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INVESTIGATIONS


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

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
Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Charlie Young, +1
New fears over spread of Palantir’s influence after ‘Big Brother’ Met police project extended

May 15, 2026

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6 min read

New fears over spread of Palantir’s influence after ‘Big Brother’ Met police project extended

The programme, designed to expose officer misconduct, was due to expire last month. The Nerve has established that it was extended to today, May 15, with no indication what happens next. Officers fear they will be under long-term surveillance, while it’s also emerged the project could be rolled out to more staff. Report by Max Colbert and Lucia Osborne-Crowley

Max Colbert
Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Max Colbert, +1
Contact? Source? Or friend? The curious connection between Michael Wolff and Jeffrey Epstein

May 12, 2026

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11 min read

Contact? Source? Or friend? The curious connection between Michael Wolff and Jeffrey Epstein

The New York media insider has 100 hours of interviews with the dead sex offender. But the Epstein files also reveal an intimate 20-year history of emails between the two men that seems far more than journalistic, writes Ellie Leonard

I made Labour Together angry. Here’s how it feels when a political party targets you

May 1, 2026

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17 min read

I made Labour Together angry. Here’s how it feels when a political party targets you

Paul Holden had been reporting on the thinktank at the heart of Keir Starmer’s rise to power when he was told he was the subject of a national security investigation. This is the twisting story of what happened next

Paul Holden
Paul Holden
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
Is Palantir in your pension? UK institutions have over £5bn invested in US tech corporation

Mar 19, 2026

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10 min read

Is Palantir in your pension? UK institutions have over £5bn invested in US tech corporation

Research reveals size of investment by UK organisations – including some of Britain’s biggest retirement providers – in Silicon Valley’s most controversial technology company. Carole Cadwalladr and Ian Tucker report

Ian Tucker
Carole Cadwalladr
Ian Tucker, +1
Revealed: 80% of Reform’s funding comes from Tory donors

Feb 17, 2026

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11 min read

Revealed: 80% of Reform’s funding comes from Tory donors

The majority of the money behind Nigel Farage’s movement was being supplied by Conservative interests even before the defection of so many high-profile figures from the party – to the alarm of former Reform faithfuls, writes Charlie Young

Charlie Young
Charlie Young
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
What’s happening in America is technofascism. It could happen here

Jan 30, 2026

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13 min read

What’s happening in America is technofascism. It could happen here

Peter Thiel's data surveillance company Palantir is powering Trump's ICE operation in the US. Carole Cadwalladr argues that the UK will be next

Carole Cadwalladr
Carole Cadwalladr
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

Trump in plain sight: how a new US security document has changed the world

Jan 8, 2026

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9 min read

Trump in plain sight: how a new US security document has changed the world

The crises over Venezuela and Greenland are not accidental – they are part of the White House’s stated vision for a new world order run by the ‘great powers’, writes analyst and former diplomat Arthur Snell

'A solid line-up of truth-tellers': Grok bot provides climate denial content to 'user' it believes to be anti-science

Dec 18, 2025

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9 min read

'A solid line-up of truth-tellers': Grok bot provides climate denial content to 'user' it believes to be anti-science

EXCLUSIVE: New Global Witness report shows Elon Musk's bot and ChatGPT giving inconsistent responses to differing 'personas' designed by researchers, with Grok providing false information and climate conspiracies in line with user's apparent beliefs

Rumours, reports and a row on Facebook: how I followed the Russian trail to Nathan Gill

Nov 25, 2025

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10 min read

Rumours, reports and a row on Facebook: how I followed the Russian trail to Nathan Gill

Five years before the disgraced ex-Reform politician was sentenced, political scientist Anton Shekhovtsov had encountered his name during his research. Here he recounts how what at first seemed like a footnote grew into a scandal

Reform UK and Russian bribes: a Nathan Gill timeline

Nov 21, 2025

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26 min read

Reform UK and Russian bribes: a Nathan Gill timeline

As Reform’s former leader in Wales is sentenced to ten and a half years for taking bribes from a pro-Russian actor, here's a chronology of his actions and the wider context of Putin, Ukraine and Brexit

An absent MP. A Russian traitor in Reform. I go to Clacton in search of Nigel Farage

Nov 18, 2025

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7 min read

An absent MP. A Russian traitor in Reform. I go to Clacton in search of Nigel Farage

On the trail of the elusive Reform leader, John Sweeney films a report in his struggling constituency – where even the prospect of Putin undermining British politics doesn’t raise many eyebrows

"It's democracy, but not as we know it": John Sweeney on Reform, Russia & the result in Caerphilly

Oct 24, 2025

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11 min read

"It's democracy, but not as we know it": John Sweeney on Reform, Russia & the result in Caerphilly

The Nerve’s Reform correspondent went to Caerphilly on polling day to catch the mood of a bellwether by-election: would Reform UK defeat Labour as the stats were suggesting? And where on earth was their candidate Llŷr Powell, former colleague of Russian puppet Nathan Gill? Watch John's report to find out...

The glamorous TV host, the web of influence and a mysterious trip to Moscow – inside the downfall of Reform’s disgraced MEP

Oct 17, 2025

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17 min read

The glamorous TV host, the web of influence and a mysterious trip to Moscow – inside the downfall of Reform’s disgraced MEP

Ahead of a critical Welsh byelection for Reform on Thursday, part two of our investigation into Nathan Gill uncovers the web of Russian influence that encircled him – and asks why it took so long to charge him after he was originally detained. By Carole Cadwalladr

Carole Cadwalladr
Carole Cadwalladr
The handler of Reform UK's Russian puppet Nathan Gill is linked to efforts to destabilise the US and Ukraine. Why is no one asking more questions?

Oct 12, 2025

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11 min read

The handler of Reform UK's Russian puppet Nathan Gill is linked to efforts to destabilise the US and Ukraine. Why is no one asking more questions?

Gill, former leader of Nigel Farage's party in Wales, admits taking bribes to help Putin. And his Russian connection - the Ukrainian politician Oleh Voloshyn - in turn has links to a key figure wanted by US authorities over election interference. By Carole Cadwalladr

Inside the church of Nigel Farageology

Oct 3, 2025

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7 min read

Inside the church of Nigel Farageology

John Sweeney, award-winning investigative reporter and our Reform UK correspondent, previews his new series reporting on every county council controlled by the party - an organisation that, as its leader proudly claims, welcomes public scrutiny

‘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

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