'In Afghanisan a family warms up next to a makeshift fire outside the Directorate of Disaster Office where they are camped. About 2,000 internally displaced people left the village of Allahyar in Ghor province because of a drought and are seeking help from the regional government in Herat.' It's hard to reconcile the trauma of this with the utter trivia on the front of all the newspapers in the UK today. Who ever imagined our leader and his henchmen told the truth? No one for a single second. What is appalling is that we allow their behaviour to continue – while tragedies like Afghanistan continue in front of our very eyes.

 We continue with our normal lives yet without becoming obsessive we mustn't ever forget the continuing Climate Catastrophe. This is North Carolina: 'Fire burns along the western ridge of Pilot Mountain. It, has burned more than 1,000 acres as foresters set back fires to protect houses below the mountain.' Photograph: Walt Unks/The Winston-Salem Journal/AP.

Just in case our lives are in danger of becoming, well, too complacent as we read good books, get ready for Christmas, walk the dog: this week on the Post five of last week's Eyewitnesses, Pictures of the Week, from the Guardian. 'Girls participate in a lesson at Tajrobawai Girls high school in Herat, Afghanistan. While most high school girls in Afghanistan are forbidden to attend class by the country’s Taliban rulers, one major exception are those in the western province of Herat. For weeks, girls there have been attending high school classes, thanks to a unique effort by teachers and parents to persuade local Taliban administrators to allow schools to reopen.'

The dog in this painting by Renoir looks a little bit like Gilbert, the office dog. Young woman with a dog was painted in 1876. For people wanting to pursue this doggy subject: the three Persephone books about dogs we recommend are The Carlyles at Home, Flush and, of course, The Deepening Stream.

Portrait of a Lady with a Dog was painted in Italy between 1575 and 1599 and it's in the National Gallery in London. (A side note: the best description of the love between a young woman and her dog EVER is in The Deepening Stream, PB no. 140.)

Brass rubbings often show a beloved dog. Here is Ralph St Leger and his wife, from the V & A site here: 'Brass rubbings are one of the major sources of evidence in early costume trends. The hobby was so popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that many of the original brasses have worn away, making the rubbings even more important. Take Ralph St. Leger and his very fashionable wife. She is wearing a butterfly headress, a brief trend from the late 1400’s. Hair was dragged back from the forehead, and a large framework of wire was attached.  A light gauze veil then covered this framework, creating a most attractive effect. On a side note, instead of a heraldic animal at their feet, this couple each have a favourite dog.