Isak could make first Premier League start for Liverpool after Ekitike suspension

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Alexander Isak could make his first Premier League start for Liverpool against Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Liverpool coach Arne Slot has been easing the Sweden striker into the action since he completed a British record $170 million deadline day transfer to Anfield. Until then, Isak had a disrupted offseason.

The suspension of Hugo Ekitike, who was red-carded for taking his shirt off during a goal celebration against Southampton on Tuesday, means Isak could be called upon at Selhurst Park.

The forward has already started games in the Champions League and English League Cup, where he scored his first goal for Liverpool on Tuesday. Isak has yet to be given 90 minutes for Liverpool and was taken off at halftime midweek.

Slot said he does not expect Isak to be up to full match sharpness until after the international break next month.

Federico Chiesa is another option in place of Ekitike after the Italian impressed with two assists against Southampton.

Liverpool is the only team in the top flight with a 100% record. But the defending champion lost to Palace on penalties in the Community Shield in August.

The tests keep on coming for Arsenal. Mikel Arteta's team travels to Newcastle on Sunday having already faced Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City.

The trip to St James' Park against Champions League rival Newcastle ends that brutal run of fixtures at the start of the campaign. Arsenal doesn't then meet one of the traditional English heavyweights until Tottenham in November.

United will be aiming to build on last week's dramatic win against Chelsea when it travels to Brentford on Saturday.

Whether from the start or off the bench, Isak will draw all eyes after his first goal for Liverpool. His 32 goals for Newcastle and Sweden last season earned him a reputation as one of Europe's deadliest finishers and his strike on Tuesday should be the first of many.

Speaking of goal machines, Erling Haaland has 13 in eight appearances for Man City and Norway. A home game against newly promoted Burnley could extend that record if he overcomes a back issue picked up against Arsenal last week.

Ekitike is suspended for his red card midweek and so is Casemiro for his sending off against Chelsea.

Arsenal will be without Noni Madueke for weeks because of a knee injury.

Tensions are rising at West Ham after four losses, with fans staging protests last week and calling for changes at board level.

Pressure is also mounting on manager Graham Potter, with growing speculation about his future after just nine months in the job.

James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Arsenal's Noni Madueke, left, and Eberechi Eze celebrate after a goal during the Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Nottingham Forest in London, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Arsenal's William Saliba, left, and Manchester City's Erling Haaland fight for the ball during the Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Manchester City in London, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Liverpool's Hugo Ekitike celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the English League Cup third round soccer match between Liverpool and Southampton at the Anfield stadium in Liverpool, England, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

Liverpool's Alexander Isak runs during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Liverpool and Atletico Madrid at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, England, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Against a backdrop of rising global tensions and energy market instability, governments from around 50 countries will gather Friday in Colombia’s Caribbean city of Santa Marta for a summit aimed at accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels.

The April 24–29 conference, co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, will bring together ministers, subnational governments, academics and civil society groups to discuss how to move beyond oil, gas and coal while ensuring the transition is “just, orderly and equitable,” organizers said.

The meeting reflects growing frustration among some governments and advocates that decades of U.N. climate negotiations have failed to directly address fossil fuel production — the main driver of global warming — prompting the Santa Marta summit to push the issue outside formal talks.

Organizers say the gathering is intended to open space for a politically sensitive debate that has long been avoided in international climate negotiations.

“It is definitely a political space. We are opening a space for discussion that does not exist,” Colombia’s environment minister, Irene Vélez Torres, told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the summit.

Unlike formal U.N. climate negotiations, the meeting is not expected to produce binding commitments. Instead, officials say the goal is to generate a set of proposals and build coalitions of countries willing to move faster on phasing out fossil fuels.

“We’ve also seen climate action unfortunately fall down the list of government priorities,” said Claudio Angelo, head of international policy at the Observatorio do Clima think tank in Brazil.

Nations from Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, many of which play key roles in fossil fuel production or consumption, will attend. The United States and Saudi Arabia — two of the world’s largest oil producers — will not, underscoring divisions between countries pushing for a faster transition and those more closely tied to fossil fuel interests.

Under the Paris Agreement — the 2015 global climate accord — countries set their own emissions targets, meaning no international process can compel governments to phase out fossil fuels.

The summit is part of a broader push to move climate diplomacy beyond emissions targets and toward directly confronting fossil fuel production — a politically sensitive issue that has long divided countries.

Some advocates say new approaches are needed to close what they see as a major gap in global climate policy.

“Fossil-free zones turn global climate goals into concrete geographic decisions,” said Andrés Gómez of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, referring to proposals to designate areas where oil, gas and coal extraction would be off-limits, particularly in ecologically sensitive regions.

Indigenous leaders involved in the process say they are pushing governments attending the Santa Marta summit to adopt fossil-free zones as part of their transition plans.

“For Indigenous peoples, stopping fossil fuel extraction is not only a climate imperative — it is essential to defending our territories, our governance systems and our right to self-determination,” said Juan Carlos Jintiach, executive secretary of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, a coalition of Indigenous and local community organizations representing millions of people across forest regions worldwide.

He added that governments must move “from commitments to implementation” by integrating fossil-free zones into national energy transition plans.

Analysis by advocacy groups shows that oil and gas concessions already overlap with vast areas of tropical forest and Indigenous territories, underscoring the scale of the challenge.

The conference comes at a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty, including the war in Iran, which has disrupted global energy markets and threatened supply through the Strait of Hormuz — a critical route for roughly a fifth of the world’s oil.

The resulting price spikes are already being felt far beyond energy markets.

“Oil prices don’t just stay in energy markets — they move straight into people’s lives,” said Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and a leading climate justice advocate expected to attend the Santa Marta conference, speaking at a press conference ahead of the event.

“Impacts are hitting the most vulnerable hardest, as always, while oil companies reap windfall profits,” she said.

In her interview, Vélez said such instability should accelerate — rather than delay — the transition.

“The crisis — and let’s call it what it is — the war in the Middle East has triggered a global crisis,” she said. “In this case, I believe the movement should be toward radicalizing the green agenda and the transitions.”

Some analysts warn that supply shocks could push countries to increase fossil fuel production in the short term, even as they commit to long-term climate goals — highlighting the tension between energy security and climate action.

That tension is particularly visible in Latin America, where many economies rely heavily on oil, gas and mining exports even as governments position themselves as climate leaders. Colombia, one of the region’s top oil producers and home to roughly 6% of the Amazon rainforest, depends on crude exports for a significant share of government revenue and foreign income.

At the same time, Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s government has pledged to halt new oil exploration and push for a global phaseout of fossil fuels.

“Economic and fiscal dependence is a problem, and it is perhaps the main challenge we face,” Vélez said.

Financial constraints are also expected to shape discussions. Many developing countries face high levels of public debt and limited fiscal space, making it difficult to invest in renewable energy and other elements of the transition.

Civil society groups say that without reforms to the global financial system, these constraints will continue to slow progress.

“Moving away from fossil fuels requires, without a doubt, a careful economic and energy transition plan,” said Carola Mejía of the Latin American and Caribbean Network for Economic, Social and Climate Justice.

Gabriella Bianchini of Global Witness said the stakes go beyond climate alone.

“As people everywhere suffer the consequences of oil-driven conflict, it’s never been clearer that the world needs to leave the fossil fuel era behind,” she said. “Santa Marta is a chance for governments and communities to grab the bull by the horns and take action toward a greener, more equitable and peaceful world.”

She added that while U.N. climate talks remain crucial, they have repeatedly struggled to deliver meaningful progress on fossil fuels.

“Santa Marta represents space for governments to work on the one plan we know will stave off the worst impacts of climate breakdown: a rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels,” Bianchini said.

Observers say a key question will be whether the meeting can produce a clearer political signal on an issue that has remained largely unresolved in global climate talks.

“If we think about it, the conference is that turning point where, collectively, we decide to be on the right side of history,” environment minister Vélez said.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Coal piles sit near a chemical plant in Datong, China, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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