Bernd Debusmann Jr
White House reporter

Image source, Getty Images

In the last hour of so, the CIA has released 71 Presidential Daily Briefs which show the intelligence community's increasing alarm over the threat posed by al-Qaeda ahead of 9/11.

These briefings, which are given to the president at the White House, are considered among the most secretive in the US intelligence community and provide broad intelligence community findings that the officials believe are important enough to warrant the president's attention.

Those released today stem from both the Clinton and Bush administrations. The documents were created between 1998 and 12 September 2001. Bin Laden was already well-known to US intelligence officials following attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that year.

While the earlier documents broadly assess Bin Laden as a threat with the intention of attacking the US or American targets abroad, they grow in urgency over time.

One document from August 2001 - which has been previously reported - explicitly notes that Bin Laden was "determined" to attack the US and was likely preparing to do so.

The final, heavily redacted, document, was issued by the CIA the day after the attacks. The top portion notes that the attack was likely "widely known" in extremist circles and that Bin Laden reportedly relocated to Kabul ahead of the attacks.

It also notes that Mullah Omar, the then-head of the Taliban, was evacuated from his residence shortly after the attack.

Image source, Courtesy of the George W. Bush Presidential Library/Getty Images

US President George W Bush - who we saw earlier attending a 9/11 ceremony in New York - was in Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida reading The Pet Goat with a group of seven year olds when he was informed about the 9/11 attacks.

Video of the day shows the exact moment the president's chief of staff relayed the message that a plane had struck the South Tower, bringing into realisation that the first plane that hit the North Tower wasn't an accident.

“A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack,”Andrew Card whispered into the president's ear.

News cameras captured Bush's facial expression, his demeanour shifting from cheerful to still as he tried to compose himself in front of the young children.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

"During a crisis, it's really important to set a tone and not to panic and so I waited for the appropriate moment to leave the classroom," Bush said years later in a BBC documentary.

Later, Bush addressed the nation from the school's gym. "Today we've had a national tragedy... Terrorism against our nation will not stand," he said.

Minutes later, a third plane was flown into the Pentagon headquarters, a short distance from the White House.

You can watch Bush's reflection of the moment here.

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Reconstruction at the site of the largest terrorist attack in US history was a delicate balancing act of commemorating those lost, while rebuilding critical infrastructure and commercial confidence in the financial capital of the world.

In addition to the memorial sites and tributes we’ve documented today, the World Trade Center - known for years as Ground Zero - itself has been reborn.

Standing tallest at 1,776ft (541m) is One World Trade, home to technology, finance, and investment firms, as well as the headquarters for publishing giant Condé Nast.

Across the street, Seven World Trade, the first new tower to be rebuilt, is home to Moët Hennessy and Moody’s, and adjacent is the Perelman Performing Arts Center (technically Six World Trade).

Three World Trade sits beside the transit hub and shopping centre, the Oculus, while its neighbour Four World Trade is home to Spotify and the Port Authority. They are currently the second and third tallest of the buildings on site.

Both will be overtaken by Two World Trade, construction of which has just begun. When completed, it will be the global headquarters of American Express.

Five World Trade has not yet begun construction and is currently paused, but it is planned as a residential development, including affordable housing.

A memorial ceremony is about to begin near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where on 11 September 2001, the hijacked Flight 93 crashed in an empty field after passengers stormed the cockpit.

We're expecting to hear from US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.

You can read along here or click watch live above.

Image source, Reuters

Former Vice-President Mike Pence, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair have all recently shared remarks honouring the victims of 9/11.

"On this solemn anniversary of September 11th, let us remember the 2,977 innocent souls who perished at the hands of our terrorist enemies," Pence said. "And let us also honor those who gave their lives in the long struggle that followed."

Bloomberg, who is also the chairman of the National September 11 Museum and Memorial, said the sky was crystal clear and bright blue on 9/11.

"I had just cast my ballot when I heard that a plane had hit the World Trade Center," he said. "In the face of unimaginable tragedy and loss, New Yorkers and people across the country responded with bravery, resilience and hope."

Blair, who was the UK prime minister at the time, said in a video statement that "that day changed the world".

"The struggle against terrorism in all its form continues," he added.

The seventh moment of silence has just been observed - a new and permanent addition to the ceremonies this year.

Sounding the bell for the seventh time and the following silence commemorate those who died of health complications following the 11 September attacks.

US officials say disease has now claimed three times the number of lives that the actual attacks did.

The seventh bell also marks the end of the reading of the names of the victims.

Image source, Gett

The only house of worship destroyed during the 2001 attacks, the original St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, was founded in 1916 a small house in lower Manhattan that was formerly a tavern. It remained in operation at the same location at 155 Cedar Street.

Thankfully, no one was at the church when it was completely demolished by the collapse of the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

After negotiations with Port Authority - the entity in charge of the World Trade Center complex - to rebuild, it was settled that it would be part of the wider redevelopment of the site and would sit at the end of Liberty Park overlooking the memorial plaza.

Architect Santiago Calatrava was chosen to lead the project, which drew artistic inspiration from the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The design sees the church glow at night as a "spiritual beacon of hope and rebirth".

Its doors are open to all to light a candle in remembrance.

Image source, Getty Images

Former President Joe Biden, who is present today at the memorial in New York City, shared some words on social media honouring the victims and first responders killed on 11 September.

"This morning, Jill and I hold close the families who carry that loss every day. We honor the heroes of September 11th: the firefighters and police officers who rushed into the towers and the Pentagon, the passengers who fought back over Shanksville, and the generation that stepped up to serve in the aftermath," he wrote.

Hillary Clinton, the former US secretary of state, said "the consequences have continued for 25 years", and it's our job to inform younger generations who are too young to remember the attacks.

"Something worth remembering 25 years after 9/11: in the aftermath of catastrophe, people look around, they see what is needed, and they help," she wrote online.

Image source, Getty Images

Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams has also spoken out.

"Cowardly terrorists stole all of that in an act of pure evil. They murdered innocent people and left families with a pain that no anniversary can erase," he said. "As a New Yorker and a former NYPD officer, this will always be personal to me."

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Surrounding the memorial pools and the 9/11 Museum are approximately 400 swamp white oak trees, a species native to all three crash sites from the 2001 attacks in New York, Arlington, Virginia, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

They form a calm space in the heart of downtown Manhattan and provide welcome shade during New York's fierce summer heat.

There is also one tree different from the others - a Callery pear tree - that was discovered severely damaged underneath the rubble in October 2001. New York City's Parks and Recreation Department removed it from the site and nursed it back to health.

The tree was then replanted at the site of the World Trade Center as a symbol of resilience and perseverance.

Nearby, an open space among the trees - known as the Memorial Glade - is dedicated in honour of those who are sick or have died from exposure to toxins in the aftermath of the attacks, including first responders, survivors and volunteers. They will be remembered today with a new seventh sounding of a bell and a moment of silence.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Marcy Borders became the subject of one of the most enduring images of the 9/11 attacks.

She was just one month into a job at a Bank of America office on the 81st floor of the North Tower when a plane hit it.

"The building started quaking and swaying. I lost all control, and I went into a frenzy. I fought my way out of that place," Borders later recounted.

Defying instructions from her boss to stay put, she fled down the stairway and into the lobby of an adjacent building where she was photographed by Stan Honda, a photojournalist at the AFP news agency.

Covered in dust, her shell shocked face was emblematic of the nation's mood. In the media, Borders became known as the "Dust Lady".

Following the attacks, Borders suffered from severe depression and addiction. She died in August 2015 from stomach cancer, one of the most common cancers diagnosed in 9/11 survivors.

"Not only is she the 'Dust Lady' but she is my hero and she will forever live through me," her daughter Noelle Borders said following her death.

As you will have seen from our coverage today, every year on 11 September, bells ring to commemorate the exact time that each of the four planes crashed, and the exact time that the Twin Towers fell.

Each of the six bells is followed by a moment of silence.

This year, a seventh bell will ring. Its purpose is to commemorate the thousands who died from diseases including cancer after the attacks.

Illnesses related to dust and smoke from the towers' collapse have since claimed more than threefold the nearly 3,000 lives lost in the attacks, US health officials say.

“As the years pass and the human toll grows, we reckon with the cost of September 11th whenever another New Yorker is stolen from us too soon,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said. “Now, close to 25 years later, more people have died from 9/11-related illnesses than were killed on the day itself.”

Image source, Getty Images

The 9/11 Memorial covers eight acres of the 16 acre World Trade Center campus in New York. Dominating the space are the two large memorial pools set within a plaza of approximately 400 swamp white oak trees.

The design, Reflecting Absence, was submitted as part of an international competition by architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker.

Featuring twin waterfall pools surrounded by bronze parapets listing the names of the victims of the 2001 attacks and the earlier 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, they mark out the footprints of the two towers.

Covering about an acre each, they contain the largest human-made waterfalls in North America, each descending 30ft (9m) into a square basin where water continues to fall another 20ft into a smaller central void.

The memorial opened on 11 September 2011, ten years after the attacks

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Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who is at the New York memorial today, is honouring his brother, Gary, who was killed alongside many of their colleagues at Cantor Fitzgerald's offices at the top of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Lutnick says his brother Gary was "the kindest and most fun person I knew".

"Gary was happy in every photo. Over the past 25 years, nearly every day there has been a moment when I’ve thought to myself, I wish Gary was here," Lutnick says.

"Gary was killed at the young age of 36 for being an American and going to work that morning in the greatest country in the world. I love and miss you every day, my brother," he adds.

Cantor Fitzgerald accounts for the largest loss of life of a single organization during the attacks, with 658 employees losing their lives.

Image source, Getty Images

We're continuing to show you some of the other ways the city commemorates the victims of 9/11 and how these memorials have reshaped the city's architecture:

In Liberty Park, in an elevated garden overlooking the 9/11 Memorial, stands the heavily dented black and gold Koenig Sphere, which once sat at the heart of the original World Trade Center development.

The 25ft (7.5m) tall cast bronze sculpture weighs 25 tonnes and was originally commissioned in 1966 as a centrepiece for the plaza between the towers.

The work of German artist Fritz Koenig, it was dedicated to “world peace through trade” and was the largest bronze sculpture of modern times.

The sphere was the only work of art recovered from the rubble after the 9/11 attacks. It was dismantled and stored before being relocated to Battery Park in 2002, then moved to its current position in 2017.

Image source, Getty Images

Memorials are continuing to be held across New York City today as the city commemorates those who died on 9/11.

Here's a look back at what we've seen in the last 24 hours:

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Tom Brook
Presenter, Talking Movies

BBC presenter Tom Brook was part of the New York news bureau in 2001 and recalls with admiration how a colleague dealt with the loss of his brother in the attack on the World Trade Center.

On 11 September, 2001, I was in Canada covering the Toronto International Film Festival. With us as part of our small BBC Talking Movies team was Andrew Rice, a very gifted and likeable video journalist. His 31-year-old brother, David Harlow Rice, worked for the investment banking firm Sandler O'Neill on the 104th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. He was one of more than 60 employees from the firm who died that day.

In Toronto, I remember the agony Andrew experienced endlessly calling David’s mobile phone and just getting voicemail. I felt pretty helpless trying to comfort him. They found his brother’s body pretty soon after he returned to New York a day or so later.

Looking back, I take great inspiration from how Andrew responded to his brother’s death. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, but he left Talking Movies and New York and returned to his native Oklahoma, got married, and then got elected as a state senator. He served for six years. He's gone on, by all accounts, to live a very full and productive life - a life which has been characterised by a healthy concern for injustice.

Now I work out of the BBC News bureau in New York, close to the World Trade Center site.

Every time 11 September comes around I think of Andrew and I admire his strength. He ultimately dealt with the horror of 9/11 in generous, intelligent and life-affirming terms. That he was able to do this serves as a great example to us all. It will always inspire and stay with me.

Earlier today, President Donald Trump gave remarks at the Pentagon during the 9/11 ceremony held there. On 11 September 2001, American Airlines Flight 77 struck the US military headquarters, killing 184 people in the building and on the plane.

Trump was joined by several members of his Cabinet. Condoleeza Rice, who was secretary of state at the time of the attacks, also gave remarks.

Image source, Getty Images

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A few minutes ago, we heard from Stephen Evans - a former BBC North America business correspondent - who was reporting from New York when one of the Twin Towers collapsed behind him.

He describes feeling "real terror as the debris came towards me", thinking for a moment: "It's coming faster than I can run."

He says that day "felt like an attack on all of us" and he describes strangers hugging in the street. He says people were angry "collectively" on behalf of "what felt like the world".

As a reminder, we also heard from Evans earlier, when he described waiting for a meeting on the ground floor of the South Tower when the first plane hit the North Tower.

Reflecting on that moment again now, he describes "still winc[ing] at the sound of that plane".

Image source, Getty Images

As the 9/11 ceremony in New York continues, we're going to show you some of the other ways the city commemorates the victims of the attacks throughout the year:

The 9/11 Memorial Museum documents the 2001 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing through artifacts, photography, video, personal stories and interactive exhibits.

Visitors enter through a pavilion, but the bulk of the museum is beneath the ground where architects designed spaces that showcase remnants of the site including the Survivors’ Stairs which led hundreds of people to safety during the attack.

At bedrock, in two monumental spaces, largescale artworks remembering the victims are on display in addition to a huge portion of the concrete retaining wall that was built in the 1960s to hold back the Hudson River.

The museum also has two galleries of rotating exhibits. Two of the most striking artifacts are a partially crushed fire truck and the “last column”, the final piece of steel removed from the site as it was cleared.

Image source, Getty Images

If you've been watching our livestream of the memorial ceremony in New York you will have seen many parts of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum which occupies the site of the original World Trade Center.

We're going to show you how the various elements of the memorial - including the museum, the Survivor Tree and Memorial Glade, the South and North Pool as well as the Performing Arts Center - pay tribute to those lost that day, the first responders and volunteers, and those grieving their loved ones.