Australia v India | Fourth Test | Day Four A pivotal day four looms in front of another big crowd at the MCG with India resuming at 9-358, trailing Australia by 116

ThEy ShOuLd ThEy ScRaP fIvE dAy TeSt MatChEs - said the usual idiots the other week.

www.cricket.com.au/videos/41916...

'President-elect Musk': Elon's influence on display in government spending fight Musk began posting on X against a stopgap government spending bill on Wednesday well before Trump weighed in against the legislation.

Excellent headline from USA Today

BBC article says: “One of England's top-rated water companies is using an accounting trick to artificially inflate its balance sheet by more than a billion pounds, BBC Panorama has discovered. Severn Trent Water claims that an investment is worth £1.68on in its accounts, when in reality it has no value to the overall business. The made-up money makes the company appear more financially robust and helps to support its bumper payouts to shareholders. Severn Trent denies the accounts are misleading and says Panorama's allegations are "completely inaccurate" The water company - which is regulated by Ofwat - is part of a complex web of companies in the wider Severn Trent plc group.”

great reporting here by BBC Panorama

Avid listener of @therestispolitics.bsky.social but the number of ads is making it so hard to stick with it…

Difficult to describe what a dangerous moment we are in.

The owner of Twitter/richest man in the world/closest adviser to the next US president is promoting a far-right Tommy Robinson (!) documentary to his 200 million followers.

This is the mainstreaming of violent, Islamophobic fascism.

Foreign Billionaire tweets about a pointless UK petition to his 200 million followers, twice in 3 hours and the Right Wing get super excited that the signups are an organic show the “will of the people”🙄

Elon Musk hides X engagement figures amid user exodus As X loses users, the platform introduced a new feature allowing optional hiding of likes, shares, and other engagement metrics.

Elon Musk Hides X Engagement Figures Amid User Exodus
www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-hi...

The Times & Sunday Times for £1 p/m for 4 months (digital pack only) is the biggest bargain of #blackfriday so far. The best journalism you can get!

How Bluesky, Alternative to X and Facebook, Is Handling Explosive Growth The fledgling social media site has been flooded with new users since the election. It hasn’t all been easy.

Bluesky’s growth has exploded as people seek alternatives to X, Facebook and Threads. The social media site's 20 full-time employees have been working around the clock to deal with the issues that come with hyper-growth.

This is really getting quite remarkable

• BlueSky user numbers have doubled in the past week and now total 3.5 million across US & UK 🚀

• Number of people deleting their X/Twitter account remains way up

And the next chart is particularly notable...

Did you know lots of news outlets have Reddit accounts?

Some, like WaPo and NatGeo, have been on there for years, but many joined recently.

Reddit’s seen a big boost in traffic this year thanks to Google, so it makes sense for news outlets to follow. Plus they get to engage with active subreddits.

I was Twitter's head of content strategy. Bluesky has the edge over Threads to be the new Twitter as people leave X. Gordon MacMillan thinks Bluesky is well placed to be the new Twitter, but it's still hard to leave Elon Musk's X.

Bluesky has the edge over Threads to be the new Twitter as people leave X…

...Says Twitter’s former head of content strategy

Gordon MacMillan, ex-head of content strategy at Twitter, says Bluesky is most like the old Twitter

He said it's still hard for people and companies to leave X

What’s happening to LinkedIn these days with people posting like it’s Facebook?

“5 sales tips I learned from feeding squirrels in the park”

“How my recent divorce inspired me to ditch problem clients that are PITAs”

“Look at my kid for no apparent reason”

A word on the Allison Pearson free speech row, and what she describes as a ‘Kafkaesque’ threat to it. We asked her on @thenewsagents.bsky.social to discuss.
She said: ‘No. And if you get any aspect of the story wrong my lawyers will be watching.’
Gotta love a free speech warrior 🤷🏻‍♂️

I was asked (repeatedly, aggressively) on the other platform for my lawyery views on Allison Pearson’s story.

I declined to comment because Ms Pearson is a famously unreliable narrator of events, and I wanted to wait for independent evidence.

Alas for Ms Pearson…

Where are the comms folks at?

“It’s (Bluesky) full of very nice people. The temperature isn’t so high. People aren’t at each others throats. It’s like the old Twitter… but what’s wrong with that?”

The always-brilliant @jimalkhalili.bsky.social on @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social this evening #bluesky #xodus

Social media use by age in Britain (with newspaper reading thrown in for fun)

Nearly two-thirds of people in their 70s use Facebook!

Right, now to wait for the Overcast podcast producer guy to find his way to Bluesky…

Yes mate! Was looking out for you straightaway over here. Great that you’re here and hope you’re as active as that other awful place…

Find myself opening that other app purely through muscle memory and where the app is placed on my phone…

Time to make some changes to the layout!

@TheEconomist: Donald Trump has picked Robert F. Kennedy junior to be health secretary in his administration.

Worryingly, Mr Kennedy peddles many falsehoods, like the idea that childhood immunisations are linked to autism. Now he has fluoride in his sights 👇

It’s a worry that one of the first people I looked for over here was Adam Hurrey….pleased you’re here mate!

@footballcliches.bsky.social

Yay! We’re all normal over here, for now. Just give us a month or two…

It was only a matter of time! You worry what the next election might hold in terms of dis-and misinformation

Just missing a “,by the way” at the end there

Invaluable Adam, thank you. Like a breath of fresh air over here

The exodus from the other place seems to be speeding up.

For any of the many people who have just joined up, here's a list of UK political journalists, commentators, politicos and experts to get yourself going with

go.bsky.app/2CwmVfN