One of China’s top government health officials has repeatedly promoted Covid-19 remedies included in Beijing’s official treatment protocol for the disease without disclosing his links with the manufacturers. Epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan was appointed to head an expert group at the National Health Commission, the body responsible for formulating China’s health policy, at the start of

Conservative party chair Oliver Dowden has insisted there is a “strong case” for Boris Johnson to remain as prime minister, despite growing backbench anger over the government’s handling of the partygate scandal and fears over upcoming local elections. Johnson now faces three probes into the allegations of rule-breaking throughout the pandemic: the House of Commons

Voters in France are going to the polls to elect either Emmanuel Macron or Marine Le Pen as president, with opinion polls suggesting that Macron will repeat his 2017 win over his far-right rival, albeit by a narrower margin. A second five-year term for Macron, a champion of the EU, would come as a relief

Fiesole’s finest reborn Villa San Michele has been the stalwart on the Fiesole hill above Florence since it first opened in 1982, with painterly views, patrician gardens, and a rich historical heritage (the 15th-century villa was originally a monastery; the oak woods above it are where da Vinci is said to have first launched his

Vladimir Putin has lost interest in diplomatic efforts to end his war with Ukraine and instead appears set on seizing as much Ukrainian territory as possible, according to three people briefed on conversations with the Russian president. Putin, who was seriously considering a peace deal with Ukraine after Russia suffered battlefield setbacks last month, has

The head of the world’s largest ship manager has urged Nato to provide naval escorts for commercial vessels passing through the Black Sea, which lies off Ukraine’s southern coast, as dozens remain stuck in the conflict zone. René Kofod-Olsen, chief executive of V.Group, said the western military alliance should intervene to ensure trade can flow

This article picked by a teacher with suggested questions is part of the Financial Times free schools access programme. Details/registration here. Specification: AQA Component 1, Section3.1.1.2: The structure and role of Parliament; Section 3.1.1.3: the Prime Minister and Cabinet — the difference between individual and collective responsibility Edexcel Component 2, Section 3.2: The concept of ministerial

The writer is global head of sanctions, compliance and risk at ACAMS It has been two months since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began and the fog of war continues to obscure the country’s future. A similar uncertainty is now settling across global markets, where a deluge of economic and trade restrictions aimed at punishing Vladimir

How much has US economic growth slowed? The US is expected to report that economic growth slowed significantly in the first quarter, driven largely by a reversal of the previous quarter’s unexpected boom in inventory accumulation. The commerce department on Thursday is forecast to show that the US economy grew at an annualised rate of

Cambridge Innovation Capital has raised its largest round of funding to date as the venture investor seeks to capitalise on the UK city’s growing life sciences and tech economy. CIC — which benefits from a unique contract with Cambridge university — has raised £225mn to invest in early stage start-ups operating in areas from cell

This year’s Super Bowl was more than an American football game. It became a chapter in financial history as the cryptocurrency industry splashed out millions of dollars on star-studded television advertisements that played on fears of missing out on the next big thing in investing. “Fortune favours the brave,” said a commercial for Crypto.com, an

In 2017, billionaire Patrick Drahi made an audacious move: spinning off the US arm of his telecoms empire from its heavily indebted European parent in one of the biggest initial public offerings of that year. The listing was designed to free up Altice USA to embark on a series of ambitious acquisitions and a big

A battered car mounted with oversized loudspeakers greets visitors to Garanhuns, a provincial city in north-east Brazil. “How we’ve missed voting for Lula!” a recorded message blares as the vehicle trundles around with little regard for the racket. Nostalgia for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva permeates the municipality where the leftwing former president was born

When Ronald Daniels was appointed president of Johns Hopkins University in 2009, he set himself a tough task that put him at odds with many of its own faculty and alumni: to abolish its longstanding but inequitable practice of “legacy admissions”, offering preferential access for students with family connections in favour of purely merit-based applications.

He is maligned by Moscow and enmeshed in scandal in London, but when Boris Johnson visited Kyiv this month, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky could barely restrain his enthusiasm for the UK prime minister. With Britain playing a key role in the western response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky thanked Johnson for “your leadership, your

South Korea’s growing global pop culture presence, from boy band BTS to the television series Squid Game, is driving a new marketing push into Japan, as consumer goods companies leverage the country’s soft power to drive sales of everything from liquor to clothes. Hite Jinro, South Korea’s leading beverage maker, said this week it will

At the advanced age of 123, Yoshinoya has a decent claim to being the world’s oldest fast-food chain: an arch survivor in Japan’s low-end culinary cage-fight for 24-hour dining on a budget. Competition among the ladlers of cheap, comforting bowls of gyudon beef on rice is intense, and Yoshinoya has consistently prevailed. But a dismayed

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky lashed out at the Kremlin after Russian missiles killed eight civilians in the port city of Odesa, as America’s top diplomat prepared to visit Ukraine for the first time since Moscow’s full-scale invasion began eight weeks ago. In heated remarks, Zelensky called the Russians “bloody bastards”, “Nazis” and “Rashists” — a

Turkey has banned Russia’s armed forces from using its airspace to reach Syria in a bid to increase pressure on Vladimir Putin as Ankara tries to revive peace talks with Ukraine. Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Russian military aircraft would no longer be able to transit through his country en route to Syria, where

Ares Management is backing two bidders in the race to buy Chelsea Football Club from billionaire Roman Abramovich, who put the team up for sale after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The investment group, which has more than $300bn of assets under management, is prepared to take a minority stake in the English Premier League team,