US marks 25 years since the Sept. 11 attacks, 'moments that divide time'

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11, remembering the shock, the dead and the sweeping consequences of the al-Qaida attacks on symbols of U.S. might and prosperity.

Friday's milestone anniversary will bring memorial rituals — wreath-laying, flag-flying, moments of silence, vigils and readings of victims' names — and volunteer projects in tribute to a day that about half of U.S. adults remember as the most historic event of their lifetime, according to a new poll.

For others it's an occasion for private reflection — or, in many schools, education — about the attack that unfolded in a single morning but left nearly 3,000 dead and a decades-long trail of aftermath, from personal grief to far-flung wars.

Police Officer Casey Kloepfer plans to spend time Friday at the Brooklyn station house where his father, Officer Ronald Kloepfer, reported to work that day before being called to the World Trade Center. He didn't make it home.

Casey Kloepfer was only 4, but he grew up hearing about his father's affinity for helping people and for a job that enabled him to do so. He became an officer this past June.

“It’s big footsteps to fill, but it’s definitely something that I take very seriously and want to continue to honor him and be the best police officer I can," he said by phone this week. The 29-year-old wears his father’s badge number and even has joined the New York Police Department lacrosse team, which his dad founded.

On Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida extremists hijacked four commercial jets and crashed them into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The impacts brought down the World Trade Center's twin towers — icons of U.S. economic power, and among the tallest buildings on Earth — and blew a hole in the Pentagon, the U.S. military's fortresslike headquarters near Washington. The fourth plane also was headed for the nation's capital, officials concluded, but the aircraft went down in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew members stormed the cockpit and fought the hijackers.

“In the course of history, there are a few moments that divide time into, really, what came before” and after, President Donald Trumpsaid at a 9/11 remembrance in Washington this week. The Republican, who was in his native New York on Sept. 11 and has often recounted his memories, plans to attend the Pentagon's anniversary ceremony Friday.

Vice President JD Vance is expected at the observance at the National Sept. 11 Memorial in New York, while other administration officials are headed to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania.

Planned remembrances extend far beyond the attack sites, from beams of light projecting from New Hampshire's Mount Washington to a stair climb at Mississippi State University's football stadium to a ceremony at Honolulu's 9/11 memorial.

Traditionally, there are no political speeches at the New York commemoration, where relatives read all the victims' names, punctuated with moments of silence at key points in the attack timeline. For the first time, this year's ceremony will add a silent moment to honor people who were exposed to the clouds of toxic dust released by the twin towers’ fiery collapse and have since died of cancer and other illnesses. Questions remain about how many people developed health problems linked to the dust.

It's a reminder of how the attacks' long shadow has reached into many corners of life in the U.S. and beyond.

The U.S.-led global war on terrorism included invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan — the latter Washington's longest war — and detentions and harsh interrogation of terror suspects in an international network of secret CIA prisons. The U.S. military found and killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, but accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed still awaits a trial 23 years after his capture.

The attacks changed U.S. air travel, prompted new federal surveillance and intelligence-gathering powers and banking regulations, and generated ongoing debate over the balance between security and freedom. The Department of Homeland Security, many state anti-terrorism laws and billions of dollars in state and local counterterrorism funding all are post-9/11 creations.

So, too, is the culture of individual vigilance summed up by the slogan “ if you see something, say something.”

Sept. 11 generated a wave of patriotism that propelled some Americans to join the military, fire departments, police forces or other public agencies. But amid the national unity that many remember, the attacks also fanned mistrust, prejudice and hate crimes directed at Muslims.

In the quarter-century since, Muslim Americans have played a growing role in public life from statehouses to Congress to New York City Hall, where Zohran Mamdani is the city's first Muslim mayor. Yet he is facing some criticism for planning to attend the anniversary ceremony at ground zero, something his predecessors have done for years.

Some complaints came from Republican ex-Gov. George Pataki and 9/11 victims’ relatives, who cited among other things past remarks that some of Mamdani's political associates have made about the attacks. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, also inveighed against Mamdani attending.

Mamdani, a Democrat, responded this week that he loves the city and country and wants the anniversary to focus on victims' families, first responders and New Yorkers who helped one another after the attacks, which he called a “horrific act of terror.” The 34-year-old mayor was an elementary school student in New York on 9/11.

Sept. 11 isn't a federal holiday, but Congress has designated it both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

“One appropriate way to remember is by serving,” says Jay Winuk, who lost his brother Glenn Winuk and then co-founded the volunteer organization 9/11 Day with friend David Paine. The group helps people find meal-packing and other volunteer opportunities and this year arranged for dozens of Times Square billboards to pause their advertising at 9:11 a.m. Friday.

Instead, they will simply display the time.

Phillip Flood, 48, watches as the Tribute in Light is tested over the skyline of lower Manhattan, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Jersey City, NJ. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, center, speaks to FDNY commissioner Lillian Bonsignore, right, during a memorial to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in the Staten Island borough of New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

Members of the FDNY march with flags during a memorial to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in the Staten Island borough of New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

An American flag flies, with the lower Manhattan skyline in background, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Jersey City, NJ. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

NEW YORK (AP) — Aryna Sabalenka realized she was probably going to lose the No. 1 ranking to Elena Rybakina. There wasn’t much she could do about that.

The U.S. Open trophy is a different story.

Rybakina can only take that away from Sabalenka by winning it on the court Saturday, and the two-time defending champion showed in an overpowering display in the semifinals how serious she is about a three-peat — which would be the first at Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams from 2012-14.

“I wanted badly to go to the finals, and of course I want to go all the way,” Sabalenka said.

Rybakina set up a matchup between the top two players in women's tennis by rallying past Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Sabalenka beat Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-2 in the first semifinal, running away with the second set after they played largely even in the first.

Sabalenka is currently No. 1 and Rybakina No. 2 in the WTA rankings, but that changes Monday after Sabalenka held the top spot for 99 consecutive weeks.

Rybakina won the Australian Open to start the season, beating Sabalenka, then kept on closing after the four-time Grand Slam champion had a poor summer by her standards.

Rybakina needed only to reach the semifinals in New York to clinch the No. 1 ranking.

“It’s a lot of work, and yeah, that was one of my goals, but right now not much I could do. I didn’t really perform well in the middle of the season,” Sabalenka said. “Elena took it over and played really well, and she took away No. 1 position.”

The second semifinal was more a battle, with Gauff trying to fight from behind in the final two sets, but Rybakina not letting her come all the way back.

Gauff jumped on Rybakina with a strong start — she had four aces to one for Rybakina, who leads the WTA Tour in that category — in a first set that she took in 38 minutes.

“Took a deep breath, was trying to talk positive with myself and just told myself that I need to fight and try to show good tennis,” Rybakina said.

Gauff trailed 4-1 in the second set and battled back to 4-all before Rybakina won the next two games. Rybakina went ahead 5-3 and served for the match, but Gauff broke to give herself one more chance while being cheered by a crowd that included former first lady Michelle Obama.

“I thought it was a good match, and it honestly came down to a couple of service games of mine in both sets and I didn’t quite hold,” Gauff said. “I mean, I have to look back and see what happened, but she does a great job of just being there every point and putting a lot of pressure on you on service game and return game.”

Gauff won her first major title as a teenager when she rallied past Sabalenka in the 2023 U.S. Open final, but nobody has been able to knock off the Belarussian in Flushing Meadows since. Pegula put up a good fight in the 2024 final and last year’s semifinals, but she couldn’t keep it close the way Sabalenka played Thursday – and wasn’t sure anybody else would’ve, either.

“I think that’s definitely — you can ask her — probably the best match she’s played this year,” Pegula said. “I mean, I thought her level was insanely high.”

Sabalenka pounded 29 winners to Pegula’s 12. She has won 19 straight matches at the U.S. Open since losing to Gauff in the 2023 final.

The top four seeds made it to the women’s semifinals at the U.S. Open for the first time since 1975. Sabalenka, Rybakina and Gauff have all won multiple major titles, while Pegula is still looking for her first.

Sabalenka won 14 of 19 points on Pegula’s second serve, smashing balls back more quickly than they were coming at her.

Still, Pegula hung with her for a while.

It was already 4-all in 25 minutes and Sabalenka appeared to be getting frustrated with not getting anywhere on Pegula’s serve, waving at her coaches’ box in disgust after one miss. Pegula had won 18 of 20 points on her first serve when she stepped to the line serving with Sabalenka leading 6-5.

Then Sabalenka suddenly hit a backhand winner, Pegula sent a forehand long and Sabalenka hit another winner to set up a set point, and finished off the set a couple points later.

Sabalenka put Pegula in huge trouble in her second service game of the second set, eventually pouncing on a 77 mph second serve and hammering a forehand back at 90 mph then Pegula had no chance of getting back for a 3-1 lead.

See AP’s full tennis coverage here

Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, celebrates winning a match against Jessica Pegula, of the United States, during the women's singles semifinals of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Coco Gauff, of the United States, serves to Elena Rybakina, of Kazakhstan, during the women's singles semifinals of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Elena Rybakina, of Kazakhstan, celebrates winning a match against Coco Gauff, of the United States, during the women's singles semifinals of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, reacts during a match against Jessica Pegula, of the United States, during the women's singles semifinals of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Jessica Pegula, of the United States, returns the ball to Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, during the women's singles semifinals of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, reacts after she won the first set during the women's singles semifinals of the U.S. Open tennis championships against Jessica Pegula, of the United States, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, follows through on a shot to Jessica Pegula, of the United States, during the women's singles semifinals of the U.S. Open tennis championships Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)