And finally, here’s our news story on Carlos Ghosn’s dismissal:

While the Nissan board meeting took place, Carlos Ghosn remained confined in a solitary cell, in a detention centre in Tokyo.

Conditions are austere - just 30 minutes of daily exercise and two baths a week. Quite a shock for a millionaire who celebrated his second marriage with a glittering party at Versailles.

AFP has more details:

While it is impossible to know Ghosn’s exact surroundings, lawyers who have made several visits there to clients as well as former detainees paint a picture of an austere facility where solitude is the biggest enemy.

Veteran attorney Yoshiro Ito said the barren rooms have nothing but a bed, toilet, and a handle-less door with an iron-barred window.

Detainees follow a strict routine. Wake-up call is shortly before 7am and lights out at 9pm.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are provided. For an extra charge, inmates can order additional food from pre-approved options.

The Japan Times have more details of the allegations against Carlos Ghosn, including that he instructed board representative Greg Kelly (also dismissed today) to under-report his true salary:

The speed of Carlos Ghosn’s fall from grace is quite astonishing.

So much, in fact, that there’s speculation that he’s been deliberately bundled out by Nissan, perhaps to thwart plans for a formal merger with Renault.

Christian Stadler, Professor of Strategic Management at Warwick Business School, explains:

“The intriguing twist in this story is the speculation whether this was a deliberate move by Japanese executives to get Ghosn out of the picture.

“I think it is unlikely they did not know about Ghosn’s financial arrangements.

“However, it is possible that story this came to light because new rules for whistle-blowers in Japan made it easier for someone to come forward.

Keiko Ihara could be the new broom that Nissan needs....

Nissan is also setting up an advisory committee to find potential successors to Ghosn.

It will be consist of three board members, including Keiko Ihara, a leading female Japanese racing driver -- but not Hiroto Saikawa, the CEO who has been suggested as a possible new chairman.

Nissan has decided to consider creating a “special committee” to examine its corporate governance. This would include developing “better governance of director compensation”.

Today’s decisions, including to dismiss chairman Carlos Ghosn, were unanimous, Nissan says.

The company adds that:

At the beginning of the session, the board acknowledged the significance of the matter and confirmed that the long-standing Alliance partnership with Renault remains unchanged and that the mission is to minimize the potential impact and confusion on the day-to-day cooperation among the Alliance partners.

Here’s Reuters’ latest take on Carlos Ghosn’s dismissal:

Nissan’s board ousted chairman Carlos Ghosn on Thursday after the shock arrest of the industry heavyweight, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported without citing sources, ushering in a period of uncertainty for its 19-year alliance with Renault.

A Nissan Motor Co spokesman declined to comment.

The Franco-Japanese alliance, enlarged in 2016 to include Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors, has been rattled to its core by Ghosn’s arrest in Japan on Monday, with the 64-year-old group chairman accused of financial misconduct.

Ghosn had shaped the alliance and was pushing for a deeper tie-up, including potentially a full Renault-Nissan merger at the French government’s urging, despite strong reservations at the Japanese firm.

Japanese prosecutors said Ghosn and Representative Director Greg Kelly, who has also been arrested, conspired to understate Ghosn’s compensation at Nissan over five years from 2010, saying it was about half the actual 10 billion yen ($88 million).

Shin Kukimoto, deputy public prosecutor at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, said on Thursday that court approval was received a day earlier to detain Ghosn for 10 days but he could not comment on whether he had admitted to the allegations.

Nissan executives have five seats on the nine-member board, Renault loyalists have two seats and the remaining two are held by unaffiliated outside directors, a former bureaucrat and a race driver.

With Ghosn and Kelly still in detention, neither of the men were able to vote or defend themselves at the meeting.

Nissan has also voted to dismiss representative director Greg Kelly, according to the Nikkei newspaper.

Kelly, a lawyer by training, was a close ally of Carlos Ghosn and the first American to sit on the Japanese carmaker’s board of directors.

On Monday, Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa labelled Kelly the “mastermind” behind Ghosn’s alleged misuse of Nissan funds.

Now this is interesting... Reuters is reporting that Renault had urged Nissan NOT to dismiss Carlos Ghosn today, before the meeting began.

Ghosn is also Renault’s CEO and chairman, on top of his duties at Nissan.

Renault had two seats on Nissan’s nine-strong board (although there were only seven representatives today, as Ghosn and Greg Kelly were both arrested on Monday)

Reuters is reporting that “multiple Nissan board members” have been spotted leaving the company’s HQ, suggesting the meeting may finally be over...

Crowds of reporters have gathered in front of Nissan’s global headquarters in Yokohama, desperate to hear news from today’s board meeting:

Elsewhere, Ghosn’s face beams down from large electronic screens as the public keep up with events:

It’s important to remember that Carlos Ghosn hasn’t been charged yet, let alone convicted.

But Tokyo prosecutors have already suggested that he could face a 10-year stretch, if convicted of breaching Japanese financial law.

There’s an increasingly negative mood in the financial markets today.

All the European stock indices are in the red, down around 1%, wiping out Wednesday’s gains (which followed heavy losses on Tuesday).

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, says:

Hopes have been dashed that yesterday’s rally would be the start of a new recovery. The FTSE 100 was down 0.6% to 7,010 on Thursday morning amid notable weakness in utilities, telecoms and bank stocks. It is a similar story across Europe with Germany’s DAX index down 0.4%, France’s Cac 40 index down 0.5% and Spain’s IBEX 35 index falling 0.7%.

UK energy provider Centrica is one of the top fallers, down 8%, after reporting that it lost 372,000 home energy customers in the last four months. Added to the cost of the UK energy price cap, and investors are fretting that the company could cut its dividend.

The lights are blaring at Nissan’s HQ, as the board continue deliberate on whether to dismiss Carlos Ghosn.

We’re expecting an announcement from the company later, and a statement to the Japanese stock exchange.

Japan’s industry minister and France’s finance minister are due to meet in Paris on Thursday to seek ways to stabilise the Nissan-Renault alliance, Reuters reports.

“For me, the future of the alliance is the bigger deal,” said a Nissan official, when asked about Ghosn’s arrest.

“It’s obvious that in this age, we need to do things together. To part would be impossible.”

Investors are still digesting Ghosn’s fall, and its impact on the car industry.

Shares in Nissan (which plunged 6% after his arrest), gained 0.8% today. But shares in Renault have dipped by 1.2% in early trading in Paris.

Japanese broadcaster NHK are reporting that Ghosn is accused of instructing an aide to make a $1.5m payment for his home in Lebanon to be refurbished:

Informed sources say Ghosn allegedly sent an email telling an executive, who is a close aide, to arrange a payment for the Lebanon house.

Sources say about $9m was spent to purchase it and about $6m went for renovations.

That house is one of the four which Nissan allegedly funded, at a cost of $17.8m.

Carlos Ghosn has reportedly hired a former Tokyo prosecutor to defend him.

Bloomberg has more details:

Motonari Otsuru oversaw high-profile probes against Livedoor founder Takafumi Horie and Kanebo during his tenure as a prosecutor.

Ghosn will need a hot-shot lawyer; Tokyo prosecutors are now saying that his alleged actions would constitute a “heavy crime,’’ more serious than insider trading.

Shin Kukimoto, deputy public prosecutor at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, is discussing Carlos Ghosn’s arrest right now.

Kukimoto told reporters that Ghosn is being held at the Tokyo Detention Centre and that the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday.

Kukimoto also confirmed that the Tokyo District Court decided yesterday to extend Ghohn’s detention for another 10 days.

But, prosecutors won’t say whether Ghosn has admitted any of the charges

Carlos Ghosn’s fate will be decided by seven Nissan board members, on a simple majority vote.

And following CEO Hiroto Saikawa’s savage denunciation on Monday, it would be a major shock if the board didn’t dismiss their chairman today.