Two judges have been killed in a shooting on Saturday at the supreme court building in Tehran, Iranian state media has reported.
“This morning, a gunman infiltrated the supreme court in a planned act of assassination of two brave and experienced judges. The two judges were martyred in the act,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported.
Mizan said the assailant killed himself after the “terrorist” act. The state news agency, IRNA, said one other person was wounded.
The two slain judges have been identified by Mizan as Ali Razini and Mohammad Moghisseh, both of whom handled cases “fighting crimes against national security, espionage and terrorism”.
Judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said on state television that “a person armed with a handgun entered the room” of the two judges and shot them.
“Individuals have been identified, summoned or arrested in connection with the incident,” he added, without providing further details.
The motive behind the killing was not immediately clear, but Mizan said the assailant was not involved in any cases before the supreme court.
Authorities said an investigation into the attack was underway.
President Masoud Pezeshkian expressed his condolences over the deaths, calling on the authorities to act swiftly.
He said: “I strongly urge the security and law enforcement forces to take the necessary measures as soon as possible by examining the dimensions and angles of this reprehensible act and to identify its perpetrators.”
Veteran judge Moghisseh, 68, was sanctioned by the US in 2019 for having “overseen countless unfair trials, during which charges went unsubstantiated and evidence was disregarded”, according to the US Treasury.
Razini, 71, held several important positions in Iran’s judiciary and was previously targeted in a 1998 assassination attempt by assailants “who planted a magnetic bomb in his vehicle”, according to Mizan.
Though attacks targeting judges are rare, Iran has seen a number of shootings targeting high-profile figures in recent years.
In October, a Shiite Muslim preacher was shot dead in the southern city of Kazerun after leading Friday prayers.
In April 2023, a powerful cleric identified as Abbas Ali Soleimani was shot dead at a bank in the northern province of Mazandaran.
The march that started it allpublished at 14:34 Greenwich Mean Time
14:34 GMT
Holly Honderich Reporting from Washington DC
Image source, Getty Images
In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s surprise 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton, the first march came together at an impressive clip, transforming from a couple of disconnected Facebook posts from women calling for a protest into a blueprint for a national movement within weeks.
By 21 January, hundreds of thousands of people were pouring into the nation’s capital, bringing crowds nearly three times the size of Trump’s inauguration the day before.
In Washington and at coordinated events across the US, women carried signs railing against Trump and sported pink knit “pussyhats” – a pointed reference to the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump bragged about grabbing women’s genitals.
“I had never seen anything this crowded, you could barely move,” said Sharon Baseman, a Democratic activist in Michigan who travelled to DC for the 2017 march.
“It was overwhelming and it was inspiring.”
In the years that followed, the Women’s March remained the face of the fight against Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda. The movement helped unite the Democratic Party against Trump, a strategy enabled them to retake the White House in 2020.
But in the wake of Trump’s victory in November, leaders must grapple with the resistance’s failures, and its future.
Fresh from Meghan Markle and Prince Harry being called “disaster tourists” for visiting the smoldering ruins of people’s homes lost in the Eaton fire, the couple face new scrutiny over the personal, professional and reputational challenges they’ve dealt with in the five years since they left royal life and moved to California.
Unfortunately for the Montecito-based Duke and Duchess of Sussex, “American Hustle,” a new cover story in Vanity Fair, appears to confirm previous reports about Meghan being a “terrible,” “difficult” and even “bullying” boss to her employees. For the 8,000-word piece, the magazine spoke to dozens of people, a number of whom could only be interviewed anonymously because they were required to sign non-disclosure agreements.
While Harry can be “charming,” if giving off the air that he “has no inner life” other than polo, Vanity Fair reported that Meghan seems eager to be “a good person” and to engage “in world-improving (if also brand-building) activities.” And yet, the former TV actor has become a polarizing figure in America. She also tends to engage in what writer Anna Peele described as retaliatory behavior against “people so below her in status.”
Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex member of the British royal family with mayor of Pasadena Victor Gordo at a home at 2858 Highview Ave. and Altadena Dr. that was destroyed during the Eaton Fire in Altadena on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Someone who struggled to work on Meghan and Harry’s troubled Netflix and Spotify media projects told Vanity Fair that her relationships with employees tended to follow a familiar pattern. She would “be warm and effusive at the beginning, engendering an atmosphere of professional camaraderie.”
When something didn’t work out, often due to Meghan and Harry’s own demands— such as a teaser for her Spotify podcast being released months before she had even taped any episodes — she “would become cold and withholding toward the person she perceived to be responsible,” the source told Vanity Fair.
The source said it was “really, really, really awful. Very painful. Because she’s constantly playing checkers — I’m not even going to say chess — but she’s just very aware of where everybody is on her board. And when you are not in, you are to be thrown to the wolves at any given moment.”
WINDSOR, UNITED KINGDOM – MAY 19: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex wave as they leave Windsor Castle after their wedding to attend an evening reception at Frogmore House, hosted by the Prince of Wales on May 19, 2018 in Windsor, England. (Photo by Steve Parsons – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Meghan’s treatment of underlings could be “undermining,” the source also told Vanity Fair. “It’s gnawing at your sense of self. Really, like, ‘Mean Girls’ teenager.”
Before working with Meghan, the person had a hard time believing the stories about Meghan bullying palace aides or yelling at them after she married Harry in 2018. The initial reports came from the Times UK in 2021, a year after Meghan and Harry left Britain, decrying cruel and racist treatment by the tabloid media and the royal family. But after working with Meghan, this person found such behavior happened “on any given Tuesday.”
Vanity Fair reported that one person took a leave of absence after working with Meghan on three episodes of her Spotify “Archetypes” podcast, while “several others’ said they took extended breaks, left their jobs or underwent long-term therapy after working with the former TV actor.
“I think if Meghan acknowledged her own shortcomings or personal contributions to situations rather than staying trapped in a victim narrative, her perception might be better,” one person told Vanity Fair, before the person half-jokingly said, “But who am I to criticize Meghan Markle? She’s doing great.”
The Vanity Fair report comes at a crucial time for Harry and Meghan’s efforts to make a success of themselves as media moguls, entrepreneurs and global do-gooders.
Britain’s Meghan (C), Duchess of Sussex, and Britain’s Prince Harry (R), Duke of Sussex, arrive at a charity polo game at the Ikoyi Polo Club in Lagos on May 12, 2024 as they visit Nigeria as part of celebrations of Invictus Games anniversary. (Photo by Kola Sulaimon / AFP) (Photo by KOLA SULAIMON/AFP via Getty Images)
Meghan’s plan to launch herself this past week as a lifestyle guru, with her new Netflix series “With Love, Meghan,” was put on hold following the outbreak of the deadly wildfires in Los Angeles on Jan. 8. Meghan announced the series would be pushed to March 4, “as we focus on the needs of those impacted by the wildfires in my home state of California.”
Her critics said she and Netflix clearly had no choice but to delay a show that would depict the duchess celebrating her lavish, Southern California lifestyle with her celebrity friends, after so many others in Pacific Palisades and Altadena had lost everything.
Meanwhile, Harry and Meghan initially received glowing headlines for dropping into Pasadena last Friday to serve meals, leave donations and give hugs to Eaton fire survivors. But they soon began to engender harsh criticism online from actor Justine Bateman and others who were outraged that they were photographed, receiving a personal tour of burned-out neighborhoods from Pasadena’s mayor.
Bateman called them “disaster tourists” and “ambulance chasers.” TMZ founder Harvey Levin and his producers also lambasted the couple on their show earlier this week. “I find it crazy that there are people, most people cannot get into these areas, especially in Altadena and don’t even know if their homes are still there,” Levin said. “For Meghan and Harry to show up from Montecito, and they get a tour? For what purpose?”
Executive producer Charles Latibeaudiere agreed that it seemed like “an ill use of resources,” while senior news producer Charlie Neff said their visit isn’t “sitting well with people in the community…. To be going there doing that feels not genuine and not necessary.”
It remains to be seen whether the “disaster tourist” criticism will stick. But the Vanity Fair story raises questions about their marriage, with Harry depicted as a naive, lonely figure who has failed to make many friends in American and is desperate to reconnect with his family. One source suggested that he did not necessarily realize the damage his tell-all memoir, “Spare,” would have on his relationships with his family. He’s also described as having such a strange, privileged upbringing that he doesn’t “know what life really is” or understand the idea of having to earn a living.
And, the story could also revive Meghan’s alleged bullying controversy. Her representatives initially brushed off the 2021 TImes UK report as part of a “calculated smear campaign,” hatched by a royal establishment and British press that had grown hostile to her. The bullying allegations seemed to die down after Buckingham Palace said in 2022 that it would not release the findings of an internal investigation in Meghan’s alleged bullying.
But The Hollywood Reporter resurrected the issue with a scathing report in September, in which one source said that Meghan “belittles people,” doesn’t take advice and is a “dictator in high heels” who fumes and barks out orders. Both she and Harry are “poor decision-makers,” a source also said, which would explain why the two only managed to produce one 12-episode podcast after two years and a reported $20 million contract. The Daily Beast followed up with another report that quoted employees who described her as “a demon” who had “psycho moments.”
For its report, Vanity Fair talked to people who had good experiences working with Meghan, including producer Jane Marie, who tried to help them develop podcasts for their Archewell productions. “She’s just a lovely, genuine person,” Marie said about Meghan.
Peele, the Vanity Fair writer, tried to offer a sympathetic take on why Meghan might have trouble managing employees or have a chip on her shoulder about people judging her or looking down on her. It goes back to when she claims she was an outsider in high school, Peele noted.
“Is it any surprise that a sense of victimhood and righteousness could continue to exist in a person who had been treated so horribly by the press and her husband’s family?” Peele wrote.
Meghan also may view certain people as enemies or interlopers, and not just “the loathsome” media or “her pitiable father and half sister,” who sold stories about her to the tabloids, Peele said. Meghan’s perceived enemies also could be professionals who work for her, from palace aides to those who “actually knew how to make a podcast,” Peele suggested. She might begin to see them as more powerful than she is, “despite her immense fame and wealth and privilege, “Peele wrote.
“And then whatever happened to them, well…they shouldn’t have gotten between Meghan and her good work,” Peele concluded.
The 2025 NFL playoffs continue this week with the 2025 Divisional Round NFL schedule, featuring two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday. Top AFC seed Kansas City hosts No. 4 seed Houston at 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, followed by top NFC seed Detroit vs. Washington at 8 p.m. ET. The Chiefs are 8.5-point favorites in the Divisional Round NFL odds, up one from the opener, while the Lions are 9.5-point favorites with an over under of 55.5. Texans running back Joe Mixon is questionable with an ankle injury, but will reportedly play. Which Divisional Round NFL spreads should you include in your Divisional Round NFL bets?
The No. 2 seed Eagles are 6-point favorites against the Rams on Sunday (3 p.m. ET) with an over-under of 43.5, while the weekend concludes with an AFC showdown between the No. 2 seed Bills (+1, 51.5) and No. 3 seed Ravens on CBS and Paramount+. Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson have been the top two MVP candidates this season. Before locking in any Divisional Round NFL picks or NFL prop bets, be sure to check out the Divisional Round NFL best bets and predictions from SportsLine’s red-hot Vegas experts.
SportsLine has more than 40 hand-picked Vegas experts who excel in multiple spots. The NFL, however, is a strength for the site as SportsLine currently has five total experts who are on NFL runs that have returned $1,700 or more for $100 players and one who has returned more than $2,600. Anybody following has seen huge returns.
Now, with the Divisional Round NFL schedule quickly approaching, SportsLine’s top NFL experts are already locking in their picks. Go to SportsLine to see them all now.
Top Divisional Round NFL expert picks from Jason La Canfora
La Canfora has been covering the NFL since 2004 and spent 10 years as CBS’s NFL Insider for “THE NFL TODAY” and across all platforms. He continues to cover the NFL as an analyst and insider for The Washington Post and gather information from a plethora of sources throughout the game. La Canfora is 9-7 (+493) in his last 16 NFL ML picks and has already locked in picks for multiple games throughout the weekend.
One bet that La Canfora has already placed is the Lions (-9.5, 55.5) to cover against the Commanders on Saturday. The Lions have been a dominant team throughout the season, and the Commanders have a rookie quarterback going on the road in a massive playoff game. La Canfora has also locked in a pair of anytime touchdown scorer bets for that game. See all of La Canfora’s picks here.
Top Divisional Round expert NFL picks from Matt Severance
Severance is a well-connected writer and high-volume handicapper who has worked in the industry since 2005. After joining SportsLine, Severance quickly established himself as a top expert in multiple sports. He went 121-93-2 (plus $589) during the 2023 NFL season, and he is 36-12 (+1738) in his last 48 NFL ML picks.
He has already placed his bet for the Lions (-9.5, 55.5) vs. Commanders on Saturday. Detroit closed the regular season on a three-game winning streak, clinching the No. 1 seed in the NFC with a 31-9 win over Minnesota in Week 18. Washington is riding a six-game hot streak after beating Tampa Bay in the wild-card round. Severance placed an early bet on a team total for this showdown. See the rest of Severance’s picks here.
Top Divisional Round NFL expert picks from R.J. White
White is a Fantasy and gambling editor for CBS Sports, consistently crushing against-the-spread picks by going 643-543-34 on his ATS betting picks from 2017-23, which returned more than $4,600 to $100 players. He also went 101-84-4 (+1366) on all NFL spread picks last season. Additionally, White is 18-8 (+987) in his last 26 NFL picks.
He has locked in his bet for the Eagles vs. Rams (+6, 43.5) on Sunday. Philadelphia maintained its momentum with a 22-10 win over Green Bay last week, as running back Saquon Barkley had 119 rushing yards on 25 carries. Los Angeles is coming off an impressive performance of its own, cruising to a 27-9 win over Minnesota as a 2-point underdog. White thinks one stat from last week is being overlooked, creating value on one side of this spread. See the rest of White’s picks here.
Top Divisional Round NFL expert picks from Mike Tierney
Tierney has covered the NFL for decades and reported from seven Super Bowls. He is 154-124-9 in the NFL the past two seasons, returning $1,586 to $100 players (every bet one unit). Tierney enters the Divisional Round on a 59-36-3 run in his last 98 NFL ATS bets (+1917).
The veteran sportswriter has already placed his bet on the Bills vs. Ravens (-1, 51.5) showdown on Sunday. This game has all the makings of a classic, as Allen and Jackson are both looking to win a Super Bowl to cap off MVP-caliber seasons. Buffalo is coming off a 31-7 win over Denver, while Baltimore cruised to a 28-14 win over Pittsburgh. Tierney thinks injuries are going to play a pivotal role in the result of this game. You can find all of Tierney’s picks here.
How to make Divisional Round NFL against the spread picks
SportsLine’s team of experts also includes Larry Hartstein, whose NFL best bets column has hit at a strong 62% clip since its inception in 2022. He has been red-hot with NFL prop bets, going 146-102 (+2108) in his last 248 picks at SportsLine. This week, Hartstein is targeting a first-half prop bet, targeting a team that has come out “strong” against “elite” teams. Anyone who backs this prop could hit it big. You can find out who his NFL picks are this weekend here.
Figuring out how to win in the Big Ten was something that always seemed to escape the Gophers men’s basketball team, but the players never stop believing it would come.
Gophers fans also sensed something might be different Thursday night as the game came down to the final stretch against No. 20 Michigan.
With no timeouts in the waning seconds of a tied game in overtime, Lu’Cye Patterson took the inbounds pass and raced past midcourt. He wasn’t open, though, so he kicked the ball back to Dawson Garcia.
Garcia did just about everything for his team, so why not hit a buzzer-beater, too?
Garcia’s logo shot from a few steps inside the halfcourt line gave the Gophers their first Big Ten victory this season and first ranked victory under fourth-year coach Ben Johnson, 84-81 in overtime over the Wolverines in front of announced crowd of 8,877 at Williams Arena.
“Just a lot of emotions in how bad we wanted to win and seeing it come into fashion like that,” said Garcia, who had 27 points and 12 rebounds, including the tying free throws with 7.4 seconds left in regulation. “Lu’Cye trusts me to knock down the shot. Really just thankful for my teammates and God that I’m in that position.”
Danny Wolf’s layup tied the score for Michigan at 81-81 with 7 seconds left in OT, but Garcia wouldn’t let the Gophers lose. The 6-11 senior was swarmed by fans and his teammates after probably the biggest shot of his college career.
Patterson added 22 points and Mike Mitchell 20 for the Gophers, who only led for 8 minutes, 4 seconds. But they never trailed in OT, with Garcia calling for the ball as Patterson dribbled down the court on the game’s final possession.
Figuring out how to win in the Big Ten was something that always seemed to escape the Gophers men’s basketball team, but the players never stop believing it would come.
Gophers fans also sensed something might be different Thursday night as the game came down to the final stretch against No. 20 Michigan.
With no timeouts in the waning seconds of a tied game in overtime, Lu’Cye Patterson took the inbounds pass and raced past midcourt. He wasn’t open, though, so he kicked the ball back to Dawson Garcia.
Garcia did just about everything for his team, so why not hit a buzzer-beater, too?
Garcia’s logo shot from a few steps inside the halfcourt line gave the Gophers their first Big Ten victory this season and first ranked victory under fourth-year coach Ben Johnson, 84-81 in overtime over the Wolverines in front of announced crowd of 8,877 at Williams Arena.
“Just a lot of emotions in how bad we wanted to win and seeing it come into fashion like that,” said Garcia, who had 27 points and 12 rebounds, including the tying free throws with 7.4 seconds left in regulation. “Lu’Cye trusts me to knock down the shot. Really just thankful for my teammates and God that I’m in that position.”
Danny Wolf’s layup tied the score for Michigan at 81-81 with 7 seconds left in OT, but Garcia wouldn’t let the Gophers lose. The 6-11 senior was swarmed by fans and his teammates after probably the biggest shot of his college career.
Patterson added 22 points and Mike Mitchell 20 for the Gophers, who only led for 8 minutes, 4 seconds. But they never trailed in OT, with Garcia calling for the ball as Patterson dribbled down the court on the game’s final possession.
A woman carries a child as she shops at a New Year bazaar set up for the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, in Beijing on Jan. 13.
Andy Wong/AP
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Andy Wong/AP
TAIPEI, Taiwan — China’s population fell last year for the third straight year, its government said Friday, pointing to further demographic challenges for the world’s second most populous nation, which is now facing both an aging population and an emerging shortage of working age people.
China’s population stood at 1.408 billion at the end of 2024, a decline of 1.39 million from the previous year.
The figures announced by the government in Beijing follow trends worldwide, but especially in East Asia, where Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and other nations have seen their birth rates plummet. China three years ago joined Japan and most of Eastern Europe among other nations whose population is falling.
The reasons are in many cases similar: Rising costs of living are causing young people to put off or rule out marriage and child birth while pursuing higher education and careers. While people are living longer, that’s not enough to keep up with rate of new births.
Countries such as China that allow very little immigration are especially at risk.
China has long been among the world’s most populous nations, enduring invasions, floods and other natural disasters to sustain a population that thrived on rice in the south and wheat in the north. Following the end of World War II and the Communist Party’s rise to power in 1949, large families re-emerged and the population doubled in just three decades, even after tens of millions died in the Great Leap Forward that sought to revolutionize agriculture and industry and the Cultural Revolution that followed a few years later.
After the end of the Cultural Revolution and leader Mao Zedong’s death, Communist bureaucrats began to worry the country’s population was outstripping its ability to feed itself and began implementing a draconian “one child policy.” Though it was never law, women had to apply for permission to have a child and violators could face forced late-term abortions and birth control procedures, massive fines and the prospect of their child being deprived an identification number, effectively making them non-citizens.
Rural China, where the preference for male offspring was especially strong and two children were still ostensibly allowed, became the focus of government efforts, with women forced to present evidence they were menstruating and buildings emblazoned with slogans such as “have fewer children, have better children.”
The government sought to stamp out selective abortion of female children, but with abortions legal and readily available, those operating illicit sonogram machines enjoyed a thriving business.
That has been the biggest factor in China’s lopsided sex ratio, with as many as millions more boys born for every 100 girls, raising the possibility of social instability among China’s army of bachelors. Friday’s report gave the sex imbalance as 104.34 men to every 100 women, though independent groups give the imbalance as considerably higher.
More disturbing for the government was the drastically falling birthrate, with China’s total population dropping for the first time in decades in 2023 and China being narrowly overtaken by India as the world’s most populous nation in the same year. A rapidly aging population, declining workforce, lack of consumer markets and migration abroad are putting the system under severe pressure.
While spending on the military and flashy infrastructure projects continues to rise, China’s already frail social security system is teetering, with increasing numbers of Chinese refusing to pay into the underfunded pension system.
Already, more than one-fifth of the population is aged 60 or over, with the official figure given as 310.3 million or 22% of the total population. By 2035, this number is forecast to exceed 30%, sparking discussion of changes to the official retirement age, which one of the lowest in the world. With fewer students, some vacant schools and kindergartens are meanwhile being transformed into care facilities for older people.
Such developments are giving some credence to the aphorism that China, now the world’s second largest economy but facing major headwinds, will “grow old before it grows rich.”
Government inducements including cash payouts for having up to three children and financial help with housing costs have had only temporary effects.
Meanwhile, China continued its transition to an urban society, with 10 million more people moving to cities for an urbanization rate of 67%, up almost a percentage point from the previous year.
A Pakistani court on Friday sentenced the country’s already-imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife to 14 and seven years in jail after finding them guilty of corruption, officials and his lawyer said.
The couple are accused of accepting a gift of land from a real estate tycoon in exchange for laundered money when Khan was in power.
Prosecutors say the businessman, Malik Riaz, was then allowed by Khan to pay fines that were imposed on him in another case from the same laundered money of 190 million British pounds ($240 million) that was returned to Pakistan by British authorities in 2022 to deposit to the national exchequer.
Khan has denied wrongdoing and insisted since his arrest in 2023 that all the charges against him are a plot by rivals to keep him from returning to office.
Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in parliament in April 2022, had previously been convicted on charges of corruption, revealing official secrets and violating marriage laws in three separate verdicts and sentenced to 10, 14 and seven years respectively. Under Pakistani law, he is to serve the terms concurrently — meaning, the length of the longest of the sentences.
People living near a power plant in Central California were ordered to evacuate their homes Thursday night after a fire broke out at the facility, officials said.
Fire crews were battling the blaze at the Moss Landing Power Plant, which serves as a battery storage site, a spokesperson for the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office told CNN.
The incident is not connected to the wildfires in the Los Angeles area, and efforts to contain the blaze are ongoing, the spokesperson confirmed.
The fire erupted at the facility around 3 p.m., and evacuation orders were issued around 6:30 p.m. due to concerns over hazardous materials and potential chemical releases, the sheriff’s office spokesperson said without detailing which materials were causing concern. More than 2,000 people were told to evacuate, the spokesperson said.
The sheriff’s office deployed drones to assess the severity of the situation and monitor air quality, Monterey County Spokesperson Nicholas Pasculli told CNN. Emergency services, including sheriff’s deputies and medical teams, were fully mobilized, Pasculli added.
The fire is active with no suppression efforts underway, and firefighters believe the best course of action is to allow it to burn, the sheriff’s office spokesperson said. Drone footage revealed approximately 40% of the building housing lithium-ion batteries on the property has been consumed by flames, the spokesperson said.
CNN reached out to the North County Fire Protection District of Monterey for details.
CNN reached out to Vistra Energy for comment.
The company confirmed to CNN affiliate KSBW its personnel called for assistance from the North Monterey County Fire District after a fire was detected in the 300-MW Phase I energy storage facility. All site personnel were safely evacuated, Vistra told KSBW. “The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but an investigation will begin once the fire is extinguished,” the company said.
The Moss Landing Power Plant, about 77 miles south of San Francisco, is owned by Texas-based Vistra Energy and houses tens of thousands of lithium batteries. While the US Department of Energy states these batteries play a crucial role in storing electricity generated from renewable sources like solar power, the US Fire Administration warns firefighters should be cautious of potential chemical exposure during firefighting operations as lithium-ion batteries contain volatile electrolytes, and when exposed to high temperatures or physical damage can release flammable gases.
All North Monterey County Unified School District schools and offices will be closed on Friday due to the ongoing fire at the battery plant, according to a statement. The district serves more than 4,500 K-12 students, and covers a 70 square-mile area that includes neighborhoods in Castroville, Prunedale, Moss Landing, Aromas and parts of Salinas, its website says.
Santa Cruz County Public Health officials advised residents to stay indoors, keep windows and doors closed, turn off ventilation systems and limit outdoor exposure. Santa Cruz is north of Monterey.
To assist evacuees, the Castroville Rec Center has been designated a temporary evacuation point, according to the sheriff’s office.
The National Weather Service Bay Area shared satellite images of the fire on X, highlighting visible heat signatures from the blaze.
Officials have not determined when the evacuation order will be lifted.
The area is adjacent to major ecosystems, including the Moss Landing Wildlife Area, Elkhorn Slough State Marine Reserve and Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.
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