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India and Sri Lanka eye a historic defence pact

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, is on a state visit to Sri Lanka this weekend at the invitation of the country’s president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The leaders plan to sign a historic defence co-operation pact. Their countries already collaborate on maritime security and disaster relief. But India believes a broader agreement can help it in its competition with China for influence in the Indian Ocean and the countries that surround it: Sri Lanka has an important role in China’s Belt and Road initiative, a vast infrastructure investment programme.

Sri Lanka’s overtures are a pleasant surprise to many in India. Mr Dissanayake, elected in September 2024, leads a party with Marxist-Leninist roots. During the election campaign Indian media described him as being sympathetic to China. Sri Lanka may want to play India and China off against each other—and ensure it does not become too reliant on either power.

Another lifeline for TikTok

For a few quiet hours in January, TikTok shut down in America. Citing national security concerns, Congress had ordered the video app to divest from ByteDance, its Chinese owner, by January 19th or be banned. It failed to do so. On the eve of his inauguration Donald Trump said he would delay the ban. To the delight of its 170m American users, TikTok returned. He granted a 75-day extension on his first day. 

TikTok’s time was meant to be up on Saturday. But on Friday the president granted the app a further 75-day reprieve. “Tremendous progress” had been made on a deal, Mr Trump said. But it “requires more work”. He has suggested the possibility of easing tariffs on China if it complies. The president said he does not want TikTok to “go dark”. More about the possible deal should soon come to light. A bid led by Oracle, a tech giant, is rumoured to be the front-runner; Amazon is also interested.

Peace talks falter in Colombia 

Violence is escalating across Colombia as armed groups fight for territory. Last week rebels in the long-afflicted state of Cauca attacked law-enforcement bases, homes and a hospital, killing a soldier and injuring scores of people. In the east the National Liberation Army (ELN), a guerrilla group, dominates the border with Venezuela. Dozens have been killed in clashes with other groups. Sixteen massacres have been reported across the country this year.

This is not the “total peace” promised by Gustavo Petro when he was elected president in 2022. Under that policy, the government had been trying to negotiate with almost every armed group. Most of those talks are now on the verge of collapse. Around one peace table, however, hope remains. This weekend in Nariño, near the border with Ecuador, the Comuneros del Sur, a group of ELN dissidents, will begin the three-month process of disarming. That would be a small but important victory for “total peace”.

MI5 spills its secrets

People have long been fascinated by Britain’s secret services. Novelists and filmmakers have mined them accordingly, giving us the James Bond franchise, George Smiley books and “Slow Horses”, a television series about a motley crew of agents. On Saturday one spy agency is opening its records to the public.

“MI5: Official Secrets”, an exhibition at the National Archives running until September, takes visitors through 115-years-worth of documents and artefacts, including a large collection of spy cameras. The exhibition covers some of the domestic-security agency’s famous scandals, such as the Cambridge Five, the spy ring that passed intelligence to the Soviets. It also details less well-known heroes, including the Girl Guides who served as messengers in the second world war and a double agent who helped throw the Germans off the scent of D-Day. Visitors may assume, however, that they have not been granted full access.

Weekend profile: Jordan Bardella, the young hope of France’s hard right

His parents, of Italian origin, might have chosen a name that tied him to the ancestral homeland. Or a solid French moniker that would not have marked him out. But no, Luisa and Olivier named their only son Jordan. “Why,” he once asked his mother in exasperation, “did you give me this name?”

Yet today Jordan Bardella is a household name in France, and “Jor-dan” an affectionate chant at political rallies. At just 29 years old, the protégé Marine Le Pen spotted young and promoted fast is the president of her hard-right National Rally. A week ago Mr Bardella was being lined up as a potential future prime minister in 2027 under a President Le Pen. After a Paris court on March 31st banned her from running for office for five years for the misuse of public funds, he could end up—barring a successful appeal by Ms Le Pen—as the party’s presidential candidate.

Mr Bardella grew up with a divorced single mother in a tower block in Seine-Saint-Denis, a grim suburb north of Paris. He has held no job outside politics, dropping out of university and securing his first local party post at the age of 18. Mr Bardella’s upbringing gives him a grounding and a credibility, now matched by popularity. On TikTok, 2m followers watch him eat bags of Haribo sweets and cheerfully sign copies of his autobiography for giggling teenaged girls.

But inside the RN, he has his detractors, not least because of his rapid rise. He was first drawn to the party by Ms Le Pen’s transformation of a fringe extremist movement into a “patriotic” party aspiring to govern. Ms Le Pen picked him at age 23 to lead the RN into European Parliament elections. Thanks to her mentoring he won election as the party’s official head in 2022.

On most policy matters Mr Bardella is closely aligned with Ms Le Pen: tough on immigration, fairly relaxed on social mores (as long as they do not concern hardline Islam). On foreign-policy, though, there are nuances. Ms Le Pen tends to blame Mr Macron for exaggerating the Russian threat; Mr Bardella is more apt to point the finger at Vladimir Putin. And last month he visited Israel: a gesture of solidarity, an attempt to turn the page on his party’s antisemitic past and an appeal to the French Jewish voter.

Ms Le Pen insists that she will still run for the presidency. Her appeal should be heard by next summer. This would mean, until then, keeping their informal ticket as it is. Mr Bardella says he owes the RN leader everything, and swears by his loyalty to her. He is very inexperienced. Should Ms Le Pen’s ban be confirmed, the weight of a presidential challenge would be heavy. But Mr Bardella will doubtless now begin to contemplate the prospect, without giving any hint of betraying the woman who made him what he is today.

A fragile ceasefire plan for Ukraine

On Monday American mediators in Saudi Arabia will seek to nail down the details of a 30-day partial ceasefire proposed by President Donald Trump. They are expected to begin talks with a Russian delegation, following negotiations with Ukrainian envoys that started on Sunday. The main task will be drawing up a list of protected facilities. The Kremlin wants this restricted to energy infrastructure, narrowly defined; Ukraine and America insist on including other infrastructure, such as ports, civilian buildings and railways.

Russia has yet to show real commitment to a ceasefire. On March 18th, after a call with Mr Trump, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, claimed he had ordered a halt to attacks on energy infrastructure. Russia then launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukrainian energy sites. Steve Witkoff (pictured), Mr Trump’s special envoy handling communications with Russia, said he believed Mr Putin would act “in good faith”. Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, expressed more doubt: “With each launch, the Russians reveal their true attitude towards peace,” he said.

China courts foreign bosses

For global executives eager to schmooze with Chinese policymakers this is a busy time. Following the China Development Forum in Beijing over the weekend, some will be heading straight to another big annual conference in the far south—the Boao Forum for Asia, which begins on March 25th.

Chinese officials are eagerly feeding their message to chief executives rattled by Donald Trump’s erratic economic policy: that their country is a land of stability in a turbulent world. On Sunday China’s prime minister, Li Qiang, said that amid “rising instability and uncertainty” countries need to open up their markets. He also met Steve Daines, a Republican senator who was an intermediary during the first Trump term. Mr Daines told the New York Times he wanted to lay the groundwork for a meeting between Mr Trump and Xi Jinping, China’s leader. But as tensions caused by Mr Trump’s tariffs worsen, China may be hesitant.

Louisiana’s congressional map at SCOTUS

On Monday America’s Supreme Court hears Louisiana v Callais, a case that could decide control of the House of Representatives in next year’s midterm elections. After the 2020 census Louisiana’s legislature drew a map that included just one district (of six) where black voters form a majority. A court, noting that nearly a third of Louisiana’s voters are black, said that arrangement violated the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 and ordered lawmakers to add a second majority-black district. But the redrawn map drew fire from plaintiffs who claim that the “sinuous and jagged” new district is “racially balkanising”. They persuaded a different court that it violates the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Louisiana says the redrawn map seeks to balance its competing obligations to the VRA and the constitution. It contends that its main goal was not racial but political: to protect the seats of certain Republicans, including Mike Johnson, the House speaker.

At last, German business looks cheerier

In the next two days two closely watched gauges of the German economy are due to be published: the Hamburg Commercial Bank’s purchasing-managers’ index on Monday, followed by the Ifo institute’s business-climate index on Tuesday. Both will probably show an improvement from last month. February’s Ifo index was unchanged from January’s as business leaders remained sceptical about the prospect of economic growth.

But lately their mood has improved. Bosses are encouraged by the bold steps of Friedrich Merz, the chancellor-in-waiting. His big reform, to exempt defence spending from the strict fiscal limits enshrined in the German constitution and to set up a €500bn ($540bn) infrastructure fund, passed both houses of parliament last week. They hope that other badly needed structural reforms will follow, and that Germany will at last haul itself out of recession. Mr Merz’s coalition government is expected to be ready to take office just after Easter.

Curbing bullfighting in Mexico City

This week Mexico City is set to enforce a new law that bans traditional bullfighting. Rather than imposing a total prohibition—as five of the country’s 31 states have done—the capital city aims to modify the spectacle. Under the “non-violent” bullfighting rules, killing or injuring bulls will be prohibited. Sharp objects, including swords and spears, are banned; matadors will only be able to use capes. In addition, the bulls’ horns must be protected and their time in the arena will be capped at 15 minutes.

The compromise is intended to appease the industry, which generates $50m of revenue annually in Mexico City. But it may satisfy few people. The sport’s supporters—a quarter of the city’s population, according to a recent survey—accuse the authorities of diluting a tradition. Yet animal-rights activists argue that, even without bloodshed, the sport causes stress to bulls. Their viewpoint may prevail globally: more and more countries are imposing restrictions on bullfighting.