Nov 28th 2019

Inequality illusions

The world this week

Leaders

Egalitarianism

Inequality could be lower than you think

But there is plenty to do to make economies fairer

Democracy and the internet

How to police political advertising

Lawmakers, not tech bosses, should take the lead

A clarion call

Hong Kong’s elections were a rebuke to its government

The chief executive, Carrie Lam, and her backers in Beijing must draw the right lesson

The twilight of the WTO

The trading system’s referee is about to leave the field

Disputes are bound to get nastier

A bid for better batteries

Power storage is the missing link in green-energy plans

Why batteries are essential to fighting climate change

Letters

On diversity, Palm Beach, America’s army, AI writers, meat, genes, Emmanuel Macron

Letters to the editor

Briefing

Measuring the 1%

Economists are rethinking the numbers on inequality

An academic disagreement has big real-world implications

The rich man’s world

In Sweden, billionaires are surprisingly popular

The land of ABBA and Ikea has high wealth inequality

United States

Brassed off

Donald Trump falls out with the military establishment he once wooed

For Bloom the polls toll

Michael Bloomberg’s unlikely presidential candidacy

Financial carpet-bombing

Donald Trump has shown a surprising enthusiasm for sanctions

Platforms shoo

Big tech changes the rules for political adverts

Dreaming of a Black Friday

Who wants to go to a giant shopping mall?

Lexington

Is it better to impeach and lose or never to impeach at all?

The Americas

It’s all about him

AMLO uses his anti-corruption drive to gain power and scare critics

Bringing back the greenback

Cuba reintroduces the dollar

Bello

The street challenges Latin America’s politicians

Asia

An unholy alliance

Protestant evangelicals in South Korea wield outsize political power

Tiger farms in Laos

Laos still winks at tiger farms

Citizenship in Malaysia

Malaysia still discriminates against women over citizenship

The villain of Maharashtra

Political drama has gripped the home state of Bollywood

Mental health in Japan

A growing number of Japanese have become recluses

China

No time for the party line

Hong Kong’s democracy movement has gained a big electoral boost

Heading south

The voyage of two icebreakers have been creating headlines in China

Chaguan

The migrants who made China an industrial giant face a grim retirement

Middle East & Africa

A slender chance for peace in Darfur

Sudan’s revolution could end the conflict in Darfur

Ghana’s fight club

Bukom boxers draw on a long fighting tradition

Israel’s charged politics

Binyamin Netanyahu’s allies reconsider their indicted leader

Sisi and son

The authorities in Egypt raid Mada Masr—and reveal their fears

Food fight

The Houthi rebels wrestle with the UN over food aid

Europe

Over here

Turkey’s Syria move highlights America’s tactical nukes in Europe

From caliphate to courtroom

Turkey deports Islamic State fighters

Daphne’s shadow

The murder of a journalist in 2017 still haunts Malta’s government

Better late than never

The new European Commission is approved

In cold blood

Big demonstrations in Paris over the murder of women

The nuts of wrath

Hazelnut-planting bothers the Italians

Charlemagne

Post-Merkel syndrome

Britain

Manifestos compared

Whoever wins Britain’s election, the state will expand

Something for nothing

The curious case of the missing British taxpayer

Pick your poison

Britain’s potential prime ministers both face accusations of prejudice

Swing seats: Alas, poor Warwick

In Warwick, Remainers prepare to vote tactically

Scots forage votes

Scotland’s three-dimensional election

Skye news

The battle for the biggest constituency in Britain

Speakers’ Corner

The best quotes from the fifth week of Britain’s election campaign

Bagehot

Jeremy Corbyn’s political agenda is more radical than his economic one

International

In the ghetto

Denmark wants to break up ethnic enclaves. What is wrong with them?

Business

The everything-that-shines store

LVMH tests the limits of luxury

Where there’s a will

Huawei keeps on going

Affair of the heart

The reinvention of Novartis

On purpose

Encouraging “purposeful” business

To have and to hold

Supplying clean power is easier than storing it

Bartleby

Too much management research is clear as mud

Schumpeter

One company, two systems

Finance & economics

Who shot the sheriff?

It’s the end of the World Trade Organisation as we know it

Going for broker

Charles Schwab agrees to buy TD Ameritrade for $26bn

Failing upwards

Bond defaults have soared in China

Buttonwood

Do not write off the macro hedge-fund manager just yet

Can’t buy me love

Does the economy affect elections any more?

Science & technology

Mating strategies

A new theory argues same-sex sexual behaviour is an evolutionary norm

Birdsong

Male nightingales spend the winter practising

Aviation

An emergency landing system that passengers can activate

Evolution

How ear bones evolved

Powering the future

Electrical energy can be captured as liquid air

AIDS

Slowly, HIV is being beaten

Books & arts

The fire next time

What would millennial socialists do with power?

Ocean’s Eight on the Elbe

A stunning, sad heist in Dresden

Alone, together

In “The Innocents”, a brother and sister struggle to survive

Caped crusader

The world-changing life of Walter Raleigh

Johnson

How to talk to aliens

Economic & financial indicators

Economic and financial indicators

Graphic detail

Death and taxes

A new study assesses whether inheritance taxes boost net revenues

Obituary

Gloriously second