Hello all

Sarah here. I’m writing this on the train to a festival – We Out Here – in Dorset, where the Nerve is hosting a panel talk this evening. The weather is cloudy and below 25C, and I couldn’t be more delighted about that. This weekend’s edition includes an exclusive extract about Nathan Gill and Russia from acclaimed foreign correspondent Luke Harding’s new book, and some moving recollections of Jason Arday from some of his former students. Also, Hannah Jane Parkinson, stepping in for Stewart Lee this week, gives us the inside track on dedicated Trump staffer Natalie Harp.

We Out Here is a very Nerve-simpatico event. While the majority of music festivals were independent in the 1990s and early 2000s, it’s one of only a handful of medium-to-large events that hasn’t been hoovered up by a corporate (I only recently discovered that uber-promoter Live Nation controls Reading/Leeds, Latitude, Wilderness, Creamfields and the Isle of Wight festival!). As well as being fiercely independent, We Out Here’s music programming is totally distinctive, reflecting the lifelong passion of its founder, DJ Gilles Peterson, for jazz, soul and dance music from all over the globe.

Nerve co-founder Imogen and I went to the festival for the first time last year (for fun, loved it) and when we heard they were launching a new talks tent in 2026 themed around taking action against the worst, and escalating, ills of our society, we pitched a panel discussion around the theme of independent female voices in the arts and journalism making their voices heard. We were delighted when friend-of-the-Nerve musician Laetitia Sadier, of Stereolab fame, and Emma Dabiri, the author of Don’t Touch My Hair among other titles, agreed to appear alongside us.

Best-laid plans and all that: Laetitia injured her leg and is now only able to come to the festival for her Stereolab performance on Sunday evening, and Emma D has had to drop out … But the British Arab writer Amy Abdelnoor, whose debut novel Ever Land won plaudits when it was published in June, has agreed at the eleventh hour to step in. We will dig into our reserves of nerve and report back next week!

Also, founder members should have received an invitation to our first birthday party on Wednesday 16 September. If you want to meet the team and some of your favourite writers, there’s still time to get on the guest list if you sign up here. 

Now, here are the links to this weekend’s stories:

In his forthcoming book Betrayal, the acclaimed foreign correspondent travels the world to try to understand “our precarious times” – an era in which the US menaces Greenland and North Korea fights for Russia, “as if colourful pieces from the board game Risk, representing infantry, had been tossed across a map”. Part of the story he tells is Putin’s extensive influence operations across Europe, and part of that story is Nathan Gill. In this extract he takes us inside the career, crimes and downfall of Reform’s former leader in Wales. Read the story here.

Luke will be in conversation with the Nerve’s Carole Cadwalladr at the Frontline Club, London W2, on 21 September. A limited number of discounted tickets are available for Nerve members at a reduced price of £5.

“The past decade has seen a procession of loyal and deluded Trump sycophants, often with bottle-blonde or excessively bouffant hair,” writes Hannah. But now the White House has the last word in loyal aides: Natalie Harp, the staffer known for running considerable distances on foot behind the presidential golf cart, and crediting Trump with curing her cancer. She was also among the select few who were spirited off Air Force One in a catering truck when an Iranian threat loomed this month. But who is she? Find out more here

“By the end of our first term together,” writes undergraduate Ben about being taught by Jason Arday, “half the class had nicknames and the group felt like a group of friends.” In the wake of a viral article in the Times, in which a lone student condemned him as incompetent, several students at Durham, where he taught for three years, have come forward to tell fellow alumna Michaela Makusha how fondly they remember him as an energetic and supportive presence. Read their recollections here

He began his career on New York’s slam poetry scene before branching out into politically charged rap, music and film-making. Nonetheless, the multitalented Saul Williams says he doesn’t think of himself as an activist, because art comes first: “Resistance fighters need to dance. We need to be energised.” He talks to Kate Hutchinson about his new album, his love of trip-hop, his friendship with Robert Del Naja – and his role in Ryan Coogler’s Oscar-garlanded Sinners. Read the interview here

Director Jane Schoenbrun’s hit 2024 horror I Saw the TV Glow made them a name to watch and now they’re back with the buzzy slasher Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. Set in a retro summer camp, it features lesbian lust, KFC, a spear-wielding killer and the dynamite pairing of Gillian Anderson and Emmy-winning Hacks star Hannah Einbinder. What’s not to love, writes Nerve film critic Ellen E Jones. Read her five star review here

The stage and screen actor, who’s about to appear in Twelfth Night at Sheffield’s Crucible, has a wide range of cultural tips to share, including the bittersweet BBC Three sitcom Things You Should Have Done, the “raw, vulnerable and honest” story of a young woman in the big city by debut novelist Hattie Williams, an app that turns you into a high-speed power reader, and escaping to the Isle of Skye – where it “feels like London and all that other stuff doesn’t even exist”. Read Mathew’s highlights here

Anissa Helou grew up in Beirut in a “foodie family” where her father was a gourmet and her mother an amazing cook. She wrote her first cookbook three decades ago and earlier this year received a prestigious lifetime achievement award from the Guild of Food Writers. For her new book, Lebanon, she criss-crossed her home country to highlight its culinary diversity. Here she shares a recipe for spicy fish wraps given to her by Maher Jaber, the third-generation owner of the Mat’am Jaber restaurant in the Lebanese city of Tripoli. Get the recipe here.

That’s it for this week: thanks for reading! And please click on the Proton ad in the link below: it helps us earn money to fund our journalism. We’ll see you again on Tuesday. Have a great weekend.

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