A watchdog group is calling on Amazon.com Inc. to improve conditions for factory workers in China who make Echo speakers and Kindle e-readers, renewing criticisms that CEO Jeff Bezos became the world’s wealthiest man on the backs of low-paid laborers.

How big is the “gig economy”? Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics gave the first official reading of how many Americans rely on temporary work, freelancing, and on-demand apps to make ends meet. And the answer is: a lot.

And now, in the latest transition from science fiction to reality: the coming of “flying taxis.”

Once upon a time, a tiny creature was exposed to extraordinary forces, grew rapidly and exponentially until it became an enormous beast, smashing stores and office buildings and sending Tokyo into terror. Back in 1954, the beast was Godzilla. In 2018, we call it Amazon.

At 9 a.m. on June 16, 2017, Whole Foods employees packed into the main level of the company’s Austin headquarters. Only an hour earlier Amazon had announced that it was acquiring the high-end natural grocer, and the corporate staffers were as shocked as the rest of the public.

In retailers' hot pursuit for that magic trick to entice consumers on a mass scale, 3-D printing has more or less come and gone as a fad, but to sneaker giant Adidas, mass-market 3-D printed products may soon be a reality with sizable retail promise.

Amazon has been accused of treating staff like robots as it emerged that ambulances had been called out 600 times to the online retailer’s U.K. warehouses in the past three years.