USB-C, faster processors and new design options continue to keep Microsoft’s Windows 10 laptop near the top of the pile

Microsoft’s top-quality laptop is now in its third generation, with new ports, new processors and a slight redesign, with the option to ditch the unique Alcantara for plain old aluminium.

The £999 and up Surface Laptop 3 is Microsoft’s vision of what a traditional laptop should be. For the most part that’s the same as everyone else, with traditional aluminium body, glass-covered screen and hinge that does not rotate all the way round to the back.

Screen: 13.5in LCD 2256 x 1504 (201 PPI)

Processor: quad-core Intel Core i5 or i7 (10th generation)

RAM: 8 or 16GB

Storage: 128, 256, 512GB or 1TB

Graphics: Intel Iris Plus

Operating system: Windows 10 Home

Camera: 720P front-facing, Windows Hello

Connectivity: wifi 6 (ax), Bluetooth 5, USB-A, USB-C, headphones, Surface Connect TPM

Dimensions: 308.1 x 223.3 x 14.5mm

Weight: 1,265 or 1,288g

Due to the angle of the side of the machine it can be difficult to plug the magnetic power cable in without lifting the side up for more leverage.

The black paint can be scratched revealing the silver aluminium underneath.

The screen supports 10-point touch and Microsoft’s Surface Pen stylus.

Pros: great keyboard, good trackpad, Alcantara or aluminium, sleek design, USB-A and USB-C port, great screen, good battery life, Windows Hello, powerful processor.

Cons: no SD card reader, limited configuration options, no Thunderbolt 3, only one USB-C port.

Surface Laptop 2 review: Microsoft’s sleeker answer to the MacBook Air

Microsoft Surface Pro 6 review: a fantastic tablet PC you shouldn’t buy

Microsoft Surface Go review: tablet that’s better for work than play

Microsoft Surface Studio 2 review: in a class of its own

16in MacBook Pro review: bigger battery, new keyboard, new Apple

Apple MacBook Air review: the new default Mac

Campuses have become ‘ghost towns’ as staffers depart – but many contractors still have to show up

• How to protect yourself against coronavirus
  
• What are the symptoms and should I see a doctor?

When Josh Borden arrived for work at the Google offices in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday morning, it felt like arriving in a “ghost town”. The parking lot was deserted, there was no breakfast being served in the cafeteria, and the nap rooms were tagged with signs announcing their closure “as a precaution given the Covid-19 situation”. “The office is so empty,” he told me. “Even more so than when the Googlers have their ski trip.”

The day before, Google had asked all its North American employees to begin working from home due to the coronavirus – a policy that has since been expanded to the rest of its global workforce. But Borden, a triage analyst who has worked for Google for about four years, is one of the approximately 135,000 people who make up Google’s “extended workforce”: temps and subcontractors who perform work for, but are not technically employed by, the $830bn company. And though Borden and his co-workers perform computer-based tasks that could just as easily be completed from home as those of other technical workers, Google does not allow them to access their work from home.

Related: Mike Bloomberg’s campaign is polluting the internet | Julia Carrie Wong

Tech firms will benefit, but some companies could find employees don’t want to return to the office

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

Covid-19 could permanently shift working patterns as companies forced to embrace remote working by the pandemic find that their employees do not want to return to the office once the closures are lifted.

The sudden increase in working from home is presenting problems as well as opportunities: on the one hand, startups such as Slack and Zoom and established giants including Google and Microsoft are offering their tools for free, in the hope that people who start using them in a crisis may carry on once normality returns.

Related: The art of Skype set-dressing: how to video-call the office when in quarantine | Imogen West-Knights

You’ve bought the perfect PC – now you need to complete your setup to get the best from your games. Here are our suggestions

• Experts on how to build a gaming PC kit – from central processor to memory

When you’re buying a new gaming PC from scratch, the machine itself is only part of the picture. To get the very best out of the most demanding modern games, you’ll need the rest of your setup to be working hard too – especially if you ever want to win at Call of Duty: Warzone.

Here then, are our picks for the best gaming monitors, keyboards and mice. Helping me to make the selection are Alan Dexter, senior hardware editor at PC Gamer, Chris Wilson, design director at Cardboard Sword, Al Bickham, communications manager at Creative Assembly, and Nic Claassen, head of product business at Acer UK.

Gains from the likes of Amazon, Netflix and Microsoft boosted the index as it turned positive

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

The technology-heavy Nasdaq index turned positive for 2020 on Thursday, boosted by gains in the share prices of companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Netflix, which have fared well during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The US index caught up all this year’s losses, taking it back to its level at the beginning of January, after rising 1.4% on Thursday to 8,979.66. It ended last year at 8,972.

Alicia Levine, BNY Mellon chief investment strategist, and David Rolfe, Wedgewood Partners CIO, join 'Power Lunch' to discuss the state of the markets as stocks continue to rally on optimism the economy will open.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, American Action Forum president, joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss the rise of corporate and household debt surging amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

As businesses start to reopen, many are wondering if they can be legally responsible if someone gets sick. CNBC's Ylan Mui reports on liability protection efforts.

Adam Philipson, The Count Basie Center for the Arts president and CEO, joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss how the company is making it through the Covid-19 pandemic and how long the PPP loan will carry them.

Brent Beardall, WaFd Bank CEO, joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss the state of the Paycheck Protection Program and how many PPP loans the bank has processed.

Mark Newton, Newton Advisors, and Mark Tepper, Strategic Wealth Partners, discuss whether they would favor gold over gold miner stocks with Seema Mody.

Kevin Warren, Big Ten commissioner, joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss the future of college sports and what will weigh into the decision on allowing college sports to return.

CNBC's Rick Santelli reports on the announcement.

Ken Rogoff, Harvard University professor of public policy and economy, joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss the possibility of negative interest rates.

The Department of Justice has decided to drop the criminal case against President Trump's former national security advisor Michael Flynn. CNBC's Kayla Tausche reports.

Elon Musk spoke with Joe Rogan and here some of the highlights from the two-hour podcast.

Restaurants across the U.S. are slated to reopen during the summer season as coronavirus restrictions are lifted. CNBC's Kate Rogers reports on what that could mean for restaurant jobs.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, member of the boards of Pfizer and biotech company Illumina and former FDA commissioner, tells "Squawk Box" that a Covid-19 vaccine could be made available for use in "selected circumstances" before it receives official approval for wider distribution.

CNBC's Steve Liesman breaks down the April jobs report, which came in at 20.5 million nonfarm payrolls lost in the month. This is the most historic job loss within a single month.

David Gitlin, president and CEO of Carrier Global, joins "Squawk on the Street" to discuss the company's first-quarter earnings, how the pandemic has impacted business, his expectations for future demand and more.

Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs joins "Squawk on the Street" to discuss the latest jobs number, which saw the unemployment rate soar to 14.7 percent.

Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings, joins "Squawk on the Street" to discuss the company's Q1 earnings results and how coronavirus has stalled travel plans globally.

CNBC's Tyler Mathisen talks about the historic job losses in April with Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia.

CNBC's Kayla Tausche and Michelle Meyer, Bank of America, join 'Closing Bell' to discuss President Trump's comments that he is not in a hurry to expedite the fourth phase of the stimulus package.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, Former FDA Commissioner, joins "Closing Bell" to discuss the coronavirus pandemic.

"We need to acknowledge that good things can still happen without going into denial about all the bad things that are currently happening," the "Mad Money" host said.

The winger, who was part of the Guardian’s first Next Generation in 2014, talks about rebuilding his career after being released by Southampton

Harley Willard made one of those sliding-doors decisions that can turn anyone’s life around last December. He had arrived at Heathrow airport, packed and ready for the 14-hour slog back to Phnom Penh, and at that point another season at the Cambodian club Svay Rieng felt like a trade-off he could just about stomach. The football there offered few real prospects but he had enjoyed the lifestyle and, after such an uncertain year and a half since leaving Southampton, surely his happiness was the most important thing.

Related: Next Generation: after five years, how has our first full class of picks fared?

Before the 1986 World Cup my brother and I had nearly 100 stickers of the Hungarian and we wanted him to lose, badly

Before the internet ruined the World Cup there was wonder in ignorance. You could look forward to discovering great players and teams about whom you knew next to nothing. In 1986 my brother and I hoped the tournament would be all about some Hungarian called Zoltan Peter. Our reason was bad.

All we knew about Peter was his name and his face because he seemed to be in every pack of Panini stickers we bought. Every time we removed that shiny wrapper there he was, seemingly mocking us with his Lego-man hairdo and the haunting expression of someone who knew there is no problem so grim it cannot be made worse.

In the latest in our series on how Covid-19 will change football, we look at its impact at grassroots and non-league level

This could be the end of grassroots football. The impact is going to be horrendous. The main problem now is we’re not getting money we would usually receive from training-session fees or fundraising, because they’re not taking place. That money goes towards subsidising teams for the next season, helping them with pitch fees, league fees, trophy presentations, etc.

The club from Leeuwarden were 11 points clear of the play-off places and heading for the Eredivisie when the Dutch season was annulled

It took only two games of the season for Erik Schouten to realise Cambuur were on to something. Nobody knew how a brand new team, which had almost entirely changed during the summer, would click but their first home fixture of 2019-20 dispelled any concerns. Go Ahead Eagles were beaten 5-0, succumbing to wave after wave of blistering raids, and a pattern for the next seven months had been emphatically set.

“That was the moment we believed everything was possible,” says Schouten, who had arrived from Volendam and was immediately made captain. “Playing attacking football, playing fast, defeating a really good side. We knew then that, if we played well, we could beat anyone.”

• Claims of abuse by Yves Jean-Bart at national centre
• Jean-Bart denies all allegations made against him

The president of the Haitian football federation has been accused of sexually abusing young female footballers at the country’s national training centre.

Yves Jean-Bart, known as “Dadou”, the president of the Fédération Haïtienne De Football (FHF) since 2000, denies accusations that he coerced several players at the Centre Technique National in Croix-des-Bouquets into having sex. The alleged incidents are understood to have taken place within the last five years.

With the sporting calendar on hold during the coronavirus pandemic, football stars around the world are challenging each other to perform tricks with loo roll as part of the #stayathomechallenge to encourage fans to practise social distancing

Barcelona icon Andrés Iniesta has video-called the children born because of his famous goal against Chelsea in 2009. The late winner at Stamford Bridge led to a spike in pregnancies. 'Has your mum shown you the goal?' Iniesta asks Ignacio, born on 18 January. Of course she had, Ignacio says: 'You were a star.'

• Happy conception day: Andrés Iniesta calls children born because of his goal

Many questions need answers, not least where games will be played and the not-insignificant 100 concerns of club doctors

Without government endorsement of a return to play, nothing can happen. Since the beginning of March, when games were still being played in front of paying crowds, the Premier League has said it would follow government advice on the best way to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Everton right-back joined Schalke on loan in pre-season and hopes to play against Borussia Dortmund on 16 May

As Jonjoe Kenny remembers the sights and smells that defined his childhood it is tempting, more so at a time such as this, to close your eyes and travel back with him. He can tell what, with a few bumps here and there, is the textbook story of a local boy made good, and Everton games were the focal points throughout. Kenny grew up in Kirkdale, virtually on the doorstep of Goodison Park, and the glimpse of a buzzing County Road brought the kind of sensory assault that would leave thousands pining today.

“It’s about a five-minute walk round the corner,” Kenny says. “On matchdays going to the stadium it was always busy in our area. The chippies were packed, the pubs were packed, and when you’re walking to the game through it all there’s no better feeling. As a kid growing up, it was such a big thing.”

As football prepares to start or resume seasons we look at 17 countries to see how close they are to a return

Clubs and the football federation hope for an August restart with a July training phase to step up for a resumption of the A-League, which was postponed indefinitely on 24 March. Five rounds of games, plus the finals, remain. All games are likely to be played in Sydney without spectators, with Wellington Phoenix to be based in NSW for a two-week quarantine before playing. The National Rugby League has the green light to restart on 28 May, which may lead to fixture clashes at cross-code venues such as Kogarah and Bankwest Stadium.