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FEARLESS, INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM ON CULTURE, POLITICS AND TECH

WEEKEND EDITION

Bribes, betrayal ... and Reform’s Nathan Gill: inside Russia’s operation to drive a wedge between Ukraine and Europe

Aug 21, 2026

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18 min read

Bribes, betrayal ... and Reform’s Nathan Gill: inside Russia’s operation to drive a wedge between Ukraine and Europe

In an exclusive extract from his new book, acclaimed foreign correspondent Luke Harding joins the dots of a continent-wide Kremlin influence network disrupted by the jailing of a former senior official in Nigel Farage’s party

Luke Harding
Luke Harding
From ‘human printer’ to headline-maker: meet Trump’s devoted aide Natalie Harp

Aug 21, 2026

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4 min read

From ‘human printer’ to headline-maker: meet Trump’s devoted aide Natalie Harp

The 35-year-old runs behind the president’s golf cart in case he needs hard copies of things to read, and credits him with curing her cancer. Now that’s what you call an assistant, writes Hannah Jane Parkinson

Hannah Jane Parkinson
Hannah Jane Parkinson
Saul Williams: ‘Resistance fighters need something to listen to’

Aug 21, 2026

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7 min read

Saul Williams: ‘Resistance fighters need something to listen to’

The multitalented musician, poet, film-maker and Sinners actor talks to Kate Hutchinson about finding energy, his friendship with Robert Del Naja, and making music in troubled times

Kate Hutchinson
Kate Hutchinson
Students remember Jason Arday: ‘People would say how much they were looking forward to his classes’

Aug 21, 2026

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3 min read

Students remember Jason Arday: ‘People would say how much they were looking forward to his classes’

A viral article by an anonymous student suggested the academic was a bad and incompetent lecturer. Undergraduates at Durham, where he taught between 2019 and 2022, tell fellow alumna Michaela Makusha that the truth was very different

Review of the Week: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

Aug 21, 2026

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3 min read

Review of the Week: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

Director Jane Schoenbrun’s dazzling meta-slasher features lesbian lust, KFC, a spear-wielding killer and Gillian Anderson. What’s not to love, writes Nerve film critic Ellen E Jones

Bella Ramsey: ‘I go to Quaker meetings and just sit in silence for an hour!’

Aug 14, 2026

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4 min read

Bella Ramsey: ‘I go to Quaker meetings and just sit in silence for an hour!’

The Game of Thrones and Last of Us actor, now starring in the buzzy indie drama Sunny Dancer, talks to Hanna Flint about coming of age, looking for faith ... and the apparently endless process of doing the laundry

The Recommender: Mathew Horne

Aug 21, 2026

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3 min read

The Recommender: Mathew Horne

Before he takes to the stage as Malvolio, the Gavin & Stacey star shares his latest cultural discoveries

The Nerve Weekend Dish: Anissa Helou’s spicy fish wrap

Aug 21, 2026

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4 min read

The Nerve Weekend Dish: Anissa Helou’s spicy fish wrap

The acclaimed cookbook writer shares a zingy Lebanese recipe from the land of her childhood

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THE HARBORNE receipts


Follow the money: the Farage funding timeline

Aug 7, 2026

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14 min read

Follow the money: the Farage funding timeline

As the revelations around donations to Reform and its leader multiply, we’re keeping the receipts. Carole Cadwalladr introduces a master timeline of our investigation into Farage’s biggest funder, cryptobillionaire Christopher Harborne, and argues that Farage is a symptom, not a cause, of forces reshaping politics across the world

Carole Cadwalladr
Carole Cadwalladr
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 Harborne Receipts, the Nerve’s investigation into the billionaire'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

Chequers gatherings, Johnson's diary and a new jet fighter... how billionaire Christopher Harborne became a big player in defence

Jul 5, 2026

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11 min read

Chequers gatherings, Johnson's diary and a new jet fighter... how billionaire Christopher Harborne became a big player in defence

Soon after the Ukraine war broke out, the investor emerged as a highly favoured backer of the Tory government – and then a major shareholder in privatised defence lab QinetiQ at a transformative moment for its fortunes. By Carole Cadwalladr and Charlie Young

CULTURE


Ellen E Jones: AI can already create films. What it can’t create is art

Aug 7, 2026

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4 min read

Ellen E Jones: AI can already create films. What it can’t create is art

A machine-made movie has premiered at Tribeca and virtual actor Tilly Norwood is about to star in a feature. But if there’s no soul, no emotion, or no attempt at human connection ... who cares? By Ellen E Jones

Ellen E Jones
Ellen E Jones
Joe Lycett: ‘Part of me thinks: we've had so many prime ministers, why not give the bin a go?’

Jul 24, 2026

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6 min read

Joe Lycett: ‘Part of me thinks: we've had so many prime ministers, why not give the bin a go?’

Ahead of a major solo exhibition, the comedian, artist and presenter answers the Nerve Q&A - on Celebrity Traitors, politics, and how his toddler has already started heckling Richard Tice. Interview by Michael Hogan

Michael Hogan
Michael Hogan
The Nerve Hotlist

Aug 11, 2026

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3 min read

The Nerve Hotlist

This week's top cultural picks – from a cool Anthony Bourdain biopic to Phoebe Bridgers’s soul-searching new album – as enjoyed by our team of editors and writers

POLITICS & INVESTIGATIONS


Liz Truss, dark money and the gen-Z Catholics: who’s behind CPAC in the UK?

Jul 21, 2026

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8 min read

Liz Truss, dark money and the gen-Z Catholics: who’s behind CPAC in the UK?

The British debut of Maga’s favourite conference last week was widely seen as a joke. But a Nerve investigation reveals its young organisers are part of a web of culture-war connections – from the US Christian right to Viktor Orbán's influence network. Alice McCool reports

Alice McCool
Alice McCool
Farage, the money launderer and me: a decade of denial

Jul 17, 2026

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15 min read

Farage, the money launderer and me: a decade of denial

The Reform leader’s relationship with the UK media has enabled him to operate with impunity for years. This past fortnight, that impunity finally appeared to be coming to an end. Carole Cadwalladr, who’s tracked him for a decade, reports on why

Carole Cadwalladr
Carole Cadwalladr
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
Virginia Heffernan
‘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
Ian Tucker

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
Ian Tucker
Carole Cadwalladr
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
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


Sabrina Ghayour’s roasted spiced aubergine and tomato

Aug 14, 2026

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2 min read

Sabrina Ghayour’s roasted spiced aubergine and tomato

The bestselling author of Persiana shares a mezze-friendly creation from her new collection of one-pan recipes

Ed Smith’s roast Thai-ish chicken thighs with hot and sour salad

Aug 7, 2026

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2 min read

Ed Smith’s roast Thai-ish chicken thighs with hot and sour salad

The food blogger and author behind Rocket & Squash shares a fresh, gai-yang-inspired meal from his new book

Ella Risbridger’s herby mango salad

Jul 31, 2026

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2 min read

Ella Risbridger’s herby mango salad

The author of the acclaimed The Kitchen Book shares an ultra-fresh, summery, no-cook recipe

Zena Kamgaing's one-pan Thai curry salmon with coconut rice

Jul 10, 2026

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2 min read

Zena Kamgaing's one-pan Thai curry salmon with coconut rice

The recipe developer shares a speedy, delicious dinner from her easy-cook recipe book

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