The major news story as I write is the recent murder of dozens of people in the French city of Nice, which took place during the annual Bastille Day celebrations.
Bastille Day is the unofficial name given to a national holiday which takes place in France on 14 July each year, which celebrates the storming of the Bastille on that day in 1789. The Bastille was a large fortified prison in Paris in which people could be imprisoned on the whim of the monarch. In other words it could easily be seen as a symbol of state oppression.
On 14 July 1789, a mob attacked the Bastille, and was soon reinforced by a regiment of soldiers. The attack ended with the governor being murdered, and the inmates being released. In other words it was an act of mob rule.
As it happens, there were only seven inmates in the prison that day, and only one was a political prisoner. Nevertheless that is a detail. Even if the Bastille had been full to bursting with political prisoners, then its storming would still have been an act of mob brutality.
I have long wondered why the French people celebrate this act of barbarity, and I also wonder why - to my knowledge - nobody in France has ever argued for it not being celebrated. The word stupidity comes to mind.
More than two hundred people died on the original Bastille Day - more than double the number who died in yesterday's terror attack in Nice. It is also worth noting that the original Bastille Day bloodbath was not connected with Islam.
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