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FEARLESS, INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM ON CULTURE, POLITICS AND TECH

Latest EDITION

Revealed: Lembit Öpik and the 500 other westerners – including an ex-Tory MP – who helped Putin’s propaganda war on Ukraine

Nov 10, 2026

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9 min read

Revealed: Lembit Öpik and the 500 other westerners – including an ex-Tory MP – who helped Putin’s propaganda war on Ukraine

Kremlin-backed news site RRN approached hundreds of Russia-friendly commentators to take part in its disinformation campaigns. Now a data hack has exposed their identities – and the methods used to entice them, writes Sergei Cristo

Sergei Cristo
Sergei Cristo
Cody Dahler: ‘You can’t have the BBC calling Trump an arsehole. But that’s what people want’

Nov 6, 2026

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7 min read

Cody Dahler: ‘You can’t have the BBC calling Trump an arsehole. But that’s what people want’

The comedian, whose no-holds-barred take on the news has made him a social media star, is publishing his first book. He talks to Ursula Kenny about populism, the importance of the pub and what he’d do first if he was PM

Ursula Kenny
Ursula Kenny
Roger McNamee: AI’s ‘existential risks’ are all hype. But there's a real, and dangerous, financial bubble building

Oct 23, 2026

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6 min read

Roger McNamee: AI’s ‘existential risks’ are all hype. But there's a real, and dangerous, financial bubble building

Rogue technology is not going to kill us. But it generates errors, deskills young people and, above all, threatens global financial stability, writes the former Google and Facebook investor

Roger McNamee
Roger McNamee
Sangita Myska: If China can honey-trap tech bros, it can do it in Britain. We have fragile male egos too

Nov 10, 2026

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4 min read

Sangita Myska: If China can honey-trap tech bros, it can do it in Britain. We have fragile male egos too

As too many recent cases remind us – remember Prince Andrew’s aide? – Beijing is undertaking influence operations in this country. Protecting ourselves without cutting ties completely is not easy, writes the Nerve’s political commentator

The Nerve Hotlist

Nov 10, 2026

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5 min read

The Nerve Hotlist

The best culture to enjoy this week – from the return of grime pioneer Skepta to Channel 4's gripping new psychological thriller – as seen and enjoyed by our editors and writers

Stewart Lee: Deep in the fartland of Britain, the World of Walliams awaits a new purpose

Nov 6, 2026

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4 min read

Stewart Lee: Deep in the fartland of Britain, the World of Walliams awaits a new purpose

What to do with all those buildings that have been hastily abandoned in Alton Towers? The migrant-haters of Middle England may yet have a plan

Deborah Frances-White: The most dangerous thing about misogynistic jokes isn’t the punchline. It’s the laughter

Nov 3, 2026

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10 min read

Deborah Frances-White: The most dangerous thing about misogynistic jokes isn’t the punchline. It’s the laughter

Comedians have been causing controversy recently for jokes about rape, incest and even what women wear to the gym. The performers may not be sexists – but somewhere in the audience, violent men are hearing their darkest views being applauded, writes the Guilty Feminist

One in a Million: the epic film that humanises the refugee experience - and the Syrian woman who made it

Oct 30, 2026

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6 min read

One in a Million: the epic film that humanises the refugee experience - and the Syrian woman who made it

Ten years in the making, Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes' poignant new documentary is an intimate portrait of one refugee girl and her family fleeing Assad's regime for Germany. Itab talks to Natasha Walter

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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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15 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


‘I started the podcast speaking into a sock’: content creator Blindboy on becoming an audio phenomenon

Oct 23, 2026

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6 min read

‘I started the podcast speaking into a sock’: content creator Blindboy on becoming an audio phenomenon

The masked Irish writer began his online talk show as a sideline. Now his discursive monologues on politics and culture draw millions of listeners. He talks to Brenna Spain about success, missing "cultural scarcity" – and Mark Zuckerberg's new castle

Brenna Spain
Brenna Spain
The Recommender: Jamz Supernova

Nov 6, 2026

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3 min read

The Recommender: Jamz Supernova

The DJ and 6 Music presenter shares some of her recent cultural favourites

Review of the Week: The Lives of Others at the Adelphi theatre

Nov 6, 2026

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3 min read

Review of the Week: The Lives of Others at the Adelphi theatre

With Keira Knightley in the starring role, visionary director Robert Icke’s adaptation of the 2006 film takes its shadowy world of Berlin noir and creates something gripping and new, writes Nerve theatre critic Dorian Lynskey

Dorian Lynskey
Dorian Lynskey

POLITICS & INVESTIGATIONS


Annie Altman v Sam Altman: how OpenAI’s boss gave evidence under oath over his sister's allegation that he sexually abused her

Oct 29, 2026

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24 min read

Annie Altman v Sam Altman: how OpenAI’s boss gave evidence under oath over his sister's allegation that he sexually abused her

In recent weeks, the AI billionaire and his youngest sibling gave pre-trial depositions in a case brought by Annie claiming repeated abuse when she was a child. With her lawsuit in jeopardy, the Nerve’s Lucia Osborne-Crowley speaks to her and investigates a long-running story that has been largely ignored by the media

Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Revealed: how Kate Middleton was weaponised by an anti-Muslim propaganda campaign – and the trail that leads to Israel

Nov 6, 2026

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14 min read

Revealed: how Kate Middleton was weaponised by an anti-Muslim propaganda campaign – and the trail that leads to Israel

Adverts warning of a ‘Muslim invasion of Europe’ reached British screens before the 2024 elections and the Southport riots, and kept coming for two more years. Meta and Google took the money, writes disinformation expert Marc Owen Jones

Marc Owen Jones
Marc Owen Jones
Sleepless in Slough: the residents who fear for their failing health in Europe’s data centre capital

Sep 29, 2026

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7 min read

Sleepless in Slough: the residents who fear for their failing health in Europe’s data centre capital

With an estimated 40 facilities packed tightly together in the town, local people say their quality of life is being ruined by strange and unsettling noise pollution. Brenna Spain reports

Brenna Spain
Brenna Spain
‘He was doing something amazing’: Jason Arday, by the friend who’s known him since childhood

Aug 25, 2026

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11 min read

‘He was doing something amazing’: Jason Arday, by the friend who’s known him since childhood

In the relentless culture war surrounding the professor, the voices of those closest to him were absent. Here, his longstanding friend Sam Clark talks to the Nerve about the kind, warm and remarkable man he remembers

SPOTLIGHT ON PALANTIR


Revealed: Britain's contracts with Palantir hit £1bn

Oct 2, 2026

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9 min read

Revealed: Britain's contracts with Palantir hit £1bn

Newly surfaced disclosures reveal the government has spent or agreed to spend at least £992m with Peter Thiel’s controversial AI company – as pressure mounts on Andy Burnham to block them. Max Colbert reports

Max Colbert
Max Colbert
'We’re watching you’: MP Clive Lewis reveals Tom Watson has warned him over criticising Palantir

Sep 29, 2026

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4 min read

'We’re watching you’: MP Clive Lewis reveals Tom Watson has warned him over criticising Palantir

In a letter to his former Labour colleague, the peer, who joined Peter Thiel’s AI company this month, writes: ‘You have made the case against the company more or less continuously’. By Carole Cadwalladr

Carole Cadwalladr
Carole Cadwalladr
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

THE NERVE WEEKEND DISH


Erica Drum’s hearty chickpea and chorizo stew

Oct 30, 2026

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3 min read

Erica Drum’s hearty chickpea and chorizo stew

The Irish chef shares a warm, autumnal dinner (with some super-easy extra toppings) from her debut cookbook

Alissa Timoshkina’s kopytka with mushroom and spinach sauce

Oct 23, 2026

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3 min read

Alissa Timoshkina’s kopytka with mushroom and spinach sauce

The award-winning food writer shares a Polish potato dumpling dish that’s perfect comfort food for autumn

Jane Ferguson
Jane Ferguson
Ali Stoner’s Cullen skink bake

Oct 9, 2026

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3 min read

Ali Stoner’s Cullen skink bake

The home cook and former Masterchef Australia contestant shares a new twist on an old Scottish favourite from her debut recipe book

Tim Anderson’s curry ramen

Oct 2, 2026

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3 min read

Tim Anderson’s curry ramen

The chef, author and Japanese food enthusiast shares a classic comfort food recipe from his new cookbook

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