © Atsuhiko Kawabata, Courtesy of Hanako Kawabata

Bridging the gap—from Sonny Rollins to Kendrick Lamar

Acts of vandalism: what the BBC’s cuts mean for classical music

Creative vision: detail from a poster for Robert Flaherty’s ‘Nanook of the North’ © LMPC via Getty Images

A new, old way of making things

Ethan Zuckerman

Before the fall: a welder at Rostock Shipyard in the north of what was then East Germany © Courtesy of Imago

Back in the GDR: an interview with Katja Hoyer

A love affair between a professor and a doll

David McAllister

Self-conscious: a photograph of George Eliot from the 1850s © Granger - Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

For better, for worse: George Eliot’s double life

Marina Benjamin

© Serious Feather

Meet Brett Gregory, the anti-Loach

Photo of Ruth Miller © Guardian / Eyevine

The middle-aged woman behind Leicester’s new punk rock scene

Sarah Polley, in constant dialogue with her past

Matthew d’Ancona

© TCD/PROD.DB/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Medea and motive

Illustration of Ian Livingstone by John Watson

How Ian Livingstone conquered the gaming industry

David McAllister

‘Light-hearted but smart comfort reading at its best’

Martin MacInnes’s science fiction: encounters with the unknown

© LINDA KALLERUS/FX

Doomed youth: the genius of ‘Fleishman is in trouble’

Imogen West-Knights

Horror and hope among the Rohingya

Ian Bostridge: I'd love to sing with Edith Piaf

Lives

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Young life: I love to hate London

Illustration of Tilly Lawless by Clara Nicoll

Sex life: Under new management

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Sporting life: Could sailors be the most climate conscious athletes?

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Farming life: Clarkson’s Farm is a double-edged sword

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Clerical life: What’s the point of prayer?

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Mindful life: I know as a psychiatrist I should do more exercise. But it isn’t always easy

Rebecca Lawrence

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Long life: I will go to my grave with my knickers in a twist