Politics

Bribes, betrayal ... and Reform’s Nathan Gill: inside Russia’s operation to drive a wedge between Ukraine and Europe

In an exclusive extract from his new book, acclaimed foreign correspondent Luke Harding joins the dots of a continent-wide Kremlin influence network disrupted by the jailing of a former senior official in Nigel Farage’s party

Reform UK

From ‘human printer’ to headline-maker: meet Trump’s devoted aide Natalie Harp

The 35-year-old runs behind the president’s golf cart in case he needs hard copies of things to read, and credits him with curing her cancer. Now that’s what you call an assistant, writes Hannah Jane Parkinson

Politics

Farage, George Cottrell and Putin’s friend Abramovich

Source reveals convicted money launderer and Reform leader’s close ally worked as a young man for the now-sanctioned oligarch after becoming friends with his son. Report by Carole Cadwalladr

Reform UK

‘We go where the silence is’: Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! on Trump, violence and the power of bearing witness

The pioneering independent reporter, now the subject of a documentary, talks to Carole Cadwalladr about surviving a massacre and the current threats to the media

Tech

Deborah Frances-White: Andrew Tate’s too toxic to touch now. But look at the damage he’s done

Languishing in prison, the manosphere’s favourite misogynist has been abandoned even by Trump. But thanks to him, male discourse around women, consent and empathy has been well and truly poisoned, writes the Guilty Feminist

Deborah Frances-White

Adele Walton: The Online Safety Act is supposed to make Britain’s internet a safe space – yet it can’t touch the site linked to my sister’s death

Ofcom says it has used all its powers and can do no more against a pro-suicide forum. For bereaved families like mine, only a public inquiry can explain why

News

Liz Truss, dark money and the gen-Z Catholics: who’s behind CPAC in the UK?

The British debut of Maga’s favourite conference last week was widely seen as a joke. But a Nerve investigation reveals its young organisers are part of a web of culture-war connections – from the US Christian right to Viktor Orbán's influence network. Alice McCool reports

Investigations

Sangita Myska: Hats off to Farage for an incredible achievement: he’s turned the rightwing press against him

The increasingly absurd spectacle of the Clacton byelection is starting to drag down Reform’s polling numbers – and Britain’s media barons don’t like a loser, writes our political commentator

Sangita Myska

‘At the heart of change is always protest’: Misan Harriman on Gaza, George Floyd and the spirit of activism

At a special Nerve screening of a new documentary about his work, the acclaimed photographer and campaigner sat down with Carole Cadwalladr and director Andy Mundy-Castle for an in-depth discussion of race, culture, cancellation and more

Culture

He was looking for a job, now he’s found a job: Burnham, Manchester and the power of the Smiths

The band inspired the UK's new PM as a teenager. Now his generation has reached middle age, he is using their lyrics to explain policy – and perhaps even speak to a new electoral coalition with adherents from left and right, writes Jude Rogers

Music

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

The Harborne Receipts

‘It’s like this was made up by a schoolkid’: Reform’s vanishing crypto bill

Nigel Farage launched it in Las Vegas and promised to make it law. Now, as his links to cryptobillionaire Christopher Harborne are under scrutiny, Reform’s flagship policy has disappeared. When you understand who would benefit from its proposals – and from other policies Farage has lobbied for since – this is perhaps no surprise. By Ian Tucker

The Harborne Receipts

Philippa Perry: Prime ministers change, but the problems stay the same. Here's my advice for Andy Burnham

In families, as in politics, blame for dysfunction is often pinned on one individual. But the issue is usually a shared inability to process conflict, writes the Nerve’s cultural agony aunt

Philippa Perry

‘There are no normal people here’: the youth verdict on the rightwing Davos

This week’s ARC conference in London, an event bankrolled by the old and very rich, insists it is fighting for the young. They aren’t convinced, writes Stella Tsantekidou

Politics

Sergei Cristo: From interference in Brexit to arson attacks on Starmer – then as now, Russia is playing with us

The names linked to the men jailed for attacks on Keir Starmer’s properties are disturbingly familiar to those of us who warned against Putin’s efforts to disrupt Britain 10 years ago, writes whistleblower Sergei Cristo

Politics

'Billionaires aren’t going to save you’: Amazon union trailblazer Chris Smalls on fighting back against the gig economy

The labour activist who took on Jeff Bezos in 2022 – and challenged him again at the Met Gala this year – talks to Lucia Osborne-Crowley about courage, community, class and why he's telling his remarkable story in a new memoir

Culture

Deborah Frances-White: The far right find any excuse for rioting and racist violence. Imagine if women took vigilante justice on their male abusers

The men who rush on to the streets to persecute immigrants in Belfast and beyond would be horrified by any act of feminist disorder, writes Deborah Frances-White

Deborah Frances-White

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

Reform UK

Natasha Walter: if a far-right government was treating protesters like Labour is, there would be outrage

Activists have been detained for months without trial and declared terrorists. On Friday, four will be sentenced under egregious circumstances. We should be more alarmed that Palestine and climate campaigners are being treated like this in a social democracy, writes the author and columnist

Politics

Timothy Snyder: We are watching the US attempt a superpower suicide

From the abandonment of its alliances to the dismantling of its education system, Trump’s administration is tearing down the institutions that really made America great, writes the historian

Politics

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

The Harborne Receipts

‘They can shape the outcomes they claim to forecast’ – could Polymarket influence an election?

A platform backed by Peter Thiel and advised by Donald Trump Jr. is taking anonymous crypto bets on UK elections, missile strikes and the death of world leaders. In Britain no regulator will touch it, writes Ian Tucker in this in-depth guide to so-called "prediction markets"

Tech

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

News

Sangita Myska: Starmer can’t go on – but he can’t leave yet either

The PM’s position is untenable, and his time in office has been a string of unforced errors, but Labour is even more badly served by the current chaotic infighting. The only way forward is an orderly transition to a candidate that both wings of the divided party can respect

Sangita Myska

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

Investigations