Event: UK

The head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has travelled to Moscow for unannounced talks, the BBC's US news partner CBS has reported.John Ratcliffe reportedly arrived in the Russian capital earlier on Tuesday. Neither Washington or Moscow have confirmed the nature of the visit or who he was due to meet.In-person talks between high-level American and Russian officials are rare.Flight tracking data confirmed a large US military aircraft travelled to Russia from the US via Latvia on Tuesday. It departed later on Tuesday.BBC News has contacted the CIA, the White House and Pentagon for comment. Footage posted on social media showed the C-17 transport plane approaching Moscow's Vnukovo international airport.It departed Riga airport at 05:50 GMT and appeared to have landed in the Russian capital at around 07:04 GMT, according to data from FlightRadar24. It returned to Riga shortly before 17:00 GMT.Footage on social media also purported to show a diplomatic motorcade travelling through Moscow.Ahead of the trip, the US told Ukraine that a senior delegation would be travelling to Moscow and asked Kyiv to suspend strikes until they had left, a senior Ukrainian official told CBS.The trip is thought to be Ratcliffe's first trip to Russia as CIA director, although he has maintained contact with his intelligence counterparts in Moscow.John Foreman, who served as a British military attaché to Moscow between 2019 and 2022, told Radio 4's PM programme that the visit could be focused on "escalation management" given speculation recent drone activity in Germany could be linked to Russia.He said: "The Americans don't normally send such a high ranking official to Moscow unannounced at short notice unless something is up."Foreman said the trip could also concern the release of US detainees currently being held in Russia.Ratcliffe played a role in negotiations for the release of Russian-American citizen…

Kremlin accuses Burnham of wanting Ukraine war to continueKremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has accused Andy Burnham of wanting the conflict in Ukraine to continue, saying the UK prime minister and Finnish president Alexander Stubb belonged to the “party of war”, Russian media reported.During a visit to Kyiv yesterday, Stubb said he supported Ukraine’s long-range strikes on Russian territory, arguing that they could raise the cost of war for Russia and help force Moscow to the negotiating table.When asked to respond, Peskov said: “We now see that such escalatory statements have prevailed. Mr Stubb is also a prominent representative of the ‘war party’, along with the British prime minister. They have distinguished themselves over the past few days with such bellicose statements. They want the war to continue.”Key events14h agoCIA director Ratcliffe visiting Moscow: US media15h agoSlovak police thwart planned arson attack on drone factory16h ago'Wartime situation': France tornado leaves dozens injured and thousands without power16h agoThird drone and suspected military explosives found near German airport17h agoZelenskyy: Ukraine has ⁠received a ⁠small number ⁠of US-made ​Patriot interceptors18h agoRussia rejects French accusations of Moscow carrying out cyberattack campaign19h agoUS military plane lands in Moscow - report19h agoKremlin accuses Burnham of wanting Ukraine war to continue19h agoPerpetrators behind German airport drone bomb 'will pay,' says Merz20h agoAt least 35,000 excess deaths recorded in Europe’s back-to-back heatwaves20h agoOpening summary: Burnham to take Zelenskyy's pleas for Patriot missiles to Trump - reportThe Guardian’s liveblog coverage of events across Europe is coming to an end for today. Here’s a round-up of the key events: US CIA director John Ratcliffe is visiting Moscow for meetings, US media said, after flight data showed an American military aircraft landed in Moscow. There was no immediate comment from the CIA or the White House. Data from Flightradar earlier showed a…

The CIA director, John Ratcliffe, has made an unannounced visit to Moscow, US media reported, after flight data showed an American military aircraft flew to the Russian capital, where a US diplomatic motorcade was later spotted.CBS News quoted sources familiar with the situation as confirming Ratcliffe’s trip, saying it was his first known visit to Russia as CIA chief. Axios separately confirmed the visit, quoting a US official.The Financial Times reported that the Trump administration had asked Kyiv to pause its long-range strikes on major Russian cities during the course of the visit.There was no immediate comment from the CIA or the White House.Data from Flightradar24 showed a US military C-17 travelling from the US to Latvia and then on to Moscow. The tracker showed that the flight originated from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, best known for hosting Air Force One.The C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft that the US air force website says can be used for strategic and tactical airlift and airdrop missions as well as aeromedical evacuations.Ratcliffe’s reported visit comes as US-brokered talks aimed at ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have stalled. However, earlier this month Moscow freed a former US marine detained since 2022, amid concerns about his health.The reason for the visit is unclear but the CIA has mediated in recent US-Russia detainee exchanges and was involved in the 2024 prisoner exchange that secured the release of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and the marine veteran Paul Whelan.Some speculation has focused on the war in Iran, which remains a bone of contention between Moscow and Washington. On Monday the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, announced a new economic sanctions strategy designed to isolate Iran.

Sweden's armed forces have asked the government to expropriate a Russia-owned property near a naval base on security grounds.The military requested the seizure of the beach plot near Muskö base in Stockholm archipelago, citing "the threat from Russian drones and the ownership situation of the property".Swedish reports say a businessman with links to the Russian state, has been building a luxury house on Muskö island – although his wife, who holds both Russian and Swedish citizenship, is the registered owner.Two years ago, Sweden ended two centuries of military non-alignment and joined Nato because of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.In its statement, the military said the location had "unique conditions for strengthening the defence of Muskö Naval Base, particularly against drones".The development of Russian drone warfare has "changed the threat landscape for Sweden", the military added.Public broadcaster SVT said the property has been "a thorn in the armed forces' side".Defence Minister Pål Jonson said the country needed to "make sure there's no risk of anyone gaining visibility into the site or any kind of tactical edge", Sweden's TV4 reported.The armed forces' statement quoted Chief of the Defence Staff Carl-Johan Edström as saying that Sweden was "facing the most serious security situation since the end of World War Two".It is unclear whether the Russian businessman is currently living in Sweden.His wife is reported to have owned the property since 2017.

Dispersing asylum seekers into Britain’s poorest areas has been a recipe for disaster. The British state’s decision to disperse asylum seekers to the poorest parts of the country has long been causing serious problems. Mainly accommodated in so-called migrant hotels and increasingly houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), asylum seekers’ presence has been the source of many issues, from rises in anti-social behaviour to pressure on already stretched public services. It has also fuelled higher rents as landlords remove family homes from the market to create bedsits. It seems that Britain’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, has recognised that locating so many asylum seekers in already deprived areas can’t go on. In his by-election victory speech in Makerfield in June, Burnham acknowledged that ‘HMO Britain’, particularly where it is connected to the refugee industry, is deeply unfair. Since then, the government has acted on its promise to close asylum hotels in places that have already received a disproportionately high number of asylum seekers, including Blackpool, Nottingham and Wolverhampton. And after more than 3,000 people arrived by small boat in the first month of his premiership, Burnham has recently announced that wealthier areas must now accommodate their fair share of asylum seekers. Relative to population size, the highest regional concentrations of asylum seekers have been in relatively deprived areas in the north east and north west. There, Serco and Clearsprings – private companies with extremely lucrative government contracts – have been sourcing the cheapest housing available. Until recently, much of this accommodation has been in hotels, which have attracted various protests, some of them violent. But after Labour’s decision to close the hotels, the consequence has been a rise in HMOs in poorer communities. The way in which asylum seekers have been accommodated in the UK has long been causing problems. In…

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham reacts as he is shown the rubble and wreckage left of buildings after a Russian strike at the Lukanivska market in Kyiv, on Monday, during his first trip abroad since taking office. | POOL / VIA AFP-JIJI Kyiv – The leaders of Britain and France pledged to provide Ukraine with stronger military support — including access to classified technology and faster deliveries of air defense missiles — at a meeting of allies to mark Kyiv’s Independence Day celebrations.British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, in Kyiv on his first foreign visit since taking office last month, urged the gathering of the “Coalition of the Willing” to “do everything we can” to bolster Ukraine’s defenses against Russian air strikes.President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had earlier praised the resilience of the Ukrainian people during more than four years of war. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing, you can help us get the story right. SUBSCRIBE NOW

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he and other European leaders plan to travel to the US next month to lobby President Donald Trump to let Ukraine access some of its Patriot air defence missile stocks ahead of the winter.“I’m looking forward to going to New York in September,” Burnham said in an interview with Bloomberg in Kyiv on Monday evening, referring to the coming UN General Assembly meeting in New York. It would be his first trip to the US since becoming prime minister.“I’ve not fully confirmed the details yet but it’s likely I will go, particularly after today’s discussion,” he said. “Leaving today, I’m quite clear what I need to do in the next few weeks.”Burnham’s comments came on his first international visit since becoming premier, after chairing a meeting of Ukraine’s allies for the first time and holding a bilateral meeting with Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky.Zelensky has made repeated pleas to European nations and the US to help Ukraine obtain Patriot missile interceptors and to replenish its stocks in time for winter, when Russia is expected to ramp up attacks on energy infrastructure again. The interceptors are the most potent weapons to shoot down Russian cruise and ballistic missiles.Burnham said he left feeling “really optimistic” that Ukraine’s current struggles defending against Russian ballistic missile strikes due to its low stockpile of interceptors are “fixable”.