The Brief

Even as some scientists search for signs of life beyond Earth, other researchers have been discovering new species on our own humble planet faster than ever before.

From high up in the mountains to the deep sea, take a tour across the world to meet five new species discovered in 2025.

An ancient sea cow in the Persian Gulf

Qatar Museums staff and colleagues visit the excavation site of Salwasiren qatarensis, a 21-million-year-old sea cow species.

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Nicholas D. Pyenson

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Smithsonian

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Cows often get a bad rap for contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, but a newly discovered species of their ocean counterparts suggests that sea cows have been key contributors to a natural climate change solution for the past 21 million years.

This long-extinct sea cow's fossil remains were discovered in Al Maszhabiya, Qatar, which is now known to be the richest fossil sea cow deposit in the world. Like today's manatees and dugongs, it mainly grazed on seagrass and was considered an "ecosystem engineer" in the coastal waters of the Persian Gulf, where it primarily lived.

With their fleshy muzzles, these mammals would browse the seafloor, grab the plants, and use their tusks to snip the roots and eat them. In the process, they lift up nutrients from the seafloor that would otherwise be buried, which other animals in the ecosystem can use. These nutrients, in addition to the sea cow's excrement, help cultivate a healthier and more diverse ecosystem.

"Supporting seagrass communities through ecosystem engineering is a great natural climate solution, because seagrass communities store an incredible amount of carbon," says Nicholas Pyenson, curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

The name of the new species, Salwasiren qatarensis, honors the fossil's discovery site in Qatar, and the Bay of Salwa in the Persian Gulf, where the largest herd of dugongs can be found today. But Pyenson says Salwa, an Arabic word which roughly translates to "solace," is also a nod to the potential for the new species to "elevate the visibility and protection of natural heritage," adding that "natural heritage doesn't actually, in all cases, respect geopolitical boundaries."

Pyenson is referring to the fact that the seagrass meadow in the Bay of Salwa spans the coasts of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. His colleagues are currently in the process of applying for UNESCO World Heritage status to protect the region.

"This is a great example of science diplomacy," Pyenson says, "where data sharing, making data open access and available when you publish, has the potential to actually form a metaphorical bridge between countries that maybe have not historically seen eye to eye."

You can see a 3D model of the sea cow fossil here.

A mini marsupial in the Andes Mountains

This new species of mouse opossum, called Marmosa chachapoya, has bright reddish fur and a long and delicate snout which distinguishes it from its closest relatives.

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Pedro Peloso

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A beady-eyed mouse opossum living high up in the Peruvian Andes wasn't what Silvia Pavan initially set out to find during her expedition in Río Abiseo National Park, but the new species gives yet another reason why this special region is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Pavan, an assistant professor at Cal Poly Humboldt, was on the hunt for a specific squirrel species when she and her colleagues came across an animal they eventually named Marmosa chachapoya to honor the Chachapoya people who formerly occupied the area.

The tiny marsupial (which, despite its scientific name, is not a marmoset) was the first small mammal that the researchers collected on their trip. While the animal looked a lot like a mouse opossum, its long and delicate snout and home high in the mountains set it apart from other marmosa species. But once Pavan brought the samples back, DNA analysis — coupled with a close examination of its skull — proved that this was indeed a new species.

The high-altitude area of the mountains where the expedition took place is difficult to access, but Pavan says these underexplored areas are even more important to study: "We do not know yet completely what we have, and it highlights how much we still need to explore and study the area, and how unique and important [it] is for biodiversity."

With the threat of climate change and human impact, Pavan says, "the species are being lost before we know they exist."

On this trip alone, the team of researchers collected roughly 100 different specimens that they are continuing to identify.

An undercover spider in Northern California

Marshal Hedin discovered this brown spider, Siskiyu armilla, along the river near where he grew up.

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Marshal Hedin

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Marshal Hedin was walking along the river near where he grew up in Northern California when he came across a spider he hadn't seen before. Fifteen years later, the professor of biology at San Diego State University finally got to identify it as a new species of an entirely new genus, which he named after his home of Siskiyou County.

Brown spider species like Siskiyu armilla are very difficult to tell apart using only their physical characteristics. Many species look similar because they live in the same kind of habitat: under rocks or in other dark, humid places.

To make sure the spider Hedin found was genetically different from existing species, he and his colleagues decided to perform a DNA analysis. So he returned to the river to search for a new specimen of the rare spider (and brought his son along with him, too).

Coauthor Rodrigo Monjaraz Ruedas, an assistant curator of entomology at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles who focused on the DNA analysis, was surprised to find that there was such a huge diversity of spider species in the area.

He says that if we simply assume that spiders that look similar are the same species without actually examining their DNA, "we're going to be missing a lot of the actual diversity these spiders have."

California plays an especially important role in this diversity, according to Monjaraz Ruedas. As part of a project from the California Institute of Biodiversity, which hasn't yet been published, he has found that close to 40% of the total number of described species of spiders in the U.S. can be found in the state.

Hedin, who was once oblivious to the diversity of species his home boasts, says that this journey has brought him full circle: "Now I know that it's a very unique place." He hopes that this discovery shows the other folks living along the river how special their home is.

And "this is just the tip of the iceberg," Monjaraz Ruedas says, because they're still examining 40 to 50 other spiders that might also be new species.

A smiley snailfish from the deep sea

The bumpy snailfish, Careproctus colliculi, was officially described by MBARI researchers this year.

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MBARI

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Nearly 11,000 feet into the deep sea, scientists discovered a new species that caught the attention — and affection — of viewers from around the world. The bumpy snailfish was captured on video by researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute during their expedition off the shores of Central California — and with its big eyes, feathery fins and a mouth bearing the suggestion of a smile, it was an instant hit.

To help determine if the floppy pink sea creature was new or one of the 400 existing species of snailfish, they assembled a team of scientists, including Mackenzie Gerringer, an associate professor of biology at the State University of New York at Geneseo.

Even though Gerringer has "never met a snailfish [she] didn't love," she knows that the deep sea, where some of the species live, is seen as a bit of an alien environment by many people, which can come with a negative connotation.

She says the new species can help people question their assumptions about the deep sea because "you're left with these fishes that are, in my opinion, quite cute, and they really look quite fragile in an environment that we think of as being very harsh."

The research team also identified two other species of snailfish, which Gerringer says highlights just how much there still is to learn about the deep sea.

While discovering a new species can be very exciting, Gerringer believes the importance of the practice goes beyond that.

"It's critical to know who is in these ecosystems, so that we can understand how they're working, so that we can protect habitats like the deep sea that we know play hugely important roles," she says. Some of those roles, including the deep sea's ability to store enormous amounts of carbon, are especially important given the threat of climate change.

Live-birthing toads in Tanzania

Scientists have described three toad species in Tanzania, including the Luhomero Glandular Tree Toad (Nectophrynoides luhomeroensis), that give birth to live young — a rare phenomenon among frogs and toads.

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John Lyakurwa

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Many people remember learning about the typical life cycle of frogs and toads in elementary school: Eggs turn into tadpoles, which eventually become adults. But scientists have found three new species of toads in Tanzania that do something very unusual: they give birth to live young.

Another striking thing about these new species, which are all part of the genus Nectophrynoides: The journey to discover them took over 100 years. The first toad in this genus was described in the early 1900s, and because all the specimens collected looked so similar, they were all thought to belong to a singular species.

But Christoph Liedtke, an academic researcher from the Spanish National Research Council who has spent the last decade studying these toads, wondered whether there was more biodiversity in the highlands of the Eastern Arc mountains of Tanzania than previously thought. So he and his colleagues tried to see if there was more than one species in the Nectophrynoides genus.

This was no easy task because many of the specimens they needed to examine and compare to modern-day samples were collected before the time of DNA sequencing. Coauthor John Lyakurwa, an assistant lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, says that the process was like a "big puzzle that we had to solve."

So they teamed up with researchers from Denmark and Belgium to extract DNA from over 200 museum specimens. From there, they used next-generation sequencing to identify three new species in the genus, which was more than previously thought.

It's not clear how these toads will fare in the future. Like many species, their populations are in decline, with one species already extinct and others not being spotted for the past 20 years. For his PhD thesis, Lyakurwa has been focusing on understanding why these toad populations have been shrinking. Especially because of their unusual method of reproduction, he stresses that "if we lose them, we lose a very big evolutionary history."

Copyright 2025 NPR

James L. Jones Jr., 69, a self-described “community pastor” and a tireless advocate for Black communities in Los Angeles, was an enthusiastic supporter of Karen Bass’ mayoral bid in 2022, when she made history as the first woman, and first Black woman, to be elected L.A. mayor.

As Bass seeks reelection, Jones is supporting her again. Despite the political turmoil and criticism she has faced during her first term, Jones, known as Reverend JJ, believes she has a plan for Black progress that may not be evident, but is long range and strategic.

“I believe that in my heart of hearts, Karen’s not one of those people who follows polls,” said Jones. “In the end she’ll do what’s right for the people.”

When Angelenos elected Bass four years ago, she seemed like the right person to bridge the ideals of the post-George Floyd era and whatever moment was coming next. She was a seasoned politician — a former state legislator, congresswoman and native Angeleno with a history of grassroots organizing and coalition building in a city that was leaning more progressive.

But in 2022, there was trouble on the horizon. The nation’s Floyd-inspired reexamination of racial equity was losing ground to a growing MAGA backlash that had helped kill a major federal bill to reform policing, among other initiatives. Big blue cities like Los Angeles that had seen big protests for racial justice were being cast as chaotic and ungovernable.

Four years later, the ideals that propelled Bass’ election have taken a beating. Trump’s return to the White House has elevated long-simmering anti-“wokeness” and white resentment into federal policy. And the administration has focused special ire on California and Los Angeles, where Bass is in charge of the nation’s largest city currently led by a Black mayor.

Bass is taking a beating too. As she seeks reelection in the June 2 primary, the mayor is weathering criticism from many sides that she’s done too little about everything, from the homelessness and housing crisis that she made a signature issue to her response to the epic January 2025 wildfire that destroyed thousands of homes in Pacific Palisades, one of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods.

Despite facing more voter uncertainty this time around, Bass is leading in the polls, with 30% support among likely voters, according to the latest survey by Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics. While Bass’ support has jumped 10 points since March, she would have to get more than 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff with the other top vote-getter in November.

Her most formidable challengers in the crowded primary are Councilwoman Nithya Raman, a Democratic socialist to Bass’ left who is campaigning on housing affordability and a host of other progressive causes, and Spencer Pratt, a former reality show star with no political experience who skews conservative and touts cleaning up crime and homelessness. A former Bass ally, Raman pledges to do better than the mayor on reducing homelessness and increasing new housing production; Pratt decries corrupt leadership and talks chiefly about making L.A. great again, a la MAGA. Pratt and Raman are polling at 22% and 19%, respectively.

Missing from all the criticism of how Bass has fallen short is how or whether her election has benefited L.A.’s Black community. It’s a population that is rapidly continuing to dwindle — to roughly 8% today from a peak of 18% in 1970 — besieged by gentrification, stratospheric housing costs, underemployment and shrinking political representation, all of it aggravated by the racial hostility emanating from Washington. That norm-shattering phenomenon has tended to eclipse discussion of racial crises happening locally, with good reason. But politics are still local, and many Angelenos who supported Bass in 2022 hoped that electing the second Black mayor in the city’s history would help move the needle on longstanding Black problems dating back to 1992 that have reached yet another inflection point.

But public assessments of Bass by Black leaders the last four years, including this election cycle, have been muted to nonexistent. The exception is Black Lives Matter Grassroots L.A., which has routinely taken her to task for increasing police funding instead of allocating more resources to social and other services — a core part of the post-George Floyd reforms. Observers say the reticence among Black leaders is partly due to the fact that Bass has been so inundated with crises, some not of her making — especially the Palisades fire. The view that Bass committed a fatal mistake by being on a diplomatic trip to Ghana when the fires broke out has more or less defined her politically since.

That’s unfair, said Michael Guynn, a veteran social worker and community activist who lives near Florence and Normandie avenues, a famous site of the 1992 racial unrest.

“I don’t give a damn if she was out of the country — she got back when she could,” Guynn said. “They blamed her for what the fire department was responsible for.”

Then there’s the racism that dogs Black elected officials, women in particular. Pratt, who lost his home in the Palisades fire last year, has invoked Donald Trump-like rhetoric to belittle L.A.’s first Black woman mayor. That includes an official campaign poster that depicts Bass stuffed in a trash can and says “throw out Karen Basura,” the Spanish word for trash, echoing Trump’s disparaging of Somali immigrants — a demographic that includes Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar — as “garbage.”

But the takedown isn’t only coming from the MAGA right, said Genethia Hudley-Hayes, former president of L.A.’s civilian Fire Commission and a Bass appointee who stepped down in March.

“There’s always the bigotry of, ‘We rallied around this Black woman and she hasn’t performed,’” said Hudley-Hayes. “She’s not a superwoman. That’s part of the ‘I’m mad’ vote in L.A.”

Another hurdle for Bass, Guynn said, is the unrealistic expectation that she would dramatically reduce or even eliminate homelessness.

“She couldn’t get a fair break because of that,” he said, adding that “everybody hates homelessness and wants it to go away, but nobody wants to do the work.”

Homelessness certainly qualifies as a Black concern: 32% of unhoused people in the city are African American, according to the city’s latest count. Bass’ signature program Inside Safe, which seeks to get people off the street and into temporary housing, has made inroads. But the mayor’s efforts have been hampered by what City Hall observers say is a larger problem of messaging, management and oversight. The scandal involving a subcontractor accused of defrauding the city’s homeless services authority of $23 million is a painful reminder of that.

Hudley-Hayes says that it points to the need for the mayor of L.A. to be a skilled executive, a skill that Bass doesn’t have, at least not yet.

“You need collaboration, which is different from coalition building, different from the activism of Community Coalition,” she said, referring to the grassroots South L.A. organization co-founded by Bass.

Deep understanding of the roles of not just the 41 city departments but of bigger entities like the county is essential not just for running the city but for effecting racial justice as well.

“Homelessness is important, but you have to ask, what are the structures that create homelessness? It’s not just a city problem but a regional problem,” said Hudley-Hayes. “Inside Safe is a program, not a strategy.”

But being a better executive wouldn’t automatically guarantee improvements for Black people. Tom Bradley, who was mayor from 1973 to 1993, is venerated both as a coalition builder and astute manager who improved many parts of the city. But he didn’t do enough for L.A.’s Black populace. While the Black middle class flourished during the Bradley years, in part because Black municipal employment flourished, the larger working class and poor in South L.A. did not.

Hudley-Hayes argues the mayor’s lack of accountability to L.A.’s Black population as a whole is longstanding, and not unique to elected officials like Bradley or Bass. Local branches of civil rights groups like the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference — which Hudley-Hayes once led — also play a part in accountability, though they have declined notably over the years. But Hudley-Hayes notes that accountability works two ways.

“Black people have individual agency, but we have to exercise it together,” she said. “We have to pool our experience. It means nothing if we don’t demand what we want.”

Even — especially — in these trying times, and in a city with as much possibility as L.A., problems notwithstanding — those demands should still matter.

Copyright Capital & Main 2026

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Walmart will likely put its tariff refunds toward lowering store prices, executives said on Thursday, as they described shoppers who are increasingly anxious about the rising cost of fuel.

In recent weeks, visitors to Walmart's gas stations have begun to fill up with fewer than ten gallons for the first time since 2022, Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey told investors on an earnings call.

"That's an indication of stress," he said.

"We see with our customers that the high-income customer is spending with confidence," Rainey added later, "while the lower-income consumer is more budget-conscious and perhaps navigating financial distress."

The U.S. government last week began refunding tariffs payments to importers that paid higher customs fees imposed by President Trump last year before the Supreme Court struck down most of them. Walmart is now the largest retailer to suggest that it will put those refunds toward potential price cuts.

"We think that the single best return that we can have on a dollar of capital right now is to investment in the customer, invest in price," Rainey said, noting that Walmart's stores and gas stations have been drawing more shoppers looking for deals. U.S. sales grew 4.1% from February through April.

Shoppers' slightly bigger tax refunds this year seem to be offsetting some of the budget pain so far. That's according to rival retailers Home Depot, Target and Lowe's, which also held earnings calls this week. Sales at all three companies grew in the latest quarter.

The latest federal data shows spending at retail stores and online grew 5.2% in April compared to a year earlier, surpassing inflation. That means people may have spent more because of higher prices, but also because they bought more things. At gas stations, spending surged a whopping 21%, driven by higher gas prices.

Walmart executives warned that persistently high gas costs would eventually drive up the prices shoppers see at stores.

The U.S. war with Iran has snarled tanker passage through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for shipments of both fuel and fertilizer needed to grow food. U.S. inflation already jumped to its highest level in three years in April, with energy prices being a big driver. The average U.S. price of regular gas on Thursday was $4.56 per gallon, according to AAA. That's up $1.38 from a year ago.

So far, major retailers have been absorbing their growing transportation and shipping costs. Walmart on Thursday reported a notable hit to its income from higher fuel expenses. Home Depot executives told investors on Tuesday that the company might use its own tariff refunds to offset its mounting fuel costs.
Copyright 2026 NPR

With less than a month before the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup kicks off, soccer fans are scrambling to grab the last remaining tickets.

At the time of publication, there are still some tickets available for the six World Cup games hosted at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

But while the Bay Area hasn’t yet experienced the kind of ticket frenzy seen in other World Cup host cities, prices are still out of reach for many fans — raising concerns about how fans looking for a bargain could fall prey to scams falsely promising far cheaper tickets.

And most recently, the World Cup’s own governing body, FIFA, has drawn scrutiny from California state officials over changes to its ticketing system — following reports from ticketholders who say they have been assigned seats in a different category than advertised when they bought their tickets through FIFA’s own online portal.

“We have laws in California against misleading or deceptive business practices,” said state Attorney General Rob Bonta, who sent a letter to FIFA last week requesting a list of ticket buyers who were assigned seats in a lower category than what they purchased. “We want to learn more from FIFA in order to assess whether what was done was lawful or not.”

Bonta also expressed concern that sky-high prices could deter people from buying a ticket through FIFA’s official website or other verified vendors. Passionate soccer fans, he said, “may go into a site that isn’t as reliable and maybe they get taken advantage of.”

An Adidas FIFA World Cup soccer ball is seen on a FIFA x NFL chair in the Media Center on Feb. 4, 2026 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

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Matthew Huang

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So how can you spot a scam when buying a World Cup ticket, or just make sure you get what you pay for?

Keep reading to learn what officials recommend about buying World Cup tickets online and what to do if you already bought a ticket on the official FIFA site but feel that the seat you were assigned does not match what you originally paid for.

And rest assured: there are still plenty of ways to watch the World Cup in the Bay Area for free — or for a fraction of the cost of a Levi’s Stadium ticket, real or fake.

Remember, if something’s too good to be true …

First off: If you’re feeling confused over what a World Cup ticket actually costs, that’s understandable, Santa Clara County Assistant District Attorney James Gibbons-Shapiro said.

For this World Cup, FIFA adopted a pricing system known as “dynamic pricing,” where the cost of a seat changes based on current demand for that specific game.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup winner’s trophy is seen on stage at the Global Citizen NOW event in New York City on May 14, 2026.

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Charly Triballeau

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Scammers often promise you “a better deal” if you make the payment using instant payment sites like Zelle, Venmo and Cash App. But fraudsters aren’t trying to save you money with this suggestion: They’re trying to make it easier for themselves to keep your money.

Talking to strangers on a resale or payments site that’s not verified puts you at greater risk of getting ripped off, Gibbons-Shapiro said. “The criminal is simply looking for someone desperate enough to go to the World Cup that they’re willing to send a lot of money right away to a total stranger,” he said.

In other words, he said: “It’s not that the country that you are supporting is going to lose — it’s going to be you that loses.”

How do I know if the World Cup tickets I’m being offered are real?

Scammers have become incredibly good at printing fake tickets that look highly realistic, Gibbons-Shapiro said. So much so, he said, that when sports fans ask him for advice on how to spot a fake ticket, he tells them that he doesn’t have any tips that reliably work — that’s how identical the scam tickets can physically appear.

The real pro tip here, Gibbons-Shapiro said, is “don’t go to the stadium to try to buy a ticket there.”

“Because the great likelihood is that you’re buying a fake ticket,” he said. “You’re not gonna be able to get in, and you’re going to lose all your money.”

Scalpers are actually not permitted on stadium grounds — and reselling tickets near the stadium is a misdemeanor crime in California.

That’s why it’s important to buy your ticket on a third-party ticket resale site that will deliver the ticket directly to you.

Footballs and jerseys are displayed during the opening day of the official 2026 FIFA World Cup merchandising store in Miami Beach, Florida, on May 18, 2026

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Platforms like WhatsApp or Facebook Marketplace usually will not verify if what’s being offered is what’s actually sold.

And even if you’re using reliable third-party sites like SeatGeek or TicketMaster, check the reseller’s refund policy to see whether they offer a guarantee regarding the authenticity and timely arrival of the tickets.

I just got scammed buying a fake World Cup ticket. What can I do?

First of all, make sure to document all your communication with the person who promised to sell you a ticket — and take screenshots of those messages in case they attempt to delete anything from their end of the conversation.

If you were scammed online or over the phone:

You can then report the situation to your local police department, as the city where you live is defined as where the crime took place.

If you bought the fake ticket in person from a scalper: 

Contact the police department of the city where the transaction took place. “If that happened right outside the stadium, that would be Santa Clara Police Department,” Gibbons-Shapiro said.

You can also file a complaint with the California Attorney General’s office or the Better Business Bureau.

Gibbons-Shapiro said his office is ready to prosecute anyone who tricks others into buying fake World Cup tickets, adding that he would consider that to be a felony.

“We have robust teams for consumer protection and theft enforcement,” he said. “We’re going to prosecute the scammers.”

I bought a ticket on the FIFA website, and I think I got seated in a different place than what I paid for.

If you bought your ticket from the online FIFA purchasing portal during the initial sales phase last October, Attorney General Bonta recommends that you keep a record of everything from that purchase. This could include, he said, “images of the map they were shown and the original receipt for the ticket that they purchased and what it says, and the existing ticket that they have.”

You can also contact Bonta’s office to share your experience.

Bonta told KQED his office is still investigating what happened during this initial ticketing phase and hopes that FIFA provides the information he has requested by the May 29 deadline. “And if they don’t, we can ratchet up the level of severity here,” he said.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta speaks at a news conference in front of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (

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“It’s not something that we want to do, but we always have an ability to send civil investigative demands or subpoenas,” Bonta said.

FIFA did not respond to a request for comment from KQED. However, the organization has told other media outlets that the initial maps consumers saw last year were meant to “provide guidance rather than the exact seat layout,” and seating arrangements could be subject to change — as happened when the organization introduced new seating categories in later phases of ticket sales.

But that could potentially be in violation of California law, Bonta said.

“The law in California is that businesses and organizations cannot justify misleading practices by pointing to the fine print or other terms that an everyday reasonable consumer would not have seen or understood,” he said. “If you’re told something, then you’re entitled to rely on the representation and to trust what you were told.”

The attorney general’s office could seek some civil penalty if its investigation concludes that the rights of California consumers were indeed violated, Bonta said. “Then we could help those individuals get the ticket that they actually purchased, not the one that they received after they were misled.”

But the investigation is still ongoing, he said.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

At the five-point intersection connecting Boyle Heights and East LA, one Memorial Day tradition has brought the communities together for 80 years.

The Memorial Day tribute at the Mexican American All Wars Memorial returns Monday, giving veterans and their families a space to honor service members of Mexican descent who died in war.

The event kicks off with a 24-hour vigil starting at 10 a.m. Sunday, when veterans will stand guard through the night ahead of Monday’s annual event.

“Memorial Day in Boyle Heights and East LA is way different than any other memorial or ceremony because there were a lot of men and women who went to World War II and Vietnam from this area,” said Joe Diaz, a co-organizer for the event.

Elected officials, including LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis, Senator Maria Elena Durazo and Council District 14 Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, are set to give remarks. LA Mayor Karen Bass is also expected to attend. 

LAPD officer and military veteran Kioni Smith is set to be the keynote speaker. A flyover from the Los Angeles Police Department Air Support Division and a colorguard performance are also scheduled. 

Cinco Puntos was the starting location of the first Chicano Moratorium, a march in protest of the Vietnam War on December 20, 1969, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy. The war memorial pays tribute to the strong presence of the veteran community on the Eastside, the L.A. Conservancy adds. 

Event Details:

The 80th Memorial Day ceremony at the Mexican-American All Wars Memorial in Boyle Heights.

Location: 3300 E. Cesar E. Chavez Avenue

Time: 10 to 11 a.m.