… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today!

• Romania’s president Nicușor Dan has urged calm (17:09, 17:12) after the country’s pro-European coalition government led by Ilie Bolojan collapsed after losing a key vote of confidence in the Romanian parliament (13:27).

• Dan insisted he would seek to find majority for forming a new pro-EU government in the country, amid pressures from the far-right AUR party which leads in the poll (17:58).

• But the political limbo could last for weeks, raising questions over the consequences of this political crisis for Romania’s access to EU funds and key economic reforms (13:47, 14:18).

In other news,

• US secretary of state Marco Rubio expects a “frank” meeting with Pope Leo during a visit to the Vatican this week, the US ambassador said, after president Donald Trump took a fresh pot-shot at the pope for criticising the US war in Iran (12:30).

• French president Emmanuel Macron has made an unabashed pre-election pitch on behalf of Armenia’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, saying the country’s destiny lies with Europe ahead of next month’s tricky election (15:21).

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused the Kremlin of “utter cynicism” for killing five people in overnight strikes at the same time as seeking a truce so it can stage a military parade in Moscow (10:33).

• The EU has urged the US to make “a swift return” to the terms of the trade deal struck last summer after Donald Trump said he would tear up part of the deal and increase tariffs on EU cars (17:33, 17:45).

If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com.

I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

in Bucharest

Back to Romania, tough negotiations lie ahead for president Nicușor Dan as he seeks to form a new government coalition, after the liberal PNL and the reformist USR parties have vowed to oppose any future administration with the Social Democratic party (PSD).

President Dan has ruled out snap elections – an unprecedented event in Romania’s modern history – which would risk propelling George Simion’s far-right AUR, currently polling ahead of all governing parties, to the top.

Determined to prevent that scenario, he appears willing to go to considerable lengths to mediate and preserve a pro-western government.

However, many Romanians have grown disillusioned with the reformist president after what they perceive as a passive first year in office, marked by inaction on justice reform, appointing controversial chief prosecutors and a failure to name heads for the intelligence services.

For weeks, he also declined to publicly back PM Bolojan after PSD and AUR began signalling their desire to remove him. Some have accused the president of colluding with PSD to ease Bolojan out and install a new prime minister who might prove less divisive within the coalition.

A faction of senior figures within the PM’s Liberal party are keen to remain in government, breaking ranks with Bolojan and USR, who refuse to enter into any alliance with the Social Democrats.

One of the senior Liberal figures still backing an alliance with PSD is Cătălin Predoiu, who held interior and justice ministries through many governments and is believed to have his eyes on the PM’s office.

Dan now faces the difficult task of convincing the two centre-right parties to remain in the coalition. A technocrat government could ease out the tensions, but it’s unclear if there will be consensus on that.

Observers have said that the government crisis was triggered once Bolojan’s government started to pursue reforms that put him on a collision course with Social Democrats.

If Dan manages to bring the coalition together with a more neutral prime minister, it could be seen as an implicit signal for the new administration to steer clear of reforms in these areas.

The EU has urged the US to make “a swift return” to the terms of the trade deal struck last summer after Donald Trump said he would tear up part of the deal and increase tariffs on EU cars.

Maroš Šefčovič, European Commission vice-president with responsibility for trade, had a 90 minute meeting with the US trade representative Jamieson Greer in Paris on Monday.

“He called for a swift return to the agreed Turnberry terms, i.e. a 15% all-inclusive tariff rate, with the agreed carve-outs for the EU. It would be beneficial for the main features of the deal to be in place ahead of its one-year anniversary,” a spokesperson for the EU commisioner said.

The spokesperson said Šefčovič also updated Greer on the complicated EU legislative process which meant the deal is still no implemented on the EU side with so-called “trilogue” sign off yet to happen.

This entails a formal agreement between the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament.

Usually legislative agreements and trade agreements continue unchanged between a vote in parliament and the trilogue sign-off, but there have been occasions when amendments are made.

German MEP Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee, is discussing “all options” with the European Council tomorrow.

But the main voting block in the parliament, the centre right European People’s Party, is pushing for the deal to be implemented as soon as possible.

With hopes the deal could be implemented on the first anniversary, 27 July, there may yet be hitches.

“In the meantime, both sides agreed to step up engagement at both the political and technical levels, while also engaging more forcefully on a positive agenda, such as critical raw materials and steel ring-fencing,” said the spokesperson for Šefčovič.

Meanwhile, old divisions over how the EU should deal with Donald Trump are resurfacing after the US president threatened to increase tariffs from 15% to 25% on EU cars.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz and the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen are pushing EU leaders and MEPs to finish implementing the trade deal with US to avert the increase in tariffs.

But French president Emmanuel Macron said the EU should deploy powers in the anti-coercion instrument which would allow the EU to retaliate strongly against the US.

The laws, which have been dubbed the “bazooka” in the EU’s trade tool box, have never been used before and could take up to a year to implement.

But von der Leyen said that the bloc should stick to the deal, cut last year at Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf course in Scotland. “A deal is a deal,” she said referring to the agreement for 15% tariffs on most EU exports to the EU and near zero or zero tariffs on much of US imports to the US along with guarantees that tariffs on cars would be reduced from 27.5% to 15%.

Merz, whose country is likely to be hit hardest by a car tariff increase, told broadcaster ARD that he understood why Trump hit out on Friday complaining that the EU had not yet implement the Turnberry deal on its side.

“The Americans have it finalised, and the Europeans haven’t – and that’s why I hope we can reach an agreement as quickly as possible,” he said on Monday.

MEPs in the centre right EPP grouping are backing Merz’s position but others, including the influential chair of the trade committee, German MEP Bernd Lange, said Trump’s threat was a further example of how unreliable the US president was.

He told Euronews on Monday he was convinced the tariff threat was directed at Merz over his comments to schoolchildren that the US was being “humiliated” by Iran.

Lange said he would be discussing the threat with the European Council on Wednesday warning all options were on the table.

“I am not sure we can really go on. We have the toolbox of possible reaction and we will discuss it quite intensively.”

Although the European parliament has voted in favour of the US-EU deal having twice paused the ratification process, final sign off by the parliament, the commission and the council, has yet to happen.

in Bucharest

It was notable that in trying to help calm the situation, Dan listed all the agreements that exist among the mainstream parties.

He said that his informal consultations will focus on forming a new administration, and stressed at the end of the process Romania will have a pro-western government.

Dan also excluded a scenario in which there would be snap elections.

“With calm, we will get through this,” he said.

He did not take any questions.

In his very brief statement, Dan says it is “not a happy moment” for Romania’s democracy, but recognises “a democratic decision of the parliament.”

He urges calm, stressing Romania remained a stable state, with functioning state institutions, and a clear consensus about the country’s pro-western direction. Dan also references a number of key agreements between parties, including on deficite target, EU “Recovery and Resilience” and SAFE funds.

He says he will start informal consultations on forming the new government, before progressing to formal talks about the next administration.

The president says that he understands the public’s expectations on the functioning of the state and its fightig against corruption, and will have this in mind.

But he pointedly rules out early elections, and insists there will be a new – and still pro-western – government soon.

And that ends the statement.

Romania’s president Dan is speaking now.

You can watch along in Romanian here, and I will bring you the key lines.

Interestingly, Romania has never had a snap election before. Could we be on course for the first one? Way too early to say.

Let’s see what president Dan says as he plays a central role in the government-forming process.

His statement is expected in the next few minutes, and we will bring you the lines here.

in Bucharest

In an emergency meeting following the vote, the Liberal party (PNL) members reaffirmed their stance against forming any alliance with the Social Democrats in future negotiations, according to local media reports citing inside sources.

The decision exposed a split within the party, as several senior figures had previously signalled openness to such a partnership.

The reformist Save Romania Union (USR) mirrored PNL’s position, passing its own resolution stating it would not negotiate any new governing formula that includes the Social Democrats.

Party leader Dominic Fritz said USR is not afraid of snap elections and is open to either a minority government or a return to opposition.

Meanwhile, the leader of far-right AUR party, George Simion, celebrated the collapse of the pro-European government in Romania.

AUR leads in the polls with 35-37% of Romanians declaring their support for the party.

Simion narrowly lost last year’s presidential election to pro-European Nicușor Dan.

In a post on X, he said:

“The Bolojan government has just been ousted by the Romanian Parliament. An end to ten months during which the so-called pro-Europeans have delivered nothing but: taxes, war, and poverty. The voice of the people was heard today. Time for national reconciliation!”

Ukrainian Ppresident Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he discussed Iran’s airstrikes against Bahrain, and the strait of Hormuz, during a meeting with Bahrain’s king, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, earlier.

“Our country is facing similar terrorist strikes almost every day, and our people have relevant experience in full-scale defence,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X. “Ukraine is ready to share this security expertise with Bahrain and help strengthen the protection of life.”

“I proposed signing a drone deal and scaling up cooperation with Bahrain, and we agreed that our teams will work out the details,” the Ukrainian leader, who is defending his country against the Russian full-scale invasion, added.

After more than four years of fighting, Ukraine has battle-tested drone interceptor expertise and has developed groundbreaking air defence technology.

Since the US and Israel launched its war on Iran on 28 February, Ukraine has been offering its drones and knowhow to several Middle Eastern countries suffering from Iranian drone attacks.

Ukraine says it has now signed deals with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. In return for its aid to Gulf countries, Ukraine is seeking more high-end air-defence missiles that they possess and that Kyiv needs to counter Russia’s attacks.

Read more in the Guardian’s live blog covering the latest on the crisis in the Middle East:

Romania’s Dan left the EU-Armenia summit in Yerevan early to attend to the political crisis unfolding back home.

But the Yerevan summit – and a linked state visit by France’s Emmanuel Macron – is also a big political story in itself, with Europe siding with the Armenian pro-European leadership in another high-stakes battle against Russia’s influences in this part of Europe ahead of next month’s parliamentary election.

Our diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour, who is in Yerevan, has more:

“Emmanuel Macron has made an unabashed pre-election pitch on behalf of Armenia’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, saying the country’s destiny lay with Europe.

The French president also accused Russia of abandoning Armenia after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war that led to Azerbaijan displacing tens of thousands of Armenians.

Pashinyan, who – unlike the leaders of neighbouring Georgia – is increasingly open about his determination to side with Europe, faces a tough challenge to be re-elected next month. Three more pro-Russia or nationalist parties are trying to end his eight-year rule and accuse him of making too many concessions to Azerbaijan in an effort to win peace.

France has one of the largest Armenian expatriate communities in Europe, and Macron has long championed a European path for Yerevan.

It was with his encouragement that more than 40 European leaders gathered in Yerevan on Monday under the banner of the European Political Community, a body that brings together EU and non-EU countries. At the first summit between Armenia and EU on Tuesday morning, the bloc offered visa and trade liberalisation.”