Remembering 9/11. And, Vance, Trump urge voters to back Republicans in the midterms

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Twenty-five years ago today, a terrorist attack changed American life forever. Four planes were hijacked by al-Qaida; two struck the World Trade Center in New York, one struck the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The 9/11 attacks killed at least 2,977 people, and a Brown University study found that an additional 7,000 U.S. service members died in post-9/11 wars, while thousands more suffered from illnesses linked to toxic debris after the collapse. Today, communities across the U.S. are gathering to remember, honor and grieve.

A child walks through the Empty Sky 9/11 Memorial with One World Trade Center and Lower Manhattan in the distance on August 23, 2026 in Jersey City, New Jersey. Mario Tama/Getty Images hide caption

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Mario Tama/Getty Images

• 🎧 There will be seven moments of silence today, one more than in previous years, NPR's Brian Mann tells Up First. The additional moment to honor those who have died from 9/11-related illnesses over the past 25 years after being exposed to toxic air in Manhattan following the attacks. This week, New York City officials released nearly 170,000 documents showing that government researchers knew the disaster had made the air unsafe but withheld that information from the public. Tens of thousands of people, including first responders and Manhattan residents, later developed 9/11-related illnesses.
• ➡️ Rocco Fertoli was a captain with the New York City Fire Department on 9/11 and for the first time he is telling his story of that day.
• ➡️ U.S. intelligence changed dramatically after 9/11. Sources & Methods host Mary Louise Kelly interviewed key national security leaders from that time to explore how the tragedy reshaped America and its intelligence agencies.
• ➡️ NPR has curated a playlist of stories marking Sept. 11. It can be found on the app here.

President Trump and Vice President Vance closed out the first-ever midterm Republican convention by urging their supporters to vote in November. Vance did not mention the president's promise to send every adult American $5,000 if their party maintained control of Congress, but Trump was quick to remind the room. The next Republican convention will be in 2028, when the party will have a new presidential nominee and Trump will no longer be its standard-bearer.

• 🎧 Vance framed voting Republican as a matter of common sense, as opposed to the extreme Democratic Party, which is how the GOP has been framing the upcoming election rather than as a referendum on an unpopular president, NPR's Tamara Keith says. While the president appeared to be in his element onstage, Keith added that it remains uncertain whether his party is in a better position now than before the convention. Although there will be more rallies in the fall, this convention might represent Trump's last hurrah as a dominant political figure.

Missouri's Republican redistricting plan was blocked yesterday due to a series of court rulings. The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked a federal order requiring use of the GOP map, while the Missouri Supreme Court found Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in contempt for telling local election officials to use it despite an earlier court order. Hoskins said the state would revert to the map used in the last two elections.

• 🎧 The newer map was expected to most directly affect Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City district, Jason Rosenbaum of St. Louis Public Radio says. The map connected parts of Kansas City with rural areas in an effort to unseat Cleaver, who has served in Congress for two decades. Cleaver told Rosenbaum that Missourians should be proud of pushing back against the map. The Missouri fight is part of a broader redistricting battle playing out across the country ahead of the midterms.

Behind the story

by Greg Myre, National Security Correspondent

President Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Venezuela with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (left) and CIA Director John Ratcliffe (center) at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Jan. 3, 2026. U.S. forces captured Venezuela's leader Nicolas Maduro and brought him to New York where he faces criminal charges. Molly Riley/AP via The White House hide caption

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Molly Riley/AP via The White House

The Sept. 11 attack was the most monumental event of my lifetime and still shapes the world to this day. I was based in Jerusalem on 9/11, and when the second plane slammed into the World Trade Center, I immediately suspected al-Qaida was responsible. I'd reported extensively from Afghanistan in the 1990s, including the rise of the Taliban and previous al-Qaida attacks, marked by simultaneous strikes.

Within days, I was in Pakistan and would soon drive the rutted roads deep into Afghanistan, all the way to Kabul, as the U.S. military and its partners ousted the Taliban and pursued al-Qaida.

Afghanistan was otherworldly, a land frozen centuries in the past, all of it clouded in dust and poverty. The country had already endured two decades of war and been abandoned by the world. Yet at that moment, Afghanistan seemed to have a ray of hope, with the U.S. and its allies promising at least a measure of stability and sustenance.

That hope faded over years of grinding conflict. And almost as shocking as 9/11 itself is the way events have unfolded over the past 25 years. What was unimaginable then is today's bitter reality.

The Taliban are back in power, imposing their repressive rule on Afghans, women in particular. For most of the past quarter-century, the formidable U.S. military has fought three wars in three neighboring countries: Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran – all proving far more costly and complicated than expected. These countries have suffered terribly, while the U.S. still struggles to grasp why its overwhelming military might hasn't generated the outcomes predicted with such confidence. Sept. 11 happened 25 years ago. The consequences are still playing out.

Weekend picks

Clockwise from left, East of Eden, Neagley, Brothers, A Different World, Slow Horses and Cupertino. Geoffrey Short/Netflix; Sabrina Lantos/Prime; Apple TV; Daniel Delgado Jr/Netflix; Apple TV; Elizabeth Fisher/CBS hide caption

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Geoffrey Short/Netflix; Sabrina Lantos/Prime; Apple TV; Daniel Delgado Jr/Netflix; Apple TV; Elizabeth Fisher/CBS

Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:

🍿 Movies: NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour describes Filipiñana as visually beautiful and an emotional gut punch, offering a fresh take on the inner workings of a Philippines' country club.

📺 TV: Florence Pugh in an East of Eden adaptation, a reboot of A Different World, and Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson playing (possible) brothers are among the anticipated shows coming this fall. Here's what NPR critics are looking forward to.

📚 Books: In Colin Kaepernick's new memoir, The Perilous Fight, he reflects on his life, going back even further than a decade ago when he famously took a knee. In an interview with Morning Edition's Michel Martin, he discusses losing his football career and what the protest taught him.

🎵 Music: NPR's New Music Friday is sharing the best albums out this week, including Ezra Collective's Here Because of Hope and This Is Lorelei's The Singer in My Band. Listen to several albums' best songs with this curated playlist.

🧩 Games: Want to cut down on doomscrolling? Check out these five daily puzzle games that will test your knowledge of geography, history and even obscure corners of Wikipedia.

❓ Quiz: What is better than one quiz? Two! You are destined to get at least one NPR news quiz question right if you know what big promise the president made this week. And, see how much you really know about procrastination with this Life Kit quiz.

3 things to know before you go

This fossilized feather dates back 66 million years to the late Cretaceous. "It is, without a doubt, the best feather we've ever found from the age of dinosaurs," says Jingmai O'Connor, an associate curator at the Field Museum of Natural History. Nate Carroll
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Nate Carroll

1. Researchers say that a well-preserved fossil feather may help explain why some birds survived the giant dinosaur-killing asteroid that struck Earth, while others did not.
2. For the first time in 900 years, the 230-foot Bayeux Tapestry is back in England. It depicts the pivotal Battle of Hastings in 1066, marking the end of Anglo-Saxon rule.
3. The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz has selected 11 young singers as semifinalists for its International Jazz Vocals Competition. This year's event is the most internationally diverse in nearly four decades, with six vocalists from outside the United States. (via WRTI)