THREAD  1/12 With the government’s latest defence spending plans – along with next week’s spending review - there’s a lot of attention on the UK’s public finances - and the pressure they’re under. Defence is definitely part of the equation, but it’s far from the full story… 2/12 With the @BBCPanorama team, I’ve looked at why the UK is struggling to fund the public services that we expect. Beyond the increase in defence spending, there are a number of other important factors that it’s helpful to consider. Here are some of them.

Given there was some interest in my train journey from DC to New York yesterday, I thought it might be good to continue to exchange notes with you on the US rail experience as I make the return journey. This is my thread from yesterday.

https://x.com/bbcrosatkins/status/1850537519030370430?s=46

THREAD 1/15: As I may have mentioned a couple of times, in an unlikely development, I'm going to be doing a drum and bass set @Glastonbury. And, not at all unreasonably, quite a few people have asked me variations on ‘how did that happen?!’ Well, there's a bit of a story here. 2/ In 2022, I was asked about my (very) amateur DJing days in an interview. Soon after, I got an email from Matt Tasker @BBC6Music asking if I’d like to do a set. At the time, I wrote this thread about it all which got shared a lot more than I expected.

https://x.com/BBCRosAtkins/status/1483185091643944961

Over 2.5 hours into my rail replacement bus trip out of Cornwall & the driver admits to a passenger that ‘we’re going the wrong way’. Which wasn’t the news I was hoping to hear. Sure enough, a quick look on google maps and we’re heading West! 15 mins later no 3 point turn yet… Still going. When asked about our train connection, the driver says there’s nothing he can do. Hold on - a roundabout!

1/ THREAD (about emails, no less). I confess, I’m a keen student of email. It's a big part of how many of us communicate when working - and how we write emails has a huge bearing on if they get read, understood and acted on. These are my 5 assumptions when I start to write one. Assumption 1: The email or message may not be read at all.

We're going to have to convince the recipient the email is worth opening and reading. Given some email apps only show the first line or two, very early on we need to explicitly state what the message is about.

THREAD...on the 10 attributes that I am looking for in an explanation. And the 10 questions that help me try to deliver them each time that I’m communicating. 1. Simplicity.

Is this the simplest way that I can say this?

If what we say is in its simplest form, it's going to be easier to take in.

1/8 for teachers to accompany a new explainer on voter ID - and how, from the local elections in England in May, voters will need to show photo ID. First, here's the video. 2/8 Part of the video looks at research into what kinds of photo ID people across society have. The research was commissioned by the government and you can see it here.
gov.uk/government/pub…

1/5 Quick thread for teachers. A couple of weeks ago I posted the thread below about what more we could to make our explainers helpful and accessible to teachers, parents, pupils and students. We were thrilled to see all the suggestions and we've done a few things in response.

https://twitter.com/BBCRosAtkins/status/1643587074866413568

2/5 First, you can now find all our explainer videos that appear on the @BBCNews website in one place - this page. We’re also looking to get a snappier URL and adding our archive too. Any that aren't on the website, I’ll post here or on YouTube. bbc.com/news/topics/cl…

1/10 Wages are struggling to keep up with costs. Covid and Ukraine are factors but to explain what’s happening, we also need to look further back – to Britain’s levels of wage growth, productivity, investment and inequality. This is what we found. First - wage growth has stalled 2/10 According to Torsten Bell at the Resolution Foundation, a think tank focused on low-to middle incomes, this "stagnation" is "almost completely unprecedented. Nobody thought it could happen".

1/7 This is the story of the week that ended Liz Truss' time as Prime Minister. Told in 4 parts - day-by-day. This is Monday. 2/7 This is what happened on Tuesday as the pressure mounted on Liz Truss.

1/45 (yes, 45…). Last week, I gave a speech at the
Society of Editors. There's been some interest in it so, if you'll indulge me, I thought I'd post it here. I was asked to talk on ‘future of news’. Once I’d cleared up that I definitely don’t know that, I launched in… 2/ I don't know what's next but I have spent long enough trying to guess where we’re heading to have some rules of thumb - some guidelines that help me to work out how to give new types of journalism the best chance. And my speech was based on those – this is what I said.

1/3 We made three explainers this week. I thought it might be useful to put them in one place. There was Keir Starmer and the Durham curry, the libel trial between Rebekah Vardy & Colleen Rooney - and this one on the Northern Ireland Protocol. 2/3 This video is on the Wagatha Christie trial - from the very start of the story to day 1 in the High Court. Posted on 10.5.22.

THREAD 1/16 We all have so many questions about Russia's invasion of Ukraine that we decided to take an issue at a time in our explainers. I wanted to put them in one place. Here are 13 videos - starting with the scale of Russian gas exports to Europe. 2/16 MEDIA: This war has brought an information war with it. We heard the experience of six journalists who are covering this conflict. Posted: 2.3.22

THREAD 1/8: Many of us are watching Ukraine & asking 'why is this happening? We've made a series of videos to try and help - on Ukraine's history (below), the troop build-up, NATO, Russia's denials, sanctions, Putin's world view and Putin's justification. 2/8 This video looks at Putin's life and his world view - and they influence the decision he took this week.

THREAD 1/11 A short story on an unlikely friendship that became an unlikely podcast. Back in 2016, I came off air & there was a tweet from Keith Olbermann about me. I was so surprised, I checked to see it was *the* Keith Olbermann. Because I knew all about Keith. 2/11 Keith had teamed up with Dan Patrick on ESPN's SportsCenter and turned it into a sensation, particularly by weaving humour and analysis in a way that was brand new. His scripting was on a whole new plane. This is a show from 1997.

THREAD 1/11: Now here's a story. Back in the 90s, along with lots of teenagers in Cornwall, I started going to raves & listening to hardcore and drum & bass. Here's me and my mate Ollie after a long night (Helter Skelter, Milton Keynes, 97...). And yes that is a high viz jacket. 2/11 I also started to DJ. Inspired by @therealLTJbukem @DJHYPE_PLAYAZ @KennyDJKen @RAYKEITH1 and others I started to buy a lot of D&B and, through my 20s, in a very amateur fashion, I DJed a range of music in London, Cornwall & Cambridge. This is at a night I ran in Brixton.

Thread 1/3: Six days in and the global interest in the Novak Djokovic story continues to be enormous. Parts 1, 2 & 3 of our telling of it have been watched over 4.5 million times. Part 1 detailed Djokovic's arrival in Australia. 2/3 Part 2 sees Djokovic's detention in an immigration hotel and his family's efforts to get him out. Both 1&2 were produced by Jack Kilbride.

THREAD 1/7: Civil servant Simon Case has quit the investigation into Downing Street lockdown parties last year. In the last two weeks we’ve posted five videos on the story overall and they've been watched over 14 million times. The first was on Dec 2. 2/7 Part 2 came on 6 December as the government insisted not only were rules not broken last December but 'there was not a party' on December 18.

THREAD 1/4: We've been taken aback by the response to our No.10 Christmas party videos. They've been watched over 11 million times in 9 days & I thought it'd be useful to put them in one place. We posted the first on 2 Dec, two days after the story broke. 2/4 The second video came on 6 December as the government insisted not only were rules not broken last December but 'there was not a party'.

1/5 THREAD. Ahead of #COP26, we've made a series of 5-min video profiles of the world's biggest emitters. No climate response works without them changing course. Here's the series - looking at the promises & actions of the US, EU, India &, first, China... 2/5 Next we looked at the US and the gap between commitments from the Biden administration and what is currently happening.

THREAD. 1/7 This week we've posted videos on a number of aspects of the Afghanistan story. I thought it'd be useful to put them in one place. We began by looking at Trump's deal with the Taliban in 2020 and how it connects to 2021.

https://twitter.com/BBCRosAtkins/status/1429917290200457216?s=20

2/ In the same programme, after bringing us all the latest developments on Monday, I asked @bbclysedoucet to share her reflections on how Kabul had changed since the Taliban took over. Her answer rightly received a lot of attention.

https://twitter.com/BBCRosAtkins/status/1430050470358396928?s=20