An anguished Harry Kane called ­England’s Euro 2024 final defeat by Spain “as painful as it can be”, describing their sense of hurt after losing to Mikel Oyarzabal’s late ­winner in Berlin.

Spain were worthy winners but that was little consolation to the ­England captain, who again looked below par and was replaced by Ollie Watkins just after the hour. The ­country’s wait for a first men’s tournament win since 1966 continues after a night when Gareth Southgate again refused to offer indications about his future.

“Losing in a final is as tough as it gets,” said Kane, who had to watch from the side as Cole Palmer’s brilliant finish gave England genuine hope until the 86th-minute sting. “We’ve done really well to get back into the game and then we couldn’t quite use that momentum to push on. We couldn’t quite keep the ball and we got punished for it towards the end. It’s as painful as it can be in a football match.

“It’s been a difficult ride. We’ve done extremely well to get here. We wanted to do it so badly for ourselves and also for the fans and everyone who’s believed in us the whole way.”

It is well documented that England’s players are desperate for ­Southgate, who is considering whether to extend his eight-year ­tenure, to lead them towards the 2026 World Cup. “We love the manager but that’s his decision and this is not the time to talk about that now,” Kane told the BBC. “That’s down to him, he’ll go away and think about it. Right now we are just hurting.”

Southgate was noncommittal upon being asked whether a ­second European Championship final defeat in three years would give him extra motivation to stay on. “I totally understand the question,” he said. “But I need to have those conver­sations with important people behind the scenes and am not going to discuss that publicly first. Without doubt England have got some fabulous young players and many of this squad are going to be around in two, four, six years’ time.”

Accepting that England “fell short”, Southgate emphasised they should hold their heads high after a sometimes tumultuous run to the competition’s bitter end. “I’m very proud of the group of players, they couldn’t have given me or the country any more,” he said.

“The team have done the country proud, they have reached the first final away from England. A second final in two tournaments is ­incredible, really. They have played 14 matches in the last two European Championships and lost in the last minutes of the 14th game. It’s an incredible run but at the moment none of that matters.”

Questioned directly about Kane, who has noticeably laboured despite the bittersweet honour of jointly taking the Golden Boot with three goals, Southgate admitted England’s record goalscorer was some way below his best. “Physically it has been tough for him,” he said. “He came into the ­tournament short on games and has not quite reached the level we all would have hoped.

“He has led the team really well. We have lost a lot of leadership with the injuries to [Jordan] Henderson and [Harry] Maguire so a lot has fallen on his shoulders.”

England had been required to deal with a number of physical issues beyond Kane’s struggles, including the strain of extra-time stints against Slovakia and Switzerland. ­Southgate suggested they had ultimately counted the cost of those exertions.

“So many of our players came into the camp having missed the end of the season,” he said. “We managed to get Luke [Shaw] through the 90 ­minutes when he hasn’t played for four months. Kobbie [Mainoo] has done incredibly well. Jude [­Bellingham] we were about to take off because he was cramping.

“That physical toll is exacerbated when you don’t have the ball. There was a lot stacked against us in terms of having a day less [to prepare] and the extra‑time periods we have had.”

Ultimately, Southgate conceded the superior team had prevailed. “To lose a final is incredibly tough,” he said. “Congratulations to Spain. They were the best team in the tournament and they were the best team tonight.”

The FA’s chief executive, Mark Bullingham, echoed Southgate’s sentiments. “We came to Germany to win the tournament and we didn’t want it to end this way,” he said. “We are all hurting tonight, but we should be incredible proud.”

Though the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump took up some of the headlines, most of the UK papers focused on England’s 2-1 loss to Spain in the finals of the European Championship in Berlin.

The Guardian’s main picture was of Jude Bellingham slumped on the pitch in defeat under the headline, “Agony for England”. “Spain dashes hopes for Southgate’s team with late winner,” the paper added.

The Telegraph also uses a huge picture of a dejected Bellingham on its front page with the simple text, “Euro 2024 final: Spain 2 England 1”.

The Daily Mirror showed a picture of Bellingham being comforted above the headline “Shattered”, adding: “Wait goes on for Three Lions as Spain clinch final with late goal”.

The Daily Mail’s front page splashes on Trump but above that features the disappointed captain, Harry Kane, striding from the pitch and the headline: “Unbearable tension, a wonder goal … but football’s not coming home.”

The Daily Express splashed on “Dream is over … but Three Lions you did us proud” also using a picture of Bellingham with head bowed while Spain players celebrate around him.

The Metro headlines “The Lions Weep Tonight”, adding “England heartbreak in final” and featuring a composite of disappointed England players and their manager, Gareth Southgate.

The Times splashes on Trump but also leads with a picture of Bellingham, headlining it “England’s hope ends in Euros heartbreak”.

The i leads its front page with “Heartbreak, again”, adding below: “England fall at the last despite cool Palmer strike and Pickford heroics.”

A fleet of more than one hundred lorries would take 15 years to clear Gaza of almost 40m tonnes of rubble in an operation costing between $500m (£394m) and $600m, a UN assessment has found.

The conclusions will underline the immense challenge of rebuilding the Palestinian territory after months of a grinding Israeli offensive that has led to massive destruction of homes and infrastructure.

According to the assessment, which was published last month by the UN Environment Programme, 137,297 buildings had been damaged in Gaza, more than half of the total. Of these, just over a quarter were destroyed, about a 10th severely damaged and a third moderately damaged.

Massive landfill sites covering between 250 and 500 hectares (618 to 1,235 acres) would be necessary to dump the rubble, depending on how much could be recycled, the assessment found.

In May, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said rebuilding homes in Gaza destroyed during the war could take until 2040 in the most optimistic scenario, with total reconstruction across the territory costing as much as $40bn. That assessment, which was published as part of a push to raise funds for early planning for the rehabilitation of Gaza, also found the conflict could reduce levels of health, education and wealth in the territory to those of 1980, wiping out 44 years of development.

“The damage to infrastructure is insane … In [the southern Gaza City] Khan Younis, there is not one building untouched,” one UN official based in Gaza told the Guardian last week.

“The actual topography has changed. There are hills where there were none. The 2,000lbs [907kg] bombs dropped [by Israel] are actually altering the landscape.”

Schools, health facilities, roads, sewers and all other critical infrastructure have all suffered massive damage.

Humanitarian officials welcomed a move by Israel to increase the capacity of a key desalination plant that serves Gaza but pointed out that with most pipes damaged, distribution of water within the territory remained extremely difficult.

The UNDP said the possible price tag of reconstruction of Gaza is now twice estimates made by UN and Palestinian officials in January and was rising every day.

The mountains of rubble are full of unexploded ordnance that leads to “more than 10 explosions every week”, causing more deaths and loss of limbs, Gaza’s Civil Defence agency has said.

In April, Pehr Lodhammar, a former United Nationals Mine Action Service chief for Iraq, said that on average about 10% of weapons failed to detonate when they were fired and had to be removed by demining teams.

Sixty-five per cent of the buildings destroyed in Gaza were residential, Lodhammar said, adding that clearing and rebuilding them would be slow and dangerous work because of the threat from shells, missiles or other weapons buried in collapsed or damaged buildings.

The war began when Hamas launched a surprise attack into southern Israel in October, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 250 others. More than 38,000 people have now been killed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials in the territory.

People in Rwanda will go to the polls on Monday for elections in which Paul Kagame is widely expected to extend his rule of the central African country.

This is the fourth presidential ballot since more than 800,000 people, mostly members of the Tutsi ethnic minority, were killed in a genocide in the country 30 years ago.

Kagame, who led the Rwandan Patriotic Front rebel group to defeat Hutu extremist forces and end the genocide, was elected president by parliament in 2000 after the resignation of Pasteur Bizimungu.

He has won more than 90% of the vote in the three previous elections since then – in 2003, 2010 and 2017.

Running on the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) ticket, Kagame is now seeking a fourth seven-year term, after a constitutional amendment in 2015 extended presidential term limits.

Kagame is credited with transforming Rwanda from ethnic division to being a united country and regional business hub. But critics accuse his administration of censorship and curtailing human rights in the country of 13 million people, more than 9 million of whom are eligible to vote in Monday’s ballot.

In this election, he faces the same opponents as in 2017: Frank Habineza, of the Democratic Green party of Rwanda, and Philippe Mpayimana, an independent candidate.

Rwanda’s national electoral commission disqualified six others, including vocal Kagame critics Victoire Ingabire, Diane Rwigara and Bernard Ntaganda, for various reasons.

Kagame’s campaign priorities have included security, stability, unity and economic development.

“We chose to rebuild ourselves and our country, which was destroyed by bad politics and irresponsible leaders,” he said at a rally in the northern Gakenke district on Thursday.

“As for you, you have rebuilt yourselves, you have built your skills, and you have competent leaders at all levels. Therefore, you must do everything possible to ensure that Rwanda continues its path towards sustainable progress.”

Habineza, a former RPF member, is advocating for changes to tax and land policies and for modernisation of agriculture.

Mpayimana, a senior expert in the ministry of national unity and civic engagement and a former journalist, is pushing to downsize parliament, increase agricultural productivity, and improve education and student welfare.

In the last election, Habineza and Mpayimana each got less than 1% of votes.

Analysts say they lacked sufficient name recognition, financial resources and organisational ability to significantly challenge Kagame this time as well.

RPF has been the ruling party since 1994, and its members occupy 75% of the seats in parliament.

David Kiwuwa, an associate professor of international studies at the University of Nottingham, said: “On the whole, Rwanda is a dominant party system, with RPF occupying a supersized political space and as such in the foreseeable future has no challenger.”

Rachel Nicholson, Rwanda researcher at Amnesty International, said the election could be an “opportune time for political leadership to choose to recommit to human rights” and investigate enforced disappearances, killings and other human rights cases to ensure that victims get justice.

“Regardless of whether leadership changes or not, it’s a moment of change,” she said. “It’s a moment that leaders can choose if they want to.”

Rwandans will also vote on Monday for members of the lower house of parliament.

The results of the elections are expected this week.

Lionel Messi’s night ended early during the Copa América final when he emotionally exited the field in the 64th minute with an apparent leg injury on Sunday night, and cameras showed him later on the bench with a badly swollen right ankle.

The 37-year-old appeared to suffer a non-contact injury while running at full speed with the game at 0-0. Messi immediately looked toward the Argentina bench as he went to the ground and remained down for several minutes as he waited on the trainers to come out. He was helped to his feet and immediately took his shoe off his right foot.

As he walked off the field, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner took off his captains armband and threw his shoe to the ground in frustration. An emotional Messi was then shown covering his face, sobbing in his seat.

Messi went down in the first half after landing awkwardly when chasing a ball out of bounds. He rolled over several times as he grabbed at his lower right leg. Trainers worked on the area for a few minutes before helping him to his feet. He walked slowly toward the sideline before returning to the game.

Messi had been dealing with a leg injury and discomfort through much of the tournament and missed Argentina’s group stage finale. He had one shot attempt in the first half Sunday.

There had been speculation during the tournament that it would be Messi’s last competition in an Argentina shirt. But Messi said before the final that he intends to continue beyond this summer.

“As I’ve said before, I intend to continue,” Messi said after Argentina’s semi-final win. “I intend to keep living day by day without thinking about what will come in the future or whether I’ll continue or not. It’s something I just live each day. I’m 37 years and only God knows when the end will be.”

The final did mark the end of Ángel Di María’s international career, who announced his retirement at 36 years old.

“We’ve enjoyed him so much,” Messi said. “He’s always given his all and the best of himself and that he will retire in a final is something he simply deserves.”

South American World Cup qualifying resumes in September, with each team scheduled to play 12 more matches. Messi was expected to return to MLS action for Inter Miami against the Chicago Fire on 21 July. Miami are second in the Eastern Conference, but their form has been erratic while Messi has been away on international duty. They will now nervously wait on the status of their star.

Conflicts have hampered efforts to vaccinate children across the world, health leaders have warned, as new figures showed about 14.5 million children had not received a single immunisation dose.

More than half of the children live in countries where armed conflicts or other humanitarian crises had created fragile and vulnerable situations, according to data from the UN children’s agency, Unicef, and the World Health Organization.

The war in Sudan has led to a huge rise in numbers of unvaccinated children, from about 110,000 in 2021 to an estimated 701,000 last year. Yemen has 580,000 unvaccinated children, up from 424,000 three years ago.

In addition to the 14.5 million “zero-dose” children in 2023, 6.5 million children were “under-vaccinated”, meaning they had not received all their recommended doses.

Both figures were up from 2022, officials said on Monday, warning that despite progress in some regions, an international goal to halve the number of zero-dose children by 2030 was off-track.

Dr Katherine O’Brien, the director of the WHO’s immunisation and vaccines department, said: “This puts the lives of the most vulnerable children at risk.”

She said children in humanitarian settings “also lack security, they lack nutrition, they lack healthcare, and are most likely as a result of those things to die from a vaccine-preventable disease if they get it”.

Global vaccine coverage has yet to return to 2019’s levels, before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted immunisation programmes. That year, 12.8 million children were classed as “zero-dose” and a further 5.5 million as under-vaccinated.

More than half of the world’s zero-dose children live in 10 countries, which officials said were “a mix of those with large birth cohorts, weak health systems or both”.

They include Nigeria, India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia. In 2023, Sudan, Yemen and Afghanistan joined the list.

Douglas Hageman, Unicef’s Sudan representative, said the country’s health system had collapsed during the war.

“National vaccination coverage has plummeted from 85% before the war to around 50% currently, with rates averaging 30% in active conflict areas and as low as 8% in South Darfur,” he said.

Outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, rubella and polio were common, Hageman added.

Vaccinations in Yemen were “alarmingly low”, said Peter Hawkins, Unicef’s representative in the country.

“A combination of factors that have further worsened in recent years, including a lack of access to healthcare, vaccine hesitancy and worsening socioeconomic and political crisis, have exacerbated the situation,” he said.

O’Brien warned that misinformation circulating during the pandemic was “continuing to reverberate in many countries, and is actually resulting in deaths”.

The UN report said there had been a strong increase in coverage of the HPV vaccine, which can protect against cervical cancer, but it still needed to be introduced in 51 countries, including China and India.

Conflicts have hampered efforts to vaccinate children across the world, health leaders have warned, as new figures showed about 14.5 million children had not received a single immunisation dose.

More than half of the children live in countries where armed conflicts or other humanitarian crises had created fragile and vulnerable situations, according to data from the UN children’s agency, Unicef, and the World Health Organization.

The war in Sudan has led to a huge rise in numbers of unvaccinated children, from about 110,000 in 2021 to an estimated 701,000 last year. Yemen has 580,000 unvaccinated children, up from 424,000 three years ago.

In addition to the 14.5 million “zero-dose” children in 2023, 6.5 million children were “under-vaccinated”, meaning they had not received all their recommended doses.

Both figures were up from 2022, officials said on Monday, warning that despite progress in some regions, an international goal to halve the number of zero-dose children by 2030 was off-track.

Dr Katherine O’Brien, the director of the WHO’s immunisation and vaccines department, said: “This puts the lives of the most vulnerable children at risk.”

She said children in humanitarian settings “also lack security, they lack nutrition, they lack healthcare, and are most likely as a result of those things to die from a vaccine-preventable disease if they get it”.

Global vaccine coverage has yet to return to 2019’s levels, before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted immunisation programmes. That year, 12.8 million children were classed as “zero-dose” and a further 5.5 million as under-vaccinated.

More than half of the world’s zero-dose children live in 10 countries, which officials said were “a mix of those with large birth cohorts, weak health systems or both”.

They include Nigeria, India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia. In 2023, Sudan, Yemen and Afghanistan joined the list.

Douglas Hageman, Unicef’s Sudan representative, said the country’s health system had collapsed during the war.

“National vaccination coverage has plummeted from 85% before the war to around 50% currently, with rates averaging 30% in active conflict areas and as low as 8% in South Darfur,” he said.

Outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, rubella and polio were common, Hageman added.

Vaccinations in Yemen were “alarmingly low”, said Peter Hawkins, Unicef’s representative in the country.

“A combination of factors that have further worsened in recent years, including a lack of access to healthcare, vaccine hesitancy and worsening socioeconomic and political crisis, have exacerbated the situation,” he said.

O’Brien warned that misinformation circulating during the pandemic was “continuing to reverberate in many countries, and is actually resulting in deaths”.

The UN report said there had been a strong increase in coverage of the HPV vaccine, which can protect against cervical cancer, but it still needed to be introduced in 51 countries, including China and India.

Top Chinese officials will gather in Beijing on Monday, with all eyes on how they might kickstart lacklustre growth at a key political meeting that has historically seen officials unveil big-picture economic policy changes.

The world’s second-largest economy is grappling with a real estate debt crisis, weakening consumption, an ageing population and geopolitical tensions.

China’s president, Xi Jinping, will oversee the ruling Communist party’s secretive third plenum, which usually takes place every five years in October, though Beijing has offered few hints about what might be on the table.

State media in June said the delayed four-day gathering would “primarily examine issues related to further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernisation”, and Xi has said the party is planning “major” reforms.

Analysts are hoping those pledges will result in badly needed support for the economy.

“The upcoming plenum can’t come soon enough,” Sarah Tan and Harry Murphy Cruise wrote for Moody’s Analytics last week.

Beijing should take decisive action to reform the property sector, loosen restrictions on internal migration, boost high-skilled jobs for graduates and modify the tax system to ease local government debt, they said.

But they added that leaders would “probably not” make sweeping reforms, instead choosing “a modest policy tweak that expands hi-tech manufacturing and a sprinkling of supports to housing”.

The People’s Daily, the Communist party’s official newspaper, appeared to confirm those lower expectations when it warned last week that “reform is not about changing direction and transformation is not about changing colour”.

Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura, said the meeting was “intended to generate and discuss big, long-term ideas and structural reforms instead of making short-term policy adjustments”.

The third plenum has previously been an occasion for the party’s top leadership to unveil major economic policy shifts.

In 1978, then-leader Deng Xiaoping used the meeting to announce market reforms that would put China on the path to rapid economic growth by opening it to the world.

More recently, after the closed-door meeting in 2013, the leadership pledged to give the free market a “decisive” role in resource allocation, as well as other sweeping changes to economic and social policy.

This year’s conclave will begin the same day China is due to release its growth figures for the second quarter, although authorities have in the recent past delayed the publication of GDP results if they coincide with big events – as they did during the Communist party’s 20th national congress in mid-October 2022.

Experts polled by AFP expect China’s economy to have grown, on average, 5.3% year-on-year between April and June.

Beijing has said it is aiming for 5% growth this year – enviable for many western countries but a far cry from the double-digit expansion that for years drove the Chinese economy.

Authorities have been clear they want to reorient the economy away from state-funded investment and instead base growth around hi-tech innovation and domestic consumption.

But economic uncertainty is fuelling a vicious cycle that has kept consumption stubbornly low.

Among the most urgent issues facing the economy is the beleaguered property sector, which long served as a key engine for growth but is now mired in debt, with several top firms facing liquidation.

Authorities have moved in recent months to ease pressure on developers and restore confidence, including by encouraging local governments to buy up unsold homes.

Analysts say much more is required for a full rebound, as the country’s economy has yet to bounce back more than 18 months after damaging Covid-19 restrictions ended.

Scientists have made a crucial DNA discovery that could help cure one of the deadliest cancers.

A team of researchers from the UK and US have found that pancreatic cancer is able to shut down molecules in one of the body’s most important genes, helping the disease to grow and spread rapidly.

Pancreatic cancer is the 12th most common cancer worldwide, with more than half a million people diagnosed every year. It has the worst survival rates of all the most common forms of the disease.

The deadly nature of pancreatic cancer has stumped experts for years but the breakthrough offers hope in the hunt for a treatment that could wipe out the disease.

Dr Maria Hatziapostolou, of Nottingham Trent University’s John van Geest Cancer Research Centre, said: “This work, which has provided new understanding and knowledge of how the cancer behaves, will hopefully help pave the way for potential new treatments in the future.”

She added: “Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival of all the 20 common cancers. The survival of patients beyond five years has improved very little for some time and so it’s extremely important that we find new ways to better understand this disease, how it spreads and why it is so aggressive.”

Pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed at an advanced stage when treatment options become limited, with more than half of patients dying within three months of diagnosis. High-profile figures to die of the disease include Alan Rickman, John Hurt, Steve Jobs and Patrick Swayze.

For the study, published in the journal Gastro Hep Advances, the researchers analysed healthy as well as pancreatic cancer tissue samples. They found pancreatic cancers triggered a process known as DNA methylation, causing molecules in the normally beneficial HNF4A gene to switch off, allowing tumours to grow extremely quickly.

The HNF4A gene is crucial to human health because it helps many of the body’s organs to function properly. But the researchers discovered pancreatic cancer can covertly disable the gene’s benefits.

Hatziapostolou said: “Loss of HNF4A drives pancreatic cancer development and aggressiveness and we now know correlates with poor patient survival.”

Scientists from the University of Nottingham, Stanford University and the University of California and Cedars-Sinai medical centre, Los Angeles, were also involved in the project.

Dr Chris Macdonald, the head of research at Pancreatic Cancer UK, which funded the study, said: “We desperately need kinder and more effective treatment options for pancreatic cancer. The majority of pancreatic cancers are diagnosed at a late stage, with 80% not being detected until after the disease has spread and is no longer operable.

“This is reflected in its poor survival rate – over half of people with the disease die within three months of diagnosis. Improving our fundamental understanding of what makes pancreatic cancer grow and spread so rapidly is vital if we are to make much-needed breakthroughs.

“This project gives us new information on how pancreatic cancer is able to suppress certain molecules to help it spread aggressively around the body which, in turn, could lead to the development of more effective treatment options in the future.”

Shannen Doherty, star of Beverly Hills 90210 and Heathers, has died at the age of 53.

A statement from her publicist Leslie Sloane, cited by People magazine, said: “It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of actress Shannen Doherty. On Saturday, July 13, she lost her battle with cancer after many years of fighting the disease.”

The actor had been first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and underwent a mastectomy. In 2020, she said that her diagnosis was then terminal, calling it “a bitter pill to swallow” in a Good Morning America interview.

In June 2023, Doherty shared an Instagram post that revealed news that cancer had spread to her brain alongside a video of her receiving treatment. “My fear is obvious,” she wrote.

Doherty started working at a young age with small-screen roles in Father Murphy and Little House on the Prairie and big-screen roles in The Secret of NIMH and Girls Just Want to Have Fun all before the age of 15.

In 1988, Doherty starred in the dark comedy Heathers alongside Winona Ryder. While it wasn’t a financial success at the time, it since became a cult favourite, widely seen as one of the best high school films ever. She later made a cameo appearance in the pilot of a TV adaptation.

Two years later, Doherty found success as Brenda Walsh in hit teen drama Beverly Hills 90210, which averaged over 21 million viewers by its fourth season. “We get accosted in malls,” said Doherty of the show’s success in 1992. “Basically, it takes over your life.”

Doherty left before season five but later returned for the 2008 reboot and 2019’s meta BH90210, where she played herself.

She also found major success in witchcraft drama Charmed, which she starred in for three seasons. She also directed a number of episodes. Her film roles included Mallrats and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back for the film-maker Kevin Smith.

When Doherty shared her latest update in June 2023, Smith wrote: “You have been such a fearless fighter your whole life, so it’s understandable to be a little scared from time to time. But when those moments pass, let that indomitable Doherty spirit take over anew. I love you so much, my Mallrat.”

Doherty was often positioned as a troublemaker in the press, with People magazine once referring to her the “iconic Hollywood bad girl of the 90s”. Addressing her reputation in 1992, Doherty pushed back on being difficult.

“If you consider ‘difficult’ being a strong woman who sticks up for herself, yeah, I admit to it,” she says. “I’m open to different ideas, but if you get on my bad side and don’t listen to me and you don’t treat me with as much respect as you treat a man, you’ve got a problem.”

In 2010, Doherty addressed it again: “I have a rep. Did I earn it? Yeah, I did. But, after a while you sort of try to shed that rep because you’re kind of a different person. You’ve evolved and all of the bad things you’ve done in your life have brought you to a much better place.”

King Charles and Queen Camilla have locked in plans to visit Australia and Samoa in October but have called off a proposed trip to New Zealand on health advice as the king recovers from a cancer diagnosis.

The Australian government said on Monday that the king and queen would travel to the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales during the visit, with further details to be confirmed later.

The announcement coincided with the release of official Australian portraits of the king and queen.

All Australians are eligible to request a printed portrait of the monarch courtesy of their federal MP or senator, as part of the little-known nationhood material program, but the federal government had been waiting for Buckingham Palace to send an official portrait.

“In the official portraits, The King wears The Sovereign’s Badge of the Order of Australia, while The Queen wears the Wattle Brooch which was gifted to Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to Australia in 1954,” the Australian government said in a statement.

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Buckingham Palace said Charles and Camilla would attend the commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Samoa, which is scheduled for 21-25 October.

They will visit Australia but not New Zealand as Charles, 75, continues his recovery from cancer after he was diagnosed earlier this year. The king returned to public duties in late April.

“The king’s doctors have advised that such an extended programme should be avoided at this time, to prioritise his majesty’s continued recovery,” a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace said.

The Australian prime minister said he would be “honoured to welcome the king and queen on their first royal visit to Australia later this year”.

“They are always welcome visitors,” Anthony Albanese said on Monday.

“The king has a deep regard for our great nation, and has always spoken warmly of the time he has spent here and the astounding beauty of our extraordinary continent.”

Australia’s governor general, Sam Mostyn, said she looked forward to “showcasing the very best of our modern and diverse nation” during the royal visit.

“I was fortunate to spend time with his majesty in May,” she said.

“His majesty the king has a well-known deep affection for and connection to the people of Australia and he was very much looking forward to his first visit to Australia since becoming king.”

It will be the first visit to Australia by a reigning monarch since 2011, when Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, made a 10-day tour of the country.

The Australian Republic Movement said the visit was “a great opportunity for all Australians to ask themselves whether the British royals really represent a modern Aussie democracy”.

The ARM’s national director and chief executive, Isaac Jeffrey, said the organisation welcomed the visit but questioned the cost to Australian taxpayers.

“While we respect the role the royals have played in the nation to date, it’s time for Australia to elect a local to serve as our head of state: someone who can work for Australia full time and advocate for Australian industry, charities, economy, trade, jobs and people – like Charles does for the UK,” he said.

Jeffrey said his organisation had asked for a meeting with the king during the visit. He said this was “not to ask his permission to become a republic, because only the Australian people can make that decision”.

“We’ve asked to meet so we can let him know Australia and the UK will continue our strong alliance, friendship and sporting rivalries when we become a republic. We’re keen to tell him we’ll stay in the commonwealth and a republic is about us, not about him or his family.”

There is no sign the government is preparing to put the question of a republic to the people in a referendum. The idea was last defeated in a 1999 referendum.

The assistant minister for the republic, Matt Thistlethwaite, told Guardian Australia last year that the defeat of the Indigenous voice referendum made a republic “a lot harder” although Labor “remains committed” to the idea.

Additional reporting by Reuters

In Barcelona visitors have been sprayed with water pistols in an expression of local people’s anger about over-tourism. By contrast in Copenhagen, tourists are to be given financial and other incentives to come – as long as they act responsibly.

The Danish capital appears to be bucking the trend of other travel hotspots struggling under the burden of too many tourists, by attempting to lure only the well-behaved, socially and environmentally conscious traveller.

The national tourist board has introduced a programme to encourage climate-friendly, sustainable behaviour. From Monday, it will reward those who choose to ride a bike, take public transport or undergo a bit of work like gardening or rubbish collection at the harbour or in the city’s parks.

People who turn up with their own reusable coffee cups can expect to receive a free brew at selected venues, while other perks for good behaviour include a complimentary cocktail on a rooftop bar, or extra time spent on the city’s artificial ski slope complex.

“All our choices have an environmental impact, so why not make conscious decisions that benefit us all and be rewarded for them?” the organisers behind CopenPay suggest.

Mikkel Aarø-Hansen of the official tourist board Wonderful Copenhagen said he hoped the idea would act as an inspiration for other cities to adopt as they seek to find a workable way to create a more mutually beneficial and less onerous relationship between tourists and local people.

“We need to ensure that tourism rather than being a burden for the environment is transformed into a power for positive change,” he said. He added that by embracing elements of the so-called experience economy the programme would also encourage more positive encounters between tourists and local people.

“Our core goals are to make travelling more sustainable. We’ll only manage this though if we are able to overcome the big divide between the desire of visitors to behave in a sustainable way and their actual behaviour.” He added that the challenge was “more complicated than it sounds”.

“We want visitors to make more conscious, more climate-friendly decisions and in so doing to hopefully have a more rewarding travel experience,” Aarø-Hansen added.

The “warm welcome” offered by the city, as crooned by Danny Kaye in the eponymous song, should be a given, in contrast to the unwelcome scenes tourists have faced at other destinations that have failed to manage visitor supply and demand, the city’s leaders say.

Barcelona is not the only popular tourist destination to find itself overwhelmed, and with local people taking drastic measures in an attempt to curb or control the travel boom.

Day trippers to Venice now have to pay a new daily tax of €5, while tourists in the old port city of Dubrovnik were recently urged to avoid using rolling suitcases or lift them up, due to the cacophony they make when pulled along the cobbled streets. Mallorca, Ibiza and other Balearic islands meanwhile have introduced tight restrictions on alcohol consumption. Other destinations are experimenting with a range of methods, from entrance fees to restricted visitor zones to control the flow.

CopenPay, which will initially last until 11 August, is being viewed by authorities as something of a pilot project, which could be repeated and expanded if successful. This may in future involve rewarding visitors who take the train rather than the plane to get to Copenhagen.