I don't know if others have noticed that when Christmas nears, we seem to have a series of disasters, usually earthquakes, aeroplane crashes or killings. I looked at the Guardian website and beside the awful murder of Brianna Ghey, there was a shooting of 14 or more in Prague, the murder of a little boy in London, the continued genocide in Gaza, Russian atrocities in Ukraine, the earthquake in China and so on.

I am aware that good news doesn't sell and all this is probably just coincidence, that several murderous dictators, homicidal maniacs and tectonic plate movement all happen together. I am reminded that in this supposed period of peace on earth, and goodwill towards all men, no one told the humans about it and act of God - earthquakes, seem the Almighty wasn't in the loop either.

I rarely fail to be moved by the acts of compassion by my fellows or disgusted by the acts of cruelty, which seem to happen far more regularly. I see violence in the media seems to increase all the time and can only think some of it is due to overcrowding/overpopulation even rats get aggressive if cramped together.

Roll on the end of the world.