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By
Brittney Melton
Good morning. You're reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day.
Twenty-five years ago today, a terrorist attack changed American life forever. Four planes were hijacked by al-Qaida; two struck the World Trade Center in New York, one struck the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The 9/11 attacks killed at least 2,977 people, and a Brown University study found that an additional 7,000 U.S. service members died in post-9/11 wars, while thousands more suffered from illnesses linked to toxic debris after the collapse. Today, communities across the U.S. are gathering to remember, honor and grieve.
New York City firefighters march Friday near the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in Lower Manhattan on the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Angelina Katsanis/AP hide caption
President Trump and Vice President Vance closed out the first-ever midterm Republican convention by urging their supporters to vote in November. Vance did not mention the president's promise to send every adult American $5,000 if their party maintained control of Congress, but Trump was quick to remind the room. The next Republican convention will be in 2028, when the party will have a new presidential nominee and Trump will no longer be its standard-bearer.
Missouri's Republican redistricting plan was blocked yesterday due to a series of court rulings. The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked a federal order requiring use of the GOP map, while the Missouri Supreme Court found Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in contempt for telling local election officials to use it despite an earlier court order. Hoskins said the state would revert to the map used in the last two elections.
by Greg Myre, National Security Correspondent
President Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Venezuela with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (left) and CIA Director John Ratcliffe (center) at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Jan. 3, 2026. U.S. forces captured Venezuela's leader Nicolas Maduro and brought him to New York where he faces criminal charges. Molly Riley/AP via The White House hide caption
The Sept. 11 attack was the most monumental event of my lifetime and still shapes the world to this day. I was based in Jerusalem on 9/11, and when the second plane slammed into the World Trade Center, I immediately suspected al-Qaida was responsible. I'd reported extensively from Afghanistan in the 1990s, including the rise of the Taliban and previous al-Qaida attacks, marked by simultaneous strikes.
Within days, I was in Pakistan and would soon drive the rutted roads deep into Afghanistan, all the way to Kabul, as the U.S. military and its partners ousted the Taliban and pursued al-Qaida.
Afghanistan was otherworldly, a land frozen centuries in the past, all of it clouded in dust and poverty. The country had already endured two decades of war and been abandoned by the world. Yet at that moment, Afghanistan seemed to have a ray of hope, with the U.S. and its allies promising at least a measure of stability and sustenance.
That hope faded over years of grinding conflict. And almost as shocking as 9/11 itself is the way events have unfolded over the past 25 years. What was unimaginable then is today's bitter reality.
The Taliban are back in power, imposing their repressive rule on Afghans, women in particular. For most of the past quarter-century, the formidable U.S. military has fought three wars in three neighboring countries: Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran – all proving far more costly and complicated than expected. These countries have suffered terribly, while the U.S. still struggles to grasp why its overwhelming military might hasn't generated the outcomes predicted with such confidence. Sept. 11 happened 25 years ago. The consequences are still playing out.
Clockwise from left, East of Eden, Neagley, Brothers, A Different World, Slow Horses and Cupertino. Geoffrey Short/Netflix; Sabrina Lantos/Prime; Apple TV; Daniel Delgado Jr/Netflix; Apple TV; Elizabeth Fisher/CBS hide caption
Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:
🍿 Movies: NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour describes Filipiñana as visually beautiful and an emotional gut punch, offering a fresh take on the inner workings of a Philippines' country club.
📺 TV: Florence Pugh in an East of Eden adaptation, a reboot of A Different World, and Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson playing (possible) brothers are among the anticipated shows coming this fall. Here's what NPR critics are looking forward to.
📚 Books: In Colin Kaepernick's new memoir, The Perilous Fight, he reflects on his life, going back even further than a decade ago when he famously took a knee. In an interview with Morning Edition's Michel Martin, he discusses losing his football career and what the protest taught him.
🎵 Music: NPR's New Music Friday is sharing the best albums out this week, including Ezra Collective's Here Because of Hope and This Is Lorelei's The Singer in My Band. Listen to several albums' best songs with this curated playlist.
🧩 Games: Want to cut down on doomscrolling? Check out these five daily puzzle games that will test your knowledge of geography, history and even obscure corners of Wikipedia.
❓ Quiz: What is better than one quiz? Two! You are destined to get at least one NPR news quiz question right if you know what big promise the president made this week. And, see how much you really know about procrastination with this Life Kit quiz.
This fossilized feather dates back 66 million years to the late Cretaceous. "It is, without a doubt, the best feather we've ever found from the age of dinosaurs," says Jingmai O'Connor, an associate curator at the Field Museum of Natural History. Nate Carroll hide caption
This newsletter was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi.
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