Bedugul Coffee: Thursday Briefing: Can Biden recreate the U.S. economy he grew up with?

Today's top stories

Biden says his jobs plan rivals the space race, France is in lockdown for the third time, and chocolate-makers try to get a hop on Easter sales

President Joe Biden called for a sweeping use of government power to reshape the U.S. economy and counter China’s rise in a $2 trillion-plus proposal that was met with swift Republican resistance.

"It's a once-in-a-generation investment in America, unlike anything we've seen or done since we built the interstate highway system and the space race decades ago," Biden said in unveiling the program in Pittsburgh.

Biden will almost certainly be the last president born as a member of the ‘silent generation’ who were children during World War Two and came of age in an economic boom. Can he recreate the economy he grew up with?

Election officials in conservative and liberal parts of Georgia say a new law allowing a Republican-controlled state agency to take over local voting operations could make the process too partisan. Meanwhile, Biden says he would support moving MLB’s July All-Star Game from Atlanta as a protest against Georgia’s new voting restrictions.

Virginia will elect a new governor this November, one of the first state-wide races in the post-Trump era. Judging from the crowded field of seven Republican hopefuls vying for that seat, former President Donald Trump still looms large and could well determine the outcome.

↑ U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about his infrastructure plan during an event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., March 31, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

WORLD

↑ People walk past a closed restaurant during the third lockdown imposed in Nice, France, April 1, 2021. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

President Emmanuel Macron ordered France into its third national lockdown and said schools would close for three weeks as he sought to push back a third wave of COVID-19 infections that threatens to overwhelm hospitals.

Myanmar activists burned copies of a military-framed constitution, as a U.N. special envoy warned of the risk of a bloodbath because of an intensified crackdown on anti-coup protesters. One of Myanmar’s oldest ethnic minority rebel groups says major conflict with the military could soon erupt and has called for international intervention and protection of its people.

A Hong Kong court found seven prominent democrats guilty of unauthorized assembly charges, including 82-year-old barrister Martin Lee and media tycoon Jimmy Lai, 72, the latest blow to the city’s beleaguered democracy movement.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s chief rival in an election expected within months has struggled to make himself known to voters amid the COVID-19 pandemic - and for Erin O’Toole, time may be running out.

Business

After a year of getting hammered by the pandemic, a semiconductor shortage and storms that snarled Dana Inc’s global supply chain, the auto parts maker is reaching for a new playbook. We look at how the auto industry is rethinking cost-cutting.

Garment makers in nine countries spanning Asia, the Middle East and North Africa have banded together to demand better contract terms from global clothing retailers, according to a draft document seen by Reuters.

Microsoft has won a deal to sell the U.S. Army augmented reality headsets based on its HoloLens product and backed by Azure cloud computing services. The contract could be worth up to $21.88 billion over 10 years.

The pandemic has made it harder for retailers and food companies to predict where and how people will shop. Now major chocolate makers are turning to social media platforms like Pinterest to look for clues on which products might sell best.