On Thursday afternoon, the Supreme Court ruled to block the Biden administration’s federal vaccine-or-test mandate for large businesses, while also allowing a vaccine mandate for workers at federally funded health care facilities to take effect.

On Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the US consumer price inflation index rose 7% over the past year — the highest level of inflation in almost 40 years.

The US Supreme Court heard arguments today about two proposed federal vaccine mandates — one “directed at businesses with 100 or more employees that would impose a vaccine-or-testing mandate,” and another “requiring workers at hospitals and other health care facilities that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs to be vaccinated.”

On January 6th, 2021, Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot by Capitol Police officer Lt. Michael Byrd. Babbitt was attempting to climb through a windowed door leading to a room containing members of Congress and their staff.

What happened at the US Capitol building on January 6th, 2021? While we might agree on basic facts — people protested the certification of the 2020 presidential election, some broke windows and doors to get inside the Capitol building, and others attacked police who tried to stop them — our interpretations of these facts can be quite distinct.

On Friday, White House Health Officials held a briefing on the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

One specific statement from the briefing later sparked debate on both the left and right. During the briefing, Jeff Zients, the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, said:

“We are intent on not letting Omicron disrupt work and school for the vaccinated. You’ve done the right thing, and we will get through this. For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.”

Last week, actor Jussie Smollett was found guilty on 5 out of 6 charges of disorderly conduct in connection with his claim that two men attacked him while yelling racist and homophobic slurs in 2019.

On Sunday, JK Rowling shared her thoughts on Twitter regarding the Scottish Police’s decision to “log rapes as being carried out by a woman if the accused person insists, even if they have not legally changed gender.”

Today, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech announced that an internal study found that the effectiveness of a three dose vaccine regimen (two doses and a booster) against Omicron is comparable to the effectiveness of a two course vaccine against the original strain of COVID-19. 

Reactions to the announcement are mixed — some are feeling skeptical about trusting a study from the vaccine manufacturer itself, while others are feeling hopeful after weeks of uncertainty around Omicron.

A new nationwide poll surveying “registered voters of Hispanic/Latina(o) origin residing in the United States” found that 2% of respondents “chose the term Latinx to describe their ethnic background.”

The poll was reported on by Politico, and was conducted by Bendixen & Amandi International, a left-leaning political polling firm.

As the poll suggests, there isn’t a distinct left/right divide on the use of the term ‘Latinx.’ Instead of presenting a left-right breakdown of this conversation, we discuss some widely shared reactions below.

On Thursday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “announced more than $100 million in funding proposals to support Florida’s National Guard and establish the Florida State Guard, a civilian volunteer force that will assist the National Guard in state-specific emergencies.”

On Friday, the Department of Labor released their jobs report for November.

According to the report, employers added 210,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 4.2 percent.