All four major banks have now announced a fall in earnings for the year. A new report from KPMG says there is no end in sight for the profit squeeze on the banks, with consumers set to benefit.

A Sydney mechanic who rescued a seven-year-old girl being raped by convicted sex offender Anthony Sampieri tells a court he still has nightmares about the "feeling of a scalpel being dragged across the back of my neck".

NSW Police release the identity of a Russian man who they allege killed property developer Albert Metledge and critically wounded his son Antony in a daylight stabbing attack in inner Sydney.

One Peak Creative, which started in Vancouver before moving to Kelowna, has created several mock ads during the coronavirus pandemic.

Joi ‘SJ’ Harris was killed when she lost control of a motorcycle during a stunt shoot near Vancouver’s Jack Poole Plaza on Aug. 14, 2017.

Fifty years ago, on May 9, 1970, The Guess Who became the first-ever Canadian rock band to top Billboard's Hot 100 chart.

Ariana Grande surprised her fans by sharing a kiss with her new boyfriend in the brand-new, at-home music video.

Part of their baby's name is an homage to their favourite aircraft.

Nearly two dozen parents have already pleaded guilty in the case, including "Desperate Housewives" actress Felicity Huffman.

Los Angeles-based tech company Production Club is currently working to provide an alternative to social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Queen was only 19 when her father made his landmark address over seven decades ago.

The much-beloved, fictional Canadian teen-pop song from 'How I Met Your Mother' has now become 'Let's All Stay at Home.'

UK TV host Piers Morgan tore into the mother who sent another mum a bill for damage to her daughter’s expensive shoes — reducing her to tears.

EVER noticed that you prefer to carry your baby like this? It’s not a coincidence.

THIS man’s lover tried to bust him out of jail in a suitcase, but was spotted lugging the heavy load out of the prison.

THIS dad thought he had a terrible disease caused by lack of blood flow to his extremities. The truth was far less serious, but much funnier.

AN EXOTIC dancer claims she was abused and “drugged into near unconsciousness” for not going along with a club’s scheme. WARNING: Graphic.

HE picked up a bottle of alcohol to stop it falling over on the checkout. The cashier told his mum she couldn’t sell it to her now because he’d touched it.

SUNCARE favourite Banana Boat has been slammed by beachgoers after they were left with horrific sunburn. The manufacturer says the product is fine.

HE’S been the King of the Australia Day lamb ads for years, but has Dave “Hughesy” Hughes finally dethroned Lambassador Sam Kekovich?

MELBOURNE jogger Erica O’Donnell has gone viral after delivering the ultimate gaffe during a vox pop interview with Channel Seven.

It won't shock you to hear that livestreaming services are seeing an upswing in viewership due to the COVID-19 pandemic keeping people at home, but now it's clear just what kind of effect the outbreak has had on viewing habits. Streamlabs and Stream Hatchet have determined that watch hours surged 23 percent between February and March, to just over 1.2 billion. Other services saw increased demand as well, but their gains were relatively slight. Microsoft's Mixer saw a 15.9 percent gain, while YouTube's gaming streams saw a 10.7 percent boost. Facebook Gaming saw a modest 3.8 percent increase.

ASUS has refreshed its line of gaming laptops with new 10th Generation Intel Core processors, NVIDIA RTX 2070/2080 Super graphics and a bunch of other features designed to make gaming and content creation slicker and smoother. First up, the new Zephyrus S17 (pictured), which comes with a 17.3-inch display with super narrow bezels in an 18.7-millimeter-thin chassis. A 300 Hz refresh rate and 3ms grey-to-grey response time means the display is lightning fast, and it comes with Pantone-validated color accuracy as well.

Acer is joining a flurry of PC makers in adopting the next wave of NVIDIA and Intel chips inside its laptops. It's updating its 15.6-inch Predator Triton 500 (above) and Nitro 5 (below) gaming portables to use NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX Super laptop GPUs as well as Intel's 10th-generation Core H-series processors. As you might guess, the premium Predator series is the highlight. It comes with up to a GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q to deliver speedier and more efficient graphics, and mates that with a 300Hz, 3ms response IPS display and per-key RGB keyboard lighting.

ASUS has been pushing laptops with second screens for a couple of years now, but it's still searching for a winning formula. Last year's ZenBook Pro Duo pushed the keyboard down to the edge of the laptop's body, with the rest of the surface housing a second screen. The problem with that configuration was an awkwardly placed trackpad. But, you know who cares less about trackpad placement? Gamers. Hence, almost a year later, the company's Republic Of Gamers (ROG) division has its own spin on the concept: the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15.

Just like Intel said at CES, it's crossed the 5GHz barrier with its new H-series 10th generation notebook CPUs. And you won't need to shell out for the top-of-the-line Core i9 to do it: The new six and eight-core i7 processors reach up to 5.1Ghz (boost speed) on a single core. But if you want to go all out, the octa-core i9-10980HK hits 5.3GHz -- and it's fully unlocked for overclocking, to boot.

Lenovo is leaping quickly on the latest NVIDIA and Intel technology for its gaming laptops. It's introducing Legion 5i and Legion 7i portables (successors to the Y540 and Y740 respectively) that, most notably, are among the first to use NVIDIA's Advanced Optimus graphics switching. The tech both lowers power consumption in less-intensive moments and ramps up performance in GPU-heavy situations, theoretically giving you added battery life and higher frame rates in the same package. The Legion 7i also touts the option of new GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q graphics if you insist on the best possible visuals.

Razer has unveiled the 2020 Blade 15 Advanced with more gaming and content creation power, along with one long overdue addition. To start with, the Advanced model is the first Razer Blade with an 8-core CPU, namely the 10th-generation Intel Core i7-10875. That will make it useful for both content creation and gaming, particularly since you can clock it up to 5.1 GHz.

Another live esports event will air on TV this Saturday -- something we might have to get used to now that people are glued to their screens even more than usual due to the coronavirus pandemic. The second round of the IndyCar iRacing Challenge, an online simulation-style competition, will air live on NBC Sports at 2:30PM ET on April 4th.

There are countless examples of the real world intruding on art, making something that was fine a day ago a grisly mistake now. The pilot episode of X-Files spin-off The Lone Gunmen, which aired six months before 9/11, featured a terrorist plan to fly a plane into the World Trade Center, for instance. And it's likely that The Complex, an interactive movie about dangerous biotechnology, skirts the same issue. After all, nobody wants to fixate on doctors in a life-and-death race against disease when there's a pandemic raging, do they?

No, you're not hallucinating and this isn't a late April Fool's joke. That is in fact, the NookPhone from Animal Crossing: New Horizons at the top of this post. It's safe to say that the game has really taken off in the two weeks since its release. It's the perfect salve for our troubled era, and a great way to kill time when you're stuck at home.

Microsoft's buccaneering simulator, Sea of Thieves, already has 10 million players on Xbox One and Windows 10. The company announced that the game is coming soon to Steam, adding to an already large stable of Microsoft games on Valve's platform, and allowing existing Steam users to connect more easily with friends. The game, which was developed by Rare, challenges players to complete voyages across the open seas. What makes things more interesting is the fact that crews can run into pirate ships manned by other gamers -- and attempt to plunder their booty.

Gaming on Twitch is largely a one-way affair. You can join a Marbles on Stream race or play a slightly delayed Jackbox Party Pack game, but the service is largely meant for passive viewing. Amazon aims to fix that before long, however. The company tells the New York Times that it's developing games both Twitch streamers and their viewers can play together in "real time." While details are scarce, you should see games become available throughout the summer.

Naughty Dog has just about finished work on The Last Of Us Part II. It's taking care of the last few bugs and then the long-awaited sequel should be all set. However, Sony has delayed the game for a second time. It's pushing back the release date indefinitely from May 29th due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The next Apex Legends event is about to get underway and while that might only last for a few weeks, Respawn is bringing back a couple of key features on a permanent basis. The original Kings Canyon map will join the current World's Edge arena on rotation after it recently popped back up for a limited time. Meanwhile, the duos mode that debuted last fall is returning for good alongside the original trios option. They'll both come back on April 7th.

The UK's National Videogame Museum (NVM) is under threat. The site in Sheffield — the only permanent museum dedicated to video game culture in the UK — is one of many brick-and-mortar businesses that have been forced to close their doors during the coronavirus pandemic.

If you play games with your Xbox One frequently, there's a good chance you already have Game Pass Ultimate. Now is an excellent opportunity to top up your subscription at an affordable price. Newegg is offering a total of six months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $40 when you enter the code "EMCDHDE22".

What at first seemed like a potential April Fool's joke has turned out to be real: almost seven years after the original came out, Cellar Door Games has confirmed it's working on a Rogue Legacy sequel. The indie studio didn't share a release date for Rogue Legacy 2, nor did it say anything about potential platforms. In fact, besides some screenshots showing off a lovely new art style, the only significant tidbit of information we got is that Judson Cowan and A Shell in the Pit will return to score the game's soundtrack.

While he's been in the periphery of the game since the start of the current season, Deadpool is finally making his way to Fortnite proper. If you purchased this season's battle pass, you can obtain the skin by finding the mercenary's two hidden pistols (hint: look in the menus). After finding the weapons, head to a phone booth on the island to change outfits.

The original iPad came out on April 3rd, 2010, at a time when most smartphone manufacturers were making the awkward transition from full QWERTY keyboards to touchscreen-only devices. Apple sold 1 million iPads in that first month, and by the end of 2010, that figure had climbed to 15 million.

That same year, the top video games were Fallout: New Vegas, Bayonetta, Red Dead Redemption, Super Meat Boy and StarCraft II. The alpha version of Minecraft was generating some slight buzz.

It's not just multi-manufacturer racing leagues like NASCAR going digital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Porsche is livestreaming its Mobil 1 Supercup Virtual Edition starting on April 4th at 10AM Eastern, when drivers take to a digital version of the Spanish Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for two races in 911 GT3 Cup cars. The iRacing-based series will have 31 drivers, 22 of which are full-time Supercup racers -- the nine others are factory and young professional drivers fielded by big-name sponsors like TAG Heuer and Vodafone.

If you're devoted enough to livestreaming that you want the kind of features you'd expect from a TV studio, Blackmagic might have your back. It's releasing the ATEM Mini Pro, an enhanced version of the ATEM Mini switcher that's focused on the most elaborate streaming setups. There's now a hardware streaming engine that lets the Pro stream directly to Twitch, Facebook and YouTube through an Ethernet connection, with no special software required. You can also save recordings for posterity to USB flash drives, and multiview on the HDMI output lets you monitor all inputs on one screen.

PlayStation 5 uncovered: The Mark Cerny tech deep dive
Richard Leadbetter,
Eurogamer

If you're craving even more explanation on the PlayStation 5 than lead architect Mark Cerny shared during his in-depth chat a couple weeks ago, get comfy. Eurogamer shared part two of its chat with Cerny this week, and while there weren't any new revelations per se, there was more detail on the things we'd already heard about.

TV networks are already trying to fill the void in sports coverage left by the COVID-19 pandemic, but ESPN is going all-out. The broadcaster's ESPN2 channel is airing a 12-hour ESPN Esports Day on April 5th starting at 12PM Eastern, and there will be some high-profile live events in the mix. The highlight may be the second F1 Esports Virtual Grand Prix at 3PM, when racers (including some current Formula 1 drivers) will compete online in a digital version of Australia's Albert Park. The marathon will also represent Rocket League's debut on ESPN television (it was only streamed before) with the Season 8 World Championship's Grand Finals broadcasting live at 4:30PM.

Numerous internet services have offered help to creators who may be struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Microsoft's Mixer might have one of the simpler solutions: direct cash infusions. The livestreaming service is giving all of its partnered members $100 to help them get through any financial hardships while the outbreak lasts. Given that anyone sufficiently committed to Mixer to reach partner status depends at least partly on the service to make a living, that may be a welcome gesture.

Applicants who have tested positive for the virus but did not require hospitalization will still be allowed to enlist

Some experts question whether such efforts will make a difference

The framed picture depicts a young boy sitting on the floor playing with a nurse superhero toy

A team of scientists studied more than 1,300 patients admitted to a hospital for COVID-19

WHO expert Peter Ben Embarek says the virus originated in bats, and that it's unclear what animal may have transmitted the disease to humans