FROM the nation's fascination with Elon Musk's Starlink satellites passing overhead to fevered speculation about military aircraft being spotted soaring above our rooftops, it suddenly seems like many of us are gazing towards the heavens.

Stand-up Romesh Ranganathan is back with a second series of topical comedy show The Ranganation. He talks to Sherna Noah about filming the show in lockdown, the place of comedy in a crisis, and spending so much time with his family.

What's the story?

RIGHT now, Tori Amos says, the big thing is to resist despondency. “That is an illness,” she tells me near the end of our conversation. “That is cancerous. And it can spread through your whole being and you don’t even realise. You’re in a mental war and you don’t know how to get out of it, and you do have to have words with yourself.”

What’s it called?

Moonlight, Film 4, Wednesday, 9pm

SOMETIMES, for a giggle, I like to imagine what Scotland would have been like had we kept the oil for ourselves. Like Saudi Arabia without the weather and executions, maybe? Or more like canny Norway, investing the cash in a big brolly for some future rainy day?

The Chester Upland district has faced financial hardship for decades, and for the second time in four years, teachers will be working without pay.

As an attempt to mitigate a persistent school supply problem, New Mexico plans to give some 23,000 teachers prepaid gift cards for use on classroom materials. One local union calls it a distraction from larger funding issues.

News.

As part of a proposal to reduce the federal government's bottom line, The Trump administration is asking Congress to cut $7 billion from a program that helps provide low-income children access health-care.

Many schools treat students with mental-health issues reactively, rather than proactively, write Catherine A. Hogan & Laura F. Main.

Nearly half of U.S. children experience adversity, but community-school partnerships can make a difference, write Olga Acosta Price and Wendy Ellis.

Nutrition, sleep, exercise, and avoiding drugs are associated with not just better grades, but higher aspirations for college, a new study suggests

For the first time, the World Health Organization has officially designated "gaming disorder" among its list of mental-health addictive behaviors.

In the North Alleghenny School District in Pittsburgh, leaders have made staff health a priority. This year, district educators trained and participated in relay teams at a local marathon.

The mental health of school counselors, nurses, school leaders, and teachers are at risk, and they may only need 10 minutes to help alleviate their stress.

School-based health clinics for teachers and their families can significantly lower a district's health care costs and slightly reduce teacher absenteeism, a new study finds.

Three-fourths of children across the United States aren't getting the recommended physical activity per week, according to a report card released this month by the National Physical Activity Plan Alliance.

What can we do for students facing chronic poverty and other challenges? A lot more than we’re doing now, writes Tyrone C. Howard.

How classroom-counseling programs can help address the stigma of mental health in schools.

Infants and children younger than 19 are at greater risk of dying in the United States than in other industrialized nations, concludes a study of data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

To the list of problems caused by childhood lead exposure, Harvard University researchers add one more: teenage delinquency.

The effects of an ongoing measles outbreak centered in Washington state have spread well beyond the patients who’ve contracted the virus, creating logistical challenges for schools and public health officials.

It is true, as the Education Secretary John Swinney said this week, that it “takes time” to implement reforms in education, and natural that, since the effects must be seen as a cohort of students moves through the various stages, any improvement will take a while to evaluate.

THE primary and ultimate responsibility for the parlous state of the high street lies with its customers, or former customers, since we are increasingly giving our custom to online retailers instead.

AMID the terrible personal losses and hardships provoked by the coronavirus crisis, and its huge impact on the global economy and the lives and welfare of even those not directly touched by the disease, there are some small consolations.

IN THE five days since Scotland and the rest of the UK effectively went into lockdown, it is heartening to see the ways in which the vast majority of the population has responded, not merely with compliance and resilience, but with a community spirit and a great many acts of personal service and sacrifice.

THE Government’s ambition to reach a daily target of 100,000 tests across the UK by the end of the month will, as Matt Hancock admitted, require a “huge amount of work”.

When the Coronavirus Health Protection Regulations were introduced by the UK’s governments on March 26 (two days later, in Northern Ireland), they included the provision that they be reviewed after 21 days, a deadline now approaching.

AS expected, the UK and Scottish governments have decided, after the first three weeks of restrictions to contain the spread of coronavirus, that they should remain in place. Strictly speaking, that is not an extension, but the default position; the legislation allows for the lockdown to continue for six months (when it must then be renewed by the parliaments). Interim reviews are to see whether the circumstances allow for relaxation, or indeed, require tightening of the measures.

As Westminster’s Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, pointed out yesterday – and as the First Minister readily agreed – Nicola Sturgeon’s comments on the likely steps to be taken in easing lockdown are hardly out of line with the UK government’ s approach to the coronavirus emergency.

THE fact that Scotland’s testing figures have fallen well behind the strategy outlined by the First Minister on April 3 of “proportionately” matching those of the UK government is a cause for concern, and the reasons for it certainly merit examination, but it would be hasty to regard it as an indictment of overall policy.

WE should be wary of comparing the crisis of war with the crisis of coronavirus, but the 75th anniversary of VE Day is a reminder of what a national emergency can do to a leader. It can reveal their weaknesses and end their career, or it can highlight the qualities and skills that are needed in a time of trouble.

Online directories for residential phone numbers have morphed into paid-for services that people largely use for background checks. If I just want a phone number, I'm out of luck.

The more popular the stream, the worse it looks. There is a technology out there that would work, but its association with piracy has companies afraid of using it.

You can learn almost anything on YouTube. It is very handy. But navigating through the crud to get to that educational material is a nightmare.

The money is better spent on sincere and hardworking teachers.

This law is going to make a mess sooner rather than later.

Issues with Microsoft's Windows 10 April 2018 Update are a warning of what's to come.

Serious study is needed to find out why people can't look away from their screens.

Messenger joins at least 52 companies and services Yahoo has shut down. Were these bad ideas from the beginning? Or is Yahoo a bad manager?

Has any recent laptop announcement excited you? Me neither. With no innovations on the horizon, laptop makers should focus on making them sturdier and cheaper.

The tech industry is tripping over itself to innovate around three specific areas, but it's a bad idea, and everyone needs to just slow their roll. Here's why.

It's resulted in a creepy Orwellian environment where Google, Facebook, Amazon, and others have replaced Big Brother.

The fear is that instead of using it to prevent crime and catch terrorists, facial recognition is instead used for political purposes. But we won't stop it or protect privacy by freaking out.

Where is the truly disruptive software? Are we stuck with Microsoft Word until the end of eternity? For now, promising companies are usually just gobbled up by their bigger rivals.

Russians buying ads aren't the problem. It's a lack of employees policing the truly harmful and dangerous content and a lackluster communications strategy.

Social networks are calling themselves platforms rather than publishers to skirt around legal issues, and it has to stop.

I'm amazed at how reliant this younger generation is on their smartphones. I think it's weird, but you can use that generation's screen addiction to your benefit.