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In the spot where the Twin Towers once stood, there is now a calmness – a peace in the heart of New York City.

The only sound is water, cascading endlessly into two vast square voids, one for each tower.

They are voids that will never be filled, representing holes for so many who mourn the loss of so many more.

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9/11: How the day unfolded

On the tip of Manhattan, the scene is set to reflect on nearly 3,000 lives lost and a moment that changed the world.

The ceremony will begin at 8.40am New York time (1.40pm UK) – six minutes before the first plane hit the north tower 20 years ago – on September 11 2001.

Former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama will join President Joe Biden for a ceremony punctuated by six stark moments of silence: three to mark the planes hitting the two towers and the Pentagon in Washington, two to mark the collapse of each tower, and one to mark the moment the fourth plane came down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

President George W Bush will be in Shanksville for the ceremony there, and President Donald Trump will mark the day with a series of as-yet-unpublished stops.

More on September 11 Terror Attacks

Over the coming hours, relatives and survivors will share their stories and reflect on their individual loss.

Flight crews will gather in uniform, pausing for their lost colleagues – their friends.

Firefighters, many too young to remember 9/11, will pay their respects to those who ran towards danger to rescue those trapped in the towers, including the first responders who lost their lives.

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‘We wondered if we were still alive’

Over two hours, the names of each of those to die that day will be read out, one by one.

Twenty years ago, President George W Bush was at Ground Zero, megaphone in hand, reflecting the mood of a nation consumed by a deep trauma and a bewilderment that demanded revenge.

“The people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon,” he declared.

Who would have thought that presidential vow all those years ago would be a central thread through three more American presidencies and define our collective history in the subsequent two decades.

Long conflicts in Afghanistan, then Iraq, followed. A “war on terror” waged. By definition, it required a victory that would always be elusive.

So many lives were lost in the past two decades.

The US was consumed by revenge but also wrapped up in a desire to change and remake the world according to its own image and to achieve that by force.

Increasingly it proved to be a futile and dangerous objective that brought out the worst in America. In trying to export its own values, the US was in fact repudiating them.

Key moments would be proved over time to have been mistakes causing irrevocable damage.

The missed opportunities such as the failure to capture bin Laden in the Afghan mountains in November 2001. He was to escape into Pakistan and evade capture for a decade.

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What is the legacy of 9/11?

Policy decisions such as diverting attention away from Afghanistan to Iraq in 2003 on the elusive hunt for weapons of mass destruction.

Then there was the CIA rendition flights, the torture, the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and of course Guantanamo.

Twenty years after 9/11, 40 prisoners remain at Guantanamo. Most have not been charged, none have yet faced trial. They include the 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

The latest inflection point in these past two decades has been Mr Biden’s chaotic retreat from Afghanistan. History is yet to judge the wisdom of that decision.

The legacy of 9/11 has been dramatic and it is enduring.

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9/11 British survivor: ‘It shifted my world’

Twenty years might have helped individuals to begin to heal, but collectively, for America and well beyond, two decades of conflict has stirred so much and healed almost nothing.

Professor Bruce Hoffman, senior fellow at the Council for Foreign Relations, told me this week: “I think the sad truth of the matter is that if bin Laden were alive today, he’d be a happy man.

“Firstly, the enterprise that he commenced over three decades ago has withstood what really is the technologically most advanced military in the history of mankind and survived. It has continually overcome whatever setbacks have been meted out to it. And now that we see with the victory of the Taliban, the Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan, which was always bin Laden’s kind of pet project, has once again been resurrected.”

He added: “But more to the point, according to the US State Department list of foreign terrorist organisations, there are now four times as many Salafi jihadi groups that adhere to bin Laden’s ideology today than there were on 9/11.”

For New York, for America and well beyond, this will be painful reflection of such an extraordinary moment.

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Trump sues Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch for $10bn after Epstein letter report

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Trump sues Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch for bn after Epstein letter report

Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch, two Wall Street Journal reporters and the publication’s owner, News Corp.

The US president has accused the named individuals of defamation, claiming they acted with malicious intent and caused him overwhelming financial and reputational harm.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Miami, seeks at least $10bn (£7.5bn) in damages.

In a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump called the lawsuit “historic legal action” which was filed on behalf of himself and all Americans who he said will “no longer tolerate the abusive wrongdoings of the Fake News Media”.

“I hope Rupert and his ‘friends’ are looking forward to the many hours of depositions and testimonies they will have to provide in this case,” he wrote.

It comes after Mr Trump claimed that a letter he allegedly wrote to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was “fake” and said he would sue the “ass off” Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which first published the story.

The publication had said Mr Trump wrote the letter as part of a collection Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, planned to give him as a 50th birthday present in 2003.

It claimed the message, allegedly from Mr Trump, featured several lines of typewritten text, concluding with: “May every day be another wonderful secret.”

The text was framed by what appeared to be a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman, the WSJ claimed. The letter is also said to have featured the signature “Donald”.

Mr Trump immediately denied writing the letter when the WSJ report was published on Thursday night.

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Memes of Epstein undermine victims, says lawyer

“The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.”

Mr Trump ignored questions about Epstein as he signed a cryptocurrency bill at the White House earlier on Friday.

The president’s lawsuit comes as the US government filed a motion to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein, who took his own life while awaiting trial in 2019.

In a Manhattan federal court filing, the Department of Justice said the criminal cases against Epstein and Maxwell are a matter of public interest, justifying the release of associated grand jury transcripts.

Earlier on Friday, Mr Trump said attorney general Pam Bondi had been asked to release the transcripts because of “the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein”.

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The justice department previously said it had around 200 documents relating to Epstein and that the FBI had thousands more.

It is unknown how much of this is grand jury testimony, which is typically kept secret under US law.

Read more:
All we know about the ‘friendship’
Trump denies writing birthday letter to Epstein

The president has faced increased scrutiny over his alleged friendship with Epstein since his administration’s U-turn on the so-called ‘Epstein files’.

Mr Trump pledged to release files on Epstein during his presidential campaign, as his MAGA movement accused the Biden administration of suppressing the extent of Epstein’s paedophilia, predatory behaviour and his so-called “client list” – thought to contain names of the rich and famous who conspired with him in his child sex trafficking operation.

But after a review of the evidence the US government has, the Justice Department recently determined that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted”.

Venezuela releases jailed Americans in prisoner swap

The Trump administration said on Friday that it had negotiated an exchange with Venezuela, resulting in the release of 10 jailed Americans.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the prisoners, who had been held in the South American country, were “on their way to freedom”.

Alleged gang members imprisoned in the CECOT jail in EL Salvador. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Men in the CECOT jail in EL Salvador. Pic: Reuters

In return, 252 Venezuelan migrants being held in El Salvador have been freed, the Venezuelan government said.

They had been held in the notorious maximum security CECOT prison after being deported by the US.

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Trump denies claim he wrote birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein – and says he has ordered release of more case files

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Trump denies claim he wrote birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein - and says he has ordered release of more case files

Donald Trump has called an alleged letter he wrote to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein “fake” and said he will sue the “ass off” Rupert Murdoch, who owns the paper that first published the claim.

In multiple posts on Truth Social, the US president accused The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) of fabricating the letter that it claimed was written by Mr Trump as part of a collection of letters addressed to Epstein that his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell planned to give him as a birthday present in 2003.

According to documents seen by the WSJ, Mr Trump’s letter featured several lines of typewritten text framed by what appeared to be a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman.

The paper said the letter concludes “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret”, and featured the signature “Donald”, allegedly drawn across the woman’s waist, meant to mimic the appearance of pubic hair.

Jeffrey Epstein. File pic: New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP
Image:
Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019. Pic: AP

Responding to the WSJ’s claims, Mr Trump wrote: “The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures.

“I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DJT.”

He said earlier he would also sue the WSJ and News Corp, which Mr Murdoch owns. The WSJ is published by News Corp subsidiary company, Dow Jones & Co.

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From 16 July: Trump: Epstein case is ‘a boring story’

The Justice Department has not responded to the WSJ and the FBI declined to comment.

In a separate post, Mr Trump said he has asked the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to release “any and all pertinent grand jury testimony” in the case of the paedophile financier who was found dead in his Manhattan cell in August 2019, shortly after he was arrested on sex trafficking charges.

Analysis: The credibility of the Epstein-Trump letter rests on the word of the WSJ – until an actual document is produced

Classy, it’s not.  

The alleged letter sent to Jeffrey Epstein by Donald Trump has a typewritten note inside the hand-drawn outline of a woman. There’s a squiggly signature – “Donald” – below the waist. 

It shows friendship, certainly – the dialogue from “Donald” to “Jeffrey” reads: “Happy birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

However, it doesn’t quite produce definitive proof of impropriety.  

The Wall Street Journal hasn’t produced the document and, until it does, the story’s credibility rests on its word.  

Whether it rests easy will be tested by Team Trump – it was clear last night that prominent MAGA figures were rallying to the president’s cause and turning their anger towards the Wall Street Journal – circling the wagons and shooting the messenger.  

Trump has threatened to sue the Wall Street Journal and has targeted its owner, old friend Rupert Murdoch. “I’ll sue his ass off,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

It’s a billionaires’ struggle symptomatic of the wider acrimony.  Trump can pursue Rupert Murdoch through the courts, but the MAGA millions will be more difficult to pin down. 

Trump supporters who stood behind him as he screamed “cover-up” by the so-called “deep state”. They stand before him now, let down.

Donald Trump has authorised his attorney-general Pam Bondi to release grand jury testimony in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation – it’s something, but it’s far short of everything.

He is the man who did more than most to bake conspiracy theory into US political culture, so he can hardly complain it turns on him. 

It has, and how.

The release of any documents, Mr Trump said, would be subject to approval by a court.

The justice department has previously said it had around 200 documents relating to Epstein and that the FBI had thousands more. It is unknown how much of this is grand jury testimony – which is typically kept secret under US law.

Ms Bondi responded to the president on X, writing: “President Trump-we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts.”

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Elon Musk, who claimed last month that Mr Trump appears in the Epstein files, was surprisingly among the first to come to the president’s defence over the WSJ claims.

“It really doesn’t sound like something Trump would say tbh,” the tech billionaire wrote on X, before going on to ask where the evidence against Epstein allegedly held by the FBI had gone.

The Trump administration has come under criticism after the president appeared to U-turn on his own promise to release more information about the Epstein case publicly.

In the run-up to the US election last year, Mr Trump drew on rumours and conspiracy theories that appeared to accuse the Biden administration of suppressing the extent of Epstein’s paedophilia, predatory behaviour and his so-called “client list” – thought to contain names of the rich and famous who conspired with him in a child sex trafficking operation.

Ms Bondi fuelled these rumours in February by telling Fox News that the alleged Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review”.

Read more:
Ghislaine Maxwell could challenge imprisonment
Why is Trump fighting with MAGA over Epstein?
The huge impact of Musk’s row with Trump

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In the same month, the justice department released some government documents regarding the case, but there were no new revelations.

After a months-long review of additional evidence, the department earlier this month released a video meant to prove that Epstein killed himself, but said no other files related to the case would be made public.

The decision was criticised by many in Mr Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, who Mr Trump later called “weaklings”.

Sky News has contacted the White House for further comment.

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Trump, Epstein and a ‘bawdy’ birthday card

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Trump, Epstein and a 'bawdy' birthday card

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The Wall Street Journal reveals a suggestive birthday card – it says Trump wrote to Epstein for his 50th birthday.

What’s in the card, as Trump vigorously denies ever writing the card and calls it a “FAKE”.

All this – on a day when the White House came out to explain the cause of Trump’s swollen ankles and bruised hand.

If you’ve got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

You can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

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