A Tasmanian academic observing Samoa`s snap general election says the results will show whether voters are reaffirming the political shift of 2021 or returning to the old order. Read...

A lot of gamers go to great lengths to find a portable retro gaming device with the lightest and most compact kit. The Linux powered Raspberry Pi 5 does a decent job on that front. But what many players don’t know is that an even smaller and lighter solution is available by turning the humble USB flash drive into a portable gaming console. You still need a PC to play, but it means you can get around with more compact gear. Here’s how to do it for under $100… What you’ll need… A USB flash drive: I’m using the SanDisk 512GB drive, but you can also use one with a smaller or larger capacity. A small wireless keyboard: Here’s one on Amazon I found for just $10 that will do the job just fine. It also has a compartment in the back to store your USB flash drive. A gamepad: A lot of USB gamers rate the 8BitDo Pro 2. It supports USB-C, so you can just plug it into your PC without any fuss. Adam Patrick Murray What to do… Install the OS on your flash drive Your flash drive needs to be set up with the open-source OS Batocera to play. Here are the steps: Plug your USB flash drive into your PC. Go to the Batocera website. Then select the x64 Windows version of the OS and wait until it downloads. Now download and install the BalenaEtcher tool which you will need to flash the Batocera OS to your flash drive. Open BalenaEtcher, click Flash from File and choose the downloaded Batocera file. Choose your USB flash drive and select Flash to flash the OS to the device. When the flashing is done, hit Cancel or Ignore on all the windows that pop up. Boot into your flash drive Now that the OS is installed, you need to boot into your flash drive. There are two ways to do this, so if the right options don’t appear the first way, try the second way. Method 1 Type recovery options into the Windows start menu and under Advanced Startup hit Restart now. Now select Use a device and then UEFI: Removable Device. Batocera should boot now. If you didn’t see the option to select the UEFI: Removable Device, use the next method. Method 2 Power down your PC and power it up again. While your PC is powering up hit the F12 key to enter your PC’s BIOS menu. When given the choice to pick a boot device select UEFI: USB, Partition (your USB flash device). This should boot you into Batocera. Further reading: Best external drives Load games into Batocera Now that you have Batocera installed you’re going to want to populate the OS with some games. Batocera is an emulation frontend that supports a large number of game emulators for retro game consoles. PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo 3DS games are just a small fraction of the game types you can play using Batocera. The OS does come with a limited number of game ROMs preloaded, which are free and legal to use, but if you want more than that you’ll need to install your own ROMs. Dominic Bayley / IDG I can’t tell you where to get these from. It’s illegal to use ROMs without a license, so you’ll want to own each and every one. Here’s how to load them up. In Batocera press F1 to launch the file manager. Find the location of the ROM files on your computer, or else plug in the storage device that has the ROMs (USB stick or hard drive) and select it from the list on the left-hand side. Highlight and right click on the files you want to copy. Click on ROMs down the left-hand side. Find the folder for the appropriate game emulator and paste the game files into it. Now your games will be visible, but some may not have artwork. To apply artwork to each game, find the game in Batocera and long press the X button (number 3 button) on your controller. Now select Scrape. You will have to be connected to the internet for this to work. You should be up and running now and can use your flash drive on any PC to play retro games. As a general rule any PC with mid-range specs will work a treat; you should hit about 60fps in most games. Some things to take note of This whole process can be done with an SD card or a portable hard drive instead of a USB flash drive. Personally, I find a USB flash drive is the ideal size to carry, being neither too small, nor too large. To get the best out of Batocera and your games, it’s also worth watching a few “How to” videos to familiarize yourself with the OS. You’ll want to learn how to adjust the video settings and resolution for specific emulators, for example, so that your games will look great. For these and more tutorials, a great source of information is the YouTube channel Batocera Nation. That’s all for now. Happy retro gaming! Further reading: Is your USB flash drive trustworthy? These tips will tell you Read...

A former New Zealand politician says there is a sense of relief in Samoa following snap general election day. Aupito William Sio is in Samoa to vote and support the... Read...

Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. Missed the burning topics on our YouTube show or the latest news from across the web? You’re in the right place. Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox? Sign up on our website! Bigger bar better. My late colleague Gordon Mah Ung coined this catchphrase to summarize the general attitude toward benchmarks. When each successive generation comes out, most people look to see if the numbers went up—and by how much. You already know the outcome. The bigger the jump in number, the happier the conversations. (Or at least, one “side” in the debate is much happier.) When the numbers appear to only crawl forward, everyone reacts in a more subdued way. But is this truly natural behavior—or is it learned? I’d say it’s both. I bet many of you remember when benchmark data felt like a win. In the late 1990s, when Gordon first devoted himself to the benchmarking grind, having such data simplified what felt complex to measure. (Ex: Framerates could tell you what to expect from new hardware when gaming—and helped us calculate how long to stretch the life of our existing setups.) More importantly, the community could replicate the tests and thus verify. If it all checked out, then reviewers could be viewed as trustworthy. Hardware has increased in complexity, though—as you’d expect over the course of almost 30 years. It jumped particularly dramatically in the last ten, with the focus on chiplet designs, more silicon layers, and additional processors to help with specialized tasks. These advances make the hardware great to use, but difficult to evaluate. As CPUs (and other hardware) have become more complex, so has benchmarking them.Willis Lai/Foundry I think we’re overdue for a wide conversation around benchmarks. Balancing consistency, repeatability, and simplicity has been a core tenet of testing. In our chat this week with guest Matt Bach, who oversees benchmarking for respected workstation vendor Puget Systems, these themes span our entire discussion. But I think this balance is fraying at its edges. It’s time to blow things up. The decades of expectations around simple numbers to encapsulate complex situations is doing us no favors. I think reviewers and consumers alike need to rethink what consistency truly encompasses these days. Because from where I sit, variability is the key factor in the quality of our experience on PC these days. Your 1 percent lows or microstutters? Their frequency and severity impact the fluidity of your gameplay more so than raw framerates. You could argue for similar impact with how cores and threads boost or how efficiently instructions pass between CPU chiplets. Like with medical research, a harder and more thorough look at variables and their effects would address a wider range of experiences, and in some ways, more accurately identify and address subtle nuances that have big impact. To be clear, we shouldn’t do away with benchmarks performed with consistent, repeatable factors. But the data that comes from purposefully examining situations where all factors can’t be controlled? Trends and even patterns lurk within that seeming chaos, too. I have hope that the internet can adapt. In this episode of The Full Nerd In this episode of The Full Nerd, Adam Patrick Murray, Alaina Yee, Will Smith, and special guest Matt Bach, Labs Supervisor and PugetBench PM of Puget Systems talk about hardware, benchmarking, and the reliability of modern parts. The most important detail we cover: How to properly pronounce “Puget.” (It’s “pew-jet.”) We also dig into the importance of PC reliability overall, first from the perspective of consistent performance, and then of failure. In fact, the idea of consistency comes up often in our discussion—so much so that it may just have influenced my focus for the newsletter this week. Matt digs deep into his behind-the-scenes reveal of how the Puget Systems team benchmarks—not just how they come to deciding how to craft the tests, but also their philosophy and approach. Our almost two hour talk all but flew by! Willis Lai / Foundry Missed our live show? Subscribe now to The Full Nerd Network YouTube channel, and activate notifications. We also answer viewer questions in real-time! Don’t miss out on our NEW podcast series too—our first episodes of Dual Boot Diaries and The Full Nerd: Extra Edition just launched! And if you need more hardware talk during the rest of the week, come join our Discord community—it’s full of cool, laid-back nerds. This week’s eclectic nerd news A major change to Intel’s ownership, the new Commodore 64 smashing sales records, an actually cool use of AI, and yet another appearance of Doom in an unexpected place—the most interesting news to me currently spreads off in every direction. (And there’s so much!) I love it. Yes, that is Doom running on a power bank.Aaron Christophel / YouTube The U.S. will now own almost 10 percent of Intel: The government is currently promising to be a “passive” investor. Meanwhile, Intel has warned that its ability to secure non-U.S. business could be impacted by this involvement. Ready to rumble? Rumors suggest that AMD’s upcoming RDNA5 architecture may trade blows with Nvidia at the top of the stack. (No one tell Brad I’m sharing speculation.) Battlefield devs wish secure boot wasn’t necessary: But it’s going to be a requirement anyway. Blame this outcome on our fellow humans who won’t stop cheating. Huh, I don’t hate this use of AI: I actually love the idea of hobbyist AI models helping people access and experience history more easily. It’s possibly a more accessible format for digital museums. Key to this anecdote is the use of high quality data—if only that were a universal approach. Autofill is a double-edged sword: I like convenience, but not at the expense of security—and this week’s news about 11 password managers vulnerable to clickjacking attacks proves out my wariness. Is an intervention needed? Gen X and Millennials love throwing money at nostalgia. It’s not a new phenomenon—my Boomer relatives’ repeat purchases of 1950-1970s music CD sets prove that out—but let’s be real. We don’t have the same amount of real estate to store continual reproductions of PC and gaming hardware from our youth. At the same time, please take my money. Slap some duct tape on that problem: More than once, Will and I have bemoaned the wretched state of identifying USB cables and ports. This tester helps mitigate some of the issues, if you want to get deep in the weeds. Gordon would have loved it, but also that meme of slapping tape over a crack in a water tank is applicable here. Speaking of duct tape solutions: Amid all the reports of melting power cables, ASRock has released a cable with overheating protection. I think we’d all rather not have to worry about fires. RIP to my youth: The death of TypePad is just adding to all the signs that significant time has passed since I was young. Kind of hilarious that LiveJournal still is shambling about while its more elegant competitor is being laid to rest. What can’t Doom run on? I firmly believe the answer is “nothing.” I’m not ready to say good-bye yet: AMD’s Wraith Prism cooler is one of the most underappreciated stock coolers, in my opinion. (I guess this opens the opportunity for Hall of Fame nomination, though. Hmm.) A Redditor made a Lego 3D printer, and I’m a fan: It’s slow, cute, and perfect just as it is. Just like me. Happy birthday, Linux: It’s your year, or so I hear. Look, we even have a whole new podcast series dedicated to you! Catch you all next week—I’ll make a bold prediction that I’ll still be as unprepared then as I am now for autumn’s imminent arrival. How is September already on our doorstep? Alaina This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld. Read...

Even if you aren’t a huge techie, you probably know about all the big, mainstream apps that are fundamental to how we use our PCs. I’m talking Word, Outlook, Chrome, Slack, Dropbox, etc. You know, right? But there are many, many, many awesome free apps out there that can seriously improve your PC and your workflows, unlock new tools and features, and just make your PC experience better overall. If you want to wring a little more out of your PC, here are some of the best hidden gem apps that are super useful and available for free. Ferdium for centralizing all the web apps and services you use in one place Ferdium If you have a lot of permanently open browser tabs for all the different web apps you use every day, then you can make things easier for yourself by organizing them with Ferdium. (Have you heard of Rambox or Franz? Ferdium is like those except open-source and totally free.) Ferdium lets you run separate tabs for hundreds of web services, including chat apps (like Messenger, Telegram, WhatsApp, etc.) and social apps (like Slack, Discord, etc.) as well as email apps, calendar apps, media apps, AI chatbots, and more. All of those apps can reside right within Ferdium, letting you consolidate all of that to one place. I love Ferdium for how it fences everything off into its own app. I no longer have to reach for my phone to check WhatsApp or catch up on Teams notifications or pull up Gmail or Google Calendar. It’s all just one click away on my PC and it’s less distracting overall. PDFgear for PDF editing, converting, merging, annotating, and more PDFgear PDFgear is one of those diamonds in the rough, one that we’ve been evangelizing for a while now. But just because it isn’t as well-known as others doesn’t mean it isn’t an excellent PDF editor. If you’ve ever been frustrated by how difficult it is to find a high-quality offline PDF editor that doesn’t charge you for personal use, then PDFgear is the end goal you’ve been looking for. This app is super capable at editing PDFs, whether through annotations or direct file editing. It works with text, images, and graphics. It can merge PDFs together. It can convert PDFs into different file types. It can do just about anything else you’d want to do with a PDF. It even has a built-in AI assistant that can search, summarize, aid with editing, and more. SitApp for developing better posture SitApp If you work or game at your PC for hours at a time, then maintaining good posture and proper back health is something that’s well worth the effort. But maybe all you really need is a gentle prod whenever you start to slouch, in which case you could benefit greatly from SitApp. SitApp is a useful app that uses your webcam to analyze your posture and detect when you’re slouching — and when you are, the app shows a little pop-up reminder to let you know. It also tracks your posture history so you can compete against yourself to see how long you can maintain good posture. My record is 92% over eight hours. How about you? BreakTimer for regular break reminders BreakTimer If you’re always on your PC, good posture isn’t the only thing to worry about. It’s important to get up and walk around, rest your eyes, drink water, stretch, and maybe even exercise. But it’s easy to forget to do all of that, especially if you lock onto a task or get absorbed into a game. BreakTimer sits in the background and periodically reminds you to take a break. You can customize the alerts to whatever frequency you want, however long you want the breaks to be, which days you want them to be active on, and more. It’s simple but life-changing — and free! Mouse Without Borders for using one mouse and keyboard with multiple PCs Wish you could control multiple computers with one set of mouse and keyboard? One way to do that is to buy a KVM switch and go through the hassle of setting it up. Or you could just get Mouse Without Borders. Mouse Without Borders is a Microsoft Garage project that was put together by developer Truong Do during his off-hours, and it works fantastically well for controlling up to four PCs with a single mouse and keyboard. It’s not perfect, but it’s quick, easy to use, and entirely free, making it a great alternative to hardware KVMs. 4K Video Downloader Plus for downloading videos anywhere online 4K Download Lots of video downloader tools have come and gone over the years, useful for when you want to save videos from YouTube, Facebook, and other sites. But most of those tools eventually turn into malware, slow down to a crawl when they gain too many users, or simply die off overnight and leave you dry and forsaken. On the other hand, 4K Video Downloader Plus works almost flawlessly, stays regularly updated, and doesn’t suffer from malware infections, all in a fast and lightweight package. What more could you ask for? Foobar2000 for reliable music playback Foobar2000 Are you in the minority of people who haven’t yet jumped aboard the Spotify train? Do you have a large MP3 collection instead? And are you using Windows Media Player to listen to it? If so, then I have a gift for you: Foobar2000, a simple and lightweight music player. Windows Media Player has its foibles when it comes to managing large music collections, organizing playlists, customizing the interface, converting between file formats, and offering all kinds of other advanced features. Foobar2000 does it all plus more, and it’s been around since 2002, and it’s been completely free for that entire time. This streamlined music player went from super popular to obscure over the last decade or so, and these days it’s sort of a hidden gem again. Its interface is barebones out of the box, but it also has deep customization options that let you make it truly your own. MPC-BE for hassle-free video playback MPC-BE Back in the day, there used to be an open-source app called Media Player Classic that was a lightweight yet improved alternative to Windows Media Player for playing video files. MPC ceased development in 2006, but the project has been forked a few times since. MPC-BE (short for Black Edition) is my preferred successor. It’s still free and open-source, and it still carries forward the streamlined principles that made Media Player Classic so popular. You don’t have to fiddle around with codecs — it just works and it doesn’t bog down your system. It’s one of the best open-source PC apps. EarTrumpet for controlling volume on an individual per-app basis Jon Martindale / IDG If you consistently find that some apps are way too loud or way too quiet even when your system volume seems fine, then you need EarTrumpet. This quick and easy utility lets you individually adjust the volume of any audio source that’s playing on your PC. From browser windows to social apps, from local audio to online, EarTrumpet gives you fine-tuned control over your PC’s audio output. It can even let you lower the volume of everyone in a Discord chat rather than having to do it one by one. EPKL for changing your keyboard layout or customizing individual keys EPKL Here in the US, nearly every keyboard has the standard QWERTY layout that came out in 1874. But this classic keyboard layout has drawbacks, like inefficient typing and a greater susceptibility to repetitive strain injuries. That’s why people have been moving away from it. Fortunately, even if you have a QWERTY keyboard, you don’t have to use the QWERTY layout itself. Thanks to EPKL, you can easily switch over to Colemak, Dvorak, or whatever other keyboard layout you want without having to buy a special keyboard. Alternatively, you can use EPKL to move specific keys around or even rebind certain keys to perform different actions. And if you’re feeling devilish, you can even use it to prank your friends and make them think their keyboard is borked. (Just be sure to let them off afterwards, as this one could stump the less tech-savvy for hours.) Files for an improved and more effective alternative to File Explorer Files Are you tired of File Explorer’s shortcomings? Then don’t delay and install Files right away. This open-source Windows file manager feels familiar yet comes with several advanced features, like dual-pane browsing, tags for files and folders, a better preview system, custom keyboard shortcuts, seamless cloud integration, and more. Everything for a faster and more powerful way to search your Windows PC Voidtools If you feel like the built-in search in Windows is as ineffective as it is monolithic, you aren’t alone. Fortunately, you don’t have to put up with its subpar capabilities. Everything by Voidtools is a far more capable search tool, able to not only find anything on your system by its name or file type but also by its contents. Content searching takes a lot longer, of course, but it’s super effective — and if you search normally (i.e., by name or file type), it’s significantly faster than Windows’ search. Cryptomater for encrypting your data, both locally and in the cloud Skymatic “Not your keys, not your coins” is a cryptocurrency expression that highlights the importance of protecting your data. If you aren’t careful with your files, you could lose more than you expect — and your personal data is only as safe as you make it. Cryptomator is a free solution that adds an extra layer of security to your files using encryption. It works with any files, no matter where you store them, whether locally on your PC or online in the cloud. It effectively locks down your data so that even if someone were to gain access, they wouldn’t be able to do anything with what they find. Fan Control to control your PC fans Fan Control If you’re like me, you’ve probably used a number of software fan controllers over the years and always found them unintuitive, underwhelming, or frustrating. If so, then I have some good news for you: Fan Control is a breath of fresh air and the app you need. This free app gives you straightforward control over all the adjustable fans in your PC, from the rear exhaust fans to the CPU pump speed to everything in between. You can tie fan speeds to various temperature sensors, apply different fan curves and trigger points, and even integrate with third-party software through plugins. Fan Control’s interface is clean and customizable, but if you need help getting started, the app has an assisted setup that aids in labeling and organizing your fans and their associated sensors. Microsoft PowerToys for unlocking extra features and goodies in Windows Jon Martindale / IDG A worker is only as good as their tools, so why use Windows without making sure you have access to its full potential? There’s something called Microsoft PowerToys, available directly in the Microsoft Store, that freely unlocks new features and goodies. I’ve written about my favorite PowerToys features that are pretty useful, including improvements to File Explorer, a batch renaming utility, an expanded clipboard, a quick-find tool for your mouse cursor, a color palette helper, and so much more. Microsoft PC Manager for simplified maintenance of your Windows PC Microsoft If might not feel as cool to use as some of the other niche third-party or solo-dev projects on this list, but Microsoft PC Manager is a really effective system maintenance tool. It helps you free up storage space, track memory usage, monitor system startup time (which you can speed up with some tweaks), and shows you active apps for diagnostic purposes when things are acting up. WizTree for visualizing your disk space usage and finding large files Jon Martindale / IDG With multiple drives full of large apps and files, it can be hard to understand just how much space you have left on your PC and how much each existing piece of data actually takes up. You can also lose space when giant files are forgotten in corners of your drives. Disk analyzer tools like WizTree are a great way to visualize your system’s data storage, making it easier to understand which apps to uninstall or which files to delete when you need to free up some extra space. It’s fast, effective, and easy to use — as well as being entirely free. DDU for purging old and unused drivers DDU It isn’t easy staying on top of your system drivers. But even if you do keep up with installing new drivers, you probably don’t uninstall your old drivers. Maybe the installer handles that for you… but maybe it doesn’t. Even official uninstallers from AMD and Nvidia can miss them. That means you could have a bunch of old drivers still lingering around on your PC, and when old driver files build up over the years, they can rear their heads at unexpected times and cause stability issues. Most full-blown driver uninstaller tools, like Driver Magician, cost money. But there is one that’s totally free: DDU, which stands for Display Driver Uninstaller. This straightforward utility strips your PC of unused graphics drivers, which can come in handy if you’re running into graphics card issues that are seemingly impossible to troubleshoot. HWMonitor for checking the health of your PC and internal hardware Jon Martindale / IDG Want to keep an eye on your PC components and their general health? You can quickly spot overheating, performance issues, or other odd details with either HWMonitor or HWInfo. Both tools are fantastic for monitoring your PC’s various hardware components and how they’re working. HWMonitor is simpler and easier to get to grips with, while HWInfo is more advanced with a more comprehensive overview of PC stats. If you’d rather just keep an eye on the temperatures of your processor and its cores, check out the ultra-lightweight Core Temp. Parsec for streamlined remote desktop access and control from anywhere Have you ever wanted to use your PC remotely? I mean, even when you’re away from home, it’d be great if you could “remote in” to your PC and use it from anywhere, right? With remote desktop software, you can! Most remote desktop solutions are paid, and the free ones usually aren’t very good. But these days we have Parsec, a remote desktop tool that was originally built to allow for remote gaming but has since expanded to become a low-latency desktop sharing app. In layman’s terms, you can use Parsec to connect to your PC and operate it like you’re there, except you aren’t. It’s equally great for working on your hobby coding project during your lunch break as it is for playing your Steam games from a hotel while traveling. Parsec has a free Personal Use version that doesn’t come with all features, but it does have all the essentials: low-latency 60FPS desktop streaming; support for keyboards, mice, and gamepads; and encrypted connections. Further reading: Great free apps that are already installed on your PC Read...

Voting has commenced in Samoa, with more than 100,000 eligible voters heading to the polls today to decide the country`s next government. Read...

If you’ve been exhausted by the unstoppable deployment of AI chatbots like Microsoft Copilot across your entire PC, be warned: don’t turn on your TV. Samsung said Thursday that it has begun rolling out Copilot to its 2025 lineup of AI-powered TVs, meaning your living room won’t be the escape from AI you might have been hoping for. Samsung’s smart monitors, including the Samsung Smart Monitor M9 (review) — which likewise runs on Samsung’s Tizen operating system — will be getting Copilot, too. Samsung originally announced a partnership with Microsoft at CES in January, saying that Copilot will be used for a “wide range of Copilot services, including personalized content recommendations.” “Copilot is available on 2025 TV models including, Micro RGB, Neo QLED, OLED, The Frame Pro, The Frame,  as well as the M7, M8, and M9 Smart Monitors,” Samsung said. “Availability will expand to additional regions and models over time and may vary by market.” Samsung Samsung says that this will be part of what Samsung calls its Vision AI, which includes Samsung’s own technology as well as Google’s. “With Copilot built into the display, users can access Microsoft’s powerful AI companion through a simple voice command or click of the remote, making it easier to search, learn and engage with content directly from their screens,” Samsung says. What Samsung isn’t doing, however, is building in Google Gemini into its own TVs. Instead, it’s turning to Copilot as the conversational AI built into the TV. Samsung already has its own Bixby voice assistant — which presumably is either being downplayed or is being used to adjust settings and other functions — as well as a Click to Search feature. Copilot will perform the heavy lifting. (Google Gemini is being added to Samsung’s Ballie home robot, however.) “Whether viewers are curious about something they’re watching or looking to explore a topic further, Copilot can respond instantly to share quick facts about actors or athletes, summarize plots, support foreign language learning or help break down complex concepts — all from the largest screen in the user’s home,” Samsung says. Copilot is designed to feel “like an AI companion in your living room,” added David Washington, Microsoft’s partner general manager of AI, in Samsung’s statement. Let’s say you’re disgusted by all of this omnipresent AI and want to ditch Samsung, too. So what you do then? Don’t buy an LG TV. In January, LG said it also plans to integrate Copilot to certain models of its 2025 OLED evo TVs — again not saying which ones. (Presumably, both the Samsung and LG TVs will carry prominent Copilot labeling.) Samsung has been the top-selling TV manufacturer for 19 years, incidentally. Your safest bet? Find a wealthy neighborhood nearby, and pick up a used smart (or dumb) TV from a family who has to have the latest thing. Otherwise, our collective future means working with Copilot all day, settling down on the couch, and then having Copilot chirp, “Hey there — what’s going on?” as the TV powers on. There will be no escape. Read...

Crows and Collingwood members have snapped up all available tickets to next week`s blockbuster final, leaving none for the general public. Read...

Forrester warns rapid advances in artificial general intelligence are set to transform workforces worldwide, urging firms to start AI readiness programmes now. Read...

The Government is proposing several changes to the laws governing the sale and supply of alcohol, including making it easier to allow bars to open during major sporting events.  Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee today unveiled proposed reform of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012, claiming it focuses on “restoring fairness and practicality to the system without compromising public safety”.  Among the changes, soon to be introduced to the House, was a “fairer” licensing process which would only allow objections to a licence application to come from those residing in the same council area.  It would also allow applicants a right of reply to any objectors.  The changes would enable hairdressers and barbers to supply small amounts of alcohol to customers without a licence, a change previously announced by the Government.  Premises like wineries, such as breweries and meaderies, and distilleries, would also be allowed to hold both on- and off-licences to support cellar door sales.  Digital identity credentials would be considered approved evidence of age for alcohol purchases under the new bill.  The reform also addressed calls for a simpler process to allow bars and other venues to open and serve alcohol outside their licensed hours during major sporting events.  It was an issue raised almost every time a sporting event like a World Cup was being held outside typical hours and would require the Government to pass special legislation each time to allow pubs to open.  McKee’s reform would enable the responsible minister to declare a “stand-alone exemption” to licensing requirements for national televised events.  This would be achieved through the Order in Council legal instrument, in which members of the executive advised the Governor-General to give effect to a government decision.  McKee’s bill was expected to be introduced to the House in the coming months and reach select committee by the end of the year.  Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangarei and the Herald in Auckland.  Read...