What is a woman?

The innocent beginnings of trolling

Sarah Ogilvie

Has Brexit made us a more tolerant nation?

Sam Freedman

Dealing with dictators

Julian Baggini

Beth Rigby

Beth Rigby

Heat or eat? An exam question with no answers

Torsten Bell

Don’t kill all the lawyers

David Allen Green

The dawn of the splinternet

Russia wants to disconnect from the global internet and create its own purified digital world. Can it?

Clinging to the promise of peace

Eighty years ago, Hella Pick boarded the Kindertransport and fled a war-torn Europe. Now, after a career spent covering great power diplomacy, she is watching in horror as history repeats itself

What is Russia thinking?

Fed by propaganda, most Russians support Putin’s war against Ukraine—and the conflict he is stoking with the west

Putin is genuinely popular in Russia—for now

As the war grinds on, his approval rating may slump

Why I’m leaving the Church of England

Mired in allegations of partisanship and incompetence, the Church is now incapable of running its own affairs. After a series of farcical “safeguarding” claims, Martyn Percy, former dean of Christ Church, Oxford, no longer feels he belongs

Foul play

This year’s World Cup in Qatar relies on the exploitation of migrant workers, who have died in their thousands building stadiums in sweltering heat. The football world is waking up—but far too late

The cost of leaving

The true economic reality of Brexit has long been clouded, including by the impact of Covid. Now the data is firming up—and it’s not good news

A home for captive elephants

In Asia these grand animals are kept in cruel conditions to service both tourists and temples. But one Indian charity is giving them sanctuary

What happened in Guantánamo

Mr X was supposed to break his prisoner Mohamedou Ould Slahi. He tortured him—and broke himself. Now the two speak again

The Churchill cult

Britain needs to face up to the darker side of its great wartime icon

Oxford rules

One university produced the Tory elite responsible for Brexit and our current political mess. Can it be reformed?

Voices from a nation

Until recently, the history and literature of Ukraine was ignored in the west. But it’s vital that we expand our geography of empathy

Posthumous reputations

A student’s obsession with an inspirational teacher reveals his own emotional void

Visit from the Steve Jobs squad

In an adventurous and deeply pleasurable new novel, a tech visionary’s invention upends the world

Books in brief

Butler to the World by Oliver Bullough (Profile,

Angel with a clipboard

The aesthetic richness of Raphael’s works—as well his more practical side—are on full display in a new exhibition

The wound in the score

For Harrison Birtwistle, composing his wildly intricate music always meant grafting

“I knew I could do it”

Beth Steel is a rare working-class voice in theatre. Her new play is the summer’s must-see

From Wembley to the Oscars

Riz Ahmed is charting unexplored territory in film, music and activism

The Prospect grid

Our monthly cut-out-and-keep guide to who falls where on the taste hierarchy

Contributors

Andrew Adonis is a contributing editor at Prospect.

People

Jim al-Khalili, Devi Sridhar, Andy Byford, Graham Phillips, Rebecca Salter

Letters

The grand alliance Samuel Moyn writes (“How to

Lives

Long life Letting go by Sheila Hancock ILLUSTRATIONS

The Generalist by Didymus

Across 2 Cumbrian village overlooking Morecambe Bay (7)

Brief encounter

Monica Ali, author