Student teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers will receive a $320 weekly payment during their mandatory placements under a new cost-of-living measure in the May budget.

The Albanese government will establish a commonwealth practical payment for 68,000 university students and 5,000 vocational education and training students undertaking mandatory workplace placements as part of their courses.

From July 2025, students in those four disciplines will be paid $319.50 a week, benchmarked to the single Austudy rate, in addition to any income support they already receive.

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The announcement follows Labor’s decision to wipe $3bn from student debts by legislating to index Hecs and Help debts to the lower of the consumer price index or the wage price index, backdated to June 2023.

The tertiary education sector and crossbench welcomed the Hecs measure but called on the government to fully implement the recommendations of the Universities Accord, including changing the date of indexation so increases are not applied to debts students have already paid off.

On the new placement payments, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said “teachers give our children the best start in life – they deserve a fair start to their career”.

“We’re proud to be backing the hard work and aspiration of Australians looking to better themselves by studying at university.”

The education minister, Jason Clare, said: “This will give people who have signed up to do some of the most important jobs in this country a bit of extra help to get the qualifications they need. Placement poverty is a real thing. I have met students who told me they can afford to go to uni but they can’t afford to do the prac.”

Independent MP Monique Ryan told Guardian Australia ahead of the announcement that she had heard of “nursing students sleeping in cars while doing rural rotations”.

In addition to prac payments, Ryan is pushing the government to change the date of indexation from 1 June to 1 November, to avoid the “completely inappropriate” addition to debts “that have already been paid off”.

The government has revealed that in the 2024-25 budget, tax receipt upgrades excluding GST were expected to be $25bn over four years, less than independent forecasters expected and less than the past three budgets, which averaged $129bn of upgrades.

The government is expected to bank almost all the revenue upgrade in 2023-24 – around 95% – as it pushes the start date of measures including the prac payment and super on paid parental leave to mid-2025.

A surplus remains within reach for 2023-24 – which would be Labor’s second – but the budget position for the remaining three years was expected to be worse than projected in the mid-year update.

The federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said the government was being “realistic” that it would not see “the same sorts of massive revenue upgrades that we’ve seen in recent budget updates to continue”.

“We’ve made substantial progress in getting the budget in better nick, having delivered the first surplus in 15 years with a second one in prospect, but we know that the pressures on the budget are intensifying, not easing,” he said.

Chalmers said the government was “striking the right balance between getting inflation under control [and] easing cost-of-living pressures” but that it was also necessary to “make room for urgent and unfunded priorities and invest in the future drivers of economic growth in the years ahead”.

Economist Chris Richardson said the government would “need to be careful with its extra spending in the budget” because it wanted “at least one rate cut under its belt before going to the polls” but inflation was “hanging around” longer than expected.

Meta has refused to enter into new deals with Australian media publishers for the use of their content on Facebook, leading to fears it may again implement a ban on news content appearing on the platform. But an analysis of Facebook data suggests engagement with posts from news organisations is already at an all-time low, as memes fill the space.

Meta has argued that news makes up just 3% of what people engage with on its services.

An analysis by Guardian Australia has determined that this appears to be by design, with Meta turning off the tap for news in the past few years.

A study originally carried out in 2021 by researchers from the University of Technology Sydney and RMIT looked at the amount of engagement with Facebook posts by Australian news organisations over time.

It showed a decline in engagement between 2015 and November 2020, as well as a decline in traffic from Facebook to news websites.

Guardian Australia has updated this analysis, which shows that engagement with posts from Australian media is now at an all-time low, with the exception of the brief period in February 2021 when Facebook blocked news posts in Australia.

This drop in engagement and traffic was due at least in part to changes Meta made to its algorithms, which resulted in less news being shown in the home feed of Facebook users. But the UTS and RMIT analysis also shows some publishers changed their approaches to social media in response, focusing on different sources of traffic, such as Google search.

James Meese, one of the RMIT researchers in the 2021 study, says the updated research shows that news on Facebook has continued to underperform on the platform since 2017.

“Another way to say underperformance is just to say that news on Facebook is dead,” he says.

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He says Meta has long been public about not being interested in news, but that position also affects whether people consume news on the platform.

“There’s probably a feedback loop here where Facebook deprioritises news, therefore people see less news there, therefore potentially seek out news less,” he says.

“Social media and the internet more generally is a competitive space, so if Facebook aren’t surfacing news, then people who look for news are likely to go elsewhere and the practices are going to change accordingly.”

News engagement completely tanked

In a separate analysis, Guardian Australia categorised the top posts relevant to Australia on Facebook by total interaction, comparing the period of the news ban with the week preceding it, as well as the same period in 2015 before any algorithmic changes that deprioritised news in home feeds (see below for full details).

This analysis suggests that when news is removed from the platform in Australian feeds, it is replaced by more of the same content that was otherwise in the top 100 – namely memes, and posts from content creators.

There is also a live experiment – Canada – that suggests what Australia might experience if Meta pulls the plug on news again. Meta has banned news content in Canada since August over its legislation to force Meta to pay for news.

Aengus Bridgman of the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy in Canada says smaller local news outlets have suffered from a reduction in engagement, while the platforms themselves have experienced little change.

“The short story is, Facebook and Instagram are fine. They haven’t really seen a noticeable decrease in traffic,” he says.

His analysis of the ban suggests it has had little effect on people who were the subject of news stories or consumers of news on Facebook.

“Politicians, political influencers and the chattering class continue to use the platform and continue to receive similar levels of engagement as to what they received before.”

But he says it has completely tanked news engagement.

“In particular, small community pages and Indigenous community pages that largely relied on Facebook to drive traffic to their websites. All of that link traffic has disappeared. And it’s been disastrous for them.”

News outlets can continue to post on Facebook under the ban, but it is not visible to Canadian users. Links to Canadian news sites cannot be posted. Bridgman has found politically focused Canadian groups that previously posted links have shifted to posting screenshots of news stories.

“The political discussion has just continued on the platform. The news cycle still drives engagement. Politicians and influential political personalities still draw on the news … But there’s just none of that linking,” he says.

Some Canadian-based outlets such as the rightwing site Rebel News have adapted by focusing on global news and picking up traffic from outside Canada, he says.

Smaller publishers in Australia have warned that they would similarly be most affected by a Facebook news ban if Meta was designated under the news media bargaining code – meaning the company would be forced to negotiate with publishers and pay for news content on its platforms, or face fines of 10% of its annual Australian revenue.

Some news organisations, such as Sky News Australia, have already tailored their online news output to appeal to audiences in the US and UK.

The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, last month said he was awaiting advice from Treasury and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission about the effect of changes on news outlets and the social platforms while considering whether to designate Meta under the code.

Meta has maintained its position that news is not the reason people use its services, and has said “global tech companies cannot solve the longstanding issues facing the news industry”.

Notes

Guardian Australia used Crowdtangle to export the top 100 posts by total interactions for pages with an Australian admin, and the top 100 posts for pages “relevant to Australia”. These datasets were combined for each time period, duplicates removed, posts in languages other than English removed, and the content type of each page was manually assessed into categories. The final chart uses the percentage of posts in each category.

Time periods used were 18 February 2021 to 26 February 2021 for the “news ban dates”, then the same dates in 2015, 2021 and 2024, as well as the week preceding the news ban in 2021.

Centuries of industrial whaling left only a few hundred Antarctic blue whales alive, making it almost impossible to find them in the wild.

Now new research suggests the population may be recovering. Australian scientists and international colleagues spent two decades listening for their distinctive songs and calls, and found the whales – the largest animals ever to have lived – swimming across the Southern Ocean with growing regularity.

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Analysis of thousands of hours of audio, collected with underwater microphones and secondhand military-issued submarine listening devices, suggests whale numbers are stable or on the rise, according to Australian Antarctic Division senior research scientist Brian Miller.

“When you look back to before this work was started by the AAD, we really just had so few encounters with these animals – and now we can produce them on demand,” Miller said.

“We can tell you where they’re frequenting, we can tell you that we’re hearing them more often. So that’s progress.”

The whales were heard increasingly often in the Southern Ocean from 2006 to 2021, according to a new paper collating the findings of Australian and international researchers’ seven voyages across the period.

“Either they’re either increasing in number or we’re increasing in our ability to find them, and both of those things are good news,” Miller said.

The Antarctic blue whale nearly became extinct before whaling’s decline in the mid-20th century, with the most recent estimates from 1998 suggesting there were fewer than 2,000 alive.

Researchers have spent hours listening for repeating songs about 20 seconds long, termed Z calls, along with shorter, higher-pitched D calls, in an effort to track and study the critically endangered species.

“We think the message is: ‘I’m a blue whale, I’m here,’” Miller said.

“If you think about … us almost wiping them out, and extinction, then it becomes more poignant to think about them saying, ‘I’m still here, here I am.’”

The scientists travelled nearly 150,000km across the Southern Ocean tracking the whales’ appearances around Antarctica. Other Australian researchers say the study’s geographical and temporal range provides a unique insight into the state of the species.

“This is the first indication of what’s happening with Antarctic blue whales … for a good 20 years,” said Prof Robert Harcourt, a marine ecologist at Macquarie University. “All of the earlier work was based back in the 1950s when we were killing them.”

Griffith University whale researcher Dr Olaf Meynecke said: “Having so many years [of data] over several seasons … and then having it over thousands of kilometres – that’s really unique.”

The whales spend half the year in Antarctic waters but are global travellers – heading north towards Australia, South Africa, South America and even across the equator.

Their distribution means scientists around the world have been drawn to the project, which Miller hopes will be a step forward for the International Whaling Commission’s conservation efforts.

“Only an international collaborative effort is going to be able to piece together the puzzle of where they are and whether they’re recovering,” he said.

The Australian privacy commissioner has warned third party suppliers are “a real weak spot” for protecting customer privacy after Australian user details were compromised in a leak of supplier data held by NSW and ACT clubs.

Last week more than 1 million people had their personal information including names, addresses, and driver’s licence information exposed after data collected by IT provider Outabox was published online. Outabox’s customers included dozens of clubs in New South Wales, including hospitality giant Merivale.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s data breach report stated that there were 483 notifications in the past six months related to direct data breaches, and 121 secondary data breaches – that is, where another company has suffered a data breach and that company is thereby affected by it.

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The privacy commissioner, Carly Kind, said it was a growing issue, and larger organisations such as clubs needed to ensure they were passing on their privacy obligations to third party suppliers.

“We’re absolutely seeing a rise in third party suppliers being the source of data breaches,” Kind said in an interview to mark the launch of Privacy Awareness Week. “Being a point of vulnerability for others in terms of compliance with Privacy Act is very real and what we’re cautioning organisations about is ensuring that they’re passing on their obligations in the best way possible in any contract with third parties.

“So either by through contractual provisions about compliance with privacy standards, but also through due diligence and ensuring that they know what kinds of privacy protections are in place for those third-party suppliers … it’s becoming a real weak spot in the chain of protecting privacy.”

Kind is the first stand-alone privacy commissioner to hold the federal role in eight years. She took up the position in late February, moving back to Australia after being the inaugural director of the London-based AI and date research organisation the Ada Lovelace Institute since 2019. Her appointment comes as the federal government is planning a substantial overhaul of the Privacy Act.

On Thursday, the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said reform of the law was vital in a time when the “personal privacy of citizens is under attack”. The government plans to introduce legislation overhauling the privacy act and targeting doxing – the malicious use of their personal and private information – in August.

In consultation with industry, he said, the government was considering bringing in a fair and reasonable test regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information, and has agreed in principle that a statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy should be introduced complementary to the privacy act protections. Also under consideration is requirements for businesses around maximum and minimum retention periods for personal information.

Kind said since coming into the role in February, she had noticed no resistance to the privacy reform from industry, and there was political support for the change. She said what she was more concerned about was Australian organisations not considering what personal information they currently collect and whether they still need to collect it.

“When these data breaches occur, we’re seeing a lot of data that’s being exposed, perhaps some of which doesn’t need to be held or retained by those entities. So [that’s] perhaps a challenge of excessive collection of data in the first place … I think there’s some probably some habits and trends there that have been baked in and because there hasn’t been that Privacy Act reform, and it’s feeling a bit overdue.”

Kind said some of the larger tech companies had improved their data-collection practices as a result of passing on requirements under the EU’s data privacy regime to the rest of the world, but that alone was not sufficient, and local laws needed updating, with regulators given stronger powers to enforce privacy law.

“The role of regulators there is really key. We’ve seen that in Europe very active enforcement of privacy law in certain aspects really can change business models.”

Some Democrats rallied to the defense of Joe Biden on Sunday as the president came under increased criticism over his response to pro-Palestinian student protests and his handling of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Republicans have seized on Biden’s response to the protests, which have seen more than2,000 people arrested around the country, accusing him of a weak response. But prominent Democrats, including Biden re-election campaign co-chairperson Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans, claimed the president “has been very strong about this from the beginning”.

The defense came as campus protests have seen an increasingly aggressive police response. An encampment at the University of Southern California was cleared by police in riot gear on Sunday morning. And a similar effort at the University of California in Los Angeles was shut down by police who reportedly used rubber bullets on Thursday.

Asked on CNN’s State of the Union if Biden could have reacted differently to the protests, which have seen clashes between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protesters as well as dueling accusations of antisemitism and Islamophobia, Landrieu said:

“The president’s been very clear about this. He’s also been very strong about the need to stamp out antisemitism and Islamophobia. It’s a very difficult time, [there are] very passionate opinions on both sides of this issue,” Landrieu said.

“The president has been handling it I think very, very well and I think he will continue to do so.”

Thousands of young people have protested at university campuses across the country in recent weeks, criticizing the Biden administration’s continued support of Israel. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and 2 million displaced, since Israel attacked the enclosed strip in response to Hamas terrorist attacks which killed more than 1,100 Israelis.

Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Mark Kelly, the Arizona senator, added his voice to Democrats who have voiced approval for police crackdowns on campus sit-ins, saying it is “appropriate for police to step in” when protests turn into “unlawful acts”.

“When they cross a line and when they commit crimes, they should be arrested,” Kelly said.

“That’s the appropriate thing to do.”

Kelly said some of the university protests had “become very violent, and students – especially Jewish students – have the right to feel safe on a campus, and they’ve gotten out of control”.

“Everybody has the right to protest peacefully. But when it turns into unlawful acts – and we’ve seen this in a number of colleges and universities including here in Arizona – it’s appropriate for the police to step in,” he said.

Biden had mostly stayed silent on the unrest at university campuses until he addressed the issue on Thursday.

“Dissent is essential for democracy,” Biden said in an address at the White House.

“But dissent must never lead to disorder.”

Biden said some protesters had used “violent” methods.

“Violent protests are not protected. Peaceful protest is,” he said. “There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos.”

The president added: “Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campus, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation … none of this is a peaceful protest.”

Western Australian police say they have shot and killed a teenager who allegedly attacked a man in a Perth car park on Saturday night.

Detectives on Sunday said there was no ongoing threat to the public and the 16-year-old was believed to have been acting alone in Willetton.

The WA police commissioner, Col Blanch, said the incident “certainly has all the hallmarks” of a terrorism-related incident, but he was not prepared to declare it as such “at this stage”.

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“It’s about timing,” Blanch said. “It would be too early for me to act now because I don’t have the concerns of a broader network that might be involved.”

The premier, Roger Cook, said there were indications the 16-year-old “had been radicalised online”.

The man in his 30s who was stabbed was in a serious but stable condition in hospital and “doing well”, authorities said on Sunday.

Blanch said police received a call on Saturday night from a person who told the operator they were “going to commit acts of violence”.

That person hung up without giving their name or location. But the call was followed by another alerting police to someone “running around a car park” with a large kitchen knife.

Three police officers responded within minutes and were immediately confronted by the teenager holding a large knife, Blanch said.

The commissioner said two officers drew their Tasers and a third officer drew their firearm. When asked to put down the knife, the 16-year-old did not respond and, according to body-camera footage, allegedly ran at the officers, Blanch said.

The first two officers fired their Tasers but when the teenager allegedly continued to approach, the third officer fired a single shot which fatally wounded the 16-year-old, police said.

Blanch said the teenager acted alone in what appeared to be a “a very sad and tragic outcome”. He said what triggered the incident was unknown.

The teenager had mental health issues, was known to police and had been involved in a countering violent extremism (CVE) program since 2022 when he was 13, the commissioner said.

The program provides support from psychologists, the education department and, where appropriate, faith leaders.

WA’s CVE was based on work undertaken by Anne Aly – who is now the federal youth minister – and programs used to deradicalise neo-Nazis overseas. It was not limited to those convicted of crimes.

Aly said on Sunday her thoughts were with everyone involved.

“De-radicalisation programs are an important community safety measure,” she said in a statement.

“They are often successful but no program can guarantee success. It’s the sensitive nature of these programs that we often only hear about them when they don’t succeed. I commend and thank the WA police for the positive way they have worked with the Muslim community on this matter.”

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said he had spoken to Cook and received briefings from police and the Australian intelligence agency Asio.

“My thoughts are with those who have been affected by the incident,” he said. “We are a peace-loving nation and there is no place for violent extremism in Australia.”

Cook, who has called a meeting with multi-faith community leaders, described the incident as a “very tragic set of circumstances” and thanked police for their swift action saying the community was “indebted to them”.

“Our police responded within minutes. They encountered a very confronting situation but their rapid and professional response kept our community safe,” the premier said.

“These cases are never straightforward. There’s always a complex set of circumstances, cases and conditions which sit in the background.”

The police commissioner described the alleged attacker as a “Caucasian male”. He thanked members of the Muslim community who “had the courage to respond and express their concerns that this person was exhibiting concerning behaviours”.

Blanch said community members had alerted police after spotting something the 16-year-old posted online.

Perth imam Wadood Janud, of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in WA, said on Sunday he condemned the alleged attack “in the harshest terms possible”.

He said the 16-year-old was not a member of the Ahmadiyya community and while he believed the incident was isolated it was “close to heart” and “shocking”.

“Islam has nothing to do with any acts of violence,” Janud said. “We’re actually concerned about Islamophobia. Sometimes the backlash can be very harsh.”

Adelaide imam Kamran Tahir, who previously served in Perth, on Sunday condemned the alleged attack “in the strongest terms”.

“We are once again saddened to learn of another knife attack in which innocent civilians were harmed,” Tahir said. “It should be made very clear that there is no justification for such acts in Islam.”

This article was amended on 5 May 2024. An earlier version said the stabbing victim was 18.

– Additional reporting AAP

Western Australian police say they have shot and killed a teenager who allegedly attacked a man in a Perth car park on Saturday night.

Detectives on Sunday said there was no ongoing threat to the public and the 16-year-old was believed to have been acting alone in Willetton.

The WA police commissioner, Col Blanch, said the incident “certainly has all the hallmarks” of a terrorism-related incident, but he was not prepared to declare it as such “at this stage”.

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“It’s about timing,” Blanch said. “It would be too early for me to act now because I don’t have the concerns of a broader network that might be involved.”

The premier, Roger Cook, said there were indications the 16-year-old “had been radicalised online”.

The man in his 30s who was stabbed was in a serious but stable condition in hospital and “doing well”, authorities said on Sunday.

Blanch said police received a call on Saturday night from a person who told the operator they were “going to commit acts of violence”.

That person hung up without giving their name or location. But the call was followed by another alerting police to someone “running around a car park” with a large kitchen knife.

Three police officers responded within minutes and were immediately confronted by the teenager holding a large knife, Blanch said.

The commissioner said two officers drew their Tasers and a third officer drew their firearm. When asked to put down the knife, the 16-year-old did not respond and, according to body-camera footage, allegedly ran at the officers, Blanch said.

The first two officers fired their Tasers but when the teenager allegedly continued to approach, the third officer fired a single shot which fatally wounded the 16-year-old, police said.

Blanch said the teenager acted alone in what appeared to be a “a very sad and tragic outcome”. He said what triggered the incident was unknown.

The teenager had mental health issues, was known to police and had been involved in a countering violent extremism (CVE) program since 2022 when he was 13, the commissioner said.

The program provides support from psychologists, the education department and, where appropriate, faith leaders.

WA’s CVE was based on work undertaken by Anne Aly – who is now the federal youth minister – and programs used to deradicalise neo-Nazis overseas. It was not limited to those convicted of crimes.

Aly said on Sunday her thoughts were with everyone involved.

“De-radicalisation programs are an important community safety measure,” she said in a statement.

“They are often successful but no program can guarantee success. It’s the sensitive nature of these programs that we often only hear about them when they don’t succeed. I commend and thank the WA police for the positive way they have worked with the Muslim community on this matter.”

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said he had spoken to Cook and received briefings from police and the Australian intelligence agency Asio.

“My thoughts are with those who have been affected by the incident,” he said. “We are a peace-loving nation and there is no place for violent extremism in Australia.”

Cook, who has called a meeting with multi-faith community leaders, described the incident as a “very tragic set of circumstances” and thanked police for their swift action saying the community was “indebted to them”.

“Our police responded within minutes. They encountered a very confronting situation but their rapid and professional response kept our community safe,” the premier said.

“These cases are never straightforward. There’s always a complex set of circumstances, cases and conditions which sit in the background.”

The police commissioner described the alleged attacker as a “Caucasian male”. He thanked members of the Muslim community who “had the courage to respond and express their concerns that this person was exhibiting concerning behaviours”.

Blanch said community members had alerted police after spotting something the 16-year-old posted online.

Perth imam Wadood Janud, of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in WA, said on Sunday he condemned the alleged attack “in the harshest terms possible”.

He said the 16-year-old was not a member of the Ahmadiyya community and while he believed the incident was isolated it was “close to heart” and “shocking”.

“Islam has nothing to do with any acts of violence,” Janud said. “We’re actually concerned about Islamophobia. Sometimes the backlash can be very harsh.”

Adelaide imam Kamran Tahir, who previously served in Perth, on Sunday condemned the alleged attack “in the strongest terms”.

“We are once again saddened to learn of another knife attack in which innocent civilians were harmed,” Tahir said. “It should be made very clear that there is no justification for such acts in Islam.”

This article was amended on 5 May 2024. An earlier version said the stabbing victim was 18.

– Additional reporting AAP

A Queensland man who was allegedly held captive, tortured and beaten at a remote property north of Brisbane has died in hospital, police say.

A woman and man, aged 21 and 23, had initially been charged with attempted murder and a series of other offences after police were called to the property at Mount Mee on Wednesday evening.

Those charges were upgraded to murder after the alleged victim – a 23-year-old man from Eagle Farm – died in hospital on Friday evening.

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Queensland police Acting Insp Joe Zitny said the initial call to emergency services had been made by “the female accused”.

“What I can say as a result of this incident, it is apparent at this stage it’s not domestic and family violence related, and it’s believed the victim was known to the accused people,” Zitny said on Sunday.

Zitny said it was believed the victim was “in the vicinity” from Monday afternoon and throughout Tuesday and Wednesday and that his injuries “were sustained over a long period of time”.

“Initial inquiries established there was an association between the victim and accused,” he said. Police were attempting to “gain a greater understanding of that relationship”. A postmortem was scheduled for Tuesday.

The accused man and woman both faced Caboolture magistrates court last week and were remanded in custody.

They were both charged with multiple offences including murder, deprivation of liberty, disabling in order to commit indictable offence, grievous bodily harm, making observations or recordings in breach of privacy, torture, wounding and unlawful possession of weapons.

The woman was also charged with a serious assault on a police officer.

With the world-famous statue towering over it from Corcovado mountain, Rio de Janeiro is well used to Christ the Redeemer. For one night only this weekend, it also had Madonna.

More than a million people thronged Copacabana beach on Saturday night, turning its vast stretch of sand into a massive dancefloor for a free concert by the pop star as she completed her world tour.

“Here we are in the most beautiful place in the world,” Madonna, 65, told the tightly packed crowd. Pointing out the ocean view and the mountains, she added: “This place is magic.”

In the run-up to the concert, the city had been buzzing, with fans lined up outside the stately Copacabana Palace hotel in the hope of catching a glimpse of the star. The city’s airport fielded an estimated 170 extra flights as fans poured in from around the world.

City officials estimated that 1.6 million people turned up for the concert, some watching from brightly lit apartments or hotels overlooking the beach, while others looked on from motorboats and sailboats anchored nearby.

As drones and helicopters flew overhead, the singer offered up a dazzling show, playing classics ranging from Like a Virgin to Like a Prayer, and cycling through dozens of sets and costume changes.

Flanked by giant screens, she began the show with her 1998 hit Nothing Really Matters, eliciting a huge cheer from the crowd.

“Oi, Rio!” she called out in Portuguese. The response was swift, carried by more than a million voices: “Oi, Queen Madonna!”

The singer also paid an emotional tribute to “all the bright lights” lost to Aids as she sang Live to Tell, against a backdrop of black-and-white photos featuring people who died from the illness.

The Brazilian pop artists Anitta and Pabllo Vittar, as well as younger musicians from samba schools, also took part in the show.

The show, which Madonna’s official website described as the biggest ever in her 40-year career, marked the final stop on her Celebration tour. Giant screens and 18 sound towers had been spread out along the beach to ensure the crowds could enjoy the event.

Fans, many of whom lined up hours or even days before the concert to get a good view, hailed Madonna’s performance. “I have never seen such a powerful show,” one told the BBC. “It’s unimaginable, very much out of the ordinary,” she added.

“Madonna is spectacular,” said another. “There’s no concert better than Madonna’s.”

City officials, on high alert after a young Brazilian fan died at a Taylor Swift concert last year as a result of heat exhaustion, ordered firefighters to cool down fans by spraying water before the concert. Free drinking water was also handed out as temperatures hovered at about 27C (81F) during the late-night show.

More than 3,000 police officers were deployed around the concert area, where the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart have also drawn million-strong crowds.

Across Rio, anticipation had been building all week. “Welcome, Queen!” read Heineken ads plastered around the city, while bars and restaurants served up “Like a Virgin” cocktails. Across the Copacabana neighbourhood, the singer’s image was emblazoned on billboards, souvenirs and T-shirts.

As hotel bookings in Copacabana climbed to an estimated 98% of capacity, Rio state’s security readied plans that included the presence of 3,200 military personnel and 1,500 civilian police officers on standby, while the country’s navy carried out inspections of any vessel looking to follow the concert offshore. City officials estimated that the concert would inject as much as 293m reais (£46m) into the local economy.

With contributions from Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse

The wet start to May for much of New South Wales is likely to continue for another week, with a severe weather warning for the state’s south coast and flash flooding on the Central Coast.

Sydney’s Observatory Hill had, by Sunday morning, recorded 92.8mm of rain this month – and was fast approaching the May average of 117.4mm.

“We’re nearly at the month total already, so depending on how things unfold today, we may by tomorrow [Monday] morning be able to make a statement that we may have already reached a month’s worth of rainfall,” the Bureau of Meteorology’s Jordan Notara said.

Cronulla, in the city’s south, recorded 69mm in the 24 hours to 9am on Sunday. Point Perpendicular at Jervis Bay hit a new record after recording 143mm of rain in the past 24 hours – the highest 24-hour observation recorded in the month of May since 2003.

The bureau issued a severe weather warning for the Illawarra area, south of Sydney, on Saturday and into Sunday, with residents in Wollongong, Bulli, Port Kembla, Albion Park, Kiama and Huskisson advised to avoid unnecessary travel amid forecasts of heavy rainfall.

Flash flooding was affecting localised pockets along the coast, with the NSW state emergency service rescuing a driver from the roof of a car amid flooding in Tea Gardens on the state’s Central Coast early on Sunday morning.

Thunderstorms were forecast for the entire north coast of NSW on Sunday, with severe storms likely in the northern rivers. The Byron coast was issued a hazardous surf warning for Sunday.

Notara said the weather front affecting the Illawarra was heading north, with heavier, persistent falls moving towards Sydney and the Central Coast followed by showers up and down the east coast lasting well into next week.

“There’s no clear trend of significant dry weather in the modelling,” he said. “It’s showing that shower activity in the east for at least the next seven days. It is basically a weather pattern which is conducive to seeing showers across the 24 hours each day.”

The NSW SES had responded to 95 calls for emergency assistance, most seeking for sand bags in preparation for flash flooding.

The service’s spokesperson, Ben Deacon, said 36 of the emergency calls were in the Shoalhaven and Illawarra areas where the severe weather warning was in place. There were 22 calls in the Sydney metro area.

In Brisbane, storms were forecast on Sunday followed by showers on Monday’s public holiday.

A high-pressure system in the Melbourne area was delivering stable and mild weather, Notara said.

Parts of parched Western Australia were coming to the close of a welcome wet week, with the wheatbelt town of Wandering recording its highest May rainfall in more than 82 years and the most rainfall the town had seen in 13 months, according to Weatherzone.

A Scottish singer has said he is “still on a high” after being plucked from obscurity to replace Olly Murs as the opening act for Take That at the last minute.

Murs was due to open for Take That at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow on Friday but had to pull out after getting stuck in London when his flight was cancelled.

The Scottish presenter Ross King was watching Daniel Rooney play at the Radisson hotel opposite the arena when news broke that Take That were without a support act.

Impressed with his vocals, King recommended Rooney to his friend and Take That frontman Gary Barlow to fill the slot, the Daily Record reported, with only 30 minutes to get to the venue.

Rooney later shared a series of images and videos of him performing on stage before 14,000 fans on Instagram , describing it as a “crazy night”.

“Hardly slept, still on a high from last night,” he added.

“Thanks for everyone’s lovely messages about the gig and all the support so far.”

He also thanked King for spotting him at the hotel and getting him to the venue, adding: “Craziest 30 minutes ever.”

Rooney added: “Also a big thanks to the takethat lads for calming me down before the show and talking setlist tunes. Absolute legends.”

Barlow praised Rooney for stepping up to the plate, writing “this young man saved the day thank you” on Instagram with a photo of the musician.

Fellow band member Mark Owen also gave a “huge thanks” to Rooney for helping them out at the show, which is part of their This Life tour.

Murs apologised for cancelling his performance at short notice on Friday after experiencing flight issues all day.

He said he had been at London Heathrow from 11am but after “several delays” and an incident with a cabin crew member the British Airways flight was cancelled.

“So sorry to everyone at the takethat show tonight in Glasgow, unfortunately I won’t be there,” Murs, 39, said on X.

“Don’t think I’ve ever missed a gig before, am so annoyed!

“But am now in a car heading up for our six-hour journey for the Saturday and Sunday shows right now.”

Murs had been updating fans throughout the day on Instagram story, sharing a video from inside the plane which was “stuck on the runway” before exiting and attempting to board another flight.

“I’m trying my best to get to Glasgow,” he said.

Murs later said: “Honestly, you couldn’t write this day.

“One of the cabin crew has fallen over and hurt herself … I hope she’s OK, but basically it has further delayed our flight. So we’re waiting for someone to come in to replace her.”

Murs described the wait as “so frustrating”, before announcing the flight and his show had been cancelled.

“I’m extremely gutted, I don’t think I’ve ever missed a gig that I can recall, especially of this magnitude.”

He later shared a video of himself being driven to Glasgow for his Saturday and Sunday performances.

A British Airways spokesperson said: “We’ve apologised to our customers for the disruption to their travel plans, which was caused by a technical issue with the aircraft.”