A "pre-emptive and proactive policy is always better" when it comes to Donald Trump, said India's former ambassador to the US, Harsh V. Shringla – and the country's current prime minister seems to agree.

As Narendra Modi prepares for an Indian-US summit in Washington this week, India once again appears "ready to adapt" to the US president's "transactional style of diplomacy", said The Washington Post.

What's on the agenda?
India's slowing economy means the main priority for Modi is to avoid Trump tariffs. Last year, Trump referred to India as a "very big abuser" of trade ties with the US, highlighting America's $45 billion (£37 billion) trade deficit with the Asian nation. Modi has already made a "clear concession to Trump", said Bloomberg, by cutting India's "own (notoriously high) tariffs" on some US goods, including Harley-Davidson motorbikes.

Immigration is another delicate subject. The Indian government has signalled its willingness to accept the return of nearly 18,000 of its citizens from the US. Modi's government hopes this will "placate" the Trump administration over the estimated 725,000 illegal Indian immigrants living in the US,  said The Independent, and "safeguard legal migration pathways" such as "student visas and H-1B visas for skilled workers".

Why now?
The US-India relationship is on a "more secure footing than it has been in decades", said Foreign Policy. Aside from the obvious "bonhomie" between their strongman leaders, this alignment is largely down to a "shared belief that China increasingly constitutes a threat to both countries' strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific".

What's in it for the US?
India is one of the founding members of the Brics bloc, a group that has "long projected itself as an alternative to Western-led models of global governance", said the BBC. India is "perhaps the most Western-oriented Brics member", so the US hopes it will act as a bulwark against the alliance's "longstanding vision – articulated emphatically by Beijing and Moscow – of serving as a counter to the West".

Critics call him the "Prince of Darkness" but Peter Mandelson is very much in the spotlight as the new UK ambassador to the US.

The architect of New Labour was sworn in as Britain's top diplomat in Washington on Monday, marking his latest reincarnation in a "remarkable career of triumphs, mishaps, resignations and comebacks" that has seen him in roles ranging from MP for Hartlepool and cabinet minister to EU trade commissioner, said the Financial Times.

'Silvertongue'
In a recent interview with the newspaper, Mandelson revealed that former president George W. Bush's nickname for him was Silvertongue. That "is probably just as well," said the FT's George Parker, "given that Mandelson has just been assigned to the most daunting job in British diplomacy", tasked with "keeping alive Churchill's mystical 'special relationship' in the era of Donald Trump".

It is "rare for a politician, rather than a career civil servant, to be given a key UK ambassadorial post", said The Associated Press. But some analysts see Mandelson as a "canny choice". 

One of Britain's "most admired and loathed political operators", the 71-year-old has been picked by Keir Starmer in the face of considerable opposition on both sides of the Atlantic, for his "guile, expertise in world affairs and trade issues, and networking skills", said Parker. "His mission is to get in with the US president and stay there."

'Dividing Trumpworld into three'
Mandelson's "diplomatic strategy so far involves dividing Trumpworld into three groups and approaching them in different ways", said BBC political correspondent Joe Pike.

"Ideological Maga" (devotees of Trump's Make America Great Again campaign mantra) include protectionists like former White House advisor Steve Bannon who want a return to the America First strategy of Trump's first term and "may be the trickiest to mollify". "National security Maga" should be more receptive to a foreign policy hawk such as Mandelson. And he already has close contacts with the third group, "the technocracy", having built relationships with the likes of Peter Thiel and Elon Musk and even holidaying with new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Aside from being a "considerable political talent" with economic and foreign policy expertise, Mandelson is "also very comfortable with very rich people", Jill Rutter, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government, told AP News – a skill that could certainly be handy when it comes to the White House.

The world has fallen in love with romance again. Romantasy has become a multimillion-pound industry, with sales up considerably in the past year, and romance and erotic fiction also saw sales value increases of 9.8% and 18.1% respectively last year. As Valentine's Day approaches, here are romantic reads to set your heart racing.

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
The Empyrean romantasy series by bestselling author Yarros has sparked a "global phenomenon like the Harry Potter and Twilight books before it", said Marie Claire. It centres around cadets in military training in a fantasy world where dragons roam. The latest book in the "very steamy" series promises to further ramp up the "adventure, political tensions and, of course, romance" of its predecessors, "Fourth Wing" and "Iron Flame".

The Wedding People by Alison Espach
If you've figured out how every romcom ends, this unpredictable story is the book for you, said The Guardian. Phoebe Stone is the only hotel guest at the grand Cornwall Inn in Rhode Island who isn't there for a huge wedding. Instead, she is planning "to end her life in the most expensive suite". When spoilt bride-to-be Lila realises that something may mar her perfect day, "mayhem breaks loose – but not in the way you might expect". This is "unexpected and delightful, funny but never cruel".

In Memoriam by Alice Winn
One of the "most poignant" LGBTQ+ romances, this coming-of-age tale follows two young boys as they prepare to head off to war in 1914. The multi-award-winning "tender love story" sees them struggle to admit their feelings for one another, unsurprisingly so, considering homosexuality was a criminal offence at the time. Love runs as a theme throughout, "from the love for one another to their family, friends and comrades, to the love for one's country," said The Independent.

The great climate disconnect
Pilita Clark in the Financial Times
"Never before" has the threat of climate change been "so evident and the response so cavalier", writes Pilita Clark. While scientists have reported that last month was the hottest January on record, Donald Trump has been "freezing funding" for EV charging infrastructure and "scrubbing mentions" of climate change from government websites. The "green backlash" is taking place worldwide as countries launch net zero policies, which "was always going to be fraught" during a "cost of living crunch".

How the assisted dying bill could unleash male violence
Sarah Ditum in The New Statesman
Assisted dying legislation "has been written as though male violence and coercive control do not exist", writes Sarah Ditum. Several criminal cases have followed a pattern: "a man kills a sick woman and her sickness makes the killing more understandable", despite "a later incident of domestic violence" or "brutality of method". But the "more common scenario" is a patient who, through "lengthy cruelty and coercion", becomes "genuinely convinced that she (or sometimes he) is a burden who would be better off dead".

It's time to ban birthday candles – no, really
Will Gore in The i Paper
A study has found that particles produced by burning candles can "impair brain function", writes Will Gore. "I'm going to follow the science" on this because I find the tradition of birthday cake candles "very irritating". For an adult to "insist on candles" on their cake is "pure attention-seeking", and "I'd rather have my cake and eat it without the flavour of wax haunting my special day", so "let's snuff them out for good".