US and Russian officials have begun talks in Saudi Arabia as Donald Trump pushes to broker a limited ceasefire that Washington hopes will mark the first step toward lasting peace in Ukraine.

Ukraine and Russia have agreed in principle to a one-month halt on strikes on energy infrastructure after Trump spoke with the countries’ leaders last week. But uncertainty remains over how and when the partial ceasefire will take effect – and whether its scope would extend beyond energy infrastructure to include other critical sites, such as hospitals, bridges, and vital utilities.

US officials held initial talks with Ukraine on Sunday evening and were meeting separately with Russia on Monday, with most meetings taking place at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh.

The US is expected to shuttle between the two countries to finalise details and negotiate separate measures to ensure the safety of shipping in the Black Sea. “The ultimate goal is a 30-day ceasefire, during which time we discuss a permanent ceasefire. We’re not far away from that,” said the US special envoy Steve Witkoff in a podcast with the far-right journalist Tucker Carlson over the weekend.

The Ukrainian and US delegations discussed proposals to protect energy facilities and critical infrastructure, Ukraine’s defence minister said.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said his country’s delegation to Sunday’s talks was working in “a completely constructive manner”, adding: “The conversation is quite useful, the work of the delegations is continuing.”

Zelenskyy earlier said he would hand the US a list of energy infrastructure that would be off-limits for strikes by the Russian military.

The Ukrainian delegation could hold additional discussions with US officials on Monday. “We are implementing the President of Ukraine’s directive to bring a just peace closer and to strengthen security,” Rustem Umerov, the Ukrainian defence minister who heads the country’s delegation, said on Facebook.

Russia is represented in the talks by Sergey Beseda, a secretive adviser to Russia’s FSB services and Grigory Karasin, a former diplomat who negotiated the 2014 Minsk accords between Russia and Ukraine.

The lead-up to the talks was marked by a series of controversial pro-Russian statements by Witkoff – tapped by Trump as his personal envoy to Putin – in which he appeared to legitimise Russia’s staged referendums in four Ukrainian regions.

Speaking with Carlson, Witkoff claimed that in the four regions where Moscow held widely condemned referendums on joining Russia, “the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule”.

The referendums in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia provinces were widely rebuked in the west as illegitimate and are viewed as a thinly veiled attempt to justify Russia’s illegal annexation of the regions. Their annexation marked the largest forcible seizure of territory in Europe since the second world war.

In the interview with Carlson, Witkoff also claimed Putin had commissioned a portrait of Trump “by a leading Russian painter” that the envoy had brought back with him after a trip to Moscow.

Witkoff went on to say that after the assassination attempt on Trump last July, Putin told him that he visited his local church, met his priest and prayed for Trump. “Not because he was the president of the United States or could become the president of the United States, but because he had a friendship with him and he was praying for his friend,” Witkoff said.

“I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy. That is a complicated situation, that war and all the ingredients that led up to it,” he added.

Witkoff’s willingness to echo Kremlin talking points and his praise for Putin are likely to heighten anxiety in Ukraine and across European capitals.

Meanwhile, Moscow appears to be exploiting the window before any ceasefire takes hold, launching mass drone attacks on Ukraine over the weekend. At least three people were killed during a large Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, killing at least three people.

At present, Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on what would be acceptable terms for a peace treaty, with no sign that Putin has relinquished any of his maximalist aims in the war against Ukraine.

Moscow has set out several maximalist conditions for any long-term settlement – most of which are non-starters for Kyiv and its European allies. These include a halt to all foreign military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, restrictions on the size of its armed forces, and international recognition of the four Ukrainian regions Russia illegally annexed following staged referendums in 2022.

The Kremlin has also signalled it would reject any presence of western troops in Ukraine – something Kyiv views as essential to securing lasting security guarantees.

Ukraine remains deeply sceptical of any Russian agreement, pointing to past instances where Moscow failed to honour its commitments.

US and Russian officials have begun talks in Saudi Arabia as Donald Trump pushes to broker a limited ceasefire that Washington hopes will mark the first step toward lasting peace in Ukraine.

Ukraine and Russia have agreed in principle to a one-month halt on strikes on energy infrastructure after Trump spoke with the countries’ leaders last week. But uncertainty remains over how and when the partial ceasefire will take effect – and whether its scope would extend beyond energy infrastructure to include other critical sites, such as hospitals, bridges, and vital utilities.

US officials held initial talks with Ukraine on Sunday evening and were meeting separately with Russia on Monday, with most meetings taking place at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh.

The US is expected to shuttle between the two countries to finalise details and negotiate separate measures to ensure the safety of shipping in the Black Sea. “The ultimate goal is a 30-day ceasefire, during which time we discuss a permanent ceasefire. We’re not far away from that,” said the US special envoy Steve Witkoff in a podcast with the far-right journalist Tucker Carlson over the weekend.

The Ukrainian and US delegations discussed proposals to protect energy facilities and critical infrastructure, Ukraine’s defence minister said.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said his country’s delegation to Sunday’s talks was working in “a completely constructive manner”, adding: “The conversation is quite useful, the work of the delegations is continuing.”

Zelenskyy earlier said he would hand the US a list of energy infrastructure that would be off-limits for strikes by the Russian military.

The Ukrainian delegation could hold additional discussions with US officials on Monday. “We are implementing the President of Ukraine’s directive to bring a just peace closer and to strengthen security,” Rustem Umerov, the Ukrainian defence minister who heads the country’s delegation, said on Facebook.

Russia is represented in the talks by Sergey Beseda, a secretive adviser to Russia’s FSB services and Grigory Karasin, a former diplomat who negotiated the 2014 Minsk accords between Russia and Ukraine.

The lead-up to the talks was marked by a series of controversial pro-Russian statements by Witkoff – tapped by Trump as his personal envoy to Putin – in which he appeared to legitimise Russia’s staged referendums in four Ukrainian regions.

Speaking with Carlson, Witkoff claimed that in the four regions where Moscow held widely condemned referendums on joining Russia, “the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule”.

The referendums in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia provinces were widely rebuked in the west as illegitimate and are viewed as a thinly veiled attempt to justify Russia’s illegal annexation of the regions. Their annexation marked the largest forcible seizure of territory in Europe since the second world war.

In the interview with Carlson, Witkoff also claimed Putin had commissioned a portrait of Trump “by a leading Russian painter” that the envoy had brought back with him after a trip to Moscow.

Witkoff went on to say that after the assassination attempt on Trump last July, Putin told him that he visited his local church, met his priest and prayed for Trump. “Not because he was the president of the United States or could become the president of the United States, but because he had a friendship with him and he was praying for his friend,” Witkoff said.

“I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy. That is a complicated situation, that war and all the ingredients that led up to it,” he added.

Witkoff’s willingness to echo Kremlin talking points and his praise for Putin are likely to heighten anxiety in Ukraine and across European capitals.

Meanwhile, Moscow appears to be exploiting the window before any ceasefire takes hold, launching mass drone attacks on Ukraine over the weekend. At least three people were killed during a large Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, killing at least three people.

At present, Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on what would be acceptable terms for a peace treaty, with no sign that Putin has relinquished any of his maximalist aims in the war against Ukraine.

Moscow has set out several maximalist conditions for any long-term settlement – most of which are non-starters for Kyiv and its European allies. These include a halt to all foreign military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, restrictions on the size of its armed forces, and international recognition of the four Ukrainian regions Russia illegally annexed following staged referendums in 2022.

The Kremlin has also signalled it would reject any presence of western troops in Ukraine – something Kyiv views as essential to securing lasting security guarantees.

Ukraine remains deeply sceptical of any Russian agreement, pointing to past instances where Moscow failed to honour its commitments.

Turkish authorities have arrested more than 1,100 people including journalists, while bombarding the social media platform X with requests to block hundreds of accounts after tens of thousands took to the streets in the largest anti-government protests in years.

One journalist was detained while covering demonstrations that took place outside Istanbul city hall, while nine others were detained in dawn raids.

The sweeping arrests came the morning after the Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, was arrested on corruption charges and sent to a high-security prison on the outskirts of the city, on the same day he was named the opposition’s candidate for president.

Mass demonstrations triggered by İmamoğlu’s detention amount to the largest in Turkey in more than a decade. The protests have resulted in increasing pushback from the Turkish authorities, with police now readily deploying pepper spray, teargas and armoured water cannon trucks against crowds gathering in Istanbul as well as other major towns and cities across the country.

The Turkish interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said 1,133 people had been detained in five days, starting with the dawn raid in which İmamoğlu and tens of municipal officials were taken into custody. Many of those detained in the days since were arrested for breaching a city-wide ban on protests in Istanbul. The city’s governor also restricted entry to Istanbul over the weekend in an attempt to curb the demonstrations.

Yerlikaya added that “some circles have been abusing the right to assembly and demonstration, attempting to disrupt public order, inciting street events and attacking our police. Such actions are aimed at disrupting the peace and security of our people.”.

Turkish authorities deny that the charges against İmamoğlu, a rival of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, are political. Even so the crackdown on the Istanbul mayor as well as the protests have proven costly to the Turkish state, as economists estimate the Turkish central bank spent up to $25bn (£19.3bn) propping up the lira in three days last week.

Financial analyst Haluk Bürümcekçi said that while the Turkish central bank had enough reserves to sustain the interventions, these “would not be adequate for similar ongoing demand”.

Turkey has struggled for years with an economic crisis that has driven up the cost of living, fuelling criticism of the government long before the demonstrations began.

The Turkish capital markets board said over the weekend that it had banned short selling for one month because of “recent developments”, at the Istanbul stock exchange, as the markets reeled from the impact of the crackdown on protests and İmamoğlu’s detention.

Evin Barış Altıntaş, who heads the Media and Law Studies Association, a free speech organisation that supports journalists detained in Turkey, said it was notable that most of the journalists detained overnight were photographers.

“The main aim is to cut off the number of people taking photos at protests,” she said, pointing to threats from Ebubekir Şahin, the head of Turkey’s media regulator, RTÜK, to suspend broadcaster’s licences for broadcasting live footage of the demonstrations. Şahin later denied any threats or that RTÜK’s actions threatened media freedom in Turkey, saying simply “the state will do what is necessary”.

Altıntaş said the arrests and threats to broadcasters were part of the government’s efforts to stifle coverage of the growing protests in the hope of quelling the demonstrations entirely.

“The protests are huge in number, so the authorities are trying very hard to contain that,” she said. “There’s an obvious attempt to stop the dissemination of news reports about protests, but I’m not sure how they will manage that as these are growing every day.”

The global government affairs team from the social media platform X said they “object to multiple court orders from the Turkish Information and Communication Technologies Authority to block over 700 accounts of news organisations, journalists, political figures, students, and others within Türkiye”.

“We believe this decision from the Turkish government is not only unlawful, it hinders millions of Turkish users from news and political discourse in their country. We look forward to defending these principles through the legal system,” they added.

Altıntaş said that despite claims by the X boss, Elon Musk, that free speech was defended on the platform, it was clear X was allowing at least 110 accounts to be blocked in Turkey, according to her records. These included journalists covering the protests, as well as feminist organisations and student groups, she added.

“There is a clear attempt to censor images and videos of the protests, and this is obviously a part of that,” she said.

Greenland’s prime minister, Múte B Egede, has called for the international community to step in after it was announced that Donald Trump’s national security adviser and the US second lady will visit the Arctic island, accusing Washington of “foreign interference”.

Mike Waltz and Usha Vance are due to arrive in Greenland this week as part of a delegation that will also include the US energy secretary, Chris Wright.

Trump has pledged to make the autonomous territory – part of the kingdom of Denmark, which ruled Greenland as a colony until 1953 and continues to control its foreign and security policy – part of the US, “one way or the other” and has refused to rule out using military or economic force to do so.

A spokesperson for the Danish police said they had sent extra personnel and sniffer dogs to Greenland as they step up security measures before the visit. René Gyldensten said the extra officers, deployed on Sunday, were part of regular steps taken during visits by dignitaries but declined to specify the number of extra police flown in on a chartered aircraft. News reports put the figure at dozens.

Greenlandic parties are currently in coalition talks after an election less than a fortnight ago in which the country voted for a complete overhaul of its government, with the Democrats replacing Egede’s party, Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA), as the biggest party in the Inatsisartut, the Greenlandic parliament.

Egede reacted angrily to the White House announcement on Sunday, accusing Greenland’s allies of “hiding” and “almost whispering” their support. If the international community did not step up its support for Greenland, he warned, the situation would escalate.

“Yes, the western allies stood together and helped each other through thick and thin, but it has turned upside down now with the sitting president in the USA,” he told the Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq.

“But the fact that our other allies in the international community feel like hiding in a small corner and almost whispering that they support us has no effect, and if they do not speak out loudly about how the USA is treating Greenland, the situation will escalate day by day, and the American aggression will increase.”

He added: “So we need our other allies to clearly and distinctly come with their support and backing for us.”

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the leader of Greenland’s Democrats, who is expected to become the next prime minister, called for calm and said they would continue to take the time needed to reach a “solid and sustainable political agreement”. He accused the US of a “lack of respect” in planning the visit while coalition talks were still happening.

“The visit, which is said to be ‘private’, is pure charm offensive, and if we allow ourselves to be influenced by it, for example by rushing to form a new coalition, we may become even more vulnerable to pressure,” Nielsen told Sermitsiaq.

“So let’s cool our nerves and maintain our common goal of showing the outside world that our country is not a commodity, and that we have sovereignty over the country, which must be respected and no one can take it away from us.”

Vivian Motzfeldt, the chair of the social democratic party Siumut, which was in coalition with IA in the last government but suffered its biggest ever defeat in this month’s election, said she understood concerns about the upcoming US visit. But she said she believed it was time to look at what opportunities increasing cooperation with the US might offer Greenland.

She wrote on social media: “The United States wants a closer relationship with our country, and if that had happened a year ago, we would have had a very different reaction in our country. The president’s words, which change everything, are the basis for our assessment today, and it is understandable, since the words used should not be used among countries that are allies.

“Instead of worrying, we should examine how the opportunities that arise can benefit our country.”

The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said on Sunday that the planned visit “cannot be seen independently of the public statements that have been made”. She added: “In the kingdom, we want to cooperate with the Americans. But it must be a cooperation that is based on the fundamental values ​​of sovereignty and respect between countries and peoples …

“This is something we are looking at seriously. The dialogue with the US regarding Greenland will take place in close coordination between the Danish government and the future Greenlandic government.”

Announcing the trip on Sunday, the second lady’s office said Vance would visit Greenland together with her son and a US delegation from Thursday to Saturday this week. The White House later announced that Waltz and Wright would visit the US military base in Greenland, Pituffik, for briefings from US personnel. They are expected to join Vance to visit historical sites and attend a dog sled race.

An Israeli airstrike on Sunday night hit the largest hospital in southern Gaza, killing five people, including a Hamas political leader.

The Gaza health ministry said the strike hit the surgery department at Nasser hospital in the city of Khan Younis. The Israeli military said its attack followed extensive intelligence and used precise munitions to minimise harm at the site.

Hamas said a member of its political office, Ismail Barhoum, had been killed. Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, confirmed the target was Barhoum.

Hamas’s al-Aqsa TV said Barhoum was being treated at the hospital for wounds sustained in a previous attack. Video on social media showed a fire blazing on the third storey of what appeared to be the hospital.

Palestinian health authorities said Israeli strikes had killed at least 65 people in the territory in the past 24 hours.

Sunday’s strike on Nasser hospital was the second on a health facility in Gaza in three days. On Friday, Israel blew up central Gaza’s Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital, Gaza’s only specialised cancer treatment hospital, which had already been severely damaged by Israeli airstrikes since October 2023.

Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a volunteer in a Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) team working at Nasser hospital, said medics in the emergency department were awaiting some casualties when a massive blast shook the building.

“Everybody ran out to see what happened until one of my colleagues screamed ‘They hit surgery,’ Haj-Hassan said in a voice message. “There was so much smoke and fire. I ran across to the building next door, where the paediatric ICU is, just to grab my portable ultrasounds and a few things, knowing that we’d be receiving casualties.

“As I walked out, I could see the second floor of the building on fire.”

Steve Cutts, the chief executive of MAP, said the attack “demonstrates once again that nowhere is safe in Gaza”.

Cutts said a 16-year-old boy recovering from earlier surgery was also killed and at least eight people, including medical staff, were injured.

“Coming just two days after Israeli forces completely destroyed the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital, it is clear that, having broken the ceasefire, Israel has resumed attacks on Palestinian healthcare facilities, thereby endangering the lives of health workers, patients and other civilians.

“Thankfully, on this occasion, our emergency medical team personnel who were in the hospital at the time of the attack were uninjured. Hospitals must be protected and healthcare must not be a target.”

He called for attacks on Palestinian health facilities to be investigated and “any perpetrators held to account”.

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using hospitals as hiding places for weapons and command centres, a charge the Palestinian militant group denies.

Palestinians in Gaza have again been fleeing for their lives after Israel launched its new offensive in the territory, which started on Tuesday with a wave of airstrikes that killed more than 400 people, mostly civilians, ending two months of relative calm.

On Sunday, Palestinian officials said the total death toll from nearly 18 months of conflict had passed 50,000. The Israeli military said it did its best to reduce harm to civilians and questioned the death toll provided by health authorities in the Hamas-run territory. Most of the dead in Gaza have been civilians, according to health officials. Israel said they included about 20,000 fighters. Hamas does not disclose casualty figures.

Another Hamas leader, Salah al-Bardawil, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Khan Younis on Sunday. Both Bardawil and Barhoum were members of the 19-member political office, the group’s decision-making body, 11 of whom have been killed since the start of the war in late 2023, according to Hamas sources.

Signalling it could escalate its actions further, on Sunday the Israeli military said one of its divisions that had operated in Lebanon, where Israel fought Hamas’s Iranian-backed ally, Hezbollah, was preparing for possible action in Gaza. It distributed a video of tanks unloaded in a field and a caption that read: “Preparations of the 36th division for operations in the Gaza Strip.”

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said the aim of the war was to destroy Hamas as a military and governing entity. The ambition of the new campaign was to force the group to give up the remaining hostages, he said on Tuesday.

Large protests have been taking place in Israel, with more than 100,000 demonstrating against efforts by Netanyahu to fire both the head of the internal security service, Ronen Bar, and the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara.

Bar, as the head of the Shin Bet, has been investigating Netanyahu’s close aides for alleged breaches of national security, including allegations of leaking classified documents to foreign media and taking money from Qatar, which is known to have given significant financial aid to Hamas.

Baharav-Miara, who has frequently clashed with the government, warned the prime minister he could not fire the domestic intelligence chief before her office had reviewed his motives for doing so.

In an unprecedented step on Sunday, after accusing her of blocking the government’s policies, Israel’s cabinet voted unanimously in favour of a no-confidence motion against Baharav-Miara.

After the vote, the justice minister, Yariv Levin, called on her to resign.

Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

South Korea’s constitutional court has ruled against the impeachment of the country’s prime minister, Han Duck-soo, and to restore his position as acting president, marking the latest political twist in months of political turmoil.

Han took over as acting president after the country’s leader, Yoon Suk Yeol, was himself impeached over his short-lived declaration of martial law late last year.

Han lasted less than two weeks in the post and was impeached and suspended on 27 December after clashing with the opposition-led parliament by refusing to appoint three more justices to the constitutional court.

The court’s justices ruled seven to one on Monday to strike down the impeachment.

Out of the eight justices, five said the impeachment motion against Han was valid but there were not enough grounds to impeach him as he did not violate the constitution or South Korean law concerning the martial law announcement or potential insurrection, according to a court statement.

Two justices ruled that the impeachment motion against Han, who was acting president at the time, was invalid from the start as two-thirds of lawmakers in parliament did not pass it. One justice voted to impeach Han.

Han, who resumed the acting presidency on Monday, thanked the court for its “wise decision”.

“I believe that all citizens are clearly speaking out against the highly polarised political sphere,” he said. “I think there is no place for division now. Our country’s priority is to move forward.”

Han, 75, had served in leadership positions for more than three decades under five presidents, both conservative and liberal.

In a country sharply divided by partisan rhetoric, Han had been seen as a rare example of an official whose varied career transcended party lines.

Still, the opposition-led parliament accused him of not doing enough to thwart Yoon’s decision to declare martial law, an accusation he denied.

The finance minister, Choi Sang-mok, assumed the position of acting president while the cases of Yoon and Han were considered by the constitutional court.

Parliament impeached Han over his alleged role in the martial law, as well as his refusal to appoint more justices to the constitutional court and to back special counsel bills targeting Yoon and the first lady, Kim Keon-hee.

Han attended the only hearing in the case on 19 February, where he denied any role in the martial law episode and called for the court to dismiss the impeachment.

South Korea’s presidential office welcomed Han’s reinstatement and said the ruling “reaffirms that excessive impeachments by the national assembly are reckless and malicious political offensives”.

“We hope that acting president Han’s return to duty marks the beginning of a return to normal governance.”

The unexpected imposition of martial law on 3 December by Yoon and the ensuing political upheaval sent shock waves through Asia’s fourth-largest economy, and drew concerns from allies such as the US, who had seen Yoon as a key partner in efforts to counter China and North Korea.

The martial law in the end lasted only about six hours after lawmakers voted to reject the declaration, after defying efforts by police and the military to seal off parliament, hopping fences to avoid the security cordons.

Sales of new Tesla cars slumped in Europe last month in the latest indication of a potential buyer backlash over Elon Musk’s high profile and controversial behaviour since becoming a leading figure in Donald Trump’s administration.

The Texas-based electric carmaker sold less than 16,000 vehicles across Europe last month, down 44% on average across 25 countries in the EU, the UK, Norway and Switzerland, according to data compiled by the research platform Jato Dynamics.

Tesla’s market share fell to 9.6% last month, the lowest it has registered in February for five years. In January, its sales across Europe fell 45%, from 18,161 in 2024 to 9,945.

However, in the UK the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders reported an almost 21% rise in the number of new Tesla cars registered in February, with the Model 3 and Model Y proving the second and third most popular after the Mini Cooper.

Analysts and investors have been attempting to assess what impact Musk’s political interventions are having on the carmaker, where he is chief executive, amid signs that his senior role in Trump’s administration is leading to a consumer backlash by some Tesla owners or prospective buyers. Tesla dealerships have also been the target of protests.

The tech billionaire and close Trump adviser has shown support for Germany’s far-right AfD party, theatrically brandished a “chainsaw of democracy” at a conservative conference, and accused Keir Starmer and other senior politicians of covering up the scandal about grooming gangs.

However, analysts have said that the volatile sales are also likely to have been affected by Tesla’s overhaul of the Model Y.

Felipe Muñoz, a global analyst at Jato Dynamics, said: “Tesla is experiencing a period of immense change. In addition to Elon Musk’s increasingly active role in politics and the increased competition it is facing within the EV market, the brand is phasing out the existing version of the Model Y – its bestselling vehicle – before it rolls out the update.

“Brands like Tesla, which have a relatively limited model lineup, are particularly vulnerable to registration declines when undertaking a model changeover.”

The research company’s figures for February show that Tesla’s rivals powered ahead in Europe last month.

Volkswagen reported a 180% increase in sales of battery electric vehicles to just under 20,000, while BMW and Mini sold a combined 19,000 such models last month.

The Chinese-owned BYD recorded a 94% increase in sales in Europe to more than 4,000. Separate figures show that BYD’s global sales topped $100bn (£83bn) last year, overtaking Tesla as the world’s biggest electric car company by revenue.

BYD, which last beat Tesla on global annual revenues in 2018, reported revenues of 777bn yuan (£86bn) in 2024, a 29% year-on-year increase, beating analyst estimates. Tesla reported annual revenues of $97.7bn last year.

BYD also sells about the same number of electric vehicles as Tesla – 1.76m compared with 1.79m respectively in 2024. However, when sales of BYD’s other hybrid cars are included it is much larger.

Polestar, which is primarily owned by Volvo’s parent company, Geely, recorded an 84% increase to more than 2,000 vehicles.

BYD sold 4.27m vehicles last year, almost as many as the 4.5m sold by Ford, and has forecast that it will sell between 5m and 6m this year. The Hong Kong-listed company has a market value of about $160bn, up about 50% so far this year. Tesla is valued at $780bn despite a share-price plunge of more than a third in 2025. Tesla shares opened up 6% on Monday as the wider Nasdaq index rose nearly 2%.

Total car sales in across the 25 EU markets, the UK, Norway and Switzerland dropped by 3% to 970,000 in February, while BEV registrations were up by a quarter.

A mob violently ransacked a Mumbai comedy club and its building has been partly demolished after one of India’s most prominent comedians performed a satirical song about a local ruling politician during a performance there.

Kunal Kamra has a reputation for his acerbic comedy which often pokes fun at political figures. Few comedians in India dare to make political jokes for risk of a backlash.

Kamra’s standup routine, performed in Mumbai’s well-known Habitat comedy club on Friday night, included a parody song about Eknath Shinde, the second most powerful figure in the Maharashtra state government.

The song referred to the deputy chief minister as a “gaddar”, meaning traitor, a reference to him switching his political allegiance in 2022 and helping to bring down the previous state government.

An online video of the routine prompted criticism from the leaders of Shinde’s Shiv Sena party. On Sunday night about 20 Shiv Sena supporters descended on Habitat and began to smash it apart, throwing chairs, tearing down posters and breaking light fittings.

The police have arrested more than 10 people for the incident, including the leader of Shiv Sena’s youth faction, Rahul Kanal.

The Shiv Sena-led government sought to blame Kamra for the violence. Maharastra’s chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, claimed in the state assembly on Monday that people were free to perform standup comedy but added that “freedom of expression has its own limitations. You cannot insult anyone”.

“There is no need to spare them,” said Fadnavis. “We will not tolerate this and we will teach them a lesson.”

The state home minister, Yogesh Kadam, said the police were trying to trace Kamra and that the government would investigate his phone records and look into his bank account transactions to prove whether there was a “mastermind” or political conspiracy behind his jokes.

Shiv Sena said they had also filed a police report against Kamra.

Kamra did not directly respond to the allegations. However, hours after the attack he posted a picture on Instagram showing him holding up a copy of the Indian constitution on stage, captioned: “The only way forward … ”

Ministers also claimed that the Habitat comedy club was “illegal”. A demolition team from the local municipal council arrived at the venue on Monday and began demolishing part of the building on the grounds that part of it had been illegally constructed.

In a statement on Monday, the venue said it was “shocked, worried and extremely broken by the recent acts of vandalism targeting us. We have never been involved in the content performed by any artist”.

The venue said it was shutting down until “we figure out the best way to provide a platform for free expression without putting ourselves and our property in jeopardy”.

Comedians and comedy venues have increasingly been caught in the crosshairs of India’s shrinking space for freedom of expression since the rise of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, which has ruled for more than a decade. In Maharastra, Shiv Sena rules the state government in coalition with the BJP.

In 2021, a Muslim comedian was detained by police for weeks for alleged “vulgar” jokes insulting Hindu gods despite never having performed at the show. In the same year, the comedian Vir Das faced a backlash and police reports after a comedy monologue that dealt with politically sensitive issues.

Opposition politicians in Maharashtra condemned the violence and retaliation against Kamra. Shinde’s former political ally, Aaditya Thackeray, said “only an insecure coward” would react in such a way to a comedy song.

Gérard Depardieu arrived at a Paris court on Monday for his trial over alleged sexual assaults on a film set, a case that places one of France’s best-known film stars at the heart of the country’s broader reckoning over sexual violence.

Depardieu, 76, has faced allegations of rape or sexual assault from more than a dozen women, all of which he has denied, but this is the first time he has appeared in court to answer accusations.

“He has obviously denied it from the beginning,” Depardieu’s lawyer, Jérémie Assous, told French radio RMC on Monday morning. “Like any person facing trial, he has the right to speak. He will finally speak.”

Depardieu walked past reporters and into the courtroom without saying a word, his hand on his lawyer’s shoulder, before the start of the trial around 1:30pm (1230 GMT).

The proceedings, which are expected to last up to three days, were initially scheduled to start in October but were postponed because of Depardieu’s ill-health.

Prosecutors allege that assaults against two women, whose full identities have not been revealed, took place during the 2021 filming Les Volets Verts, or The Green Shutters.

They accuse Depardieu of groping one of the women on the film set, pulling her towards him and trapping her with his legs before touching her waist, hips and breasts while saying obscene words. Three people witnessed the scene, prosecutors say.

They say Depardieu groped the second woman on set and in the street.

A lawyer for one of the women said before the trial that her client had been scared to come forward against Depardieu.

“There’s a fear, because he’s a cinema giant,” said Carine Durrieu-Diebolt. “It’s a struggle between David and Goliath and they are afraid of retaliation as they all work in cinema but at a much lower level than Depardieu.”

The lawyer for the second plaintiff did not reply to requests for comment.

If found guilty, Depardieu could face a sentence of up to five years in jail and a €75,000 (£63,000) fine.

Depardieu’s trial is the highest-profile #MeToo case to come to court in France.

Donald Trump critics aimed ridicule at the president after he publicly demanded the removal of his portrait at Colorado’s state capitol building, calling it “truly the worst”.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump shared an image of the portrait and complained about the painting, saying it was bad and blaming it on Colorado’s governor, Jared Polis – whom the president insulted as being “radically left”.

A Republican admirer of Trump actually commissioned the portrait.

In two follow-up posts, Trump shared separate images of himself in an apparent attempt to distribute photos that he considered more flattering.

Liberal and anti-Trump commentators laughed at the president’s reaction on social media.

On X, Sam Stein of MSNBC wrote that he was “absolutely dying” over how Trump was so upset by his portrait “that he couldn’t resist posting” about it. Stein said it was also funny “how objectively bad the portrait is”.

Former Republican attorney Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of the liberal news website MeidasTouch Network, wrote on X that Trump was “the most fragile, sensitive snowflake in history” while sharing a screenshot of the president’s Truth Social post.

Another social media account named Republicans Against Trump also shared the president’s post while calling him “a petty, insecure baby”.

Trump alleged without evidence that his portrait had been “purposefully distorted”. The president then complained that his Democratic presidential predecessor Barack Obama “looks wonderful” in his portrait at the Colorado capitol.

Despite Trump’s criticism of Polis for the painting, it was actually unveiled by a Republican group in 2019. A former Republican state senator had crowdfunded nearly $10,000 to commission the painting, according to Colorado news station KUSA.

Trump did not have a portrait hanging in the Colorado state capitol for his first presidency, which began in 2017. In 2018, a liberal political activist placed a large portrait of Vladimir Putin – whom Trump openly admires – in the empty space, but it was quickly removed by capitol staff.

That prompted then Republican state senator Kevin Grantham to raise money through a GoFundMe campaign to hang Trump’s portrait in the state capitol.

“I would much prefer not having a picture than having this one,” Trump wrote in his Truth Social post, and further said the governor “should be ashamed of himself”!

It was unclear what triggered Trump’s tirade about the portrait.

A Polis spokesperson told KUSA that the governor was “surprised to learn the President of the United States is an aficionado of our Colorado state capitol and its artwork”.

“We appreciate the president and everyone’s interest in our capitol building and are always looking for any opportunity to improve our visitor experience,” the Polis spokesperson added.