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There are reunions that players relish. Alexander Isak’s return to St James’ Park on Sunday will not fall into that category. Newcastle supporters will make their feelings known and there is little he can do to influence that. His task is simpler. Concentrate on becoming the player Liverpool believed they were signing, and begin winning over those fans now watching him in red.

This Premier League opener arrives one year after the statement that detonated his Newcastle exit, with Isak declaring that the relationship cannot continue because of broken promises and eroded trust. Twelve months on, his Liverpool career has yet to catch fire. The anticipation that accompanied his arrival has not been matched by output.

Was signing Alexander Isak a mistake?

Isak missed this fixture last season, though his absence did not stop the conversation revolving around him. Some would argue the real Isak has still not reappeared. Three Premier League goals in his first Liverpool campaign barely hinted at why the club committed £130m to bring him to Anfield.

Without a proper pre-season, he arrived not fully fit, and that undermined his ability to make an immediate impact. A fractured fibula in December removed the chance to build rhythm — the commodity strikers depend on more than most. But the fee was not plucked from thin air. It reflected a record that Newcastle fans remember clearly.

The hostility awaiting him on Sunday stems from the sense of betrayal felt in the Gallowgate End and beyond, but it also acknowledges his contribution. In his final two seasons at Newcastle, only Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah scored more Premier League goals. That is the level he operated at.

He was the player who scored what became the decisive goal against Liverpool. Ironically, that goal ended Newcastle’s 56-year wait for a major trophy. Elegant and willowy, he never possessed the physical presence of a traditional terrace hero, but his cool, clinical finishing from all angles made him one. He was the striker who made difficult chances look routine.

Is this the season Alexander Isak shines for Liverpool?

There is little value in revisiting every detail of last summer, but what is clear is that Isak’s first year in a Liverpool shirt was largely lost. Their supporters have not seen enough of those first-time finishes, the striker who glides across the pitch, always appearing to have time, always threatening to decide matches.

For Isak, who turns 27 next month, that must change. This is why a fixture loaded with emotional weight is actually more about what comes next than what came before. One year on from that record-breaking move, the question is simple: can he still become the player Liverpool thought they were buying?

Unlike others whose summer workloads raise concerns about fatigue, Isak’s World Cup involvement should help rather than hinder. There have been positive signs. He scored against Monaco. Against Como, the evidence was subtler, but it was there if you looked closely.

His best moment came early, a measured strike from an angle that clipped the foot of the far post. It was an effortless finish, Isak at his best. Precision over power, technique over force, the sort of attempt that leaves you wondering how the goalkeeper was beaten even when he wasn’t.

More intriguingly, there were glimpses of him winning the ball high up the pitch. In the 14th minute, he nicked possession, though Florian Wirtz could not convert the chance. Pressing is a trait Iraola demands, and Isak must embrace it more consistently.

A strong pre-season could be the key

It is clear Iraola is asking his players to do things that are a little bit different, especially without the ball. The physical demands of Iraola’s system, rather than any technical or tactical deficiency, are likely to dictate Isak’s success.

For example, Isak actually outperformed his expected goals for a fourth consecutive Premier League season last year. He remains an excellent finisher. While Arne Slot lamented Liverpool’s inability to take chances, Isak’s issue was simpler: he was not getting on the end of them. His strike-rate was the lowest of his English career.

Again, the explanation is probably physical. His top speed last season dipped. Rediscovering that spark is essential. In the sixth minute against Como, there was applause when he chased a ball down the right channel but could not reach it. The intent was there; the execution was not.

It appears that Wirtz  and Isak are working on their connection. It did not fully click at the weekend. Their best moment of interplay came early in the second half when Wirtz set him up, only for Isak to skew his shot well wide. It was a reminder that timing and sharpness still need refining.

There were other nearly moments. Isak hesitating on the edge of the box after 70 seconds, allowing the chance to disappear. Cody Gakpo darting brilliantly between two defenders only for Isak’s touch to be loose. Groans when he failed to read a Dominik Szoboszlai dummy. These are the details that separate a striker in rhythm from one searching for it.

Looking ahead to the new season

Hints and clues, then, but not the emphatic evidence that Isak is fully fit and ready to fire. Not the striker Liverpool bought. Not the sure thing, the goal machine, the difference maker. When he steps out at St James’ Park on Sunday afternoon, it will be an opportunity for him. Not to rewrite the past, but to begin shaping the future.

A reunion without sentiment. A stage without sympathy. A moment that demands clarity. If Alexander Isak is to reignite his Liverpool career, this is as good a time as any to start.

Featured Image courtesy of Liverpool Football Club 

By Faz Ali

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The debate about sunbeds often generates more heat than light. As ministers consider a raft of new restrictions, The Sunbed Association (TSA) believes that the focus should be on interventions that actually improve safety on the ground.

The Government’s consultation on strengthening the regulation of commercial sunbeds in England marks an important moment for the sector.

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Often, any discussion of commercial sunbeds quickly escalates into a debate about whether they should exist at all. Yet that is not the question currently being asked by ministers and officials. Instead, the consultation focuses on a more practical challenge: how to ensure existing rules are properly enforced and, in particular, how to prevent under-18s from accessing commercial sunbeds.

That is an objective that responsible operators fully support.

The Sunbeds (Regulation) Act 2010 already prohibits under-18s from using commercial sunbeds. However, some recent investigations have suggested that a handful of businesses continue to ignore those rules. If true, that is wholly unacceptable. It puts young people at risk, undermines confidence in the sector, and damages the reputation of the thousands of small businesses that work hard to comply with the law and keep their customers safe every day.

“No responsible business wants to see underage use, Gary Lipman, Chairman of The Sunbed Association, told us. “The law is clear, and the overwhelming majority of professional operators follow it. Those who do not are damaging the reputation of the wider sector.”

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That is why The Sunbed Association (TSA), the body that represents the UK’s professional indoor tanning industry, believes that this consultation is an opportunity to focus attention on areas where its own members already know safety is being compromised.

TSA has long argued that there is no place in the industry for rogue operators. Professional salons  already operate within TSA’s framework of regulation that includes age restrictions, customer screening, supervision requirements, staff training, equipment standards, and strict technical limits on UV output. Responsible businesses have invested heavily in compliance. They have every interest in ensuring that those who cut corners do not gain a commercial advantage.

The proposed introduction of mandatory age verification and tighter requirements around supervision are therefore measures that many operators will recognise as reflecting good practice that is already common across the professional sector.

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However, industry voices argue that what matters now is ensuring that any new requirements are proportionate, practical, and enforceable.

“Too often, policy debates become distracted by headlines rather than focusing on what will actually improve compliance on the ground,” Lipman says. “The reality is that legislation does not enforce itself. Rules only work when they are understood, monitored, and consistently applied.”

That is why the consultation should focus not only on what additional requirements may be needed, but also on how local enforcement can be made more consistent. A robust regulatory framework is only as effective as the mechanisms used to uphold it.

“The answer is not simply creating more rules,” Lipman adds. “The answer is making sure the rules we already have are respected and enforced. Responsible operators have nothing to fear from that. In fact, they benefit from it.”

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The Government has also recognised another important point. Alongside public health considerations, there is a need to understand the practical implications for businesses.

This matters enormously because the tanning sector is made up of thousands of predominantly small, women-owned businesses operating on high streets across England. These businesses employ local people, occupy retail units, contribute to local economies, and serve millions of adult customers each year.

Indeed, independent polling commissioned by TSA found that around six million adults in the UK regularly use sunbeds. Whatever view one takes on the wider policy debate, this is clearly not a niche activity. Any regulation changes must therefore be based on evidence, be workable in practice, and recognise the distinction between responsible operators and those acting outside the law.

There is a tendency in some discussions to treat the sector as a single entity. In reality, there is a significant difference between a professional salon operating within established standards and a business that ignores legal requirements. Conflating the two risks creating policies that punish compliance rather than encourage it.

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The consultation’s accompanying call for evidence presents an opportunity to move beyond assumptions and examine how the sector actually operates. Professional operators have practical experience in age verification, customer supervision, skin type assessments, staff training, and compliance procedures. That expertise must now be part of the conversation.

“We welcome the opportunity to engage constructively with Government,” says Lipman. “The businesses operating on the ground every day have valuable insights into what works, what doesn’t, and where improvements can be made. Good policy is always stronger when it is informed by real-world experience.”

The Government has stated that it wants any future measures to be proportionate, enforceable, and capable of delivering meaningful improvements to public safety. That is a sensible objective.

For the professional sector, the objective is clear. Protect young people, support effective enforcement, and drive rogue operators out of the market. To achieve that aim requires practical and evidence-based regulation and a recognition that responsible businesses are not the problem – they are an essential part of the solution.

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As the consultation progresses, policymakers have an opportunity to strengthen public confidence while supporting the businesses that are already doing the right thing. That is a goal that everyone can support.

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The United Nations’ human rights law expert Chris Sidoti has called for Australia to expel Israel’s ambassador for his arrogance over Israel’s murder of civilians. This includes an Australian aid worker.

Arrogant meddler

Sidoti was speaking to Australian TV after the country’s foreign minister had condemned Israel’s decision to whitewash troops responsible for the murder of an Australian aid worker and her colleagues. This happened in a triple 2024 bombing.

Sidoti condemned ambassador Hillel Newman’s interference in Australia’s affairs and his contempt for Australians who have suffered rape, beatings and abuse as part of humanitarian flotillas to Gaza attacked by Israel’s military. He also described the colony’s farce of a judicial system, which habitually gives a free pass to its war criminals for the atrocities they commit. And he added that the colony has attacked him and his department for daring to investigate or condemn its crimes:

As the interviewer noted, foreign minister Penny Wong has condemned Israel’s granting of impunity to yet more of its war criminals:

However, the ‘sound and fury’ shows no more sign of changing Australia’s collaboration in Israel’s genocide in Gaza than the change of PM has changed that of the UK.

Featured image via the Canary 

By Skwawkbox

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On 19 August, Eleanora Foran — perhaps better known as online political analyst ‘Stats for Lefties’ — announced her election to the Green Party Council. Foran is one of two representatives for the Eastern Region, itself one of the 10 areas of England and Wales represented on the council.

This is noteworthy for two reasons. First, Greens for Palestine backed Foran as a candidate. The campaign group is one of the driving forces behind the “Zionism is Racism” motion at the Green Party conferences – both back in March and upcoming in the autumn.

The March vote on the motion never took place. The chair claimed that the vote couldn’t proceed after Palestinian speaker Lubna Speitan’s highly emotive speech on the devastating effects Israeli violence had on her family.

‘I welcome their hatred’

Eleanora Foran herself posted a message of support for the anti-Zionist cause following her election. She wrote on social media that she was “so grateful” to both party members and Greens for Palestine for their support, before stating:

I know there will be Zionists reading this who are utterly furious that I won. I welcome their hatred.

That latter sentence is a direct quote from Roosevelt’s 1936 speech at Madison Square Garden. FDR referred to the businessmen and war profiteers who seemed to consider the government “a mere appendage to their own affairs”. However, the parallel to Israeli interests in the UK government is more than apt.

The Financial Times was particularly quick to come after Foran. It quoted her June post reading:

Glory to the Iranian resistance, whose courageous fight against the imperialist dogs of the USA has utterly humiliated the Great Satan.

The FT felt compelled to contextualise this statement alongside the fact that the UK recently designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group. Likewise, it helpfully explained that:

The party, which has grown rapidly since the election of [Green Party leader] Zack Polanski as leader last year, has been accused of failing to tackle extremism among its members.

Of course, the article failed to mention that Foran mentioned the IRGC precisely zero times. It is, after all, a proscribed group, and we know how the UK government feels about those.

Likewise, the Financial Times also managed to forget the fact that both the US and Israel illegally attacked Iran, sparking the war in the first place. Oh, and then Trump only managed to lose it anyway.

Green Party ‘has changed’

Foran’s election to the council is also notable because she’s openly trans. At a time when the UK political landscape is actively hostile towards trans people, and even the Green Party itself has barely left behind its transphobic leanings, Foran’s election is a sign for celebration.

In fact, given that the Green Party Council allows one ‘male’ and one ‘female’ seat for each region, it’s also an important fact that Foran was elected to the female seat. In her social media statement, Foran wrote that:

Our party has changed, and my election as a proud anti-Zionist trans woman symbolises that change. I look forward to working with my comrades on GPC to build a radical anti-imperialist Green Party – one that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with queers, Palestinians, disabled people, migrants, refugees and activists enduring state repression.

Congratulations to Foran from us here at the Canary — we just hope she doesn’t give up her work as Stats for Lefties at the same time!

Featured image via the Canary

By Grace

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February 2026: Satirical carnival float featuring Xi Jinping, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin | Image by: ZUMA Press / Alamy

4 min read1 hr

With its urgent call to repair and revive the liberal world order, this illuminating book strikes the perfect note for our troubled times

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Here comes a humdinger of a book which strikes the perfect note for our troubled times. Authored by British scholar and journalist Adrian Wooldridge (Balliol and All Souls, no less) it dives deep into both the American and British political and intellectual scenes to illuminate what has gone so disappointingly wrong.

Its central message is that the liberal world order – built almost from scratch from the rubble of the Second World War and on which, despite checks and setbacks over the years since, most of our progress, prosperity and indeed ordered civilisation has come to rest – is in a state of disintegration and in urgent need of repair and revival.

Even the book’s title strikes an immediate refreshing note, and should help alert all but the doziest to the real sources of our present discontent – and to the great heaps of anxiety and pessimism which keep piling up in, and polluting, our intellectual avenues of public discussion and advancement.

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Crisis after crisis, large and small, some domestic, some global, seem to tumble down on us, sending experts scurrying like disturbed ants in every direction with their solutions and calls for ‘total mind resets’ and all the clichéd rest. Books on how Britain is broken pour out (some of them seemingly no more than tepid rehashes of Look Back in Anger).

The economy, moan the headlines, has stopped growing, productivity is falling, investment is shrinking, business confidence is on the floor, trains are late, schools crumbling, strikes are brewing again, funds short for every conceivable cause, government debt soaring, defence budgets hopelessly underfunded, the energy crisis costly and unending, with an even worse one about to visit us…

It dives deep into both the American and British political and intellectual scenes to illuminate what has gone so disappointingly wrong

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But stand back and one begins to see, helped by this volume, that most of these setbacks, national or global, whether real or just media-exaggerated, are second order outcomes of something much deeper that has gone missing.

That ‘something’ is a world view inspired by a broadly liberal social order, and liberally inclined institutions – and a liberal order’s genuine champions. Constant talk there may be of ‘values’ but scarcely never an acknowledgement that in a completely digitalised world they require completely fresh interpretation or they go under – and drag us down with them.

The revival message in this volume, from this interpreter of this global turning point, is there for the receiving (and acting on) and long overdue it is. But is it being heeded?

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The era we are now entering, in which machines start thinking for themselves, could be a time for the world coming together as much as, or even more, than in those bold post-1945 decades of high hopes. Both survival and progress are still in reach if we have the wisdom to keep control and escape the stale cliché-ridden ideologies and dogmas of the past. And there is a time ahead of utter disorder and destruction if we fail.

Nothing of the great doctrines of left and right politics will help much here, whether collective and individualist, state versus market, Karl Marx versus Friedrich Hayek or Milton Friedman, bureaucratic empires versus the unpredictable mosaic of capitalism.

How much relevance is left in facing or comprehending the new disruptions of the digital age we all now have to confront at every level, from home and daily life up to the highest dealings between nations, guarded by once trusted global institutions and by the international rules of law and freedom?

How many experts and commentators have grasped this? How many political leaders, policy gurus, influencers in the whole political galère have seen through the fog and mist of the old dishonesties to the new realities?

Well, there is a book here to start from. It may be not too late to change course.

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Lord Howell is a Conservative peer

Centrists of the World Unite!: The Lost Genius of Liberalism

By: Adrian Wooldridge

Publisher: Allen Lane

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One Tel Aviv-based tech ‘security’ company, Irregular, was at the centre of “rogue” hack attacks launched during AI testing procedures. Meta, OpenAI (of ChatGPT), and Anthropic’s AI models were all involved.

Reporting at the time, the Wall Street Journal ran with this alarming headline:

Over the course of just two weeks, OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta all revealed that their AI models went “rogue” during what they called “routine security testing“. And Irregular, a “small Israeli startup,” was behind it.

CNBC underscored the risks posed by unguarded AI models and incidents like this:

With the leading models becoming ever more powerful, their ability to act in malicious ways is turning into a major threat for corporations and governments, especially as the risk involves hacking into critical computer systems and infrastructure. The recent exploits at OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta all involved their AI models accessing websites that should have been off-limits as part of the cybersecurity testing.

One Israeli tech company, Irregular, was repeatedly identified as hosting the so-called “evaluation testbed.” It’s that technology platform which effectively enabled consumer-facing AI models to turn into hack-bots.

This began by allowing OpenAI models and Anthropic’s Claude to access the internet. Meta stated that they do not yet have “all the facts.” Meanwhile the firm, Irregular, stated to CNBC that the hacking incident:

did not involve a sandbox escape or a sophisticated cyber action … [adding] there are no current open issues.

A ‘cyber offensive’ Zionist project

The small tech startup is valued at $450m, backed by $80m from Sequoia Capital and Redpoint Ventures. Sequoia’s partner, Shaun Maguire, is a known Zionist and financial backer of Israel’s genocidal wars and illegal occupations. He actually relaunched Sequoia into Israel during its murderous Gaza onslaught.

Sequoia is a key target of pro-Palestinian boycotts (BDS). This is because recent headlines read like:

Sequoia bets on Israel because of the war

Maguire previously called Israel’s booming war economy “next-level” and has said that:

Maintaining the world’s most advanced cyber capabilities is existential for Israel.

Maguire and his partner at Sequoia, Dean Meyer, wrote in a blog post that the team at Irregular is:

able to see around corners others can’t, running cyber offensive evaluations on advanced models and developing defenses before those models are released.

Erica Brescia, a managing director at Redpoint Ventures, said publicly as the Gaza genocide unfolded in October 2023 that the VC firm

would give money to [Israeli] first responders in the region.

Redpoint has a track record of investing in tech companies funded by Israel’s Occupation Forces, or IOF. These include Dux Security, which secured a $9 million seed round in late 2025 led by Redpoint and TLV Partners. Its founders were graduates of the IOF’s elite Talpiot program, otherwise labelled:

the IDF’s Super-Secret Elite Brain Trust

Sequoia and Redpoint are co-lead investors in another Israeli “autonomous AI systems” tech company, Glow. Glow was initially valued at $1.2bn, making it a tech “unicorn” and highly valuable. Not masking its corporate imperialism, Redpoint also invested $28m in an IOF intelligence veteran-led AI company “imper.ai”.

Most striking about Irregular, however, is that it’s led by Dan Lahav and Omer Nevo. Both served in different notorious intelligence units of the IOF; Nevo for 11 years. Israel news outlet, Ynet, says of Lahav and Nevo:

both enlisted in the IDF intelligence units, Lahav to Unit 81 in Military Intelligence, Nevo to Unit 8200. Despite the well-known rivalry between the two units, it seems the two live in wonderful harmony.

Zionist AI spy corps

Microsoft reportedly cut Unit 8200 off from using its cloud servers following a major exposé of the spy corps in 2025. Investigative magazine +972 revealed that it has been illegally intercepting and storing the private telephone communications of Palestinian civilians en-masse.

But even as far back as 2014, the Guardian reported that officials in the Zionist intelligence corps have “no boundaries.” That article cites one Intelligence Corps employee as saying:

I did and encountered things that seemed irrelevant from a security standpoint, and I did not have a clear conscience participating in such activities. Contrary to my expectations, our database included not only security-related intelligence but also personal and political information. That is to say, on a personal level, there is no respect for Palestinian privacy.

From a political standpoint, information is collected that can serve to manipulate Israeli, Palestinian and international politics. … it has serious impact on the lives of many people …

One ex-operative was quoted, understandably anonymous but verbatim, as admitting:

I realised that the job I had done during my military service was that of the oppressor.

Another intelligence hack said, albeit more glibly:

We take advantage of the impact that we have on their lives. Sometimes it involves truly harming a person’s life, or their soul. … It can really screw up their lives. It made me feel omnipotent.

Yet another interviewee admitted to targeting entirely “innocent” Palestinian civilians:

[I] collected information on people who were completely innocent, and whose only crime was that they interested the Israeli security system for various reasons. For reasons they had absolutely no way of knowing. All Palestinians are exposed to non-stop monitoring without any legal protection.

This palpably illegal, draconian behaviour is reprehensible to many — even Israelis. Back in 2014, dozens of veterans from the occupation spy corps condemned its behaviour and refused to participate anon.

Featured image via the Canary 

By Cameron Baillie

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