In the charcoal clouds that rose from the rubble of the twin towers on 11 September 2001, Donald Trump eyed a silver lining. One of his buildings, a short walk away from Ground Zero, he reckoned, had just become the tallest skyscraper in Lower Manhattan.
His property at 40 Wall Street, he told the New York radio station WWOR, “actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was actually, before the World Trade Centre, the tallest – and then, when they built the World Trade Centre, it became known as the second-tallest. And now it’s the tallest.”
Almost three thousand people had just been killed. America was experiencing a modern-day Pearl Harbour. Trump’s home city was in a state of collective trauma, and yet it appeared bragging rights were in the forefront of his mind: the boast – a false one, as it turned out – that his building stood taller than any other in a part of the city now covered in dust and debris.
How the King’s pointed letter ‘surprised’ Harry and Meghan
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were “surprised” by the release of a letter on behalf of King Charles this week clarifying their status as “akin to private citizen”, according to a spokesperson for the couple.
Here’s what we know.
No titles, little warning
- A top Buckingham Palace official sent the letter to military officials and Government departments on Monday.
- It stated that as non-working royals, the Sussexes will not use the titles of “His and Her Royal Highness”.
- The couple “were a little surprised not to have been told about this in advance,” their spokesperson said.
- Their team was still seeking guidance when it was released, The i Paper understands.
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No chance for clarification
The Sussexes did not have enough time to clarify any points before the guidance was issued to the media, it is understood.
- The letter’s contents were reportedly shared with their team at 1:59pm.
- Team Sussex replied to Buckingham Palace at 2:19pm, seeking clarification on one or two points.
- The letter was revealed to the media at 3:06pm on Monday.
- Harry was in a meeting and could not be contacted until 3:09pm.
- Team Sussex received confirmation at 3:11pm that the letter had been sent to the media.
Why are the titles important?
The reference to the HRH title was seen as an attempt to slap the Sussexes down amid concerns that the couple may want to monetise their royal status, including via Meghan’s lifestyle products brand, As Ever.
The title was seen in a video Meghan posted accompanying a podcast last year.
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Harry, a ‘private citizen’?
- The letter clarified that “in short, their position is akin to private citizens with commercial and charitable interests”.
- But a friend of the couple previously told The i Paper that Harry, as the King’s son, could never be an entirely private citizen.
- “Some people will say, ‘But they’re private citizens.’ Nonsense. Utter nonsense. They are two of the most high-profile people in the world,” the friend added.
Not a quiet word in your ear, not a private memo; no, this was a formal, blunt statement of fact sent to Harry on his father’s orders. Ouch! There is to be no doubt: the King is not going to be bounced into accepting any change in the Sussexes’ status just because they have chosen to return to the UK.
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No ‘half in, half out’ option
Charles and Prince William are said to be worried that family members doing business deals alongside official duties for the state opens themselves up to the sort of abuse of position accusations facing the King’s brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
- This led to them clarifying that Harry and Meghan won’t be attending state functions or official engagements.
Who will fund the Sussexes’ security?
The couple returned to the country for what they called an extended period on 26 August, after quitting royal duties in 2020. Their children have reportedly been enrolled in English schools.
The row over who will pay for their security is ongoing, with the couple currently paying for it but lobbying the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (Ravec) – which is set to meet this week – for taxpayer-funded police protection.
How hot drinks can raise cancer risk
Frequently consuming drinks at very high temperatures increases the risk of oesophageal cancer – cancer of the food pipe or gullet – UK research suggests.
A three times higher chance
The study, from Oxford Population Health at the University of Oxford, included nearly a million people and found those who drank “very hot” drinks had about a three times higher risk of oesophageal .
Hot liquid may damage the cell lining of the food pipe as it travels down to the stomach, which could increase the risk of cancer developing, though the overall risk is low.
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How hot is too hot?
The research, published in the , did not record the temperature of drinks. But the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified drinking beverages above 65°C as “probably carcinogenic”.
Drinking six or more hot beverages a day also increases the risk, data from 977,282 middle-aged men and women in this latest study shows.
A rare cancer
The researchers said that one or two in every 10 oesophageal cancers could be avoided if people stopped consuming hot drinks.
The cancer is rare, though, with only around 1 per cent of the UK population at risk of being diagnosed with this type of cancer.
- Other factors, such as smoking, pose a comparatively bigger risk for developing oesophageal cancer.
What to do
- Letting drinks cool down before drinking or adding cold milk can negate the risk, experts agreed.
- Researchers said the temperature at which coffee and tea is drunk in Western populations is estimated to be .
- “More research is needed to identify the exact drink temperatures linked to increased risk,” the researchers added.
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August was world’s joint hottest month on
August was the joint hottest month ever recorded, with global temperatures soaring 1.65C above pre-industrial times.
Scientists say it is another “warning siren” for climate change. Here’s what you need to know.
What you need to know
Record temps
August 2026 tied July 2023 for the planet’s hottest month on record, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Fossil fuels impact
Last month was 1.65°C above the average for the period 1850-1900, before humans burned fossil fuels at scale.
Warmer seas
Sea surface temperatures hit 21.07C, a joint high mark with March 2024.
The impact of record heat
Heatwaves in August continued a run of extreme heat that began in May, with severe drought hitting the UK, France, Hungary and Serbia. Major rivers from the Rhine to the Danube saw exceptionally low flows.
Under 2015’s Paris Agreement, countries agreed to limit global warming to “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels.
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What the scientists say
Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at ECMWF, said the latest temperature data shows how “climate change is driving extremes across both the atmosphere and the oceans”.
Gareth Redmond-King, of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said a “warning siren” was sounding two months before the COP 31 summit.
![CORRECTION / A beachgoer walks in Lake Lacanau, also called Etang de Lacanau (Lacanau Pond) from the beach of Moutchic in Lacanau, southwestern France on July 24, 2026, as clouds of smoke rise into the sky from a wildfire. The fire raging in the northern part of the Arcachon Basin in Gironde, southwest France, has swept through more than 3,400 hectares, according to the latest figures released by the prefecture. More than 20,000 residents and tourists have been evacuated from this part already devastated by flames in 2022. Scientists have long warned that climate change caused by human use of fossil fuels will make periods of drought more intense and longer-lasting, creating the ideal conditions for wildfires. (Photo by Maximilien LAMY / AFP via Getty Images) / "The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by Maximilien LAMY has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [Lake Lacanau] instead of [the ocean]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefore we thank you very much for all your attention and prompt action. We are sorry for the inconvenience this notification may cause and remain at your disposal for any further information you may require."](https://inews.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/SEI_306296016.jpg?w=1200&h=675&crop=1)
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How El Niño could impact UK weather
The United Nations says the world is in a “danger zone of extreme weather”, with warnings that aeroplane turbulence and food shortages could affect Britons.
The new illnesses pharmacists can treat under NHS scheme
Pharmacists will be able to treat people with migraines, acne and several other conditions as the NHS’ “Pharmacy First” scheme is expanded this autumn.
What you need to know
Pharmacy scheme
The NHS scheme allows people to receive care for common illnesses from pharmacists without seeing a GP.
New conditions
From autumn, people can get help for acne, migraines, scabies, certain ear infections and allergic rhinitis.
Expanded offering
It adds to the seven conditions pharmacies can already treat.
The changes in full
- Pharmacies can already treat seven conditions under the Pharmacy First scheme.
- They are impetigo, infected insect bites, shingles, sinusitis, earache, sore throat and .
- Once fully rolled out, the scheme’s expansion means pharmacies will now be able to treat 12 conditions.
What the NHS says
The NHS expects between two and three million consultations for the new list of five conditions that can be held in pharmacies. It is hoped this will take pressure off the NHS.
Dr Amanda Doyle of NHS England said people can get treatment “quickly and conveniently on local high streets”.
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Burnham’s thoughts
People are fed up with the scramble for routine appointments
The Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: “Treating people closer to home means catching problems earlier, easing pressure on GPs and A&E and giving people back precious time.”
Hospital waiting lists spike
It comes as the waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has risen to its highest level for nine months. An estimated 7.33 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of July, relating to 6.21 million patients, according to NHS figures. The numbers are the highest since October 2025, when the list stood at 7.40 million treatments and 6.24 million patients.
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‘Penises and nuns’ – The Bayeux Tapestry’s curious history
The legendary woven record of the Norman Conquest has been unveiled to the public in the UK for the first time. As it goes on display at the British Museum, here’s what we know about its extraordinary history.
What you need to know
Back in Britain
The tapestry recording the Norman Conquest of 1066 is back in the UK for the .
Deal with France
It is as part of a special deal between the UK, France and the British Museum.
Medieval wonder
Considered one of the wonders of the medieval world, it offers insight into 11th-century England.
Watch more from The i Paper
Tapestry’s curious history
- It is believed to have been commissioned by the half-brother of William the Conqueror.
- The consensus now is that it was made not in France but by nuns near Canterbury.
- The soldier with the arrow through his eye might not be King Harold, but historians are uncertain.
- The may be random comic irrelevances or commentary on the story.
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How to get tickets
- The tapestry is on show at the British Museum from 10 September until 11 July 2027.
- Tickets are sold out until a release on 21 October, with details on the museum’s website.
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Nothing Trump said or did that day marked him out as a future president, though he had toyed with a run for the White House as early as the 2000 election. who rose to the challenge of that awful moment was the city’s former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, who would later become one of Trump’s most sycophantic loyalists.
A quarter century on, however, it is possible to draw a line from the attacks of 9/11 to Trump’s shock victory in 2016. Without it, Trump might never have become President.
Trump became a political beneficiary of the forever wars that followed, even though he had actually supported the war in Iraq ahead of the Bush administration’s invasion. Americans were tired of fighting open-ended conflicts, and in 2016 voters warmed to a candidate who pledged to make America great again without starting any new wars.
Back in 2015, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, former president George W. Bush’s brother, was the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. Slamming the Iraq War helped Trump bring the Bush presidential dynasty to an end.
“The war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake, all right?” Trump said in a Republican debate in February 2016, taking aim at Bush. “We spent $2trn (£1.5trn), thousands of lives, we don’t even have it. Iran is taking over Iraq with the second-largest oil reserves in the world.”
Bush, who Trump repeatedly mocked as a “low energy” candidate, never recovered. He became collateral damage in his brother’s unpopular and strategically calamitous war.
The economic consequences of the Iraq War also played into Trump’s hands. It wasn’t just the mammoth financial cost to the US, estimated at between $1.5trn (£1.1trn) and $3trn (£2.2trn). The effect on the global economy was enormous, too.
The price of oil soared from $25 (£18.50) a barrel at the start of the conflict to $140 (£103) a barrel in 2008. As oil prices spiked, the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates to guard against an “oil shock” recession. Home buyers took advantage of cheap loans, and the housing bubble became dangerously over-inflated. This, in turn, arguably fuelled the subprime crisis that contributed greatly to the recession of 2008/9.
The collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers in September 2008 had a greater material effect on many American lives than the destruction of the Twin Towers on 9/11. Millions lost faith in the economy to deliver improvements to their standards of living, and when Trump declared in 2015 that the American Dream was dead, his words found an echo in the hollowed-out communities of the Rust Belt.
The derelict wastelands of the old industrial heartland states – Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin in particular – which turned from Democratic blue to Republican red, became the seedbed of Trumpism.
The terror attacks 25 years ago upended American politics. Just take the issue of immigration. During the first year of his presidency, Bush sought to liberalise US immigration policies in negotiations with Mexico. The US economy was so reliant on sources of cheap labour that immigration was seen back then as primarily an economic issue.
After 9/11, it came to be regarded as a national security issue, which it remains to this day.
America, an immigrant nation, became less welcoming for new arrivals. Islamophobia and nativism became more commonplace: between 2000 and 2001, there was a 1,700 per cent rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes.
By 2016, Americans were ready to elect as president a nativist firebrand who launched his campaign with an attack on Mexican immigrants and who called for a ban on immigrants from mainly Islamic countries. During his first campaign, Trump even claimed, misleadingly, that “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey had celebrated the destruction of the World Trade Centre.
The new politics of 9/11 and the forever wars that came afterwards helped Trump in other ways, too. Former president Barack Obama’s opposition to the Iraq War helped him defeat former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in 2008 for the Democratic presidential nomination, and then Senator John McCain, a Republican who had been a vehement supporter of overthrowing Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, for the presidency itself.
After entering the White House, Obama became an ideal foil for Trump, who rose to political prominence as the untitled leader of the Birther movement, which questioned the very legitimacy of America’s first Black president. Trump then positioned himself as the most vehemently anti-Obama candidate in the 2016 Republican primaries.
That year, Clinton was weighed down by her support for the Iraq War. It put her on the defensive, even though there was no evidence to support Trump’s claim that “I did not support the war in Iraq”.
In what must have felt like an especially cruel trick of history, on 11 September 2016, after attending commemorations marking the 15th anniversary of the attacks, Clinton stumbled and fell as she got into her waiting van. “She can’t make it 15 feet to her car,” Trump said afterwards, claiming Clinton didn’t have the stamina to be president. “She has been a disaster,” he added.
Over the past 250 years, New York has often been the cockpit of American history. From former president George Washington’s escape over the East River to his swearing-in as the country’s first president, and from the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge to the Wall Street crash in 1929, it has played a key role. The same is true of the 21st century, especially when it comes to Trump.
From the attacks on 9/11 to the celebrations at a Manhattan hotel on the night of 8 November 2016, when a New York property tycoon found out he was about to take up residence at the White House, New York has been a key player in his rise. And make no mistake, those two events are inextricably linked.