Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

With Guy Fawkes celebrations tonight, vets and animal advocates are renewing their push to end private fireworks sales. 

The Government rejected a recommendation to do so earlier this year.  

The SPCA is urging Kiwis to back an open letter to the incoming Government, calling to end consumer sales, while Fire and Emergency and MetService are warning people to take care. 

SPCA Senior Scientific Officer Dr Alison Vaughan told Ryan Bridge many animals become lost, injured, and are euthanised as a result of fireworks.  

She says that people also tend to forget that wildlife has no idea what's going on, and it can lead to nest abandonment. 

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Tackling the cost of living and corruption, and ending the war in Iran are all top of the agenda for the new Democrat-controlled US Senate.  

Democrats have powered through the US Midterm elections, flipping seven Senate seats and 31 in the House of Representatives from the Republicans. 

Democrat Chuck Schumer is set to be Senate Majority Leader. 

Economist and former Economic Advisor to John McCain Doug Haltz-Eakin told Ryan Bridge we'll likely see a lot of investigations by the Democrats over the next two years. 

He says they'll be looking into the finances around crypto, and things like the secret agreements between the Trump Administration and US drug companies. 

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The latest unexpected rise in unemployment could be a sign the economy isn't doing as well as expected.

Four hundred and 38-thousand people aren't working as much as they could be in the September quarter.

That includes 174-thousand - about 5.7 percent of the workforce - who wanted a job but didn't have one.

Infometrics Principal Economist Brad Olsen told Ryan Bridge the rise, along with other economic elements remaining weaker than anticipated, could see the Reserve Bank hold the Official Cash Rate in December. 

He says they're trying to balance inflationary pressures, but equally they don't want to kneecap the economic recovery. 

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The world is now officially on Trump Temper Tantrum Watch.  

So far, he's been relatively gracious about the absolute thumping the Dems handed him. 

What happened last night has only happened three times since WWII – both the House and Senate flipping parties. 

The big losers are Republicans, the more MAGA the more damage, Pete Hegseth (look out), and Elon Musk.  

Musk pumped half a billion American bucks at candidates from a party that has now lost control of the law-making agenda.  

Tesla and SpaceX shares are down this morning. Butts are clenching over the Democrats running the ruler on AI companies and spending, and Musk's merger.  

Meanwhile, the race to replace Trump starts today.  

Marco Rubio and JD Vance are the front runners, but Trump's influence now will wane.  

Popularity is power. Trump's has taken a massive punch in the guts.  

Why do we care? Petrol. The war.  

Trump is so far taking this graciously, by Trump-standards, but if he wants to lash out and go bananas, he remains Commander-in-Chief. 

He's lost Congress, but could re-start the war, not just with Iran, but with our wallets.  

Going quietly into the night is not really Trump's style. 

We should be preparing for a meltdown and praying for a miracle. 

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On the Early Edition with Full Show Podcast 2026, American Economist and former economic adviser to John McCain Doug Haltz-Eakin shares his thoughts on the U.S midterm results. 

Unemployment's risen to 5.7%, Infometrics Principal Economist Brad Olsen explains why this reinforces the Reserve Banks move to hold the OCR. 

It's Guy Fawkes tonight, with fresh calls to ban the private sale and use of fireworks, Dr Alison Vaughan Senior Scientific Officer at SPCA explains. 

Plus, US Correspondent Mitch McCann has the latest reaction to the midterm results out of Ohio. 

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Labour's Vanushi Walters has taken aim at the Government, saying its flip-flopping on foreign policy has created problems.  

The party's Foreign Affairs spokesperson told Ryan Bridge it's been inconsistent on calling out breaches of international law.  

Walters says the US and Israel's intervention into Iran is an example of when the Government hasn't called it out, with that war having a direct impact on fuel prices.  

National counterpart Todd McClay rejects that, saying we need to be careful about megaphone diplomacy.  

He told Bridge the Government's maintained our independent foreign policy.  

McClay says we can't have Iran developing nuclear weapons, and the Government's called out some of Israel's atrocities in Gaza.  

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How has the job market been faring?  

Stats NZ is releasing its latest quarterly unemployment data at 10.45am. 

Some economists expect unemployment to remain unchanged at 5.6%, an 11-year high, while others expect it will dip slightly to 5.5% or 5.4% – the first fall in five years. 

BNZ Chief Economist Mike Jones told Ryan Bridge they expect the rate to stay the same, but they're also expecting employment itself to increase. 

He says they're forecasting a 0.4% increase for the quarter, so they're pretty confident New Zealand saw some decent job growth. 

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King Charles has expressed sorrow over Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade but stopped short of apologising or offering reparations.

Britain captured and transported an estimated 12 to 15-million Africans to the Americas between 1500 and 1800,  with more than two million dying on the journey.

Opening the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua and Barbuda, the King acknowledged it's a shameful chapter in history.

UK/Europe Correspondent Gavin Grey has the latest. 

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After all the hand-wringing and manufactured controversy, the 'Move On' orders are actually not controversial.  

The loser in this story is once again the media. 

The beat the story up into a frenzy. The government was trying to punish, or to use a phrase they readily adopted from Tory Whanau, 'punch down' on, the homeless. 

But what does nine days of the law in action actually look like? Yesterday morning we had the Assistant Police Commissioner Tusha Penny on Ryan Bridge TODAY.

Guess what? 

29 orders were issued. Of them, only four were actually homeless. 

That's 13%. 

None were 'moved-on' for rough sleeping. Zero for begging. There was no 'punching down'. 

To be 'moved on', Police say you have to be behaving badly. Confrontational. Aggressive. Disturbing other people. 

Most New Zealanders will see this for what it is: entirely acceptable. 

Most kiwis see Police for what they are: mostly reasonable.

And unfortunately, most kiwis see the media for what it is: unreliable at best and biased at worst. 

They go big on a story that fits a narrative and 'move on' when proved wrong. 

New Zealanders aren't stupid and see right though it. 

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On the Early Edition with Ryan Bridge Full Show Podcast Wednesday the 4th of November 2026, Todd McClay and Vanushi Walters join Ryan for an election special panel on foreign affairs and trade. 

BNZ Chief Economist Mike Jones tells Ryan what we can expect from the unemployment number out today. 

Plus, UK/Europe Correspondent Gavin Grey has the latest on the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Antigua and the UK and EU have agreed a draft deal on removing post-Brexit checks from food and agriculture exports, ahead of the UK-EU summit later this month.

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