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LAST UPDATE | 5 Jun 2024
US PRESIDENT JOE Biden today began a state visit to France marking 80 years since the World War II D-Day landings, with a new war shadowing Europe as Ukraine battles Russian invasion.
Along with French President Emmanuel Macron, British King Charles III and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Biden will on Thursday remember the heroism of the Allied troops who gave their lives often far from home in the landings on 6 June, 1944 to free Europe from Nazi occupation.
For King Charles, it will be his first overseas visit since his cancer diagnosis.
While the sacrifice of Allied soldiers will be centre stage, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian President Sergio Mattarella will also be present as a sign of international post-World War II reconciliation.
Flying aboard Air Force One, Biden touched down at Paris Orly airport and, sporting his trademark aviator sunglasses, was welcomed by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
Biden was also expected to promote the United States as a defender of democracy and international alliances during his state visit to last until Sunday, contrasting himself against election rival Donald Trump.
But the war that has raged in Ukraine since Russia’s 24 February, 2022 invasion will take centre stage with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also attending and scheduled to meet with Biden, according to the White House.
No official from Russia has been invited, after Paris reversed plans to host lower-level representatives in recognition of the Soviet Union’s immense contribution in World War II.
The most honoured guests will be the surviving veterans: Some 200 are expected, a number that is dwindling every year with most at least in their late 90s and some over 100.
Biden, Macron and Zelensky are coming together at a critical moment in the Ukraine conflict, with Kyiv warning that Russia risks gaining the upper hand without a significant increase in Western help.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters traveling to Paris that Biden will tell Zelensky “how we can continue and deepen our support for Ukraine”.
Macron has already sought to break taboos by refusing to rule out sending troops to Ukraine, a position that unsettled some EU allies.
But there have been shifts in recent weeks, with the West showing readiness to allow Ukraine to use Western-provided weapons to strike targets in Russia and France pushing for the deployment of European military instructors in Ukraine.
Welcoming veterans as they arrived by air in Normandy, the French leader’s wife Brigitte Macron expressed France’s “deepest respect and deepest love”, in a video posted on Macron’s X account.
“I am glad we won the war,” one told her.
“Oh yes we did,” she replied in English, clasping his hand fervently.
The landings by Allied forces, backed by airborne operations that parachuted troops directly onto occupied soil, were the biggest naval operation ever in terms of the number of ships deployed and the troops involved.
By the end of what became known as “the longest day”, 156,000 Allied troops with 20,000 vehicles had landed in Nazi-occupied northern France despite facing a hail of bullets, artillery and aircraft fire.
The landings marked the beginning of the end of the Nazi occupation of Europe, although months of intense and bloody fighting still lay ahead before victory over the regime of Adolf Hitler.
Three days of ceremonies will see Macron pay tribute to French victims of Nazi occupation, including 70 members of the French Resistance executed by the Germans at Caen prison in Normandy on D-Day.
The 80th anniversary on Thursday will see leaders attend national ceremonies at the vast war cemeteries on the Normandy coast, with an international ceremony attended by all the main guests at Omaha.
On Friday, Biden will give a speech at the Pointe du Hoc – a clifftop promontory whose German bunkers were attacked by US troops in a daring assault during the landings – on defending freedom and democracy.
Biden will continue the trip in Paris Saturday with the first state visit of his presidency to France, giving him and Macron a critical chance to push for peace in Ukraine and also an end to the conflict in Gaza in talks at the Elysee Palace, before leaving France for the United States on Sunday.
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We have a bank cartel, a duopoly of media, an energy providers oligopoly, and an insurance cartel.
And to top it off, we have a coalition government that have run the country for 100 years, and will do nothing about any of it!
Time to change how we vote folks!
@Franklin Roosevelt: ? Main thing is they are all well educated.
@Franklin Roosevelt:
The only alternative is the useless left and even more useless left leaning independents
@Franklin Roosevelt: well said franklin sums it up in a nut shell .
@John the Baptist: who is this useless left that you speak of and what policies of theirs do you not like?
Very easy to criticize without offering a useful alternative.
@John the Baptist: Yeah, we need to vote SF! A terrorist organisation would do some changes alright!
@John the Baptist: anything to back up your sweeping statement or are you just trash talking anyone who’s not a conservative? looking for some factual argument
@Andy K: ugh, this boring troll.
Yeah, Pearse Doherty, an engineering school dropout, is a terrorist.
And Mary Lou, a former research and consultant, is also a terrorist.
Gimme a break.
Their policies are far better than any pathetic proposals by FFG.
You can’t criticize their policies, so you talk bullsh*t.
@Andy K: YAWN.
@Franklin Roosevelt: they advocate open borders…they would ruin this country if in power on that issue alone.
@John the Baptist: That’s a cop out. if they had the TD’s to make it past the line. they would relish it. corbyn in the labour party has the same ideas as our lefties.
@Franklin Roosevelt: Thing is we don’t have an alternative, Left or right!!!!! Despite the daily nonsense you write about SF they have too much baggage and their time in government in the North wouldn’t fill you with much enthusiasm.
They asked for whistle blowers to come forward. Are they out of their fooking mind. What whistleblower will stick their head above the parapet in this country, where the guards and government will come after you.
Another outstanding investigation into the bleeding obvious, Returning a result that black is indeed white and Ian Pasley was Catholic.
Of course their is no cartel whoever came up with such a suggestion A very honest bunch of lads in the banking industry wouldnt tell a lie or steal your money and its regulated by another bunch of lovely lads and when it all goes bang again we wont have to bail them out honeatly.
This is the gospel according to
Eddie Hobbs.
@Joe Bloggs: No your right joe, you would read it in the Irish Times, where all the educated go to be further brainwashed.
No hard evidence ,come on we are talking about the banks ,ask little seany ,another soft landing for the financial services industry .what else could one expect in the land of the gombeens .
There watchdogs are a bunch of stevie wonders then.
The state of the country and the tracker mortgage fiasco would bed to disagree.
Quite a poor watchdog. They want their stomach scratched as the bankers fleece the country
@Skinnerbot: Yes the UK banks offering 100% house loans and wrecking our banking system are gone. These banks were welcomed by the media when they arrived and praised for breaking the prudent banking practiced by our banks.
Ah that’s grand so… after all when did an arm of the Irish state ever ever ever get it wrong about our fabled wank …sorry Banking System
Whats her backround?
Somebody gave that watchdog a big juicy steak I’d say.
Maybe the onus should be on the banks to prove they are not a cartel. If it looks like a duck etc…
I think that the watchdog needs their own watchdog. I never saw an more useless bunch in my life.
It’s not a banking cartel it is an upgraded hole in the gang with Armani suits
Someone needs to get the EU in with some more of those Early Morning Competition Raids. My car insurance has gone down €400 since that.
Any evidence of competition among Banks..
There’s no evidence of anything in this country. Either they are very good at hiding it or someone is not looking in the right places.
Wouldn’t half make one wonder!
With the price of Car Insurance, I’m more concerned about collusion in the Insurance
industry. My car insurance in Ireland is E1200 per year while similar cover for my similar
car in Australia is $405 AUD (E267). Surely I’m not 4 times the risk in Ireland!
I travel about 5000 klms/year in Ireland and about 11000 klms/year in Aus.
Just write to your TD & express concern.
It’s not a banking cartel it’s an upgraded hole in the wall gang in Armani suits
If it looks like a duck,
Walks like a duck,
And quacks like a duck,
It’s a duck!
If we have to engage the services of a high powered investigative committee to tell us that it’s actually something called “not a duck”, then thats OK too!
But it’s still a DUCK!
CCPC looked up every tree in North County Dublin.
Laughing at the CCPC.
It can arrive at conclusions without conducting a intensive investigation.
NAMA
LOL
This is coming from a regulator that said we would have a soft landing.
Gangsters in suits,
There’s simply not enough banks to form a cartel
@Limón Madrugada: How many banks would we need then ?
Lol lol lol lol
F#%k banks, buy Bitcoin.
Dead right, glad that’s put to bed.
I thought it was called the Troika and the IMF?
No Shit, Batman!?!
I think the watchdog needs a guide dog
have your say