6 h. ago The spiritual economy: young Chinese turn to fortune tellers as anxiety about the future rises

Growing popularity of mysticism can also be connected to increasing sense of cultural confidence as Chinese brands and products go globalPass my exams. Meet Mr Right. Get rich. Pinned to a board by the entrance of a dimly lit fortune telling bar in Fengtai, an urban district in the south of Beijing, handwritten notes reveal the inner worries of customers coming for cocktails with a side of spiritual salvation.One As All is one of several fortune telling bars to have opened in Beijing, Shanghai and other Chinese cities in recent years. Hidden on the 12th floor of a commercial building, the bar serves a wide range of drinks starting at an auspicious 88 yuan (£9) (eight is considered to be lucky number in China). As well as enjoying a sundowner with a view over Beijing’s skyline, customers can consult the in-house fortune teller who specialises in qiuqian, known in English as Chinese lottery sticks, an ancient style of divination often found in Taoist temples. From a private side-room,...

Politics

8 d. ago Oil rises and US stock futures slide as markets react to US strike on Iran nuclear sites

The price of oil rose and U.S. stock futures fell as global markets react to the U.S. strike against nuclear targets in Iran

Events

2 w. ago Oil prices rise and US futures fall as Israel urges residents of Iran's capital to evacuate

Oil prices have resumed their upward climb and U.S. futures are lower after Israel's military issued an evacuation warning to 330,000 people in Iran's capital Tehran

Politics

2 w. ago Rachel Reeves fails to rule out future tax rises as economy shrinks

However, the Chancellor repeated her promise that she would not need to increase taxes on the same scale as last year.

Economics

2 w. ago Reeves pumps money into NHS as critics warn future tax rises ‘almost inevitable’

Chancellor Rachel Reeves set out how she would spend hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ money over the rest of the decade.

Events

3 w. ago A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern review – not your usual PM

New Zealand’s former prime minister is a refreshingly informal narrator of her remarkable rise and fallJacinda Ardern was the future, once. New Zealand’s prime minister captured the world’s imagination with her empathetic leadership, her desire to prioritise the nation’s happiness rather than just its GDP, and her bold but deeply human approach to the early stages of the pandemic (though her “zero Covid” strategy of sealing borders to keep death rates low came back to bite her). She governed differently, resigned differently – famously saying in 2023 that she just didn’t have “enough in the tank” to fight another election – and has now written a strikingly different kind of political memoir. It opens with her sitting on the toilet clutching a pregnancy test at the height of negotiations over forming a coalition government, wondering how to tell the nation that their probable new prime minister will need maternity leave.Ardern is a disarmingly likable, warm and funny narrator, a...

Politics