Brazilian police detained Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a former president, for questioning on suspicion that he had benefited from bribes paid to Petrobras, a state-controlled oil giant. He was released after three hours. In a separate investigation, state prosecutors charged him with concealing his ownership of a seaside property. He denies wrongdoing. The judge investigating the Petrobras scandal sentenced Marcelo Odebrecht, a former chief of Brazil’s biggest construction company, to 19 years in prison for corrupt dealings with the oil company.

Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, described Donald Trump’s rhetoric as a danger, saying, “that’s how Hitler got in.” Mr Peña added that there was “no scenario” in which Mexico would pay for the wall that Mr Trump plans to build on the border if he wins the American presidency.

The opposition alliance that controls Venezuela’s National Assembly said it will use “all constitutional means” to force the populist president, Nicolás Maduro, from office. These include launching a referendum to recall him, and peaceful street protests against the government.

Peru’s electoral court barred two candidates from a presidential election, to be held on April 10th. Julio Guzmán, who is second in the polls, was disqualified because his party failed to obey its rules when it nominated him. César Acuña was excluded for giving money to voters while campaigning.

The Brexit bandwagon

Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, was accused of promoting pro-European Union views for saying that a British exit from the EU would pose the “biggest domestic risk” to financial stability. Mr Carney tried to re-establish his neutrality by suggesting EU membership brought risks, too. The Sun, a populist newspaper, claimed the queen favours Brexit. An official denial and complaint to the press regulator swiftly followed. Boris Johnson, London’s mayor and a Brexiteer never far from controversy, described an e-mail that sought to gag pro-EU views within his office as a “cock-up”.

In Slovakia Robert Fico, the prime minister, won a general election but failed to secure a parliamentary majority. Despite Mr Fico’s anti-immigrant rhetoric the far-right People’s Party Our Slovakia won 8% of the vote and 14 seats in the 150-seat parliament.

Leaders from the EU and the prime minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, agreed on the outline of a deal to deport boat people back to Turkey. The terms, which will be confirmed at another summit later this month, have been criticised by international aid organisations and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. But as more refugees are expected in the spring, it may be the only hope for Europe.

At least 200,000 union-led protesters and students took to the streets of France and railway workers held a national strike for 37 hours. Their main grievance was the French government’s labour-reform bill, which would help companies bypass tricky unions when they want to alter working times and cut the cost of redundancies.

Junior doctors in England held their third, and longest, strike, walking out for 48 hours. Only emergency cover was provided; 5,000 surgical procedures were cancelled. Last month the health secretary said he would impose new contracts after negotiations with doctors failed. The doctors have the public’s sympathy; two-thirds back their actions.

Hopes, and fears

Talks aimed at finding an end to the conflict in Syria were postponed again, but are now set to start next week. A ceasefire, which has been in place since February 27th, is continuing to hold generally, though numerous minor violations have been reported, and aid is getting through to more areas.

The UN warned that a humanitarian disaster is looming in the western Iraqi city of Fallujah, held by Islamic State but under siege for many months by Iraqi forces. Tens of thousands of people in the city are facing food shortages.

A survey found that almost half of Israeli Jews think that Israeli Arabs, who make up a fifth of the population, should be expelled or transferred from Israel.

America launched an air strike at a camp belonging to al-Shabab, a terrorist outfit in Somalia, killing 150 fighters.

A stinging Bern

In the biggest upset in America’s primary elections so far, Bernie Sanders proved the pollsters so very wrong by beating Hillary Clinton in Michigan’s Democratic primary by 50% to 48%. Mrs Clinton had been expected to win handily. Her defeat raised questions about the breadth of her appeal outside heavily black electorates in the South (she trounced Mr Sanders in Mississippi and Louisiana), but she remains on course to take the party’s nomination.

On the Republican side Donald Trump chalked up big wins in Michigan and Mississippi, though he won Louisiana and Kentucky by smaller margins. Marco Rubio’s campaign seemed all but over after another dismal showing.

Michael Bloomberg, a former mayor of New York, said he would not enter the presidential race as an independent, after months of apparently planning to do so. He is concerned that a three-way race would benefit Mr Trump, whose campaign Mr Bloomberg described as “the most divisive…I can remember”.

You can clap now

As the annual session of China’s toothless National People’s Congress got under way, the one-party state forbade the country’s media from reporting on diverse topics including smog, the use of land for burials and delegates’ wealth. They were, however, ordered to “thoroughly report” on the participation of Xi Jinping, the country’s president.

The son of a liberal Pakistani politician, Salman Taseer, who was assassinated by his bodyguard for opposing harsh blasphemy laws, emerged near Quetta after five years of captivity. Shahbaz Ali Taseer had been kidnapped by Islamic extremists eight months after his father’s killing.

For the first time, a computer beat a world champion at the Asian board game of Go, when Google’s DeepMind AlphaGo outclassed Lee Se-dol of South Korea, who has won 18 championships. Computers have beaten the world’s best chess players, but Go is much more complex.