During his inaugural procession, newly-elected President François Hollande of France was soaked by a sudden thunderstorm in an open-topped limousine. Later on his jet was struck by lightning when he was on his way to
do the bidding of meet with German chancellor Angela Merkel. For those interested in haruspicy, the avian entrails do not bode well for the new leader of the Fifth Republic.
In other news, Moody’s ratings agency downgraded the debt of 26 Italian banks. The trade association for Italian banks considers this move an “aggression” against the Italian people.
To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, McR, Nick, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
This is exactly what the founding fathers of the ECSC/EU planned for – to get ever tighter integration through the management of crises. What they left out of their Panglossian calculation was the reactions of the populace(s) to their handling of the crises.