FEARLESS, INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM ON CULTURE, POLITICS AND TECH

Weekend EDITION

Scan your eyeballs, think of the children: how Britain sells surveillance as safety

Jun 16, 2026

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3 min read

Scan your eyeballs, think of the children: how Britain sells surveillance as safety

Keir Starmer's under-16 social media ban can only work if everyone proves who they are. It is the natural conclusion of the Online Safety Act – and of a Brexit that was always about control, says digital rights advocate Heather Burns

Heather Burns

Crypto, peerages, or political self-sacrifice – why did Farage gift Boris the 2019 election?

Jun 12, 2026

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14 min read

Crypto, peerages, or political self-sacrifice – why did Farage gift Boris the 2019 election?

Part two of the Nerve’s investigation into Christopher Harborne’s influence on UK politics brings us to the 2019 election – which took the UK out of Europe while dumping 300 Brexit party candidates, leaving a wound on the far right still raw today. By Carole Cadwalladr and Lucia Osborne-Crowley

‘Literature is about digging, not putting on a show’: author Édouard Louis on writing as an act of working-class defiance

Jun 12, 2026

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6 min read

‘Literature is about digging, not putting on a show’: author Édouard Louis on writing as an act of working-class defiance

The French novelist’s unsparing autofiction about his poor and violent childhood is designed to challenge a leftwing establishment that is losing touch with those it represents, he tells Lucia Osborne-Crowley

Lucia Osborne-Crowley

Deborah Frances-White: The far right riot with impunity. But what if women started burning rapists out of their homes?

Jun 16, 2026

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3 min read

Deborah Frances-White: The far right riot with impunity. But what if women started burning rapists out of their homes?

The men who rush on to the streets to persecute immigrants in Belfast and beyond would be horrified by any act of feminist vigilantism or disorder, writes Deborah Frances-White

Jun 16, 2026

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4 min read

The Nerve Hotlist

This week’s don’t-miss cultural picks, from Olivia Rodrigo's new album to Marilyn Monroe at the National Portrait Gallery, as enjoyed by our team of editors and writers

Jun 12, 2026

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3 min read

Review of the Week: Disclosure Day

A Spielberg alien movie is not to be missed, writes Ellen E Jones – especially when the extraterrestrials might offer an alternative to our fraught political reality

Stewart Lee: Ireland is an island of fable and magic. It’s just a shame about the pogrom

Jun 12, 2026

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5 min read

Stewart Lee: Ireland is an island of fable and magic. It’s just a shame about the pogrom

On tour through glorious Irish towns, pubs and clubs, it was almost - but not quite - possible to tune out the race riots being stoked up in the North

Natasha Walter: if a far-right government was treating protesters like Labour is, there would be outrage

Jun 9, 2026

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5 min read

Natasha Walter: if a far-right government was treating protesters like Labour is, there would be outrage

Activists have been detained for months without trial and declared terrorists. On Friday, four will be sentenced under egregious circumstances. We should be more alarmed that Palestine and climate campaigners are being treated like this in a social democracy, writes the author and columnist

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May 22, 2026

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10 min read

Billionaire Christopher Harborne donated millions to Farage and Johnson. Then the pro-crypto announcements began. Is there a connection?

The crypto investor’s £5m gift to Reform’s leader coincided with the party’s new-found advocacy for digital assets – part of a pattern of significant political donations that also included £1m to the former Tory prime minister. Report by Charlie Young and Lucia Osborne-Crowley

Charlie Young, +1

Peter Mandelson, the Russian superyacht and the scandal we completely misread

Feb 24, 2026

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14 min read

Peter Mandelson, the Russian superyacht and the scandal we completely misread

When Britain's most powerful political fixer was caught on an oligarch's boat in Corfu, we called it Yachtgate and moved on. The Epstein files now reveal the full picture: a web of Russian money, paedophile kompromat and New Labour access that shaped a decade of British politics, writes Tamsin Shaw

Tamsin Shaw

‘They can shape the outcomes they claim to forecast’ – could Polymarket influence an election?

May 15, 2026

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9 min read

‘They can shape the outcomes they claim to forecast’ – could Polymarket influence an election?

A platform backed by Peter Thiel and advised by Donald Trump Jr. is taking anonymous crypto bets on UK elections, missile strikes and the death of world leaders. In Britain no regulator will touch it, writes Ian Tucker in this in-depth guide to so-called "prediction markets"

Ian Tucker

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

CULTURE

Jun 5, 2026

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5 min read

James McAvoy: 'I'm always going to try and find the laughs'

The Scottish Hollywood actor – and now first-time director – answers the Nerve Q&A on fame, indie film-making and snogging an unexpected co-star. Interview by Hanna Flint

Hanna Flint

Jun 12, 2026

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3 min read

The Recommender: Olivia Laing

The bestselling writer and novelist shares their current cultural favourites

May 29, 2026

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5 min read

What Marilyn would have done next...

A lifelong Monroe fan, the Nerve’s film critic Ellen E Jones has made a BBC radio series to mark the centenary of the actor’s birth. Here, she imagines the future that might have opened up for a media-savvy artist ‘vastly ahead of her time’

Ellen E Jones

SPOTLIGHT ON PALANTIR

The Palantir pipeline: how Peter Thiel's surveillance firm hired more than 30 senior UK officials

Apr 24, 2026

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8 min read

The Palantir pipeline: how Peter Thiel's surveillance firm hired more than 30 senior UK officials

The AI company holds £670m in UK government contracts. It has also hired dozens of senior officials from the departments awarding them – raising what transparency experts call an 'acute' corruption risk, write Charlie Young, Carole Cadwalladr and Ian Tucker

Charlie Young, +2

‘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

Revealed: Palantir deals with UK state total at least £670m – including £15m contract with nuclear weapons agency

Jan 27, 2026

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13 min read

Revealed: Palantir deals with UK state total at least £670m – including £15m contract with nuclear weapons agency

EXCLUSIVE Nerve investigation finds Trump ally Peter Thiel's surveillance firm has won at least 34 contracts, including management services for Britain's nuclear deterrent, with MPs warning of 'gaping vulnerability' as US president threatens Nato allies. By Carole Cadwalladr, Charlie Young and Max Colbert

THE NERVE WEEKEND DISH

May 29, 2026

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3 min read

Özlem Warren’s börek traybake with spinach and cheese

The Turkish food writer shares a versatile and summery dish perfect for lunch, dinner or eating al fresco

May 22, 2026

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2 min read

Honey & Co’s herby chicken burgers

The restaurateurs and life partners Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer share a fresh, summery dish for a sunny weekend

May 15, 2026

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2 min read

Marina Georgallides’s kleftiko

The popular Instagram cook, aka @chefmarinie, shares her recipe for classic slow-roasted Greek lamb – an easy winner for special occasions

Helen Graham’s leek, miso and mango chutney skewers

Jun 12, 2026

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2 min read

Helen Graham’s leek, miso and mango chutney skewers

The London-born chef shares a fresh, vegan and barbecue-ready dish from her debut cookbook

FEARLESS, INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM ON CULTURE, POLITICS AND TECH

Weekend EDITION

Scan your eyeballs, think of the children: how Britain sells surveillance as safety

Crypto, peerages, or political self-sacrifice – why did Farage gift Boris the 2019 election?

‘Literature is about digging, not putting on a show’: author Édouard Louis on writing as an act of working-class defiance

Deborah Frances-White: The far right riot with impunity. But what if women started burning rapists out of their homes?

The Nerve Hotlist

Review of the Week: Disclosure Day

Stewart Lee: Ireland is an island of fable and magic. It’s just a shame about the pogrom

Natasha Walter: if a far-right government was treating protesters like Labour is, there would be outrage

SIGN UP TO STAY UP TO DATE AND SUPPORT THE NERVE

FREE

£0

ANNUAL member

£68

MONTHLY member

£6.95

FOUNDER member

£250

POLITICS & INVESTIGATIONS

Billionaire Christopher Harborne donated millions to Farage and Johnson. Then the pro-crypto announcements began. Is there a connection?

Peter Mandelson, the Russian superyacht and the scandal we completely misread

‘They can shape the outcomes they claim to forecast’ – could Polymarket influence an election?

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

CULTURE

James McAvoy: 'I'm always going to try and find the laughs'

The Recommender: Olivia Laing

What Marilyn would have done next...

SPOTLIGHT ON PALANTIR

The Palantir pipeline: how Peter Thiel's surveillance firm hired more than 30 senior UK officials

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

Revealed: Palantir deals with UK state total at least £670m – including £15m contract with nuclear weapons agency

THE NERVE WEEKEND DISH

Özlem Warren’s börek traybake with spinach and cheese

Honey & Co’s herby chicken burgers

Marina Georgallides’s kleftiko

Helen Graham’s leek, miso and mango chutney skewers