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3 Jul 2025

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Waitangi Tribunal registers claim calling for urgent hearing into fast tracked plans to mine seabed off Patea
The Waitangi Tribunal is considering a claim filed by south Taranaki iwi Ngati Ruanui concerning a Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) shallow-seabed mining project approved under the Fast Track Approvals Act 2024.

Windows 11 killed WordPad, but Notepad is absorbing its formatting skills
For years, Notepad has existed as a bare-bones text editor. No longer. Microsoft keeps adding to it, including a new update that includes capabilities that you might have expected in another Windows application, WordPad. In May, Microsoft said in this blog post that it was adding “lightweight formatting” in Notepad, including Markdown input and file support, but also bold and italic fonts, bullet and numbered lists, and even hyperlinks, which would all be accessible via a new toolbar. According to Windows Latest, these features are now rolling out to all users outside the Windows Insider Program. Microsoft says the new features won’t gobble up resources or impact Notepad’s performance. Two things seem to be going on here. In late 2023, Microsoft killed off WordPad, the rich text editor that served as a poor man’s alternative to Microsoft Word. (There’s a way to bring WordPad back, but you’d need access to an older version of Windows where WordPad still exists.) Traditionally, Notepad has been the Windows answer to a lightweight text editor that coders can use or write in, although more sophisticated alternatives like vim exist. It seems Microsoft is adding more features to try and help those users, while moving towards a WordPad replacement. Microsoft, meanwhile, is bringing the Edit app to Windows as well. Edit is an open-source app that was basically designed as a command-line interface (or CLI) and Microsoft specifically referenced how obtuse vim was to use when announcing it. Either way, by beefing up Notepad—heck, even with Copilot!—and adding the Edit option as well, Windows is offering a number of lightweight CLI and text-editing interfaces without bloating the operating system even further. Editor’s note: This article was originally published on May 30 when the feature was announced, and updated when the new Notepad capabilities went live.

If you’re working with complex projects, this $15 app makes them much simpler
TL;DR: Turn complex projects into simple tasks with a lifetime license to Microsoft Project Pro, now only $14.97. Keeping complex projects on track gets a lot easier when your tools are working as hard as you are. Microsoft Project Professional 2021 gives access to a robust toolbox to help you manage timelines, allocate resources, and track your budget, and it’s only $14.97 (reg. $249.99) for a lifetime license during this limited-time sale. This version of Project is built for professionals who want powerful project management tools without unnecessary complexity. You can get started quickly using built-in templates, then adjust schedules with drag-and-drop controls and automated start and end dates based on task dependencies. Run what-if scenarios, create multiple timelines to visualize progress, and keep an eye on every moving piece of your project. If you’re coordinating across teams or submitting detailed reports, Project makes it easy to track time, manage resources, and sync with Project Online or Project Server for broader collaboration. The interface is familiar for Office users, and it’s flexible enough to handle long-term, high-stakes projects with precision. June 29 at 11:59 p.m. PT is the cutoff to get a Microsoft Project Pro lifetime license for $14.97. No coupon needed. Microsoft Project 2021 Professional: Lifetime License for WindowsSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change.

Micronesian Summit in Majuro this week
The Micronesian Islands Forum cranks up with officials meetings Monday and Tuesday this week in Majuro, with the official opening for top leadership on Wednesday.

Ngati Toa launch new agency to distribute Whanau Ora funds
Ngati Toa have launched one of four new commissioning agencies to decide how Whanau Ora resources are distributed to Maori and Pacific communities across the country.

The Week: A Welfare U-Turn, Nato Summit, and Daddy Issues
Starmer has climbed down on disability benefits cuts.

Watch out! These 3 Internet travel scams can ruin your summer
Warmer weather often means travel—a fact that scammers know very well. You just want to plan your vacation, so they flood the internet with fake booking sites, phony emails, and bogus deal links to take advantage of the unsuspecting. To avoid losing your money to fraud, it pays to stay sharp when making reservations or buying gear for your trip. Fortunately, you can do so pretty easily if you ask yourself the questions below. Is the booking site you’re on legitimate? Whether booking direct on a carrier website or through a third-party online travel agency, make sure the website you’re on is legit.PCWorld You can save a lot of headache by double-checking the reservation website you’re on before committing to plans. For direct bookings, make sure the URL matches the known address. Scammers can buy a search engine sponsored link to promote false websites that look like the real ones. Or they can display copies of real websites when you enter the wrong address into your browser. For third-party travel sites, run a search to see if the online travel agency (OTA) is well-known, as well as what the reviews say about the booking process and customer support. Travel forums and Reddit are good sources for opinions, good and bad. Is that email deal real? The first Travelzoo email I ever got was a forward from a friend—and I spent some time checking out the source before clicking on any links.Travelzoo / PCWorld You should only be getting travel deal emails from sites you signed up for—and those messages should be easily traced back to legit senders. A first clue that an email is fishy: The sender email address doesn’t match the official URL. (e.g., deals@expedia.com) To be more sure, you can dig into the message headers to see if the email was sent from a server owned by an official travel agency. In Gmail, you can click on the three-dot icon in the far right of a message, then choose Show original. Is the deal reasonable? ravel sites gush about this $275 suitcase—and it sells quickly whenever it goes on sale.Even before I looked up historical data, that tells me I’d still pay at least $200+ after the best discounts. (Research on Slickdeals bears that out.)Away / PCWorld Maybe you saw a deal shared on social media, or a friend forwards you a link. Whether shopping for a flight or hotel, or a new suitcase or power bank, go into your purchase knowing what a reasonable discount price is. For flights, hotels, car rentals, and cruises, you can compare costs against the big online travel agencies (Expedia, etc.) or find recent reports from people who’ve visited your destination. If a price seems absurdly low, you can gauge from online discussions if it’s reasonable. (e.g., I saw nonstop flights between San Francisco and Tokyo for under $600 on ZipAir, but didn’t recognize the airline. A little searching showed it was a new budget airline, and people had already tried it out.) For gear like power banks, suitcases, and the like, you can look up past deal prices for that model (or at least general style of the item) with a quick online search. You can also look up reviews—maybe a discount is unusually high due to a new version having released, or there’s a flaw that caused the product to be unpopular. Travel booking resources I like to use Current fares for SFO-JFK on Google Travel—September looks like a good time to visit.Google / PCWorld Deal hunting is one of my side hobbies, and for travel, I have a few sites that help me find good discounts with very little fuss. Google Travel’s flight search engine helps me see which dates have the cheapest prices for a particular route (e.g., SFO to JFK). I like this data because it’s the prices on the airlines’ direct sites, which I can then compare against online travel agency offers. Usually I book direct for better customer support, should something go wrong with my flight. Google Travel also offers a hotel search feature that lets you scout hotels and their prices near a given location (e.g., 6th and Canal in Manhattan). It gives a list of various third-party booking sites (some I think of as less established than others). I use that info to get an idea of what’s reasonable, and then I look directly on a hotel’s website for equal or better deals. (Booking direct sometimes works out more in my favor.) Costco comes through strong for its members, especially on car rentals. A second driver is included, and you can cancel your reservation any time before pickup without penalty. Depending on how good a deal you get on a vacation package or car rental, the savings can end up covering the cost of a yearly Costco membership for access. Finally, searching on Slickdeals.net helps me see historical data for previous deals on a given product. Sometimes none exists though, so then I turn to the Keepa.com extension to see if price history exists for the item on Amazon.