Hello Nervesters, 

Carole here to introduce a newsletter which has a bit of a chill wind blowing through it. A decade ago, investigative journalists and federal investigators who exposed Trump’s relationship with Russia were treated as maladjusted conspiracy theorists. Now, there’s not even any pretence left: Trump is actively sabotaging Ukraine’s defence efforts and helping Russia kill Ukrainian citizens. 

Read that sentence back again. This is not business as usual. In the last week, he’s banned new sanctions on Russian companies by executive order and slowed access to Starlink technology that enables Ukraine to warn its citizens of incoming strikes. Europe’s most important ally is actively helping a murderous dictator with ambitions that go far beyond Ukraine. 

In a piece for today’s edition of the Nerve, former diplomat Arthur Snell calls it a “turning point”. Ukraine faces a long, hard, cold winter ahead, in which it’s fighting for us all. Perhaps the least we can do is to pay some attention. 

In not entirely unrelated news, we’re also publishing an onstage interview that I did last week with broadcaster Stephen Sackur. I’ve got to know Stephen a little since BBC management axed his BBC World Service show, HardTalk, a rigorous in-depth one-on-one interview format in which he’d hold presidents, prime ministers and the occasional dictator to account. It reached up to 180 million people around the world – in other words, exactly the sort of public interest journalism that the world needs right now. 

The BBC’s decision – and Sackur’s decision to speak out against it – triggered a period of reflection about the meaning and purpose of journalism in an increasingly anti-democratic world, and the result is Sackur’s new book, Hard Truth. In many ways, coming from the BBC’s chief inquisitor, it’s a surprising publication. There’s no ego on show. Instead, Sackur turns the spotlight on 10 journalists (eight of whom are women) and offers a snapshot of a backsliding world and the human efforts of a handful of individuals who are attempting – or attempted –  to hold the line. 

I’m biased, because I’m flattered and honoured to be in it (and so is my dog, Griff, described as a somewhat out-of-control collie cross; no relation) but it’s a quietly subversive book from an authoritative voice who understands at a deep level what is happening in the world. It’s a shame that BBC’s management team will never read it, but you can and should. 

And now over to the team for this week’s links. Please do consider upgrading if you are a free subscriber to help fund our journalism – and please pass this email on to anyone you think might be interested.

We’ll see you again on Friday, 

Carole

There’s a certain irony in the timing of this interview with Stephen Sackur – the journalist who presented the World Service’s HardTalk for two decades until it was axed in a round of cost-cutting in late 2024. Today, the corporation announced more drastic cuts – including BBC Scotland and 100 news jobs. Interviewing Sackur on stage at an event to mark the publication of his new book about investigative journalism, Nerve co-founder Carole Cadwalladr asked him if BBC-style “both sides” journalism still has a place. “The BBC in me wants to avoid that question!” said Sackur. “[But] it's not binary. It depends what kind of journalism you're trying to do. I'm talking [in my book] about power-challenging investigative journalism because that's the most important kind of journalism to me. The BBC is never going to be at the forefront of that in the future. The BBC lacks moral courage.” Read the interview here – and you can buy Stephen’s book at a discount from the Nerve bookshop here.

The US withdrawal of intelligence from Ukraine, restrictions on Kyiv’s Starlink use and Trump’s abandonment of Russian fuel sanctions feel like major turning points not only in the conflict but also Europe’s relationship with the US. What’s at play here? It is just tyrants – Trump, Putin and Xi – doing tyrant things? Or Trump making good on his long-held distrust of European liberal democracies? Are they stoking the rioters in Europe’s cities? Former diplomat Arthur Snell asks whether European leaders will be brave enough to stand up to the authoritarians.

In 1949, the writer Thomas Mann returned to West Germany from the US to receive a literary prize … then crossed the border to receive the same prize from the East German government as well. Oscar-winner Paweł Pawlikowski’s cool, reflective new film, starting Hanns Zisschler and Sandra Hüller, looks back on this remarkable episode, and that’s just one of a host of highlights this week. Onstage, Kristin Scott Thomas stars in The Cherry Orchard and Gayle Rankin takes the lead in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Elsewhere, hilarious gen Z sitcom It Gets Worse debuts on Channel 4, an “intensely gothic” double bill by the Welsh National Opera goes on tour, and much more. Check out our culture tips here.