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As a child growing up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gloire Ndongala didn’t know much about the wider world, with one exception: he adored US basketball star Michael Jordan. “Think about it, in the Congo we had hardly any technology back then, and we still heard of Michael Jordan,” Ndongala says. The Chicago Bulls

Signs that a relatively high number of healthcare workers are unwilling to receive the coronavirus vaccine in some parts of Europe and the US have alarmed politicians and health experts, as countries struggle to contain a surge in infections and carry out mass vaccination. A poll released in mid-December caused surprise in Germany — the

Fears of an uncontrollable winter wave of coronavirus infections have prompted a growing number of European governments to close schools, breaking with a previous consensus that face-to-face teaching must be maintained. The UK, Ireland, Germany, Denmark and some northern Italian regions have all ordered schools to shut for several weeks to try to contain infections,

After Joe Biden won the US presidency in the November election, his victory was tempered by concern that he would have a Republican Senate majority blocking his agenda at every turn. But Mr Biden is now likely heading to the White House with many of his ambitions intact. His Democratic party is poised to claim

Democracies around the world expressed horror at the mob storming of the US Capitol, in scenes some feared would empower the nation’s geopolitical rivals. There was universal condemnation of the violence in Washington on Wednesday night, during the certification of Joe Biden as the next US president, as politicians distanced themselves from Donald Trump. UK prime

California reported its second-biggest one-day increase in coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, with hospitalisations hitting another record high and fast-approaching the 23,000-mark. A further 459 deaths in the country’s most populous state were attributed to coronavirus by authorities, up from 368 on Tuesday. A total of 29 people suffered anaphylactic reactions after receiving coronavirus vaccines in

Ninety minutes before rioters stormed Capitol Hill, US president Donald Trump addressed many of the same people using unequivocally inciteful language. “You’ll never take back our country with weakness,” Mr Trump said. “You have to show strength.” His personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, also called on the crowd to conduct “trial by combat”. A mob made

As he sheltered in place in his office, Mike Gallagher, a 36-year-old Republican congressman from Wisconsin, fumed at members of his own party who were disputing Joe Biden’s win in the US presidential election. Staring into his computer screen, he blamed them for fanning the anger that caused Wednesday afternoon’s assault on the US Capitol

US lawmakers were forced to suspend the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory and leave parts of the Capitol in Washington after Trump supporters pushed past police and stormed the building on Wednesday. The Capitol was put on lockdown after protesters — some carrying pro-Trump paraphernalia as well as flags of the US or the

Two of the most prominent Republicans in Washington defied Donald Trump’s last-gasp effort to nullify Joe Biden’s victory, with the party’s leader in the Senate warning that “democracy would enter a death spiral” if Congress overturned the result. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, said the presidential election was “not actually particularly close” and

Shares in China’s biggest chipmaker fell sharply after it said it was “verifying” reports that its co-chief executive had abruptly quit, in what would be the latest blow to the company following US sanctions. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation’s stock fell as much as 9.8 per cent in Shanghai on Wednesday after the group said that

Asia has led the world in controlling the spread of Covid-19, but that very success has set the region behind the US and Europe in the race to vaccinate against the disease. In countries with limited coronavirus outbreaks, regulators have been happy to let westerners act as guinea pigs for hastily approved jabs, while in

This article is part of a series on the Future of the City of London Appearing in front of the Irish parliament last week, Mairead McGuinness, the EU’s financial services chief, laid out the bloc’s uncompromising stance towards the UK’s largest services export. “If a state opts out, there are consequences to that. There are

The scourge of the coronavirus has exposed glaring weaknesses in capitalism and democracy all over the world. With wages for some stagnating and a growing digital divide, divisions in societies, and the gap between the haves and have-nots, have never been starker. While western countries flounder in the face of the pandemic and face challenges

US congressional leaders said they were closer to a compromise on economic relief legislation on Tuesday after several hours of intense negotiations as both parties faced pressure to prop up the country’s recovery. The talks that began in the late afternoon could prove pivotal for the fate of more fiscal stimulus for the world’s largest

Index provider MSCI said it would drop seven companies that the US government has labelled as having ties to the Chinese military from its indices, after President Donald Trump barred US investors from holding stakes in such companies. MSCI said the seven — which included SMIC, China’s biggest chipmaker — would be removed from its

At the top of a small building in Osnabrück, with only a tiny plaque denoting its name, sits Germany’s first school for imams. The Islamkolleg, in north-west Germany, is the cautious fruit of a decade’s efforts by Muslim scholars, including academic director Bülent Ucar, who have struggled to convince both politicians and their own communities

In the 11 months since they devoted themselves to stemming the deadliest pandemic in over a century, Ozlem Tureci and Ugur Sahin’s precious few private moments have been spent exercising along deserted suburban streets near their home in the German city of Mainz, listening to ‘80s pop playlists. Deluged by paperwork from regulators around the

Matthew Rocco Hospitals in Pennsylvania and the south Atlantic are treating more Covid-19 patients than at any other point during the pandemic, as the region continues to battle an autumn resurgence of coronavirus. Pennsylvania counted 6,295 Covid-19 patients currently in hospital, up from 5,970 the day before and the highest level on record, data from

Spanish blue-chips including Telefónica, Iberdrola and Seat are positioning themselves for tens of billions of euros in EU coronavirus aid they hope will transform their industries and benefit their bottom lines. Spain expects to receive some €140bn from the €750bn EU coronavirus recovery fund, which leaders approved last week, making Madrid one of the biggest

Credit Suisse has named António Horta-Osório as its next chairman, picking the outgoing chief executive of Lloyds Bank to help steer the lender through the fallout from the coronavirus crisis. Mr Horta-Osório will start at Credit Suisse at the end of April, the bank said in a statement on Tuesday. Urs Rohner, the Swiss lender’s

The EU will call on the US to seize a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to forge a new global alliance, in a detailed pitch to bury the tensions of the Trump era and meet the “strategic challenge” posed by China. A draft EU plan for revitalising the transatlantic partnership, seen by the Financial Times, proposes new co-operation on

The UK is poised to become the first western country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine, with the independent regulator set to grant approval within days. Deliveries of the vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer would begin within hours of the authorisation, according to government officials. The first injections could take place from December 7. The

The UK has dismissed an EU offer on rights to Britain’s fishing waters as “derisory”, dealing a blow to hopes that the two sides can secure a post-Brexit trade deal in coming days. With only five weeks to go before the end of the transition period, talks on the UK’s future relationship with the EU

BBVA and Sabadell, the Spanish banks, have given up merger talks they had confirmed less than two weeks ago because of disagreements over the pricing of the deal. Sabadell said in a statement to Spain’s securities regulator that its board of directors “has decided to terminate the above-mentioned discussions, because the parties have not achieved

Europe’s financial sector has reached “peak uncertainty” as regulators and banks rush to stave off the harshest effects of the UK leaving the single market with just 36 days left before the end of the Brexit transition period. A combination of politics around trade talks, EU concerns about Britain diverging from continental rules and Europe’s

French tax authorities have begun demanding millions of euros from US tech giants as they push ahead with a new digital services tax that has enraged Washington. Facebook and Amazon are among the companies to have received communication from French authorities in recent days demanding payment of the tax for 2020, and multiple more companies

Donald Trump said on Monday his administration would begin co-operating with Joe Biden’s transition team, bowing to Republican pressure to start the transfer of power even as he vowed to continue contesting his election loss. The president’s statement, which stopped short of a formal concession, came after a Michigan board certified the state’s election results

Donald Trump’s legal options to challenge his election loss are about to significantly narrow, with three battleground states carried by Joe Biden due to certify their results in the wake of a crushing weekend courtroom defeat for the president and a departure from his legal team. Pennsylvania and Michigan could make their results official as

A federal judge on Saturday dealt a blow to Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election, throwing out a lawsuit in Pennsylvania with an excoriating opinion that cast his legal arguments as shoddy, without evidence and contrary to the US constitution. The dismissal of the Trump campaign’s lawsuit, which had sought