Israel is falling into a trap laid by Hamas in its war in Gaza, Giorgia Meloni said at a press conference closing the G7 summit in Bari that affirmed her role as a leading figure in Europe. The Italian prime minister also stated that the EU will not directly contribute to a $50bn loan to Ukraine agreed by the G7 leaders.

And she underlined her status by declaring that she will start talks on Monday about the allocation of top jobs in the EU on the basis that Europe has to accept the verdict of the people reflected in the results of last week’s European parliament elections.

Meloni was one of the few European incumbents to do well in the elections. She said: “If we want to draw from the vote the indication that everything was fine it is a distorted reading. The citizens want pragmatism., a less ideological approach.”

Meloni is seen as vital to the reappointment of Ursula von der Leyen, whose European People’s Party came first, as Commission president, but insisted that Italy will also be seeking senior Commission posts.

She dismissed a row about the absence of the word abortion, which she fought to excise despite French and American protests, from the final G7 communique. Last year’s communique, issued under the Japanese presidency, explicitly referred to the right to abortion.

She said she “understood why some sought to light such fires”, a reference to the French president Emmanuel Macron publicly raising his rift with Meloni, but she insisted “the issue was constructed in a totally artificial manner, the controversy did not exist in our discussions because there was no reason to argue”.

The communique referred to “universal access to adequate, affordable, and quality health services for women, including comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights for all”.

She also insisted she had not sought to alter the commitment to the rights of LGBTQ+ people, saying: “We are not taking any steps backwards, and therefore the expectations of some have been disappointed, because the story did not correspond to the truth”.

Meloni, a self-described “Christian mother” has in the past condemned “LGBT lobbies”, but she said no rights had changed since she came to power in 2022.

In some respects her remarks about Israel falling into a trap set by Hamas were the most surprising. Although she stressed it was necessary to remember the attacks on women and children on 7 October, “it seems that Israel has fallen into a trap, a Hamas trap that had the aim of isolating it, and it seems to be working. We are working on its security,” she added.

But she is understood to believe that Israel should be willing to accept the peace plan set out by President Biden that seeks to create a permanent ceasefire on the basis of a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

She also gave fresh details about the $50bn (£39bn) loan to Ukraine to be funded out of the interest accrued from the $230bn frozen Russian state assets, saying the cash will be provided by the US, Canada, UK and probably Japan. “Currently, European nations are not involved”, she said.

US officials explained that some countries, notably the US and Canada, are going to contribute to the loan; others will help with the repayment. Yet more states, including the UK, will provide guarantees of repayment if the income flow isn’t sufficient to service and repay the loan in full.

Meloni said she saw little prospect of the assets being repaid to Russia for many years. She said: “Since the assets were frozen due to the sanctions and the sanctions are linked to the aggression towards Ukraine, the hypothesis of an unfreezing only occurs in the case of a peace process – but I assume that in this process of peace, the issue of who should pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine would also be negotiated.”

She described Vladimir Putin’s peace offer delivered on Friday as a propaganda initiative rather than a real peace proposal.

Eight Israeli soldiers have been killed in a blast that engulfed their armoured vehicle in southern Gaza, in the biggest loss of life for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a single incident since January.

The deaths came amid continuing fighting around Rafah in which at least 19 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes.

According to the IDF, the squad of combat engineers were in a convoy of half a dozen armoured vehicles returning from a mission at about 5am on Saturday morning in the Tal al-Sultan area of the southern Gaza city when their vehicle was destroyed.

Earlier, the armed wing of Hamas said fighters had ambushed an armoured personnel carrier, killing and wounding a number of Israeli soldiers, in the area in the west of Rafah, where Israeli forces have been advancing for weeks.

According to reports in the Israeli media, the IDF was investigating whether the vehicle exploded after being targeted or following the accidental detonation of explosives which the soldiers had been transporting in their vehicle.

The explosives had been stored on the vehicle’s exterior, a tactic reportedly used to avoid harm to the occupants in the event of detonation. The blast occurred after several other vehicles had already passed the same location, and killed all those inside immediately.

The latest deaths will probably fuel mounting calls for a ceasefire and heighten Israeli public anger over ultra-Orthodox exemptions from the military. Although IDF fatalities from the Gaza operation and immediate surroundings, which now stand at 307, have been hugely outnumbered by Palestinian deaths – which have seen more than 37,000 killed, the majority of them civilians – the growing toll of death and injuries to Israel’s armed forces has taken greater prominence as the war has dragged on.

In January, 21 Israeli troops were killed in a single attack. On Sunday the Israeli cabinet is expected to discuss increasing the age limit for reserve duty for soldiers by a year. It follows the recent decision to raise the cap on the number of reservists who can be called up by 50,000, amid evidence that the IDF is being stretched fighting on two fronts and with no end to the conflict in sight.

In May, the parents of more than 900 Israeli soldiers deployed in Gaza signed a letter urging the military to call off its ongoing offensive in Rafah, calling it a “deadly trap” for their children.

“It is evident to anyone with common sense that after months of warnings and announcements regarding an incursion into Rafah, there are forces on the other side actively preparing to strike our troops,” said the letter, sent on 2 May.

“Our sons are physically and mentally exhausted,” adds the letter, addressed to the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and the IDF chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi.

“And now, you intend to send them into this perilous situation? … This appears to be nothing short of recklessness.”

The increasing combat toll also comes against the background of a heated debate around the issue of who serves in the army. Last month, Israel’s supreme court ordered an end to government subsidies for many ultra-Orthodox men who don’t serve in the army.

However, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government – which relies heavily on ultra-Orthodox parties – last week voted in favour of a new law extending exemptions for religious men.

Although the first vote was only procedural, it caused an uproar by being approved during a war in which hundreds of soldiers have died and many others remain inside Gaza or on the frontlines against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

That prompted a second open letter last week from families of combat soldiers addressed to Gallant and Halevi. In the letter the families said they were asking their “fighting children” to “stop the fighting right now, put down their weapons and return home immediately,” adding: “We will not sacrifice our children on the altar of public corruption.”

Harry, 71

My body just reacted. I suddenly felt, I’d love to take this person to bed just to get closer to her

I had a wonderful partner who died suddenly six years ago. I gave up hope for a while, but eventually started dating. I wasn’t sure I’d ever fall in love again, or meet somebody I’d want to be with for the rest of my life. So I was surprised when I met Meredith and we hit it off. We’ve now been together for two and a half years, and I probably have a constant smile on my face.

I think I have quite a big sex drive. Not ridiculous, but I’ve always enjoyed it. I could never understand why people would spend a fortune on a meal and wine, when sex and intimacy are the most wonderful free thing and can bring such happiness – and the experience lingers way longer than a gulp of red wine.

I was really anxious when Meredith and I first slept together, on our fourth date. I’ve never had problems achieving or maintaining an erection but I was worried whether I would be able to stay firm when I was with somebody else after my wife, or whether the picture of her would come into my mind. I even bought some Viagra. But my body just reacted. It’s as simple as that. I suddenly felt: I’d love to take this person to bed just to get closer to her.

I’m quite happy just pleasing Meredith. I enjoy it so much, especially going down on her. In the bedroom I try to play a little game to guess what’s going to turn her on. She might want me to gently lick and kiss her, or it might just be a hug. She’s very open about what she likes and we often spend hours discussing what’s bad or good, and what we can do to improve our love life – not just sex but our relationship.

There’s a 14-year gap between us, and I wonder if that will catch up with me, and how Meredith will feel about it. But after losing my wife so suddenly, it made me realise that I shouldn’t worry about the future.

So I’m just going to enjoy being in the moment: like climbing naked into bed with Meredith, drinking a cup of tea and just chatting, which usually leads to us making love.

Meredith, 57

I didn’t connect with my vulva really, and I was apprehensive to start with when Harry and I first slept together

I separated from my husband of over a decade in 2020. After a couple of years being single, I wanted to find someone I could have a serious relationship with, but also a lot of fun – something that had been missing in my marriage. The idea of a dating site was daunting but exciting. Harry was my first date.

Prior to meeting Harry, sex had never been a priority. My husband had a very Victorian attitude to sex – he wouldn’t go down on me and our sex life was very repetitive.

But Harry and I have such a good sex life that I think: “Christ, this is what I’ve been missing.” It’s been a revelation, particularly with cunnilingus. Because of my husband’s almost disgust of it, I just cut out that part of my body. I didn’t connect with my vulva, and I was apprehensive about it when Harry and I first slept together. I felt my body tighten up and couldn’t let go.

But Harry is a competent, confident lover. He kept saying: “Sweetheart, I absolutely love doing this.” It took me a while to accept that he did, but now I just let go and enjoy it, too. And that’s probably been one of the biggest changes for me sexually: it’s a pleasure for him and a huge pleasure for me.

We live about an hour apart and see each other at weekends. We’ve worked out that having sex in the morning works for us. We are very intimate and tactile, and kiss a lot. Kissing is really important and it’s always how things start, as that’s how Harry gets aroused.

We approach our whole relationship like a work in progress. We’ll have a review every now and then, where we each talk uninterrupted about every aspect of our relationship. That includes talking about sex, which I had never really done before. We discuss what we like, what we want, how to keep it fresh and have fun. And we do have a lot of fun.

Hikers may be inadvertently damaging the environment and risking their own health by wearing clothes made waterproof with “forever chemicals”, according to research by Ethical Consumer.

The campaigning magazine examined 27 companies that make outdoor clothing such as fleeces, waterproof jackets, walking boots and rucksacks, and found 82% were still using per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

Some chemicals classed as PFAS have been linked to health problems including high cholesterol, fertility, immune system disorders and some cancers. They have been used in consumer products since the 1950s and can take hundreds of years to degrade, contaminating the soil and water supply.

The government said in February that it was considering restricting the use of PFAS in consumer products under the UK’s REACH chemical regulations on the basis that they may be hazardous. Yet there are alternatives. Páramo and Finisterre use no PFAS in their products, while Fjällräven, Alpkit, Lowe Alpine and Patagonia are mostly PFAS free. They and more than a dozen other firms say they will end their PFAS use next year.

But nearly half of the companies assessed by Ethical Consumer had no phase-out date for using PFAS.

Jane Turner, an Ethical Consumer writer and researcher, said: “The irreversible global contamination and extreme toxicity of ‘forever chemicals’ have been undisputed for years, but most outdoor clothing companies are still unnecessarily using them and adding to the PFAS pollution burden. That’s not acceptable, and companies must stop using them now. Consumers should only buy from the responsible companies that have stopped using PFAS.”

There are more than 10,000 PFAS chemicals, according to Fidra, an environmental charity aiming to reduce plastic waste and chemical pollution. Those used in outdoor gear help fabrics repel water, making the liquid slide off.

The process of weathering the material means that hikers wearing outdoor gear shed some of the chemicals into the environment, although most PFAS pollution occurs during the manufacture of the chemicals, when they are applied to fabric, and when a product is thrown away.

Hannah Evans, a project manager at Fidra, said: “PFAS have been found in rivers running through England, on the slopes of Mount Everest and in more than 600 wildlife species, from polar bears to bottlenose dolphins.

“In Europe alone there are at least 23,000 known contamination sites, 2,000 of which are considered PFAS ‘hotspots’ – areas where ­concentrations are deemed hazardous to health. PFAS are contributing to a global chemical pollution crisis.”

Páramo said it did not use PFAS in its products because its fabric, Nikwax, mimicked animal fur by pushing water outwards. But contamination from other companies using the chemicals can be a problem for firms trying to move away from PFAS.

“The biggest issue for us was not removing PFAS substances from our own processes but rather persuading the fabric mills we work with to do the same, guaranteeing PFAS-free fabrics,” a Páramo spokesperson said. “Since 2016, we have been able to guarantee that every single garment we make is PFAS-free.”

The attraction of using PFAS is that it can make fabrics stain resistant as well as water resistant. They are also used to make nonstick frying pans, fridges, jet engines and electrical devices. Choosing to remove a potential selling point can be a difficult decision for some companies to make. Keen, whose walking boots have been PFAS-free since 2018, said that it “just needed something that was effective at repelling water and dirt” rather than “stains, grease and motor oil”.

Fjällräven said that not making its jackets oil repellent was “a low price to pay. It’s easy to add functionality because it’s nice to have, but every function has a side-effect”.

The Royal Society of Chemistry has called on the next government to establish an agency to regulate the use of PFAS and other substances. After Brexit, the UK left the ECHA, the European chemicals agency, and chemical use is governed by the Health and Safety Executive with the support of the Environment Agency. The government under Theresa May promised in 2018 to create a chemicals strategy, yet nothing has been published.

The Princess of Wales watched the spectacle of the trooping the colour ceremony from the windows of the Major General’s office, along with her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, in her first public appearance since revealing her cancer diagnosis.

Catherine, who wore white with navy details, could be seen earlier smiling and talking to her children, who were dressed in navy and white, in their carriage before they arrived at Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall. The Princess of Wales, who is the regiment’s colonel, also wore an Irish guards regimental brooch. They were cheered by crowds in the Mall as they left Buckingham Palace.

King Charles and Queen Camilla were riding in a carriage in their royal procession ahead of the Princess of Wales.

The Princess of Wales was photographed prior to that arriving at Buckingham Palace by car before the parade.

Ahead of the event, Kate said in a statement: “I’m looking forward to attending the King’s birthday parade this weekend with my family and hope to join a few public engagements over the summer, but equally knowing I am not out of the woods yet.

“I am learning how to be patient, especially with uncertainty. Taking each day as it comes, listening to my body and allowing myself to take this much needed time to heal.”

The Princess of Wales said she was making “good progress” but “there are good days and bad days”. “On those bad days you feel weak, tired and you have to give in to your body resting. But on the good days, when you feel stronger, you want to make the most of feeling well.” She added that her treatment will continue “for a few more months”.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “His Majesty is delighted that the princess is able to attend tomorrow’s events and is much looking forward to all elements of the day.”

The celebration has been held on the sovereign’s birthday for more than 260 years. At the event, Number 9 Company, Irish guards, a regiment Kate represents as colonel, will be trooping the king’s colour.

In a letter read to the regiment last week, the Princess of Wales, who is undergoing chemotherapy, wrote to the Irish guards to apologise for being unable to take the salute and wished them luck. Lt Gen Sir James Bucknall will take the salute on her behalf.

The king, who is also undergoing treatment for cancer, will not ride on horseback during the ceremony, but will instead review the parade from an Ascot landau carriage. He attended his first trooping at the age of three, riding in a carriage with his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

More than 1,250 soldiers and hundreds of Guardsmen assembled on the parade ground to be inspected by the King from his carriage with Queen Camilla, who is colonel of the Grenadier Guards, and accompanied by the mounted royal colonels.

The stands overlooking the parade ground were filled with about 8,000 family members and partners of the guardsmen and officers on parade.

Alaska’s capital city is to limit the numbers of cruise ship passengers arriving at the port amid concerns over tourism’s growing impact, but a leading critic of the industry has said further measures to protect Alaskans’ quality of life are needed.

Located on the Gastineau Channel in southern Alaska, Juneau has a population of 32,000 and last year received a record 1.65 million cruise ship passengers – a 23% increase from the previous high.

While many businesses encourage the bonanza of tourist dollars, other people are bothered by buzzing helicopters, crowded streets and hiking trails, and damage to the local environment.

Seeking to balance the economic benefits against the effects of high numbers of visitors, the city reached an agreement last week with the Cruise Lines International Association in Alaska that will limit daily cruise passenger arrivals to 16,000 from Sundays to Fridays and to 12,000 on Saturdays.

Juneau’s tourism manager, Alexandra Pierce, said: “The city’s position is that we do not have room for cruise growth with our current infrastructure and we have negotiated the daily passenger limits to bring down our busiest days.” The agreement aimed to hold cruise passenger numbers roughly steady while the city worked on improving infrastructure, she said.

“Cruise tourism is important for our local and regional economies and we need to be good neighbours while also finding the balance between concerned residents and the local livelihoods that depend on the visitor industry,” Pierce said.

A former gold-rush town set near an imposing glacier, amid lush rainforests, towering mountains and abutting a pristine waterway that is home to humpback whales, Juneau has become Alaska’s most popular port for cruise ships.

Karla Hart, a Juneau resident and longtime critic of the cruise industry, remains concerned that the daily visitors allowed under the new agreement could still see arrival records broken over the course of the 22-week cruise season.

“The city’s direction to the staff was to hold the number or somewhat reduce it, and yet we now have a negotiated agreement that, if you do the math, would let us have 2.5 million cruise-ship passengers,” she said.

Instead, Hart is backing a local referendum proposal for “ship-free Saturdays”, a policy that would prevent ships with more than 250 passengers stopping in Juneau one day a week.

“Our ballot initiative is really looking at providing some quality-of-life protection for the community that we can tangibly see and feel one day a week by not having the cruise ships in our port,” she said.

The cruise industry is booming after the pandemic, and the ships are getting bigger. Some vessels are now able to carry close to 6,000 passengers, with insiders saying the industry is still far from reaching the limits of how big they can get.

In January, the world’s largest cruise ship to date, Icon of the Seas, was launched. It towers 20 decks above sea level, carries more than 7,000 passengers and crew, and has the world’s largest waterpark on a ship.

Juneau is not the only city concerned about the growing social and environmental impacts of cruise ships. In 2021, Venice banned them from the city’s lagoon altogether, while Barcelona has restricted access and Amsterdam has introduced a day tax on passengers.

Hart said: “Air and water emissions from the cruise ships are a big concern, as well as ship strikes and climate change. The list goes on.”

Rebecca on Lars

South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa has been reelected by lawmakers for a second term, hours after his African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance (DA) agreed to form a coalition, setting aside their rivalry in a historic governance pact.

Ramaphosa won the late Friday vote against Julius Malema, leader of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters, winning 283 votes to Malema’s 44.

Earlier in the day the pro-business DA said it would vote for Ramaphosa as part of an agreement with the former liberation movement to form a unity government.

Ramaphosa’s centrist preferences ultimately won out over more leftwing factions of the ANC which wanted to strike a deal with breakaway parties that back nationalisation and seizing land from white farmers. The deal was struck amid criticisms that the DA favours the interests of South Africa’s white minority, something it denies.

The ANC lost its parliamentary majority in the 29 May elections for the first time since it swept to power in 1994 at the end of apartheid. Its vote share collapsed from 57.5% in 2019 to 40.2%, as supporters defected to breakaway parties amid chronic unemployment and worsening public services.

The DA, which received almost 22% of the vote, will back Ramaphosa’s election by lawmakers for a second term, while its MPs will also vote for an ANC speaker of parliament in return for the position of deputy speaker, its leader, John Steenhuisen, told a press briefing.

“Today, the DA becomes a party of national government,” Steenhuisen said, after the legislators were sworn in at a convention centre in Cape Town, while the parliament buildings are still being renovated after a fire in 2022.

“Through their votes, the people have made it clear that they do not want any one party to dominate our society. The people have also told us that the time for finger-pointing is over and that the time for a new politics of collaboration and problem-solving has arrived.”

An ANC-DA coalition was favoured by large businesses and international investors, with Ramaphosa, 71, expected to continue to try pushing forward policies such as allowing the private sector to generate renewable energy, which has contributed to a fall in power cuts.

Negotiations will continue after Friday on policies and cabinet positions, Steenhuisen said, adding that the two-week period after election results that the constitution mandates for the election of a president was not long enough to reach a full coalition agreement.

A “statement of intent” signed by the ANC and DA includes a commitment to a “merit-based, nonpartisan and professional civil service”. The DA has long criticised the ANC appointment of its supporters to public sector positions, known in South Africa as “cadre deployment”, claiming it fosters corruption.

Two smaller parties, the Inkatha Freedom party (IFP), a Zulu nationalist party, and the Patriotic Alliance (PA), which wants to bring back the death penalty and deport illegal immigrants, have also said they will join the government.

The inclusion of the IFP, which received 3.8% of the vote, is viewed as a way to deflect criticism of the ANC for working with the white-led DA. The PA, led by the self-described reformed bank robber Gayton McKenzie, received 2% of the vote and has its support base in South Africa’s Coloured communities.

The ANC’s vote share collapsed in large part due to the new uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, named for the ANC’s armed wing during apartheid. It came a surprise third in the election with 14.6% of the vote, just six months after it was launched by the former president Jacob Zuma, who has feuded bitterly with Ramaphosa since being forced to resign the presidency in 2018.

The MK party, which wants to replace constitutional democracy with parliamentary supremacy, boycotted parliament’s opening, after a legal challenge to the election results was rejected by the country’s top court. It has said it would not work with the ANC while it is led by Ramaphosa, who said that potential coalition partners needed to respect the constitution.

Meanwhile, the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), who were sworn in as MPs in their trademark red overalls, some wearing hard hats and rubber boots, were among the parties that turned down Ramaphosa’s call to join a Government of National Unity (GNU).

Malema, the EFF leader, who founded the Marxist party in 2013 after he was expelled by the ANC while its youth leader, said it would not join a government with the “neo-colonial” DA, which he labelled “our enemy”.

Some ANC politicians and supporters had favoured a coalition with either or both the EFF and MK, viewing them as political and ideological relatives.

Ramaphosa’s call for a GNU, however, was in keeping with his cautious political approach, some analysts said, and positioned the ANC as inclusive, with parties that didn’t join excluding themselves.

A pro-Palestinian student encampment at a prominent Canadian university has announced a “revolutionary youth summer program” with posts featuring photos of masked, armed guerrillas reading communist literature, drawing criticism from a Canadian Zionist organization decrying what it said was metastasizing antisemitism.

The student group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill called for students to sign up for “revolutionary” trainings to be held on the university campus this month. Since April SPHR McGill has been occupying part of the Montreal campus to protest against Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.

“We pledge to educate the youth of Montreal and redefine McGill’s ‘elite’ institutional legacy by transforming its space into one of revolutionary education,” the group said in a post.

“The daily schedule will include physical activity, Arabic language instruction, cultural crafts, political discussions, historical and revolutionary lessons.”

The announcement was illustrated with photos of gunmen wearing keffiyeh scarves covering their faces reading from Chairman Mao Zedong’s Little Red Book. The photos of the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation were taken in Jordan in 1970, a time when the Chinese Communist party supported the Palestinian movement.

In a statement on Friday, the McGill president and vice-chancellor, Deep Saini, described the use of the image as “extremely alarming” and said the university had contacted law enforcement agencies.

“It should go without saying that imagery evoking violence is not a tool of peaceful expression or assembly. This worrying escalation is emblematic of the rising tensions on campuses across North America, where we have seen many incidents that go well beyond what universities are equipped to manage on their own,” he said.

Saini said the university had contacted “municipal, provincial and federal public safety authorities, flagging this social media post and other recent activities as matters of national security, and requesting all appropriate interventions to ensure the safety of our community”.

Montreal police say they have no plans to end the pro-Palestinian encampment.

SPHR did not respond to requests for comment but one McGill faculty member said that while the advertisement used deliberately provocative imagery, what was being proposed appeared to amount to a teach-in.

“I don’t see anything objectionable in providing history and context to the current movement,” said Barry Eidlin, an associate professor of sociology at McGill.

“Are you going to be outraged about a 50-year-old picture of a PLO guerrilla, or by hundreds of people in a refugee camp being slaughtered because the Israeli government doesn’t know how to negotiate and feels that they can kill any number of Palestinians to justify liberating a few hostages?” he asked.

This week SPHR rejected McGill’s latest offer aimed at securing an end to their protest.

The student group has been calling on the university to cut investments they say are complicit in the genocide of Palestinians and to end relations with Israeli academic institutions.

The students rejected a proposal to offer clemency to protesting students and to review McGill’s investments in weapons manufacturers as “laughable” and “an immaterial response”.

The Canadian Zionist organisation the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) called on McGill to stop turning a blind eye to “hate and toxicity”.

“Authorities must act to dismantle the toxic encampment immediately, or the antisemitism, hate, intimidation & harassment will continue to metastasize,” it said in a statement.

“You have masked individuals with assault rifle weapons as the image representing what they hope to do, they’re calling it revolution,” Eta Yudin, CIJA vice-president for Québec, told the Guardian. “One has to ask what they have planned?”

Let’s rock! Germany’s players were clearly paying close and diligent attention to Julian Nagelsmann’s signoff at his pre-tournament press conference.

At the Munich Football Arena the hosts kicked off Euro 2024 with a kind of pomp-metal power surge, a first-half display that brought three goals, a red card for Ryan Porteous and evidence of how well Nagelsmann has rebalanced this talented German team.

The night ended in a 5-1 defeat for a persevering Scotland, but it was pretty much packed away in those 10 first-half minutes, with goals from Florian Wirtz and the impressive Jamal Musiala, plus a series of lovely supple passing moves fed through the ageing rhythm section Toni Kroos.

Scotland did at least win the pre- match, occupying Munich for the last two days, wallpapering the Aldstadt with wool-mix plaid. They almost had the last laugh too, pulling one back via an own goal from Antonio Rüdiger. But Emre Can added a fifth in stoppage time. At the end the home players took time to commune with the crowd, take in the ripples of the flag and parp of the horns. It was a near-perfect opening night.

The Munich Football Arena is a giant lighted doughnut dumped down on the wooded fringes of Munich. Hours before kick-off its ­concourses were blocked with heaving human flesh for a game that seems to have acted as a kind of bat-signal for the global Scottish diaspora.

Germany has been a little cool ahead of these Euros. As ever this kind of occasion trails its own fog of mild confusion over flags and emblems and optics. Exactly how German do we want to be here? And is that OK? In the event this turned out to be a gloriously full-throated occasion.

Before kick-off the pitch was concealed beneath miraculous white Uefa vinyl flooring, while joyful gnome-like figures of no discernible nationality gambolled and pranced to give a sense of inoffensive pageantry. The anthems were intense. This felt real, authentic, one of those occasions where memories of early tournament goals, the first eruption of the crowd, are minted and never quite forgotten.

Steve Clarke left Billy Gilmour on the bench, bringing in Callum McGregor. Germany were as expected. Nagelsmann only recently switched to the 4-2-3-1 that has seen this team begin to thrum up through the gears. And they were in with 55 seconds gone, Angus Gunn blocking Wirtz’s close-range shot. He was ­offside. But it felt like a moment. Wirtz’s direct, creative energy is key to how Germany hope to play.

Clarke has done an excellent job of organising this Scotland team, radiating both gloom and quiet optimism in just the right measures. But he will be frustrated by the way his players let Kroos have his own portable pocket of space here.

It was Kroos who made the pass that made the opener on 10 minutes. This was a lovely Germany move and a really poor defensive moment for Scotland, who offered no resistance, lulled by the flight of the ball as Kroos pinged his second howling dipping diagonal out to Joshua Kimmich on the right.

Kimmich was free to lay an easy pass across the empty channel of green at the edge of the Scottish area. Wirtz had time to essay a lovely running first-time shot that Gunn got a hand to, but could not keep out. It felt like a training ground goal, with cones for defenders, lovely geometry, the ball travelling in a perfect zigzag into the Scottish net.

At that point Kroos was running the game at a leisurely pace, like a man in a hammock idly completing a word search.

It was 2-0 on 19 minutes, made by another quick-slow passing move. Kroos slipped the ball to Ilkay Gündogan, who whipped around then threaded the perfect pass to Wirtz. He laid it back to Musiala, who chopped past McGregor and didn’t just shoot, but smashed the ball into the top corner, free to choose exactly how to decorate the moment, and drawing a delayed boom of celebration, the sense of a crowd completely inside the game, reading the goal before it happened.

It got harder for Scotland. Germany had a penalty moments later, awarded by Clément Turpin, then disallowed by VAR. But they got a real one on 43 minutes, this time for a two-footed ankle-lunge by Porteous on Gündogan, for which he was correctly shown a red card. Kai Havertz took the kick, sending Gunn the wrong way. A man down, 3-0 down, Scotland trudged to the break in a kind of daze.

Robert Andrich was off at half-time and Ché Adams replaced by Grant Hanley. The question at that point seemed to be: how cruel did Germany want to be?

The Euros demand a show, an absence of dead air. Musiala went through his scales on the left. Wirtz came off to a huge ovation, part of it reserved for his replacement as Germany went full Füllkrug.

On 68 minutes Niclas Füllkrug made it 4-0, taking a loose touch from Hanley and spanking the ball with thrilling power into the top corner. Scotland’s players tracked gamely to the end. Switzerland are five days away. They will require a full mental and physical reset before then.

This was a reminder of Germany’s talent, of Nagelsmann’s status as the most state-of-the-art coach here. And a reminder too for Scotland of the brutality of tournament football, to go with its many glories.