The property market has been incredibly resilient over the past two years. Interest-rate increases should lead to a drop in house prices, as rising mortgage rates reduce demand. Yet in May prices were 9.7% higher than when the Federal Reserve began tightening monetary policy in March 2022, according to the S&P Case-Shiller index, which tracks American property prices. On Tuesday S&P will release data for June.

There are signs that the market may be weakening. One reason for the boom is that America’s mortgage system relies on long-term fixed rates. That means that fewer homeowners sell when the Fed raises rates, because they want to retain their cheaper mortgages. This has reduced the number of existing homes available on the market. Seeing this tightness, homebuilders ramped up construction a couple of years ago, and that stock of housing is now hitting the market. In July the number of homes, most of which were new builds, for sale was 19.8% higher than a year earlier. Nevertheless, if recent history is any guide, the resilient housing market will probably continue to confound observers.

On Sunday Saxony and Thuringia, two states in eastern Germany, will hold parliamentary elections. It will be a bruising experience for the “traffic-light” coalition that governs the country; in both states all three parties could be ejected from parliament altogether. In Thuringia, and perhaps Saxony, the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is likely to top the polls—for the first time ever in a German state election. Another populist outfit, set up by Sahra Wagenknecht, a hard leftist campaigning on a pro-Russia line, will also do well.

Hoping to limit the damage for his Social Democrats, on Tuesday Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, will campaign in Jena, Thuringia’s second town. But Mr Scholz faces a second problem. Last Friday a Syrian asylum-seeker who had evaded a deportation order murdered three people in Solingen, a town in western Germany. Calls are growing for Germany to tighten its asylum rules—and not only from the AfD.

The world’s largest miner announced its annual results on Tuesday. BHP reported a 2% rise in underlying profit to $13.7bn amid challenging conditions. A slowdown in China’s property market has depressed demand for iron ore, which is used in steelmaking. Iron ore has long been a money-maker for BHP, funding its investments in other areas.

One of those is copper. The red metal is in high demand due to its use in electric vehicles, data centres and power lines. Recently BHP increased its copper production through acquisitions. In July it jointly acquired Filo Corp, a South American copper miner, for $3.25bn. Last year the company purchased OZ Minerals, an Australian copper producer, for $6.4bn. But its $49bn bid to buy Anglo American , another major mining firm with significant copper assets, was unsuccessful. Despite this setback, the company has outlined plans to expand copper production in its mines in Chile, Australia and Argentina.

The nature of dark matter, which is invisible and makes up 27% of the universe, is still largely unknown. Scientists think it could consist of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, but they have never found any. On Monday physicists presented new results from the world’s most sensitive WIMP detector, known as LZ, at conferences in São Paulo and Chicago: still nothing.

LZ, which is housed in an old mine and will run until 2028, watches a tank of liquid xenon for a signal that a WIMP has bumped into a xenon nucleus. It searches for ever-fainter interactions, meaning that it continuously narrows down what properties WIMPs could have. The lack of signal suggests that it is either closing in on WIMP s, or that it cannot detect them—if they exist at all. If the former, a big discovery may be coming. If the latter, dark matter will remain shadowy for a while yet.

If you were asked to name the highest-paid actor in 2023, whom would you choose? Tom Cruise, perhaps, or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson? Meryl Streep? Nice tries. But those guesses are wrong. It was Adam Sandler, nicknamed the “The Sandman”, who took home $73m last year. That is some $14m more than Margot Robbie, who placed second.

How did Mr Sandler, best known for playing schlubs, rise to the top of the film industry? Part of the reason is a deal with Netflix: Mr Sandler produces and stars in middling, but popular, comedies for the platform. (It says subscribers spent 500m hours watching Mr Sandler’s films in the first half of 2023.) His other income stream comes from the thing that made him famous: stand-up. On Tuesday Netflix releases his latest special, “Love You”. Mr Sandler may be aiming that adoration at his fans—or at the streaming service that keeps him rich and famous.