Prospect Magazine

📕 Our latest issue just hit newsstands! Here’s a peek at what’s inside... 🧵 For our cover essay, @philipcball.bsky.social argues that the “AI could destroy humanity” story has been imposed by Silicon Valley itself—and it’s time to challenge it: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...

In today’s Lightbulb, Prospect’s free daily newsletter, we revisit Alona Ferber’s reporting on the Israeli election campaign. Plus: Dracula and ‘the Mozart of maths’

From the unlikeliest of 1990s pop stars… …to how porn shaped the modern internet. This month’s Books in Brief:

Lula has won the Brazilian presidential runoff. But, as Eliane Brum wrote on Saturday, the first round results still spell trouble for the Amazon. Seven of the forest’s nine governors now have ties to Bolsonarism...

“Scotland, obviously.” Humza Yousaf on the one country’s culture he’d choose for life—including a cold Irn-Bru from a glass bottle. He is our latest HINTERLAND respondent:

New video with the wonderful @aloner.bsky.social 👸🏻 cameo from paid actor @pghoskin.bsky.social as "busy bag man" in the background 🐢

✍🏼 Eliane Brum on today’s Brazilian election: the return of Bolsonarism could mean the death of the Amazon. Other countries must take heed

Thoughts about the Throbbing Gristle at 50 retrospective last weekend at the ICA for @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/7543...

One of Britain’s most acclaimed literary biographers asks: when little is private, what secrets remain for biographers to unveil?

Even if Benjamin Netanyahu loses today’s election, “the long-term prospects for a new relationship with the Palestinians... are not all that different,” writes Alona Ferber

In this month’s cover story, Philip Ball shows how Silicon Valley’s cultish thinking and dire warnings have distracted from what AI can really do, and how we can test, regulate and control it.

What four recent departures mean for our constitutional arrangements, writes The Empty City

From Barbie dolls to AI chatbots, Frida Kahlo’s afterlife shows how fans now remake their heroes—and how little control anyone has left, writes Grace Spencer

“If prose is a house, poetry is a man on fire running quite fast through it,” Anne Carson once said. It’s a useful tip for writers aspiring to the Nobel Prize in Literature, which Carson was recently awarded...

Ahead of tomorrow’s vote, the Netanyahu and anti-Netanyahu blocs have been neck-and-neck. The later’s failure to build a broader coalition with Arab parties risks keeping Bibi in power, writes Alona Ferber

“One would think it unlikely that the British state would prosecute a famous Irish author and an even more famous publishing house. But little about the terrorism law of the UK makes sense at the moment,” writes The Empty City

Ofcom appears perfectly happy with a channel pumping out right-wing propaganda. It may be time to take the watchdog’s advice and create an alternative, writes Alan Rusbridger

A new Stephen King book is not necessarily something to get excited about these days. But the third instalment of his “Talisman Trilogy” might change that, writes George Cochrane

A treeless basalt rock in the Atlantic, with just two residents… Philippa Nuttall reviews Tim Ecott’s EVA AND THE ISLAND—a book about community, not just farming:

🎧: Jess Phillips, Labour MP and former minister for violence against women and girls, joins Prospect’s new podcast Tell Me Why. She speaks to Alona Ferber and Imaan Irfan about how the rise of the internet has changed gendered violence: www.prospectmagazine...

Kant said Hume woke him from his “dogmatic slumber”. Jane O’Grady reviews Hume’s Complete Essays—and reveals what he left us, including some superstitions of his own:

In today’s Lightbulb, Prospect’s free daily newsletter, Alona Ferber explains why Benjamin Netanyahu is still in the race ahead of tomorrow’s Israeli election

Hermione Lee finds satisfaction in uncovering truths through her biographies. But as the relationship between public and private “shifts hugely”, she wonders whether the practice is at risk

Marlon James’s THE DISAPPEARERS is a searing account of growing up gay in Jamaica—and it’s on this year’s Booker Prize shortlist. Fiammetta Rocco reviews:

✍🏼 Benjamin Clark on the new play about JM Keynes: “the intellectual history it presents particularly relevant to Britain today, as Andy Burnham promises to end the neoliberal settlement”

While most of Hong Kong’s democracy movement had been dismantled, Chow Hang-tung was a rare voice of defiance—until her conviction last week. Frankie Vetch reports

Lula has won the Brazilian presidential runoff. But, as Eliane Brum wrote on Saturday, the first round results still spell trouble for the Amazon. Seven of the forest’s nine governors now have ties to Bolsonarism...

“For many people in the 21st century, freedom is a set of keys.” So said a druid protesting against traffic curbs in Oxford. Stuart Jeffries on the car as a symbol of identity:

🎧 The Cornell 7 story has shocked many. But how surprised are we really? On Prospect’s new podcast Tell Me Why, Alona and Imaan are joined by @jessphillipsmp.bsky.social, Labour MP and former minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/podcasts/tel...

If they all worked together, they would clearly have the numbers to form the next coalition, and could more easily unseat Netanyahu Here's more background to that: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/israel...

This is not helped by the fact that Netanyahu's leading Jewish rivals have ruled out partnering with the Arab parties which represent the majority of Israel's 20 per cent Palestinian population... www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/israel...

“A president need not like teenagers. But when they spell out what they need, down to the length of the lunch break, ‘I don’t understand’ starts to sound like a choice.” Diane de Vignemont on the French protests:

“A 59-year occupation has rendered the Palestinian people faceless to most Israelis.” Jo-Ann Mort on the NAZA documentary:

Ten years after Brexit, even Eurosceptics have discovered Brussels’ value, writes Catherine E De Vries and Alexandros Kentikelenis

“The closest that leaders have to a quick fix is to close Europe’s borders to immigrants, which is happening country by country. But when the borders close to outsiders and growth doesn’t follow, what then?” writes Andrew Adonis

✍🏼 Eliane Brum on today’s Brazilian election: the return of Bolsonarism could mean the death of the Amazon. Other countries must take heed

“Mr President, this is Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Manchester who once said that any politician who gives you the time of day should be ashamed...” Henry Morris’s latest satire:

🎧 NEW PODCAST ALERT Tell Me Why is Prospect’s weekly pod dissecting the ideas behind the news headlines. Our guests include Naomi Klein, Astra Taylor, Alys Key and Jess Phillips 🔗 Listen here: www.prospectmagazine...

The apparent implosion of Trump’s latest attempt to force Ukraine to cave in to Putin highlights Zelensky’s astonishing success, writes Andrew Adonis

“I am in no mood for logic or common sense... Instead, like centuries’ worth of people before me, I am pinning my desperate hopes on the turn of the annum,” writes Sarah Collins

Fires and lootings dominate coverage of the student protests. The classrooms behind them tell the real story, writes Diane de Vignemont

Ten years after Brexit, even Eurosceptics have discovered Brussels’ value, writes Catherine E De Vries and Alexandros Kentikelenis

Settlers can do what the Israeli state cannot do openly, without diplomatic cost. They can steal property, attack villages and even kill Palestinians, writes Dana El Kurd

What four recent departures mean for our constitutional arrangements, writes The Empty City

My profession has inalterably shaped my sense of place, writes Tilly Lawless

Raised in a council house, Ian Rankin is still attuned to the effects of inequality. The bestselling novelist talks to Graeme Green about his new murder mystery, set in a glitzy London high-rise