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The Chinese travel and tourism economy grew 9.9% last year, more than twice the global rate and much faster than the 0.9% pace registered by the US, according to new data by the World Travel & Tourism Council, a trade group, and lead research partner Chase Travel.

We may appear to have little in common with sperm whales – enormous, ocean-dwelling animals that last shared a common ancestor with humans more than 90 million years ago. But the whales’ vocalized communications are remarkably similar to our own, researchers have discovered.

Not only do sperm whale have a form of “alphabet” and form vowels within their vocalizations but the structure of these vowels behaves in the same way as human speech, the new study has found.

Sperm whales communicate in a series of short clicks called codas. Analysis of these clicks shows that the whales can differentiate vowels through the short or elongated clicks or through rising or falling tones, using patterns similar to languages such as Mandarin, Latin and Slovenian.

The structure of the whales’ communication has “close parallels in the phonetics and phonology of human languages, suggesting independent evolution”, the paper, published in the Proceedings B journal, states. Sperm whale coda vocalizations are “highly complex and represent one of the closest parallels to human phonology of any analyzed animal communication system”, it added.

The change in Hungary’s government could help unlock €90bn for Ukraine and give a “new push” for it to join the European Union, the bloc’s expansion chief said Tuesday. Marta Kos, speaking on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings, described the Hungarian election on Sunday – which saw long-ruling nationalist prime minister Viktor Orbán defeated – as a “big win for Europe.”

“I expect, personally, that this will have a positive effect on the accession process,” Kos said. She also said it would help unlock a major loan needed to prop up Ukraine’s budget. Orban had an effective veto on the funds, angering other EU leaders. He had tied the veto to a dispute with Ukraine over a damaged pipeline carrying Russian oil.

The world’s top 100 oil and gas companies banked more than $30m every hour in unearned profit in the first month of the US-Israeli war in Iran, according to exclusive analysis for the Guardian. Saudi Aramco, Gazprom and ExxonMobil are among the biggest beneficiaries of the bonanza, meaning key opponents of climate action continue to prosper.

The conflict pushed the price of oil to an average of $100 (£74) a barrel in March, leading to estimated windfall war profits for the month of $23bn for the companies. Oil and gas supplies will take months to return to pre-war levels and the companies will make $234bn by the end of the year if the oil price continues to average $100. The analysis uses data from a leading intelligence provider, Rystad Energy, analysed by Global Witness.

The excess profits come from the pockets of ordinary people as they pay high prices to fill up their vehicles and power their homes, as well as from businesses incurring higher energy bills. Dozens of countries have cut fuel taxes to help struggling consumers, meaning those nations, including Australia, South Africa, Italy, Brazil and Zambia, are raising less money for public services.

Pressure is growing for windfall taxes on the war profits of oil and gas companies, with the European Commission considering a request from the finance ministers of Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Austria to “send a clear message that those who profit from the consequences of war must do their part to ease the burden on the general public”.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb says he exchanges messages with Prime Minister Mark Carney almost every day.

"We're tight," Stubb said with a smile.

Now, Stubb and Carney have the opportunity to talk in person.

Stubb is in Ottawa for his first official bilateral meetings with Canada's prime minister. The pair are working to develop trade and defence ties, according to Carney's office.

"I think Finns and Canadians are quite similar," he said. "We're cool, calm and collected except in the ice hockey rink. And then when the going gets tough, we go to the sauna and take an ice bath and calm down."

Jawad Younes, 11, and his cousins were playing soccer in the lot between their houses, as they often did. His little brother, four-year-old Mehdi, had joined them but grew tired, so Jawad took him home and handed him off to their mother before returning to the game. Minutes later, an Israeli strike came.

The target was Jawad's uncle's home. The blast shook neighbouring buildings and threw Jawad's siblings at home to the ground. As their mother, Malak Meslmani, scrambled to help them up, she could think only of Jawad.

"I was pulling my children off the floor in the house, but as I was running to pick them up, I screamed, ‘Jawad,'" she said. "My heart told me."

Her son was instantly killed in the March 27 Israeli strike in Saksakieh, which also killed his cousin and wounded several other children.

Jawad and his cousin are among 168 children killed — of more than 2,100 people in all — by Israel's strikes in the six weeks of renewed war between the country and Iran-backed Hezbollah, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.

(at the new humanitarian)

​​When the United States and Israel began their military assaults on Iran, it had already been two days since Pakistan declared “open war” on Afghanistan.

The return of more than 5.2 million Afghans from Iran and Pakistan last year – another situation likely to be exacerbated by the war in Iran – is adding a further strain to an Afghan economy marked by endemic poverty, and a chronic scarcity of jobs.

Newly declassified Israeli files reveal pre-state Zionist militias contacted Nazi Germany officials for help in establishing a Jewish state in Palestine as World War II raged.

The declassified file includes material collected by the Haganah, and later by the Shin Bet (Israel's internal security service) and the Israeli army, regarding the Stern Gang's attempts to establish ties with the Axis powers, Italy and Germany.

Stern wanted help from Nazi Germany to expel the British and capture Palestine from its indigenous Muslim and Christian Palestinian inhabitants for the Jews.

His position differed from that of most of the Jewish community in Palestine, which had suspended its struggle against Britain to fight Germany in the broader European war.

“With the outbreak of World War II … there is no better time for a war of independence than during wartime. Britain's forces are tied down … and it would be possible to overcome them,” Stern argued.

“The Jews are a party in the war and therefore cannot be neutral. Britain betrayed the Jewish people and will never allow the establishment of a Jewish state. On the other hand, Germany has no special interest in Palestine, and since the Nazis want to cleanse Europe of Jews, nothing is simpler than transferring them to their own state,” he added.

The document further states that Stern believed “it is possible to reach a practical agreement with the Germans … negotiations should be opened, and Jews of Europe should be recruited into a special army that would fight its way to Palestine and conquer it from the British. The Germans, he argued, would agree because it would rid them of the Jews while also removing the British from the Near East.”

According to Stern, some German officials supported strengthening Jewish settlement in Palestine by bringing Jews from Europe, believing they would be grateful and would later assist Germany.

China is employing ships and a barrier to tighten control of the entrance to the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea amid roiling ​tension with the Philippines over the disputed feature, satellite imagery obtained by Reuters shows.

Iran secretly acquired a Chinese ‌spy satellite in late 2024 that has allowed it to target U.S. military bases across the Middle East during the current war, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, an account Beijing dismissed as untrue.

The TEE-01B satellite, built and launched by Chinese company Earth ​Eye Co, was acquired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Aerospace Force after it was launched ​into space from China, the report said, citing leaked Iranian military documents.

Iranian military commanders ⁠directed the satellite to monitor major U.S. military sites, the newspaper said, citing time-stamped coordinate lists, satellite imagery ​and orbital analysis. The images were taken in March before and after drone and missile strikes on those ​locations, the Financial Times said.

More than 200 Iranian sailors left stranded in Sri Lanka after a US torpedo attack are returning home after being stuck in the country for more than a month.

On Wednesday, Sri Lanka's Deputy Defence Minister, Aruna ⁠Jayasekara, confirmed 32 sailors rescued from the Iris Dena and 206 from Irins Bushehr, had left the country.

The Iranian warship, Iris Dena, sank on 4 March about 40km (25 miles) from Sri Lanka's southern coastline after it was hit by a torpedo from a US submarine, killing 104 sailors.