Good morning, it’s Wednesday already. Hallelujah. I love a four-day week.
On this day in 1945, U.S. Marines landed on a tiny volcanic island approximately 750 miles south-southeast of Tokyo, Japan. The entire thing is just 5 miles long and, at its widest, spans just 2.5 miles. All told, it has an area of about 8 square miles.
And yet, despite its small size, Iwo Jima turned out to be the site of one of the bloodiest battles in Marine Corps history and in the Pacific during all of World War II. Collectively during the 36-day battle, the Marines and Navy sustained 24,053 casualties. Of these, a total of 6,140 died – roughly 700 per square mile.
The Japanese, meanwhile, lost approximately 18,000 to 22,000 soldiers and sailors – either in the fighting or via suicide (the numbers I was able to find online differ) – with only 200 survivors.
The thousands of U.S. troops who landed on the island faced tenacious fighting from the Japanese soldiers, who were dug in on the island. Many of the dead were initially buried on Iwo Jima, though all American bodies were eventually repatriated back home and reinterred.
It might be difficult for us to look back and understand why such a massive fight occurred over such a small and uninhabited island. At the time, however, Iwo Jima was strategically important to the U.S. war effort because it provided an emergency landing strip for crippled B-29s returning from bombing runs and allowed for sea and air blockades
Many Americans are likely most familiar with the battle of Iwo Jima as a result of a famous photo taken by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal, who captured the moving – and eventually Pulitzer Prize-winning – image of five Marines and one Navy corpsman raising the flag atop Mt. Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945 – five days after the battle started.
The flag raisers were Cpl. Harlon Block, Navy Pharmacist’s Mate John Bradley, Cpl. Rene Gagnon, PFC Franklin Sousley, Sgt. Michael Strank, and Cpl. Ira Hayes. Three of them – Strank, Sousley, and Block – were killed before the battle for Iwo Jima ended.
The photograph was wired around the world, appeared in many newspapers at the time, and has been reproduced many times over since then. It was memorialized in bronze at the Marine Corps Memorial at Arlington Ridge Park in Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington.
While the statue depicts a particular moment in time during a particular battle, the memorial is dedicated to all Marines who have given their lives in defense of the United States since 1775.
As an aside, New York played a role in the creation of the statue. Felix de Weldon created a plaster model of Rosenthal’s image, using the three surviving Marines and two stand-ins as models. These plaster figures were then shipped to the Bedi-Rassy Art Foundry in Brooklyn, where they were cast in bronze over a period of three years.
Iwo Jima was returned by the U.S. to Japan in 1968. Today, the Japan, which is among America’s most important allies, has a sizable military presence on the island that includes representation from its Maritime, Ground and Air Self-Defense forces.
It will be mostly sunny and cold today, though just a touch less windy, with highs int he low 20s.
In the headlines…
President Donald Trump issued an executive order that seeks greater authority over regulatory agencies that Congress established as independent from direct White House control, part of a broader bid to centralize a president’s power over the government.
A federal judge in Washington gave Trump a victory for now when she declined to bar Elon Musk and his associates from ordering mass firings or having access to data at seven federal agencies.
The judge, Tanya S. Chutkan of the Federal District Court, wrote that a coalition of 14 state attorneys general could not provide specific examples of how Musk’s team’s efforts would cause imminent or irreparable harm to the states or their residents.
A federal judge sparred with the Justice Department over the breadth of Trump’s executive order to bar transgender people from serving openly in the military during a contentious hearing yesterday.
During the first day of arguments in a hearing that will last at least another day, Judge Ana Reyes picked apart the Trump administration’s arguments that the executive order in and of itself is not a ban on transgender military service.
Nearly 170 employees at the National Science Foundation (NSF) who were still on probation were fired by the Trump administration yesterday, union officials said.
The cuts at the agency responsible for funding scientific research hit more than 10 percent of their staff, with 168 fired out of roughly 1,500 career employees.
The reductions at the foundation, which supports cutting-edge research, came as the nation’s health and science agencies were reeling from other significant cuts.
Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency has asked the Pentagon to provide it with the names of all probationary employees at the Defense Department, according to three senior military officials.
DOGE published a list of government contracts it has canceled, together amounting to about $16 billion in savings itemized on a new “wall of receipts” on its website. Almost half is attributed to a single ICE contract that is actually $8 million, not $8 billion.
JFK’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, wrote in a social media post that an official with the National Archives and Records Administration, which oversees presidential libraries, had instructed the Kennedy Library to fire probationary staff members.
The firings caused the library to temporarily close, though the National Archives said it would reopen today.
The Senate confirmed investment banker and crypto advocate Howard Lutnick as Secretary of Commerce in a 51-45 vote. He will now oversee key economic and trade policies, including broadband expansion, AI, and semiconductor development within the U.S.
Kash Patel cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate yesterday in his bid to become the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, clearing the way for a possible vote on his once-dicey nomination to lead the embattled bureau as soon as this week.
Pope Francis has developed pneumonia in both his lungs and will remain in the hospital as he battles the infection, according to reports. The pontiff’s condition is complicated by his advanced age; he turned 88 in December.
In an update on his status last night, the Vatican said that the pope’s clinical condition “continued to present a complex picture” and that his treatment would be modified, but he is nevertheless in “good spirits.”
As Pope Francis, the oldest pope in over a century, continues to decline in health, speculation is percolating as to who will next be elected as the most powerful Catholic in the world.
The Court of Appeals ruled 4-3 that formation of the state ethics commission wasn’t unconstitutional, overturning two lower court rulings in a long-running legal battle between ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the panel that investigated his $5.1 million book deal.
The ruling clears the way for the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government to resume its investigation into Cuomo. Cuomo spokesperson, Rich Azzopardi, said the former governor and potential mayoral candidate will ask the court to reconsider.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is poised to call in the National Guard as labor strikes at state prisons expanded to more than two dozen facilities, creating an increasingly dire situation that has resulted in officers showing up for work and being forced work overtime.
The governor pledged to mobilize the soldiers to “secure our correctional facilities” if the work stoppages aren’t ended, calling the strikes “illegal and unlawful” and directing her administration to meet with union leadership.
The disruptive work stoppages — which are illegal under New York law and could lead to severe consequences for individuals and unions that participate in them — occurred at the state prisons in Collins and Elmira and triggered a cancellation of visitation.
A federal judge ordered embattled New York Mayor Eric Adams, his attorneys, and Department of Justice prosecutors to appear in court this afternoon to explain the DOJ’s controversial request to dismiss criminal corruption charges against Adams.
Manhattan U.S. District Judge Dale Ho’s order suggests he won’t rubber stamp the highly unusual dismissal request, which sparked concerns that the DOJ struck a deal with Adams to toss the case in exchange for his cooperation with Trump’s immigration orders.
Ho wrote in his order that Adams, his lawyers and prosecutors should be prepared to discuss prosecutors’ rationale for seeking to dismiss the case, the reasons for Adams’ agreement to do so and the procedure for resolving the motion.
New York Democrats are grappling with how best to handle Adams as calls mount for his resignation amid fallout from the Justice Department moving to drop corruption charges against him.
Hochul will wait for a federal judge’s upcoming decision in Adams’ corruption case before she potentially takes the extraordinary step of removing the mayor, said the Rev. Al Sharpton Sharpton after a high-stakes meeting inside the governor’s Manhattan office.
Amid increasing calls to remove Adams from office, Hohul is weighing a complicated set of considerations.
LG Antonio Delgado called Adams “compromised” during an MSNBC appearance.
City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is running for mayor, threatened to convene an “inability committee” that would consider whether to remove Adams, setting up a clash over the obscure measure originally intended to address medical emergencies.
Some New York Democrats are urging Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to toss her hat into the mayoral race as embattled Mayor Adams faces increasing calls for his resignation — all the while Cuomo has snagged another local club’s endorsement.
Adams has chosen Kaz Daughtry, a deputy police commissioner known for his combative social media presence and close relationship with the mayor, to be deputy mayor for public safety after Chauncey Parker resigned along with three others.
The president of New York University’s College Republicans was forced to resign for calling Barron Trump “an oddity on campus” — with the group then asking the first son to join it in “shaping the future of our party.”
“I’ve been killing myself trying to support the conservative movement,” said Kaya Walker, a senior, who now regrets stepping down from her post. “Everybody knows that it’s an uphill battle being a Republican at NYU.
Advocates seeking to save the beloved Elizabeth Street Garden filed a federal lawsuit against the city, claiming the green space should be spared from demolition because it’s an irreplaceable “work of art” in the Big Apple.
An anti-Israel protest erupted into violence and mayhem as a swarm of demonstrators flooded a primarily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn last night.
Carla B. Freedman’s tenure is over as the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York. She appears to be among several U.S. attorneys let go in recent days by the U.S. Justice Department.
A state audit of the Town of Clifton Park’s buildings, including Town Hall, town court and the senior center, has found that 47 areas need improvement to ensure accessibility to all.
A federal judge approved a $850,000 settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by shareholders of Arrow Financial Corp. in Glens Falls in 2023.
Passengers spent hours on the tarmac Monday after an Allegiant Air flight was delayed at Albany International Airport.
Despite a Saratoga Springs judge’s urging, an attorney for former Commissioner of Public Works Jason Golub rejected a plea deal of disorderly conduct to resolve an official misconduct charge related to a city plumber’s work to unclog a drain at Golub’s home.
Phish will play three July shows at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center as part of the band’s summer tour.
Astronomers said that the asteroid designated 2024 YR4 had become the most likely sizable space rock ever forecast to impact planet Earth.
The object, first detected in December, is 130 to 300 feet long and expected to make a very close pass of the planet in 2032. Its odds of impacting Earth on Dec. 22 of that year currently stand at 3.1 percent.
ASAP Rocky, the Grammy nominated hip-hop artist, was found not guilty yesterday of shooting a former collaborator. The jury deliberated for nearly three hours in a case that threatened to derail his career.
Rocky dived into the gallery to hug family including Rihanna, the singer, businesswoman, and mother of his two young sons, and embraced his lawyer, Joe Tacopina, after the verdict was read. “Thank y’all for saving my life,” he told jurors.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
In the headlines…
Photo credit: George Fazio.
