President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are marking 24 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at a service at the Pentagon on Thursday.
The remembrances are being held during a time of increased political tensions. The 9/11 anniversary, often promoted as a day of national unity, comes a day after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a college in Utah.
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Hegseth was speaking at the Pentagon ceremony and says he was a college junior who
had just joined the ROTC program at the time of the attack.
It’s his first time addressing the annual observance in his new role.
Hegseth says the attack was the “ultimate validator to serve.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday that security is “a big concern” for members of Congress and is under “a very thorough review.”
But Johnson told reporters at the U.S. Capitol that he’d seen security estimates into the billions of dollars for all 435 House members, which he said is “not a possibility.” He did mention a pilot program through which members can be reimbursed for hiring private security when they’re on the road or in their districts.
“Somebody who’s arguing the other side of an issue is not your enemy, they’re your fellow American,” Johnson said, in a call for civility. “We’re all made in God’s image and so we need to see one another that way and not as enemies.”
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump along with Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sat at a dais and listened intently as the names of the 184 killed at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, were read.
After each of the victims’ name was announced, a bell was rung.
A federal judge has blocked Trump administration restrictions on services for immigrants in the country illegally, including the federal preschool program Head Start, health clinics and adult education.
The order Wednesday from the judge in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island applies to 20 states and the District of Columbia, whose attorneys general, all Democrats, sued the administration. It puts the administration’s reinterpretation of a Clinton-era federal policy on hold while the case is decided.
Under the proposed changes, some community-level programs would be reclassified as federal public benefits, making them inaccessible to people without legal status. Individual public benefits, such as food stamps and college financial aid, have been largely unavailable to people in the country without legal status.
U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, who was appointed by Trump in 2019, said in her order that the policy rollout was “rushed” in a way that would worsen the impact for people cut off from community services and those tasked with verifying eligibility.
▶ Read more about the judge’s order on Head Start
The president was accompanied by first lady Melania Trump.
The appearance is Trump’s first in public since the fatal shooting Wednesday in Utah of Charlie Kirk, an ally and supporter of the president.
At 9:37 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, killing 184 service members and civilians.
Harvard University says it has started receiving notices that many federal grants terminated by the Trump administration will be reinstated after a federal judge ruled the cuts were illegal.
It’s an early signal that federal research funding could start flowing to Harvard after months of deadlock with the White House, but it’s yet to be seen if money will arrive before the government appeals the judge’s decision. So far, no payments have been received, though Harvard is “monitoring funding receipts closely,” spokesperson Jason Newton said.
A federal judge in Boston last week ordered the government to reverse more than $2.6 billion in cuts, saying they were unconstitutional and “used antisemitism as a smokescreen” for an ideological attack. The White House said it will appeal.
It’s the latest sign that the labor market is softening.
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the week ending Sept. 6 rose 27,000 to 263,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s the most filings since the week of Oct. 23, 2021 and well above the 231,000 new applications economists forecast.
Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs and have mostly settled in a historically low range between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic nearly four years ago.
The four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, rose by 9,750 to 240,500.
The total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits for the previous week of Aug. 30 was unchanged at 1.94 million.
▶ Read more about U.S. jobless claims
Opening statements are set to begin Thursday morning for the trial of a man charged with trying to assassinate President Donald Trump while he played golf in South Florida last year, when he was campaigning for a second term.
Ryan Routh is representing himself after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon agreed to let him dismiss his court-appointed attorneys. They are, however, standing by in the courtroom if needed.
He’s pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations.
▶ Read more about Ryan Routh’s trial
