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28 Aug 2025

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'He matenga poto he oranga roa': 10 young Maori prepare to attend COP30 in Brazil
A group of 10 rangatahi Maori have been selected from more than 60 applicants to represent their iwi at one of the world's largest climate change conferences.

Ex-OpenAI VP says the AI talent war has made the pay gulf 'wider and wider' — and will lead to 'second-order effects'

Nvidia to set tone for booming AI leveraged ETF market

Overcrowding, poor facilities undermine PNG education, study finds
A researcher in Papua New Guinea says the government has to urgently rethink how education is provided in the country.

Predator again accused of targeting schoolgirls shouldn't have been released - victim
Leo Darin Goodwin has been recalled to prison after police charged him with breaching conditions by approaching teenagers.

Fewer people getting Covid-19 boosters
Some experts warn it could put the population at risk from future strains of the virus.

Predator who again targeted schoolgirls shouldn't have been released - victim
Leo Darin Goodwin has been recalled to prison after police charged him with breaching conditions by approaching teenagers.

Dunedin comes alive to the sound of The Big Sing
Fine-voiced high school students will be singing their hearts out in Aotearoa's largest choral contest this weekend.

4chan launches legal action against Ofcom in US
It wants the court to prohibit Ofcom from enforcing the Online Safety Act against it in the US.

New Zealand's free-trade deal with United Arab Emirates kicks off
The agriculture, trade and investment minister says the deal is estimated to deliver $42 million in tariff savings per year.

Average time to save a house deposit down to 10 years
That's lower than the almost-14 years required in 2021, but still above the long-term average of 9.1 years.

MSI’s new mini PC includes a Copilot button and fingerprint reader
MSI’s latest Cubi NUC AI+ 2MG mini PC is as much smart speaker or laptop as it is a small, compact, desktop NUC: It boasts a dedicated hardware Copilot button as well as a dedicated fingerprint reader, and you can talk to it, too. Starting at $899, MSI’s little mini PC is also Copilot+ qualified, with either a Core Ultra 9 288V or Core Ultra 7 258V chip inside. Both are Core Ultra Series 2 “Lunar Lake” chips. The hardware design, however, is something special. This isn’t the first mini PC with a dedicated Copilot button — that was the Asus NUC 14 Pro AI, launched at the 2025 edition of CES. However, this is the first mini PC that I can recall with a dedicated fingerprint reader underneath the power button, a feature normally associated with laptops like the Samsung Galaxy series. Naturally, the dedicated Copilot button unlocks voice capabilities, as well. The Cubi NUC AI+ includes both a speaker and built-in mic, so you should be able to wake Copilot with a trigger word (or, alternatively, have a voice chat with Claude or ChatGPT.) Based on my own experiences, I don’t think users will want to talk to their PCs in a public environment, but MSI obviously thinks differently. All told, there’s a lot of power packed inside this mini PC, which measures 5.3 x 5.2 x 2.0 inches and weighs about 1.5 pounds without the power brick. As you might expect, the NUC lacks a dedicated GPU, leaving Intel’s very good integrated Lunar Lake GPU to shoulder the load. Naturally, the CPU also includes a 48 TOPS NPU that’s ready to run Microsoft’s AI applications like Windows Studio Effects. Users can configure the Cubi NUC AI+ 2MG with up to 32GB LPDD5X memory as well as a single M.2 2280 SSD. However, the $899 starting price reflects a bare-bones config available at B&H; a configured version of the NUC with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD sells for $1,256.99 at CDW. Otherwise, the port lineup looks like a traditional laptop: two Thunderbolt 4 ports (one accepts power), two 10Gbps USB-A ports, two 480Mbps USB-A ports, a microSD slot, two RJ-45 Ethernet ports capable of 2.5Gbps speeds, HDMI 2.1, and a 3.5mm jack. There’s also a Kensington lock port. All in all, this is a mini PC that doubles as a new breed of smart speaker. Mini PCs have quietly emerged as one of the hottest tech products of 2025, for consumers who want a small, compact PC without the need for a laptop screen. MSI certainly has one of the more interesting offerings.

Watch: 'My friend saved me' - Boy shielded as Minneapolis gunman fires
Weston Halsne says his friend was shot in the back as they sheltered under pews in Minneapolis church.

How Cisco Systems’ CIO is rethinking work in an AI-powered world for the company’s 10,000 IT employees

BP refinery in Whiting, Indiana, back to normal operations

Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo says infrastructure key to island's future
Feleti Teo told the Pacific Infrastructure Conference in Brisbane last week that infrastructure is the backbone of Tuvalu's development.

Ministry at halfway point of 114,000 student growth
The Education Ministry has added less than half the extra classrooms it said would be needed in high-growth areas, but more in other parts of the country.

Is it fair to stop KiwiSaver contributions at 65?
Employers opting to stop contributing to their staff's KiwiSaver accounts when they turn 65 may be costing them thousands of dollars.

Te reo Maori celebrated on world stage at Indigenous Summit in Canada
Aotearoa's language journey was showcased as a "blueprint" for revitalisation at Canada's first-ever Indigenous Languages Summit.

Wellington brewery Fortune Favours closes pub, blaming the cost of living
The brewery has blamed the pub closure on the cost of living crisis, saying it’s just not sustainable.

Fewer jobs on offer in July, little change in job advertisement numbers
But some regions and sectors aren't faring as badly.

World Rugby accused of having ‘blood on hands’ after Shane Christie’s death
Former Welsh player Alix Popham has lashed out at World Rugby.

Principals urge halt to NCEA change plans
A group of 89 secondary school principals said the plan lacked a clear rationale and posed huge risks for disadvantaged students, including Maori and Pacific teenagers.

Anthropic’s auto-clicking AI Chrome extension raises browser-hijacking concerns
Malicious websites can embed invisible commands that AI agents will follow blindly.