The alleged suspect who opened fire on schoolchildren attending a church service in the US state of Minneapolis has reportedly included homages to people, including the Christchurch mosque terrorist. Read...

Hundreds of attendees at a Canterbury music festival have been caught up in a privacy breach after pre-sale reminders were sent to the wrong recipients. The emails, which are sent out to remind people to purchase tickets to the Rolling Meadows music festival, were mistakenly sent to the wrong recipients, revealing personal information. The incorrect information included a full name, email address, mobile number, postcode, ticket type and quantity, an order identification number, and the last four digits of the payment card, as well as the expiry month and card type. The incorrect information included the last four digits of the payment card, as well as the expiry month and card type. In some cases, recipients were able to view details of another customer’s ticket order through the included link. The festival, which draws up to 7000 people, has been a two-day music festival held in Waipara, North Canterbury, for four years, hosting a variety of acts on December 30 and 31. Rolling Meadows and the global ticketing company, Flicket, confirmed the error was caused by a fault within Flicket’s system. Flicket provided a statement to the Herald reiteratiung the fact Rolling Meadows was not responsible for the breach, which was identified shortly after midday yesterday. The statement said the breach had resulted in 310 reminder emails being sent to the wrong recipients. It read: “We want to stress that at no time were full payment card numbers, CVV/security codes, account passwords, login credentials exposed, or tickets. “As soon as the issue was detected, we acted quickly to contain it. “This included immediately pausing the affected email sends, disabling all impacted links, rolling order IDs to prevent any further access, and deploying an error page requiring customers to log in to view their correct order details. “Our engineering team has fully resolved the issue and added safeguards to prevent this from happening again. “Only 206 of the incorrect emails were opened, and approximately 50 affected customers have contacted our support team.” Festival attendees can also authorise the ticket to be purchased automatically and receive a reminder about this. The statement noted that despite the low-level breach, the company would self-report to the Privacy Commission and reach out directly to affected customers. “We sincerely apologise to our customers for this error and for any distress or concern it may have caused,” it said. “Protecting personal information is a responsibility we take extremely seriously, and we deeply regret that this incident occurred.” The breach comes after the festival announced it would be moving from Waipara, about an hour north of Christchurch, to Bottle Lake Forest, on the outskirts of the city. It announced it would be expanding from two to three days. The festival will introduce a New Zealand artists-only night on December 29, which will double as a campers-only night. The 2024 Rolling Meadows was headlined by American rapper Wiz Khalifa, English pop star Natasha Bedingfield and drum and bass act Hybrid Minds. Read...

A man has been arrested in Christchurch after allegedly approaching a number of female students and offering them money to perform inappropriate acts. Police began investigating after reports of concern about a man riding a bicycle in the Merivale and St Albans areas on August 4. As a result, police sent a letter alerting 11 schools in the immediate area. This afternoon, Detective Constable Andrea McDowell said that after making inquiries and checking CCTV to identify the man involved, police had made an arrest. “A 53-year-old man is due to appear in the Christchurch District Court today on charges of breaching release conditions,” she said. “We want to thank the community for their caring response and for providing the information that helped us to identify the man. “Reports like this are concerning and we hope the arrest brings some comfort to the community.” McDowell said the situation was “also a good reminder for parents”. “Educate children on how to keep themselves safe when they’re walking to and from school – to be mindful of their surroundings and not get distracted,` she said. “Have open discussions around behaviours and actions that are inappropriate or that make a child feel uncomfortable. “Reinforce that if they feel concerned for themselves or someone else’s safety, call 111 immediately.” Read...

New Zealand’s infrastructure pipeline has grown by more than $30 billion over the past quarter, with more than 9200 projects now either planned or under way. The Government is crowing about the increase, saying it is “great news for the construction sector and the wider economy”. It follows concerns from the industry about future workload and activity currently being at a six-year low. “The pipeline now contains over 9200 projects that are under way or being planned, helping New Zealand’s infrastructure construction sector plan ahead for major upcoming projects and hire and retain key staff in the right locations,” said Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop. The National Infrastructure Pipeline is updated quarterly and brings together different infrastructure projects from Government agencies, councils and private sector entities. It’s managed by the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission. The total value of projects in the pipeline as of the June update is now $237.1b, which is up $30.2b from the March quarter. More than 2500 initiatives, about $53b in expected cost, are reported as being under construction. In the pipeline, there’s about $125b of initiatives under way or planned that are reported as being funded, part-funded or with a funding source confirmed. That’s increased $13.5b over the past quarter. A substantial part of that increase comes from maintenance activity for the country’s state highway network for 2024-2034 being added to the pipeline, along with Christchurch Men’s Prison and Hawke’s Bay prison redevelopment initiatives. The Government is crowing about the increase in the pipeline value. Photo / Sylvie Whinray Bishop said projections showed there is at least $17.5b in projected potential spend across 2025, which is about 4% of GDP. “The commission continues to work with infrastructure providers to improve the transparency and quality of information that is available,” Bishop said. “A more complete pipeline improves the effectiveness and value that we can gain from this tool. I recently wrote to all councils reminding them of the importance of contributing and updating their pipeline data, and I expect the same engagement from our central government agencies too.” He said it was encouraging the number of infrastructure providers contributing to the pipeline has grown every quarter since the Government was formed, with 121 organisations now contributing. “The commission is currently collecting data for the September quarter. This will inform the final version of the National Infrastructure Plan, which will be delivered in December. “I encourage the remaining councils and any infrastructure provider who is not yet contributing to reach out to the commission, because a strong pipeline of infrastructure projects means a growing economy with more jobs and more opportunities for Kiwis.” The latest pipeline update comes after several reports highlighted issues with the construction industry. One found activity was at the lowest level since 2019, with 16,000 fewer jobs in the sector compared with June 2023. A survey commissioned by accountants and business adviser BDO in June found 59% of construction businesses don’t have more than a year’s forward workloads. Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald press gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. In 2025, he was a finalist for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards. Read...

Police are investigating a woman’s death after she harmed herself with a weapon and was tasered by police hours before being found dead in a cell. Canterbury District Commander Superintendent Tony Hill said at 1am on Monday police responded to a Rakaia address after reports of an intoxicated woman hurting herself, armed with a knife and threatening harm to others. “Faced with a tense and dangerous situation, and after unsuccessful appeals for the weapon to be put down, police tasered the woman,” Hill said. “She was arrested and transported to the Christchurch Custody Suite.” The woman was assessed by a doctor in the suite shortly after 4am before being placed in a cell. She was found unresponsive in her cell about 6.50am. Police immediately notified Hato Hone St John and officers also provided medical assistance. “Sadly, attempts to revive the woman were unsuccessful.” The woman’s death has been referred to the Coroner and the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA). Read...

Police said she had been threatening to harm herself and others with a knife. Read...

Police warn it `could have been catastrophic` after a car ran a red light and narrowly missed a child in Christchurch last week. Read...

‘An Evening with Priscilla Presley, life after Elvis’ will visit Christchurch and Auckland. Read...

Hundreds of teens are riding for glory at the Secondary School Equestrian Championships at two concurrent events in Christchurch and Taupo. Read...

The engineer who signed off a ferris wheel that lost a part at a Christchurch light show says no one`s safety was compromised. Read...