Japanese company announces two new EVs and promises another three by 2026, as well as new Lexus models

Toyota has said it plans to build battery vehicles in the UK in the future as it seeks to keep all of its European plants open, although it will be cautious before switching away from fossil fuels.

The Japanese company, the world’s largest carmaker by sales, said it wanted to retain all eight of its European factories through the transition to electric cars, as it announced two new electric models and promised another three by 2026 under its main brand. It also showed a new electric model under its premium Lexus brand, with two more to come this year.

Two-party alliance led by the Social Democratic party was in power for less than a year

Portugal’s minority government has lost a vote of confidence in parliament, forcing its resignation and bringing the EU country’s third general election in three years.

The exact vote count wasn’t immediately available, but the speaker of parliament, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, said the center-right government was defeated.

The government, a two-party alliance led by the Social Democratic party (PSD) and in power for less than a year, had just 80 seats in the current 230-seat legislature. An overwhelming majority of opposition lawmakers had vowed to vote against it.

The government asked for the confidence vote, saying it was needed to “dispel uncertainty” about its own future amid a simmering political crisis that has focused on Social Democrat prime minister Luís Montenegro and distracted attention from policy.

The controversy has revolved around potential conflicts of interest in the business dealings of Montenegro’s family law firm.

A new election is likely in May.

Montenegro, who had said he would stand for reelection if the government fell, has denied any wrongdoing. He said he placed control of the firm in the hands of his wife and children when he became PSD leader in 2022, and has not been involved in its running.

It recently emerged that the firm is receiving monthly payments from a company that has a major gambling concession granted by the government, among other sources of revenue.

An election would pitch the country of 10.6 million people into months of political uncertainty just as it is in the process of investing more than €22bn ($24bn) in EU development funds.

Portugal has also been caught up in a rising European tide of populism, with a radical-right party surging into third place in last year’s election. Voter discontent with a return to the polls could play into the hands of the Chega (Enough) party, which has fed off frustration with mainstream parties.

The Social Democrats are hoping that economic growth estimated at 1.9% last year, compared with the EU’s 0.8% average, and a jobless rate of 6.4%, roughly the EU average, will keep their support firm.

The next general election in Portugal was previously scheduled for January 2028.

Jessica Brösche to join Lucas Sielaff, who is reported to have returned to Germany on 6 March

A German tourist detained by US immigration authorities is due to be deported back to Germany on Tuesday after spending more than six weeks in detention, including eight days in solitary confinement.

Jessica Brösche, a 29-year-old tattoo artist from Berlin, will reportedly join Lucas Sielaff, 25, from Bad Brida in Saxony Anhalt, who is reported to have returned to Germany on 6 March, after being arrested at the Mexican border on 18 February before being detained for almost two weeks.

Putin may well stick to previous demands over Ukrainian elections and a rejection of European peacekeeping forces

• Europe live – latest updates

Suddenly the ball is in Russia’s court. The flow of US intelligence and military aid to Ukraine is to resume – and the Kremlin is being asked to agree to a 30-day ceasefire that Kyiv has already told the Americans it will sign up to.

It is a dizzying turnaround from the Oval Office row between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump and the apparent abandonment of the White House’s strategy to simply pressurise Ukraine into agreeing to a peace deal. Now, for the first time, Russia is being asked to make a commitment, though it is unclear what will follow if it does sign up.

Călin Georgescu, a Russia-friendly populist, won first round of election before result was annulled

• Europe live – latest updates

A top Romanian court has rejected an appeal by far-right politician Călin Georgescu to lift a ban on his candidacy in a rerun of the presidential election, sparking anger among his supporters.

Georgescu, a Moscow-friendly populist, surged from almost nowhere to win the first round of the election last year, but the result was annulled by Romania’s top court because of suspected Russian interference.

US state secretary says ‘ball is now in Russia’s court’ after Kyiv accepts US-backed ceasefire proposal

As the talks in Jeddah take place behind the closed doors, let’s catch up with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s comments at the European Parliament in Strasbourg earlier this morning.

She told EU lawmakers that “ the European security order is being shaken , and so many of our illusions are being shattered,” with increasingly aggressive posture from Russia and the shift in US defence policy.

The latest protests come after private meeting between Robert Fico and Vladimir Putin in December

The Slovakian prime minister, Robert Fico, has rejected calls for his resignationafter tens of thousands demonstrated against his government’s policy shift closer to Russia.

About 60,000 people protested in the capital, Bratislava , on Friday and approximately 100,000 turned out for rallies in cities across the country, the largest demonstrations since Fico returned to power in 2023.

Recently published in English for the first time, Esther García Llovet’s story pays tribute to the resort regarded by many as ‘the worst place in Spain’

Despite spending the summers of her youth in Fuengirola, watching the foreign tourists at play and devouring the English-language paperbacks she found in a little bookshop in the Andalucían town, nothing could prepare Esther García Llovet for the spectacular unreality of the place that inspired her noir novel Spanish Beauty .

“Benidorm is something of a myth in Spain – and a myth that no one goes to because there’s this stigma that Benidorm is the worst place in Spain,” says the writer.

Experts suspect X owner’s interest in UK is to put pressure on authorities working to codify a new online safety law

For those wondering why Elon Musk, the tycoon newly infamous for his stiff-arm salutes , developed a sudden ferocious interest in the UK this month, the answer may lie in an arcane piece of online media legislation working its way gradually towards fruition.

In a ferocious flurry of tweets of his X platform this month, days before formally joining the Trump administration, the world’s richest man portrayed Britain as a dystopian “police state” run by a “tyrannical government” in which young working-class women are routinely kidnapped off the streets by gangs of immigrants.