Inequality

Many of France’s buildings are not designed for hot weather – and low-income housing estates are suffering the worstLiving in a sweltering, seventh-floor flat on a concrete housing estate south of Paris, Samira said she was feeling desperate as France experienced its highest temperatures on record this week. “Yesterday I sat down and cried, I thought I’m going to die,” said the 35-year-old single parent and former building caretaker.Her flat in Ris-Orangis in Essonne is, like millions of apartments in France, poorly insulated and lacking in outside window shutters. “Blazing sun hits my windows all day – I can’t breathe, I feel dizzy, there is no air,” she said. Continue reading...

Elon Musk is a beneficiary of America’s lopsided prosperity – does the country have any appetite for redistribution?As Barack Obama’s presidency was coming to a close, Jason Furman, then chairman of the president’s council of economic advisers, laid out the strides his administration had made to curb the nation’s exorbitant income inequality in “the largest investments in reducing inequality since the Great Society”.Indeed, by the end of 2016, taxes and transfers cut the share of income accruing to the richest 1% of households by just over a fifth, according to estimates from the congressional budget office (CBO), more than under any government since at least Jimmy Carter’s. They raised the slice of income going to the poorest fifth from 3.9% to 7.9%, the highest share since at least 1979.Eduardo Porter is a journalist focused on economics and politics. He writes the newsletter Being There on Substack Continue reading...

Zack Polanski and Caroline Lucas say party must seek to understand why disenfranchised electorate were attracted to Nigel Farage’s partyThe current and former leaders of the Green party have warned that the party should listen to the concerns of Reform UK voters in order to tackle inequality.Zack Polanski and Caroline Lucas said on Saturday that the Greens needed to understand why voters affected by the cost of living crisis were attracted to Nigel Farage’s party. Continue reading...

Andy Burnham and Torsten Bell say the former Labour PM’s essay does not address today’s challengesUK politics live – latest updatesTony Blair’s criticism of the Labour party fails to engage with inequality and the “extremes of austerity”, senior party figures have said.Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, who is widely expected to launch a leadership challenge if he wins next month’s Makerfield byelection, said the essay merited a “considered response” and he would set one out on Thursday. Continue reading...

Exclusive: People from deprived and minority ethnic backgrounds have better access to device than for previous technologiesThe rollout of a “life-changing” artificial pancreas on the NHS for people with type 1 diabetes has helped to narrow ethnic and socioeconomic inequality within access to treatment, according to figures.Officially known as a hybrid closed-loop system, an artificial pancreas comprises three interconnected parts: a sensor worn on the body called a continuous glucose monitor; an algorithm either built into the pump or on a separate device such as a phone that calculates the precise dose of insulin needed; and an insulin pump that delivers the dose into the bloodstream. Continue reading...

Findings come after third-hottest April on record globally and amid fears of more brutal European summer weatherEconomic inequality adds more than 100,000 deaths to the vast toll from heat and cold in Europe each year, research has found.Cutting the level of inequality to that of Europe’s most equal region, as measured by the Gini index, would reduce temperature-related mortality by as much as 30%, equating to 109,866 people, the study found. Continue reading...