BitGou: Friday Briefing: U.S. educators focus on students' mental health in pandemic

Friday, May 7, 2021

by Robert MacMillan

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Biden wants billions of dollars for caregiving, Rahul Gandhi pleads for COVID-19 help in India, and Holiday Inn expects plenty of guests

Today's biggest stories

Sara Lundberg with her family in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, April 28, 2021. REUTERS/Hannah Beier

U.S.

Educators across the United States are focusing on the mental wellbeing of their students after COVID-19 forced schools to shut down or move to remote learning. These concerns have led to a flood of new funding and initiatives to help students navigate the pandemic’s aftermath.

President Biden proposes directing billions of dollars to something that millions of women do for low pay or no pay: taking care of other people. The plan includes basic care for elderly and disabled people, and free universal “pre-Kindergarten.” His rivals ask whether women want such aid at all.

Texas took another step toward preventing election officials from sending unsolicited mail-in ballots to voters. Supporters say such efforts increase election integrity, opponents say there is no evidence of a problem to fix and that voters of color and older people will suffer.

A sixth-grade girl pulled a handgun from a backpack at her eastern Idaho school on Thursday and opened fire, hitting two fellow students and a member of school staff and inflicting non-life-threatening injuries on them.

Urns containing ashes after final rites of people including those who died from COVID-19 at a crematorium in New Delhi, May 6, 2021. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

WORLD

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi implored Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prepare India for another national lockdown, accelerate vaccinations and track the coronavirus and its mutations as a deadly wave ravages the country. Hospitals are full, oxygen supplies are short and a lack of space in morgues and crematoriums is pushing people to fashion makeshift funeral pyres in parks and parking lots.

The European Union may send a military training mission to Mozambique to help its government withstand an Islamist insurgency that is threatening natural-gas projects. Insurgents on March 24 attacked the coastal town of Palma, killing dozens and forcing many more to flee.

Telecom company Telenor was one of the few western companies to bet on Myanmar since it emerged from its military dictatorship. The 2020 coup now has led to a $783 million write-off and the Norwegian state-controlled firm must decide whether to ride it out or get out. “We are facing many dilemmas,” its CEO told Reuters.

Britain withdrew its Royal Navy vessels from the waters off the island of Jersey in the English Channel after tempers on post-Brexit fishing rights escalated. French fishermen say they are being unfairly deprived of access to rich fishing grounds, while Jersey a self-governing British Crown Dependency, said it’s just following trade rules.

BUSINESS

Elon Musk said in January he was “highly confident” that a Tesla car will be fully capable of self-driving this year. Tesla meanwhile told a California regulator that this might not be so, a memo from the California Department of Motor Vehicles showed.

Holiday Inn’s owner IHG forecast a busy summer season as travelers take advantage of easing COVID-19 lockdowns, and said that March and April are showing notable pickups, particularly in the United States and China.

The pandemic affecting other corporate results this week. Beyond Meat reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss on lower sales to restaurants, while Peloton revenue beat estimates as people stuck at home ordered its fitness gear. The company also said it estimates a $165 million hit to revenue this quarter because of a treadmill recall after reports of multiple injuries and the death of a child in an accident.

India’s airlines are under renewed pressure to raise cash or face downsizing, consolidation or plane repossession as the country’s COVID-19 surge cut passenger traffic by nearly a third in April.