A quarter century after hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania, the United States paused Friday to remember the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed 2,977 people. Ceremonies in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania followed the same rituals as in years past: moments of silence at the exact minutes each plane hit, the tolling of bells, and the reading aloud of victims’ names at the memorial pools that now mark the site of the Twin Towers.
Yet organizers noted a shift this year—for the first time, the ceremony also honored people who died later from illnesses linked to 9/11. Officials point out that roughly 100 million Americans were born after the attacks or were too young to remember them, meaning the day is increasingly known through family stories, classroom lessons, and archival footage rather than lived experience.
President Donald Trump skipped the New York ceremony to speak at the Pentagon instead, using the moment to defend the ongoing US military campaign against Iran, which he described as the world’s top sponsor of terrorism. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed that message, framing the current standoff with Tehran as a continuation of the fight against extremism that began after 2001.
Read the full story at El Tiempo.
Source: EE. UU. recuerda los 25 años de los atentados del 11 de septiembre en medio de una generación que no lo vivió (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: Tim Evanson, BY-SA 2.0 (via Openverse).