FEARLESS, INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM ON CULTURE, POLITICS AND TECH

WEEKEND EDITION

Crop tops and thongs: how Epstein's friend Les Wexner sexualised children's fashion

Apr 17, 2026

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6 min read

Crop tops and thongs: how Epstein's friend Les Wexner sexualised children's fashion

The paedophile’s close professional relationship with clothing billionaire Les Wexner coincided with a dark, Lolita-like period in fashion when girls were invited to age up and women to age down, writes Deborah Frances-White

Iran is winning the propaganda war against Trump – brick by brick

Apr 17, 2026

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3 min read

Iran is winning the propaganda war against Trump – brick by brick

Tehran’s viral videos satirising a Lego-style president have harnessed the power of AI – and Maga’s debasing of political discourse – and turned it against the US, writes disinformation expert Nina Jankowicz

The five ways Trump could attempt a coup, by fascism expert Timothy Snyder

Apr 12, 2026

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9 min read

The five ways Trump could attempt a coup, by fascism expert Timothy Snyder

Despite the debacle in Iran, a president at war has several pressure points at his disposal to postpone, restrict and ultimately cancel democracy, writes the historian

Timothy Snyder

Stewart Lee: A weak parent who couldn’t report their child to the police? Sounds like Queen Elizabeth II

Apr 17, 2026

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6 min read

Stewart Lee: A weak parent who couldn’t report their child to the police? Sounds like Queen Elizabeth II

A mood seems to be growing on the right of politics to deport the relatives of serious criminals. But of course they don’t mean in every case

Apr 17, 2026

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3 min read

The Recommender: Adeel Akhtar

The double-Bafta-winning actor, known for Sherwood, Down Cemetery Road and Four Lions, picks his current cultural favourites

Review of the Week: The Music Is Black: A British Story at V&A East

Apr 17, 2026

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3 min read

Review of the Week: The Music Is Black: A British Story at V&A East

An ambitious exhibition launching the V&A's brand new outpost shies away from the hardest parts of the social history behind the tunes, but tells its story with verve, writes music critic Damien Morris

Apr 17, 2026

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5 min read

Stonehenge, carnival, folk and fascists: how Zakia Sewell went in pursuit of the real story of Britain

The 6 Music DJ and writer, whose new book explores her mixed-race heritage and the ancient myth of ‘Albion’, tells Michaela Makusha everyone has a stake in a complex, nuanced country

Apr 17, 2026

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4 min read

The Nerve Weekend Dish: Jad Youssef’s Lebanese chicken with garlic and lemon

The restaurateur shares a tray-bake recipe for djej b’sayniyeh – a longtime family favourite – from his debut cookbook

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POLITICS & INVESTIGATIONS

With Orbán gone, has the British far right lost its magic money tree?

Apr 14, 2026

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7 min read

With Orbán gone, has the British far right lost its magic money tree?

Hungary’s new PM has described his predecessor’s funding of propaganda bodies as criminal and vowed to investigate. This could be bad news for ultraconservatives in the UK – and around the rest of the world, writes Alice McCool

Alice McCool

The billionaires' eugenics project: how Epstein infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science

Feb 13, 2026

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14 min read

The billionaires' eugenics project: how Epstein infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science

Edge - Jeffrey Epstein's favourite intellectual salon - was sold to me as a gathering of the world's finest minds, writes Virginia Heffernan. The files reveal it was something far darker: a decades-long project that cloaked eugenics, race science and sexual misconduct in Ivy League respectability

Virginia Heffernan

‘It beggars belief’: MoD sources warn Palantir’s role at heart of government is threat to UK’s security

Mar 13, 2026

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10 min read

‘It beggars belief’: MoD sources warn Palantir’s role at heart of government is threat to UK’s security

Experts say that claims UK data remains under government ownership miss the point that the company has the capability to build its own detailed picture of the British population, and even infer state secrets. Report by Charlie Young and Carole Cadwalladr

Charlie Young

Nigel Farage wants to build a British ICE. Keir Starmer may have handed him the tools

Apr 8, 2026

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11 min read

Nigel Farage wants to build a British ICE. Keir Starmer may have handed him the tools

Reform’s proposed "Deportation Command” would integrate NHS, police and financial data into a single surveillance database. Meanwhile, Palantir has signalled it won’t stand in their way, and campaigners say Labour’s new data law opens the door. By Rei Takver

Rei Takver

CULTURE

As a gay man living in Hungary, Orbán’s defeat has changed my life

Apr 14, 2026

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8 min read

As a gay man living in Hungary, Orbán’s defeat has changed my life

Novelist Krisztián Marton was contemplating leaving his country under the oppressive Fidesz government. Then came a vote, an agonising wait – and a message of unity from the winner he had hardly dared hope for

Apr 14, 2026

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9 min read

The Nerve Hotlist

The best culture to enjoy this week – from Carey Mulligan in the second series of Beef to the surrealism of Leonora Carrington – as seen and chosen for you by our team of editors and writers

Apr 10, 2026

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12 min read

Investigative journalist Patrick Radden Keefe: ‘I don't take lightly the fact that the book will be in their lives for ever'

The award-winning author of Empire of Pain on the importance of long form journalism, the joy of doing his job – and why his new title feels like his most intimate yet