SACRAMENTO: An aircraft that appeared to be a medical helicopter crashed on a highway in Sacramento on Monday evening, closing the eastbound lanes, according to officials.
The crash happened just after 7 p.m., according to officer Mike Carrillo, a spokesperson for the Valley Division of California Highway Patrol.
In images posted online, a long line of cars on Highway 50 could be seen backed up just behind a crashed helicopter. Information about the number of people on board or injuries was not immediately available.
“The cause of the crash is still under investigation and multiple agencies are responding,” Carrillo said, adding that emergency crews and CHP were on the scene.
He said residents should expect delays on the highway and use alternate routes.
“We ask the public to avoid the area and allow emergency crews to work safely,” he said.
Helicopter crashes onto highway in Sacramento, closing eastbound lanes
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Helicopter crashes onto highway in Sacramento, closing eastbound lanes
- Information about the number of people on board or injuries was not immediately available
- Authorities say the cause of the crash is still under investigation
UK to cut protections for refugees under asylum ‘overhaul’
- PM Starmer announced the cuts amid mounting pressure in the face of soaring support for the hard right
- More than 39,000 people, many fleeing conflict, have arrived this year in the UK
LONDON: Britain will drastically reduce protections for refugees under plans to overhaul its asylum system, the Labour government said on Saturday.
The measures were announced as Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces mounting pressure over irregular migration in the face of soaring support for the hard right.
“I’ll end UK’s golden ticket for asylum seekers,” interior minister Shabana Mahmood declared in a statement.
Presently, those given refugee status have it for five years, after which they can apply for indefinite leave to remain and eventually citizenship.
But Mahmood’s ministry, known as the Home Office, said it would cut the length of refugee status to 30 months.
That protection will be “regularly reviewed” and refugees will be forced to return to their home countries once they are deemed safe, it added.
The ministry also said that it intended to make those refugees who are granted asylum wait 20 years before applying to be allowed to live in the UK long-term, instead of the current five.
The Home Office called the proposals the “largest overhaul of asylum policy in modern times.”
Starmer, elected last summer, is under pressure to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats from France, something that also troubled his Conservative predecessors.
More than 39,000 people, many fleeing conflict, have arrived this year following such dangerous journeys — more than for the whole of 2024 but lower than the record set in 2022.
The crossings are helping fuel the popularity of Reform, led by firebrand Nigel Farage, which has led Labour by double-digit margins in opinion polls for most of this year.
Asylum claims in Britain are at a record high, with some 111,000 applications made in the year to June 2025, according to official figures.
