The national football associations did not wait long after the curtain fell on the 2026 World Cup before rushing to launch a new era of technical change by signing managers ahead of the start of the 2030 World Cup qualifiers.

These recent developments reflect a striking shift in international football as the competition amongst top managers moves from European club pitches to the national team dugouts. Big names such as Zinedine Zidane and Jürgen Klopp are taking the helm, whilst other national teams are still racing against the clock to finalise their managerial appointments.

Ex-football player becomes new coach

The French national team has drawn the curtain on one of its most successful eras, following the end of Didier Deschamps’ 14-year tenure. Now, Les Bleus will embark on a new era under the leadership of Zinedine Zidane.

Zidane is embarking on his first coaching role with a national team following years of success with Real Madrid, whom he led to three consecutive Champions League titles — an unprecedented achievement in the modern era.

France is hoping that its former star will replicate his success as a manager, just as he did as a player when he led France to victory in the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship.

Klopp leads Germany’s project

For its part, the German Football Association has turned over a new leaf by appointing Jürgen Klopp as head coach of the national team. He succeeds Julian Nagelsmann, who stepped down following the team’s failure at the 2026 World Cup.

Klopp has a track record packed with achievements, having restored Liverpool to the pinnacle of European football and led them to victory in the Champions League and the Premier League. He also engaged in a fierce tactical battle with Pep Guardiola for many years.

Germany is counting on his experience and leadership to restore the ‘Mannschaft’ to contention for major titles.

Italy on the hunt for a manager of Guardiola’s calibre

Meanwhile, the Italian Football Federation continues its efforts to appoint a manager capable of bringing the ‘Azzurri’ back to the forefront, whilst attempts to persuade Pep Guardiola to take on his first role with a national team are ongoing.

Although Guardiola remains the first choice, the task appears complex, prompting the Italian Football Federation to consider alternative candidates. Meanwhile, Carlo Ancelotti continues his work with the Brazilian national team and remains one of the most prominent managers on the international stage.

Before deciding to continue negotiations with Guardiola, the Italian Football Federation considered the option of appointing Andrea Pirlo, given his significant standing in the history of Italian football.

However, the idea did not progress to an agreement, after the Federation’s management concluded that the coming period required a manager with a more impressive track record of achievements and international experience. Therefore, Perlo was out of the running to lead the national team, whilst efforts continued to persuade Guardiola or to approach other candidates with extensive experience.

A new battle away from club football

These changes confirm that competition amongst top managers will not be confined to European club competitions, as has been the case in recent years, but will extend to international tournaments with Euro 2028 and the 2030 World Cup fast approaching.

With names such as Zidane and Klopp in the mix, and the possibility of Guardiola joining a national team in the future, international football appears to be heading into an extraordinary era. It is an era that may see tactical clashes between the leading managerial minds who have made their mark in the Champions League – but this time under the banners of their national teams.

Featured image via Andrew Powell/ Liverpool FC/ Getty Images 

By Alaa Shamali

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Apologies for the slightly shonky quality of this video, readers, which is due to the fact that ITV are such monumental self-sabotaging clowns that it’s not possible to screencap any sort of digital broadcast of theirs – screw YOU, viral content! – so we had to do this by videoing our iPad with our iPhone.

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Ouch. And speaking of monumental self-sabotaging clowns, Scottish Labour.

After the hilarious desertion of Anas Sarwar to the House Of Lords last week, just two months after he pinky-swore he’d never ever ever ever do such a thing:

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…the Labour Party is once again searching for a heid bummer for what we’d ordinarily call its North British branch office, if not for the fact that its new leader, the new Prime Minister, has just determined that the “north” is in fact located several hundred miles to the south of said office. Far-North British, perhaps.

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The Scottish press, short of much else to write about in the summer silly season, tried to stir itself to whip up some interest in the Sunday papers about who’d get the job – which looks increasingly like a runoff between Michael Marra and Monica Lennon – but you could tell their hearts weren’t in it.

The Sunday Mail ran a leader seeming to back Lennon as a “new direction”, but couldn’t rustle up a sentence to describe anything actually new that she’d represent.

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Over at Scotland On Sunday, Euan McColm claimed Marra could “resurrect” the party, but once again any sort of detail on how that might be achieved was conspicuous by its absence, other than the abstract idea that he could somehow “quietly and effectively help Burnham deliver for Scotland”, in an unexpected and uncharacteristic outbreak of sunny Pollyanna optimism for the normally bad-tempered scribe.

Marra at least has a sliver of integrity, having ducked out of backing the Gender Recognition Reform Act, unlike his colleagues. But the truth, readers, is that nobody can save Scottish Labour. It’s a victim both of unlucky circumstances and its own utter bumbling haplessness. Remarkably, 20 years after the SNP’s first ever election victory the party is still in shock, unwilling and unable to accept there’s been a shift in the political landscape and still imagining that voters will realise the error of their ways and “come home to Labour”, begging forgiveness.

But there’s nothing to come home TO. We spent the whole election campaign asking Labour figures to name a single policy their party differed from the SNP on (save for the moribund issue of the constitution), and never got anything even approaching an answer, because there isn’t one.

Voters tired of the SNP have no interest in voting for the SNP but in red ties. Anyone seeking “change” is far more likely to look for it on the fringes of either the left (Greens) or the right (Reform). Switching to them is like moving house, whereas going SNP-to-Labour is like painting your front door a slightly different shade of the same colour.

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Sarwar tried U-turning on gender after the horse had bolted, and he tried going out on a limb by knifing Keir Starmer, but none of it did him any good because the simple fact is that voters have stopped listening to Scottish Labour at all.

The episode of Tipping Point at the top of this article is from the spring of 2019 (though we saw it on a repeat on ITV Quiz yesterday). Ramsay Lundstrom had already been in charge of the Scottish branch office for a year and a half at that point, but neither contestant could even bring his party to mind, let alone him personally.

Scottish Labour has gone backwards in TWO successive Holyrood elections since then, its vote share dropping from 21% to 17%. The SNP’s support has fallen further – from 44% to 33% – in the same six-year period, yet Labour are no closer to power, or even to meaningful opposition. In the all-important list vote they actually came second to Reform, and beat the Greens by just two points. It’s wholly plausible that both parties (whose trajectories are pointing upwards) will overtake Labour at the next election, leaving them in FOURTH place.

Because the thing is, corpses can’t actually be revived. Anas Sarwar’s seemingly-uneventful reign as the regional branch manager was actually a fatal catastrophe, the nailing shut of the doors of the last-chance saloon.

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With the SNP in unprecedented, shambolic disarray he completely failed to capitalise on the situation, missing every gaping open goal to put ideological distance between himself and the stumbling party of Sturgeon, Yousaf and Swinney, arrogantly expecting to become First Minister by default without doing anything to earn it, just as Labour had in the 2024 UK election when the Tories finally exhausted voters’ patience.

Scottish Labour have been anonymous and directionless and visionless for so long now that Michael McIntyre and Monica Bellucci couldn’t inject some energy and sex appeal into them, let alone their own Michael and Monica.

Who the party chooses for its next sub-leader is a matter of total indifference to the population of Scotland. They will have precisely no impact on anyone’s lives, and will be lucky to make it as far as the next Holyrood election at all, far less have any chance of winning it.

They don’t even get any extra pay for it (just an allowance for costs), and at the end of it no-one will remember their name. We only bothered talking about it so we’d have an excuse to print a picture of Monica Bellucci. We don’t actually care, and the voters of Scotland care less than we do.

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An early exit was not the only disappointment for footballers at the 2026 World Cup.

Whilst some stole the limelight with goals and trophies, a number of the game’s biggest stars experienced a tournament of a different kind: being included in their national teams’ squads, yet completely absent from the pitch.

Six weeks of waiting ended without a single minute played, reducing their participation in football’s biggest event to nothing more than a name on the team sheet.

The largest World Cup in history saw 1,248 players take part, but a small number of them returned home without their manager giving them a single opportunity, whether due to injury, fierce competition or tactical decisions that remained unchanged right up until the final whistle.

World Cup players who never played

N’Golo Kante: The world champion who became a spectator

France’s N’Golo Kanté tops the list of the most notable absentees from the pitch. The man who was one of the pillars of France’s 2018 World Cup triumph found himself left out of manager Didier Deschamps’ plans for the entire tournament this time round. Neither his track record or experience were enough to secure him a place, not even in the third place play-off, leaving him to watch from the substitutes’ bench.

Kobbie Mainoo: Disappointment for the Manchester United midfielder

No one expected Kobbie Mainoo, who started in the 2024 European Cup final, to become the only outfield player in the England squad not to feature for a single minute at the World Cup. An injury compounded his misery by also ruling him out of the third place play-off, meaning his World Cup campaign ended without him making an impact.

Spain: So many champions who didn’t play

Although Spain was crowned world champions, some of their players experienced the tournament with a different sense of bitterness.

Young striker Víctor Muñoz, 23, missed out on his World Cup debut after an injury ruled him out of the starting line-up. By the time he had recovered, he could not find a place in Luis de la Fuente’s squad, which continued its steady march towards the trophy.

As for goalkeeper David Raya, one of the Premier League’s finest, he was overshadowed by the brilliance of Unai Simón, who retained his place in the starting line-up right until the end.

Meanwhile, full-back Alejandro Grimaldo paid the price for Marc Cucurella’s outstanding performances, leaving both players as world champions without having featured in a single match.

England, Brazil and Uruguay next

In the England squad, goalkeeper James Trafford remained the third choice keeper throughout the tournament and did not get his chance even when manager Thomas Tuchel made substitutions in the third place play-off.

In Brazil, Gleison Bremer came up against the solid partnership of Marquinhos and Gabriel at the heart of defence. Uruguay captain Ronald Araújo’s dream ended before it began as injury ruled him out before his side was knocked out in the group stage.

As for the Portuguese player Gonçalo Inácio, he failed to break down the defensive partnership between Rúben Dias and Renato Vega.

Dutchman Mats Wieffer remained on the sidelines despite Jurrien Timmer’s injury as the coaching staff continued to rely on Denzel Dumfries at right-back.

The other side of the World Cup

These stories reveal that the World Cup is not defined solely by those who lift the trophy or score goals, but also by those who wait for an opportunity that never comes. For these players, the World Cup dream ended without a single touch of the ball or a moment on the pitch.

They left the tournament with medals and memories but without their names being immortalised in minutes of playing time, which is one of the harshest realities of football that rarely makes the headlines.

Featured image via ESPN

By Alaa Shamali

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Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is facing backlash from within his own party after using controversial rhetoric to describe the stakes of his victory in a recent donor meeting.

“You put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message, and all of a sudden starts to sound a lot different,” El-Sayed said, describing how his win could propel the progressive movement, according to audio of a Zoom meeting obtained by POLITICO.

On Monday, several Democrats were quick to slam his comments, which they took as direct reference to his Senate primary opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens. El-Sayed had not explicitly mentioned Stevens in the portion of the call POLITICO reviewed.

“Calling your female opponent an ogre you want to put on a pike is not beating the rap that this race has some serious sexism,” Neera Tanden, a centrist Democrat and president of the Center for American Progress, posted on X. Melissa Byrne, a former staffer for Sen. Bernie Sanders, called the remark an “unforced error” that is “really bad and beneath the progressive project.”

El-Sayed’s leaked comments and the reaction to them amount to another flashpoint in a tense primary that is dividing the progressive and moderate wings of the party, and at times has been defined by accusations of racism and sexism.

“Abdul continues with personal insults and making this race about his personal political ambitions and the other 49 states,” said Arik Wolk, spokesperson for the Stevens campaign. “Haley is focused on getting things done for Michigan, and only Michigan.”

Republicans also immediately jumped on the comment, and some leaned into stereotypes of El-Sayed’s religion as a Muslim. “Michigan Islamist discusses beheading his opponents,” said Steve Guest, a former staffer for Sen. Ted Cruz, on X. 

An El-Sayed campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the backlash. A spokesperson had previously told POLITICO that the candidate was “speaking metaphorically” about his intention to support a primary against Sen. John Fetterman in Pennsylvania.

This is not the first time El-Sayed has used — and defended — aggressive political rhetoric. “When they go low, we don’t go high,” the progressive said while speaking at a campaign rally earlier this year, riffing on a famous line from former first lady Michelle Obama. “We take them to the mud and choke them out.”

He and Stevens will face off in their final Democratic Senate debate Monday night, and the results of the Aug. 4 primary could have major consequences for the party as it grapples with its ideological tack ahead of the 2028 presidential election.

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Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has vowed to retaliate against Ukraine for its attack on a commercial Iranian ship in the Caspian sea.

Araghchi said that the attack, which blew up the ship and killed at least one crew member, violates the UN Charter and “cannot go unanswered”.

In a call with the EU’s pro-Israel foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Araghchi also said that Israel was behind the attack to try to “drag Europe into its war”.

Ukraine claimed it had attacked a Russian warship.

MP Ebrahim Azizi, who heads the Iranian parliament’s national security body, said:

Any attack on Iran always comes with a cost, and that remains true today; the US and Israel are well aware of this. Ukraine, too, may soon come to understand that Iran does not let actions go unanswered.

A post by the non-governmental Iran Observer X account showed a graphic that it said demonstrated the ability of Iranian missiles to reach Ukraine in retaliation.

BREAKING: Iran’s Foriegn Minister has announced that Zelensky’s Drone Strike on an Iranian Vessel in the Caspian Sea will receive a Response from Iran

Russia and the European Union have been Notified pic.twitter.com/TvIvFAs80G

— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) July 26, 2026

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Iran has summoned Ukrainian officials in Tehran over the “hostile and criminal act”. Araghchi thanked local authorities in Russia’s Astrakhan region for helping surviving crew members.

Featured image via Baird Maritime

By Skwawkbox

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Animal welfare campaigners took to the streets of central London on Saturday 25 July. They were calling on the government to ban the “inherently dangerous” sport of greyhound racing in England.

Campaigners organised The Century of Suffering: March to End Dog Racing Now to highlight the scale of pain and suffering greyhounds have faced at the hands of the greyhound racing industry since the first race took place 100 years ago.

It follows landmark moves by the Welsh and Scottish parliaments earlier this year to ban greyhound racing in both Wales and Scotland.

The government stipulates that governing body the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) releases death and injury figures every year. This year’s figures paint a bleak picture.

The number of greyhounds euthanised at British greyhound tracks rose to 161 deaths in 2025. This was an increase of 31% on the previous year, and the highest number since 2020.

The trackside death toll has now reached 1,518 since 2017 when figures were first published, and the same figures show a shocking 38,816 injuries suffered by racing greyhounds during that period.

New coalition takes on greyhound racing

A new coalition called Greyhound Freedom UK organised the event. Members include:

• Animal Aid.
• Gamban.
• Grey2K USA Worldwide.
• The League Against Cruel Sports.
• Shut Down Campaigns.

Green Party peer Natalie Bennett, who spoke at the rally, said:

Today we celebrate the progress in Wales and Scotland in banning greyhound racing and demand England catch up and bring in a greyhound racing ban here.

The focus is often on the dogs that are injured and killed but we must also not forget that they spend 95 per cent of their lives confined in kennels and suffering, which is unacceptable in terms of animal welfare.

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Will Morton, head of public affairs at the League Against Cruel Sports, said:

Greyhound racing is inherently dangerous and causes extensive pain and suffering to the dogs, so we need urgent action.

We call on the UK government to follow the progress made by other governments around the world and ban greyhound racing in England, and live up to its pledge to deliver the most ambitious animal welfare reforms in a generation.

Sean Gifford, chief executive at Animal Aid, said:

Today has been an important step towards ending greyhound racing in England. Very few nations worldwide still tolerate such a cruel practice and if action is not taken urgently, England risks being the last country on the planet in which dogs are raced, injured, and killed for sport.

Norb Gordon, the founder of Shut Down Campaigns, said:

Greyhounds, like the dogs many of us share our homes with, have their own personalities and desires, and deserve comfy sofas in loving homes.

Instead, they are confined to barren kennels that overheat in the summer and freeze in the winter, and are forced to race around dangerous tracks that claim far too many lives.

The march started outside the offices of the GBGB in central London before finishing at Parliament Square in Westminster.

The League Against Cruel Sports and GREY2K USA Worldwide issued a report in spring 2026. Titled Reaching the Finish Line: Time to end dog racing in the UK, it laid bare the inherently dangerous nature of greyhound racing around oval tracks.

The report also highlighted overbreeding, a poor quality of life for greyhounds kept in kennels for up to 95 per cent of the time, and the challenges in finding homes for the dogs once they retire.

Three greyhounds tragically died at residential kennels attached to Star Pelaw greyhound track during the recent heatwave.

New Zealand is phasing out greyhound racing this year and it’s now illegal in 42 states in the US.

The ban on greyhound racing in Wales could come into force as early as April 2027.

Featured image via League Against Cruel Sports / Alex Harman

By The Canary

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The nasty little freak Boy George has released a song defending Israel’s genocide:

#Shalom pic.twitter.com/0BfHIrThzO

— Boy George (@BoyGeorge) July 26, 2026

Much like Israel itself, Boy George has a history of committing false imprisonment.

Boy George presents war crime: the song

For clarity’s sake; we should add that the song is absolute dog sh*t. The track itself sounds like one of the demos that comes with a free music production app. It also sounds like the sort of thing a person might make their prisoner listen to as a method of torture (although we’re sure that’s just coincidental, and not something George is actually considering).

In the first verse, George sings:

You say genocide, I say war
When you’re attacked, that’s what the army’s for
Does it get ugly? You bet it does
When I know you wanna kill every last one of us

Much like the Israeli government, George is seemingly saying it’s okay to inflict unlimited collective punishment on the Palestinians, because apparently they want to ‘kill every last one of us’. George is neither an Israeli nor a Jewish person, so presumably by “every last one of us” he means ‘every last Zionist’ (we’re clarifying this because George does also sing that he ‘stands with the Jews’ – just not the many Jews who oppose the genocide, obviously).

George continues:

You never mention October 7.

The October 7 defence is often used by Zionists and their backers, but of course it doesn’t hold up. People aren’t condoning October 7; they’re saying that the events of October 7 don’t give Israel the right to carry out unlimited war crimes.

It’s really not an argument Israel should want to get into either. If past events justify future actions, you could say October 7 was justified by the apartheid conditions Israel subjected Palestinians to; or it was justified because of all the peaceful protesters Israel murdered; or it was justified by the Nakba – i.e. the event in which Jewish settlers ethnically cleansed the native Palestinians from what is now Israel. We’re not making that argument, obviously, but anyone asking ‘what about October 7?’ logically is.

Criminals stand together

In 2009, a judge famously convicted Boy George of false imprisonment. Here’s what the Guardian reported at the time:

Boy George was today sentenced to 15 months in jail for falsely imprisoning a male escort by handcuffing him to a wall and beating him with a metal chain.

The judge told the 47-year-old former Culture Club front man, whose real name is George O’Dowd, he had left the escort “shocked, degraded and traumatised” by the ordeal.

O’Dowd was found guilty last month of attacking the Norwegian model Audun Carlsen, 29, after he visited the singer’s flat in London in April 2007.

The sentencing judge said:

Whilst I accept that Mr Carlsen’s physical injuries were not serious or permanent, in my view there can be no doubt that your premeditated, callous and humiliating hand-cuffing and detention of Mr Carlsen shocked, degraded and traumatised.

There’s an obvious parallel between this and how Israel treats prisoners. Articles we’ve published on the topic include the following:

• Serious scabies outbreak in Israeli occupation prisons is part of the policy of torture and slow killing used against Palestinian political prisoners.
• 2025 saw unparalleled testimonies and atrocities from Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
• Palestinian prisoners — Israeli lawyer branded traitor for exposing torture.

As Alaa Shamali reported for the Canary:

In recent reports, B’Tselem confirmed that torture in these prisons is not an isolated occurrence, but rather an institutional policy involving the occupation’s intelligence services, the Shin Bet, and the prison administration, aimed at breaking the prisoners’ will and humiliating their human dignity.

B’Tselem documents cases of direct physical torture, including beatings with rifles, sticks and military boots, electric shocks, and prolonged ‘shackling’ for hours on end, which has led to recorded deaths without any official investigation. Reports also reveal a comprehensive system of psychological and sensory torture, including depriving prisoners of sleep, food and water, placing them in metal tents or isolated containers, threatening them with execution or assault on their families, and forcing them to listen to the screams of others being tortured.

F*ck off, Boy George

The fact that Boy George was able to return to public life after his conviction is astounding. The man is an absolute danger. And his continued support of Israel shows that he can’t truly have rehabilitated himself since leaving prison.

Featured image via the Canary

By Willem Moore

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In an odd encounter in Clacton, Nigel Farage has refused to describe Andrew Tate as a bad role model for children:

So @Nigel_Farage doesn’t care about the allegations against @Cobratate, if you’ve got a big following you can do want to in his world. pic.twitter.com/JG6LfQOEDY

— Reform UK Exposed (@reformexposed) July 26, 2026

It comes as Tate and his brother are facing a criminal investigation into crimes which include the possession Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM).

Farage: mealy mouthed

In the clip above, a journalist asks Farage if Tate is a good role model for boys. Farage answers:

He’s got a massive following and that shows you how big the gap is. Huge gap.

By ‘huge gap’, Farage presumably means the gap between the online support Tate enjoys and the negative attention he receives. We can’t confirm this; it’s just unclear what else he could have meant.

Farage also said:

You know, he’s, I mean, clearly facing some very serious allegations and said some things that are difficult to level with. But the fact that he’s got the following shows you how big the gap is.

On the “very serious allegations”, the Crown Prosecution Service released the following statement on 19 July:

The Crown Prosecution Service has decided to bring further charges against brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate in relation to four further victims.

The CPS has decided to prosecute Andrew Tate, 39, with seven further counts of rape, three counts of arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation, three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and 19 additional charges for offences relating to indecent images of a child and extreme pornography.

The CPS has decided to prosecute Tristan Tate, 38, with one count of sexual assault, two counts of rape and three counts of arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation.

The offending is alleged to have taken place between July 2010 and August 2017.

The suspects were arrested by the US Marshal Service in the United States of America on July 18, 2026.

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Following their arrest in the US, prosecutors will be seeking extradition in relation to the original 21 charges and the further charges which we have decided to prosecute.

Tate has a history of describing how to commit some of the crimes he now stands accused of:

Here he admits in more detail to tricking women, giving them the false impression of love, and using a "bottom bitch" for manipulation for the sole purpose of putting them in front of a camera and making money off of them.

Deception and exploitation. This is human trafficking. pic.twitter.com/XtS6uU2E5g

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— Ridvan Aydemir | Apostate Prophet (@ApostateProphet) June 23, 2023

He has, however, denied that he is guilty of the crimes that the CPS is now accusing him of.

Weak

Many teachers have spoken out about the detrimental impact Tate has had on children. Speaking to the BBC in 2025, one said:

I have had boys refuse to speak to me and speak to a male teaching assistant instead because I am a woman and they follow Andrew Tate and think he is amazing with all his cars and women… These were 10-year-olds.

Another said:

In a secondary English class last year, a group of boys opted, despite discouragement, to write a persuasive essay on why Andrew Tate is the GOAT (greatest of all time) which included praise of his view that women are a man’s property… all of the parents were contacted and were appalled.

Given Tate’s alleged crimes – and the man’s long and well-documented history of vile behaviour – it should be easy for Farage to categorically say that the man is a bad role model. The fact that he can’t suggests he’s scared of offending the sort of people who think Tate’s online presence is admirable.

Featured image via the Canary

By Willem Moore

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Reform UK has multiple ongoing financial scandals right now. Several of these scandals link to the convicted fraudster George Cottrell – a.k.a. ‘Posh George’. Now, journalists have linked Cottrell to another dubious figure (a figure who is herself linked to Donald Trump):

This photo at Posh George's Montenegro penthouse was taken days after we exposed him as the criminal bankrolling Farage

Who is she?

We didn't expect to identify her as a US federal judge

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Or to uncover he paid her late husband, former AG for Arizona, where he was convicted pic.twitter.com/GvhMGaI5uz

— Venetia Menzies (@venetiamenzies) July 26, 2026

Reform aristo-cash

Posh George provided Nigel Farage with various benefits in the runup to the 2024 general election:

EXCLUSIVE

Nigel Farage failed to declare that a criminal and crypto gambler paid for his staff, security, drivers, social media output in year before election

Reform leader has also received free accommodation in Westminster from George Cottrell as MPhttps://t.co/fSKszEDnV1

— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) July 4, 2026

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This all happened in the runup to the election, which meant Farage potentially should have declared it after he became an MP. Farage and Reform defended not doing so on the basis that he wasn’t an MP and the benefits didn’t link to political activity, but the rules are that incoming MPs should provide details of any potentially relevant payments they received from the 12 months before they became an MP.

Parliament has paused the investigation into all this while Farage fights the Clacton by-election, but will resume after its conclusion.

On Cottrell, we added:

Cottrell is an aristocrat with a criminal record who’s involved ” in an offshore crypto gambling platform implicated in potential criminal betting in the UK”. As you might have guessed, he’s currently angling for a pardon from president Donald Trump – a good friend of Farage’s.

It later came out that Cottrell may have also made undeclared donations to Reform UK:

EXCL by @ManuMidolo ft me @venetiamenzies @GeorgeGreenwood

The criminal who funded Nigel Farage made undisclosed donations to Reform in apparent breach of electoral law

George Cottrell lawyers at Carter Ruck refuse to say when he became permissible donor https://t.co/yFEalCjDdr

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— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) July 12, 2026

And more keeps coming out:

BREAKING

Reform had its bank account frozen at height of general election after potentially illegal donations from George Cottrell's mother and Richard Tice

We reveal Arbuthnot Latham, its bank, blocked payments for two weeks after suspect transactions https://t.co/2xPKI827mO

— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) July 25, 2026

Judge not

As Venetia Menzies of the Times reported, the judge pictured at Cottrell’s residence is linked to president Donald Trump:

In 2023 her late husband Mark Brnovich retired as Arizona AG

Cottrell then paid him thousands for "legal services"

Brnovich then befriended Farage, and courted politicians in Montenegro such as prime minister Spajic, who Cottrell is accused of financing – which he denies pic.twitter.com/gonHwGEvZf

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— Venetia Menzies (@venetiamenzies) July 26, 2026

Menzies further noted that Trump has a habit of pardoning people who once would have been considered un-pardonable:

Cottrell announced he was lobbying for a pardon last summer

Mark died this January, with Cottrell dedicating his book "How to Launder Money" to his friend and mentor pic.twitter.com/dAKq6QcVwN

— Venetia Menzies (@venetiamenzies) July 26, 2026

The above isn’t a joke, by the way; Cottrell actually authored a book titled How to Launder Money. As you can see in the link below, it’s presented as a “guide for law enforcement”:

The latest revelations are attracting significant negative attention anyway:

What the actual….?
This is probably the most extreme example of someone meddling in their own pardon by corrupting US officials. Quite possibly the most notorious case of transatlantic corruption between Reform and MAGA.@mehdirhasan @harryjsisson @itsdeaann https://t.co/EMI6y4JeuX pic.twitter.com/ApsMEbdVUU

— The Finance Guy (@OneFinanceGuy) July 26, 2026

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There’s also speculation as to why the establishment media has suddenly found its teeth when it comes to Farage and his party:

My guess is that the Murdoch empire reckons Farage is no longer capable of winning a general election but could still stop the Tories from doing so. Expect Murdoch outlets to swing fully behind the Tories, who are now almost as far to the right as Reform anyway. https://t.co/tOFLU1K2oU

— Tom Scott (@Tom___Scott) July 26, 2026

Problems mounting

The more that the media looks into Reform UK and its various backers, the worse things look. And with three years between now and the next election, the party’s prospects of winning a majority are looking increasingly bleak.

Featured image via the Canary

By Willem Moore

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Reform UK and its senior politicians have embroiled themselves in several ongoing financial scandals, and deputy leader Richard Tice is now complaining that…people have noticed said financial scandals. Many of these controversies relate to funding the party received in the runup to the 2024 general election. And in what seems to be a clear sign that the Reform people are rattled, Richard Tice is now attacking the media outlets investigating him:

Both the BBC and Metropolitan Police appear to have acted in clear breach of legal obligations, contrary to well-established case law, in the BBC’s reporting about me over the weekend.

I have written to both the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and the BBC’s…

— Richard Tice MP (@TiceRichard) July 26, 2026

Richard Tice panic stations

Tice’s message read in full:

I have written to both the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and the BBC’s Director-General setting out these serious breaches. My lawyers have also been instructed.

Any media organisation considering repeating these allegations should exercise the utmost caution.

Tice has taken particular offence with the BBC, who reported the following:

Police are investigating payments to Reform UK by a company controlled by the party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, BBC News has learned.

Britain Means Business gave the party two donations of £250,000 in the run-up to the 2024 general election, when Tice was party chairman.

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Tice has said the money was given to his firm by Fiona Cottrell, a significant donor to Reform UK and mother of a convicted fraudster with close links to Nigel Farage.

The convicted fraudster in question is George Cottrell – a.k.a. ‘Posh George’. Posh George is also linked to other party scandals, having partially bankrolled Farage and Reform in the runup to the 2024 election:

EXCL by @ManuMidolo ft me @venetiamenzies @GeorgeGreenwood

The criminal who funded Nigel Farage made undisclosed donations to Reform in apparent breach of electoral law

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George Cottrell lawyers at Carter Ruck refuse to say when he became permissible donor https://t.co/yFEalCjDdr

— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) July 12, 2026

As with Tice, people accused Farage of trying to deflect from his scandals by focusing on everything besides the issue at hand. The key example of this was the Clacton by-election which Farage instigated for no obvious reason.

Deflections

Back to Tice, the BBC also noted:

The BBC understands that the party was not aware of the investigation into the payments from Britain Means Business.

So Tice’s issue is that the BBC and other outlets seems to have become aware of things he wasn’t aware of. In other words, he doesn’t seem to understand what ‘journalism’ is.

The BBC reported that the Metropolitan Police is investigating political donations made via a company controlled by Tice.

The Met confirmed this.

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Neither organisation claimed Tice is guilty.

Now he's threatening every newsroom that accurately repeats those facts. https://t.co/pnlEyXca1U

— Rebecca Tidy (@DrRebeccaTidy) July 26, 2026

Tice also seems to think that people are going to care more about how the revelations came out than the revelations themselves. This is optimistic on his part. It’s especially optimistic given that Reform has spent the past few months trying to deflect from its many scandals with pretty much no success.

As the Times revealed, the donations in question led to Reform’s bank blocking its payments for two weeks around the 2024 election:

BREAKING

Reform had its bank account frozen at height of general election after potentially illegal donations from George Cottrell's mother and Richard Tice

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We reveal Arbuthnot Latham, its bank, blocked payments for two weeks after suspect transactions https://t.co/2xPKI827mO

— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) July 25, 2026

The Times also reported:

Taking into account money she donated directly or via Tice’s company, Fiona Cottrell provided 35 per cent of all payments received by Reform during the [2024 election] campaign. She has never commented on the source of her wealth or the subsequent inquiries by the National Crime Agency or Scotland Yard.

Attention economy

By kicking up such a fuss, Reform and Tice could end up triggering the Streisand Effect; i.e. they could draw more attention to the story than if they just kept quiet. In other words, we encourage them to carry on kicking up a fuss.

Featured image via the Canary

By Willem Moore

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