I’ve just listened to the

I’ve just listened to the news on Radio 4. The news items were as follows:

• The ongoing political turmoil surrounding the war in Iraq
• The memorial services to mark the second anniversary of the September 11th attacks
• The murder of the Swedish foreign secretary
• The agreed compensation deal between France and Libya for the victims of the bomb attack that brought down a French airliner over Niger
• The decision by the Israeli cabinet to expel Yasser Arafat, and the likely consequences of that decision

It is incredibly hard to be optimistic about the world’s future.