General practitioners from US, Canada and Singapore will soon have their applications processed within two months. Read...

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan has set a groundbreaking record: a data transmission rate of 1.02 petabits per second (around 127,500 GB/s) over 1,802 kilometers (about 1,120 miles), reports CNET. That’s around 350,000 times faster than the average US fixed broadband internet connection, which was around 289 Mbps according to Speedtest as of May 2025. At this new record-breaking speed, you could download the entire Netflix library in under a second. Fiber optics with 19 cores The key to the record is a new optical fiber with 19 cores, which are installed in a cable with a diameter of just 0.125 millimeters (the standard size for existing networks). Compared to conventional cables with one core, this fiber transmits 19 times more data with minimal data loss due to uniform light conduction. For transmission over the 1,120-mile distance—comparable to New York to Chicago—the signal was amplified 21 times. The new record more than doubles the previous year’s figure of 50,250 GB/s. In 2023, the NICT team achieved similar speeds but only over a third of the distance. Advances in signal amplification and reduction of data loss are what made this new range possible. Compatible with existing fiber optic cables The technology could meet the growing demand for data worldwide, as data volumes have been increasing by about 50 percent annually according to Nielsen’s Law. In general, the new technology is exciting and also interesting for countries where fiber optic expansion is stagnating, primarily because these new cables fit into existing infrastructures. The record has not yet been independently verified, but it shows how fiber optics could further shape the future of the internet. Read...

Sage appoints Damon Scarr as General Manager for Asia Pacific to drive growth and expand its AI-powered finance solutions across the region. Read...

Henare won`t say yet whether he`ll contest Tamaki Makaurau in the 2026 general election. Read...

Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro will represent Aotearoa in Rarotonga. Read...

Google is trying to shove its “AI” into all of its products at once. You can’t use Search, Android, or Chrome without being prompted to try out some flavor of Gemini. But maybe wait a bit before you let Google’s large language model summarize your Gmail messages… because apparently it’s easy to get it passing along phishing attempts. Google Gemini for Workspace includes a feature that summarizes the text in an email, using the Gmail interface, but not necessarily an actual Gmail address. A vulnerability submitted to Mozilla’s 0din AI bug bounty program (spotted by BleepingComputer) found an easy way to game that system: just hide some text at the end of an email with white font on a white background so it’s essentially invisible to the reader. The lack of links or attachments means it won’t trigger the usual spam protections. And you can probably guess what comes next. Instructions in that “invisible” text cue the Gemini auto-generated summary to alert the user that their password has been compromised and that they should call a certain phone number to reset it. In this hypothetical scenario, there’s an identity thief waiting on the other end of the line, ready to steal your email account and any other information that might be connected to it. A hidden “Admin” tag in the text can make sure that Gemini will include the text verbatim in the summary. It’s important to note that this is only a theoretical attack at the moment, and it hasn’t been seen “in the wild” at the time of writing. The Gemini “Summarize this email” feature is currently only available to Workspace accounts, not the general public. (I imagine flipping that switch for a billion or two basic Gmail users might overtax even the big iron in Google’s mighty data centers.) But the ease with which users trust text generated by large language models, even when they appear to be in the midst of a religious delusion or a racist manifesto, is concerning to say the least. Spammers and hackers are already using LLMs and adjacent tools to spread their influence more efficiently. It seems almost inevitable that as users grow more reliant on AI to replace their work—and their thinking—these systems will be more effectively and regularly compromised. Read...

Fiji`s former attorney-general claims attacks on the Indo-Fijian community are on the rise and the government is largely ignoring them. Read...

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said the doctor `gave patients a choice when the federal government refused to do so`. Read...

Doc Edge has screened the documentary, despite a request from the Consulate-General of the People`s Republic of China in Auckland to not do so. Read...

The union could consider its future relationship with the party, General Secretary Sharon Graham says. Read...