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Liverpool entered the 2022/23 campaign on the backs of heartbreak as they lost out on both the Champions League and Premier League on the last day of each competition. Liverpool began the season with high expectations but nothing seemed to go as planned as the club flamed out of the Champions League in the round of 16 to Real Madrid and found themselves finishing fifth in the Premier League en route to missing out on the Champions League for the first time since the 2015-2016 season. Klopp’s club entered the transfer window with a clear emphasis on bolstering their midfield, particularly considering the confirmed departures of James Milner, Fabio Carvalho, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as well as rumoured exits for Jordan Henderson and Fabinho. The club has been proactive in pursuing this objective, having already secured the signatures of two quality midfielders and surpassing the £100 million spending mark for the first time since 2018. Still, Liverpool may not be done yet, as they aim to potentially complete a midfield trio of signings, with the highly sought-after defensive midfielder Romeo Lavia being a potential addition. Here are the latest news and transfer updates around Anfield: Romeo Lavia Liverpool have entered the Romeo Lavia sweepstakes in a bid to bolster their already much-improved midfield. The Southampton player has attracted strong interest from London clubs Arsenal and Chelsea, but neither appear willing to secure the services of the 19-year-old. With Arsenal spending a record transfer fee on Declan Rice and Chelsea focusing on trying to sign Moises Caicedo, Liverpool appear to be the front-runner for Lavia’s services. The Daily Mail reports that the Saints have placed a price tag of approximately £50 million on the Belgian, who would be the ideal addition to complete a trio of midfielders set to join Anfield. Klopp entered this transfer window with the intention of revamping an aging and struggling midfield, and he has achieved precisely that. With the acquisitions of attack-minded midfielders Alexis Mac Allister from Brighton for £35 million and recently-signed Hungarian Dominik Szoboszli for £60 million from RB Leipzig, Lavia would provide Liverpool with a defensively-minded midfielder to finalize an extremely talented group. Cheick Doucoure Another central midfielder that is generating interest from Liverpool is Crystal Palace’s Cheick Doucoure. The 23-year-old midfielder joined the Eagles from French club, Lens, last season and enjoyed a superb first season in the Premier League, winning the club’s end-of-season Player of the Year award. According to The Evening Standard, the Mali international is one of the players on the Merseyside club’s shortlist to replace Jordan Henderson and Fabinho who both look set to complete moves to Saudi Arabia. A fee in the region of £50 million is set to be required by Crystal Palace, who is also said to be attracting interest from Paris Saint-Germain. Thiago Earlier in the window, Thiago became a prime target of interest from Saudi Arabia, with the Spaniard reportedly rejecting a lucrative offer from a team in the Saudi League, according to reports from The Athletic. The 32-year-old midfielder currently has one year left on his contract and intends to fulfil it at Anfield in the upcoming year. Despite this Fichajes is reporting that La Liga clubs, Real Sociedad and Sevilla, are still said to be monitoring the availability of the Spanish midfielder with Liverpool perhaps keen to cash in on the midfielder before his contract expires if they can bring in suitable replacements. Joshua Kimmich If Thiago was to leave Liverpool, one midfielder that Jurgen Klopp might have his eye on is the experienced German international, Joshua Kimmich. According to Fichajes, Liverpool are considering a bid for the Bayern Munich midfielder who has two years left on his deal. The 28-year-old has won 11 Bundesliga titles with the club and would provide plenty of experience at the heart of the Liverpool midfield, especially given the likely departures of Fabinho and Jordan Henderson. Liverpool might have to fend off interest from other clubs, though, with both Manchester United and Manchester City said to be considering a deal for Kimmich. Bradley Barcola With the departure of Roberto Firmio, there may well be a vacancy in Liverpool’s forward line. Jota, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez will all contend for the two other spots alongside Mohamed Salah but the Merseyside club are also said to be looking to the future and a replacement for their Egyptian superstar. According to journalist Jacque Talbot, that man could be French youngster Bradley Barcola. The 20-year-old, who plays for Lyon, scored five times last year and has attracted interest from Liverpool as well as Manchester City, who potentially see Barcola as a replacement for Riyad Mahrez who is set to move to Saudi Arabia. Read More Chelsea transfer news: Michael Olise, Marc Guehi, Moises Caicedo, Callum Hudson-Odoi and more Ange Postecoglou ‘not relaxed’ by uncertainty over Harry Kane’s Tottenham future Manchester United sign Andre Onana in £43m transfer from Inter Milan England’s Lotte Wubben-Moy begins Doodle Diary again – Friday’s sporting social Jordan Henderson risks tarnishing Liverpool legacy after career built on character Liverpool agree £12m deal to sell Jordan Henderson to Saudi club Al Ettifaq

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Child protection experts have fiercely criticised social media giant Meta over its plans for end-to-end encryption, accusing the tech firm of prioritising profit over children’s safety. Simon Bailey, a former police chief constable who was national lead for child protection at the National Police Chiefs’ Council, accused Meta of a “complete loss of social and moral responsibility” over the plans. John Carr, who is secretary of a coalition of UK children’s charities to deal with internet safety, called the move “utterly unconscionable”. Their comments came after head of the National Crime Agency Graeme Biggar said introducing end-to-end encryption on Facebook would be like “consciously turning a blind eye to child abuse”. Speaking at a lecture in Westminster earlier this month, the law enforcement chief said it should be up to the government rather than technology companies to draw the line between privacy and child safety. Meta responded by saying it has robust measures in place to combat abuse and that it expects to make more reports to law enforcement after end-to-end encryption is brought in. Mr Bailey said as he had seen the scale of online sexual abuse grow, he also saw “big tech companies, like Meta, absolve themselves of any responsibility when it comes to tackling online child sexual abuse”. The former chief constable said: “Big tech facilitates and, through their algorithms, encourages this abuse to take place. It is time their complete loss of social and moral responsibility is highlighted and challenged Simon Bailey “In response to what they know and can see as a global pandemic of online child sexual abuse, they have consciously decided to take the easy way out of dealing with the problem. “Meta, one of the largest carriers of this abuse, has decided to implement end-to-end encryption by default, and effectively stop law enforcement’s ability to identify and arrest offenders and, ultimately, to protect children. “They are using the guise of privacy to justify their position and in doing so, are continuing to put profit before child protection. It is time their complete loss of social and moral responsibility is highlighted and challenged.” Mr Carr, who is secretary of the UK Children’s Charities’ Coalition on Internet Safety said: “If introduced without the appropriate safeguards that will allow law enforcement to detect and prevent online child sexual abuse, end-to-end encryption threatens to deny justice to huge numbers of children. “Children are major user of social media. A great many use Meta’s platforms, including Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct. “The design and nature of these platforms make them a perfect space for dangerous people to discover, befriend, groom and sexually abuse children – and if end-to-end encryption is introduced without appropriate safeguards, Meta will be willingly blinding itself to the abuse taking place online. “Their plans are utterly unconscionable – particularly when there are tech solutions out there that enable end-to-end encryption to exist and child sexual abuse to be detected, reported, and justice to be served. “Big tech companies, like Meta, must think again before introducing a blanket roll-out of end-to-end encryption across their platforms. “If they don’t, thousands of children will be at risk, and we will fail to solve the growing problem of online child sexual abuse. Do better Meta – it’s time to prioritise child safety over profit.” I cannot emphasise enough the impact this has on me and other victims of this abuse Rhiannon-Faye McDonald Rhiannon-Faye McDonald, head of advocacy at the Marie Collins Foundation, was herself sexually assaulted at the age of 13 after a predator contacted her online. She said: “To say I am disappointed that Meta is continuing with their plans to roll out end-to-end encryption is an understatement. The measures they say will be in place – using metadata to identify patterns of behaviour rather than content – are not good enough. “This move gives child sex abusers the ability to act undetected on its platforms as Meta will also lose the ability to use technology to detect and remove child sexual abuse images and videos. “As a victim of child sexual abuse myself, where my abuse was documented and shared online by the perpetrator, I cannot emphasise enough the impact this has on me and other victims of this abuse. “I am horrified that the images of my abuse could be infinitely reshared across the globe with no hope of them being blocked or taken down. How is this protecting my privacy?” She said it is “incredibly worrying” that big tech companies “can unilaterally make decisions that limit our ability to protect children”. A Meta spokesperson said: “The overwhelming majority of Brits already rely on apps that use encryption to keep them safe from hackers, fraudsters and criminals. “We don’t think people want us reading their private messages so have spent the last five years developing robust safety measures to prevent, detect and combat abuse while maintaining online security. “We recently published an updated report setting out these measures, such as restricting people over 19 from messaging teens who don’t follow them and using technology to identify and take action against malicious behaviour. “As we roll out end-to-end encryption, we expect to continue providing more reports to law enforcement than our peers due to our industry-leading work on keeping people safe.” Read More Call of Duty launch sparks record traffic on broadband networks Crypto investment fraud warning issued by major bank Council investigating extent of cyber attack that affected website and systems Setback for Ireland as EU legal adviser recommends revisit of Apple tax case Smartphones ‘may be able to detect how drunk a person is with 98% accuracy’ Ireland and Apple await major development in long-running EU tax dispute