You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

Hello, I'm Oliver Conway.

We're recording this at 13 hours GMT on Thursday the 6th of June.

Western leaders in World War II veterans are in Northern France to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

We're living at a time when democracy and more at risk across the world than at a point since the end of the World War II since these beaches were stormed in

1944. Israel has defended an air strike that's reported to have killed dozens of

people sheltering in a school in Gaza saying it was targeting Hamas fighters.

And the Netherlands has kicked off four days of voting across Europe.

Also in the podcast in the latest cleanup of Himalayan peaks the Nepalese army

finds 11 tons of rubbish and four dead bodies.

We begin in northern France where world leaders and surviving World War II veterans have been marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

Today's events began with a British military piper coming ashore on gold beach at the moment the

assault began. It was just before

it was just before

it was just before

six thirty in the morning on the 6th of June 1944 that more than 150,000 troops

from Britain, America, Canada and France began what was to become the world's largest seaborne invasion.

After wading onto the Normandy beaches, they had to fight their way past heavy German defenses

to begin the liberation of France from the Nazis.

In a speech at the new British War Memorial near Gold Beach,

King Charles paid tribute to the men who took part in the assault. It is with the most profound sense of gratitude that we remember them,

and all those who served at that critical time. We recall the lesson that comes to us again and

...