Evening all, 

It’s Carole here. First the good news. We have a piece by the peerless Tim Snyder, the author of the brilliant On Tyranny and the Road to Unfreedom and professor of history who, since 2016, has been one of the most important and persistent voices warning us of the dangers of authoritarianism. 

The bad news is that he’s warning us again. We headlined the piece, The Five Ways Trump Could Attempt A Coup and it does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s not a calming read but it is an essential one. 

I’ve mentioned that piece first so that I can then pivot to the fact that change is possible. Nothing is inevitable. That’s the fantastically uplifting news from Hungary this week and the theme of our latest article from Hungarian novelist, Krisztián Marton.

Two weeks ago, he wrote for us about his nervous anticipation of the country’s big election. Marton a gay person of colour, a toxic mix in Orbán’s Hungary where minorities have been scapegoated and the LGBTQ community attacked. (It was illegal for bookshops to even sell Marton’s work within 200m of a school or church.)

Today, we’re delighted to bring you his thrilling first-hand account of election day and the “joy of a lesson almost like a fairytale: that change really is possible”. 

It’s a lesson for us too. Not least because Orbán’s money and politics - and those of his friend and benefactor, Vladimir Putin - flow through Britain too. Investigative journalist Alice McCool of the Good Law Project has been digging into these links for months and today she’s laid it out for Nerve readers: from MattGPT to Toby Young to Michael Gove, it’s a web of financial interests and influence that’s been desperately undercovered in the mainstream media. 

Yesterday, Hungary’s new PM said these payments were criminal. Could this mean the beneficiaries of these have received money that is the proceeds of crime? Will it now dry up? What happens next? Read Alice’s piece to find out.

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Two weeks ago, in an article for the Nerve, the Hungarian novelist Krisztián Marton shared his anxieties about his country’s upcoming election. As a young gay man he had lived for 16 years under an increasingly authoritarian regime with its restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights. Krisztián returns today with an account of the election night that changed everything and how within hours of Victor Orbán accepting defeat, the new prime minister Péter Magyar was promising to unite a divided nation. “And then he said something that took everyone by surprise, that everyone can love who they want and build the family they want.” Read Krisztián’s article here.  

Viktor Orbán’s ousting from power has thrown a spotlight on Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), a private Budapest college which serves as a propaganda outfit promoting rightwing ideologies via funding for universities and groups across Europe and in the US. One of those thinktanks is the UK’s Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation, which since 2023 has received 90% of its funding from MCC and which has hosted events by a veritable cast of rightwing figures including Niall Ferguson, David Starkey, Jordan Peterson and far-right blogger Curtis Yarvin. With new Hungarian prime minister Péter Magyar launching an investigation into MCC and saying he believes it was a criminal offence for Orbán to have used state money to fund it, where does this leave the rightwing influence network? Read Alice McCool’s explainer here.

“The United States is seven months away from the most consequential midterm elections in its history. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump, together with Israel, has started a war against Iran. These are the ideal conditions for a head of state to seize power in a coup” writes the historian and expert on facism Timothy Snyder before going on to detail five different terrifying scenarios. Read his piece here and understand the need for Americans to be “forceful and vigilant”.

The hit nerve-jangling Netflix series Beef returns on Thursday with the road-raging adversaries of series one replaced by Carey Mulligan and Oscar Isaac as a couple sparring with a younger pair of lovebirds played by Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny. It's "eight episodes of superb acting, emotional fireworks and unnameable dread" says writer Julia Raeside. Or, if you fancy delving into some of the greats of 20th century art, our team can recommend a small but striking Leonora Carrington show and a new biography of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek. Plus there's music, theatre and more besides. Read the latest hotlist here.

That’s it for today! Please do forward this newsletter to anyone you think might like it. We’ll see you again on Friday.

Carole, co-founder