A suspended driver has been jailed for nine years after driving dangerously at double the speed limit before a horror crash that killed two siblings.

Johnson Kokozian, 23, was taking his friends on a joyride in his brand new SUV when he tried to overtake a car at Heckenberg, in south-west Sydney, in 2023.

The suspended driver had crossed the Mercedes-Benz AMG onto the wrong side of the road at double the 50km/h speed limit when he crashed head-on into a car containing two siblings.

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He failed to stop and help Alina Kauffman, 24, and Ernesto Salazar, 15, who were pronounced dead at the scene.

Instead, Kokozian fled the scene and focused on his destruction of the uninsured luxury car, proclaiming that flipping the car meant $300,000 was gone.

"I'm getting locked up for long," he wrote.

Kokozian's conduct during and after the September 1 crash amounted to "an abandonment of moral responsibility", NSW District Court Judge David Arnott said on Wednesday.

He had been more worried about the money he lost by crashing his brand-new car than the well-being of the occupants of the other car, which he walked past as he left the scene.

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"His failure to stop and assist can only be described as serious and callous," Arnott said.

"There is no doubt that self-preservation and self-interest were key factors in his decision to flee the scene."

While Kokozian had shown no remorse in the aftermath of the crash, the judge found he now experienced "overwhelming guilt".

Initially charged with manslaughter, he eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated dangerous driving occasioning death and two counts of failing to assist after a fatal impact.

He was jailed for nine years, with a minimum of six years and six months.

The victim's mother looked upset as the decision was handed down.

Angelina Kauffman has continuously advocated for justice for her two children in the lengthy legal process.

Kauffman was overcome with emotion when she exited the courthouse, wearing a jumper bearing a photo of her children.

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"There is no justice," she said through sobs.

"My kids' lives mean nothing to the court."

She gathered more than 20,000 signatures on a petition requesting that the NSW Parliament consider increasing the maximum penalties for serious road crimes.

A subsequent Law Reform Commission review, which concluded in February, found penalties for serious road crimes were appropriate and higher maximum penalties were unlikely to do more to deter offending.

A new vehicular manslaughter offence should not be introduced because it's unnecessary and could cause confusion, the review determined.

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A mother in Melbourne's north has been left traumatised after she was assaulted during a frightening armed home invasion in which the intruders targeted the wrong address.

Three young offenders, wearing balaclavas, allegedly invaded her Meadow Heights home at 3am on Sunday, gaining access to the property after shooting a bullet through the back glass door and storming inside.

Shortly after, they dragged the 42-year-old mother from bed by her hair before assaulting her.

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Police say that while it was a targeted attack, the alleged intruders stormed into the wrong house.

The single mother was allegedly kicked, punched and had a gun held to her head.

"They started kicking me on the head and punching me and then dragged me out [of bed] from my hair," the woman told 9News.

"[They pulled] my hair, dragging me all the way out to the lounge room."

"I wish they killed me that night, so I wasn't this traumatised."

The woman said she is too scared to stay in her own home, and insurance will not cover emergency accommodation. 

The intruders also allegedly threatened and assaulted her 27-year-old roommate.

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"He pistol-whipped me on the top of the head, and I split my head," the roommate told 9News.

"Then I slammed my door shut, and then after I came back out, they bolted."

The group remain at large after allegedly fleeing in a dark four-wheel drive when they were noticed by a neighbour.

"It's extremely disturbing," Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Pengelly said. 

"(We are) treating it as a most priority investigation at the moment. Investigations of this nature are brutal."

Police are still determining who was the intended target of the attack.

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Victorians will be offered three hours of free electricity during the day from October under a state government plan to reduce household energy bills.

The scheme aims to save the average family up to $300 per year on electricity by allowing free daytime power, seven days per week, outside of peak evening or morning periods.

Solar panel and battery owners are expected to save more than $1000.

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The government said around 2.6 million households will be eligible for the plan, which requires opt-in via energy providers.

It will mean zero extra costs for running the washing machine or dishwasher during the day.

Retailers will be required to offer a discounted tariff to households during the day.

The daily free power scheme will kick in from October 1, with the times of the free electricity to be announced in May.

The offer forms part of the Victorian government's push for residents to work from home more regularly.

"It's another reason why working from home can save you time and money," Premier Jacinta Allan said.

Energy providers previously called on the state government for more time to prepare for the scheme, which retailers argued could result in higher costs outside of the free period.

The plan has also been criticised for unfairly benefiting households who could afford to install solar panels or batteries.

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Around 850,000 Victorians use solar power for cheap or free power during daytime hours.

More rules are coming into effect on July 1 in Victoria which could put downward pressure on energy bills.

From July, energy retailers must make sure customers who have been on the same plan for more than four years are paying a "reasonable price".

If not, the provider must move them to a cheaper plan.

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Emergency services were called to the crash on Mākara Beach Rd just after 8am.

Time to check your ticket against the winning numbers.

Police say the car was stolen at gunpoint in South Auckland earlier in the day.

Fatih Birol said that there was ‘still a significant amount of oil in our stocks’.

OpenAI is pulling the plug on the viral AI video generator Sora, just three months after agreeing to a $1 billion agreement with Disney.

In a short message posted to X, OpenAI said it is "saying goodbye to the Sora app" and that it will share more information soon, including details on how people who used the app can preserve the videos they have already created.

"What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing," the post said.

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Sora was released in September last year and rapidly grew in popularity on social media, being used to create artificially generated lifelike videos that often left people questioning whether the content was real.

The confusion led many experts and advocacy groups to express concern about the risks the app poses by simply typing a prompt.

Many warned that it could lead to the proliferation of nonconsensual images and realistic deepfakes in a sea of "AI slop".

After outcry from family estates and an actors' union, OpenAI was forced to crack down on AI creations of public figures, including Michael Jackson and Martin Luther King Jr., doing outlandish things.

Disney agreed to a $1 billion three-year deal with OpenAI last year to bring more than 200 of its characters to Sora, aiming to allow users to generate short, user-prompted social videos.

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The entertainment company said in a statement that it respects "OpenAI's decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere"

"We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it," Disney said in a statement.

"We will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators."

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Officers were called to the fight inside the Common Room bar earlier this month.

Inflation has eased for the first time since November, but Australians could be slapped with higher prices in the coming months as experts forecast figures to soar past 5 per cent.

New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed the consumer price index eased to 3.7 per cent for the 12 months to February, down from 3.8 per cent the previous month and slightly lower than economists' expectations.

The trimmed mean – the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) preferred measure of underlying inflation – was steady at 3.3 per cent.

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Today's data only covers February, and therefore doesn't capture any of the inflation caused by skyrocketing oil prices and other flow-on effects from the war in Iran.

Canstar forecasts the global backdrop and inflation remaining above the 2 to 3 per cent target will encourage the Reserve Bank to deliver a third interest rate hike at its next meeting in May.

"There's no calm before the storm, but instead, persistent inflation that is set to spike once the Middle East conflict hits next month's data, just six days out from the RBA's next meeting," Canstar's data insights director Sally Tindall said.

"If the RBA ratchets up the cash rate lever for the third time in as many meetings, borrowers will be back to the highest cash rate setting since November 2011.

"This would translate into a 7.4 per cent increase in a typical borrower's monthly repayments, on top of which will almost certainly be elevated petrol, grocery and services costs."

The ABS figures also showed fuel prices were 7.2 per cent lower this February than the same time last year.

In the three weeks since, fuel prices have soared to record highs, with unleaded near $3 a litre and diesel more than $3 per litre in parts of the country.

Housing costs were the main driver of inflation over the past 12 months, driven by a whopping 37 per cent energy price surge as government rebates ended.

Food and non-alcoholic drink prices also rose 3.1 per cent, with meals and takeaway prices increasing 3.7 per cent in the past year and beef and lamb prices rising by 13 per cent.

The RBA's monetary policy board doesn't meet again until early May, when the ABS will have released another round of inflation data, including quarterly figures.

Governor Michele Bullock suggested more rate increases could come if inflation does not decrease.

"We don't want to have a recession, but if it's hard to get inflation down, then we're going to have to deal with that possibly," she said earlier this month.

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Inflation expected to climb past 5 per cent 

Treasurer Jim Chalmers last week revealed modelling forecasts inflation to rise to 5.5 per cent if global oil prices continue to rise to $US120 per barrel.

A less severe scenario that sees oil prices reach $US100 per barrel in the short-term would still see inflation hit high 4 per cent.

Today, speaking to reporters after the latest inflation figures were released, he said those scenarios look "pretty conservative now".

"There are two key considerations here. First of all, the timing of the end of the war and secondly, how long it takes for the global economy to get back on track after the hot part of the hostilities," he said.

"Those are really the two key variables which play out in all of our scenario planning and all of our modelling."

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Chalmers has also warned that the economic impacts of the global conflict could be as damaging as the 2007 global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Westpac expects headline inflation to reach 5.5 per cent by mid-year due to fuel prices and the trimmed mean, which will exclude fuel volatility, to reach 3.5 per cent in the same time.

Commonwealth Bank similarly forecasts inflation to soar past 5 per cent if the conflict severely escalates and causes oil prices to reach closer to $US150 per barrel. 

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