During China’s greatest period of economic growth, fed by widespread industrialisation that lifted millions out of poverty, inequality has also increased — at the fastest pace and to the highest level in the world. It may get worse. China’s Gini coefficient, a widely used measure of income dispersion across a population, has risen more steeply over the last decade than ...

So much for hell on the British high street. Next Plc, the clothing retailer, has upgraded its profit forecast for this year by 10 million pounds ($13 million), meaning they’ll be on a par with 2017. The shares jumped by 8 percent. Simon Wolfson, chief executive, had expected UK shoppers to rein in their spending in August and September after ...

When considering what to do about pollution, there are two kinds of people: techno-optimists who assume humanity will eventually find a way to clean up all our messes, and those less fun but more pragmatic environmentalists who say that it’s always easier and cheaper to avoid making the mess in the first place. Battle just broke out between these two ...