New York marks 24 years since 9/11 attacks against divided backdrop

Monitoring Desk

NEW YORK: New York marked the devastating attacks of September 11, 2001 on Thursday, 24 years after the deadly plane hijackings that claimed almost 3,000 lives and forever changed the United States.
Vice President JD Vance was expected to attend memorial events at Ground Zero in Manhattan where the World Trade Center’s twin towers were destroyed in coordinated attacks that also saw a jetliner crashed into the nerve center of American military power, the Pentagon in Washington.
Another jet, Flight 93, crashed into the Pennsylvania countryside when passengers overran the hijacker and took control of the aircraft.
This year’s gathering takes place against a backdrop of sharp political division both in the city and nationally.
New York is in the grip of an unprecedented mayoral election campaign in which socialist Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani is facing off against former governor Andrew Cuomo and sitting mayor Eric Adams.
New Yorkers go to the polls on November 4.
It was unclear which of the mayoral candidates would attend the ceremony that is always attended by the sitting mayor as well as community leaders.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked Mamdani, a Muslim and naturalised US citizen, calling him a “communist lunatic,” while one Republican lawmaker has called for the race’s frontrunner to be deported.
Mamdani holds a 22 point lead in the race, according to the latest polling from The New York Times and Siena.