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To taste the effects of inflation in India, visit a fast-food restaurant. Last week the American chain Subway announced that it would no longer add a free cheese slice to its sandwiches because of rising costs. Similarly, many McDonald’s outlets have done away with tomatoes in their burgers. Food prices have risen because of erratic monsoons, which have submerged crops in parts of the country.

As a result, inflation has surged. Data released on Monday revealed that the annual inflation rate accelerated to 7.4% in July, from 4.8% in June and well above the central bank's upper threshold of 6%. Last week the bank left interest rates unchanged for a third consecutive meeting since April, but sustained food inflation may force it back into action. The government has already acted, restricting exports of rice to slow rising domestic prices. With a general election scheduled next year, the government knows Indian voters won’t stomach rising costs.

When Muhammad Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was ousted in a coup, his followers protested in Rabaa Square, in Cairo. On August 14th 2013, Egyptian security forces killed at least 900 members of the Brotherhood gathered there. Ten years later the group has barely recovered.

Many of those who survived the massacre were thrown into prison; others fled into exile. In 2020 Mahmoud Ezzat, the Brotherhood’s then leader, was arrested. The succession dispute that followed was unusually messy.

But the Brotherhood elected a new acting “general guide”, or leader, 78-year-old Salah Abudlhaq, in March of this year. Mr Abulhaq’s arrival could signal a new start. He has been far removed from the recent internal squabbles. Nonetheless, he will have his work cut out. The government has not yet loosened its hold on the Brotherhood. The anniversary on Monday will probably pass relatively quietly. Members fear that any protests would be aggressively dispersed—again.

Monday will be no ordinary Heroes’ Day in Zimbabwe. The day is supposed to commemorate the thousands of people who lost their lives in the “liberation war” of the 1960s and ’70s that led to the end of white-run Rhodesia and the establishment of Zimbabwe in 1980 under the rule of Robert Mugabe. But with a general election due on August 23rd Zanu-PF, the party that has misruled the country since independence, will use the moment for political rallies.

It will argue, falsely, that it alone liberated the country and insist that only Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s successor, can keep the revolution alive. Many—almost certainly most—Zimbabweans are beyond tired of this hogwash. Decades of corruption, idiotic policies and thuggery mean that real GDP per capita is lower today than in 1980. But Zanu-PF has a history of rigging elections. There are ample reasons to believe it will try to do so again.

In June the Supreme Court ordered Alabama to re-draw its electoral map. In 2021 the state’s legislature created one with just a single majority-black district out of seven, though black Alabamans comprise 27% of the voting-age population. The Supreme Court agreed with a lower court’s decision: the map violated the Voting Rights Act.

On Monday the district court that rejected the first map will consider the legislature’s revised effort. The Supreme Court instructed lawmakers to create a second majority-black district “or something quite close”. Republicans, who have a super-majority in the legislature, are testing that formulation. Their proposed map preserves one majority-black district and increases the share of black voters in a second to just under 40%. It all but ensures that Alabama will continue to send six Republicans to the House of Representatives (black voters tend to prefer Democrats), where the GOP has a razor-thin majority. Republicans hail a “compromise”; the district court might see it differently.

How can $101m disappear from a bank? It is a question investigators struggled to answer in 2016, when hackers stole that sum from Bangladesh’s central bank. “Billion Dollar Heist”, a documentary which comes out on Monday, explains how scammers used SWIFT, a cross-border payments network, to wire funds from the bank’s deposit with America’s Federal Reserve to accounts in Sri Lanka and the Philippines. The show’s title seemingly refers to the fact that, if not for their sloppiness, the cybercriminals could have escaped with $1bn.

The story is well suited to the screen. It features shadowy baddies, obscure online worlds and transnational criminal operations. Audiences were hooked by “The Lazarus Heist”, a podcast and subsequent book about state-sponsored hackers in North Korea (the same group was probably behind the Bangladesh scam). And our sister magazine, 1843, recently reported on the theft of $2.5bn from Iraq’s largest state bank. It seems no prize is too big for today’s bank robbers.

Since the first quarter of 2022, Britain’s economy has oscillated between contraction and growth—of around 0.1% of GDP either way. Forecasters predict much the same for the second half of this year. Official GDP figures for the second quarter of 2023, released on Friday, will probably fit the pattern, too.

In a way, that would be good news. Inflation is still too high and requires some cooling of the economy. The June figures showed that core inflation—which strips out volatile prices such as energy—stuck at an uncomfortable 6.4% year on year (down from 6.5% in May). Policymakers would like to achieve lower inflation while avoiding a deep recession, and have so far succeeded.

Nonetheless, the risk remains that the economy might weaken too much. A recent survey of recruitment agencies found a drop in permanent hires; another one among purchasing managers put the economy close to stagnation. The balancing-act continues.

Residents of Nuh, a town in the Indian state of Haryana, are coming to terms with the damage of recent unrest. Deadly violence erupted there during a religious procession in late July. In the days that followed, state authorities, controlled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which also rules at the national level, demolished houses and businesses in the area, ostensibly for violating building codes. On Monday Haryana’s high court halted the demolitions. It suggested they were a form of “ethnic cleansing” directed almost exclusively against Muslim residents.

Over 1,200 structures had already been bulldozed. Such incidents will probably proliferate in India ahead of next year’s election. An uptick in the number of political rallies and religious processions raises the risk of violence. That, in turn, may tempt local authorities to use demolition drives to intimidate and punish Muslims. The events in Nuh could be a sign of things to come.

Still engaged in a shameless land grab in Ukraine, the Kremlin has eyes on a more distant frontier, too. On Friday Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, is due to launch its Luna-25 probe from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, around 5,550km (3,450 miles) east of Moscow. The mission aims to achieve Russia’s first lunar landing since 1976.

The probe will head to the Moon’s south pole to search for evidence of water, in the form of ice, which could help sustain a human lunar presence. But Russia faces competition: India’s Chandrayaan-3 probe, which launched in July, is headed to the same region. And Earth-bound geopolitics risks denting Russia’s space ambitions. After the invasion of Ukraine, the European Space Agency ditched its promise to provide Luna-25 with specialist equipment. Meanwhile, Russia is only a junior partner on a planned Moonbase with China. Alas, the challenges facing the Kremlin’s moonshot sound awfully like its problems back on Earth.

Spain’s government entered this year touting some of the best economic figures in the euro zone. A bigger-than-average covid contraction led to a later, stronger recovery in GDP compared with its peers’. Even more impressive has been the low accompanying inflation: in June Spain became the first country in the bloc to get the headline figure below an annual rate of 2%. On Friday final figures for July will be released.

They are expected to confirm preliminary data which put headline inflation at 2.3%. More worrying, those figures also suggested core inflation was 6.2% in July, up from 5.9%. The core measure, more closely watched, strips out volatile fresh-food and energy prices. Spain’s headline inflation has been flattered by its lower energy costs: it does not get much energy from Russia and has won a so-called “Iberian exception” from European Union rules linking electricity prices to gas prices. The downward trend in Spanish inflation may be broken.

Football’s centre of gravity has long been in England. The country hosts the English Premier League, the world’s richest and most popular football division. And its champion, Manchester City, is the world’s best team. On Friday City will travel to Burnley to begin a new league season.

At around the same time, another league kicks off thousands of kilometres away in Saudi Arabia. Traditionally football fans outside the kingdom have paid little attention to the Saudi Pro League. No longer. Over the summer Saudi clubs, with some generous state backing, have spent more than $480m signing players from Europe. The most eye-catching arrivals include Karim Benzema, a French player crowned the world’s best in 2022, and Riyad Mahrez, an Algerian star from Manchester City. Reports suggest the Saudis have set aside more than $17bn to develop its league. The Saudi effort may not yet rival the EPL, but football fans know better than to write off an underdog.

This week Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister, is expected to dissolve parliament and appoint a caretaker government ahead of a general election later this year. The election will probably be delayed, after the government said on Saturday that the electorate would reflect a new census. The authorities expect to take up to four months to redraw constituencies. So parliament granted additional powers to the future caretaker government, allowing it to implement the conditions of a loan agreement with the IMF.

Elections—whenever held—will likely be conducted without Imran Khan, a previous prime minister. His conviction at the weekend for “corrupt practices” disqualifies him from parliament for five years. Mr Khan’s lawyers said they will appeal. But he faces dozens of other charges including blasphemy and terrorism. With his status having sunk in one parliamentary term from prime minister to that of a convict banned from politics, Mr Khan is the latest to learn the unforgiving nature of Pakistani politics.

SoftBank Group, a Japanese investment giant, has had a tough time of late. The collapse of the tech industry shrank the value of many of its big bets. There was more bad news on Tuesday, as it reported a surprise loss of 478bn yen ($3.5bn) in the second quarter. SoftBank was hit by declines in valuations of several companies it has invested in, including Alibaba, a Chinese tech behemoth.

However the Vision Fund, SoftBank’s venture-capital unit, returned to profit for the first time in six quarters. That was driven by an increased valuation for Arm, a British firm that produces the blueprints for many semiconductors and is slated for an initial public offering later this year. SoftBank bought Arm in 2016 for $32bn. Its valuation target is predicted to be $60bn-$70bn, with a listing possibly as soon as September.

Is it time to invest in European housing again? House prices have probably bottomed out. Figures for the first three months of 2023 showed a quarterly decline in many European countries. But prices in Germany increased in the second quarter, and others may follow. With inflation coming down, interest rates and hence mortgage rates could follow, too. That might tempt buyers. On Tuesday, the European Central Bank released its latest survey on what consumers think of house prices, and their predictions for the wider economy.

Like in the surveys in April and May, the median consumer expects near-stagnant house prices and household incomes for the next 12 months. Expected inflation dropped from 3.9% to 3.4%, and mortgage rates dipped slightly by 0.1 percentage points to 4.4% over the same period. But markets remain unconvinced: rates have gone up notch in recent months for both short and longer term debt. For homebuyers deciding when to move, getting the timing right will not be easy.

On Tuesday Ohioans vote on whether to make their constitution harder to change. The Republican state legislature put an amendment on the ballot in May. It would require future citizen-led campaigns to collect signatures from every county in the state, rather than just half, to secure a ballot. It would also raise the threshold to pass an amendment from a simple majority to 60%.

Some state Republicans have been open about their motives for the timing of the proposal. Ohioans vote in November on whether to introduce a right to an abortion into their constitution. Since the overturning of Roe v Wade last year, six states have voted on abortion. In each, voters have protected access to it, but in Michigan, Kansas and Kentucky the abortion-rights campaign won with less than 60% of the vote. Activists in Ohio are litigating against a six-week abortion ban, passed in 2019. In Ohio the battle over abortion access is being fought in the courts and on the ballots, too.

On Tuesday Jamie Lee Curtis, an Oscar-winning actress, publishes a graphic novel, “Mother Nature”, co-written with Russell Goldman and illustrated in photo-realistic watercolour by Karl Stevens. Ms Curtis rose to fame at 19 in a slasher film, “Halloween”. At that age—recognising what she calls the “unbalanced relationship between humans and nature”—she began conjuring up a dark plot in which nature retaliates. Now she has brought it to life with gory graphics, featuring skull-shattering hailstorms, a man impaled by a pumpjack and deadly tornadoes.

Through a plot that involves environmental cover-ups and supernatural vengeance, the fossil-fuel industry (in the shape of the fictitious Cobalt Corporation) is turned into a comic-book villain. “Mother Nature” is being released during a summer of extreme, and deadly, weather conditions. The story uses bloody violence typical of the horror genre to engage readers who might otherwise be apathetic about the environment. Curtis has teased she might play the dastardly boss of Cobalt in a film adaptation.

Nearly four years ago India’s government split Jammu & Kashmir, a northern state, into two federally-run territories. The decision thrilled the Hindu-nationalist supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. They had long resented the extra autonomy granted to India’s only majority-Muslim state, which had its own constitution and flag.

India’s government insists that the reorganisation has brought an “unprecedented era of peace and progress” to the region. But it required gutting an article of the national constitution that gave J&K its special status. Activists and lawyers immediately challenged the legality of that in the Supreme Court.

On Wednesday five judges finally began hearing that case, as well as petitions related to media freedom, internet shutdowns and political imprisonment in the region. Kashmiris, who chafe under the yoke of 500,000 soldiers in the territory, hope that the Supreme Court’s verdict will provide them with some relief.

In Niger, where soldiers toppled the president a week ago, the chaos could get worse. The Economic Community of West African States, the regional bloc, gave the junta until Sunday to reinstate Mohamed Bazoum. If the soldiers do not, it says it may intervene with force. The generals running the neighbouring jihadist-hit countries of Mali and Burkina Faso responded that this would be a declaration of war on them, too. On Wednesday the defence chiefs of the bloc began a lengthy meeting to discuss plans.

Despite an attempt by the president of Chad to mediate, the junta is not backing down. Instead it arrested more politicians. On Tuesday France, the former colonial power whose embassy was attacked by protesters brandishing Russian flags, began to evacuate Europeans. Expect the junta to call for more demonstrations to try to show ECOWAS that any intervention would meet popular opposition—and guarantee civilian bloodshed.

Big packaged-food sellers have done reasonably well in tumultuous times. Sales were buoyant during the pandemic, which kept consumers out of restaurants. Even now sales are strong. Buyers seem unwilling to give up the convenience of eating at home. Food makers have been able to pass on to them higher costs of inputs, caused in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As inflation comes down, companies may benefit: their costs may fall more quickly than the prices they charge to consumers.

Kraft Heinz, a big American multinational that owns such brands as Heinz ketchup and Oscar Mayer sausages, reports its quarterly earnings on Wednesday. Earnings per share last quarter exceeded expectations, as did revenue. Expectations are even higher this time.

But trouble is simmering. A backlash against ultra-processed foods is becoming more intense. Some activist investors want food firms to sell more wholesome grub and to be more transparent about the “health profile” of products. That might not go down well in the boardroom.

Wednesday marks Earth Overshoot Day, the day on the calendar on which humans have used more resources than ecosystems can generate for the whole year. From now until January 1st 2024 humanity will be using more natural resources—including fish stocks, fibres and medicines provided by plants and the ability of forests to sequester carbon, among many other things—than the planet can supply this year.

By consistently overspending its biological budget, humanity is reducing the biodiversity on which its survival depends. The overshoot date, calculated by the Global Footprint Network, a think-tank, using data collected by the UN, has been coming earlier almost every year since 1971.

Rich countries, unsurprisingly, are the most profligate. A study published in 2022 in Lancet Planetary Health, a journal, found that America and the EU were respectively responsible for 27% and 25% of the overuse of natural resources. The global south was responsible for just 8%.

Enayat al-Zayyat, an Egyptian writer, penned only one book. She never got to see it published. In her mid-twenties she took her own life. Her contemporaries whispered that a publisher’s rejection of her novel had driven her to despair. The vulnerable, semi-autobiographical debut, “Love and Silence”, was published posthumously in Arabic in 1967. It was widely, but briefly, praised. And then it was forgotten.

Almost three decades later Iman Mersal, an Egyptian poet, came across a rare copy of “Love and Silence” in a market in Cairo. Drawn to the writing, she decided to do research into Zayyat’s life, spending years speaking to those who knew her and uncovering the tragedies and joys of her short life in 20th-century Egypt.

“Traces of Enayat”, which was published in Arabic in 2019 and in English this week, is the culmination of those efforts. But the book is not quite a biography. It is, rather, an account of Ms Mersal’s feverish attempts to retrace the steps of a lost author.

The governing council of the European Central Bank (ECB) must be itching to go on holiday after months of difficult interest-rate decisions. But before they set their email auto-replies, the ECB faces a final call on Thursday. Rates might go up by another quarter of a percentage point. But the council’s more doveish members may prefer to hold off until they regroup in a few weeks.

Price rises in the euro zone have slowed: both headline and core inflation (which strips out energy and food prices) stood at 5.5% in June. But the private-sector economy is weakening and business sentiment is sagging, especially in Germany. If monetary policy is indeed working to cool both inflation and growth, the ECB could be close to pausing rate hikes, as other central banks have done. But the available data may not yet support a change of direction. Do not email in the meantime: the central bankers are out of the office, but will be back with a re-assessment in September.

The Russia-Africa Summit which starts on Thursday in St Petersburg was meant to be a diplomatic victory for Vladimir Putin. Since Russia’s president began his full-scale invasion of Ukraine the Kremlin has redoubled its efforts to woo African states, not least for their political influence: the continent’s 54 countries hold more than a quarter of votes at the UN General Assembly.

But the reported turnout—17 leaders versus 43 at the previous meeting in 2019—shows the limits of Russia’s appeal. A few attendees are customers of the Wagner Group of mercenaries; others want Russian arms. Some see Mr Putin as an ally in promoting a more multilateral world. But African countries are generally pragmatic. Russia has less economic clout than America, China or the EU. And its recent withdrawal from a deal to release Ukrainian grain exports will have harmed African interests. As a result many of the continent’s leaders may have decided that attending would have offered Russia a public-relations win too cheaply.

North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong Un, is having a party—and, for the first time in years, he has invited guests. On Thursday Chinese and Russian delegations will watch a military parade that celebrates “Victory Day”—the 70th anniversary of the day North Korea claims, controversially, to have won the Korean war. No one else is known to have entered the country since it closed its borders at the start of the covid-19 pandemic, apart from a new Chinese ambassador who arrived with his staff in March and an American soldier who dashed across the border last week.

Don’t expect a grand reopening soon. The pandemic allowed Mr Kim to exert even tighter control over his heavily policed fief, and to continue developing nuclear weapons. As he has China’s and Russia’s support, chidings from America or South Korea have little sting. Mr Kim is having far too good a time to let his revelries end.

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, meets President Joe Biden in Washington on Thursday amid signs she is ready to pull her country out of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. In 2019 Giuseppe Conte’s populist coalition signed up to the programme of infrastructure projects that spans Eurasia, the Middle East and Africa. The pact has been one of the few bones of contention between America and its ally. It is due for renewal by the end of this year.

Ms Meloni has won friends in America by supporting Ukraine both diplomatically and militarily, despite being yoked in government to two parties, the Northern League and Forza Italia, once closely linked to Russia. Since becoming prime minister, she has also dropped her fiery Eurosceptic rhetoric. That too is appreciated in Washington. But Mr Biden is politically distant from the hard-right Ms Meloni and has been reluctant to invite her to the table with other European allies. Ditching the BRI could bring her closer to the in-crowd.

In “Different Times: a History of British Comedy”, David Stubbs, a culture writer, charts the country’s changing sense of humour. Post-war comedy, he argues, was disinterested in altering the status quo—although that is news to anyone who has watched Monty Python. But he observes that from the late 1970s comedy merged with activism: stand-ups such as Alexei Sayle and Ben Elton fought Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative governments armed with gags. A decade of foul-mouthed shows followed, which were filled with righteous anger. Then comedy entered a new phase: political correctness.

Mr Stubbs sees this not as a straitjacket for comedians but as a liberation. He says that scrapping offensive tropes such as “dolly birds, amiable sex pests, comical Asians [and] nancy boys” enabled comedians to explore a broader sweep of British life. It is indeed good that comedians are no longer “punching down”—but comedy thrives on transgression. If comedians become too nice they might stop punching at all.