Commemoration ceremonies were held around the world on Friday for the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks, in which 19 al-Qaida hijackers seized control of four airliners, crashing two into the World Trade Center in New York, one into the Pentagon outside Washington, and a fourth into a field in western Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people were killed.
Survivors and families gathered at memorial sites, including Ground Zero in New York, where stories of loss and heroism were remembered. Stanley Praimnath and Brian Clark, two of only four people known to have survived above the impact zone in the south tower, spoke to The Guardian’s Washington bureau chief David Smith. Anna Sweeney Rossman, whose mother Amy Sweeney—a flight attendant—was killed on American Airlines Flight 11, spoke to reporter Ramon Antonio Vargas about how the events of that day have cast a shadow over her life.
Meanwhile, political tensions are running high as President Donald Trump, with an approval rating at a historic low, addresses a Republican party hungry to retain control of Congress in November's midterm elections. At the first-ever Republican midterm convention, Trump proposed a $5,000 'Trump dividend' for every US citizen if Republicans win, sparking accusations of bribery and incredulity. He concluded the convention by pleading with supporters to “pretend” they are voting for him in November. Vice President JD Vance used the stage to present himself as Trump’s political heir, delivering a blistering speech labeled Democrats 'lunatics' and aggressively dismissing a protester waving a Mexican flag.
Trump's efforts to restrict mail-in voting received a blow late Thursday as a US appeals court rejected his attempted crackdown before the high-stakes elections.
In technology news, AI startup Anthropic released a detailing of attempts by bad actors to deploy its AI for the production of bioweapons, while researchers and staff at the company published warnings about safety—prompting Elon Musk to call the chorus of concerns a “setup.”