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Who speaks for Europe? That question will be tested in Beijing on Wednesday, when France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, arrives with the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. Their visit takes place amid heightened tension between China and America, and worries about President Xi Jinping’s closeness with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. The two Western leaders want to persuade China to put pressure on Mr Putin over his war on Ukraine.

The two Europeans provoke different expectations. In a recent speech Mrs von der Leyen took a hard line towards China, arguing that Europeans should “de-risk” their commercial ties to the country, and screen proposals for investments in Chinese industries that have potential military uses, like AI. Mr Macron, who has also warned Europe to be wary of China, is nonetheless bringing with him more than 50 contract-hungry business leaders. It will require deft European diplomacy to manage such differences and resist Chinese attempts to exploit them.

On Wednesday Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, will meet the Speaker of America’s House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, in Los Angeles. The two countries do not have formal diplomatic relations: America’s recognition of China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, precludes that. So Ms Tsai’s trip is a “transit” rather than an official visit. Although she has “transited” through America six times before, her meeting with Mr McCarthy will be her highest-level encounter yet. China sees it as tacit support for Taiwanese independence.

American and Taiwanese officials are determined to maintain a strong relationship in the face of rising tensions with China. Still, they have downplayed the significance of the trip, with good reason. Last year, when Nancy Pelosi, then the House speaker, visited Taiwan, China fired missiles over the island and conducted a mock blockade of it. Taiwan’s government is keen to avoid another crisis. But its efforts may not be enough. China’s government has threatened “resolute countermeasures” if the meeting goes ahead.

On Wednesday Sergio Ermotti will return to his old job as boss of UBS, the Swiss banking behemoth he led from 2011 to 2020. His comeback comes at one of the most challenging moments in the bank’s 161-year history. It is in the process of taking over Credit Suisse, its smaller Swiss rival, after the latter nearly collapsed following a series of missteps and scandals. On Tuesday Axel Lehmann, Credit Suisse’s chairman, told shareholders that he was “truly sorry” for failing to restore trust in the bank.

Mr Ermotti will have his work cut out. Naysayers worry that the creation of a Swiss “monster bank” is a bad idea: if a bank of its size fails, taxpayers might have to bail it out. Mr Ermotti needs to win shareholders’ approval while engineering a restructuring programme that will involve substantial job cuts. But he is not one to shy away from difficulty: in 2011 he took charge of UBS when it was still suffering from the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

Mario leaps from the small screen to the big one on Wednesday, as “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” opens in cinemas. The first Mario film, 30 years ago, was panned by critics. Nintendo has learned its lesson: the new, animated adventure was made with the help of Illumination, a studio owned by Universal Pictures. Illumination’s catalogue includes hits like “Minions” and “Sing”.

Nintendo and Universal are collaborating on more than movies. Super Nintendo World, a themed area in the Universal Studios park in Osaka, opened in 2021. This February Universal Studios in Hollywood launched a Nintendo-themed zone, too. For Nintendo, movies and parks help deepen fans’ love of Mario and other gaming franchises. For Universal, gaming provides a new source of intellectual property, as audiences complain of sequel-itis (Universal’s tenth “Fast and Furious” movie is out next month). Expect to see more video games at the cinema—and beyond.

In 2019 Sam Ratelle, a celebrity stylist, toured Kensington Palace in London. He was looking for inspiration for awards-season outfits, particularly for the Oscars, which he considered a “kind of a royal event” for celebrities. He asked Giles Deacon, a designer, to make something for the actor Billy Porter. Mr Deacon produced a dress with a gold top and patterned skirt inspired by the palace’s Cupola room.

The gown is one of more than 200 objects displayed in “Crown to Couture”, the largest exhibition ever hosted by the royal palace. The show demonstrates the similarities between 18th-century courtiers and 21st-century stars and the enduring importance of dressing the part. Just as those vying for royal favour would don expensive clothes at court, actors and models seek to stand out on the red carpet. The sumptuous gowns, suits and jewels are arranged across grand state apartments—surely the most apt place to admire them.

Japan’s foreign minister, Hayashi Yoshimasa, will probably travel to China this weekend, in what would be the first visit there by a top Japanese diplomat since the start of the covid-19 pandemic. Disagreements over territory and history—in particular, over the status of the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea—have long strained the countries’ relationship. In recent years, Chinese aggression and intensifying Sino-American competition have heightened mutual suspicions.

As a result, Japan has pulled closer to America, its security ally, and boosted its own armed forces. While Xi Jinping, China’s president, visited Moscow last week, Japan’s prime minister, Kishida Fumio, travelled to Kyiv to see Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president. Earlier in March, China detained a Japanese citizen working for a pharmaceutical company on suspicion of spying, ratcheting up tensions further.

Nonetheless, the two neighbours’ economies are deeply interdependent and Japanese officials are keen to maintain “stable and constructive” relations. Mr Hayashi will have the difficult task of rekindling dialogue while delivering stern messages.

Sato Koji, who takes over as Toyota’s boss on Saturday, has his work cut out. The Japanese car giant came late to battery-electric vehicles, having bet that hydrogen was the answer to zero-emission driving. Meanwhile firms like Tesla have thrived, ushering in more electric-vehicle startups, and other established carmakers have quickened the pace of electrification—leaving Toyota in the dust. In 2022, its total battery EV sales ranked 24th in the sector.

Mr Sato has already promised to “drastically change” Toyota and announced plans for a new EV “platform”. On top of that, Toyota must develop or acquire software, which is already critical to differentiating auto brands. (Here, too, Tesla is far ahead.)

Mr Sato was once the chief engineer of Toyota’s luxury brand, Lexus. Transforming a vast firm that has spent decades refining fossil-fuel cars into a tech-focused electric-vehicle company will put all of Mr Sato’s skills—engineering and otherwise—to the test.

On Saturday the last four men’s teams remaining in the National College Athletic Association’s basketball tournament face off. Florida Atlantic will first play San Diego State, then the University of Miami will play the University of Connecticut; the two winners will vie for the title on Monday night. The tournament, known as “March Madness”, began two weeks ago with 64 teams, sorted into four divisions.

For millions of Americans, picking the tournament’s winners is a springtime ritual—even though the odds of correctly predicting all 63 games are around one in 9.2 quintillion, which is significantly lower than the odds of correctly identifying a randomly chosen grain of sand. This year’s tournament was especially bracket-busting: for the first time ever, none of the top-three seeds in each division made the Final Four, and for the first time in 50 years, three teams are in their first-ever Final Four. The only returner, UConn, is the oddsmakers’ favourite—for whatever that’s worth this year.

On Saturday London welcomes its newest art gallery. The Gilbert & George Centre, which occupies the site of a former brewery, was conceived by Gilbert Proesch and George Passmore, a British art duo, as a space to host free public exhibitions of their art. Having worked together since the late 1960s, the pair are perhaps best known for their provocative stained glass-esque photographic compositions that confront sex, death, religion and British culture.

Although driven by the pair’s belief in “art for all”, the centre’s establishment has been soured by incendiary comments the artists made in 2021. They said museums were too “woke” to show their work, adding “at the moment it’s all black art, all women art, all this art and that art”. Gilbert & George, who are now 79 and 81 respectively, were once outsiders who went on to win the Turner Prize, Britain’s most prestigious art award. But to some, they are now the establishment.

Alvin Bragg, Manhattan’s district attorney, is no stranger to threats. Growing up in Harlem in the 1980s, he had a gun pointed at him six times, thrice by police officers. He had a knife put to his neck and a semi-automatic gun to his head. On Thursday Mr Bragg announced that a grand jury had indicted Donald Trump—and so the latest threats are political.

The exact charges remain under seal, but the former president is accused of paying $130,000 to silence Stormy Daniels, a porn star who claims to have had an affair with him. He may have falsified records about the money, a misdemeanour under New York law. Such an act becomes a felony when there is intent to commit or conceal another crime. In this case, the second crime may have been taking an illegal and undeclared campaign contribution in the form of hush money. Mr Bragg’s investigation has enraged Mr Trump’s supporters: the DA’s office faced (bogus) bomb scares and received threatening calls, emails and a letter containing a death threat and suspicious powder.

A Harvard-educated career prosecutor who has worked at the state and federal level, Mr Bragg was elected Manhattan’s first African-American DA in 2021. He teaches Sunday School at his church. He promised criminal justice reform and to make his office a “progressive leader”. But by the time he took office, New Yorkers were more concerned about an increase in violent crime. His plan to not prosecute certain crimes, such as fare beating and prostitution, was controversial.

Mr Trump and some other Republicans call the hush-money probe politically motivated and a potential “unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority”. But Mr Bragg’s record suggests he is driven by law and facts. Weeks after taking office, he was criticised by many Democrats for pausing his predecessor’s sweeping investigation into Mr Trump’s finances. Instead Mr Bragg focused on cases that are easier to prove, such as last year’s successful prosecution of the Trump Organisation for tax evasion and perhaps the investigation into the payment to Ms Daniels. Up until now he has not made “anybody on any side of the aisle politically happy. And so he’s obviously not playing politics,” says Rebecca Roiphe, a former Manhattan prosecutor. It “makes him look like a careful prosecutor”.

America is still suffering from the aftershocks of the collapse of a few mid-sized banks earlier this month. But inquiries into what went wrong are beginning even as the banking sector remains shaky. On Tuesday the Senate will hold the first of several hearings about the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, which kicked off the turmoil earlier this month. Those testifying will include senior officials from the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

The contours of the failures are already fairly clear. The banks in question did not recognise the holes in their balance-sheets caused by fast-rising interest rates. When depositors got nervous, they fled en masse in smartphone-enabled bank runs. Fed officials have indicated that they knew the risks and had told the banks to fix their problems. But if so, why could no one help avert the disaster? That is one of the bigger questions for the Senate inquisitors.

France is bracing itself for fresh disorder on Tuesday, when protesters return to the streets for their tenth all-day national strike. Demonstrators want to force Emmanuel Macron, the president, to shelve his controversial move to raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 years. They are furious that Mr Macron used a constitutional provision to push the law through without a direct parliamentary vote (it must still be approved by the constitutional council).

Protests during the last strike, on March 23rd, turned violent. Fires blazed in several cities; uncollected rubbish, newspaper kiosks and other targets were torched. Mr Macron says he will not “give in to violence”. He seems set on riding out the protests, peaceful or otherwise. His minority government has narrowly survived two no-confidence votes. But over three-fifths of the French say they back even tougher resistance on the streets until their demands are met. The country is at an impasse, and the mood is extremely tense.

In February—six months after President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction and CHIPS acts, and 15 months after passing a bipartisan infrastructure law—a poll found that 62% of Americans thought their leader had achieved “not very much” or “little or nothing”. A few days later Mr Biden sought to show otherwise in his state-of-the-union address: “jobs” (mentioned 20 times) and “manufacturing” were major themes.

On Tuesday Mr Biden, who is expected to announce his bid for re-election by summer, will kick off another effort to tout his achievements. During a three-week “Investing in America” tour, administration officials will visit more than 20 states, plugging the electric-vehicle charging ports, fibre-optic cables and power-grid overhauls the president’s legislation has enabled, and the jobs subsequently created.

Yet for many voters the pressing economic priority remains rising prices. In a recent poll just 31% of respondents said the economy is in good shape. Of those who disagreed, nearly 90% cited inflation.

President Joe Biden’s visit to Ottawa last week was widely lauded as a success for Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister. Mr Trudeau will be hoping that sheen has not rubbed off by Tuesday, when his minority government tables the country’s new budget.

It is a tricky moment. High inflation has left households struggling to make ends meet. America’s Inflation Reduction Act—meant to, in part, accelerate green technologies—now offers hefty incentives to invest south of the border. And NATO has long been pushing Canada, along with all members, to increase its defence spending to 2% of GDP. (In 2021 it spent 1.3%.)

Mr Trudeau’s government will struggle to thread all those needles simultaneously. But it looks like it might try: more money for defence is expected, as are significant subsidies for a Canadian version of America’s IRA. There will also be extra spending on healthcare, an expanded dental-care programme and tax rebates for those on the lowest incomes. Something, though, will have to give: a hefty fiscal deficit looms.

“Who can ever do anything, after Beethoven?” asked Schubert, in despair. Few men left a greater mark on Western classical music than Ludwig van Beethoven. But as well as his sonatas and symphonies, the German maestro left behind some of his wiry hair. From those five locks scientists have now sequenced the composer’s genome.

Their findings, published in Current Biology, a journal, reveal new strands of Beethoven’s life and death. The DNA confirms Beethoven’s roots in western Germany, but finds a mismatch between his legal and biological genealogy, suggesting that someone on his father’s side may have had an extramarital affair.

And although Beethoven’s propensity for chronic illness was already known—he complained of stomach problems—his genomics also displayed a hitherto unknown predisposition for liver disease. This, exacerbated by the composer’s regular drinking and a bout of hepatitis B, is probably what killed him at the age of 56. The study offers a new coda on a remarkable life story.