Buffalo shooting: unease in New Zealand as live stream of ‘Christchurch-inspired’ attack finds foothold

Researchers find New Zealand has become a fertile ground for extreme material amid efforts to ban alleged shooter’s ‘manifesto’

Widespread horror at the killing of shoppers at a Buffalo grocery store, allegedly by a white supremacist gunman, has been felt keenly in New Zealand as it continues to reckon with the ripple effects of the 2019 Christchurch massacre of 51 Muslims at prayer.

New Zealand has already moved to ban the live stream video and “manifesto” apparently published by the alleged shooter, which is said to specifically cite the mosque shootings as a source of inspiration. Mosque attack survivors are being re-traumatised by the Buffalo footage, reportedly sent to them anonymously online, and researchers are concerned material from the shooting is spreading quickly inside New Zealand.

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New Zealand banks predict 20% drop in house prices over next year

Economists say tighter credit conditions, higher mortgage rates and increased housing supply behind sinking prices

New Zealand’s house prices are on track to drop by up to 20% in the next year – the biggest drop since the 1970s – two of the biggest banks have predicted, which would take prices back to where they were just over a year ago.

For years, the country has been plagued by a runaway housing market. The cities of Wellington and Auckland have some of the least affordable property markets in the world, and homeownership rates have been falling since the early 1990s across all age brackets, but especially for people in their 20s and 30s.

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Bleached sea sponges found in New Zealand waters for first time

Extreme ocean temperatures blamed for turning sea sponges white in more than a dozen sites on southern coastline

Sea sponges off New Zealand’s southern coastline have been found bleached bone-white for the first time, following extreme ocean temperatures.

A group of scientists from Victoria University of Wellington were alarmed to discover the sponges, which are typically a rich chocolate brown, were bleached in more than a dozen sites near Breaksea Sound and Doubtful Sound in Fiordland.

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Help to buy EVs in ‘landmark’ New Zealand net zero climate plan

Lower and middle income families will benefit from ‘scrap and replace’ scheme, while 20% cut in car, van and ute trips sought

New Zealand will help some people to buy electric vehicles, end its reliance on fossil fuels, lower agricultural emissions, and reduce waste going to landfill, the government has promised in the most significant announcement on climate change action in the country’s history.

The emissions reduction plan sets the direction for climate action for the next 15 years, with a cap on the amount of greenhouse gas New Zealand can emit, in order to meet targets to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

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New Zealand’s presbyterian church will offer future land sales to Māori iwi first

The major landowner says it has been on the ‘other side of history’ and wants to honour treaty

New Zealand’s presbyterian church will offer any future land sales to Māori iwi first, as the institution reckons with its role in colonisation and land confiscations in Aotearoa.

The institution is a significant landowner across the country, with more than $1.5bn in land assets and 400 properties. Their decision comes at a time of increasing scrutiny on the church and its role in the colonisation of New Zealand, including as a beneficiary of confiscated or stolen land.

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Whiti Hereaka wins New Zealand’s Ockham fiction prize for novel subverting Māori myth

Kurangaituku, 'an epic poem of a novel’, won the Jann Medlicott Acorn prize at a ceremony that delivered ‘loads of surprises’

A novel subverting a Māori myth has taken home New Zealand’s most prestigious writing prize at this year’s Ockham New Zealand book awards.

Kurangaituku by Whiti Hereaka, which draws on the Māori legend of Hatupatu and the Bird-Woman but tells it from the perspective of the tale’s traditional monster Kurangaituku, has won the $60,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn prize for fiction.

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New Zealand to fully reopen borders for first time since Covid pandemic started

Prime minister Jacinda Ardern also announces shakeup of immigration to attract skilled workers back to the country

New Zealand will fully reopen to the world two months earlier than originally planned, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced as part of a wider shake-up to immigration settings.

The country swiftly closed the border in March 2020 to prevent the arrival of Covid-19. It has just started reopening to some non-New Zealand citizens and residents over the past few months – beginning with Australians and followed by travellers from 60 visa-waiver countries.

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New Zealand, once Covid-free, tops 1 million cases since pandemic began

Figure means 20% of population has been infected with Covid but modellers say true number is likely three times higher

New Zealand has recorded more than 1m cases of Covid-19, after spending the first 18 months of the pandemic largely free of the virus.

The milestone reflects a stark change in New Zealand’s pandemic experience, with more than 986,000 of those cases hitting in the months since the start of 2022. The country has had a huge spike in cases since Omicron breached the borders in December 2021, and the government loosened most restrictions in March.

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Christchurch attack inquiry to examine if Australian terrorist was radicalised online

Muslim group say coroner’s decision to include gunman’s social media activity in investigation a ‘landmark moment for the accountability of digital platforms’

The online activities of the Australian white supremacist who opened fire on two New Zealand mosques – and how much of a role social media and internet platforms played in his radicalisation – will form part of a coroner’s inquiry into the deaths of 51 Muslim worshipers in the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack.

But the presiding coroner, Brigitte Windley, who announced the scope of her inquiry in a decision released on Thursday, has warned of “monumental hurdles” to exploring the terrorist’s online activities – including Brenton Tarrant’s attempts to wipe parts of his digital footprint before committing the attacks.

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New Zealand foreign minister blames ‘relationship failure’ for China-Solomons security deal

Nanaia Mahuta confirms ‘unwelcome and unnecessary’ deal came as a surprise to New Zealand and Australia, saying the Solomons must provide transparency

The shock over China’s security deal with Solomon Islands is evidence of “a relationship failure” , New Zealand’s foreign affairs minister has said, confirming that the pact took New Zealand, Australia and other Pacific nations completely by surprise.

The deal marks Beijing’s first known bilateral security agreement in the Pacific. The text of the final deal is secret, but a draft leaked on social media in March granted Chinese military and police significant access to the country, allowing China to “make ship visits to, carry out logistical replenishment in, and have stopover and transition in Solomon Islands”.

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‘Supersonic ballet’: helicopter briefly catches falling rocket

Rocket Lab test successfully hooks booster in midair before having to drop it into South Pacific

A space company has briefly managed to catch a falling rocket using a helicopter and a hook in a test described by its chief executive as “something of a supersonic ballet”.

The test was part of Rocket Lab’s attempts to find relatively low-cost ways of recovering rockets for multiple missions to space.

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NZ’s former deputy PM banned from parliament for visiting anti-vaccine-mandate protest

Winston Peters condemned two-year ban as ‘dictatorial behaviour’ that ‘should be reserved for third world banana republics’

New Zealand’s former deputy prime minister, Winston Peters, has been banned from parliament grounds for two years for visiting anti-vaccine-mandate protesters who occupied the grounds.

The weeks-long February protests, modelled on the Canadian truckers’ “freedom convoy”, took over parliament grounds and blocked off a number of surrounding streets. In the first days of the occupation, the speaker issued a trespass notice to all attendees. But efforts by police to disperse the gathering were repeatedly repelled, until it descended into a violent riot, with at least 40 injured, while tents, piles of rubble and a playground were set aflame.

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New Zealand finance minister tightens the belt for first post-Covid budget

Grant Robertson announces plans for new rules on spending and borrowing in first major pre-budget speech

After two years of big spending to weather the storm of Covid-19, New Zealand’s finance minister is tightening the belt, committing to limits on borrowing, introducing new debt caps and looking ahead to long-term spending on infrastructure over short-term cash injections.

The finance minister, Grant Robertson, gave a glimpse of the vision for New Zealand’s post-Covid economy in his first major pre-budget speech on Tuesday. This year’s budget will also help set the political scene as the country heads towards a 2023 election.

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Rare ‘Wicked’ bible that encourages adultery discovered in New Zealand

First copy of the 1631 bible, which mistakenly reads ‘thou shalt commit adultery’, to be found in the southern hemisphere

An extremely rare bible famous for an unfortunate error that encourages adultery has been discovered in New Zealand.

The 1631 “Wicked” Bible, as it has become known, omits the word “not” from its seventh commandment, informing readers “thou shalt commit adultery”. One thousand copies of the text, which also came to be known as the Adulterous or Sinners’ Bible, were printed, with the error only discovered a year later.

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Songs, tears and reunions: New Zealand welcomes back visitors as border reopens after two years

Vaccinated people from about 60 visa-waiver countries now able to enter as part of pandemic reopening plan

Māori songs, tearful embraces and a beloved New Zealand chocolate bar awaited international visitors arriving in New Zealand on Monday – the first foreign guests, other than Australians, to set foot in Aotearoa in more than two years.

Since March 2020, the arrival terminals at New Zealand’s international airports have been desolate as the country swiftly closed the border to prevent the arrival of Covid-19.

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‘They’re so sneaky’: New Zealand homeowners battle plague of smelly cluster flies

Changing climate means infestations of pesky insects could become more common, experts say

They smell like sweet meat, destroy vacuum cleaners and are wreaking havoc across rural New Zealand.

An unusually wet summer has brought joy to farmers and grief to residents, as a plague of cluster flies descends on homes in the Canterbury and Wairarapa regions.

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New Zealand unveils plan to tackle climate crisis by adapting cities to survive rising seas

Proposals to prepare the country for more floods, massive storms and wildfires include building away from high-risk areas and protecting cultural sites

The New Zealand government has released new plans to try to prepare the country for the catastrophic effects of the climate crisis: sea level rise, floods, massive storms and wildfires.

The proposals, released for consultation on Wednesday, outline sweeping reforms to institutions, councils and laws to try to stop people building in hazardous areas, preserve cultural treasures, improve disaster responses, protect the financial system from the shocks of future disasters, and reform key industries including tourism, fisheries and farming.

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‘About time’: Māori Battalion veteran welcomes New Zealand effort to issue unclaimed war medals

Defence force works to match medals with families of up to 500 men who served in decorated unit during second world war

New Zealand is working to get medals to the rightful homes of up to 500 men from the country’s Māori Battalion, who were not properly recognised for their service.

The Māori Battalion, also known as the “28th”, was one of New Zealand’s most-decorated units during the second world war, fighting in Italy, Egypt, Crete and north Africa, but many of the men who served never received their medals.

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Jacinda Ardern greeted by giant sad dancing kiwifruit during visit to Japan

Two large mascots, dancing to sorrowful music, helped welcome the New Zealand prime minister on her first trip overseas since the pandemic began

New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has been met in Japan on her first trip outside the country in two years by a duo of enormous, mournfully dancing kiwifruit.

The two large mascots welcomed the prime minister with a gentle swaying routine, set to a piece of slow, somewhat sorrowful chamber music. They had a sombre audience of suited men.

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New Zealand faces global pressure over move to let resident be extradited to China

MPs from around the world tell Jacinda Ardern that case of murder suspect Kyung Yup Kim could set ‘dangerous precedent’

New Zealand is under international pressure to stop the extradition of a resident to China, after a landmark supreme court decision allowed the government to send a man accused of murder to Shanghai to face trial.

The decision was a reversal of previous court rulings, which blocked extradition on the grounds that Kyung Yup Kim, the accused, would be at high risk of torture or an unfair trial.

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