Robert Garrova
explores the weird and secret bits of SoCal that would excite even the most jaded Angelenos. He also covers mental health.
Published June 12, 2024 5:00 AM
The Yang family questions the LAPD's tactics that led up to the killing of Yong Yang while he was in a mental health crisis.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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Topline:
There have been 14 shootings by LAPD this year, three of which involved people the department said appeared to be dealing with mental illness or were having a mental health crisis at the time of the incident.
The latest involved 40-year-old Yong Yang, whose family said he was in crisis on May 2, when they called the county Department of Mental Health for help. Yang, they said, had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
What happened: In this case, Yong Yang's family called county authorities — not city police — on the day of the incident, seeking a type of alternative crisis response that does not necessarily involve police officers. But police were called anyway, because a clinician at the scene said Yang had tried to attack him.
Yang, who was armed with a kitchen knife, was shot and killed.
The backstory: Between January and May of this year, the county dispatched teams to nearly 11,500 calls throughout the region, about 720 of which — about 6% — resulted in a mental health worker calling law enforcement.
A recent LAist investigation found that between 2017 and 2023, 31% of shootings by L.A. city police involved a person perceived by officers to be living with mental illness or experiencing a mental health crisis, according to annual use-of-force reports.
A family mourns: Min Yang told LAist he was sorry that the family's request for help led to his son’s sudden death. He and other family members
“He didn’t know that’s going to happen. I didn’t know. He must have thought that he was well-protected in his parents’ home.”
When a Los Angeles police officer fatally shot a 40-year-old man in his parents’ Koreatown home last month, it was clear to many, including officers at the scene, that he was experiencing a mental health crisis.
Earlier that day, Yong Yang’s mother had called the L.A. County Department of Mental Healthto get help for her son, who had gone to the parents’ home because he was feeling paranoid and unsafe, according to family members. Yang’s family said he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder more than a decade ago.
The situation intensified after a worker with the Department of Mental Health — who had been dispatched to the scene — called 911, claiming Yang had attacked him.
When police arrived, they tried to get Yang to leave the apartment, but he refused, according to police. A short time later, one of the officers shot Yang, who was in his parents’ living room holding a kitchen knife.
Yang died at the scene.
So far, there have been 14 shootings by LAPD this year, three of which involved people the department said appeared to be dealing with mental illness or were having a mental health crisis at the time of the incident.
An important distinction in the Yang case is that his family called county authorities, not city police, on the day of the incident, seeking a type of alternative crisis response that does not necessarily involve police officers.
But police were called anyway.
Yong Yang pictured with his parents Myung Sook and Min Yang.
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Courtesy of the Yang family.
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“Everything went wrong. Mental health people, police, they were not in the mood to help,” Yang’s father Min Yang said in an interview with LAist. “And I was too naive and stupid that I trusted those people and put my son’s life in such a grave danger.”
The Department of Mental Health said it could not comment on the specifics of the May 2 incident because it is still under investigation. But county authorities did provide an emailed statement in which they explained that crisis teams are trained to de-escalate situations without police, but sometimes they need assistance.
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‘Everything Went Wrong’: LA Family Called County Clinicians, Not Police, During A Mental Health Crisis. It Still Ended Tragically
“In instances where de-escalation through clinical means is not possible, and the person in crisis remains an imminent threat to themselves or others, despite DMH’s efforts, law enforcement will be contacted to maintain safety and attempt to keep the peace,” the department said.
Between January and May of this year, the county dispatched teams to nearly 8,870 calls throughout the region, about 550 of which — about 6% — resulted in a mental health worker calling law enforcement.
A recent LAist investigation found that between 2017 and 2023, 31% of shootings by L.A. city police involved a person perceived by officers to be living with mental illness or experiencing a mental health crisis, according to annual use-of-force reports.
The shooting in Koreatown
Yang’s family members said they knew he was having a bipolar episode when they called for help on May 2. The night before the incident, they said, Yang was not sleeping, he spoke erratically in conversations and was possibly hearing voices.
At some point that night, the parents left and went to Min Yang’s office and later slept in their car to give their son some space to calm down, the father said.
The next day, Yong Yang’s mother, Myung Sook Yang, called the Department of Mental Health. She said she and Yang’s father were worried because Yang's condition did not seem to have improved and he seemed to not recognize her when she came to the apartment door.
Myung Sook Yang regrets calling the Department of Mental Health and believes her son was treated like a suspect rather than a patient who needed care. "There are so many mentally ill people who need help," she said. "So now, where they can get help?"
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A baby photo of twin brothers Yin and Yong Yang shortly after they arrived to the United States from South Korea.
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A clinician and a medical case worker with a Psychiatric Mobile Response Team went to the family’s home, according to the county.
According to audio released by LAPD, the clinician called 911, claiming that Yang was “very violent” and tried to attack him and Yang’s father.
Yang’s father told LAist he disputes that claim.
It’s not clear from the audio what behaviors the clinician reported to police, and no video was released that shows what happened at the Yangs’ home before police arrived.
Body-worn camera footage shows two police officers arriving on scene and speaking with Yang’s father. He tells the officers that his son needs to go to a hospital.
Myung Sook Yang and Min Yang walk into their apartment where their son Yong was killed by an LAPD officer during a mental health crisis.
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One officer asks Yong Yang to open the door to the apartment. He can be heard in the video saying, “I do not invite you.” He does not open the door.
About 20 minutes later, a supervising officer arrives and explains to Yang’s father that Yang “might get hurt” if police have to go into the apartment and forcibly detain him.
The supervisor talks to Yang through the front door. A voice responds: ”I’ve already been killed multiple times.”
Moments later, the officer says, “All right, we’re gonna have a use of force.”
Later, an officer uses a key to unlock the door. The officer pushes it open, but someone appears to be pushing the door from the other side.
Two officers eventually push the door open. They find Yang in the living room, holding a knife.
“You’re gonna get shot!” one of the officers yells, according to the video. Officers tell Yang to drop the knife.
He initially steps away from the officers but then takes a few steps toward them.
Yong Yang with his father, Min.
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Courtesy of the Yang family.
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Within 10 seconds of opening the door, an officer opens fire, hitting Yang. Police said they found narcotics at the scene, but did not provide details.
The officer was identified as Andres Lopez. It wasn’t his first shooting while on-duty. According to the county District Attorney’s Office, Lopez shot and wounded 35-year-old Nakiea Brown in 2021 outside LAPD’s Olympic station. Brown was holding a BB pellet gun at the time of the incident.
The shooting was not fatal. According to the D.A.’s Office, Brown had one prior contact with the LAPD’s Mental Evaluation Unit in May 2020.
After reviewing the incident, the District Attorney's Office determined the shooting was justified.
‘It could have been avoided’
In the interview with LAist, Yang’s family questioned why the officers did not use a bean-bag rifle, Taser or other tool to help them detain Yang without fatally shooting him.
Based on the video footage, it does not appear that police used any less-lethal weapons to try to take Yang into custody. At least one officer appears to be holding a foam projectile gun.
The LAPD has said its Mental Evaluation Unit was notified before the shooting, but it’s unclear whether a SMART unit, one of the department’s specially trained mental health crisis teams, arrived on scene. When asked for that information, the department said LAist would have to file a public records request to obtain it.
LAist has submitted that request.
Retired police Lt. Jeffrey Wenninger reviewed the LAPD’s video of the Yang shooting at the LAist’s request. He spent 30 years with the LAPD and said he has investigated hundreds of use-of-force incidents.
Wenninger commended the officers for requesting backup soon after they arrived at the scene, but he said dispatchers and officers could have asked better questions about Yang’s mental health background and what might have worked to calm him down.
Wenninger also questioned why officers decided to forcibly enter the apartment, especially because Yang was alone inside the home.
“I would say in this case, a lack of planning certainly influenced the outcome here,” he said. “It was pretty predictable to a trained eye what was going to happen.
“I 100% believe it could have been avoided.”
Ed Obayashi, a Modoc County sheriff’s deputy and use-of-force expert who advises law enforcement agencies, also reviewed the video. He told LAist he believed lethal force was justified in this case because Yang was armed with a knife. He said the allegation that the clinician was attacked also changed the scenario.
“In this situation there was an actual threat in the use of physical force, assault by the individual against innocent civilians, and at that point, yes, we need to address the situation,” Obayashi said.
The Yang family questions the LAPD's tactics that led up to the killing of Yong Yang while he was experiencing a mental health crisis.
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‘I would just suffer’
In his parent’s dining room, steps away from the living room where Yang was shot, a photo of Yong Yang and his twin brother, Yin Yang, hangs on the wall. The photo shows the two young boys sitting together in the sunlight.
“In Korean culture, they’re really big on the older brother, younger brother thing,” Yin Yang said. “They always said I’m older, because I’m two minutes [older], but in recent years he was the more respectable one.”
Yong Yang studied music production at the Musician's Institute – College of Contemporary Music in Hollywood.
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Courtesy of the Yang family.
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One of Yong Yang’s goals in life, according to his brother, was to make it as a musician and producer. He was a good singer, who loved electronic dance music. As a kid growing up in the ‘90s, he loved R&B singers, like Boyz II Men.
He attended the Musician's Institute – College of Contemporary Music in Hollywood, where he studied music production, his brother said.
Yang first started showing symptoms of mental illness about 15 years ago. His father said Yang was diagnosed with bipolar disorder around 2012.
Over the years Yang managed his bipolar diagnosis with meditation, exercise and his Christian faith, according to his family.
Yin Yang said he thinks mental health professionals and the police could have done much more to try and calm his brother down before he was shot, and he is critical of the mental health care system, which he said doesn’t offer the support people need.
Twin brothers Yong and Yin Yang as teenagers.
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"As a twin brother, it's hard. Becasue I feel like he's my other half. And it's gone, it's just taken from me," said Yin Yang.
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The brother said he thinks law enforcement too often escapes any consequences for fatally shooting someone. “And it’s usually these mentally ill people because they don’t have the ability to stand up for themselves and there’s not a lot of, like, sympathy for them in the public,” he said.
Earlier this month, Yin Yang organized a rally to call attention to the case. He also started an Instagram account to get the word out about his brother. He said many members of the Korean community in L.A. have been supportive of the family and their calls for answers from the city and county.
“As his twin brother, it’s hard. Because I feel like he’s my other half. And it’s gone, it’s just taken from me,” he said.
Yang’s father said he was sorry that his request for help led to his son’s sudden death. “He didn’t know that’s going to happen. I didn’t know. He must have thought that he was well-protected in his parents’ home,” the father said.
Yang’s mother said she thought she was doing the right thing when she called for a mental health crisis team instead of calling 911. If she had another chance, she said, he would not have called anybody for help.
“I would just suffer,” she said. “There are so many mentally ill people who need help. So now, where they can get help?”
Heavy Manners co-founder Matthew James-Wilson organizes library books in the Echo Park shop.
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Dañiel Martinez
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LAist
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Topline:
Heavy Manners Library, a multipurpose event space in Echo Park, is moving. The organization hosts classes, music shows and more.
Why now: The library is getting too big for its current space, but still wants to remain in Echo Park. Staff were able to find a place nearby.
What's next: Heavy Manners will be holding shows and workshops until the end of the month. It plans to reopen at its new location by mid-July and will hold volunteer moving days over the next two weeks.
Read on to find details …
Heavy Manners Library, a beloved multipurpose event space on Alvarado Street, is hitting a big milestone. The organization, which hosts classes, music gigs and art exhibits, has outgrown its current location.
Defying the fate that has befallen many small operations in rapidly changing neighborhoods, Heavy Manners is staying in Echo Park.
Yulia Cymbura, head librarian at Heavy Manners Library.
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Book by book
Co-founder Matthew James-Wilson came up with the idea for the space while doing research for a book he wanted to write about the evolution of art in the internet age. During the process, he had an epiphany.
Why write just one book when you can provide access to hundreds of them? Why not start a library that doubles as an art space too?
“ You could imagine a gallery show happening in a library, or you could imagine a poetry reading happening in a library,” said James-Wilson.
An illustration by artist Patrick Kyle.
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Mixed media collages from artist Patrick Kyle's "How To Be Mean" exhibit.
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The name “Heavy Manners,” James-Wilson said, pays homage to a concept in reggae music that goes back to '70s deejay Prince Far I’s album Under Heavy Manners.
“ Sort of in reference to British colonial culture imposing this etiquette, or heavy manners, on Jamaican culture,” said James-Wilson.
Heavy Manners was just a couple of shelves when it opened in 2021, but through donations by artists and community members, its stacks grew.
The library has hosted more than 1,000 events, from drawing and sewing lessons to live music shows.
A room in Heavy Manners Library where events and workshops are held.
Interior of Heavy Manners.
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A small stage where events are held.
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“The space has taught me, as long as you can keep the calendar full and you can get things that people are excited about, people will share it with more people,” James-Wilson said.
Keep the calendar full
Carly Jean Andrews has been teaching nude figure drawing at Heavy Manners since 2023.
“Yeah, you have all the knowledge in the world on the internet, but it's so much more useful to just come here and have it be really literal,” Andrews said.
Carly Jean Andrews and Bijou Karman, instructors at Heavy Manners, posing in front of one of an art show.
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Bijou Karman teaches clothed figure drawing classes and has published zines and books of her fashion drawings through Heavy Manners.
“Today, I was here hand-assembling one of the books, and Carly was very kindly helping me assemble. It's a very community-oriented space where you actually meet people and learn new things,” said Karman.
Bijou Karman's recent art book "Images De Mode" is displayed near the entrance of the library.
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Changes on the block
Heavy Manners has been looking for more room to grow its library and event offerings.
The dream was to stay in the area and keep its relationship to Echo Park, despite the changes to the neighborhood, starting with the very block where Heavy Manners sits.
A book nook with a bench and a view of the outside street.
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The nearly century-old restaurant Taix is being demolished, while Silverlake Flea, which ran out of the French Bistro’s parking lot, has moved to Atwater Village.
“ It's a construction site that may be ongoing for a long time. You can sort of feel the sense of change happening, just on our block in general,” said James-Wilson.
Heavy Manners Library, 1200 N. Alvarado St., Unit D, Los Angeles
Days & hours: Mondays, and Thursdays to Sundays, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.
Membership: $8/month or $75/year. Tickets are available for purchase for individual workshops and events
Heavy Manners Library will remain at its current location through the end of the month.
Volunteer moving days are planned for June 23, 26 and 30. Here's how to sign up.
Luckily, James-Wilson saw a nearby building on Sunset within Heavy Manners' budget and went for it. Their new home, about 400 feet away from the current location, is bigger and more wheelchair accessible. It also has an outdoor area that employees want to convert into a garden, or use for nature-oriented workshops.
Its current space won’t sit vacant though; Whammy Analog Media, a VHS video store expanding from a small backroom to a full-fledged shop, will be taking over.
A shelve with analog media available for check out.
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It takes a village
Recently, Heavy Manners put out a call for volunteers to help move its many books and zines in time for a planned mid-July reopening.
A "Free Zine Library" inside the space.
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“Because it's really close by, I'm kinda hoping to have just sort of a parade of people each carrying a box across the street,” said James-Wilson. “It takes a village to foster something like this, that is not lost on me.”
U.S. President Donald Trump pumps his fist after touring the inside of the newest aircraft in the presidential fleet at Andrews Air Force Base on Friday at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.
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Topline:
The newest Air Force One jet, gifted to President Donald Trump from the Qatari government, arrived ahead of schedule Friday to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
What's next: The VC-25B Bridge aircraft will now undertake its commissioning flights, what the Air Force calls a "final exam" for the plane. The plane was modified after serving the Qatari Head of State. "Once these flights are successfully completed, the aircraft is officially 'commissioned' into the active executive airlift fleet and becomes available for presidential missions," an Air Force press release said.
Read on ... for more on the newest presidential jet.
The newest Air Force One jet, gifted to President Donald Trump from the Qatari government, arrived ahead of schedule Friday to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
Trump also spoke standing in front of the plane, thanking the Emir of Qatar.
The president praised the workmanship of the plane, describing it as the "world's most luxurious plane." He also called it the "largest Air Force One ever built," adding, "It flies further and faster than any Air Force One."
"This plane was transformed into a flying White House at a level of luxury that nobody's ever seen before, probably even almost outside of an airplane," Trump said. "Nobody's ever seen anything like this, and in only 10 months, a timeframe no one thought possible."
The exterior of the jet is no longer light blue, silver and white — a fixture since the Kennedy administration. Trump unveiled the new red, white and blue color scheme.
"It was time for a change. … Everything was designed good. It was my taste," Trump said, saying that he approved the new color scheme, which reflects the American flag.
The VC-25B Bridge aircraft will now undertake its commissioning flights, what the Air Force calls a "final exam" for the plane. The plane was modified after serving the Qatari Head of State.
"Once these flights are successfully completed, the aircraft is officially 'commissioned' into the active executive airlift fleet and becomes available for presidential missions," an Air Force press release said.
The aircraft from Qatar will "serve as a bridge until the [long-term] VC-25B is delivered," according to earlier communications from the Air Force. The plane was delivered well before expectations. The Air Force originally estimated the plane would be delivered in 2028 but said by modifying requirements it could deliver the first aircraft in 2027. The modifications "were carefully crafted to prioritize mission over aesthetics, leaving much of the previous head of state interior layout minimally changed," the Air Force said.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach praised the delivery.
"Many thought it could not be done, but the United States Air Force was able to execute and provide a secure, reliable airborne command post on an accelerated timeline," he said.
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Vice President JD Vance has delayed his trip to Switzerland to negotiate the terms of a peace agreement with Iran on Friday. It's unclear exactly why the talks were called off at the last minute, but the delay raises questions over the sturdiness of the memorandum of understanding to end the war, signed by Trump on Wednesday.
The backstory: The short memorandum of understanding also promises to end military operations on all fronts and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway through which much of the world's oil, gas and fertilizer must pass to reach global markets. The agreement prompted President Trump to celebrate on Truth Social writing: "Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!"
What's next: The document doesn't solve the underlying reason for why the United States and Israel went to war with Iran. It creates a 60-day window — extendable by mutual agreement — for the two sides to resolve the enmity that goes back many decades.
Read on ... for more on the conflict and to read what both sides are saying about the deal.
Vice President JD Vance has delayed his trip to Switzerland to negotiate the terms of a peace agreement with Iran on Friday.
It's unclear exactly why the talks were called off at the last minute, with hundreds of journalists already waiting in the alpine city of Lucerne.
But the delay raises questions over the sturdiness of the memorandum of understanding to end the war, signed by President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
It came as Israel continued to heavily bombard Lebanon, despite the agreement promising to end all military operations, including in Lebanon.
Lebanese media said at least 18 were killed in overnight strikes, and Israel said four of its soldiers had been killed in fighting in southern Lebanon.
Here are more details about the agreement and challenges they face in this latest effort to end the conflict:
US lifts naval blockade
There was immediate progress after the preliminary agreement to end the three-and-half month conflict that has killed thousands of people across the Middle East, rocked the global economy and pushed millions more into poverty around the world, according to the United Nations.
The short memorandum of understanding also promises to end military operations on all fronts and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway through which much of the world's oil, gas and fertilizer must pass to reach global markets.
The agreement prompted President Trump to celebrate on Truth Social writing: "Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!"
But there are still many potential pitfalls. Even before the agreement was signed, Trump made its fragility clear: "It's a memorandum of understanding," he said at the G7 summit in France. "If I don't like it, if they don't behave, we'll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head."
The document doesn't solve the underlying reason for why the United States and Israel went to war with Iran. It creates a 60-day window — extendable by mutual agreement — for the two sides to resolve the enmity that goes back many decades.
Israel remains defiant against the deal
The preliminary agreement promises to end all military operations, including in Lebanon. Israel has invaded and taken large swaths of southern Lebanon in an offensive it says is targeting the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah, which has killed more than 3,800 people, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has made clear that Iran considers Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon essential. "Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end," Araghchi said.
Israel wasn't involved in the negotiations with Iran — though Trump said at a press conference this week that he had sent Israel a copy of the document before he signed it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has remained defiant, saying his troops will remain in southern Lebanon for as long as Israel's security requires it.
The conflict in Lebanon is causing an extraordinarily open rift between Trump and Netanyahu. "He's a very difficult guy," Trump said of the Israeli prime minister recently said to The New York Times.
On Thursday, Israel's military released a new map showing an expanded area of southern Lebanon occupied by its troops, which it describes as a buffer zone.
"Trump's agreement does not bind us," Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, wrote on social media on Monday. "We are not partners to this agreement that does not ensure our security."
Vice President Vance hit back at critics in the Israeli government, warning at a press conference that "Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time."
Trump signed the deal to avoid 'economic catastrophe'
The agreement promises "the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts" — including in Lebanon, where Israel has continued its offensive. Iran and the United States also promise "not to initiate" any further war or operation against each other. Not long after Trump signed the memorandum, U.S. Central Command said Thursday it had ended its naval blockade of ships to and from Iranian ports, as promised in the agreement.
Iranian state media reported the country's national security council will suspend tolls paid by ships for 60 days, per the deal, but that ships must still request Iran's permission — through a newly established Persian Gulf Strait Authority, before passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which was once considered an international waterway.
Increased ship traffic through the strait will come as a relief to Trump, whose approval ratings have been sliding as Americans see soaring gasoline prices and spiking inflation. Last month Trump insisted he doesn't think about Americans' financial situation in his approach to Iran.
But this week he acknowledged at a news conference that he had signed this agreement because he "didn't want to see an economic catastrophe."
The memorandum gives major concessions to Iran
Trump has repeatedly called the Iran nuclear deal — formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — presided over by President Barack Obama in 2015 the "worst deal ever," and Trump abandoned the agreement in his first term in office. But the framework agreement signed this week hands major financial concessions to Iran that could ultimately go much further than the Obama-era arrangement.
The document says the U.S. will work with regional partners to create a fund of "at least $300 billion" for Iran's reconstruction and economic development. Vice President Vance has said Gulf Arab nations would invest that amount.
It also promises that the U.S. will unfreeze Iranian funds and assets that amount potentially to tens of billions of dollars. Mohsen Rezaei, military adviser to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, told CNN Iran wants to see the release of $24 billion.
These commitments do depend on further negotiations. But the Trump administration also plans to issue sanction waivers to allow Iran to immediately sell its oil. The waiver concedes a major point of potential leverage at the start of these 60-day talks.
And the interim deal also opens the door to ending all U.S. and international sanctions on Iran. Iran has been under a plethora of U.S. sanctions since the 1979 Revolution. The penalties have kept Iran cut off from the global economy, preventing it, for example, from accessing the international banking sector. This new pledge goes far beyond the JCPOA deal, which removed some sanctions in exchange for Iran reducing its stockpile of uranium.
The negotiation over Iran's nuclear program
President Trump has boasted he will achieve a much "better" agreement than the JCPOA. The substantive talks on this are yet to begin, but so far, the commitment Iran has made in the memorandum that it "shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons" is the same promise it has made for years, including in the 2015 nuclear accord.
The details of Iran's nuclear program are complex and technical. The JCPOA was negotiated over years by the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Russia and China, with nuclear physicists and non-proliferation experts, and ran to 159 pages. Trump's framework was negotiated bilaterally by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — a property developer and the president's son-in-law. An Iranian diplomat who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly told NPR they believed the last round of talks with the Trump administration did not progress because "the Americans at the table did not understand the subject."
The U.S. had been negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program before abruptly launching the bombing campaign with Israel on Tehran that began this war on Feb. 28. For this latest round of talks, Witkoff and Kushner visited the national lab in Oak Ridge, Tenn., earlier this month for consultations with a team of technical experts that could play a role in nuclear negotiations with Iran.
Has Iran come out of the war stronger?
Trump began the conflict promising to set conditions for regime change in Iran. "I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand," he told Iranians in a televised address on Feb. 28. "When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take."
It was a nightmare scenario for the Iranian regime, to face down the bombardment from two of the world's most powerful militaries. The war killed more than 3,300 Iranians, according to state media, including top leaders, and pounded the country's infrastructure and armed forces. But the regime's survival, and its ability to target U.S. assets in the region and control the Strait of Hormuz, empowered Iran.
The country has learned "that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works," Bill Cassidy, Republican senator from Louisiana, said in a blistering attack on the Trump administration. He called the offensive against Iran "the worst foreign policy blunder in decades."
Iran's response forced the Trump administration to set aside the goal of regime change to focus on seeking a way to reopen the vital strait.
"The only 'achievement' of the ceasefire is the likely reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — which was open before the war started. And we will apparently pay Iran to do so," Antony Blinken, who was secretary of state under former President Joe Biden, posted on X.
Trump has countered critics by saying on social media that anyone who thinks he hasn't "been tough enough on Iran," when the stock market is high and oil prices are falling, is either jealous, bad or stupid. And Vance called on critics to "have a little bit of faith in the president of the United States."
But in a hard accounting of the war, the facts are undeniable: Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz gave it the leverage to secure from Trump concessions that unlock vast sums of money — even more, potentially, than under Obama.
And regarding Iran's nuclear program, the Iranians so far appear not to have offered Trump any more concessions than they did at the Geneva talks two days before the U.S. and Israel launched their offensive in February.
Now new negotiations are set to begin, and the Iranians will be coming to the table having shown Trump, and the world, the power they can wield over the global economy.
A National Park Service employee uses a vacuum to clean the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
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Mark Schiefelbein
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AP
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Topline:
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has witnessed more than a century of American history, in all its heartbreak and majesty. Crowds have gathered around it in protest and in praise, to denounce American wars and hear great voices sing and speak. Today, it's the center of a slimy controversy.
The backstory: President Donald Trump said in April he found the water in the reflecting pool "filthy" and "disgusting." He authorized a no-bid contract to resurface the basin of the 2,000-foot long pool and paint it "American flag blue" in time for July 4th celebrations.
What's next: A University of Virginia satellite analysis commissioned by the Washington Post saw more algae in the Reflecting Pool this month than at any other time in the past five years. The Interior Department says workers have deployed "a state-of-the-art ozone nanobubbler filtration system" to banish the algae.
Read on ... for more on the algae blooms in the Reflecting Pool.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has witnessed more than a century of American history, in all its heartbreak and majesty. Crowds have gathered around it in protest and in praise, to denounce American wars and hear great voices sing and speak.
Today, it's the center of a slimy controversy.
President Donald Trump said in April he found the water in the reflecting pool "filthy" and "disgusting." He authorized a no-bid contract to resurface the basin of the 2,000-foot long pool and paint it "American flag blue" in time for July 4th celebrations.
"I have a guy who's unbelievable at doing swimming pools," the president crowed, before the National Park Service gave out no-bid contracts for sealing and upgrades.
After weeks of renovation, the project has cost taxpayers more than $14 million and … the reflecting pool looks green. And I mean green. Like the Chicago River on St. Patrick's Day. But that river is dyed green for a day. The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is green because of algae.
Look, algae happens. It's clouded the reflecting pool since it was first filled in 1923. Algae blooms flourish when sunlight falls on warm, sluggish water — like you'd find in a shallow, still pool absorbing the glare and swelter of a Washington, D.C., summer.
But a University of Virginia satellite analysis commissioned by the Washington Post saw more algae in the Reflecting Pool this month than at any other time in the past five years.
The Interior Department says workers have deployed "a state-of-the-art ozone nanobubbler filtration system" to banish the algae.
"President Donald J. Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the reflecting pool for good," spokesperson Kate Martin said in a statement this week, "unlike the failed and extremely costly attempt by Obama and Biden."
That's a reference to a major project during President Barack Obama's first term to stop the pool from sinking and add a filtration system.
In these deeply divisive and partisan times, it's good to remind ourselves that many issues aren't just Republican red or Democratic blue. The Reflecting Pool algae doesn't care about our party lines. It's green, and it's not going anywhere.
