FEARLESS, INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM ON CULTURE, POLITICS AND TECH

Weekend EDITION

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

Philippa Perry: Feeling guilty about going on holiday? Of course. But you should go anyway

Aug 7, 2026

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4 min read

Philippa Perry: Feeling guilty about going on holiday? Of course. But you should go anyway

There is more suffering and crisis on a burning planet than is possible for one person to process. It’s better for you, and everyone who needs you, to take a break sometimes, writes our cultural agony aunt

Cory Doctorow: The people who tell you ‘AI is changing everything’ are lying

Aug 4, 2026

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6 min read

Cory Doctorow: The people who tell you ‘AI is changing everything’ are lying

It has become impossible to tell managers mesmerised by artificial intelligence that the tools are not, in fact, helpful. So employees just play along with the fiction to keep their jobs, writes our tech columnist

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

Caroline Lucas: The shocking climate reports the UK government didn't want you to see

Jul 28, 2026

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4 min read

Caroline Lucas: The shocking climate reports the UK government didn't want you to see

The intelligence services now believe nature collapse is a security threat. For a cabinet determined to sacrifice the environment for growth, was that too uncomfortable a truth, asks the former Green party leader

Aug 7, 2026

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3 min read

The Recommender: Bryony Kimmings

The performance artist and screenwriter shares her latest cultural discoveries

Review of the Week: Richard Dadd - Beyond Bedlam at the RA

Aug 7, 2026

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4 min read

Review of the Week: Richard Dadd - Beyond Bedlam at the RA

This reappraisal of the Victorian fantasy painter, who spent decades in institutions after killing his father, reveals both his extraordinary technical prowess and his limitations as an artist, writes Ben Luke

Aug 7, 2026

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2 min read

Weekend Dish: 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

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THE HARBORNE receipts

‘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

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

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

CULTURE

‘We go where the silence is’: Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! on Trump, violence and the power of bearing witness

Jul 31, 2026

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10 min read

‘We go where the silence is’: Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! on Trump, violence and the power of bearing witness

The pioneering independent reporter, now the subject of a documentary, talks to Carole Cadwalladr about surviving a massacre and the current threats to the media

Carole Cadwalladr

Aug 4, 2026

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5 min read

The Nerve Hotlist

This week's don't-miss cultural picks – from a moving coming of age story set in Luton to Nick Hakim’s ghostly new album – as enjoyed by our team of editors and writers

The 10 best things to see at Edinburgh festival 2026 – from chaotic monks and teen punks to Bigfoot hysteria

Jul 24, 2026

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4 min read

The 10 best things to see at Edinburgh festival 2026 – from chaotic monks and teen punks to Bigfoot hysteria

Four thousand shows, one month: how do you choose? Critic and dedicated festivalgoer Fergus Morgan offers a guide to the hottest tickets

Fergus Morgan

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

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

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

‘What will Jesus say?’ Tony Blair, Big Tech and the Israel connection

Sep 30, 2025

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18 min read

‘What will Jesus say?’ Tony Blair, Big Tech and the Israel connection

As Trump announces the former British PM as his choice to help govern Gaza, Carole Cadwalladr investigates the opaque workings of Blair's institute, its funding from friends of Israel's government – including billionaire Larry Ellison – and an emerging rightwing media takeover of the global information space

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

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

Jul 17, 2026

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3 min read

Richard Makin’s spicy tahini lime noodles

The author and Instagrammer (aka @SchoolNightVegan) shares an ultra-fast dinner recipe that can be done in 10 minutes flat

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