Farmers in Denmark will have to pay for planet-heating pollutants that their cattle expel as gas, after the government agreed to set the world’s first emissions tax on agriculture.
The agreement – reached on Monday night after months of fraught negotiations between farmers, industry, politicians and environmental groups – will introduce an effective tax of 120 kroner (£14) per ton of greenhouse gas pollution from livestock in 2030, which will rise to 300 kroner per ton in 2035.
The revenues are to be pooled in a fund to support the livestock industry’s green transition for at least two years after the tax comes into effect.
“We are writing a new chapter in Danish agricultural history,” said the farming minister, Jacob Jensen.
Agriculture is responsible for about one-third of planet-heating pollution – about half of which comes from animals – but lawmakers have so far been reluctant to rein in its emissions. Angry farmers have brought traffic to a standstill in European capitals several times this year, in sometimes violent protests that forced EU leaders to water down rules designed to clean up the sector.
Last week, New Zealand scrapped its world-leading plans to tax its agricultural emissions from 2025 after resistance from farmers.
Nicolai Wammen, Denmark’s finance minister, said the agreement was an investment in the future of agriculture. “We know that a CO2 tax model aligned across all sectors gives us the lowest societal costs in total. What we have now done, from industry sectors to agriculture, shows us that an ambitious green transition is possible.”
Denmark is one of Europe’s biggest producers of pork and a significant producer of beef and milk.
Ruminant animals such as cattle and sheep release vast amounts of methane when digesting food. The gas, which is also released when extracting and processing fossil fuels, heats the planet about 80 times more than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, but does not last as long in the atmosphere.
The proposed Danish tax on agricultural emissions is below levels that experts say would reflect the social cost of emitting a ton of greenhouse gas, but may still spur shifts to cleaner farming practices. Under the EU’s emissions trading scheme, which does not cover agriculture, the price of emitting a ton of carbon dioxide has ranged from €50 to €100 over the last three years.
Prof Mark Howden, director of the Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions at the Australian National University, said “the world can no longer afford to ignore” emissions from the agri-food sector. “The solutions needed to make a significant cut in agriculture’s climate footprint already exist – but financial incentives like the Danish tax could assist them being implemented at scale,” he said.
The agreement, which must still be voted on by lawmakers, is expected to cut CO2 emissions by 1.8m tons in 2030. It includes the creation of a 40bn-kroner fund to protect nature, restore degraded ecosystems and create forests and wetlands.
“This is a historic compromise that sets a completely new direction for land use,” said Maria Reumert Gjerding, president of the Danish Society for Nature Conservation. “Despite major disagreements, we have managed to reach a compromise on a carbon tax that paves the way for a transformed food industry – also beyond 2030.”
âSandaig Bay on the Knoydart Peninusla is incredibly wild. It can only be accessed by a kayak or by walking about 5km [three miles] and was immortalised in Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell, who spent time there with his pet otters. Iâve camped there and had it completely to myself.
It has remarkable white-yellow sands, leading down to some of the clearest and coldest seas that youâll find in the nation. You look across the straits out to the Cuillins on Skye and behind you, youâve got the towering peaks of Knoydart â gargantuan mountains that drop straight down to the loch.
I like walking along the strandline, picking up old driftwood to carefully make a wildfire later, or collecting mussels and brown seaweed for a freshly foraged meal. You can even fish for mackerel or pollack, or free dive for scallops.
The loch itself is utter paradise. Even in stormy weather, the waters are glassy, flat and peaceful. Porpoises, dolphins and otters pop up alongside your kayak â the closest and best otter experience Iâve ever had in this country was on those black, calm waters. And a short paddle away is the Old Forge at Inverie, the best pub in the world, where Iâve had some of the best nights of my life. You can only get to it by sailing, paddling or walking.
Afterwards, Iâll sit around a campfire, talking nonsense with friends, and because the bay is so far north, in summer the daylight seems to last forever. But Iâve even paddled there in the middle of winter, when itâs freezing, because then you get the northern lights, and the aurora crackling over the sky at night is beyond fabulous.
It is a place that can seem too exotic, too perfect, too far away from other human beings to be real.â
Steve Backshallâs Ocean tours the UK from 19 Octoberâ3 November. For tickets, please visit stevebackshall.com
The yoga teacher
Helen Wilson â Swansea Bay, Wales
âI teach what is thought to be the largest outdoor yoga class in Europe on Swansea Bay. Every time I go there to teach a class, I see the pleasure and the calmness that it brings to others.
Itâs hard to appreciate just how wonderful it is to practise yoga on a beach until youâve done it on Swansea Bay, looking out over to the Mumbles as the sun starts to go down. There is something about the bay that encapsulates the calmness and tranquility that nature can bring us â even though it is an urban beach, linked to the city.
When you practise yoga, you try to stay in the present moment, and practising on that beautiful beach gives me and my students a unique opportunity to connect with our senses â to look out at the horizon, notice the reflection of the clouds in the water, feel the sea breeze and the sand beneath our feet, smell the saltwater. After the session, some of us will go into the sea for a swim or a paddle, so we end the class by connecting with the sea and feeling the water on our skin.
Itâs a sensory experience which is so enriching, compared to practising yoga within the four walls of an urban studio.
My students and I often get into a meditative state, for example, by focusing on the sound of the waves breaking. Being out in the big open space of the beach generally makes people less self conscious as well â the ocean and the wide expanse of the bay brings a sense of freedom and possibility. It allows me to quickly disconnect from the troubles of the outside world. When Iâm practising yoga there, I very quickly feel a release from the pressures and strains of my everyday life. And it gives me a sense of joy and peace.â
Helen Wilson is the founder of Womankind Yoga, which runs regular yoga classes on Swansea Bay. www.womankindyoga.com
The writer
Michael Morpurgo â Rushy Bay, Bryher, Isles of Scilly
âIâve been going to the Isles of Scilly every summer for more than 50 years. Rushy Bay is very beautiful and very private, with the whitest, finest sand of any beach Iâve ever seen, and it is usually empty. If you find anyone on it, theyâre probably lost.
The bay stretches out in a wonderful wide curve between rocks at each end, and about half a mile out to sea thereâs an uninhabited island called Samson Island. Itâs an extraordinary place, where people lived for hundreds of years. But in the 19th century, everyone had to leave because the well dried up. Itâs an island of ghosts, really, now.
Itâs wonderful to sit there on the sand, with the grassy dunes rising up behind you, protecting you from the wind, and look out across the blue-green sound at one of the great views of the world, full of ancient history.
During a raging storm, the sea â which is freezing â powers in from the Atlantic and looks as if itâs going to sink the island, itâs so fierce. And the next day, it will be as calm as you like.
I write by hand in school exercise books and I have sat on that beach many times and written stories. Even the rocks on that beach have got stories to tell. There are probably more wrecks around Scilly than anywhere else in the world, because itâs right at the entrance to the Channel. Sailors for centuries have sailed too close: get on the wrong side of the wind at Rushy Bay, and nothing will stop you getting blown on to the rocks.
Itâs a very good place for collecting cowrie shells, for talking and walking, and for paddling in the sea with grandchildren. I often go there in the morning, read or write, and make the first footprints in the sand, listening for the sounds of the oystercatchers tinkling in the air before they land in twos and threes on the shoreline to fish. And so, whenever I think of the island, that sound comes into my mind, and I hear again the song of the Isles of Scilly: the song of the oystercatcher.â
Finding Alfie by Michael Morpurgo is out now and The National Theatreâs acclaimed production of War Horse returns to the stage in a UK tour this September
The walker
Anita Sethi â North Landing Beach, Yorkshire coast
âI discovered North Landing beach quite by chance after hiking along the Yorkshire coast from Scarborough. I was exhausted when I arrived, and this beach â with all its amazing wildlife â was so reviving. Itâs near RSPB Bempton Cliffs nature reserve. There are seals and a seabird colony â I will never forget hearing the different birds singing as they swooped around the enormous Flamborough cliffs, and seeing a puffin for the first time, I felt an almost childlike delight. There was a sense of being an adventurer, of discovering somewhere wild and free.
Itâs off the beaten track and quite unknown. You can hike from North Landing Beach to Thornwick Bay, which is full of smugglersâ caves â caves which you can actually walk through. Along the way, youâll see bright hotspots of moss and lichen set off against the stones, and wildflowers growing on the cliffside. Youâll sense the movements of the Earth spinning, youâll see the changes in the sky and the landscape from hour to hour, youâll see the ebb and flow of the sea, the pull of the moon, the sun rising or sinking in the sky. And youâll gain a sense of perspective about your place in the universe.
I grew up in a city and being close to wildlife and birds â so close you can hear their wings flap â it makes me feel connected with life, with nature. It brings back a primal sense of astonishment, that I exist, on this amazing planet, with all these extraordinary creatures.
I think itâs important to experience that restorative power of nature, and to understand that if we donât care for the sea, if we keep destroying our planet and putting plastic and pollution in the ocean, we wonât have that respite any more. We wonât be able to experience that restoration. And it will be heartbreaking.â
Anita Sethi is a nature writer and author ofI Belong Here: a Journey Along the Backbone of Britain. www.anitasethi.com
The forager
Jayson Byles â Catterline Bay, Scotland
âMy favourite beach is Catterline Bay on the north-east coast of Scotland. It has a diverse, rocky terrain, which means you can forage many different types of seaweed there in different seasons. For example, dulse, a red, smoky, salty seaweed whose nickname is bacon of the sea, and winged kelp â or dabberlocks, as it is known in Scotland â a brown seaweed, which is super versatile and very high in naturally occurring monosodium glutamate (MSG). That means you can use it to wrap other food and it will enhance the flavour of whatever youâre cooking. Iâve also found coastal plants like sea rocket there, growing wild.
Itâs a very atmospheric beach. All you can see when you look out is the ocean. When Iâm there, I feel as if Iâm out in the wild, like Iâm the only human whoâs ever been there. Iâll go to forage â and snack on â seaweed in the evening at low tide, then stay to watch the sunset.
My relationship with the sea is very nurturing. It provides for me and helps me put food on the table, and so I try to reciprocate by sharing my knowledge of foraging with others. I want people to fall in love with the sea and take care of it.
A lot of my heritage is Polynesian, from the Pacific Islands, and people who know me say I have saltwater in my veins. If Iâm away from the sea for too long, I get withdrawal symptoms. I feel this craving to go and smell the sea.
Catterline Bay is on the North Sea. But every time I put my foot in the water, I feel connected to the Pacific, I feel connected to my home.â
Jayson Byles runs seawood foraging and cooking workshops for schools and individuals via www.EastNeukSeaweed.com
The surfer
Alys Barton â Llangennith Beach, Wales
âI grew up surfing at Llangennith Beach â I caught my first wave here when I was 13. Now Iâm the European, British and English Surfing Champion and I feel very lucky to have the waves at Llangennith on my doorstep. It offers the most consistent break on the Gower peninsula â itâs like a playground for surfers, there are always waves there, and they can range from really small to very big, because it gets a lot of swell from the ocean.
I do most of my training there and my favourite time to surf is sunset. On Llangennith, the sun sets right in front of you, as youâre looking out to sea. The beach is super sandy, but it also gets lots of little rocks, because thereâs a massive tide here. Itâs spacious â thereâs a huge amount of beach to walk on â and at sunset, itâs peaceful and quiet.
As a surfer, I have learned to appreciate the power and unpredictability of the sea. It can be a frustrating place for me, but it can also be liberating, being in an environment that I canât control. When Iâm out there on my board, I can let go of everything, and just enjoy it. And then I feel very lucky that I have the opportunity to do something so exhilarating and exciting, every day, in such a beautiful place.â
Rachel Reeves talks to business executives. She met some in December, after a £150,000 donation to Labour from a financial services firm. She met more in January, at capitalism’s annual jamboree in Davos. And just this week she told a meeting of City bankers their “fingerprints are all over” Labour’s manifesto.
But she does not talk so much to young people worried about the climate emergency. Or so 23-year-old Zakfound when he tracked Reeves down to a cafe where she was campaigning on Wednesday morning. “I’m a young person with Green New Deal Rising,” he said, approaching her.
She peered at him, warily. “We’re literally just about to go,” she said, then picked up her handbag and walked away.
Green New Deal Rising (GNDR) does not block roads, smash windows or douse paintings with soup. Instead the youth-focused climate campaign tries to engage politicians and work the political system. It has a plan to short-circuit electoral politics by endorsing a cross-party slate of candidates it hopes will push progressive action on the environment on to the agenda.
“Rachel, please, you barely speak to young people, you barely talk to us,” Zak, whoasked for his surname not to be published, shouted after the shadow chancellor, dodging besuited lackeys to pursue her into the streets of Swindon.
“Rachel, young people are desperate. Climate scientists are saying it’s a code red for humanity, but you’ve backed away from £28bn of climate investment, you refuse to tax the super-rich, you’re refusing to invest in our communities.”
Shortly after, the scene was broadcast on TikTok, Instagram and X, showing Reeves’s refusal to reply thousands of the campaign’s followers.
Faced with such situations, Keir Starmer is fond of saying Labour has changed: it is no longer the party of protest. On that the Labour leader’s critics agree: as the presumptive government in waiting, and one that has U-turned already on key environmental and social policies, Labour has changed and is now the party facing protest.
“The Labour party are on track to become our next government but they are not offering us the solutions we need,” said Fatima Ibrahim, the GNDR co-director. “Instead they’re telling us there is no money, whilst courting corporations and refusing to tax the super-rich.”
When the Guardian visited Ibrahim at GNDR’s offices in Bethnal Green, east London, a fidget spinner lay on a table next to a laptop. About 10 young organisers, none over the age of 35, were crammed in, hunched over desks or on phones. “In the election period it’s been quite busy,” Ibrahim said.
On the wall was a large map of the UK, identifying key areas where GNDR hopes its campaigning can sway the vote. Last weekend they were in Brighton Pavilion, where they knocked on more than 1,000 doors for Siân Berry, who is hoping to succeed Caroline Lucas as its Green MP. This weekend they will be in Bristol Central, where Carla Denyer, the Greens’ co-leader is thought to have a strong chance of unseating Thangam Debbonaire, Labour’s culture spokesperson.
Controversially, GNDR is also backing six Labour candidates: Olivia Blake in Sheffield Hallam, Clive Lewis in Norwich South, John McDonnell in Hayes and Harlington, Bell Ribeiro-Addy in Clapham and Brixton Hill, Zarah Sultana in Coventry South and Nadia Whittome in Nottingham East. This is despite the party being the butt of much of the group’s critical campaigning, and now also being notorious for its ruthless moves to silence dissent.
In all, counting independents and a couple of Lib Dems – but no Conservatives – GNDR has identified 15 candidates who align with its aims and politics, and who it hopes will form a “climate caucus” within parliament.
Ibrahim said: “We have to start building the political bloc who can be a vanguard for the green new deal, and so in this election, we have seats and candidates that we’re organising around.
“We’ve seen it with even Caroline Lucas, the sole Green MP, and what she’s been able to do over the last 10 years to make climate change mainstream … So we’re hoping we can replicate that with a group of MPs who are aligned around the green new deal and who are then supported by a movement that is organising on the outside.”
Ibrahim and her co-director, Hannah Martin, started campaigning for a green new deal in 2019, taking inspiration from the the US green new deal movement. “And seeing the energy of ‘the Squad’, the political grouping who were leading that in the US, matched by a vibrant youth movement, the Sunrise Movement, we were inspired in recreating that,” Ibrahim said.
In 2021, Ibrahim and Martin decided the policy work they had begun with would not be enough and decided to focus on the movement side, and Green New Deal Rising was born. They also pivoted to youth organising, “because we were young people and we wanted to organise people like us”, Ibrahim said.
A week before the Guardian met Ibrahim, GNDR activists turned up at Labour’s clause V meeting, where the party’s bigwigs were gathering to sign off on the manifesto. “I just want to talk about how you’re letting our generation down,” a young woman was recorded telling David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary.
GNDR hopes to reignite a youth interest in electoral politics that was last seen in the grassroots group Momentum, before Jeremy Corbyn was expelled from the Labour party. But where Momentum had deep ties to Labour and party politics, GNDR’s activism is focused on the cause. Its targeting of Labour is instrumental, rather than ideological.
“I think that’s where we’re different to other movements,” said Ibrahim. “It’s that we’re combining the kind of deeply political organising with social movement vision and radicalism.
“We particularly wanted to organise gen Z and millennials because it felt like it was a generation that had a shared story and a shared experience of the world. Like whether you’re 31 like me or you’re 16, we have something in common, which is we’ve only known crisis – we were born into a climate crisis, there’s been economic crashes, work is becoming increasingly precarious, our communities are changing for the worse in many ways – and that could bind our our generations together to fight for an alternative.”
Jeremy Renner doesnât âhave the energyâ to take on challenging roles after his near fatal snowplough accident 18 months ago, saying he is âvery terrifiedâ to act again.
Speaking on the Smartless podcast, which is hosted by actors Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes, the Oscar-nominated actor said he was finding acting harder than he did before January 2023, when he was hospitalised in critical condition after his own Sno-Cat ran him over while he was clearing snow from the roads near his home in Nevada.
âI just donât have the energy for it. I donât have the fuel,â Renner said. âI have so much fuel to put into this reality, this body, all this stuff. I canât just go play make-believe right now. Because that takes a lot of time to get right here every day just so I can have a positive thought, so I can progress, so I can always keep growing.â
Renner is best known for his roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Mission Impossible films, as well as his Oscar-nominated turn in The Hurt Locker.
After a year of rehabilitation, which included healing more than 30 broken bones and learning to walk unassisted again, Renner returned to acting in January this year, to film the third season of his drama Mayor of Kingstown.
Of returning to acting, the 53-year-old told Arnett, Bateman and Hayes, âIâm still trying to live in reality, Iâm trying to live. So it was a hard line for me to cross. It was a big stretch. It was very, very challenging for me mentally to get over that hump.â
âI still struggle with it sometimes ⦠I donât take it super seriously. Iâm in a character that I can do very well and I know the show very well, so it was easy for me to kind of slide back into it,â Renner said, of stepping back into his role as Mike McLusky in Mayor of Kingstown. âBut if it was a very challenging role, I couldnât have taken it. Not challenging in the sense that â because the showâs challenging, but itâs if I had to go play Dahmer or something, something so far from me.â
Renner is next set to star alongside Daniel Craig in Rian Johnsonâs third Knives Out film, Wake Up Dead Man, which will be his first film role since the accident. Renner joins Johnsonâs whodunit franchise with Andrew Scott, Glenn Close, Kerry Washington, Josh Brolin, Josh OâConnor and Cailee Spaeny.
With that, the WikiLeaks founder uttered the first words that the assembled journalists and supporters had heard from him, since the latest â and perhaps final â extraordinary chapter in his legal battle had begun.
In a wood-panelled courthouse, at the foot of a lush hillside on the Saipan coast, Assange waited through three hours of a hearing that would see him plead guilty to violating US espionage law, in a deal that would allow him to be reunited with his family in Australia.
As he entered the court under a blazing blue sky, Assange took no questions from the swarming media â many of whom had flown thousands of miles to this remote American outpost of 40,000 people in the Northern Mariana Islands. One asked whether he preferred the weather in Saipan to London.
The chief judge Ramona V Manglona opened the proceedings. She noted that the court room was unusually packed and asked Assange to confirm what he had done and why he was pleading guilty.
Assange replied that working as a journalist he had encouraged a source to provide classified information and believed the first amendment protected that activity. He was now accepting that it was in fact a violation of the US espionage act.
Asked again if he was pleading guilty because he is âin fact guilty of that chargeâ, Assange took a long pause.
âI am,â he said.
As the unprecedented hearing continued, the judge noted that the timing of it was key to its outcome.
âIf this case was brought before me some time near 2012, without the benefit of what I know now, that you served a period of imprisonment ⦠in apparently one of the harshest facilities in the United Kingdom ⦠I would not be so inclined to accept this plea agreement before me,â she said.
âBut itâs the year 2024.â
Manglona declared she would accept the terms of the plea deal hashed out between Assange and the US government. Assange was invited to stand before her and receive his sentence, with his time already served in a British jail meaning that he would be immediately freed, with no period of supervision.
âWith this pronouncement it appears you will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man. I hope there will be some peace restored,â Manglona said.
That this outcome was all but certain the second Assange walked into the courtroom, did little to diminish the impact of the moment. The WikiLeaks founder appeared emotional as he nodded at the judge, acknowledging the verdict.
âIt appears this case ends with me here in Saipan,â Manglona went on, asking him whether he understood all the details of the agreement.
Assange replied, now a little hoarse: âI do.â
He tightened his tie and held his glasses in his hand as the judge went through the final formalities.
âWith that ⦠Mr Assange itâs apparently an early happy birthday to you,â she said.
âI understand your birthday is next week. I hope you will start your new life in a positive manner.â
The court was adjourned.
As Assange hugged his lawyers, shook the hands of those who had pursued him and signed autographs for supporters, he began to tear up.
In front of the sparkling Pacific, next to a beach where stray kittens ran among the trees, a 14 year legal saga came to a surprising and sudden end, half a world away from where it first began.
Gareth Southgate talked about being in âan unusual environmentâ after having plastic beer cups thrown at him by England fans and hearing his team booed off after their 0-0 draw with Slovenia on Tuesday night.
Although a point was enough for England to go through to last 16 as winners of Group C, the reaction in the stands at the Cologne Stadium was hardly complimentary after another ineffective attacking Âdisplay against opponents ranked 57th in the world.
Much of the anger was aimed at Southgate when he went to acknowledge supporters after the final whistle. The 53-year-old was met with prolonged boos and he admitted he was aware of three beer cups being hurled in his direction, landing just short of him.
âI understand it,â Southgate said. âIâm not going to back away from it. The most important thing is we stay with the team. I understand the narrative towards me. Thatâs better for the team than it being towards them but it is creating an unusual Âenvironment to operate in. Iâve not seen any other team qualify and receive similar.â
Southgate, who was applauded by some supporters, also described the environment as âstrangeâ and âdifficultâ. Asked to elaborate on why the mood was different from previous tournaments, he pointed to England having to deal with greater expectation. âWeâve made England fun again and itâs been very, very enjoyable for the players,â he said. âWeâve got to be careful it stays that way.â
England will play in Gelsenkirchen on Sunday evening and, depending on results in Wednesdayâs games in Group F, could meet the Netherlands. The other possible opponents are the third-placed team in Group E: Romania, Belgium, Slovakia or Ukraine. Southgate must inspire an improvement and insisted he had enough energy to lift his players before the knockout stage begins.
âIâm in a really good place,â he said. âI Ârecognise when you have moments like at the end of the game, Iâm asking the players to be fearless, Iâm not going to back down from going to thank our fans.
âHowever they feel towards me, I get it, Iâve been around England for 20 years, Iâve seen it. My job is to guide the team through this and get the very best out of the team and keep this perspective for them. Iâm very happy with how theyâve handled the last few days.â
England struggled to create chances against Slovenia, who joined Denmark in progressing from the group after finishing third. Conor Gallagher was replaced by Kobbie Mainoo at half-time and Cole Palmer impressed after replacing Bukayo Saka midway through the second half.
âEngland have Cole Palmer, Bukayo Saka, Jude Bellingham, Kobbie Mainoo, Phil Foden,â the former England right-back Gary Neville said on ITV. âMassive, massive talents and we cannot afford to mismanage them.â
Southgate, who had spoken about a âresetâ since the draw with Denmark last week, denied that he had no Plan B. âI think the changes we made had a positive effect on the game tonight,â he said.
âSlovenia defended well. We werenât able to find the right pass. Weâre improving. I didnât think that with how everything that happened after the last game that would suddenly be free and liberated and stick four or five goals in. Football doesnât work that way. But I saw progress. The goals will come.â
Harry Kane, who was laboured up front, stayed positive after England avoided a last-16 tie with Germany. France, Spain and Portugal are also on the other side of the draw.
âThe aim was to top of the group to control our destiny,â the captain said. âIt was a tough game. We played a lot better than the other two games. We have more than enough ability to keep pushing.â
Only one thing was clear at the end of this uneasy fever dream of a 0-0 draw in Cologne. The best piece of news to emerge from Englandâs progress through Group C is that Englandâs progress through Group C is now finally over. Happiness is defined in some schools of thought as the relief from pain. In which case the world is at least a sightly happier place today.
Following England through these three games in Germany has been a gruelling experience, even as gruelling England tournament experiences go, the football equivalent of being very slowly and methodically beaten to death with a bin bag full of meat.
The players have looked quietly horrified much of the time. Watching on in Cologne, Gelsenkirchen and Frankfurt the thought has occurred: imagine if football actually is coming home, and this is what football really is? How could you keep it away, prevent it from gaining access? Draw the curtains. Hide behind the sofa. No thank you. We already have a yawning chasm of angst.
There is good news. England topped Group C on the back of the point gained here. They have let only one goal in. Just one stack of plastic cups was thrown at Gareth Southgate as he walked around the ground applauding the fans.
What can they take from this? How can Southgate regear this team before a possible meeting with the Netherlands, which will require them to actually play some football? Most importantly, there is the need to find a midfielder, any midfielder, to fill the gap at the heart of this team. Where are we with that?
Here England staged something new: the tragedy of Conor Gallagher. Cologne had been close and clammy all day, the kind of day that always seems to be grabbing you by the arm and saying weâre not done yet, there is heat still to endure.
Englandâs supporters filled three-quarters of this wonderful old Echt German stadium. The trees are lovely, the art deco colonnades striking, the meadow in front a beautiful soft thing. In the centre of this England absolutely stank the place out for the opening 45 minutes.
And once again it all came from midfield, or rather the vacant space where one should be.
This is not Gallagherâs fault. He is a good player and a very nice chap. But he just wasnât the man for this England team.
The problem Southgate had identified was a lack of pressing. So he brought in a player who is very good at pressing. But is that how it works? Is it not more to do with shape and starting positions, with keeping the ball?
The problem England have had is a lack of fluency, brains, calm. Gallagher is energy. Gallagher plays at all times like heâs being chased by a swarm of hornets. He plays as though every minute of every game is extra time and heâs 2-1 down. But is this the way to find your rhythm? It felt even before kick-off like trying to fistfight your way out of a maths exam.
And so it came to pass, as Gallagher produced one of the most edgy, weird, fretful performances youâre likely to see at this level. It took him 10 minutes 48 seconds to touch the ball. Here is a list of things he did before he touched the ball. He fouled someone. He fell over. He stood in a strange nonâposition. By the end of his 45Â minutes he had one clearance, two fouls, 13 passes, all of them short and basically just a nervous tic, shuttling the ball away.
Gallagher is a muscular runner. But he is basically someone football happens to. His worst moment came just before half-time as Keiran Trippier crossed with his right foot, Gallagher made a good run and the ball just seemed to pass through his head in front of goal.
A fit Harry Kane might have got there behind him. Kane has looked quietly confused in Germany, determined to carry on, but essentially lost, a man walking quite near an athletic event. Here he looked as if he was playing underwater, while also heroically drowning. It is rare to see any elite professional athlete seem so exhausted.
Again, none of this is Gallagherâs fault. England and midfielders: this has been a non-love story. English football just doesnât make them. There is no template for an English midfielder. You think of some boxâto-box dynamo, shoulder popped out, leg hanging off, diving headers bulleted, last-ditch tackles made. But this isnât really a thing now. Midfield is about taking care of the ball. Gallagher just kept giving it away. But he hasnât grown up being told to keep it.
The fact he is what England have is proof that this is not really a golden generation, or not a balanced one anyway. Adam Wharton could be very good. Nobody really knows just yet. The fact heâs one of the main alternatives is the point.
This is in no way to excuse Southgate, whose job it is to fix this. England had 17 games between Qatar and these Euros. Why donât they have a midfield? Why has the attempt to find one become a kind of desperate speed dating exercise? Why did he give up on Kobbie Mainoo, then ask him to fix it here with half the game gone?
England were immediately better with Mainoo on at half-time, a midfielder who actually looks as if he enjoys playing football. Suddenly the ball was round. Football looked OK again, like a fun team sport not some kind of extended social humiliation.
Mainoo did the stuff you expect, and did it neatly. Itâs never too late to fix things. But it is also always just a little later than you think; and this England team are approaching a kind of jumping off point.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has pleaded guilty to a single felony charge for publishing US military secrets, in a deal with the US justice department that is expected to secure his freedom and conclude an extraordinary legal saga.
The plea was entered Wednesday morning in federal court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth in the Pacific. Assange, who had flown to Saipan from London, arrived at court shortly before the hearing was to begin, wearing a dark suit with a tie loosened at the collar, and entered the building without taking questions.
He was accompanied by Australian ambassador to the US, Kevin Ruddand Australian high commissioner to the UK Stephen Smith. He was greeted by a hoard of foreign and local media, but did not stop to speak to the gathered press despite the questions being shouted at him, including whether he preferred the weather in Saipan to London.
The hearing is the culmination of the US government’s years-long pursuit of the publisher, who has been painted both as a hero of press freedom and a reckless criminal for exposing hundreds of thousands of sensitive military documents.
Inside the wood-panelled courthouse, at the foot of a lush hillside on Saipan’s coast, Assange said he believed the espionage act – under which he was charged – contradicted US first amendment rights, but that he accepted that encouraging sources to provide classified information for publication can be unlawful.
Under the deal with the US justice department, he will be free to leave the court due to time already served in a UK prison and to travel on to Australia to be reunited with his family.
The justice department agreed to hold the hearing on the remote island due to Assange’s opposition to travelling to the US mainland and because of its proximity to Australia, where he will return after he enters his plea.
The deal – disclosed on Monday in court papers – represents the final chapter in a more than decade-long legal fight over the fate of Assange, which saw him heralded by many around the world as a hero who brought to light US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan, while others – including multiple US governments – said his release of secret documents put lives in danger.
Before being locked up in London, Assange spent years hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault, which he has denied and which were later dropped by Swedish authorities.
The abrupt conclusion enables both sides to claim a degree of success, with the justice department able to resolve without trial a case that raised thorny legal issues and that might never have reached a jury at all given the plodding pace of the extradition process.
His wife, Stella Assange, told the BBC from Australia that it had been “touch and go” over 72 hours whether the deal would go ahead but she felt “elated” at the news. A lawyer who married the WikiLeaks founder in prison in 2022, she said details of the agreement would be made public once the judge had signed off on it.
“He will be a free man once it is signed off by a judge,” she said, adding that she still didn’t think it was real.
Assange on Monday left Belmarsh prison, where he has spent the last five years, after being granted bail during a secret hearing last week. He boarded a plane that landed hours later in Bangkok to refuel before taking off again toward Saipan. A video posted by WikiLeaks on X, showed Assange staring intently out the window at the blue sky as the plane headed toward the island.
“Imagine. From over 5 years in a small cell in a maximum security prison. Nearly 14 years detained in the UK. To this,” WikiLeaks wrote. The top Australian diplomat in the United Kingdom accompanied Assange on the flight.
It had been universally accepted that England needed a performance to reinvigorate their fans here in Germany after the toil of their opening Euro 2024 ties against Serbia and Denmark. One of the principal takeaways from a claustrophobic and emotional night was that the fans were certainly connected.
Moved to boo at the interval after a display that lacked bite, they raised the intensity in the second period, belting out their songs for almost the duration of it. There was something faintly heroic about their efforts. They got louder and louder because they believed that a goal was coming. And if they did not believe, they sang anyway, losing themselves in the moment, the occasion. Call it blind faith.
They willed their team to make the breakthrough and yet it did not happen for a reason.
England lacked the penetration and the quality where it mattered the most, despite dominating for pretty much the entire occasion in terms of possession and territory. There was no big chance, no moment when the Slovenia goalkeeper, Jan Oblak, was seriously tested.
And when it was over, there were more boos from the stands, this time with greater feeling.
The crowd had been extremely supportive in the second half. They had done their bit. Now they turned because they felt that Gareth Southgate and the players had not. Southgate, especially. He remains the lightning rod for everything. When the England manager ventured on to the pitch to acknowledge those who had stayed behind, he heard loud jeers and had cups thrown down at him. It was a horrible low for him.
It was almost a footnote that England actually qualified on top of Group C after Denmark’s draw against Serbia and will now face a yet‑to‑be‑determined third-place finisher in the last 16. The Netherlands are one possibility.
There were positives for England. The defending remained secure, with Slovenia barely given the sniff of a chance. They were more preoccupied with digging out the draw that would take them into the last 16, their celebrations at full-time unfolding in stark contrast to the howls at the other end.
England brought greater intensity. They played higher up the pitch. Kobbie Mainoo made a difference after he came on at half-time for the out-of-sorts Conor Gallagher. Cole Palmer, another substitute, also showed his personality. Phil Foden played well. Bukayo Saka flickered. Harry Kane ran hard. And yet it was not enough, the overriding emotion of yet more frustration.
Southgate has always had a happy knack with tournament draws and his team now find themselves on the other side of this one to France, Spain, Germany and Portugal. Perhaps, the old line about knockout football being a different beast will apply.
One of the talking points concerned whether England could move the ball with any degree of slickness. It had been a major failing against Denmark. The supporters wanted something to get behind, anything, and there was a moment midway through the first half. It was a fine reverse pass from Declan Rice that got Foden in up the left, crossing to give Saka a tap-in. Foden was pulled back for offside.
It was plain that England would need guile because Slovenia were committed and compact in their 4‑4‑2 shape. They were happy to let Southgate’s players have the ball, asking the question: can you hurt us? The answer in the first half was a resounding no. England brought the energy, which was a plus point. Foden was in the mood off the left. But it was thin gruel and it was no surprise to hear the boos when the half-time whistle went.
The patterns were too predictable, there was not enough zip and incision. Gallagher, preferred to Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield, was there for the hustle rather than his quality in possession while Jude Bellingham could get nothing going. Worryingly, that remained the case after the break.
Foden drew a routine save out of Oblak with a long-range free‑kick and the only time when England quickened the pulse in the first half was when Kieran Trippier whipped in a dangerous right-footed cross from the inside left. Gallagher looked as though he had to get there for the header only for the ball to flash over him. Kane could not react behind him.
Southgate had canned the Alexander-Arnold midfield experiment and he did likewise with the one involving Gallagher after 45 minutes. It is not possible to possess such a hesitant touch and thrive on an occasion such as this.
Southgate’s team stabilised and Mainoo’s composure was a part of it; his readiness to get into dangerous areas. There were still moments of looseness, the anxiety pulsing. Foden took on a speculative 30‑yard volley, Kyle Walker fluffed a first-time cross when he could have taken a touch.
England came to enjoy control and the good bit was that they looked like a team. John Stones had a header cleared from in front of the post and, on the next phase, Saka could not quite connect with an overhead kick. The goal was coming, wasn’t it?
The atmosphere among the 18,000 England fans really was something. But the goal did not come, Southgate’s team just not creating enough. When Palmer blasted at Oblak in stoppage time after a thrust involving Mainoo and Kane, the mood was about to darken.
Ralf Rangnick’s players walked towards the Olympiastadion’s furthest corner to join their fans in a serenade of Hey Jude and it was tempting to wonder whether, after an exhilarating evening’s work, they had the energy. But this Austria team always seem to find some and that is why, after repelling the Netherlands not once but twice, they have completed Group D as its improbable winners.
The knockout draw was turned on its head by events here and in Dortmund; it would take a brave onlooker, now, to rule Rangnick and his dynamos out of a lung-busting run to the latter stages.
They simply keep coming and it was a thrilling moment when, 10 minutes from time, the substitute Christoph Baumgartner slid Marcel Sabitzer down the inside-left channel for a spectacular angled finish that threatened to rip the net from its moorings. Rangnick and Sabitzer are performing wonders and it barely needs saying that what did not work for Manchester United is, in both cases, purring along like a dream elsewhere.
Austria have to fancy their chances when they face the runners-up from Group F, almost certainly Turkey or Czech Republic, on Tuesday. That tie will take place in Leipzig, of all places: it will essentially be a home game for what could, given the career paths of Rangnick and several of his players, be described with tongue in cheek as an unofficial extension of the Red Bull project.
They will be fresh on arrival and that is partly because Rangnick, who sets such great stock in maintaining a thunderous tempo, rotated extensively again. Part of his rationale was a surfeit of players on yellow cards and he gave the example of Konrad Laimer, the midfielder who was rested because holding back in challenges was not an option. Baumgartner, named man of the match in the defeat of Poland, was among the others stood down and a half‑hour runout was all he needed to make a difference.
Those who started had swarmed into action and, while an opening goal from the boot of the Netherlands’ Donyell Malen was outwardly fortunate, perhaps it did not owe so much to chance. Austria have now scored inside the first 10 minutes in six of their past seven games: you have to keep pace with them from the off and Ronald Koeman’s team were the latest to find that impossible.
Koeman regretted that opening spell, which his counterpart described as “brutally good”. While the Netherlands improved markedly thereafter and should certainly have been level before their later salvage attempts, they were guilty of bursting into life sporadically and were woefully open at the back when examined in any detail.
It was one of their own forwards who began the uphill struggle. Malen had been selected to provide firepower at the other end but, stretching to prevent a cross from the impressive left-back Alexander Prass from reaching Marko Arnautovic, he succeeded only in thudding the ball inside Bart Verbruggen’s near post. He had certainly produced a striker’s finish, which was far from the case when he dragged wide upon being given a golden opportunity to make amends midway through the first half.
Tijjani Reijnders also spurned a clear opening and a note of caution to those championing Austria’s prospects may be that their defence is exposed too frequently. When the Dutch right-back Lutsharel Geertruida, who had struggled defensively, won possession from Florian Grillitsch a minute into the second period that point was reiterated. Geertruida gave Xavi Simons, who had made an early appearance from the bench, a platform to scamper 60 yards beyond an overcommitted midfield and tee up Cody Gakpo for a curled finish.
At that point the Netherlands were matching Austria’s aggression and, given the technical riches at their disposal, could be fancied to pull clear. Romano Schmid’s goal had not been signposted but Austria finally made ground down the left through their winger Patrick Wimmer, who had earlier been booked and will miss the next round. They strung a move together and eventually Sabitzer played Grillitsch in at the byline; the resulting cross, stood up deliciously, was bulleted in by a diving Schmid despite Stefan de Vrij’s efforts on the line.
Wout Weghorst arrived to shake things up and almost immediately headed down for Memphis Depay, cushioning and finishing in one smooth movement, to equalise again. It was given by VAR after initially being ruled out for a nonexistent handball. But there was no need to debate Sabitzer’s intervention five minutes later, save to wonder whether Austria could go all the way.