FEARLESS, INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM ON CULTURE, POLITICS AND TECH

WEEKEND EDITION

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

Oct 2, 2026

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7 min read

‘I’m surprised we came through it so well’: Salman Rushdie and Rachel Eliza Griffiths on surviving assassination

As a new documentary remembers the three-decade fatwa against the novelist that led to his near-fatal knife attack in 2022, he and his wife discuss hope, history and how his life was saved by the courage of strangers

Dorian Lynskey

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

Stewart Lee: Five Go Mad in Fairford is the worst Enid Blyton yet

Oct 2, 2026

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6 min read

Stewart Lee: Five Go Mad in Fairford is the worst Enid Blyton yet

The men arrived on small boats. No they didn’t. They’re Middle Eastern. Oh, they’re British. They’re dangerous. No, they’ve been bailed! What 10-year-old would take this seriously?

Oct 2, 2026

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4 min read

Review of the Week: The Standard of Living at Theatre Royal Haymarket

Uniquely talented at turning political history into lively drama, the playwright James Graham’s soulful, timely portrait of economist John Maynard Keynes explores what it means to lead ‘a good life’, writes Dorian Lynskey

Oct 2, 2026

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3 min read

The Recommender: Kiell Smith-Bynoe

The star of Ghosts and Stath Lets Flats shares his favourite recent cultural favourites

‘I see what’s happening to Rachel; it scares me’: the woman who dared to face down Piddington’s anti-migrant storm

Sep 25, 2026

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7 min read

‘I see what’s happening to Rachel; it scares me’: the woman who dared to face down Piddington’s anti-migrant storm

Natasha Walter talks to Rachel Marsh, the resident of the newly ‘independent’ Oxfordshire village whose anti-racist BBC interview led to abuse, doxxing and death threats

Oct 2, 2026

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3 min read

The Nerve Weekend Dish: 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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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

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

‘What you’re being asked to do is look away. Just look away’: Omar El Akkad on watching the horror in Gaza from the west

Sep 25, 2026

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15 min read

‘What you’re being asked to do is look away. Just look away’: Omar El Akkad on watching the horror in Gaza from the west

The author of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This talks to Ramita Navai about conflict, apathy, and the privilege of living ‘on the launching side of the missiles’

Sep 29, 2026

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5 min read

The Nerve Hotlist

The best culture to enjoy this week, from Austen remixed to photographer Sunil Gupta's loving portraits of queer life, as chosen by our editors and writers

Sep 25, 2026

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5 min read

Laurie Anderson: ‘I learned a lot through blunders. I’m not trying to live a perfect life’

The pioneering artist answers the Nerve Q&A about Trump’s threat to culture, how she finds inspiration – and her forthcoming first-ever show in Wales. Interview by Jude Rogers

Jude Rogers

POLITICS & INVESTIGATIONS

'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

‘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

From celebrity intellectual to anti-woke outlaw: how Steven Pinker lost his way

Sep 18, 2026

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7 min read

From celebrity intellectual to anti-woke outlaw: how Steven Pinker lost his way

The pop psychologist’s new book seems to betray a lurking fear of others’ criticism – about his Epstein links, his manosphere admirers and his discredited former field of study, writes Virginia Heffernan

Virginia Heffernan

Charisma, cruelty, greed: John Sweeney on the ‘dark genius’ of Nigel Farage

Sep 1, 2026

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16 min read

Charisma, cruelty, greed: John Sweeney on the ‘dark genius’ of Nigel Farage

In an exclusive extract from his new book, the Nerve’s Reform correspondent explores the career of ‘a leader who never seems to suffer the consequences of his actions’ – and asks if he should ever be allowed near power

John Sweeney

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

Sep 25, 2026

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2 min read

Jeremy Lee’s celery and lemon risotto

The acclaimed Soho restaurateur shares a fresh seasonal recipe celebrating a perennially overlooked vegetable

Sep 18, 2026

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2 min read

Smash burger tacos by Poppy Cooks

The social media star shares a fast-food-inspired mash-up that’s super simple and perfect for students to rustle up

Aug 21, 2026

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4 min read

Anissa Helou’s spicy fish wrap

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

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