PARIS, April 4 -- From Japan's wacky racers to JD Vance's demons... Your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world.

Japan's office hell riders 

It takes true grit and buttocks of steel to compete in Japan's ISU-1 Grand Prix, a test of endurance modelled on France's Le Mans 24 race. Except the gruelling Japanese race is run on office chairs.

Their faces contorted in pain and exhaustion, the losing drivers lay prostrate at the finish line amid a mess of broken dreams and chair wheels.

But Naoki Nishikawa, a member of the victorious team, said the two hours of hell on the Kyotanabe track near Kyoto was worth it. It "really showed me how important it is to keep going without giving up," he told AFP.

Yasunori Miura miss...