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On Monday India’s central bankers begin a three-day monetary-policy meeting at which they are expected to announce a small increase in interest rates. That will probably be the final rise in the current tightening cycle. The Reserve Bank of India is softening its stance because price rises are slowing. In December annual inflation fell for the third consecutive month, to 5.7%, its lowest level in more than a year. In last week’s budget the government announced plans to rein in spending, which should also help keep prices down.

But as one fire fizzles, another looms. Several of India’s largest banks are exposed to the Adani Group, the giant conglomerate that has been rocked by allegations of fraud. The RBI insists the “banking sector remains resilient and stable”. Commercial banks have also played down any concerns. But should the fallout worsen, the RBI, which has a mandate for maintaining financial stability, may be back firefighting.

Margrethe Vestager’s early career was so impressive that it inspired “Borgen”, a hit television show about Danish politics. Now, as the competition boss of the European Commission, Ms Vestager wields one of the EU’s sharpest economic swords: fierce competition rules and their enforcement.

Those weapons curb corporate power and egregious state support used to prop up national champions. But many EU governments, in particular the French, would like to blunt Ms Vestager’s sword. They argue that the American government’s ambitious (and expensive) plans to build up green manufacturing require Europe to respond in kind: with large subsidies. No doubt to Ms Vestager’s dismay, the EU’s new green industrial strategy weakens Europe's competition rules and allows governments to spend more lavishly.

On Monday Ms Vestager will speak to America’s treasury secretary, Janet Yellen—who oversees the tax credits that form the backbone of America’s ambitions—in an attempt to limit the transatlantic fallout over subsidies. Not quite the stuff of noirish Scandinavian drama, but important for Europe’s economic future.

When preparing a setlist, musicians must give the crowd fresh material as well as old classics. António Guterres, the UN’s secretary-general, faces a similar challenge when he outlines his priorities for 2023 before the General Assembly on Monday.

Mr Guterres is fond of grim proclamations: in recent months he has warned of “nuclear annihilation” and “climate hell”. Expect to hear such refrains again as he warns of the risks posed by Russia’s war in Ukraine, spiralling inflation and rising temperatures.

But he should also offer something new. Watch out for mention of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, 17 targets for 2030 that cover everything from peace to renewable energy. Progress is assessed every four years: the next stocktake is scheduled for September. Mr Guterres will probably warn governments to pick up the tempo. Otherwise he will be forced to carry on singing the same tune.

Gay marriage was legalised in Britain in 2014. But no religious organisation can be compelled to carry out same-sex weddings. When the Church of England’s governing body, the general synod, convenes on Monday for a four-day session, the issue will be at the top of the agenda. In January the church said it planned to allow clergy to bless same-sex unions but would continue to ban gay couples from marrying in its churches. When the synod debates the proposal this week, progressives may push for that ban to be lifted.

The church’s membership seems to be coming around to the idea. Some 55%, and almost three-quarters of those under 50, support same-sex marriage, up from 38% in 2013. But Anglicans elsewhere in the world are less liberal. In August 2022 the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, which represents around 75% of Anglicans worldwide, reaffirmed its view that homosexuality is “incompatible with scripture.” The Church of England risks destabilising the Anglican Communion entirely.

Chinese cinephiles will line up this week for the country’s first showings of “Wakanda Forever”, Disney’s Oscar-nominated follow-up to “Black Panther”. The studio’s Marvel superhero flicks have a big following in China. “Wakanda” is especially eagerly awaited, as it is the first Marvel movie to be granted a release in China since 2019.

No one is sure why China banned the previous lot. The content may be one reason. In 2021 “The Eternals” introduced Marvel’s first gay superhero. “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, also released in 2021, depicted Asian culture in ways that may have triggered China’s censors. Neither was shown in China.

A bigger motive may have been to protect domestic moviemakers. Patriotic hits like “The Battle at Lake Changjin” do better when Disney is shut out. No reason was given for Marvel's sudden return. But a population that has become restless with covid clampdowns needs cheering up. Not bread and circuses, but bread and cinema.

After the crime comes the cover-up. The investigation of the massive explosion at Beirut’s port in 2020, which killed 218 people, was stalled for more than a year by legal challenges. Tarek Bitar, the judge overseeing it, had hoped to resume interrogating officials on Monday. Instead he has been charged with judicial misconduct by Lebanon’s top prosecutor—one of the officials whom Mr Bitar had sought to question.

The judicial feud is yet another sign of Lebanon’s dysfunction. It has not had a president since October, and parliament has failed 11 times to elect a new one. Last year the caretaker cabinet went six months without meeting. More than three years into a financial crisis, Lebanon’s currency has lost 97% of its value. Annual inflation was 171% in 2022. Bailout talks with the IMF are stalled. Lebanon’s corrupt ruling class cannot agree on anything, it seems, except their collective taste for impunity.

Greek Cypriots hold a presidential election on Sunday. The front-runner is Nikos Christodoulides, who resigned last month as foreign minister because rivals in the ruling party were angry about his presidential ambitions. Mr Christodoulides, now an independent backed by left-of-centre parties, is unlikely to get more than 50% of the vote (as are the other 13 candidates). But he should win a run-off on February 12th. Turkish Cypriots living in the north of the divided island will not participate.

One of Mr Christodoulides’s main challenges will be to manage the complex energy politics of the eastern Mediterranean. Several international companies plan to start exploiting natural gas from the Cypriot seabed. Israel and Egypt are already exploring their own such deposits, while Turkey has failed to make any finds so far. Cyprus could sell gas to Egypt, some of which could be re-exported to Turkey. A costly pipeline project to carry gas between Crete, Greece and Italy is also being discussed. Mr Christodoulides’s priority will be to ensure that Cyprus’s long-awaited gas bonanza actually happens.

On Sunday American music’s great and good slap each others’ backs and dole out their annual awards. The sheer number of categories, at 91, speaks to the self-importance of the Recording Academy, which puts on the Grammys. That clubby self-regard has mired the awards show in controversy, prompting accusations of racism for snubs of black singers, and criticism for opaque voting procedures.

This year, at least, the nominations reflect pop culture. Black artists are present in all the major categories and among the favourites; exciting young bands such as Idles, Turnstile and Wet Leg have nominations; and there is the chance for both Taylor Swift and Beyoncé to win the major awards that have, surprisingly, been denied them so far: song of the year for Ms Swift, and album of the year for Beyoncé. Still, all awards ceremonies end in one certainty: that come the morning after, someone, somewhere will be up in arms about the injustice of it all.

Everyone knows the frustration of arguing with a stubborn opponent. New research suggests that those on opposite sides of the political spectrum do not merely fail to see eye to eye; their brains behave differently in ways that are stark enough to be detectable with fairly crude instruments. Two groups of researchers scanned the brains of left- and right-wingers as they were shown words and news clips. Using changes in blood flow as a proxy for neural activity, both found that the subjects’ brains responded in similar ways to neutral material, but diverged when presented with content about divisive topics like immigration.

Measuring blood flow using magnetic-resonance imaging, Daantje de Bruin and Oriel FeldmanHall, of Brown University in Rhode Island, recorded different patterns of activity in parts of the brain that handle emotions and cognition. Noa Katabi and Yaara Yeshurun, of Tel Aviv University, saw differences in the areas that deal with hearing, vision and movement. Big differences of opinion show up as big differences in brain activity.

Antony Blinken, America’s top diplomat, was scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Sunday. The visit—the first by a secretary of state since 2018—seemed like proof that the countries’ fractious relationship was improving. But now it will not happen. On Friday Mr Blinken postponed his trip after a Chinese high-altitude balloon was spotted flying over America.

The Pentagon claimed it was a surveillance balloon, though it downplayed its potential value for gathering intelligence. China said it was a “civilian airship” used mainly for meteorological research. It expressed regret about the balloon’s “unintended” entry into American airspace.

Officials in Washington are disinclined to give China the benefit of the doubt. No politician wants to appear soft towards the country. That limits the Biden administration’s room for manoeuvre. Mr Blinken may still hope to visit Beijing at some point. One could argue, though, that now is precisely the time when talks are needed.

In 2019, months after striking a power-sharing agreement, Salva Kiir and Riek Machar—the president and one of the vice-presidents of South Sudan, respectively—visited the Vatican. Pope Francis famously kissed their feet, imploring the foes to maintain their fragile peace. The two men, who come from rival tribes, had watched their young country descend into a civil war in 2013. In less than five years the conflict was estimated to have left nearly 400,000 people dead and 4m displaced.

On Friday Francis arrived in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, a predominantly Christian country, with the same message. Joining him are Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, and Iain Greenshields, of the Church of Scotland. But their prayers for peace will probably fall on deaf ears. Between August and December 166 civilians were killed as violence rose in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state, in the north. And on the eve of Francis’s arrival 27 were killed in the south of the country.

“The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window”

At 25 Lorraine Hansberry, a black lesbian communist playwright, longed for fame. But she couldn’t have predicted how soon it would come. She was 28 when “A Raisin in the Sun”, about a black family seeking a piece of the American dream, opened on Broadway in 1959. It marked the first time a black woman playwright had reached the Great White Way.

More than 60 years on, “Raisin” remains in heavy rotation. But another of Hansberry’s plays, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window”, has hardly been staged since it closed on Broadway in 1965, the year she died of cancer aged 34. The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s rare revival, starring Rachel Brosnahan and Oscar Isaac, opens in previews on Saturday. James Baldwin once raved of the play, about a group of friends in Greenwich Village straining to reconcile their ideals with reality, that “it is about nothing less than our responsibility to ourselves and each other.”

This year’s Six Nations tournament starts on Saturday. The competition, which pits the top European men’s rugby teams against one another, will also be keenly watched on the other side of the world. Ahead of a World Cup this autumn, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are eyeing the northern-hemisphere competition.

Those southern-hemisphere powerhouses have won all but one of the previous World Cups. But France will look forward to home advantage. Les bleus have been in formidable form recently, with a powerful pack and a scrum-half, Antoine Dupont, who was voted World Rugby player of the year in 2021.

It would, then, be a brave fan who bet against France in the Six Nations. But Ireland, who top the world rankings ahead of France and New Zealand, will be favourites. In Josh van der Flier, a flanker, they possess the player of 2022. Of all the northern teams, it is these two that will make southern boots quake come autumn.

Britney Spears brought the sex appeal, plaintive vocals and teen longing. Max Martin supplied the rest. In 1998 their track “...Baby One More Time” ruled the radio. Any allusions to domestic violence or sado-masochistic sex in the chorus—“Hit me baby one more time”—were supposedly unintentional. Mr Martin, the song’s Swedish writer and producer, says he understood “hit me” to mean “call me”.

The earworm was the first of Mr Martin’s 25 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, a chart of America’s most popular songs. Only Paul McCartney and John Lennon rank higher as songwriters. His collaborators include pop heavyweights from Celine Dion to Taylor Swift. On Sunday, at the Grammy Awards, the 51-year-old has three separate nominations for album of the year: for his production work on Adele’s “30”, Lizzo’s “Special” and Coldplay’s “Music of the Spheres”.

Unlike the Beatles frontmen, Mr Martin has shunned the mic since his early days as a heavy-metal rocker in Sweden. Then he was known as Karl Martin Sandberg. But Denniz PoP, the producer who steered his turn towards songwriting, insisted that he rechristen himself. “‘Martin Sandberg’ wasn’t exactly a disco name, so you couldn’t really talk to him,” Mr PoP later recalled.

Mr Martin is a proponent of a technique he calls “melodic math”, the principle that every element should serve the record and its melody. Words are chosen for their sound as much as their meaning. Take “...Baby One More Time”—the percussive Bs of “baby” make it a more common endearment in pop songs than, say, “darling”.

In 2019, in a rare interview with the Guardian, he explained the importance of phonetics, and how “melodic math” came about as a result of not speaking English as a child. He would listen to Abba, Elton John and the Beatles without registering what the songs were about. “I felt something hearing this music, and it meant something to me,” he said. “If you can have a great lyric that also phonetically sounds amazing, then you’re golden. But it’s also kind of cool if you write a song and people are emotionally moved without understanding what’s being said.”

All these years on, Mr Martin’s knack for meaningful nonsense shows no sign of diminishing.

What next for the Adani Group? On Wednesday the flagship company of the Indian conglomerate cancelled a secondary share offering, which had been fully subscribed, after its share price plunged. The rout started last week when Hindenburg Research, an American short-seller, accused the Adani Group of accounting fraud and share-price manipulation—charges that it forcefully denies.

The threat does not appear existential. Gautam Adani, the founder and until recently the world’s third-richest man, is considered an able operator and his companies own many valuable assets. No rating agency has yet reappraised the group’s debt, which boasts an investment grade.

Yet it is hard to believe that Mr Adani’s grand investment plans will be unaffected. Between 2023 and 2027 his group was forecast to spend more than $50bn on investments. If the yields on Adani bonds remain elevated and its share prices depressed, securing the necessary funds will prove difficult. Foreign investors are not taking any chances. In just two recent days, global funds pulled a net $1.5bn from the Indian stockmarket.

When Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, welcomes his Finnish counterpart, Sanna Marin, to Stockholm on Thursday, he will be looking for a show of solidarity. After Russia invaded Ukraine the Nordic neighbours decided to give up their long-standing non-aligned status, and applied to join NATO. But they were blocked by Turkey, which like all NATO members has a veto. Turkey extracted promises from both countries to crack down on residents associated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a violent separatist group in Turkey.

Now Turkey has new demands. Last month, for reasons unknown, a far-right Danish politician burnt a Koran outside Denmark’s embassy in Stockholm. The act prompted protests across the Muslim world. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says he is ready to approve Finland’s NATO application, but that Sweden must outlaw Koran-burning before it can join. Mr Kristersson has condemned the act, but says his country’s laws on freedom of expression are non-negotiable. Ms Marin will no doubt pledge to stand by her Swedish friends.

The steady retreat of democracy that began in 2016 at last came to an end in 2022. Yet a hoped-for revival did not materialise. According to the Democracy Index, an annual snapshot published by The Economist’s sister company, EIU, the average score among 167 countries ticked up by just 0.01 points, to 5.29 out of 10. More than a third of people worldwide still live under authoritarian rule and less than half live in a democracy.

The lifting of pandemic-related restrictions almost everywhere last year—China was a notable exception until December—improved scores in the “civil liberties” category. But any gains were wiped out by democratic backsliding elsewhere. A bungled attempt by the now-ousted president of Peru to shut down Congress resulted in the country’s being downgraded to a “hybrid regime”. Burkina Faso suffered not one but two coups. But it was Russia that recorded the biggest democratic decline of any country in the world, falling 22 places to 146th.

The Bank of England is expected to raise its interest rate to 4% on Thursday, from 3.5%. The key question, though, is what signal the central bank’s nine-member monetary-policy committee will send about the pace of future rises. In November it noted that market expectations of where rates would peak were higher than its own. Market interest rates have since come down.

The committee may be more uncertain than usual about prospects for inflation, and thus interest rates. The bank’s governor, Andrew Bailey, has suggested that falling wholesale gas prices will make it easier to reduce inflation without steep increases in rates, which would be good news for the economy. But the bank’s chief economist, Huw Pill, has warned that Britain faces a unique combination of challenges that could cause inflation to persist more stubbornly than in America or Europe. If so, interest rates may have to continue rising more quickly and steeply than some observers expect.

Zhang Hongbing’s mother was executed in 1970 after being branded a counter-revolutionary. Such horrors were not uncommon during the Cultural Revolution, a decade of Maoist madness that began in 1966 and saw up to 2m people killed for supposed political transgressions. But the case of Mr Zhang’s mother stands out, because he and his father had been her accusers.

Mr Zhang’s memory of the event seems strange to Tania Branigan, the author of “Red Memory”. He existed in it “as a Maoist algorithm: inputs, rules, outputs”, she writes. How people remember the Cultural Revolution—or why they have forgotten it—is the theme of her penetrating book.

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has suppressed discussion of the Cultural Revolution. He has accumulated more power than any leader since Mao Zedong and created his own cult of personality. “What makes the era’s lessons so vital is also what makes them impermissible,” writes Ms Branigan.