At least two people were killed when two planes collided while trying to land at an airport in California.
The planes, a twin-engine Cessna 340 and a single-engine Cessna 152, crashed into one another shortly before 3pm on Thursday above Watsonville Municipal Airport.
Two people were aboard the Cessna 340 and only the pilot was aboard the Cessna 152, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Officials said "multiple fatalities" were reported, but it was not immediately clear whether anyone survived.
No one on the ground was injured.
Footage from the scene showed the wreckage of the aircraft and emergency services, including firefighters, at the scene.
The city of Watsonville, in Santa Cruz County and around 100 miles from San Francisco, posted a statement on the crash on social media.
Image:Pic: KION-TV via AP
"Multiple agencies responded to Watsonville Municipal Airport after two planes attempting to land collided," it tweeted.
"We have reports of multiple fatalities."
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The aircraft collided about 200 feet in the air, according to Franky Herrera, who was driving past the airport at the time of the crash.
"The smaller plane just spiralled down and crashed right here," he told the Santa Cruz Sentinel, pointing to the wreckage of the aircraft near the edge of the airfield.
Image:Pic: AP
He said the twin-engine plane continued on, but "it was struggling", and then he saw flames at the other side of the airport.
Images showed a damaged hangar with the wreckage of a plane.
The city-owned airport does not have a control tower to direct aircraft landing and taking off.
UN Secretary General António Guterres has said he is "gravely concerned" about fighting near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine.
He made the comments during a summit with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Lviv.
"Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide," Mr Guterres warned.
The meeting was the first between the UN chief and Mr Zelensky since Russia launched its invasion in February.
Mr Erdogan echoed the UN chief's concerns, telling reporters that he was worried about the danger of "another Chernobyl" disaster erupting at the plant.
In recent weeks the area around the facility, which Russia seized in March, has come under heavy artillery fire, with both Kyiv and Moscow blaming each other for the attacks.
Ahead of Thursday's meeting Mr Zelensky criticised "deliberate" Russian attacks on the power plant.
Moscow is accused of turning the facility into an army base, with all three leaders urging the Russians to demilitarise the zone as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, local sources in the Russian occupied Crimean Peninsula reported a number of large explosions near the Belbek military airport.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian installed governor of Sevastopol, denied that anyone had been injured in the blasts and said no damage was done, despite videos circulating on social media appearing to show huge explosions lighting up the night sky.
The appeals come as Ukrainian staff, who are working at the plant under Russian direction, warned of a potential nuclear catastrophe at the facility, saying in the past two weeks it has become "the target of continuous military attacks".
Later on Thursday, an official Twitter channel used by the Ukrainian government said that members of Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear corporation, had "urgently" left the facility, and an "unexpected day off" had been announced.
"Following their extensive shelling... [Russian forces] could 'raise the stakes' and stage a real terrorist attack on Europe's largest nuclear facility," it said.
The BBC has been unable to verify the claims.
Shortly before these tweets, Mr Zelensky warned that "the world is on a verge of nuclear disaster" and condemned what he called "Russia's irresponsible actions and nuclear blackmailing".
Despite the concern, the site is said to be far more secure than the Chernobyl plant - the site of the worst nuclear incident in history.
The reactor is in a steel-reinforced concrete building that can "withstand extreme external events, both natural and man-made, such as an aircraft crash or explosions," experts told the BBC in March.
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There were reports ahead of the summit that Mr Erdogan would offer to arrange a summit between Mr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Turkish leader maintains a close working relationship with Mr Putin, and speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mr Erdogan said he believed the war would "come to the end at the negotiating table".
While Mr Zelensky welcomed the leader's visit and Turkey's "powerful message of support", he flatly rejected suggestions that it could be in a position to broker peace talks.
Mr Zelensky told reporters that he was "very surprised" to hear from Mr Erdogan that Moscow was "ready for some kind of peace".
"There is no trust towards the Russian Federation," Mr Zelensky said, saying that Russia must withdraw its troops, first and foremost.
The leaders were expected to discuss expanding the Turkey-UN sponsored grain deal between Russia and Ukraine - the only diplomatic breakthrough of the conflict so far.
On Thursday, Kyiv said a 25th cargo ship had left Ukraine under the deal which saw Russia agree to end its blockade of Black Sea ports.
"From day one, the parties have worked professionally and in good faith to keep the food flowing," Mr Guterres said. "I appeal for this to continue and for them to overcome all obstacles in a spirit of compromise and permanently settle all difficulties."
Elsewhere, in eastern Ukraine Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synehubov said that 17 people had died after Russian shelling hit several residential buildings in the city.
And in Moscow, Russia's foreign ministry said that while a clash with the collective West is possible, a direct nuclear conflict with the US and Nato would not be in Russia's interests.
"Russian military doctrine allows a nuclear response only in response to aggression using weapons of mass destruction, or when the very existence of the state is threatened," Ivan Nechayev said.
A federal judge in Florida has given the US Department of Justice one week to suggest redactions to the affidavit justifying the search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort last week, paving the way for parts of the document to become publicly available.
The move by Judge Bruce Reinhart came during a highly anticipated court hearing in West Palm Beach on Thursday that pitted federal prosecutors, who argued to keep the affidavit under seal, against US media organisations who want it unsealed because of the huge public interest in the case.
The affidavit — a detailed explanation by the justice department of the reasons for seeking a search warrant at the former president’s property — has remained under wraps since the FBI raid took place on August 8.
Not only have media organisations called for its public release, but so have many congressional Republicans, in the hope of shining more light on the rationale behind the justice department’s move to search Trump’s home.
The DoJ had argued against any release of the affidavit, on the grounds that it could compromise the investigation and impede co-operation from witnesses in this and other probes. Federal prosecutors also said the document would have to be heavily redacted if it were to be released because of the nature of the investigation, which involves highly classified materials retained by Trump after leaving the White House.
Reinhart rejected the argument that the affidavit should remain “fully sealed”, saying he was “not prepared” to keep it that way — suggesting he is tempted to partially unseal it with some level of redaction.
Last week, he allowed the search warrant and the list of items recovered by the FBI at Trump’s home to be made public. Those documents showed that federal prosecutors were investigating the former president for improperly handling information related to national defence in violation of the Espionage Act, as well as obstruction of justice and tampering with government records.
On Thursday, the court unsealed the cover sheet of the search warrant application, confirming that the DoJ has been probing Trump for the “wilful retention of national defense information”, the “concealment or removal of government records” and the “obstruction of federal investigation”.
But the affidavit, if fully published, would reveal far more about the government’s investigation into Trump and the purpose of the search, which has been politically explosive and triggered an angry backlash from Trump and his most ardent supporters.
Taylor Budowich, a Trump spokesperson, reacted to the judge’s move by saying he had “rejected the DoJ’s cynical attempt to hide the whole affidavit from Americans”.
“However, no redactions should be necessary and the whole affidavit should be released, given the Democrats’ penchant for using redactions to hide government corruption, just like they did with the Russia hoax,” he added.
Ukraine has said Russia is preparing to stage a "provocation" at Europe's biggest nuclear power plant on Friday.
The country's intelligence agency made the claim just hours after Moscow accused Ukraine of trying to stage an "accident" there, which may involve a radiation leak, during the UN secretary-general's visit to the war-ravaged nation.
Located in the southeast of Ukraine, the Zaporizhzhia plant was captured by Russia in the early days of the war and in recent weeks has repeatedly come under fire.
Both sides have pointed the finger at each other for the shelling.
Russia's defence ministry claimed Ukraine would stage a "minor accident" and "provocation" - and blame it on them - to coincide with Antonio Guterres' trip.
And Ukraine's defence intelligence agency said it had information that staff with Russia's Rosatom nuclear company had left the site and that the facility would be closed to everyone except for operational staff.
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NBC News, citing Ukrainian intelligence, reports that workers at the plant have been told not to show up to the facility tomorrow.
The UN chief is expected on Friday to visit the Black Sea port of Odesa, where grain exports have resumed under a UN-brokered deal.
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He met Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan in the western city of Lviv during his visit on Thursday.
What was discussed at the meeting?
The trio discussed efforts to de-escalate the war, speed up grain exports and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear situation.
Following the meeting, Mr Guterres called for the demilitarisation of the power plant and said he was gravely concerned about the situation surrounding it.
"The facility must not be used as part of any military operation. Instead, agreement is urgently needed to re-establish Zaporizhzhia's purely civilian infrastructure and to ensure the safety of the area," he said.
Image:UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Ukraine's president added that he had agreed the parameters for a possible International Atomic Energy Agency mission to the plant.
Mr Guterres has urged an end to fighting near the power station and the head of Russia's chemical and biological defence forces, Igor Kirillov, claimed back-up support systems had already been damaged by shelling.
He said any accident would mean radioactive material reaching Germany, Slovakia and Poland.
Russia's defence ministry has also warned the plant could be shut down if shelling continues.
Russia's warning is ominous but the risk of nuclear explosion is highly unlikely
Russia's warning of a Ukrainian staged attack on the Zaporizhzhia power plant on Friday is ominous.
Russia has a track record of "forecasting incidents" as cover for its own actions.
Analysts say the risk of a nuclear explosion at the plant, similar to what happened at the Ukrainian city of Chernobyl in 1986, is highly unlikely because of its modern construction and ability to withstand large impacts.
What is more likely, if fighting around the plant continues, is a radiation leak comparable to the more recent Fukushima disaster in Japan.
As a result, there is an increasing sense of urgency amongst world leaders, and it has become a focus of this war in recent days.
Ukraine wants the site to become a demilitarised zone; the UN secretary general supported that move today, when he spoke after meeting President Zelenskyy in Lviv.
Russia opposes it – their forces currently occupy the site and thus control power too much of southern Ukraine.
Effectively capturing and controlling Europe's largest nuclear power station is a major coup for Moscow, so it is unlikely to cede that control easily.
Ukraine says it's being used as a base to attack from, and that Russian heavy artillery is positioned in and around the power station - something the Kremlin denies.
Kyiv also claims that Russia has hit the facility itself in order to blame Ukraine for any power cuts.
Mr Erdogan said he discussed possible ways of ending the war during the trilateral meeting.
He added the three leaders discussed using the positive atmosphere created by a grain export deal in July to establish lasting peace.
After the meeting, Mr Guterres said 21 ships had departed from Ukrainian ports under the deal in less than a month, and 15 vessels had left Istanbul to load up with grain and other food supplies from the country.
Image:Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan with Mr Zelenskyy and Mr Guterres
Seven people killed and 16 injured
Fears over the nuclear situation come as further deaths occur in the six-month-old war.
On Wednesday evening, seven people were killed and 16 injured in shelling in Ukraine's second-biggest city Kharkiv, according to emergency services.
Another person died and 18 more were wounded early on Thursday in a separate residential area of the city, said regional governor Oleh Synehubov.
Meanwhile, in other battlefield developments, Ukrainian forces said they had killed 29 "occupiers" and destroyed artillery, vehicles and a supply depot near Bilohirka, northeast of Kherson - in southern Ukraine.
Image:Shelling has continued to hit Kharkiv
Black Sea fleet commander 'sacked'
The chief of Russia's Black Sea fleet has also reportedly been replaced following a number of blasts in Crimea in the past week, blamed on saboteurs.
Russia's RIA news agency reported sources as confirming that Igor Osipov had been kicked out and replaced by Viktor Sokolov. If confirmed, it would be one of the most prominent sackings of the war.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych has said fighting has reached "strategic deadlock", with Russian making "minimal advances" and Ukraine winning back some ground.
Liz Cheney had long expected to lose the Republican primary race in Wyoming — and with it her seat in the US House of Representatives — to Donald Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman.
So when the moment arrived on Tuesday night, she was prepared to quickly shift to a new political mission for herself and others who have been purged from the party for daring to antagonise the former president.
Cheney is planning to launch a political movement — which will probably be called “The Great Task” — whose primary purpose will be to prevent Trump from winning the White House again in 2024, as he remains the Republican party’s frontrunner.
“I’m going to make sure people all around this country understand the stakes of what we’re facing, [and] understand the extent to which we’ve now got one majority political party — my party — which has really become a cult of personality,” she told NBC on Wednesday.
Cheney — the daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney — faces a lonely battle within the party to achieve that goal, as the vast majority of its lawmakers either staunchly support Trump or refrain from criticising him.
“Cheney will continue to identify as a Republican, sure, but she would definitely be on the fringes of her party: what was once fringe is now centre and the centre is on the fringe,” said Matt Continetti, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
It is also unclear if traditional Republicanism has sufficient grassroots support nationwide to succeed in mobilising conservative voters to turn their backs on Trump — or even provide a launch pad for Cheney’s own, hinted-at rival presidential run in 2024.
But Cheney, who established herself as the most prominent Republican critic of Trump as vice-chair of the congressional panel probing the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, has acquired a standing in politics that will be hard to ignore.
In September, she will preside over public hearings of the committee delving into the insurrection, which will put her back at the centre of the political debate. Meanwhile, an array of conservative donors in finance and business are willing to bankroll her efforts as part of a last-ditch effort to restore the party’s institutionalist roots.
“This is not the last you’ve heard of Liz Cheney, and frankly, this is not the last you’ve heard of us,” said Peter Kellner, the founder and managing partner of investment firm Richmond Global, who donated to Cheney as well as David McCormick and Jaime Herrera Beutler this year — all Republicans who lost primary races to Trump-endorsed rivals.
“We are an angry group, but we have more pride than we have anger, in terms of our patriotism,” he added. “If I were Liz, I would feel very good about myself. And I would sleep comfortably knowing there are many of us who look to her as one of the most important Americans of our generation.”
Doug Heye, a Republican strategist, said Cheney’s effort may not be entirely quixotic. Primary races have shown that while in Wyoming the grip of Trumpism remains tight, in some swing states, such as Pennsylvania, Trump-backed candidates prevailed but not by huge margins.
Yet her path will probably be narrow. Cheney’s familial association with the George W Bush administration, as well as her staunchly rightwing positions on issues such as abortion, may alienate some voters on the centre-left, even though respect for her among liberals has grown as she has fought to hold Trump to account.
If she runs for president, the wrath against her from the right will only intensify, whether she pits herself against Trump for the Republican nomination or on an independent ticket.
“Cheney’s most successful avenue is maintaining platforms by which she can continue to be outspoken in her criticism of Trump and in her opposition to his restoration. That may be more immediate than a political campaign,” said AEI’s Continetti.
“If she decides to run for president, she probably would be tempted to run in the Republican party only for the chance to appear on stage with Donald Trump in one of the debates,” he added. “I also believe that the institutional Republican party, should Donald Trump run, will do everything in its power to prevent that from happening.”
Strategist Heye said that although Cheney has signalled she wants to keep the fight against Trump alive, she still needs to refine her plan and her goals.
“We don’t know what the strategy behind it will be. Last night, she said that she was not going to stop in her efforts to prevent Donald Trump from being president again. That’s very different than wanting to become the next president,” Heye said on Wednesday. “And a lot of people who run for president aren’t running with the expectation that they’re going to be president.”
The latest launch comes as South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called for diplomacy aimed at building sustainable peace between the rivals amid tensions over the North's accelerating weapons program.
Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Mr Yoon said he doesn't desire political change in North Korea that's brought by force and urged the North to return to dialogue aimed at exchanging denuclearisation steps for economic benefits.
The calls for talks come despite threats of "deadly retaliation" made by the sister of Kim Jong Un as she blamed propaganda leaflets from South Korea found near the border for causing the coronavirus outbreak.
The missiles were fired from the west coast town of Onchon early on Wednesday, a South Korean military source said.
Details about their range or altitude were not immediately available.
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The launch comes as South Korea and the US kicked off a four-day joint drill on Tuesday.
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1:08
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has warned he is ready to use nuclear weapons in potential military conflicts
He said the country was ready for any potential military conflicts with the United States as well as South Korea, criticising its new president Mr Yoon for the first time and warning Seoul was pushing towards the brink of war.
The speech came on the 69th anniversary of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
