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This weekend America carried out more air strikes in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, all of them aimed at various Iran-backed militias that have attacked American troops in recent months. Joe Biden insists that he wants to avoid another war in the Middle East. But like the proverbial frog in a pot of boiling water, America finds itself ever-more immersed in the conflict.

From Sunday to Thursday this week Antony Blinken, America’s secretary of state, will be on his fifth visit to the region since Hamas’s attack in October. In Egypt, Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the West Bank, Mr Blinken will seek to negotiate a pause in Israel’s war in Gaza—and, perhaps, the wider regional chaos. But Israel remains noncommittal. On Sunday its prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said his government would “not agree to every deal, and not at any price”. Hamas, too, is divided about whether to accept any agreement. Like the war in Gaza, diplomacy has also reached an impasse.

After nearly three and a half years of hearings a South Korean court will finally pass judgment on Lee Jae-yong, scion of the Samsung family, on Monday. Mr Lee is accused of stock-price manipulation and accounting fraud relating to the merger of two Samsung subsidiaries, Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, in 2015. Prosecutors have asked for a five-year prison sentence and a 500m won ($373,000) fine. (He denies all charges.)

But even a guilty verdict might not mean Mr Lee spends much time behind bars. In 2017 he was found guilty of bribing an associate of South Korea’s then-president, Park Geun-hye, to facilitate that same merger. He found himself in and out of prison as appeals, a retrial, parole and an eventual pardon took their course; in the end he served only 19 months of his five-year sentence. If convicted again Mr Lee will probably appeal, confident that he can wriggle his way out again.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and rising tension in the Indo-Pacific caused by China’s growing military might, have boosted demand for weapons. The second biannual World Defence Show takes place this week in Riyadh. More than 750 defence companies will be exhibiting their wares to over 100,000 trade visitors and around 115 national delegations. In 2022 contracts worth a total of $8bn were inked during the show. The theme of this year’s exhibition is investing in new technologies. Such investment will almost certainly push deal-making beyond the level of 2022.

According to SIPRI, a think-tank that monitors the arms trade, global military expenditure rose by 3.7% in real terms in 2022, to reach a record high of $2.2trn. Military expenditure in Europe rose by 13% in that year—the largest annual increase in the post-cold-war era. Defence businesses can count on bulging order books for years to come.

Germany needs some good news. Might new trade figures, published on Monday, provide some? November’s numbers were better than forecast: exports rose 3.7% compared with October while imports were up by just 1.9%. That lifted the trade surplus to €20.4bn ($22.1bn) in November, or about 0.5% of GDP.

This was a welcome fillip for an economy staving off a recession. Industrial orders have decreased for the last two years, and no rebound is in sight. The ongoing war in Ukraine, and the strife in the Middle East, are clouding the picture for Germany’s exporters. Thanks to Houthi attacks traffic through the Suez Canal, a pivotal artery of global trade, has fallen by more than 45% since the start of December, disrupting supply chains. Positive trade figures could provide some temporary relief—and distraction, as the country faces some of its biggest protests in decades, against the far right.

Prosthetic-makers have traditionally sought to mimic the limb that is being replaced. But recent developments in neuroscience suggest there is no reason why prosthetic limbs need look or behave like biological ones. Tamar Makin, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, suggests that the brain does not interpret prosthetics as natural bodily bits, nor as something closer to a tool, but instead puts them in a “category entirely of their own”. That holds whether the prosthetic is cosmetic, designed to look like an organic hand, or functional, from a sophisticated robotic limb to a simple hook.

Dr Makin’s findings are good news for innovators, who may want to experiment with new materials, colours and forms. But a further implication is that prosthetics could become more than just replacements. Scientists could potentially augment existing bodies with new capabilities. Designers are already experimenting with tentacles, spikes and third thumbs.

Since October Iran-backed groups have fired drones and rockets at American outposts across the Middle East 160 times. Almost all have missed or been shot down. On Sunday one got through, killing three American soldiers. The incident piles pressure on President Joe Biden to retaliate.

Mr Biden said that “radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq” were responsible. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has supported armed groups in both countries, many of which operate under the umbrella of a so-called Islamic Resistance in Iraq, and some of which have been absorbed into Iraq’s armed forces.

An American military response appears inevitable. But while modest reprisals may appear inadequate, heavy retaliation could cause other problems. The attack comes as America and its allies are attempting to negotiate a pause in the Israel-Hamas war and a hostage deal. An eruption of violence between America and Iran could quash hopes of restoring calm any time soon.

The 900km border between Iran and Pakistan has long been plagued by violence. Iran claims Sunni militants are given sanctuary in Pakistan, while Pakistan alleges Baloch separatists, who agitate for their own state, are housed in Iran. On January 16th Iranian missiles and drones killed two people in Pakistan’s Balochistan province; two days later retaliation by Pakistan killed nine alleged militants in Iran. The strikes were a major escalation.

In an effort to improve relations, on Monday Pakistan’s government will host Iran’s foreign minister in Islamabad. Expect a mechanism for curbing cross-border militancy and improving intelligence sharing. But the diplomatic patch up could be tested by more violence. On Saturday nine Pakistani labourers were killed by gunmen, likely to be Baloch militants, in Saravan, an Iranian city near the border. The Pakistani government has also approved the deployment of troops for the “peaceful conduct” of elections being held on February 8th, potentially drawing troops away from border duties at an exceptionally tense time.

On Monday Ferdinand Marcos, the president of the Philippines, arrived in Hanoi for talks with his Vietnamese counterpart, Vo Van Thuong. The Philippines and Vietnam are neighbours, forming the western and eastern shores of the South China Sea. And they make common cause in resisting efforts by China to enforce its claim to almost all the waters between them, and in pursuing their own maritime ambitions.

In conflicts over disputed waters in the South China Sea, the front lines are defended by coastguard cutters jostling, rather than warships exchanging gunfire. To strengthen their hand, the Philippine and Vietnamese coastguards have struck a co-operation agreement, to be signed while Mr Marcos is in Hanoi. The accord is far from being an alliance. But it is a clear sign that wherever in the western Pacific China is throwing its weight around, its neighbours are getting together to push back.

A Hong Kong court on Monday ruled to liquidate Evergrande, the world's most indebted property developer, following years of failed attempts to restructure the Chinese company. China’s property sector was thrown into disarray in 2021 as government rules on leverage pushed companies to default. Evergrande defaulted at the end of 2021 and has never satisfied a group of offshore creditors with a plan to restructure the group. It has over $300bn in liabilities.

The ruling will send yet another shock through China’s property sector. Not least because of doubts over jurisdiction. It is unclear whether authorities within mainland China would uphold such a ruling from a Hong Kong judge. For weeks momentum has been building for a full winding-up of the group. Two groups of creditors are said to have recently united in support of the liquidation, according to Reuters. It is far from certain how much these bondholders, based outside of China, will be able to recoup. One thing is clear: the ruling will not be the final chapter in Evergrande’s saga.

Meteorologists, hydrologists and climate scientists are gathered in Baltimore this week for the annual conference of the American Meteorological Society, the official body for those responsible for forecasting the weather. Their profession is increasingly important. Weather impacts much of life, from sports matches to supply chains, and it is being made more variable and extreme by climate change. That makes it trickier to predict.

A recent study by economists at the University of Arizona estimated that, in terms of mortality costs alone, improving forecasts by 50% would be worth $2.1bn to America’s economy each year. The financial strain caused by extreme weather events like storms is becoming ever more monumental. In hurricane-prone states like Florida some houses are now completely uninsurable. Swiss Re, an insurer, found that in the first half of 2023 thunderstorms hitting America accounted for almost 70% of the $50bn-worth of all insured losses from natural catastrophes worldwide. Getting the weather wrong can be an increasingly expensive mistake.

“Peeping Tom”, released in 1960, was directed by Michael Powell of the much loved British film-making duo Powell and Pressburger, the pair behind “The Red Shoes”. Shockingly depicting a serial-killer photographer who films the terror of his victims, “Peeping Tom” was reviled by critics as a “depraved” and “evil” work which deserved to be “flush[ed]...down the nearest sewer.”

The film in effect ended Powell’s career. But two decades later it acquired a champion in Martin Scorsese, an acclaimed American director who cites Powell and Pressburger as a major influence and thanks to whose support “Peeping Tom” is now revered as a cult classic. According to Mr Scorsese the film confronts our “morbid urge to gaze”, and shows “how close movie-making can come to madness.” In 1979 there was just one, fading print of the film in the whole of America. Now carefully restored, on Monday it is being reissued in lavish annotated UHD and Blu-Ray editions.

On Monday Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, will preside over the consecration of a $220m temple in the northern city of Ayodhya. To the alarm of the country’s 200m Muslims, and many secular-minded Indians, the grand ceremony will mark a high point of Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party’s decades-long Hindu-nationalist project. The temple is built on the site where in 1992 a mob razed a 450-year-old mosque.

For many Hindus, however, it is a joyous occasion because it corrects an ancient wrong: the location is also the mythical birthplace of the Hindu god Ram. Millions will tune in on TV; offices, stockmarkets and even casinos have said they will shut. For these reasons, the event also serves as the informal launch of Mr Modi’s campaign for a third term in elections to be held over April and May. India’s Supreme Court has ruled that “religion and politics” should not mix. But that very combination is likely to propel him into power again.

More than 2,500 political, corporate and financial bigwigs will descend on Hong Kong this week for the annual Asian Financial Forum. The mood will probably be optimistic: the IMF expects Asia’s economies to grow by 4.2% in 2024, against a global rate of 2.9%.

But the atmosphere across the host city is more sombre. In November Hong Kong’s government trimmed its GDP growth forecast for 2023 to 3.2%—meaning the economy is smaller than in 2018. The main stockmarket index has fallen by more than a quarter in the past year. Property prices have plunged by almost a fifth since their peak, and data due on Monday about China’s loan prime rate, important for the mainland’s ropey housing market, may not add much cheer.

John Lee, the city’s chief executive, claims the event will show Hong Kong’s “freedom, vitality and diversity”, and that foreign participation proves it “remains attractive” for overseas investors. It may take more than a gabfest to convince the rest of the world.

France and Germany will put on a symbolic show of friendship in Berlin on Monday. The Bundestag is holding a memorial ceremony for Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s former finance minister who died in December. The guest of honour will be Emmanuel Macron, who will give at least part of his eulogy in German. Mr Schäuble once called the French president “a chance for Europe”.

While in Berlin Mr Macron will meet the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz. The two leaders have struggled to overcome their countries’ many differences, notably over energy policy and the euro zone’s fiscal rules. One pressing topic will be European military aid to Ukraine. Overall, Germany has spent far more than France. Yet France is now sending a second batch of long-range cruise missiles, while Germany’s parliament has refused permission for the country to send any. Mr Macron last week upped the rhetoric, stating that “a Russian victory would be the end of European security”.

This week Antony Blinken, America’s top diplomat, is touring Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Angola. America’s focus has been on Ukraine and the Middle East, and President Joe Biden broke his promise to visit the continent last year. One aim of the trip is to show Africans they have not been forgotten.

Mr Blinken will also highlight good news. Cape Verde is a strong democracy that has just eliminated malaria. In Ivory Coast, whose economy is booming, he will probably attend a football match at the Africa Cup of Nations, to show America is in tune with everyday Africans.

Still, security matters will butt in. Ivory Coast is fending off jihadists on its northern border. Nigeria is beset by a kidnapping crisis which American arms sales to the country have done little to help. Alas, Mr Blinken’s Africa trip—his first since March—again ignores the worst crisis on the continent: the catastrophic war in Sudan, which desperately needs diplomatic attention.

The world’s mood is sombre and grey. In design, though, brightly reflective finishes are gleaming in the spotlight. Pinterest, a social-media network, noted an appetite for “cool silver tones and bold chrome” in its annual trend report. Architectural Digest, House Beautiful and Kaiyo, an online second-hand furniture marketplace, all predict a renewed interest in chrome in interiors.

The first time chrome was in fashion, a century ago, the colour reflected a booming economy in America and optimism about the future. It was glamorous, with an industrial edge that nodded to the rise of machines. Now, in less hopeful times—when worries about wars, the climate, politics and inflation abound—its popularity may be somewhat pragmatic. Upcycling and buying second-hand are booming, notably in fashion and interior design. And chrome reflects a lot of light, which is useful in small living spaces. There may be a touch of nostalgia and escapism, too, as those hankering after chrome dream of a brighter tomorrow.