The Wire with Joel

One of Trump’s first measures after taking office was to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement.

The Paris Agreement (also called the Paris Accords or Paris Climate Accords) is an international treaty on climate change that requires it’s signatories to set their own emissions reductions goals and to report regularly on their progress. 

Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement makes the United States one of only four countries in the entire world who are not signatories to the Paris Agreement, with the other three non-signatories being Iran, Libya and Yemen.

Oto spoke to Amanda Larsson from Greenpeace Aotearoa to discuss the implications of Trump’s exit from the Paris agreement, and how Aotearoa should adjust its own climate targets in response.

In November of 2024, Te Whatu Ora declared whooping cough an epidemic, and epidemiologists are expecting it will be the most challenging Aotearoa has seen. 

Whooping cough is a respiratory infection caused by a bacteria, and is dangerous for babies and toddlers. However, infection can be prevented by vaccination during pregnancy.

Producer Athena spoke to epidemiologist, and Research Fellow at the University of Auckland, Dr Hannah Chisholm, about the circumstances that led to the epidemic, and the necessity of vaccinations.

This week on the Tuesday Wire...

For Dear Science this week, our expert Dr Cushla McGover chatted to us about lost photos being unveiled of a giant horned dinosaur, analysing for the restoration of a 2100 year old Alexander the Great mosaic, and cartilage similar to bubble wrap, thanks to MOTAT.

For our weekly catchup with the National Party, News and Editorial Director, Joel, speaks to MP Tom Rutherford  about the recent wildfires across the motu, Deputy Police Commissioner, Jevon McSkimming being suspended amidst investigations, and the ceasefire in Gaza.

Joel also speaks to Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at the Victoria University of Wellington, and Fire Ecologist, Dr Nicola Day, about Aotearoa’s susceptibility to wildfires.

Producer Athena speaks to Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland business school, Dr Stefan Korber, about the important of establishing workplace friendships.

And Athena speaks to Epidemiologist and Research Fellow at the University of Auckland, Dr Hannah Chisholm about the current whooping cough epidemic

Whakarongo mai!

The US is currently deciding the fate of the short-form video content sharing app, TikTok, in its country.

The ban is currently in a grey area — over the weekend, US users were unable to use the platform, being greeted with a message about the legislation put in place, however, that ban has been lifted for the time being.

US President-elect, Donald Trump, who is set to take office later today as the nation’s 47th President, who had also previously supported banning TikTok’s operations in the country, has since shifted opinion, vowing to give the app a 90-day reprieve for more time to establish a deal between the nation and ByteDance: the Chinese-based company that operates TikTok.

The reasoning for the ban stems from what the US states are national security threats.

News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to a Lecturer in the Communication Studies Department at the University of Otago, Dr Olivier Jutel, about the US’ ban of the app, and whether he believes the app has reasonable grounds to be banned in the nation.

As well as this, ahead of the potential ban, many non-US based content creators are questioning what implications they could see if the United States does deny TikTok’s operations to the millions of US users on the app.

Joel also spoke to Sam Ashton, otherwise known as ‘Smashton,’ who not only co-hosts 95bFM’s Top Ten, but is also an Aotearoa-based TikTok content creator with over 307k followers.

They spoke to him about whether he is concerned about what will happen if this move goes ahead, and what changes he might expect as a content creator based in New Zealand.