The 18-year-old showed tremendous composure from the start in her sensational straight sets victory to win the US OpenEmma Raducanu walked on to court for her first grand slam final with a smile, responded to the roar of the crowd with a gentle wave of her left hand, ready to go. If she was going to go down, she would go down on her terms.We need not have worried. In the most intense of arenas, in uncharted territory, the 18-year-old won her first grand slam title and the greatest thing about it all was that from the first moment to last, with only one or two moments of mild doubt, it almost seemed inevitable. Continue reading...

Biden and Harris among leaders at ceremonies in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania• Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email10.37pm BSTOur coverage of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is coming to a close. Thank you for reading. Here is some of our coverage:9.50pm BSTTwenty years after Lower Manhattan was covered in toxic dust from the World Trade Center, health problems persist for survivors and first responders at the Twin Towers, and for residents who lived nearby.According to the Associated Press, 111,000 people are part of the World Trade Center Health Program, which provides free medical care to persons with health problems possibly tied to the dust.To date, the U.S. has spent $11.7 billion on care and compensation for those exposed to the dust -- about $4.6 billion more than it gave to the families of people killed or injured on Sept. 11, 2001. More than 40,000 people have gotten payments from a government fund for people with illnesses potentially linked to the attacks.Scientists still can’t say for certain how many people developed health problems as a result of exposure to the tons of pulverized concrete, glass, asbestos, gypsum and God knows what else that fell on Lower Manhattan when the towers fell.The largest number of people enrolled in the federal health program suffer from chronic inflammation of their sinus or nasal cavities or from reflux disease, a condition that can cause symptoms including heartburn, sore throat and a chronic cough.The reasons for this are not well understood. Doctors say it could be related to their bodies getting stuck in cycles of chronic inflammation initially triggered by irritation from the dust.Post-traumatic stress disorder has emerged as one of the most common, persistent health conditions, afflicting about 12,500 people enrolled in the health program. Nearly 19,000 enrollees have a mental health problem believed to be linked to the attacks. More than 4,000 patients have some type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a family of potentially debilitating breathing problems.Time has helped heal some physical ailments, but not others. Many first responders who developed a chronic cough later had it fade, or disappear entirely, but others have shown little improvement. Continue reading...

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and George W Bush join mourners in ceremonies in New York, Pennsylvania and at PentagonSome wept. Some held photos of loved ones At 8.46am, precisely two decades after a passenger plane became a new and deadly weapon here, all fell silent in remembrance.Families of the victims gathered at the 9/11 memorial plaza in New York on Saturday to mark the 20th anniversary of terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and helped shape the 21st century. Similar ceremonies played out in Washington DC and Pennsylvania – the sites of other attacks that day. Continue reading...

Western lowland gorillas are believed to have caught the virus from a zookeeperMore than a dozen gorillas have tested positive for Covid-19 at Zoo Atlanta, probably after contracting the virus from a keeper, zoo officials said.Staff were alerted when several of the zoo’s troop of 20 western lowland gorillas began exhibiting symptoms, including runny noses, mild coughing and loss of appetite. Continue reading...

People across the USA and the world commemorate the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks Continue reading...

The US Open final crowns a sizzling summer for some of the world’s youngest elite athletes, from tennis to football to the OlympicsTeenage tennis stars were supposed to be a thing of the past, a relic of the 1990s along with curtain hairdos and “gastropubs”. But no one told Britain’s Emma Raducanu, 18, and 19-year old Leylah Fernandez of Canada.On Saturday, the two unseeded, hardly-heard-of (before this summer) players will be in New York battling to be US Open women’s singles champion. It is the first all-teen final since 1999 – when neither was born – which saw Serena Williams, 17, beat an 18-year-old Martina Hingis. Continue reading...

The infamous real estate heir was on trial for the murder of Susan Berman in Los Angeles 21 years agoThe latest and, most likely, last trial of Robert Durst, the wily, silver-tongued New York real estate heir who has spent half a lifetime seeking to explain away a string of shocking deaths in his midst, was always going to be a lurid affair. But the reality – of murder, dismemberment, kooky disguises and a compulsion to talk about it all – has outstripped all expectations.Over the past four months, a court in suburban Los Angeles has heard Durst, now 79 and in poor health, repeatedly admitting that he was a liar and a perjurer. Even he, he said, had difficulty believing the central alibi for the murder at the heart of the case. Continue reading...

The author is the latest to suffer an attempted ‘cancelling’, one born of malice and stupiditySocial media did not create informers and liars. The malicious have always manufactured denunciations and the literal-minded have always confused nuance with sin. The web is simply supercharging one of those dismal moments in history when wilful ignorance and active malice are rewarded rather than disdained.In optimistic times, one can almost sympathise with character assassins. In Normal People, Sally Rooney has her female lead think, “cruelty does not only hurt the victim, but the perpetrator also, and maybe more deeply and more permanently”. The victim may get over it. The abuser must always live with the knowledge that they are a thug. Continue reading...

A London memorial service on the 20th anniversary of the attacks also heard recorded tributes from Boris Johnson and Tony Blair

Firefighters and others reflect on the lasting impact of the terror attacks: ‘It feels like yesterday’

The commemoration to mark 20 years since the attacks began with a tolling bell and a moment of silence at the 9/11 memorial plaza in New York City. President Joe Biden, and former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton were among the crowd who fell silent to mark the moment the first plane struck. In all there were six moments of silence, marking the times that each tower was struck and the times that each fell, as well as the moment when the Pentagon was attacked and the time that United 93 crashed in Pennsylvania Continue reading...

The Serb who could make history against Daniil Medvedev is trying to focus on the US Open, not a perfect year in the majorsAfter a deeply satisfied Novak Djokovic had put his racket away following another job well done on Friday night, in the post-match interview of his five-set win over Alexander Zverev the interviewer started a question by listing all of the potential achievements on the line in his final match. As soon as Djokovic understood where the question was going, he cut the question off: “I’m going for a fourth US Open, that’s all I’m thinking about,” he said, smiling.Further prompts about Djokovic’s grand slam attempt followed: “It’s there, it’s there,” said Djokovic. “I know that people would like to hear me talk about it, but there is not much to talk about. There’s only one match left. All in, all in. Let’s do it. I’m going to put my heart and my soul and my head into that one. I’m going to treat my next match like it is the last match of my career.” Continue reading...

Zemari Ahmadi, who died alongside nine others had no connection to terrorism, a New York Times investigation suggestedThe US mistakenly targeted and killed an innocent aid worker for an American company in a drone strike in Afghanistan, the New York Times suggested in an investigation into the country’s final military action of the recently concluded 20-year war.The victim, the newspaper said, was 43-year-old Zemari Ahmadi, who died with nine members of his family, including seven children, when a missile from a US air force Reaper drone struck his car as he arrived home from work in a residential neighborhood of Kabul. Continue reading...

The Activist, a new TV show, is another example that activism has been consumed by the corporate world – but that’s something to celebrate Continue reading...

Joe Biden has called for unity as the US remembers the 2,977 people who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks. ‘We honour all those who risked and gave their lives in the minutes, hours, months and years afterwards,’ he said. Biden is due this morning to join families of the victims at three separate locations. But anger at the US president’s recent botched withdrawal from Afghanistan is still raw

The 9/11 terrorists failed to undermine the faith of 'free peoples' around the world in open societies, Boris Johnson has said, marking the 20th anniversary of the attacks. 'The fact that we are coming together today – in sorrow but also in faith and resolve – demonstrates the failure of terrorism and the strength of the bonds between us,' Johnson said. A total of 2,977 people were killed in the atrocity, including 67 Britons

Private military contractors outnumbered US troops on the ground during most of both conflicts. And defense industry stocks soaredWhile Washington bickers about what, if anything, has been achieved after 20 years and nearly $5tn spent on “forever wars”, there is one clear winner: the US defense industry.Related: ‘Blacklisting’ terrorist groups: the post-9/11 strategy that only serves to prolong wars | Sophie Haspeslagh Continue reading...

Wildfires spell a threat to the tourist industry in California mountain towns as vacationers cancel trips and national parks closeRelated: ‘Our future might not look the same’: wildfires threaten way of life in California’s mountain townsFor weeks, thick smoke filled the skies above Lake Tahoe, emptying the normally bustling towns that surround its alpine blue waters during the waning summer weekends. Eateries were closed, campgrounds cleared, and boats stayed anchored or moored along the shore. Continue reading...

The Queen, Keir Starmer and the PM sent messages to mark the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacksThe Queen has sent a message to the US president, Joe Biden, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11, and remembered her visit to Ground Zero, the site of the attack on the World Trade Center.Her message said: “As we mark the 20th anniversary of the terrible attacks on September 11 2001, my thoughts and prayers – and those of my family and the entire nation – remain with the victims, survivors and families affected, as well as the first responders and rescue workers called to duty. Continue reading...

Teenagers seemed to have been muscled out before the extraordinary form shown by two youngsters at the US OpenOver the past 20 years, as memories of Martina Hingis, Venus Williams and Serena Williams battling for glory in grand slam finals as teens faded deep into the memory of professional tennis, it soon became clear that the era of teenage supernovas had abated.While there have been numerous anomalies since, including the recent triumphs of Bianca Andreescu and Iga Swiatek, with the rise of technology and augmenting physicality within the sport teenagers have been brushed aside. Continue reading...

Panic, unnatural silences, the relief of a call from a daughter: recollections of that haunting dayMost people who were old enough at the time remember where they were on 9/11, as live TV images of the attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington DC were beamed around the world.For Americans, the 20th anniversary of the tragedy that cost 2,977 lives in their country is even more poignant, as many know people who were caught up in the terrible events that day. Continue reading...

Their faces were on front pages across the world in the days after the World Trade Center collapsed. Here’s how they, and their families, look back on those terrifying hours Continue reading...

South Carolina and Arizona governors decry ‘big government overreach’ after president orders larger businesses to demand employees be vaccinated• Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email12.59am BSTThat’s it for me tonight. Thanks for reading along! Here’s some of what we covered:Related: US Capitol rioter photographed wearing horns pleads guiltypic.twitter.com/a3PWIGfB6Y12.37am BSTTennessee’s controversial abortion law was blocked by a federal appeals court today, ruling that the measure was “constitutionally unsound”.The law banned abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which typically occurs around 6 weeks into the pregnancy — often before many women know they are pregnant.Appeals court strikes down Tennessee abortion restrictions, with Judge Thapar (a Trump appointee) writing lengthy partial dissent taking aim at Roe v. Wade: https://t.co/bZqizndvtJ pic.twitter.com/J1kcQRDBMnRelated: AOC on Texas governor’s ‘disgusting’ abortion remarks: ‘He is not familiar with a female body’ Continue reading...

California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Utah faced historic heatwaves, which were made possible by human-caused global heating, a study foundCalifornia experienced its hottest summer on record this year as the climate crisis caused deadly heatwaves and intense wildfires in the state and across the American west.Related: ‘Fire weather’: dangerous days now far more common in US west, study finds Continue reading...

The ‘calming influence’ of coach Andrew Richardson, her physio, agent and LTA heads of tennis have all lent supportIf Emma Raducanu’s surprise run to the fourth round of Wimbledon in July was a life-changing experience, then her journey to a maiden grand slam final at the US Open has ensured that it will never be the same.By defeating Maria Sakkari, the 17th seed, 6-1, 6-4 on Thursday, Raducanu became the first qualifier in history to reach a grand slam final. She has done so in only her fourth tour-level event since she started her full-time professional tennis career after finishing her A-levels in the summer. Continue reading...

Partisan pushback comes as CDC releases study finding those who were not fully vaccinated recently were 11 times more likely to die of CovidJoe Biden has dared political opponents plotting legal challenges to his large-scale workforce vaccine mandates to “have at it” – as one Republican governor promised to fight the White House “to the gates of hell” over the new coronavirus rules.A growing number of senior Republicans, including US senators, state governors and leading party officials, announced on Friday they would support or pursue legal avenues to try to block the president’s edict. Continue reading...

Five animals roam neighbourhoods after fleeing private farm as officials struggle to catch themMore comfortable with rounding up lost dogs and rescuing kittens from trees, a team of animal control officers in Maryland’s second-most-populous county is wrestling with an unprecedented challenge: how to catch a dazzle of free-roaming zebras.Five of the animals broke free from a private farm in Prince George county more than a week ago and have been roaming neighbourhoods south of Upper Marlboro in a search of food. Continue reading...

In the two decades since the terror attack on New York City, films and TV shows have tried to revisit or reflect on a culturally traumatic eventA common refrain in the days after 11 September 2001 was that the scenes of unthinkable destruction looked like a movie. In some ways, it did: the World Trade Center had been destroyed on-screen in three late-90s blockbusters: Independence Day, Deep Impact and Armageddon. Overnight, movies with bombastic scenes of mass violence all but disappeared; for years afterwards, the attacks themselves, whose imagery saturated the national consciousness, proved too traumatic, too untouchable, to be reimagined for film or TV.Related: ‘Muslims were so demonized’: Mehdi Hasan, Zainab Johnson, Keith Ellison and more on 9/11’s aftermath Continue reading...

Some Afghan families were all but wiped out by massacres and airstrikes, provoking survivors to take up arms against the westThe men of Zangabad village, Panjwai district lined up on the eve of 11 September to count and remember their dead, the dozens of relatives who they say were killed at the hands of the foreign forces that first appeared in their midst nearly 20 years ago.Their cluster of mud houses, fields and pomegranate orchards was the site of perhaps the most notorious massacre of the war, when US SSgt Robert Bales walked out of a nearby base to slaughter local families in cold blood. He killed 16 people, nine of them children. Continue reading...

The US’s departure has prompted a national sense of shame and a recognition there will be no victory in the ‘war on terror’

One comment gave Fernandez all the motivation she needed while her father says moving to Canada paved the way for herAs Leylah Fernandez made her unlikely, yet swashbuckling way to the final of the US Open over the past fortnight, many things stood out. The way she wants the match on her racquet, the innate understanding of the angles that the great left-handers seem to possess and the sheer joy on her face as she racked up win after win on one of the biggest stages of all.At 19, Fernandez has the world at her feet. In only her fifth grand slam event, she has beaten Naomi Osaka, Angelique Kerber, Elina Svitolina and Aryna Sabalenka, two grand slam winners and two players in the world’s top five, with flicks of that magical left wrist, with the New York crowd backing her at every turn. Continue reading...

How the Guardian has reported the early sightings and stunning rise of a British tennis sensation9 July 2017

If teachers don’t step in, pupils researching the topic themselves may fall prey to conspiracy theoriesSchoolchildren must be properly taught about the September 11 terrorist attacks to stop them from researching the event themselves and falling down “dangerous rabbit holes” of online conspiracy theories, say experts.

The tech overlord is reportedly investing in age-reversal, which means so much more than a fair contribution to the UK’s financesOn the one hand, it makes huge sense for Jeff Bezos to pour millions into a company seeking the secret to eternal life. Karmic reincarnation may only be an outside possibility. But Jeff should hedge against the likelihood that under that scenario, he’s coming back as a Yemeni woman.Further developments in fauxlanthropy for the Amazon overlord, then, who has decided that death is as inevitable as taxes. Which is to say: not at all inevitable for the likes of him. Bezos was this month reported to be a significant investor in Altos Labs, an age-reversal firm which is on the scientific quest for immortality. Among other expansions, it is thought the firm will now open a lab within the UK, which I think you’ll agree means so much more to our nation than a fair tax contribution from Amazon. You know we’d only spend that shit on social care or the NHS or something, when Jeff can see it’s far better for us to get people on ordinary incomes to pay extra for all that, so that guys like him are freed up to spaff their money on Earth’s most preposterous midlife crises. How else to interpret the fact that this eternal-life news emerged in the very week it was revealed that despite Amazon UK sales increasing by £1.89bn last year, the firm paid just £3.8m more corporation tax? Continue reading...

The veteran civil rights leader is determined to dismantle the centuries-old Senate tool in the battle for voting rights – will Biden join him?Earlier this summer, Al Sharpton traveled to Philadelphia to attend Joe Biden’s speech on voting rights. After delivering his remarks – a ringing call to arms against the march of restrictive election laws – the US president asked the veteran Black civil rights leader what he thought.Related: Trump’s coup attempt has not stopped – and Democrats must wake up | Robert Reich Continue reading...

The September 11 2001 attacks heralded a big increase in repression in the name of the ‘war on terror’The moment Wahid Sheikh’s life changed forever was broadcast on television to a global audience of millions, including him. At the time, it appeared to be happening entirely to others, a long way from his Mumbai home. “I watched the buildings collapse, slowly and gradually, sad to watch ordinary people dying,” he recalls. Continue reading...

A breakdown of the 18-year-old’s strengths reveals power on both wings but she can still improve drop shot and sliceMaria Sakkari, one of the best servers in the world, reached the semi-final with a supreme serving performance against Karolina Pliskova, the world No 4. Two days later, that same serve was eviscerated by Raducanu, who constantly looks to hit her return early. Her ability to put immense pressure on the server by deflecting first serves with relentless depth and attacking sub-standard second serves has been one of the defining factors of her success. It has allowed her to immediately recover after poor starts and it gives her a say in every return game. Continue reading...

White House says leaders agree to engage ‘openly and straightforwardly’ amid US frustration at lack of progress in relationsJoe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, have spoken in their first phone call for seven months, amid continuing tensions between the world’s two largest economies.During the 90-minute call, which was initiated by the US president, the two leaders discussed their shared responsibility to ensure competition does not “veer into conflict”, according to a readout from the White House. Continue reading...

Many believe that the no position can equal the burden placed on the quarterback. But the other side of the ball presents its own problemsThe NFL kicked off on Thursday night and the first full weekend of action starts on Sunday. As usual, attention will be heaped on star quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady. Indeed, quarterback is often described as the toughest position in sports. But are we being unfair to cornerbacks? While quarterbacks know exactly which play is coming, cornerbacks don’t – and they also need the athletic chops to go step for step with wide receivers and the robustness to tackle opponents moving at high speed.We spoke to three former cornerbacks – who, between them, account for almost 400 NFL games, two Pro Bowl appearances and two Super Bowl rings – to determine whether theirs is, in fact, the most difficult and demanding position in football. Continue reading...

In the developing world most people are not factory farming and livestock is essential to preventing poverty and malnutritionThe pandemic has pushed poverty and malnutrition to rates not seen in more than a decade, wiping out years of progress. In 2020, the number of people in extreme poverty rose by 97 million and the number of malnourished people by between 118 million and 161 million.Recent data from the World Bank and the UN shows how poverty is heavily concentrated in rural communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America where people are surviving by smallholder farming. This autumn there will be two key events that could rally support for them. Continue reading...

Conservatives think they can avoid accepting trans people by reducing our existence to a passing fad. But we’ve always been hereWhenever the subject of transgender identities comes up today, there is a tendency for conservative politicians – perhaps most of all in the United States – to trot out a particularly specious argument: that the idea of being trans is a “new” concept, a notion that “no one” in their right mind had heard of, or would entertain, in previous eras.At its most extreme, this argument suggests that a peculiar concoction of things is to blame for our existence – from social media, indoctrination by well-paid gender studies professors, or even an excess of supposedly hormone-altering substances, like soy or arcane chemicals, in our diets. Non-binary identities particularly confound conservatives. Continue reading...

As both the climate crisis and development intensify, Black cemeteries are now at a disproportionate risk of being lost, some before they have even been officially foundOn a cloudy weekend day in May, Jennifer Blanks took a trip to Canaan cemetery in Bryan, Texas. The six-acre site is the final resting place for a community of primarily Black farmers and veterans, with generations stretching back to the 1800s. Among the interred is Powell Harvey, the first Black man to serve as the Brazos county constable.If Blanks hadn’t known this before visiting, though, she might have missed many of the graves completely. Continue reading...

The legislation would require warehouses to disclose to government agencies the quotas used to track workersCalifornia has passed a landmark bill taking aim at Amazon and the controversial, algorithm-driven rules that govern the lives of its warehouse workers.The first-of-its-kind law was passed by the state senate this week and will soon land on the desk of Governor Gavin Newsom, who has not yet signaled whether he will sign it. Continue reading...

Many universities now require masks and vaccinations – and some schools have moved instruction online, at least for nowAs universities and colleges in the United States open for the fall semester, even those institutions requiring masks and vaccinations are grappling with unexpectedly high rates of Covid.In one high-profile example, the University of Delaware sent a message to faculty this week, instructing them not to let students know if their classmates test positive for Covid-19 even though cases are rising on campus. Continue reading...