Trump keeps touting $5,000 payments if Republicans retain control of Congress as some in his party question feasibility – as it happened

We’re wrapping up our live coverage for the day. Here are today’s key developments in US politics: The US marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Ceremonies and remembrances were held across the country in tribute to victims. In New York City, a memorial ceremony took place that included all living former presidents, as well as mayor Zohran Mamdani, former mayor Rudy Giuliani and vice-president JD Vance. Donald Trump spent the day in Washington, where he attended a ceremony at the Pentagon. Trump used his speech to honor the lives lost in the September 11 attacks, but also to defend his administration’s ongoing war in Iran. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth similarly linked the war in Iran with 9/11 at his speech during the Pentagon ceremony. Trump also bizarrely posted a video to Truth Social of his message from the January 6 attack on the US Capitol building, in which he told supporters to “go home” while also promoting election conspiracies. The CIA meanwhile declassified more than 70 presidential intelligence briefs regarding al-Qaida and its leader Osama bin Laden. The documents included a 1998 brief that warned the terror group “may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city”. Longstanding Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo, who abruptly split from the network this month, gave her first comments since the departure – promising to reveal her next moves soon. Jon Husted, the Republican senator in Ohio, fired his political director after the aide was discovered to have used a photo of Nazi SS soldiers in his Facebook profile picture. Trump departed for Ireland, where he will be for a two-day visit largely focused on golf. Donald Trump is now en route to Ireland for a two-day visit and is set to touch down in Dublin tomorrow morning. He’ll meet with Ireland’s president, Catherine Connolly, a leftwing politician with a history of strongly criticizing Trump. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chairman James Comer, a Republican representative from Kentucky, announced Friday he will move forward with a resolution to hold billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress. Black, a private equity investor and client of Jeffrey Epstein, has been in a weeks-long fight with the congressional oversight panel as it investigates Epstein’s abuses and operations. Comer has accused Black of not complying with the committee’s subpoenas. “It doesn’t matter how wealthy, powerful, or connected you are, no one gets to pick and choose which lawful congressional subpoenas they will obey. Rather than provide the American people with answers about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, Leon Black has chosen to hide behind litigation by suing me and the Committee in an attempt to obstruct our investigation,” Comer said in a statement. An attorney for Black defended the investor and accused Comer of retaliation for Black’s lawsuit against the committee that argues it does not have the authority to compel him to turn over non-disclosure agreements. “These transparently retaliatory actions by Committee Chairman James Comer in response to our legitimate and constitutionally protected litigation are outrageous and continue his pattern of overreach,” said Susan Estrich, a lawyer for Black. “We intend to vigorously pursue our lawsuit against the committee and chairman James Comer individually for abusing their power by unlawfully bullying and destroying legal protections of private citizens.” Ohio senator Jon Husted has fired his political director after the aide was found to have used a photo of Nazi SS soldiers as his Facebook profile picture. The campaign for Husted, a Republican, told The Washington Post that the senator had decided to “part ways” with 25-year-old Stephen Woytek after the photo was discovered. “While he denies negative intent, his social media activity displays a complete lack of judgement and disregard for its impact on others,” Husted’s campaign spokesperson told the Washington Post regarding Woytek. The incident is one of several recent cases where young Republican staffers have been discovered affiliating with pro-Nazi content online. Maria Bartiromo has pledged “to be back soon w[ith] my next moves” in her first comments since her abrupt departure from Fox News on 3 September. In a social media post on Thursday, Bartiromo – who had anchored at Fox for more than 12 years – said: “I want to thank all of my friends, followers, and supporters for all the kind words. “I am so grateful for the outpouring of love this past week on social media & through texts. I love you all and I promise to be back soon w[ith] my next moves.” The post contained a picture of a rainbow emerging from clouds over water. Media reports on 4 September said Fox dismissed avid Donald Trump supporter Bartiromo for divulging the conservative network’s editorial guidance to the president’s administration. But her lawyer quickly and sharply denied that Bartiromo was fired by Fox, issuing a statement dismissing reports that the network had terminated her “irresponsible” and “absolutely and unequivocally false”. A Republican political action committee affiliated with Donald Trump has reserved $74m in advertising this week, Reuters reported. The No Going Back Pac plans to pour money into close House and Senate races in battleground states, including in Michigan, where Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed is in a tight contest with Republican Mike Rogers. The president has vowed to spend heavily on midterms as his approval rating sinks to record lows and Republicans face the prospect of losing key races. Donald Trump posted a video message on Truth Social that he originally issued on January 6, 2021, as his supporters stormed the US Capitol building. The message includes the president falsely stating that the 2020 election was “stolen from us” while instructing those at the Capitol to “go home in peace”. It’s unclear why Trump posted the video, which included no caption and came during a day of somber remembrances to mark the 25th anniversary of September 11. Donald Trump has doubled down – again – on his pledge to give a “Trump dividend” of $5,000 to every US citizen if Republicans win November’s midterm elections. The promise has sparked incredulity and accusations of bribery, with a huge question mark still hanging over its legality - not to mention it comes at a time of extreme concern over the national debt, which exceeded $40tn for the first time last month. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said: “When I say something, I mean it! The $5,000 Dividend will happen because the People of our Country deserve it.” Here’s the president’s post: The $5,000 Trump Dividend, given to all Adults in the United States due to the fact that our Country is taking in Trillions of Dollars of Economic Development, Investment, and Pure SUCCESS, is being criticized by “Dumocrats” who are hoping that it never happens — But it will! As an example, the Dumocrats said THE GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL, one of the largest ever approved by Congress, or signed into Law by a President happened, despite the Dumocrats saying it would be impossible to get approved — Or the Gift of $1776 that I gave last year to our Military, was an almost guaranteed Non Starter, everyone said it could not be done, but it was, our Military Patriots got the money, and loved it. When I say something, I mean it! The $5,000 Dividend will happen because the People of our Country deserve it. VOTE REPUBLICAN — MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP Speaking to Politico yesterday, Chip Roy, the Republican US representative from Texas, openly questioned how the government would pay for it. “Well – I would like to know how they would plan to pay for … back of envelope … well over $1tn,” he said. Former representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a staunch Trump ally turned critic, said on X: “$5,000 for the peasants will be in the mail after the election only if you vote Republican, along with those DOGE and tariff money checks.” Ireland’s president, Catherine Connolly, has called Donald Trump abhorrent and an abuser of power. In his sole previous comment on Connolly, the US president seemed to think she was a man. Now that they are about to meet, Ireland is holding its breath. Trump is to fly into Dublin tomorrow morning for a two-day visit centred on golf. But before making it to his beloved greens, protocol obliges him to meet a woman who has given every impression of loathing him. A courtesy call to Áras an Uachtaráin, the Irish president’s official residence and workplace in the city’s Phoenix Park, has left the government anxious and the media reaching for popcorn. “What could possibly go wrong?” headlines ask. Many in Ireland are rooting for Connolly to let rip at Trump for his policies and rhetoric on immigrants and the Middle East. Others hope she will stifle any criticisms to avoid provoking a visitor who could upend Ireland’s economy. The taoiseach, Micheál Martin, said he had no concerns “at all” about the encounter, but one senior official said the government was on tenterhooks. “We need to get him [Trump] in the Áras, then out of the Áras. We’ll breathe easier after,” they said. Rory has the story: Yemen’s rampant Houthi forces have captured the strategic island of Perim in the Bab al-Mandab strait, expanding their control of the narrow waterway, one of the world’s vital shipping routes. The Iran-aligned group took control of the volcanic island after forces allied to the UN-backed, Aden-based government left in the latest of a dramatic series of reverses along Yemen’s west coast in recent days, including the loss of the port city of Mocha on Thursday. Saudi Arabia, which supports and bankrolls the official Yemen government, mounted air raids on Houthi positions in Mocha on Friday. The Bab al-Mandab strait links Asia to Europe via the Red Sea and Suez canal. Perim island, also known as Mayun, divides the waterway in two, close to its narrowest point. The United Arab Emirates, a former Saudi ally in the anti-Houthi coalition, had been building an airbase on the island before ending its active involvement in the conflict in January. Saudi Arabia has increasingly relied on the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab to export its crude since Iran has been targeting vessels in the strait of Hormuz. About 12% of the world’s goods are typically shipped through the strait. Full Houthi control of shipping in the strait, alongside Iranian control of the strait of Hormuz, would strengthen the chokeholds of anti-western forces over global energy shipments. Oil prices have risen to more than $100 a barrel as the fighting in Yemen has escalated. Iran hailed the Houthi advances in an official statement on Friday, its first extended comment on the renewed fighting inside Yemen. Iran and the Houthis have been allied since the Houthis rose to power inside Yemen in 2014. British diplomatic sources said they did not at present expect Donald Trump to sanction any US bombing of Houthi positions in Yemen, despite requests to do so from Saudi Arabia. The pace of the Houthi advance, and political divisions in the Yemen governorates not controlled by the Houthis, have left western capitals fearful that even the Yemen government capital, Aden, could fall to the Houthis. Here’s Patrick’s full report. On September 10, 2001, America seemed unassailable. It had won the cold war and enjoyed a relatively peaceful 1990s as “the indispensable nation”, in secretary of state Madeleine Albright’s framing. From fiscal years 1998 to 2001, the federal government recorded four consecutive budget surpluses. But what had been dubbed “the American century” came to an apocalyptic end on the next morning. “9/11 is when things began to go wrong for the United States,” suggested Bill Galston, a former policy adviser to Bill Clinton. The United States was at the apogee of its post-cold war power on September 10 and then, through a series of missteps and misjudgments on both the foreign and domestic front, we have thrown away a great deal of not only our power but our credibility. In my judgment, 9/11 set off a quarter-century of misgovernment in the United States and we’ll pay the price for that for a very long time. Did Osama Bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader who masterminded the attacks, win after all? If the metric of victory is measured by Bin Laden’s immediate, messianic desire to establish a global caliphate and expel all western presence from the Middle East, he evidently failed. But if the terrorist’s success is measured by the magnitude of the self-inflicted wounds they provoke from their target, Bin Laden’s legacy is a slow, autoimmune decay within the US, it may have exceeded his darkest fantasies. Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser under Barack Obama, said: “Bin Laden in some ways failed in his intentions. He wanted the United States out of the Middle East. He wanted to topple certain governments in the Middle East. But in other ways 9/11 is the most successful terrorist attack in history insofar as it prompted such an overreach from the United States that we hastened our own decline, division and betrayal of our own story.” He regards the cost of 25 years of “forever wars” as incalculable. They placed a huge burden on the Americans who fought them and had to deal with problems ranging from war wounds to the opioids crisis. They also contributed to the destruction of the rules-based order, paving the way for Russia’s Vladimir Putin and others to reject the rules and use the language of counter-terrorism to justify stringent crackdowns. Then, there is the domestic sphere. Rhodes says the typical Fox News viewer during the Bush years was promised great victories over foreign enemies. “When nations don’t keep those types of promises, when you unleash that kind of nationalism and xenophobia and you don’t succeed on the battlefield, history tells you that people start to look for enemies within to blame,” he explained. My experience in the Obama years is very much that ‘the other’ that had been constructed around terrorists morphed into the Black president or the immigrants crossing the southern border or LGBT people. The segments were the same but the enemy had changed to an enemy within. Donald Trump launched his first bid for the presidency, a decade ago, against the backdrop of this search for blame. Promoting the lie that Obama is a Muslim, demonising immigrants, and promising to build a border wall, he cut through by railing – in a clear break from Bush and Republican orthodoxy – against political elites for waging forever wars that he claimed he would stop (he has called the invasion of Iraq “the single worst decision ever made” in US history). “You’d never have Donald Trump as president without 9/11 because he basically stepped into that slipstream of othering people and captured the ugly xenophobia and nationalism that had been unleashed and the anger that people, particularly on the right, felt at being gaslit by the Bush administration for eight years,” said Rhodes. “It’s no coincidence that Trump’s ascent was marked by the destruction of Jeb Bush, who symbolised all those broken promises.” Now, Rhodes argues, the war on terror has come home. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are “basically running counter-insurgency strategies in American cities, with the same military equipment that we used to fight wars now in the hands of law enforcement”, he said. “Some of the same people have signed up to do it, and the same surveillance technologies that we use against terrorists abroad are now used against Americans. We are now living in the theatre of the war on terror and it’s obviously a source of growing discomfort to many Americans.” On that subject, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) today released more than 70 presidential intelligence briefs related to al-Qaida and its leader Osama bin Laden. The release provides “unprecedented transparency on America’s most sensitive intelligence publication from the years before and the day after one of the darkest moments in our history”, the CIA said in a statement. “The products trace the story of CIA analysts’ evolving understanding of Al-Qaeda and efforts to highlight and warn of Osama bin Laden’s attack plotting despite sparse, vague, and imperfect information,” it said. Agence France-Presse reports that the briefs cover a period starting during Bill Clinton’s presidency and continue into that of George W Bush. A September 10, 1998 brief – parts of which were redacted – said that al-Qaida “may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city”. Another dated December 4, 1998, which also contained redactions, said bin Laden “and his allies are preparing for attacks in the US, including an aircraft hijacking.” One legacy of September 11, was the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in 2004, to ensure that information was shared across the sprawling US intelligence community in hope that spy agencies would never again fail to “connect the dots”. But 25 years on, some former officials and experts question whether it’s fulfilled its intended goals and if a different approach is required for modern threats such as China and AI, NBC News reports. Amid the growing debate in Washington, some even ask whether the agency should be scrapped altogether. My colleague Jason Burke also wrote about this yesterday. A quarter century on from the terror attacks that killed almost 3,000 people in New York City, Washington DC and Pennsylvania, the dark legacy of September 11 continues to unfold in the United States and across the world. A through-line can be drawn from that day in 2001 to much of the geopolitics and conflicts of today. In today’s edition of The Latest podcast, Annie Kelly speaks to the Guardian’s international security correspondent, Jason Burke, about how 9/11 changed the world. At the ceremony in New York, the final reader of the names of people who died in 9/11 urged people around the country not to use the tragedy “to spread hate”. Michael Massaroli Jr, the son of Michael Massaroli, who was an employee at Cantor Fitzgerald, told the crowd at the ground zero memorial: I think the one parting thing I want to leave everyone with is that you do my dad’s legacy and the legacy of all these victims no honor by using this tragedy to spread hate. We have seen a medley of people come up today, of all races, all religions, all creeds, and this tragedy is just that – it’s a tragedy. I’ve had to grow up and spend the past 25 years seeing people use it to hate on our Muslim brothers and sisters, to hate on people who don’t look like them, and that’s wrong, and that does no honor to the victims here. I want to use the little platform I have to ask for that to please stop. There is a clip here. As we reported earlier, in stark contrast, the president used his memorial speech at the Pentagon to defend his unresolved war against Iran. My colleagues on the picture desk have collated this gallery of photographs from the day that changed the world. (Some readers may find the images distressing.) Looking forward to next week, the House is set to begin consideration of a sweeping Russia sanctions bill championed ⁠by the late ⁠Republican senator Lindsey Graham, which has passed the Senate but faces stiff opposition from House ⁠Democrats. The House rules committee said it scheduled a meeting to consider the measure for ⁠Monday afternoon. Approval by the Republican-majority committee would pave the way ‌for a vote in ‌the full chamber later in the week. Graham, who died in July, was among Ukraine’s most outspoken allies in Congress and spent the final days of his life trying to advance the bill in Congress. The legislation aims to increase economic pressure on Moscow over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine by sanctioning Russian officials and ‌authorizing stiff tariffs on China, India and other countries to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas. The bill would impose new sanctions and visa bans on Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and top military commanders, as well as put tariffs of up to 500% on the country’s exports. It would also allow Donald Trump to impose levies of up to 100% on goods from countries that are the top five importers of Russian oil and gas. The Senate voted 86-11 last month to pass it. However, the support from both Republicans ⁠and Democrats that propelled the bill through the Senate might not be enough to secure House passage. Some lawmakers and industries worry that new tariff ‌powers for Trump could raise costs for US importers and consumers. Some Republican lawmakers are also concerned about political blowback ahead of November’s crucial midterm elections. In Pennsylvania, a ceremony also took place this morning at the Flight 93 national memorial, where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after being hijacked. The morning observance included a reading of the names of the passengers and crew members, followed by the ringing of the bells of remembrance. The afternoon ceremony will feature “remarks, keynote speakers, music and concludes with a public wreath-laying ceremony at the Wall of Names”, according to the National Park Service. Tomorrow, another ceremony is scheduled at the Flight 93 national memorial, where 40 candle lanterns will be carried to the Wall of Names and placed beneath the names of each passenger and crew member. New York City’s Bryant park has placed 2,753 empty chairs on its lawn to represent those killed in the September 11 attacks. The park’s website says people can write a note and attach it to a carnation to place on a chair. My colleague, Marina Dunbar, has this report from Guardian readers who have shared memories of the loved ones they lost in the September 11 terror attacks, 25 years ago. For Cheryl Ann of Santa Monica, California, the person she lost was a friend named Caroline, whom she described as a successful Disney executive and a mentor. Cheryl, who had pursued photography after moving from New Jersey to Los Angeles, said Caroline admired her work and treated her as an equal while she was working as an executive assistant. “We became personal friends and she invited me into her home and her life,” Cheryl said. “With genuine enthusiasm she offered to mentor me.” On September 11, Cheryl woke to messages telling her to turn on CNN. She had friends, godchildren, business associates and other loved ones in the region and feared for people she could not reach by phone. “I didn’t sleep; I could barely eat; life as I knew it was over,” she said. Later, Cheryl saw her friend Caroline’s name on a passenger list shown on the news. She initially hoped it was someone else with the same name, but a mutual friend confirmed it was the Caroline they knew. “It annihilated me. I don’t know any other way to express the depth of the pain of the loss. She had a beautiful light that lit up any room she entered,” Cheryl said. “She literally glowed, as beautiful on the outside as on the inside.” Earlier, Hegseth delivered a bellicose speech at the somber memorial on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon. Noting that the Iran war was part of is part of the fight against an “Islamic theocracy that has wished us death for nearly half a century”. The defense secretary insisted that Iran’s defenses “are gone”. He added: “We’re still sending terrorists where they belong – to hell. And tankers to the bottom of the ocean where they belong, and we are ensuring that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. The economic pressure tightens every day.” Closing out his speech at the Pentagon today, Trump again suggested that the military conflict with Iran was part of the legacy of 9/11 terror attacks. “Today we renew the sacred oath that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago. We will never, ever forget,” he said. “That’s why we fight today. We don’t have a choice. There can only be victory. We fight hard. We fight to win.” Donald Trump also used his speech at the Pentagon to honor the lives lost in the September 11 attacks to defend his administration’s ongoing war in Iran. “We salute every member of the United States military who served in the war on terror,” Trump said. “And we salute the service members working right now to ensure the world’s number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran will never ever have a nuclear weapon.” Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, used his remarks at the Pentagon ceremony to link the 9/11 attacks directly to the ongoing US war with Iran, framing both as part of a continuing religious and civilizational struggle. “The struggle against evil continued, and it continues now. It will continue until Judgment Day. Our only answer here on Earth is eternal vigilance,” Hegseth said. He also claimed the threat extended into US borders, warning that “enemies plot to curb our power and kill our citizens, including from Islamic terrorists abroad and at home.” He went on to credit Trump with dismantling Iran’s military capabilities, saying “the United States killed their leaders” and vowed that “we’re still sending terrorists where they belong to hell, and tankers to the bottom of the ocean where they belong.” He added that “we are ensuring that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.” Hegseth closed by invoking scripture, telling the audience that “the world will always have war and rumors of war”, before calling for a new generation of “strong, brave warriors who will say when it matters most, send me”. My colleague Ramon Antonio Vargas has also been reporting on the group 9/11 victims’ families who say it has “taken way too long” to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for its alleged support of the terrorists who carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks. Terry Strada – the national chair of 9/11 Families United – said she felt as if it had “been several lifetimes” for there to be progress in the effort “to achieve a modicum of justice through our court system” in connection with the deadliest act of terror against the US. Strada, whose husband, Tom, was killed in the attacks, subsequently became an advocate for people who lost loved ones on September 11. One of the 9/11 families’ most visible attempts at accountability for the attacks has been a years-long civil lawsuit alleging that Saudi Arabia supported the al-Qaida terror group operatives who carried out September 11. Fifteen of the 19 attackers on 9/11 were Saudis. But attorneys for Saudi Arabia have denied the lawsuit’s merits, maintaining that the kingdom has helped the US combat al-Qaida, its late founder Osama bin Laden, and terrorism in general. While speaking at a remembrance ceremony on Friday in Manhattan, Strada urged Donald Trump to “tell the Saudis to stop lying”. She directed herself to Trump’s vice-president, JD Vance, who was in attendance, and said: “Stand with the families. Stand with survivors. Stand with Americans.” Read Ramon’s full report here: While political speeches are prohibited at the 9/11 memorial ceremonies in New York, the nephew of Lisa Marie Terry, one of the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center, insisted that “the deep state has hidden the truth about what happened” for 25 years. He went on to urge Donald Trump to “release the unredacted files that implicate Saudi Arabia while what’s left of the victims families are still alive to see it”. At the Pentagon, Dan Caine – the chair of the joint chiefs of staff – is now speaking. “Today is not just a story of loss; it is also a story of great American courage, selfless service, and those who’ve made the choice to carry those memories forward,” Caine said. “The courage of those extraordinary Americans in Pennsylvania, in New York, and right here on these hallowed grounds did not end when the smoke cleared and the fires went out, because survivors and families have carried it forward through service, through sacrifice, and through remembrance.” As we noted earlier, Trump has opted to stay in Washington where we can expect him to deliver remarks at the Pentagon, but JD Vance, his vice-president, is in New York, at the memorial service at Ground Zero. All living former presidents, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George Bush and Bill Clinton, are also at the commemoration service in lower Manhattan. Former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, who led the city through the attacks and the ensuing recovery is at the event alongside Zohran Mamdani, the current mayor. A reminder that Giuliani said that it “offends” him that Mamdani would attend the memorial in an interview with Newsmax last week. In the interview with Newsmax, Giuliani was asked if Mamdani should skip the ceremony. “Well, there’s no question he should,” he said. He also lobbed baseless comparisons between Mamdani’s faith, he is a Muslim, and the 9/11 hijackers acting on the extremist orders of Osama bin Laden, the jihadist militant and terrorist leader killed by US forces during the Obama administration. Mamdani’s office declined to comment on Giuliani’s remarks. Mamdani has previously spoken about how an Islamophobic backlash built after the 2001 attacks and had made anti-Muslim prejudice “a fact of life” for Muslim Americans. “It was this horrific day that was also, for many New Yorkers, the moment at which they were marked an ‘other’,” he told the New York Times last year. This is the first time that Mamdani and Giuliani will be face to face since the former mayor’s comments. Images of people gathering in New York, Washington DC and elsewhere to mark 25 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks are coming in on the newswires. At the Pentagon, the names of the 184 victims of the September 11 attack on the Department of Defense are being read aloud. Alongside Donald Trump and Melania today are Pete Hegseth, the current defense secretary, Dan Caine, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, and Condoleezza Rice the former secretary of state. At the time of the terror attacks, Rice was the national security adviser. Donald Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, have arrived at the Pentagon ceremony to commemorate the victims of the September 11 attack. The president is set to speak and take part in a wreath-laying ceremony. The memorial ceremony in New York is under way. Families of the people who died in the city gathered at the 9/11 memorial to commemorate their loved ones. A moment of silence was held before relatives read out the names of those killed that day. Vice-president JD Vance and New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani are among those at the ceremony. You can follow proceedings here: The memorial ceremony for the 25th anniversary has commenced at the Pentagon. You can watch the feed at the top of this blog or here: US consumer prices remained stubbornly high in August as the end of the ceasefire between the US and Iran pushed energy prices up, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Friday. The annualized inflation rate was 3.4%, the same as it was in July. The most recent peak was seen in May, when the inflation rate hit a three-year high at 4.2%. Core inflation, which strips out volatile energy and food prices, increased to 2.4% in August. Despite dipping from its most recent peak, inflation remains above levels that were seen before the war in Iran, largely because of higher energy prices. Donald Trump will start his day in Washington. In a short while he’ll arrive at the Pentagon with his wife, Melania, for a ceremony and wreath laying to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks. While Trump will stay in DC, vice-president JD Vance is in New York at Ground Zero with all living former presidents, to attend the memorial service at the site of the attacks in lower Manhattan. He’ll spend the rest of the day in meetings before traveling to Ireland, where he’ll spend the weekend talking with leaders and the Irish president, Catherine Connolly, and the taoiseach, Micheál Martin. He saw the first one on September 11 itself. “Missing”, said a hastily designed poster on the window of a bar in Tribeca providing food and water to first responders. It was a plea for information about a person who had vanished in the deadliest terrorist attack in US history. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is going to be …’” recalls Phil Buehler, an artist and photographer who had watched the twin towers collapse from his office window. “But you knew that there would be very few survivors. You knew it then.” The missing posters kept coming in the days after 9/11, and Buehler kept photographing them. But having amassed more than 500 images, he put them away in a box on a top shelf because he could not bear to look at them. As the 25th anniversary of the atrocity neared, he decided to revisit them and will put a selection on public display for the first time this week. Countenance: The 9/11 Missing Posters, an installation at Most Holy Trinity – St Mary’s church in Brooklyn, places 144 pictures across 24 translucent vellum panels, in vertical pairs reminiscent of the twin towers. The World Trade Center was always a favourite subject for Buehler. He had been photographing it since 1973, when he was 16. On September 11 2001, as an advisory board member for a tech startup, he had been invited to a conference at the Windows on the World restaurant at the top of the north tower, but turned the offer down (a friend intended to go but was delayed). “The guy that invited us died that day and I think my friend feels guilty about it,” he says quietly by phone, recalling the day on which nearly 3,000 people were killed by hijacked airliners in New York, northern Virginia and Pennsylvania. “You realise how close – everybody had a story.” He has told the story hundreds of times, but it never seems to fade. If anything, it only becomes more vivid. “Oh, gosh,” exclaims Stanley Praimnath, his voice cracking with an “ooooooh!” as if bearing a weight. “It’s like reliving that day.” Nearly 3,000 people died in the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington DC on September 11 2001. But Praimnath and another office worker, Brian Clark, were two of only four individuals known to have survived from above the impact zone in either tower of the World Trade Center. The two strangers met in the smoke and fire of the 81st floor of the south tower, and walked down 1,620 steps into the rest of their lives. Their split-second decisions that day made all the difference. Over the next 25 years, both men moved from middle age into old age and retirement. Both enjoyed family weddings and watched children and grandchildren grow. Both saw US presidents come and go as old wars ended and new wars began. They remained friends through it all. They also told their story – countless times – in churches, schools, TV studios and elsewhere. “It could be 800, 1,200, a number like that,” Clark estimates. Praimnath, in a separate interview, muses: “People refer to me as ‘the 9/11 guy’. It doesn’t feel repetitive. It is like unloading baggage from my shoulder, like washing my soul with tears. It is comforting to know that people out there still want to hear.” On 11 September, 25 years ago, Osama bin Laden drove with a small number of al-Qaida retainers and aides to a remote location in eastern Afghanistan. His convoy of SUVs was accompanied by a minivan converted into a makeshift communications centre. The van’s rudimentary equipment did not allow Bin Laden to watch the 19 men he had started sending to the US more than a year before fly planes into the twin towers in New York and the Pentagon near Washington DC, killing about 3,000 people. But he listened as shocked radio announcers broke the news. Within days of the murderous assault, the then president, George W Bush, had begun framing the US response as a global “war on terror”, a clumsy, inappropriate and counterproductive strategic choice. For those of us reporting on the ground during this period – watching US bombers over Afghan mountains and tanks in Baghdad streets, interviewing aspirant suicide bombers or the victims of attacks by extremist groups that proliferated from the UK to the Philippines – the errors and failures of this “war on terror” were glaring. This unprecedented and indiscriminate series of campaigns would lead to invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, involve torture, renditions and alliances with dubious regimes, cost huge amounts of money, destabilise swathes of the Middle East and bring suffering to millions of people. Was this what Bin Laden had hoped to achieve? As the United States commemorates the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed in New York City, Washington DC and Pennsylvania, the Guardian asked American readers to share how the attacks affected their day-to-day lives and the country at large. Many readers shared their feeling of patriotism in the days following the attacks while also highlighting how the government’s response to 9/11 expanded government surveillance and fueled Islamophobia in the country. For those who were adults at the time of the attacks, the day marked a cataclysmic shift. For those too young to remember it, it served as the context for the complicated and violent world they grew up in. “When 9/11 first happened, everyone became your friend. We were all together in this loss, and the country felt like home everywhere. Driving down a suburban street every house displayed an American flag,” wrote Jennifer Jasensky, a 55-year-old paralegal based in Milford, Connecticut. “It was a beautiful sight, like something out of a book or Hallmark movie.” Elizabeth Zorko, a retired election administrator in Omaha, Nebraska, recalled a similar phenomenon: “I remember meeting the eyes of total strangers and there was a look that wasn’t there before, as if a deep personal connection had been forged by this shared horrific experience.” That feeling of unity soon gave way to anger and division, in large part due to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, begun by the George W Bush administration and framed as necessary conflicts to help the US win the war on terror. A generation of spies had lost an enemy but not yet found a role. Then came 9/11. A decade after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, al-Qaida’s devastating attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001 announced to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that the long era of battling communism, for which it had been founded, was officially at an end. It was to be replaced by a no-holds-barred “war on terror” that would leave the CIA with a soiled reputation over falsified intelligence that led to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and an extraordinary rendition program in which suspects were subjected to “enhanced interrogations” at secret sites that official US inquiries subsequently defined as torture. The US intelligence community was dramatically transformed after two planes flew into the World Trade Center, a third smashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside after passengers overcame the hijackers. Accounts of what unfolded inside the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, suggests an organization unprepared for the drastically changed world the attacks ushered in, despite an awareness among some in the intelligence community that al-Qaida and its leader, Osama bin Laden, represented a clear and present danger. Anna Sweeney Rossman was only five years old when her mother, flight attendant Madeline Amy Sweeney, died onboard an airliner that terrorists hijacked and deliberately flew into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. And for years, she said in an interview on Wednesday, Rossman’s grief primarily centered on her mother’s absence from certain milestones in her life. She recalled how planning her 2023 wedding – particularly shopping for a dress – hit her especially hard without her mom there. And Rossman said it was as much a blow to not have her mom there for the birth of her daughters, each younger than two, as the US prepared to mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on Friday. Rossman furthermore admitted that it was “really scary” to think about how she was approaching the age her mother was when she was killed: 35. Nonetheless, in remarks arriving as hundreds of millions across the US sought ways to pay tribute to those taken by the deadliest terrorist attack in the country, Rossman said she has drawn strength to confront her circumstances from the valor her mom showed in her final moments on American Airlines flight 11. Officials credit Rossman’s mother, who also went by just Amy Sweeney, with helping authorities on the ground identify the flight’s hijackers by telephoning details about them to her supervisor. She did shortly before becoming one of nearly 3,000 people killed that day as terrorists crashed planes into New York City’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Washington DC and a field in Pennsylvania. It’s been 25 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, and during this time Muslim Americans have learned how to live in that dangerous space between other Americans’ fears and their ignorance. The fear was clear from the beginning. Immediately following 9/11, Muslim Americans faced what Human Rights Watch called “a severe wave of backlash violence”. A tide of hate rose up against ordinary Muslims and those who appeared to be Muslim, including at least three murders in the immediate backlash after the attacks. The federal government, for its part, began targeting Muslim immigrants in a massive surge of repression that legal experts soon compared with the Palmer Raids of the 1920s. The ignorance was just as evident. Even Oprah Winfrey did her part to allay it, dedicating an episode of her show in October 2001 to “Islam 101”. The Qur’an leapt on to the New York Times bestseller list that fall. Yet despite these early efforts at education, most Americans still learned little about Islam and Muslims. One 2006 study found that only a third of those polled realized that Muslims worship the same God as Christians and Jews do. Close to 10% of respondents thought Muslims worship a “moon god”. President Donald Trump is set to observe today’s 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by attending a ceremony at the Pentagon. It’s the second year in a row for Trump to mark the day at the Pentagon. The president, who is originally from New York, last attended the ground zero ceremony there in 2024. During last year’s commemoration at the Pentagon , Trump delivered remarks recounting moments from the day of the attacks, including snippets of conversations from passengers who were aboard the hijacked airplanes. At a Tuesday event at the Ellipse just outside the White House, Trump vowed to “never forget” victims, noting that the attacks were one of few moments in history that “divide time into really what came before” and after. For the first time, this year’s ceremony will add a silent moment to honor people who were exposed to the clouds of toxic dust released by the twin towers’ collapse and have since died of cancer and other illnesses. Questions remain about how many people developed health problems linked to the dust. It’s a reminder of how the attacks’ long shadow has reached into many corners of life in the US and beyond. Police officer Casey Kloepfer plans to spend time today at the Brooklyn station house where his father, officer Ronald Kloepfer, reported to work that day before being called to the World Trade Center. He didn’t make it home. Casey Kloepfer was only four, but he grew up hearing about his father’s affinity for helping people and for a job that enabled him to do so. He became an officer this past June, AP reported “It’s big footsteps to fill, but it’s definitely something that I take very seriously and want to continue to honor him and be the best police officer I can,” he said by phone this week. The 29-year-old wears his father’s badge number and even has joined the New York Police Department lacrosse team, which his dad founded. As clear as that cloudless September morning, Jenna Jacobs McPartland remembers the moment everything changed. “I was cleaning the bathroom and watching the Today show in the background and nine months pregnant,” the 52-year-old recalls by phone. “I think they were showing ‘Today throws a wedding’ when the news broke in.” A plane had hit the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York. McPartland did not know that her husband, Ariel Jacobs, was attending a conference at its Windows on the World restaurant. “I called his office to say, ‘Hey, turn on the TV. Do you guys know what’s going on?’ His assistant said, ‘Oh my God, Jenna, he’s there.’ The whole world disappeared and there was this sort of hollow collapsing feeling.” Ariel Jacobs did not live to see his son, Gabriel, born six days after September 11, 2001. McPartland, then living in Briarcliff Manor, New York, would marry twice more, set up a grief support charity, and become a chef and restaurateur. Each 9/11 anniversary, she has a picnic at the cemetery where a few pieces of bone from her late husband are buried. Speaking from Fairfield, Connecticut, McPartland says: “Ari was an incredibly joyful person who cherished his life. I made a conscious choice to honour him by living as joyfully as I can. It’s not always easy. I still cry pretty frequently. If there’s a movie with a building getting blown up, or if I’m reading a book and they casually mention ‘post 9-11 this’ or whatever, it catches me off guard. The grief finds a place to live in the heart, and you visit it.” McPartland and other victims’ families have learned to live with that grief over the past 25 years. But America writ large has struggled to carry the weight of the worst terrorist attack in its history. The world’s most powerful nation responded by inflicting terror of its own, betraying its history as a safe harbour for immigrants, and pitting Americans against one another. The initial heroism, goodwill and unity of 9/11 gave way to discord at home and diminished moral authority abroad. McPartland adds: “It makes me incredibly sad and bordering on angry that the death of my husband has been invoked to cause more violence. It is the othering of people that got him killed in the first place and, when we Americans fail to learn that lesson and choose collectively as a nation to other people, whether it’s immigrants or other nations, that is a deepening of that tragedy that is sickening and unfathomable to me.” Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. It is the 25th anniversary of 9/11, as Americans come together to remember and commemorate the devastating effects of the attacks, which claimed the lives of 2,977 victims. Today’s milestone anniversary will bring memorial rituals – wreath-laying, flag-flying, moments of silence, vigils and readings of victims’ names - and volunteer projects in tribute to the day. “In the course of history, there are a few moments that divide time into, really, what came before” and after, president Donald Trump said at a 9/11 remembrance in Washington this week. The Republican, who was in New York on 11 September 2001, has often recounted his memories and said he plans to attend the Pentagon’s anniversary ceremony later today. Vice-president JD Vance is expected to attend the observance at the National September 11 Memorial in New York, while other administration officials are headed to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania. Planned remembrances extend far beyond the attack sites, from beams of light projecting from New Hampshire’s Mount Washington to a stair climb at Mississippi State University’s football stadium to a ceremony at Honolulu’s 9/11 memorial. In other developments elsewhere today: Donald Trump doubled down on his pledge to pay all US adults $5,000 if Republicans hold on to control of Congress in the midterm elections. He’s one of the few people to actually mention the pledge tonight, as many lawmakers and officials – including his vice-president, JD Vance – avoided mentioning the so-called “dividend” altogether. Trump defended his plan: “We can do that because our country has never done better. We’re taking in trillions, trillions of dollars.” In a shorter address to voters than his nearly two-hour speech on Wednesday, Trump again pleaded with voters to “pretend I’m on the ticket” in November. In an improvised pledge of allegiance to himself, Trump directed the audience to commit to voting in the midterm elections at all costs. The president asked Republicans in the arena to repeat: “I don’t care if I’m registered or not. I’m going to try. And cheat like hell like they do.” Trump also told those gathered in Dallas that they would “go to hell” if they didn’t vote. Earlier, JD Vance urged Republicans who may oppose parts of the Trump administration’s agenda not to abandon the party in November’s congressional races. The vice-president pointed to Charlie Kirk – the conservative activist killed a year ago today – to argue that voters shouldn’t “throw the baby out with the bathwater” over “a policy issue here or there”, an apparent nod to dissent over the Iran war that he avoided naming. Vance’s speech, in many ways, was an audition for a possible 2028 presidential run. He spent much of his time on stage setting out the threats of the so-called “far left”, listing the administration’s greatest hits and slamming Joe Biden’s tenure in office. Meanwhile, dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the arena to protest Trump’s policy agenda. Dallas police said that two people were taken into custody after an alleged assault involving a counter-protester and for blocking a roadway.