Politics

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

Pete Hegseth's Crusader tattoos aren’t just symbols – they're a battleplan

The US secretary of war has ‘God wills it’ inked on his right arm and a Jerusalem cross on his chest. Now he is directing hostilities against a Muslim country, writes Kat Tenbarge

Politics

Palantir's social media manifesto is a blueprint for technofascism

The surveillance firm’s viral X post calls for hard power, conscription and the end of pluralism. AI expert and academic Mark Coeckelbergh on what happens when technology becomes the gateway to authoritarianism

Palantir

Iran is winning the propaganda war against Trump – brick by brick

Tehran’s viral videos satirising a Lego-style president have harnessed the power of AI – and Maga’s debasing of political discourse – and turned it against the US, writes disinformation expert Nina Jankowicz

Tech

With Orbán gone, has the British far right lost its magic money tree?

Hungary’s new PM has described his predecessor’s funding of propaganda bodies as criminal and vowed to investigate. This could be bad news for ultraconservatives in the UK – and around the rest of the world, writes Alice McCool

Politics

The five ways Trump could attempt a coup, by fascism expert Timothy Snyder

Despite the debacle in Iran, a president at war has several pressure points at his disposal to postpone, restrict and ultimately cancel democracy, writes the historian

Politics

John Simpson: Today, governments can get away with anything. Israel is getting away with journacide

There used to be some sense that killing a reporter would mean serious consequences. Now that understanding has vanished, writes the BBC’s world affairs editor

Politics

Israel is waging war on Lebanon. Why is the world calling it a "ground operation"?

I’ve known Lebanon for three decades. What’s happening there now is an invasion. This is Gaza 2.0 – and the world is barely paying attention. By Carole Cadwalladr

Politics

Nigel Farage wants to build a British ICE. Keir Starmer may have handed him the tools

Reform’s proposed "Deportation Command” would integrate NHS, police and financial data into a single surveillance database. Meanwhile, Palantir has signalled it won’t stand in their way, and campaigners say Labour’s new data law opens the door. By Rei Takver

Reform UK

Election day is coming for Orbán and Hungary – and this time we dare to dream he may be toppled

The prime minister has swept all before him for 16 years. But now his authoritarian facade is crumbling – and a challenger is offering a hope we had all but abandoned, writes novelist Krisztián Marton

Politics

Fake quotes, factual errors and ChatGPT links – my bizarre journey into Matt Goodwin’s new book

The Reform UK candidate’s polemic Suicide of a Nation claims to expose a toxic elite leading Britain to annihilation, but my close reading revealed a mix of phantom sources and falsehoods. Then MattGPT answered back... By Andy Twelves

Reform UK