A park, a sculpture, a crowd

Families of British 9/11 victims gathered in London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, around a memorial sculpture built from the ruins of the Twin Towers.

Burnham's message on screen

The Prime Minister addressed the families by video, telling them the attacks did not end the argument they were meant to end.

“Those who seek to destroy our way of life will never win”

Hatred did not win

Burnham said the terrorists set out to weaken and divide America and everyone who shares its values, and that the answer to them was already given.

“On this anniversary, we must remember that hatred and fear did not have the last word on 9/11”

A wreath in Grosvenor Square

US ambassador Warren Stephens and his wife Harriet laid a wreath at London's September 11th Memorial Garden, the capital's older site of mourning.

The number, and the British share

The attacks killed 2,977 people from more than 90 nations. Sixty-seven of them were British citizens.

Still hard to believe

Stephens said the distance of 25 years has not made the day any easier to absorb, and that he and his wife had been talking about it on the walk in.

“It's a tragedy none of us will ever forget”

A thousand letters, still kept

Stephens said Americans will not forget the flowers and letters Britons sent after the attacks. More than 1,000 of those tributes sit in the US embassy archives in London.

Four planes, three targets

Hijackers took control of four passenger jets, flying two into the World Trade Centre and one into the Pentagon in Virginia. Both towers collapsed.

Flight 93 fought back

Passengers and crew on United Airlines Flight 93 seized back control, and the plane went down in a Pennsylvania field instead of its target, thought to be the Capitol.

The Chief Rabbi's warning

Ephraim Mirvis told the 200 attendees that the forces behind the attacks have not gone anywhere, and named the years since as evidence.

“The evil forces which perpetrated the atrocities of 9/11, are still in our midst”

A line through four cities

Mirvis listed London in 2005, Paris in 2015, Manchester in 2017 and Israel on October 7, 2023, as one continuing story rather than separate shocks.

“Extreme Islamism has continued to stain our world”

Talk to people you disagree with

His prescription was social cohesion built through difficult conversations, including with those he differs from sharply.

“When confronted by those who seek to glorify death, we must respond by sanctifying life”

A breakfast that never happened

Liam McKenna was 15 when he lost his uncle Michael Egan, who worked on the 103rd floor of the south tower, and his aunt Christine, a nurse who had flown in from Canada to eat breakfast with her brother.

“We are less for having lost them”

Steel that will outlast us

Peter Rosengard, who led the campaign for the Olympic Park memorial, pointed at the twisted girders and gave them a job to do.

“From the worst day we can still teach the next generation to build a better one”

Terror knocks at the door

Burnham warned that the threat still presses on democracy, and said the UK and US stand together in defence of the values they share.

“Terror still knocks at the door of democracy”

Manchester repaid the kindness

Burnham recalled that after the terror attacks in Manchester during his time as mayor, support arrived from across the US, including from children of those killed on 9/11.

NATO's clause, invoked once

The US became the only country ever to trigger NATO's collective defence clause, where an attack on one is answered by all. The current president has cast doubt on that commitment.

The wars that followed

Britain sent forces into Afghanistan and Iraq. Hundreds of UK troops died, thousands more were injured, and the consequences are still working themselves out.

A relationship under strain

Stephens praised a transatlantic bond that has held for centuries, speaking days after rows with Trump's White House over the Iran war tested it.

“Despite our disagreements and debates”

A salute at the palace

The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester took the Royal Salute at Buckingham Palace with Stephens, Ed Miliband and Dan Jarvis. Tony Blair, prime minister on the day, called the anniversary a moment to mark an unshakeable bond.