FEARLESS, INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM ON CULTURE, POLITICS AND TECH

Latest EDITION

Timothy Snyder: People think evil is purposeful, but Trump proves you can be malign and stupid

Jun 23, 2026

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3 min read

Timothy Snyder: People think evil is purposeful, but Trump proves you can be malign and stupid

The US’s defeat at the hands of Iran – for that is what it was – has achieved absolutely nothing but to revive a brutal regime, writes the historian

Timothy Snyder

Jun 19, 2026

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9 min read

'Billionaires aren’t going to save you’: Amazon union trailblazer Chris Smalls on fighting back against the gig economy

The labour activist who took on Jeff Bezos in 2022 – and challenged him again at the Met Gala this year – talks to Lucia Osborne-Crowley about courage, community, class and why he's telling his remarkable story in a new memoir

Lucia Osborne-Crowley

‘I need to make money’: the story of Nigel Farage’s crypto-awakening

Jun 19, 2026

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5 min read

‘I need to make money’: the story of Nigel Farage’s crypto-awakening

In the latest part of our series The Harborne Receipts, we look at how the chief architect of Brexit fared in post-EU Britain – short of cash, out of politics, but becoming increasingly attracted to digital currencies. Report by Lucia Osborne-Crowley

Lucia Osborne-Crowley

Sangita Myska: He may be King of the North - but Andy Burnham should still stand in a leadership election

Jun 23, 2026

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4 min read

Sangita Myska: He may be King of the North - but Andy Burnham should still stand in a leadership election

Labour’s coronation is going smoothly – too smoothly. A leadership contest to stress test the next prime minister is necessary for the good of party, and to unite the public behind him, argues the Nerve’s political commentator

Jun 23, 2026

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4 min read

The Nerve Hotlist

This week’s top cultural picks – from Toy Story 5 to a major new exhibition of Japanese photography – as enjoyed by our team of editors and writers

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

Review of the Week: Glengarry Glen Ross at the Old Vic

Jun 19, 2026

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3 min read

Review of the Week: Glengarry Glen Ross at the Old Vic

Patrick Marber’s daring female reimagining of Mamet’s testosterone-soaked classic shows that capitalism can make a desperado of anyone, writes Dorian Lynskey

Stewart Lee: Exit stage far-right – now Britain’s theatres are being urged to capitulate to Farage

Jun 19, 2026

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4 min read

Stewart Lee: Exit stage far-right – now Britain’s theatres are being urged to capitulate to Farage

A new strategy document is calling for the industry to ‘engage warmly’ with Reform. Why? So Robert Kenyon can remake ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore?

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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

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

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

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

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

Review: 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

Ellen E Jones

‘All the books you write change you’: Maggie O’Farrell on Hamnet, Hollywood and family secrets

Jun 2, 2026

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5 min read

‘All the books you write change you’: Maggie O’Farrell on Hamnet, Hollywood and family secrets

After the Oscars whirl around her Shakespeare film, the novelist answers the Nerve Q&A and talks about her new book, which explores the hidden lives of her relatives, pioneering mapmakers in 19th-century Ireland. Interview by Lisa O'Kelly

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 HARBORNE receipts

Jun 19, 2026

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5 min read

‘I need to make money’: the story of Nigel Farage’s crypto-awakening

Lucia Osborne-Crowley

Jun 12, 2026

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14 min read

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

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?

Charlie Young, +1

THE NERVE WEEKEND DISH

Jun 19, 2026

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2 min read

Ursula Ferrigno’s Italian courgette pie

The Italian-born food writer shares an easy, summery dish perfect for antipasti, picnics or lunch in the sun.

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

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

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

FEARLESS, INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM ON CULTURE, POLITICS AND TECH

Latest EDITION

Timothy Snyder: People think evil is purposeful, but Trump proves you can be malign and stupid

'Billionaires aren’t going to save you’: Amazon union trailblazer Chris Smalls on fighting back against the gig economy

‘I need to make money’: the story of Nigel Farage’s crypto-awakening

Sangita Myska: He may be King of the North - but Andy Burnham should still stand in a leadership election

The Nerve Hotlist

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

Review of the Week: Glengarry Glen Ross at the Old Vic

Stewart Lee: Exit stage far-right – now Britain’s theatres are being urged to capitulate to Farage

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?

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

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

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

CULTURE

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

Review: Disclosure Day

‘All the books you write change you’: Maggie O’Farrell on Hamnet, Hollywood and family secrets

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 HARBORNE receipts

‘I need to make money’: the story of Nigel Farage’s crypto-awakening

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

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

THE NERVE WEEKEND DISH

Ursula Ferrigno’s Italian courgette pie

Honey & Co’s herby chicken burgers

Helen Graham’s leek, miso and mango chutney skewers

Özlem Warren’s börek traybake with spinach and cheese