Today we look at Nigel Farage’s meeting with Elon Musk. Adam and Chris discuss the significance of the Reform leader’s trip to Mar A Lago to meet Elon Musk and whether he’ll be allowed to donate to them under election spending rules. They also talk about the WASPI women who have been campaigning for compensation over pension changes as they say they were not were not properly informed of the rise in state pension age. And, Adam speaks to Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at the University of Oxford Ben Ansell to reflect on the year of elections. You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhere Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Chris Flynn with Gemma Roper and Anna Harris. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The editor is Sam Bonham
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Chris, would you like an update on our new newscast Christmas gimmick, which is Father Chris Mason?
Oh, yes, yes, I can offer an update of my own actually in a second, but I'll hear yours first.
Well, so Lily has sent us a picture of you in the festive Santa hat, elf hat, artwork in a gay club in Sydney.
Terrific.
With actually a big screen saying sleigh, which is all year round word now spelled now S L A Y.
All right, okay.
Do you know about.
That's.
That's for next year.
And then we've had a message from Thea who's on a raft off Coron Island.
I hope I've pronounced that correctly.
Where's that?
The Philippines.
And it looks very, very scenic.
And yeah, I think it's sunset in the Philippines and there's on Thea's phone on a raft.
Oh, well, thank you the Philippines and thank you Australia.
That is.
Thank you Thea.
And there's a little update that I can offer which was within moments of this particular wheeze being rolled out, a you know, you have kind of WhatsApp groups that can remain dormant for quite a while and then suddenly spring into action.