BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.

Hello, I am Andy's Altman.

I will be honest with you.

I prefer doing the news quiz in weeks in which wars are not breaking out, in which acts of unspeakable barbarity have not been

committed and in which the world has not become even more horrifically, tragically brutal.

But I guess that's the problem with doing topical comedy shows in places like Planet Earth. I'm Jewish. with This has been another week in which we learned once again that the only true lesson we ever learned from history

is that we will never ever learn the lessons of history.

The news quiz is a comedy show which tries to concoct laughter from the world's week,

but with some stories and some weeks when the tragedies

loss on suffering are so vast, so raw, so unfathomably sad, a comedy show like this one needs to

stand aside to wait for a better time and a better place.

So I hope you will understand that we will focus on the rest of the week's news

and hopefully prove that whilst laughter is scientifically not the best medicine,

it can have some restorative properties that are significantly better for you than sitting on a sofa shouting why, why, into a void of despair.

So welcome to the news quiz.

Our producer is saving the theme tune for later in the show when he decides the mood has lightened sufficiently to make it feel a little more appropriate.

I'm joined this week on the news goes by Alex Massey from the Times and by Alice Fraser Rachel Paris and Simon Evans

Simon. It's been well, it's been a bit of a bad week for the planet, I would say. Would you concur?

Yes, it's been pretty horrible, hasn't it?

And it's also been pretty horrible, trying to make sense of the second and third

wave of commentary that comes out after it as well,

and try not to get caught up in

...