Fate of the West
Where Western civilization is headed. History, demography, culture and power, with serious attention to both decline and renewal.
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This reading list brings together items from the sources selected for Fate of the West. Open each item at its original source for the complete article, episode or video. This is a selection of current coverage, not a complete archive.
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Joe Biden’s Team Is Rewriting Its History on Gaza
After three years of slaughter in Gaza, some leading officials of the Biden administration are trying to justify their record. Figures like Antony Blinken and Brett McGurk have been on media tours recently giving their version of the story. Meanwhile, Akbar Shahid Ahmed has been working to provide a serious account of what really happened.
When Being Wrong Doesn’t Matter
The GOP has entered its post-embarrassment era.
The Moral Bankruptcy of Livestreaming An Execution
A former military intelligence official has a message for the Pentagon.
Trump just shattered the West’s Russia alliance - Varoufakis & Munchau | The Econoclasts
📰 Subscribe to UnHerd today at: https://bit.ly/4cfaeH0 In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau dissect Trump’s Russian diesel deal to expose the collapse of Western unity, while debunking the myth of French fiscal incompetence to reveal why France’s €3.6 trillion debt crisis is a structurally inevitable flaw of the euro. Watch it on the UnHerd website: https://unherd.com/watch-listen/the-western-alliance-is-fracturing/ Listen to the podcast: https://plnk.to/unherd?to=page Advertise on UnHerd @ zoe.white@unherd.com Follow UnHerd on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/unherd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unherd/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unherd/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@unherdtv #UnHerd #France #Russia
Many Americans Are Struggling to Afford Basic Necessities
44% of Americans had trouble paying for a basic necessity in the past year, with lower-income adults hit hardest.
Methodology
The American Trends Panel survey methodology Overview Data in this report comes from Wave 198 of the American Trends Panel (ATP), Pew Research Center’s nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults. The survey was conducted Aug. 24-30, 2026. A total of 5,166 panelists responded out of 5,602 who were sampled, for a survey-level response
Acknowledgments
This report is a collaborative effort based on the input and analysis of the following individuals. Find related reports online at pewresearch.org/topic/economy-work/. Kim Parker, Director of Social Trends ResearchJuliana Horowitz, Senior Associate Director, ResearchRichard Fry, Senior EconomistDana Braga, Research AnalystBlen Wondimu, Research Assistant Reem Nadeem, Digital ProducerJohn Carlo Mandapat, Information Graphics DesignerAnna Jackson, Editorial SpecialistJulia
Trends in Income and Wealth Inequality
Most Americans say there’s too much economic inequality in the United States these days. To understand how people’s financial circumstances have changed in recent decades, we looked at trends in income and wealth for lower-, middle- and upper-income households since 2000. Income and wealth have grown for each group. But the gains have been greatest
Americans’ Views of Economic Inequality, Its Causes and Who Should Fix It
Since 2019, a growing share among those who say there’s too much inequality think the economic system needs to be completely rebuilt to address it.
Why Our Obsession With Extending Lifespans Is a Distraction
For just over five years, Bryan Johnson has been spending more than $2 million a year trying not to die. The American technology millionaire has turned his body into an elaborate — or, depending on your perspective, recklessly extravagant — experiment in human longevity, subjecting himself to extensive medical testing, controlled nutrition, rigid sleeping schedules, and experimental interventions. At forty-nine, he employs an entire medical team to scrutinize the smallest changes in his physiology.
These failures are egregious, shocking, and have been tremendously costly for Israel
“These failures are egregious, shocking, and have been tremendously costly for Israel.” Haviv Rettig Gur argues that Netanyahu’s government has done enormous damage to Israel’s international standing, not just through its policies, but through its disastrous public diplomacy and the inflammatory rhetoric of its own ministers. Watch the full conversation between Maya Sulkin and Haviv Rettig Gur on YouTube.
Allie Beth Stuckey and Deja Foxx: Do We Need Feminism?
Is feminism still helping women in 2026? Or is the movement holding them back?
Allie Beth Stuckey and Deja Foxx: Do We Need Feminism?
For more than a century, feminism fought to expand women’s choices, and in that time a lot of progress was made. The right to vote. The right to work. Equal access to education. Protection from discrimination because you’re pregnant. Those battles changed America. But, somewhere along the way, a movement built around expanding women’s freedom became a source of profound disagreement over what women should actually do with that freedom. And increasingly, women find themselves judged from both directions for making the “wrong” choices. There’s the trope of the work-obsessed, childless “cat lady,” the association of feminism with woke politics and cancel culture, and the notion that feminists want to advance women over men. The stereotype on the other side is just as blunt: that anti-feminists want to send women back to the 1940s, take away their agency, and “keep women in the kitchen.” All of this begs the question: Do we need feminism more than ever? Or . . . not at all? And if we do need it, what is its purpose in 2026? To discuss these critically important topics, we invited two women from different sides of the debate to Nashville. Author and podcast host Allie Beth Stuckey took on political organizer Deja Foxx for our latest Things That Matter debate, hosted by Kelly O’Grady.
The Wargame Is Wretched Propaganda
Politicians are often accused of playing toy soldiers. Rarely, however, do they actually do it. The Wargame is an exception. Sky TV’s new four-part docudrama, which features a cast of prominent former ministers and securocrats, follows the British government as it responds to an imminent attack from Russia.
We Were Warned in 2001
Science-fiction nightmares are now current events.
The Marxist Who Foresaw the AI Bubble
Like the 2020s, the “Roaring Twenties” of a century ago witnessed a technological revolution: The rise of the automobile, widespread electrification, and mass production had all transformed everyday life. In his speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination in 1928, Herbert Hoover declared that America was closer than any society in history to the “final triumph over poverty.” But trouble was brewing.
Liaquat Ahamed on Financial Crises, Gold, and the Lessons of 1873
Liaquat Ahamed has spent years making central bankers into compelling characters. His 2009 book Lords of Finance won the Pulitzer Prize for its account of the bankers whose decisions helped cause the Great Depression; his new book, 1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World, tells a stranger story — a severe deflationary crisis that barely dented global growth but poisoned politics for a generation.
France’s Riots—and Debt Crisis
Plus: Kimberly Guilfoyle resigns as ambassador to Greece, an OpenAI engineer is charged with bugging a conference room, and voters elect Hitler Mussolini.
Rethinking Eldercare: Why We Need Family More Than Ever
by Autumn Zeoli Independence is at an all-time high; at least, that’s what most of us think. Technological and medical advancements allow us to live longer and with a greater sense of autonomy than ever before. At the same time, we are facing a serious demographic reality: America is getting older. The median age of Americans now sits at 39.4 years. Known as population aging, this trend, combined with plummeting marriage rates, the sex recession, and declining fertility, spells out a daunting fate.
Who Will Govern Israel? Plus
No, your kid doesn’t need extra time on tests. President Trump’s disastrous diesel deal. And more.
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