📝 Good afternoon and welcome to Notes on the News. It's Sunday, Jan. 2. Here's what we're watching this week: schools' reopening plans, a Supreme Court hearing on vaccination rules, and the latest innovations from the tech world.

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1. Washington prepares to mark one year since the Capitol riot. While Democrats plan to hold an anniversary vigil on Thursday, former President Donald Trump has promised a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate to revisit his false claims of a rigged election, allegations that helped drive the Jan. 6 attack.

2. K-12 schools press to reopen as Omicron surges. Thousands of U.S. schools have announced that they will be closed starting Monday, but others have made tentative plans to bring students back to the classroom this week after the winter break. Their biggest challenge: getting enough rapid tests to be able to step up or launch “test-to-stay” strategies. 

3. Supreme Court to hear oral arguments on Covid-19 vaccine rules. In response to a growing pile of emergency appeals asking the justices to intervene, the high court will hold a special sitting on Friday to determine whether the Biden administration can enforce vaccine requirements for large private employers and healthcare workers.

4. Democrats seek filibuster changes to pass elections bills. The Senate returns on Monday with Democrats focused on trying to change the chamber’s rules to muscle through elections legislation over Republican opposition, as lawmakers also hope to revive President Biden’s stalled economic and climate agenda.

5. Job gains expected despite latest Covid-19 wave. Labor Department figures due Friday are projected to show employers added 405,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1%, according to economists. The report comes even as forecasters are lowering their estimates of economic growth.

6. Rollout of new 5G services could cause further flight disruptions. More than 6,000 flights were canceled in the U.S. this weekend due to winter storms and coronavirus-related staffing problems. Airlines could face another challenge this week if the Federal Aviation Administration imposes new flight restrictions to address safety concerns over 5G wireless services slated to go live on Wednesday.

7. Tens of thousands of people are heading to Las Vegas for CES 2022. The massive annual tech conference kicks off on Monday, and organizers are still expecting more than 2,200 exhibitors after several big names withdrew over Covid concerns. Here are five trends to watch as participants unveil their latest creations.

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$14 trillion — Spending by the U.S. military since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Those who benefited from the outpouring of government money range from major weapons manufacturers to entrepreneurs.

2% — The percentage of U.S. restaurant menus featuring chicken thighs. In comparison, 42% of menus list traditional chicken wings. Short supplies and escalating costs of chicken breasts and wings are leading more restaurants to add thighs and other dark poultry meat to their menus and entrees.

$1.61 trillion — The amount issued in purchase loans by mortgage lenders in 2021, according to estimates by the Mortgage Bankers Association. That is up slightly from $1.48 trillion in 2020 and above the previous record of $1.51 trillion in 2005. Many of the forces that pushed Americans into the housing market in the early months of the pandemic continue to drive up prices and mortgage balances.

U.S. companies are thriving despite the pandemic—or because of it.

Nearly two years after the coronavirus pandemic brought much of the U.S. economy to a halt, public companies are recording some of their best ever financial results. The liquidity crunch many feared in 2020 never materialized, leaving companies with sizable cash cushions. The stock market ended 2021 near record highs and far fewer public companies filed for bankruptcy than in the years before the pandemic. Government programs provided funding for businesses, helping them keep workers, while enhanced unemployment benefits and direct aid to consumers also kept income up, said Kathy Bostjancic, chief U.S. financial economist at Oxford Economics. The rebound is real for smaller companies, but it is the biggest companies that have fared the best, a Wall Street Journal analysis of corporate financial data shows.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict lies in the bones of an 11th-century prince.

In the 11th century, a prince called Yaroslav the Wise united principalities lying between the Baltic and Black seas, codifying laws and forming the first political state of the eastern Slavs. Both Russia and Ukraine claim him as a forefather. Now, Ukraine is searching for Yaroslav’s missing bones. Finding them would be a notable if symbolic victory, bolstering Ukraine’s case for sovereignty at a moment of significant tension with its neighbor. Yaroslav’s legacy is contested ground, forming a historical underpinning to Russia’s current military buildup near Ukraine that U.S. officials see as a potential prelude to a Russian invasion.

How this pandemic has left us less prepared for the next one. 

Tiny vials of bat saliva in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, collected with help from U.S. government funding, potentially hold clues to the origin of Covid-19 or the next pandemic. They are now mostly out of reach of U.S. scientists, part of a bitter international controversy that has effectively stalled a high-stakes hunt for the source of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 and also made the world less prepared for future health crises. One fallout from the conflict over the origin of the pandemic is less scientific collaboration and more mistrust between two global powers that must work together with other nations to head off or mitigate the next disaster.

• Twitter permanently suspended one of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s accounts.
• Scotland moves to pardon thousands executed as witches—400 years later.
• How your student debt keeps growing, even when you keep paying.
• Why cloth masks might not be enough as Omicron spreads.
• 10 fitness hacks for New Year’s resolution success.

• Go watch: “Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer,” a three-part Netflix series that looks at the murder and mayhem of a not-so-distant New York.

Today's newsletter was curated by Lyle Brennan in London and Allison Chopin and Jana Kasperkevic in New York.

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