QUESTION Time called out for “dangerous” lack of balance on panel – Zack Polanski says BBC allowed billionaire to buy “entire episode”. Carole Cadwalladr said panel “equivalent of pitting Nigel Farage against Rupert Lowe with a bit of Tommy Robinson thrown in”. www.thenational.scot/news/2614585...

“This is censorship...This is a demonstration that some of the worst abuses in our time are not confined to kings, emperors, governments … but to a class of companies that have assumed the sovereign affect, and seek to assert their power the same way that some of those despotic nation states do.”

Shocking, absolutely shocking. Meta should be treated with the same opprobrium as Twitter; it's the same vile poison...

Mark Zuckerberg is such a pussy

Today I ‘interviewed’ Facebook whistleblower on stage at Hay…& she couldn’t say a word. Facebook took legal action to prevent her speaking. What pathetic, pointless vindictiveness. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Last week, @thenerve.news published #TheHarborneReceipts, a forensic examination in cryptobillionaire Christopher Harborne’s donations…& how closely they tracked Farage & Johnson’s pro-crypto policy statements. Yesterday, the FT published an editorial making this exact point about Reform. 1/

BBC Question Time now doing exact same with AI they did with Farage? This ‘expert’ panel on AI is a disgrace: not one critical voice. Gilbert works for Tony Blair to promote AI. Jones is govt chief AI booster (& Blair flunky). Riparbelli is industry. Gawdat is ex industry. And a Tory MP

Tony Blair’s essay VS the Pope’s encyclical Blair essay: number 1 bit of advice, do not regulate AI (in which I have £millions invested) Pope essay: we need the most rigorous constraints on AI 1/

'Engineering Human Souls': How Russia’s Disinformation Machine Has Evolved Leaked documents show the Kremlin’s influence machine now combines paid influencers, fake citizens and “cognitive strikes” to inflame tensions and shape European politics open.substack.com/pub/pdjukes/...

We’re not in the habit of posting these, but if you sign up to @thenerve.news, you’ll get 2 finely curated newsletters with our mix of culture, politics & tech every Tues & Fri. Here’s a taster from today… www.thenerve.news/p/tuesday-ed...

‘My phone was hacked by the Kremlin who exposed the £5m bung no-one is supposed to know about’ is certainly an interesting new angle.. I wonder if the journalist involved has broken any other major scandals? 🤔 Oh!

Here’s just one detail from @thenerve.news #HarborneReceipts timeline. On the *exact same day* Christopher Harborne gives Reform £3m, Nigel Farage says Reform will lift cap on stablecoin ownership. Where does Christopher Harborne’s money come from, you ask? Stablecoins!

Fantastic to see @thenerve.news’s investigation trending on UK Twitter. The crypto millions fuelling Britain’s far-right turn (the exact same playbook as Trump) requires much, much more scrutiny.

NEW The Harborne Receipts: Follow the Money Billionaire Christopher Harborne gave millions to Nigel Farage & Boris Johnson & their parties. Then the pro-crypto announcements began. We mapped a timeline of Harborne's £30m political donations and crypto-friendly announcements by Farage & Johnson 1/

NEW: The Crypto Connection. @thenerve.news brings you…Part 1 of The Harbourne Receipts. A forensic examination of the cryptobillionaire’s donations & Farage’s crypto announcements. And guess what? There’s a pattern. Starting with the now infamous £5m gift. www.thenerve.news/p/investigat... 1/

Carole Cadwalladr on why appointing Matt Brittin as director general could be a huge mistake for the BBC

We’ve been doggedly reporting on Palantir’s contracts with UK state…& this latest one with Met police is both creepy & opaque. Met has used Palantir to spy on its own officers. If it can do this to its own employees…what about the rest of us? By @mc00.bsky.social & @luciaoc.bsky.social

‘She really did suffer a lot to get her story out there. And so to have people embrace it would be amazing to her’: Virginia Giuffre’s ghostwriter Amy Wallace talks to @luciaoc.bsky.social

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 A Nerve explainer by @tuckerian.bsky.social www.thenerve.news/p/polymarket...

Few things buttress my faith in humanity like this loathing. The fact that the AI overlords have so miscalculated what we would think and whether it would matter is fun too. A bit like the Trump Administration's miscalculation of how Minneapolis would respond to invasion by a thug army.

Revealing report on Polymarket by Ian Tucker @tuckerian.bsky.social for @thenerve.news: An analysis found that 70% of Polymarket traders have recorded losses, while 0.04% have captured 70% of profits Once odds are treated as information, they can shape the outcomes they claim merely to forecast

NEW Fears over the spread of Palantir’s influence after ‘Big Brother’ Met police project extended The staff surveillance pilot was due to expire in April, but the Nerve has established that it was in fact extended to today, May 15. There is no indication what happens next… Link ⤵️

Well this was fun. Did the BBC’s ‘Strong Message Here’ with Stewart Lee & Armando Ianucci & got to slag off incoming BBC Director General/tech bro, Matt Brittin 😂 Oh & snuck in an Andrew Neil drive-by too just for the hell of it 🎯 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

NEW: I’ve written a call to arms. Journalists are being murdered in unprecedented numbers by a Western ally that operates with total impunity. Enough. Publishers & editors have failed us. But if we can’t speak up about this, what is journalism even for? open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

. @carolecadwalla.bsky.social with another must read. “…press freedom is a proxy for everything else that is happening right now. It’s at the centre of a Gordian knot of democratic decline and authoritarian takeover…” open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

🚨 I'm joining @thenerve.news! Pretty surreal to be mentioned alongside as such a talented lineup 🙈 Thanks are in order to @carolecadwalla.bsky.social for supporting me always –can't wait to learn more from you and The Nerve's other legendary all women co-founders! pressgazette.co.uk/the-wire/med...

Some good news! A small ray of light in dark times…only possible because of the generosity of our supporters & members. A huge vote of thanks! 🙏 We’re thrilled that we’ve been able to attract such absolutely stellar talent.

The Nerve @thenerve.news, launched six months ago by five ex-Observer journalists including @carolecadwalla.bsky.social, is expanding its team to include Investigative journalists @mccoolingtons.bsky.social & @luciaoc.bsky.social Plus columnists @sangitamyska.bsky.social & @doctorow.pluralistic.net

Tomorrow night: Guilty Feminist & @thenerve.news collab…an Epstein/tech bro special. Last tix here! www.leicestersquaretheatre.com/show/guilty-...

A culture of divination has grown all around us - from machine learning, to prediction markets, and forecasting of all kinds, not to mention psychics and astrology. But have you ever wondered what, exactly, is in a prediction? TED talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS4w... #PROPHECY #authors

The UK govt is Palantir’s 2nd biggest customer. Why? Or, more to the point, how? Our latest @thenerve_news investigation reveals a web of cronyism into the highest levels of govt. But Palantir also has a spin machine that uses political journalists to launder its PR 1/

NEW: Palantir’s revolving door. A new investigation by @thenerve.news has found Palantir has recruited more than 30 senior officials from UK govt, a strategy transparency experts say poses an ‘acute risk’ of corruption. 1/ Link ⬇️

TEASER! A new @thenerve.news has dropped into your favourite NHS contractor that’s also involved in blowing up schools in Iran. Any guesses which?

Tortoise Media has celebrated the one year takeover of the Observer by axing two photographers. They’d been with the paper for more than half a century. No notice, no warning, no pay off.

This a great opportunity to make impact for a talented big tech campaigner. If you know someone it could fit, please share. Thanks! 👇

If you're looking for a calming read, Snyder is THE expert on dictatorships and he says that none of the ways Trump would try to cancel or annul an election should work. He runs down five motivations for coups, and Trump probably can't pull any of them off.

You need to read this. @timothysnyder.bsky.social has been warning us since 2016 about Trump. He knows: he’s one of world’s leading experts on authoritarianism & always ahead of the game. V proud to publish him in @thenerve.news. He’s an essential voice. www.thenerve.news/p/donald-tru...

Could MattGPT face scrutiny under the UK’s ‘proceeds of crime’ law? The British right is awash with money from Orban thinktanks…which Hungary’s new PM says was stolen. Brilliant deep dive into Orban’s vast UK network by @McCoolingtons for @thenerve_news. 👏

Chatbots are devastating lives, right now, fuelling a new era of gender-based violence How much more evidence is needed before this is taken seriously? Our full article in collaboration with @everyonesinvited.bsky.social ⬇️

Oh, FGS - @politico.com is taking sponsorship money from Palantir - running their ads through news updates. That's absolutely the *last* thing we need in our politics, Palantir going straight for the political-media environment at a time when we need massive scrutiny of their contracts in the UK.

"The world witnessed what happened in Gaza. It’s happening again now. It’s planned, systematic and is happening in plain sight, while a US president threatens civilisational erasure and what’s left of the international order collapses. It’s Gaza that’s made this possible. ⬇️

I’ve known Lebanon for three decades. What’s happening now is an invasion. This is Gaza 2.0 – and the world is barely paying attention. @CaroleCadwalladr for the Nerve Link 🔽

"Israel’s greatest victory to date may be the reality distortion that it’s managed to create around its war on Lebanon, even as it’s killed 1,500 people and laid claim to its land."

Genuine tragedy: @carolecadwalla.bsky.social on the monstrous Israeli war on beautiful Lebanon www.thenerve.news/p/lebanon-wa...

NEW: Lebanon is Gaza 2.0. That’s what Israeli ministers are saying in their own words. Believe them. 1/ www.thenerve.news/p/lebanon-wa...

I'd really like to see leadership calling for impeachment and removal, regardless of whether they have the votes to get it done. Same way we called for marriage equality before we had the votes. A leader's job is to lead. If a genocidal threat isn't impeachable, then nothing is.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... “Its application to residents of the occupied Palestinian territory would constitute a war crime,” said the UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk.

NEW: It’s a journocide. Israel admits to targeting & killing three more journalists & making up false evidence. Journalists in the west have a moral responsibility to speak up. The blowback from this impunity is coming next for us all. 1/ open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

Important read by the great @carolecadwalla.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

Meanwhile from today’s Telegraph…