Le Journal

For 11 years after graduating from high school, a 28-year-old woman from a village in Lushan county in the central Chinese province of Henan had fought against pressure from her parents to get married. By her own account, the woman, locally reported as Wei and a history teacher at Lushan’s top high school, had quarrelled, “gone crazy” and even made threats with a knife. Her fight ended on December 10, when she wrote her last post on WeChat and jumped from the seventh floor of what was to be her...

China is stepping up efforts to strengthen its influence in the pricing of global non-ferrous metals, rolling out measures to deepen market activity and tightening links between futures, spot and derivatives trading. Authorities in Shanghai, the mainland’s financial hub, on Tuesday rolled out an action plan aimed at strengthening the links between the futures, spot and derivatives markets for non-ferrous metals. It is part of a broader ambition to enhance Shanghai’s role in global commodity...

A red stencil of a hand pressed against the wall of an Indonesian cave is the oldest rock art ever discovered, scientists said on Wednesday, and sheds light on how humans first migrated to Australia. The cave art dates back at least 67,800 years, according to research published in the journal Nature by a team of Indonesian and Australian archaeologists. “We have been working in Indonesia for a long time,” study co-author Maxime Aubert of Australia’s Griffith University said. This time they...

China could see its first flying car begin carrying paying passengers in 2026, as government backing and a growing pipeline of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle makers push the country’s “low-altitude economy” closer to commercial reality. Seven eVTOL manufacturers were expected to start delivering products before the end of this year, according to CCID Consulting. Local governments including Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chongqing are also preparing to loosen rules around...

There is a choice to be made at this Tokyo noodle bar, and misjudgment could be painful. The laminated menu lists increasing levels of karasa (heat from chilli oil) and shibire (numbing spice from Sichuan peppercorns) on a scale from one to five. There is a level six, too, but that invites an additional fee; any wanton spice masochism must be paid for in hard cash as well as incidental sweat and tears. This is Szechuan Tantanmen Aun, which has been operating in a corner of downtown Tokyo since...