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Kea. Photo: Tim Norman Dr Eric Buenz is a biomedical researcher at NMIT, the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. He's also a recreational hunter. For the past decade Eric and his colleague Professor Gareth Parry have been interested in lead and its impact on human and animal health, with a focus on lead ammunition. Follow Our Changing World on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts Every year in New Zealand, recreational hunters shoot more than half a million wild game animals. Eric says three types of ammunition are used with centrefire rifles: lead bullets, lead-free copper bullets, and - most commonly - copper-jacketed bullets with a lead core. Lead is a very useful metal. It is soft, versatile and cheap. It is also very toxic. The World Health O...

By Jarrett Renshaw and James Oliphant, Reuters Photo: DUSTIN FRANZ / AFP With millions of US voters already heading to the polls, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris will seek support from undecided voters at a televised town hall in battleground Pennsylvania, while Republican Donald Trump swept through Georgia. Nearly 25 million voters have cast ballots, either through in-person early voting or mail-in ballots, according to tracking data from the Election Lab at the University of Florida. Several states, including the battlegrounds of North Carolina and Georgia, set records on their respective first day of early voting last week. "The votes in Georgia are at record levels," Trump told a religious-themed "ballots and believers" event in Zebulon, Georgia. "The votes in ever...

Photo: Geoff Capes Foundation/supplied Geoff Capes, British strongman, shot put record holder and renowned budgerigar breeder, has died aged 75. Capes left an indelible mark on British sport, birdkeeping and 1980s popular culture. "The family of Geoffrey Capes would like to announce his sad passing today, 23rd October. Britain's finest shot putter and twice World's Strongest Man," the family said in a statement. Born in 1949 in Holbeach, Lincolnshire, Capes excelled in athletics, representing Britain in three Olympic Games from 1972 to 1980, and setting the national shot put record of 21.68 metres which has stood for 44 years. Although his best Olympic finish was fifth in 1980, he won two Commonwealth gold medals as well as a haul of European medals. Capes worked as a policeman and was a...

Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe disrupts proceedings as Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend a reception at Parliament House, 21 October, 2024. Photo: Lukas Coch / ABC The Australian senator who yelled at King Charles says she did so to raise the world's attention to the "ongoing, sophisticated genocide" of the country's first people. At a royal reception in Parliament House on Monday senator Lidia Thorpe, a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman, shouted "you are not our King" and "this is not your land" at the British monach. Speaking to RNZ, Thorpe says she is loud and proud and calls out injustice where she sees it. "And with that so-called King sitting in all that stolen wealth, he needed to be called out for the injustices that his people, that his ancestors inf...

It is estimated that about 200,000 litres of diesel have leaked from the Manawanui. Photo: Ministry of Works Transport and Infrastructure Samoa The New Zealand Defence Force cannot provide a timeline for the removal of the fuel tanks from the Manawanui. The navy vessel sank after hitting a reef in Samoa in early October. Commodore Andrew Brown told Morning Report although the priority was removing the fuel tanks, the Defence Force (NZDF) cannot comment on when that will happen. The NZDF was in discussions with its insurance company, and it "would be inappropriate for me to comment on on timelines and who's paying," he said. NZDF also could not provide a timeline for the next steps in removing the Manawanui from the reef. "The team are working through the options. Recovering the vessel ...

Gainsborough Care Home in Swanage. Photo: Google Maps Three people were found dead and four others were taken to hospital after a suspected carbon monoxide poisoning at a care home for the elderly in southwest England, police said on Wednesday. Dorset Police said a 60-year-old local woman was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter on Wednesday evening and remains in police custody. "We have made one arrest to enable us to establish whether there have been actions or omissions which are grossly negligent and gather as much information as we can about what has happened," said Detective Chief Inspector Neil Third, of the major crime investigation team. Other residents at the Gainsborough Care Home in Swanage were earlier evacuated from the premises to a nearby church hall before being moved...

By Ece Toksabay and Mert Ozkan for Reuters Turkish police officers gather in Kahramankazan, north of Ankara on October 23, 2024, near the gate of the Turkish Aerospace Industries, after a huge explosion outside the headquarters. Photo: AFP Two attackers killed five people and wounded 22 others in what Ankara called a terrorist attack at the Turkish Aerospace Industries headquarters, where witnesses said they heard gunfire and an explosion. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said two attackers were killed in what he called a terrorist attack, adding three of the injured are in critical condition. TV broadcasters earlier showed footage of armed assailants entering the TUSAS building. "Two terrorists were neutralised in the terror attack on the TUSAS Ankara Kahramankazan site," Yerlikaya s...

US presidential rivals Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Photo: Brendan SMIALOWSKI and Patrick T. Fallon / AFP Kamala Harris on Wednesday said Donald Trump was "increasingly unhinged," and called her US election rival's reported praise for Adolf Hitler "incredibly dangerous" as campaigning intensified ahead of the 5 November vote. The Democrat's fierce criticism came as she headed to must-win Pennsylvania to face voters' questions in a town hall and as Trump campaigned in battleground Georgia. With the tight election going down to the wire, both candidates are on a mission to persuade the sliver of American voters who remain undecided in the home stretch. In a dramatic campaign season, the latest twist was revelations by Trump's longest-serving chief of staff, retired US Marine general Jo...

By Evan Perez, Hannah Rabinowitz and Marshall Cohen for CNN Elon Musk awarded Kristine Fishell with a $US1 million cheque at the Roxain Theatre on October 20, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Photo: AFP / Getty Images / Michael Swensen The Justice Department warned Elon Musk's America PAC in recent days that his $US1 million ($NZ1.6m) sweepstakes to registered voters in swing states may violate federal law, people briefed on the matter told CNN. Musk, who has thrown his support behind former president Donald Trump and is spending millions of dollars supporting his candidacy, has publicised the $US1m prize by his political action committee aiming to increase voter registrations in hotly contested states. Musk's initial promise to pay prizes to registered voters immediately raised con...

Photo: Geoff Capes Foundation/supplied Geoff Capes, British strongman, shot put record holder and renowned budgerigar breeder, has died aged 75. Capes left an indelible mark on British sport, birdkeeping and 1980s popular culture. "The family of Geoffrey Capes would like to announce his sad passing today, 23rd October. Britain's finest shot putter and twice World's Strongest Man," the family said in a statement. Born in 1949 in Holbeach, Lincolnshire, Capes excelled in athletics, representing Britain in three Olympic Games from 1972 to 1980, and setting the national shot put record of 21.68 metres which has stood for 44 years. Although his best Olympic finish was fifth in 1980, he won two Commonwealth gold medals as well as a haul of European medals. Capes worked as a policeman and was a...