’We will not weaken’: Macron tells Ukraine at D-Day ceremony

France’s President Emmanuel Macron (L) and his wife Brigitte Macron (2R) speak with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (C) and his wife Olena Zelenska (2L) during the International commemorative ceremony at Omaha Beach marking the 80th anniversary of the World War II "D-Day" Allied landings in Normandy, in northwestern France, on June 6, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 07 June 2024
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’We will not weaken’: Macron tells Ukraine at D-Day ceremony

OMAHA BEACH, France: President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday France’s support for war-torn Ukraine would not “weaken” as top guests including Joe Biden gave its leader Volodymyr Zelensky a standing ovation at a D-Day ceremony.

“Thank you to the Ukrainian people for their bravery. We are here and we will not weaken,” Macron said at Omaha Beach, as guests rose to acknowledge Zelensky and French jets roared above in a fly-past.

“Faced with the return of war on our continent... faced with those who purport to change borders by force to re-write history, let us be worthy of those who landed here,” Macron said, referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the ensuing conflict.

“Your presence here today... speaks to all of this,” Macron said to Zelensky at the ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day landings in northern France.

The commemorations provided a hugely symbolic backdrop to talks on how Kyiv can regain ground after Russian advances, with Zelensky attending the ceremony alongside Biden, Britain’s King Charles III and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

No Russian official was invited, underlining Moscow’s current pariah status despite the decisive Soviet contribution to defeating Nazism in World War II.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has shrugged off the lack of an invitation for Russia, saying “let them celebrate without us.”

But French hosts paid tribute to the Soviet Union’s sacrifices at the ceremonies.

At the main D-Day event, Macron pointed to “the resolute commitment of the Red Army,” saying millions of Soviets inflicted heavy losses on Nazi Germany “at the cost of their own blood.”


Trump says school strike that killed 150 people ‘done by Iran’

Updated 49 min 43 sec ago
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Trump says school strike that killed 150 people ‘done by Iran’

  • Tehran has blamed the US for the strike, which happened in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province on Feb. 28

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE: President Donald Trump on Saturday blamed Iran for what the country’s authorities said was a deadly strike on a school in the southern town of Minab, in Hormozgan province.
“We think it was done by Iran. Because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
According to Iranian authorities, a strike hit a girls’ elementary school last Saturday, killing more than 150 people, mostly students.

In this aerial handout picture released by the Iranian Press Center, mourners dig graves during the funeral for children killed in a reported strike on a primary school in Iran’s Hormozgan province in Minab on March 3, 2026. (AFP)

Israel and the United States have not claimed responsibility for the reported attack — with US officials saying it remains under investigation — while Iran has blamed Washington for the strike.
AFP has neither been able to access the site in order to verify the incident, nor to obtain independent confirmation of a toll.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Friday they had targeted a US base in the UAE that they alleged had been used as a launchpad for the strike.
“Al-Dhafra air base, belonging to American terrorists in the region, was targeted using drones and precision missiles,” the Guards said in a statement broadcast on state TV.
The Pentagon has confirmed it is investigating, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US would “not deliberately target a school.”
The New York Times newspaper reported Thursday that US military statements indicating forces were attacking naval targets near the Strait of Hormuz, where a Revolutionary Guards’ base is located, “suggest they were most likely to have carried out the strike.”
An analysis of social media posts from the time of the attack, as well as photos and videos from witnesses, indicated that the school had been struck at the same time as Guards’ naval base sites, the Times said.