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France Gets Ready to Say ‘Merci’ to World War II Veterans for D-Day’s 80th Anniversary This Year 

A World War II reenactor plants roses on Omaha Beach in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, June 6, 2023. (AP)
A World War II reenactor plants roses on Omaha Beach in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, June 6, 2023. (AP)
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France Gets Ready to Say ‘Merci’ to World War II Veterans for D-Day’s 80th Anniversary This Year 

A World War II reenactor plants roses on Omaha Beach in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, June 6, 2023. (AP)
A World War II reenactor plants roses on Omaha Beach in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, June 6, 2023. (AP)

France is getting ready to show its gratitude toward World War II veterans who will return, many for the last time, to Normandy beaches this year for 80th anniversary commemorations of D-Day to mark the defeat of the Nazis.

A ceremony at Omaha Beach, with many heads of state expected to be present, will be honoring the nearly 160,000 troops from Britain, the US, Canada and other nations who landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that D-Day celebrations, alongside the Paris Olympics, will be "France’s rendezvous with the world."

It will be an occasion for the French to say "merci," or "thank you," to veterans, some of whom will make a long trans-Atlantic journey, despite advanced age, fatigue and physical difficulties.

"We will never forget. And we have to tell them," Philippe Étienne, chairman of the Liberation Mission, the specially created body that organizes the 80th anniversary commemorations, told The Associated Press.

As a former ambassador of France to the United States, Étienne recalled his "strong emotion" when handing veterans the Legion of Honor, France’s highest distinction.

"They were 18, 20, 22 when they liberated our country, when they gave us back our freedom," he said. "Now 80 years later, they’re 100, 98, 102. It’s really incredible. Those are really courageous, humble people. They must feel our gratitude."

The link between the last witnesses of the war and the youth will also be at the heart of the anniversary.

"What we want above all, when the last witnesses, the last fighters, the last veterans are still with us, is to give their testimonies to our young people," Étienne added.

In the past couple of years, commemorations also have taken a special meaning as war is raging again in Europe since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Gen. Michel Delion, director-general of the Liberation Mission, said "that the message is more for the whole population than only for soldiers. Because the price of liberty is something that any citizen of any democratic nation needs to understand."

"The civilians were part of this (World War II) conflict because they suffered and they supported fighters. And we need to have this cohesion of our nations, of our populations to be able to answer to any question ... or any danger we could face tomorrow or today," he added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had been present for the 70th anniversary of D-Day, wasn't expected to be invited this year. Putin didn't attend the 75th anniversary in 2019.

Countries like France that have signed and ratified the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court are obligated to arrest Putin, who was indicted for war crimes connected to the deportation of children from Ukraine, if he sets foot on their soil.

Étienne said that the commemorations, including some academic events, "will surely not ignore the sacrifices of everybody who ... was involved in the liberation of Europe, including in the East, because the Nazi regime was defeated both from the West and from the East."

He stressed the fact that "populations of the former Soviet Union, Russians in particular, but also Ukrainians and others, participated in this liberation."

Other key events will include celebrations of the Allied landing in Provence, in southern France, and the liberation of Paris, both in August, as well as the liberation of Strasbourg, at the border with Germany, in November, and the commemoration in May 2025 of the surrender of Nazi Germany to Allied forces.

Ceremonies will also allow France to pay tribute to Resistance fighters, to soldiers who came from its then colonial empire in Africa and to the civilians who suffered during the war.

Already across France, "we feel that there's a very strong mobilization to remember this very important period in history," said Fabien Sudry, deputy director-general of the Liberation Mission. "We feel it in the contacts we have, in the trips we make, with many local and regional authorities involved."

French authorities are notably considering launching a nationwide operation to collect family documents, objects and audiovisual material related to World War II that would help keep the memory alive.

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Culture

Private Museums Bolster Cultural Tourism in Qassim Region

A prominent example is the private museum of Abdullah Al-Suhaibani, an expert with over 40 years of experience in gemstones and minerals - SPA
A prominent example is the private museum of Abdullah Al-Suhaibani, an expert with over 40 years of experience in gemstones and minerals - SPA
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Private Museums Bolster Cultural Tourism in Qassim Region

A prominent example is the private museum of Abdullah Al-Suhaibani, an expert with over 40 years of experience in gemstones and minerals - SPA
A prominent example is the private museum of Abdullah Al-Suhaibani, an expert with over 40 years of experience in gemstones and minerals - SPA

Qassim Region is witnessing a significant rise in private museums, as individual collectors transform personal passions into vital cultural projects. These museums serve as a living memory for the community, preserving rare artifacts, historical documents, antique weapons, and vintage collections that document critical stages of the region's history. By connecting the present with its roots, these sites strengthen national identity and provide essential research resources for scholars and tourists alike, SPA reported.

A prominent example is the private museum of Abdullah Al-Suhaibani, an expert with over 40 years of experience in gemstones and minerals.

His collection features rare agates, fossils from ancient geological eras, and unique rock formations discovered throughout the Kingdom.

The museum acts as a scientific platform, promoting geology and field research while educating the community on the Kingdom’s diverse natural resources and mineral wealth.

Located near Al-Khabra Historical Village, these private initiatives have become key cultural landmarks in Riyadh Al-Khabra Governorate. Their growth aligns with Saudi Vision 2030 goals to develop cultural and scientific tourism, support local content, and position the Kingdom’s heritage and natural sites as premier global destinations.

Culture

Saudi Arabia Showcases Literary Diversity at 2026 Rabat International Book Fair

‏The Saudi pavilion brings together a range of government entities and cultural institutions - SPA
‏The Saudi pavilion brings together a range of government entities and cultural institutions - SPA
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Saudi Arabia Showcases Literary Diversity at 2026 Rabat International Book Fair

‏The Saudi pavilion brings together a range of government entities and cultural institutions - SPA
‏The Saudi pavilion brings together a range of government entities and cultural institutions - SPA

The Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission launched the Saudi pavilion at the 2026 International Publishing and Book Fair in Rabat, which continues through May 10.

‏Commission CEO Dr. Abdullatif Alwasel affirmed that the Kingdom’s participation in the event embodies the deep historical ties between Saudi Arabia and Morocco while showcasing a diverse, contemporary cultural movement driven by Saudi Vision 2030.

“Saudi Arabia’s participation at the 2026 International Publishing and Book Fair emphasizes the Kingdom’s commitment to spotlighting publishers and the creative literary sector, which continues to go from strength to strength,” Alwasel said, SPA reported.

‏He added: “The Saudi pavilion is an opportunity to invite people from every corner of the world to experience Saudi culture and diverse literary works, showcase unique Saudi talent and creative thinking, while facilitating cultural exchange and engaging discussions.”

‏The Saudi pavilion brings together a range of government entities and cultural institutions, led by the Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission, highlighting the integrated approach of the Kingdom’s cultural environment.

‏As part of the pavilion, the commission has organized a series of topical panel discussions, poetry evenings, and workshops featuring Saudi writers and creative thinkers, encouraging discussions on key issues relating to the literature, publishing and translation sector and its impact on Arab and global conversations.

‏The participation at the 31st International Publishing and Book Fair event reaffirms the Kingdom’s efforts towards platforming local talent and enhancing collaboration and cultural exchange.

Culture

Georg Baselitz, the German Painter Who Turned Postwar Art Upside Down, Dies at 88

German artist Georg Baselitz attends the opening of his exhibition "The Heroes" (Die Helden) at the Staedel museum in Frankfurt, Germany June 29, 2016. (Reuters)
German artist Georg Baselitz attends the opening of his exhibition "The Heroes" (Die Helden) at the Staedel museum in Frankfurt, Germany June 29, 2016. (Reuters)
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Georg Baselitz, the German Painter Who Turned Postwar Art Upside Down, Dies at 88

German artist Georg Baselitz attends the opening of his exhibition "The Heroes" (Die Helden) at the Staedel museum in Frankfurt, Germany June 29, 2016. (Reuters)
German artist Georg Baselitz attends the opening of his exhibition "The Heroes" (Die Helden) at the Staedel museum in Frankfurt, Germany June 29, 2016. (Reuters)

Georg Baselitz liked to insist — sometimes as a taunt, ‌sometimes as a shield — that he did not know how to paint. That he had "no talent".

Rejected at 17 by the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, he talked his way into an academy in East Berlin only to be expelled two semesters later for "sociopolitical immaturity".

"I was stupid," he recalled. "I was uneducated, but I was a rebel."

From that rebellion, Baselitz forged a career that made the child of Nazi Germany, schooled under Soviet communism, into one of the defining artists of postwar Germany.

The painter and sculptor, known for his depictions of raw bodies and inverted landscapes, has died at the age of 88, Germany's Die Welt newspaper reported on Thursday. No cause of death was given.

A REBEL SHAPED BY TWO DICTATORSHIPS

Georg Baselitz was born Hans-Georg Bruno Kern on January 23, 1938, in the Saxon village of Deutschbaselitz, a name he later adopted.

His father, a village schoolteacher and Nazi Party member, recorded Hans-Georg's birth in his diary. Inexplicably, he recorded the birth of none of his other four children, the Sächsische Zeitung daily reported in 2018.

After the war, ‌his father was ‌barred from teaching. Baselitz's mother took over his duties at the school.

Baselitz spent his childhood ‌amid ⁠the unforgiving discipline of ⁠Nazi Germany, and his adolescence amid the rubble and ideological re-education of the country's Soviet occupation zone.

"I was born into a destroyed order, a destroyed landscape, a destroyed people, a destroyed society," he later recalled. "And I didn't want to reestablish an order: I had seen enough of so-called order. I was forced to question everything, to be 'naive', to start again."

After he was expelled from the East Berlin academy, he moved to West Berlin, where he finished his studies and absorbed modernism in a way that felt, he said, like a sudden intake of oxygen.

He recalled the shock of first seeing works by Jackson Pollock and other abstract expressionists — evidence, in his telling, that ⁠the United States had a serious culture despite what he had been taught.

But rather than ‌imitate an American style, Baselitz turned back to German sources, drawing on expressionism, ‌folk traditions and imagery often dismissed by critics as ugly or even "degenerate".

SCANDAL AS A CALLING CARD

At a 1963 solo show in Berlin, authorities ‌seized two of his paintings on obscenity grounds. The episode made Baselitz famous.

The early pictures, marked by raw bodies, stunted masculinity and abrasive humor, were widely seen as provocation.

Supporters and museum curators have also framed them as a blunt report on postwar German life: damaged, compromised and struggling to find a new footing.

That sensibility carried into his mid-1960s "Heroes" paintings, which presented hulking, battered figures that looked less like victors than survivors ‌stumbling out of a defeated national myth.

But Baselitz's most recognizable works came in 1969, when he began painting motifs upside down.

After earlier experiments that fractured or partially inverted figures, he ⁠produced fully inverted works including "The ⁠Wood on Its Head" and "The Man by the Tree".

He did not simply flip finished images, he composed and painted them inverted from the start.

That approach altered how viewers read his works. By disrupting recognition, it forced attention onto the mechanics of painting — its color, balance and composition.

"An object painted upside down is suitable for painting because it is unsuitable as an object," Baselitz said.

The inversions made Baselitz an international figure in the 1970s and 1980s, as the market and institutions that once treated him as scandalous increasingly positioned him as a pillar of European postwar art.

His public reputation, however, did not settle into quiet respectability.

He repeatedly sparked backlash with remarks about female painters, including a widely reported claim that women "don't paint very well".

He also confronted the limits Germany's history places on gesture and imagery: a wooden sculpture shown at the 1980 Venice Biennale was widely read as evoking a Nazi salute, a reading he denied.

He was married to Johanna Elke Kretzschmar, known as Elke, with whom he had two sons.

In later life, Baselitz painted huge canvases from his wheelchair and moved his brushes and paints in a rolling cart.

"The sensible thing, in my situation, would naturally be to say: 'I stick to small formats'," he told Spanish newspaper El Pais at age 87. "But of course I don't do what's sensible. What's right for me is the nonsensical."