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The remains of two more people who died during the 9/11 attacks in 2001 have been identified as part of a decades-long effort to return them to their families.

A man and a woman were both identified, New York City officials said, but their names have been withheld.

The city’s medical examiner has now identified 1,649 World Trade Centre victims through their remains, using DNA sequencing to test fragments from the bodies discovered in the rubble.

Advancements in technology, which include increased test sensitivity and faster turnaround times, mean remains that have tested negative for identifiable DNA can now be identified.

The same methods are used to identify missing service members in the US military, as well as to test the remains of more than 100 people who died during the wildfires in Maui last month.

However, despite the advancements in the technology the rate of positive identifications has slowed in recent years, with the last being two years ago, and then again two years before that.

Read more:
‘A reminder of what I lost’: Americans mark 21st anniversary of 9/11
FBI releases first declassified 9/11 document after Biden order
9/11 anniversary in pictures: Victims remembered 20 years after terror attacks

There are more than 1,000 human remains from the attacks that are yet to be identified, and are currently being stored at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Centre site.

Dr Jason Graham, the city’s chief medical examiner, said officials were committed to fulfilling their “solemn pledge” to return the remains.

“Faced with the largest and most complex forensic investigation in the history of our country, we stand undaunted in our mission to use the latest advances in science to serve this promise.”

Monday marks 22 years since the attacks in New York, where two aircraft were hijacked by suicide bombers, and flown into the World Trade Centre’s Twin Towers, killing thousands.

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From 2021: ‘We wondered if we were still alive’

Another hijacked flight was flown into the Pentagon, while a fourth attempt crashed in rural Pennsylvania, after passengers overpowered the attackers.

It is widely accepted the attacks were carried out by terrorist group al Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden.

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Recording captures audio of Titanic submersible implosion

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Recording captures audio of Titanic submersible implosion

A recording has captured the implosion of the Titan submersible which went missing on its voyage to the wreck of the Titanic.

A passive acoustic recorder located around 900 miles from the implosion site picked up the sound, US Coast Guard officials said in a statement.

The short recording includes a loud noise that sounds like a muffled clap, before going silent for a few seconds.

The coastguard said the audio clip “records the suspected acoustic signature of the Titan submersible implosion” on 18 June 2023.

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Titan sub hull wreckage video released

The implosion killed all five people on board – Titan operator Stockton Rush, who founded Oceangate, the company that owned the submersible; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert and the sub’s pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

The sub vanished on its way to visit the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean, setting off a five-day search that ended when authorities said the vessel had been destroyed with no survivors.

The wreckage was eventually found on the ocean floor around 300m from the Titanic, according to officials.

After the disaster concerns were raised because of the Titan’s unconventional design and Rush’s refusal to submit to independent safety checks.

OceanGate suspended operations in July 2023.

Read more:
What happened to the Titan?
The stories of those on the Titan submersible

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Titan ‘malfunctioned’ days before fatal dive

A coastguard panel investigating the disaster heard two weeks of testimony last September, which saw a former OceanGate scientific director say the Titan malfunctioned during a dive just a few days before it imploded.

The coastguard is expected to release more information about the implosion in the future.

A spokesperson said the investigation is still ongoing and a final report will be released after it is completed.

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Glee actress Naya Rivera’s final words before drowning revealed

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Glee actress Naya Rivera's final words before drowning revealed

Naya Rivera’s ex-boyfriend Ryan Dorsey has – for the first time – shared details from the day she died.

Speaking to People, the 41-year-old actor said that “the last thing she said was his [her son’s] name, and then she went under, and he didn’t see her anymore”.

The Glee actress, 33, died after drowning in a California lake in July 2020 – when she was swimming with her young son Josey.

Josey, who was four at the time, told police his mother had boosted him on to the deck – after their boat had drifted away.

Local police said they believe that after saving her son, Rivera did not have enough energy to save herself.

Dorsey says his son, now nine, told him he was worried about getting into the water – and that Rivera had said, “don’t be silly!”.

The boat that Naya Rivera was using when she went missing is seen on Lake Piru in California. Pic: Reuters /Mario Anzuoni
Image:
The boat that Naya Rivera was using when she went missing. Pic: Reuters /Mario Anzuoni


“Something he’s said over and over is that he was trying to find a life raft, and there was a rope, but there was a big spider on the rope, and he was too scared to throw it,” Dorsey told People.

“I keep reassuring him, buddy, that rope wasn’t going to be long enough.”

Dorsey added: “It just rocks my world that he had to witness her last moments.”

Naya Rivera is best-known for starring in Glee. Pic: Frank Micelotta/Invision/AP
Image:
Naya Rivera is best-known for starring in Glee. Pic: Frank Micelotta/Invision/AP


The actor says he found out that Rivera was first missing after receiving a call from her stepfather – while he was in a supermarket buying food for a friend’s barbeque.

“I collapsed into a pallet of drinks,” Dorsey said. “I feared the worst.”

Ryan Dorsey and Naya Rivera. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Image:
Ryan Dorsey and Naya Rivera. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Dorsey said he immediately got into his car and drove 145 miles to Lake Piru, where Rivera and their son had been swimming.

“I drove 100-and-­something the whole way with my four-way hazards on, chain-smoking cigarettes – and I don’t even smoke, really – and just crying,” he says. “I just wanted to get to Josey.

“If we’d have lost both Naya and Josey, I don’t know how I would continue on with my life.”

He added: “When it happened, I just found myself shaking my head, like, I can’t believe she’s gone. It’s still so surreal every day.”

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Dorsey says the holiday period is particularly tough for his nine-year-old son.

He said: “We made this book of memories for Josey that sits by his bed, and during the holidays he was crying looking at it.

“You can only give him a hug and tell him, ‘I know, life is not fair. Bad things happen and there’s no reason for it, and you just have to do your best to be a good person.'”

In 2022, a lawsuit filed by Rivera’s family against Ventura County, California, over her drowning was privately settled.

Naya Rivera on the red carpet. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Naya Rivera on the red carpet. Pic: Reuters

The lawsuit for wrongful death and negligent infliction of emotional distress was filed on behalf of her son.

The family also sued the United Water Conservation District and Parks and Recreation Management, accusing them of failing to warn visitors of the danger of boating and swimming in the lake, and saying Rivera’s death was “utterly preventable”.

They said the rented pontoon boat was not equipped with flotation or lifesaving devices, a ladder, rope, anchor, or any equipment designed to keep swimmers from being separated from their boat.

However, Ventura County officials said the death wasn’t their fault, and said the actress had declined to wear a life jacket. They said the rental agent had put the life jacket in the boat nevertheless.

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Elon Musk’s X to pay Trump $10m compensation

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Elon Musk's X to pay Trump m compensation

Elon Musk’s X has agreed to pay Donald Trump about $10m (£8m) after suspending his accounts following the 2021 US Capitol riot by his supporters, according to reports.

The payment follows a $25m (£20m) deal the US president’s lawyers struck with Meta Platforms – the owner of Facebook and Instagram – last month.

Mr Trump sued the social media platforms, along with Google’s owner Alphabet Inc, as well as their chief executives, in San Francisco over what he claimed was unlawful silencing of conservative opinions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Twitter had cited the risk of Mr Trump inciting further violence related to his effort to remain in the White House following his loss to former President Joe Biden in the 2020 election as the reason for suspending his account.

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Is Elon Musk short on credibility?

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Mr Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it X, has become a fierce supporter of Mr Trump, giving $250m (£202m) to his 2024 election campaign.

The tech billionaire has been chosen by the president to head the new US Department of Government Efficiency – shortened to DOGE – whose purpose is to radically shrink federal bureaucracy.

Mr Trump’s legal team considered dropping the case given the platform’s change of ownership and how close the two men have become, before agreeing to the settlement, the Journal reported – quoting people familiar with the matter.

Lawyers are expected to pursue a similar agreement with Alphabet, which banned Mr Trump from YouTube after the Capitol riot.

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Musk defends DOGE reforms

Read more from Sky News:
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Neither the X, nor its CEO at the time of Mr Trump’s suspension, Jack Dorsey, as well as Alphabet and the White House have responded to requests for comment.

Mr Trump has pardoned about 1,500 supporters charged over the violence on 6 January 2021, which saw people storm the Capitol building in Washington to try to stop Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory being signed off.

Sky News has contacted X for comment.

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