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War and conflict
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Armistice remembrances take place around world again, after being cancelled last year due to Covid-19

  • People gather in many nations to think about the millions dead through war
  • In 2020 the moment was marked from home because of the pandemic

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Second World War veteran James White, 96, pays his respects at the Edinburgh Garden of Remembrance in the UK. Photo: PA
Associated Press

Armistice remembrances took place around the world on Thursday after the coronavirus pandemic wiped out ceremonies twelve months ago to mark the 1918 end of World War I.

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Dignitaries and government leaders across the Western Front in Europe stood still and pondered the losses of millions during the four-year war, whose end 103 years ago harboured the seeds of an equally cruel World War II a little over two decades later.

In Paris, President Emmanuel Macron was joined by US Vice-President Kamala Harris on the Champs Elysees in a moving tribute to how France and the US stood shoulder to shoulder to force a retreating Germany into surrender on November 11, 1918.

French President Emmanuel Macron with US Vice-President Kamala Harris in Paris during ceremonies marking the 103rd anniversary of Armistice Day on November 11, 2021. Photo: AP
French President Emmanuel Macron with US Vice-President Kamala Harris in Paris during ceremonies marking the 103rd anniversary of Armistice Day on November 11, 2021. Photo: AP

After a diplomatic spat over France losing a deal to sell submarines to Australia to the United States, Harris and Macron held arms during an open-air ceremony on a brisk sunny morning.

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Other allied nations, from the United Kingdom to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, also had ceremonies and moments of silence to mark Armistice Day.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres joined national dignitaries in two minutes of silence in the UK pavilion at the ongoing COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

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