Rudy Giuliani’s tense exchange with Mayor Mamdani at 9/11 memorial after public spat over Ground Zero air quality: Live updates

Zohran Mamdani greeted former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani in an awkward exchange on Friday at a memorial service outside of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

The pair got into a public spat after Giuliani called for Mamdani to avoid this week’s 9/11 ceremonies.

Giuliani has said the Muslim mayor’s presence ‘offends’ him and claimed Mamdani is ‘disturbing the people who are the most important people at that celebration.’

‘He stands in direct support of the movement that killed their children,’ he told Newsmax last week.

As a result, Mamdani released hundreds of thousands of previously unseen records that appeared to confirm Giuliani’s administration knew about the toxic dangers of the city’s air quality following the September 11 attacks.

A sunlight effect known as the ‘Wedge of Light’ has appeared through the Oculus building in lower Manhattan, next to the Ground Zero site.

The effect, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, allows two streams of sunlight through the skylight in the Oculus to represent the Twin Towers.

The light moves across the floor of the building precisely between the times that the Twin Towers were struck and collapsed.

Mourners are continuing to read names of 9/11 victims at the Ground Zero ceremony in lower Manhattan.

Patricia Smith, whose NYPD officer mother Moira Smith was killed in the attacks, paid a touching tribute to her as she read her name.

‘My mother died the way she lived, surrounded by people she wanted to help, doing the job that she loved,’ Smith said.

Smith’s mother was credited with saving dozens of lives in the tragedy.

She was among 23 NYPD officers who lost their lives responding to the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Friday night’s ceremonial first pitches at the New York Yankees game will be thrown by a couple who met through a 9/11 support group as children after their fathers were killed in the tragedy.

Brielle Saracini, whose father Victor was the captain of United Flight 175, and her husband Sean McGuire, whose father worked on the 84th floor of the South Tower, will throw out the first pitches.

The couple met as children through Camp Better Days, a support program for children who lost parents in 9/11.

The Yankees said in a post on X that days after the attacks, Saracini wrote a letter to Yankees legend Derek Jeter, ‘detailing her family’s deeply personal loss, explaining that her dad would want her to realize her dream of meeting him.’

‘Jeter invited Brielle and her family to a game, beginning a lasting friendship and connection with the Yankees organization,’ the team said Friday.

Barbara Butcher had spent decades staring death in the face.

In 23 years at New York City’s Medical Examiner’s Office, she investigated more than 5,500 deaths, including almost 700 homicides, and walked into some of the city’s most horrific crime scenes.

But not even the most horrific crime scene could have ever prepared her for the sheer magnitude and devastation of Ground Zero.

What she saw in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, and the worst terrorist attacks in American history still haunts her 24 years on.

The veteran death investigator was tasked with collecting tiny bone fragments from the rooftops of the buildings surrounding the rubble of the decimated Twin Towers.

Those fragments were subjected to repeated DNA testing as Butcher helped oversee the painstaking effort to identify victims.

Despite the process that is almost impossible to comprehend, the heartbreaking reality is that some of the families who lost a loved one still have nothing to bury.

Trump said the nation would ‘never, ever’ forget 9/11 as he told various stories about families who were affected.

‘That’s why we fight today. We don’t have a choice. There can only be victory,’ he told the crowd.

A mourning widow ranted about Saudi Arabia and said the American government ‘withheld evidence’ following 9/11 as she spoke at the 25 year commemorative service today.

The woman had lost her husband during the harrowing attacks in 2001.

‘And my husband, you are missed more with each day that passes. But how can it be twenty five years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder?,’ she said.

‘For twenty five years, administration after administration, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with 9/11 families.’

President Trump addressed the memorial service at the Pentagon today in commemoration of those who lost their lives on 9/11.

‘Twenty-five years after the attacks, we know the world will never return to the way it was at that dawn on that beautiful, peaceful Tuesday morning, 2001, before the towers fell, before the Pentagon was hit, before the specter of evil, and this horrible, horrible evil came crashing into our lives,’ he said.

‘In the days following the attacks, Americans came together,’ he continued. ‘We were all New Yorkers that day. We are family,’ he said.

Greg Carafello was preparing for a call on the 18th floor of the World Trade Center when his entire office began to shake.

It was 8.46am on September 11th, 2001 and American Airlines Flight 11 had just slammed into the 110-story twin tower to their north.

Ordinarily, Carafello would not have been there until 9.30am, but on that fateful day he had dropped his son at school early.

Still unaware of the full extent of the carnage unfolding just feet away, his employee, Joe, suggested they should leave even if the South Tower was undamaged.

‘Nobody knew a second plane was going to come in,’ Carafello, 66, told the Daily Mail.

The businessman grabbed his coffee, his Palm Pilot and a few personal belongings – leaving behind his checkbook and briefcase.

He headed toward the claustrophobic stairwell, which was only 2.5 feet wide. Down they went, believing they would only be gone for a few minutes.

In fact, it took them 16 minutes just to get outside.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump listen to the national anthem during the 25th anniversary commemoration of the September 11 attacks at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.