If you think things have gotten bad in the United States — where St. Patrick's Day parades have been canceled, and the NBA is suspended for the rest of the season — just wait until you hear about Norway. Starting Thursday, the small Nordic country announced "measures that will be the most extensive Norway's population has experienced in peacetime," and which involve practically shutting down the entire country in order to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, Norwegian Minister of Health and Care Services Bent Høie told the national broadcaster, NRK.

In addition to kindergartens, child care facilities, schools, and universities closing nationwide, and a ban on both professional and amateur sports — measures that have been taken only regionally so far in the U.S. — the entire country of Norway is also requiring all hairdressers, massage clinics, gyms, and tattoo parlors to close, Life in Norway and Swedish journalist Peter Imanuelsen report based off the announcement on NRK. Cultural events are also banned, with museums, pools, and libraries additionally closing. While grocery stores will remain open, restaurants, bars, pubs, and nightclubs are required to close if they can't guarantee a three-foot distance between patrons. Buffets, naturally, are banned.

Additionally, everyone entering Norway from anywhere other than another Nordic country will be required to be home-quarantined, regardless of symptoms — one of the most drastic measures taken in Europe so far. Healthcare professionals are no longer allowed to travel abroad, and the country is encouraging its citizens traveling abroad to return home at once.

Oslo-based Twitter user Cathrine Wilhelmsen emphasized that "Norway is shutting down … this is serious." The country faces one of the worst outbreaks in Europe, with some 632 positive cases as of Thursday morning. "It is extremely important that people follow this advice," Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said. "To be able to curb this, we need everyone to come together." Jeva Lange

Justice Neil Gorsuch on Monday unexpectedly wrote the majority opinion as the Supreme Court ruled LGBTQ employees are protected from discrimination in the workplace, drawing ire from some on the right.

The Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision on Monday said that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBTQ employees from workplace discrimination, with Gorsuch, who was nominated to the court by President Trump, writing that "an employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law." The historic ruling was celebrated by LGBTQ rights advocates, while many social conservatives decried Gorsuch's decision.

"The crisis moment for the 'conservative legal movement' has arrived," tweeted Newsweek's Josh Hammer, who previously said this decision by Gorsuch would be "an unprecedented betrayal." The American Conservative's Rod Dreher, meanwhile, wrote that it's "hard to overstate the magnitude of this loss for religious conservatives," while Judicial Crisis Network President Carrie Severino argued that "Justice Scalia would be disappointed" and that "this was not judging, this was legislating."

The Daily Wire's Michael Knowles also declared that conservatives will count Gorsuch as "among the worst jurists in the history of the United States," and Ben Shapiro said Gorsuch made "a bad, outcome-driven legal decision." Erick Erickson additionally speculated this could damage Trump's re-election prospects, arguing that "all those evangelicals who sided with Trump in 2016 to protect them from the cultural currents, just found their excuse to stay home in 2020," though Politico reporter Gabby Orr was skeptical, countering that it "seems likelier that they will attack Gorsuch/the Court than abandon Trump."

Meghan McCain was among those on the right who celebrated the decision, though, and for the Washington Examiner, Brad Polumbo made the case that while "many conservatives may initially be shocked or dismayed" by Gorsuch's decision, it's actually "based on razor-sharp logic, and it is entirely consistent with the conservative commitment to textualism." Brendan Morrow

The summer heat might be making it possible to safely reopen businesses in the North — while simultaneously impossible to do so in the South.

Over the past few days, Sun Belt states have started to see new and sometimes unprecedented spikes in coronavirus cases. The rising case counts come as businesses across the South and Southwest start to reopen, and can at least in part be attributed to the fact that those back-to-normal activities involve staying inside air conditioned malls and restaurants as outside temperatures become unbearable, The New York Times reports.

When COVID-19 first started spreading in the U.S., President Trump suggested that rising temperatures would help kill the virus, leaving out the fact that a second wave of coronavirus infections would likely spring up when temperatures cooled again. While it's true that virus spread tends to die off during hot summer months, research has since shown that's not as relevant given how contagious coronavirus is — it only dies quickly if temperatures are around 130 degrees Fahrenheit.

It also doesn't help that, as temperatures rise, people are opting for air conditioned comfort over outdoor dining and shopping. The Times described packed lines at a Houston mall, and some people getting pedicures without masks on, all happening in an enclosed space with recirculating air.

But staying home in AC versus shopping in it isn't a choice for everyone. Homeless and low-income people rely on cooling shelters and pools to quite literally survive the summer, which would bring dozens of people together into one hotbed for disease. Yet if they avoid them and stay on the streets or in hot mobile homes and apartments, the consequences will likely be deadly. Read more in this editorial from Arizona Central. Kathryn Krawczyk

At the request of Gary Disbrow, the acting director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the Food and Drug Administration on Monday withdrew emergency use authorizations for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine related to coronavirus treatment.

The authorizations were controversial, as many skeptics believed they were made because President Trump had touted the malaria drugs as effective treatments against COVID-19, despite researchers concerns about potential heart-related side effects. Ultimately, after reviewing new information from large clinical trials, the FDA said it does not believe the drugs are likely "to produce an antiviral effect" against the novel virus.

Hydroxychloroquine is approved for several uses like treating arthritis and lupus, so doctors could still use it "off label" to treat coronavirus patients, and clinical trials examining its effect against COVID-19 can continue, Politico reports. The version of chloroquine temporarily authorized by the FDA, however, is not approved in the U.S., so all use of it will end. Read more at Politico. Tim O'Donnell

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who on Monday wrote the majority opinion for the Supreme Court's groundbreaking 6-3 ruling that outlaws employment discrimination against LGBTQ people, took a textualist approach to the decision, arguing the written law takes precedent over the lawmakers' assumed intent. His colleague and fellow conservative Justice Samuel Alito, however, thinks Gorsuch actually betrayed the originalist approach, championed by his predecessor Justice Antonin Scalia.

In his lengthy dissent, Alito wrote that Gorsuch's majority "tries to convince readers" that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination because of "sex," also applies to sexual orientation and gender identity. Alito believes that goes against the court's duty of interpreting terms to "mean what they conveyed to reasonable people at the time they were written."

The majority, Alito argues, is equivalent to a "pirate ship" that sails under a "textualist flag," but actually represents the court's attempt to update old statutes "so they can better reflect the current values of society." From Alito's perspective, new legislation is the only thing that could render employment discrimination against LGBTQ people illegal.

Some observers have noted, however, that Alito's dissent may have misinterpreted the majority opinion. Tim O'Donnell

The Supreme Court has just issued a huge decision on LGBTQ rights.

The court on Monday ruled in a 6-3 decision that it's illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to discriminate against workers for being gay or transgender. "In Title VII, Congress adopted broad language making it illegal for an employer to rely on an employee's sex when deciding to fire that employee," Jusice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion. "We do not hesitate to recognize today a necessary consequence of that legislative choice: An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law."

Justice Gorsuch also wrote that when it comes to the question of "whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender," the "answer is clear." Chief Justice John Roberts joined Gorsuch in the decision, while Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas dissented. The Trump administration had argued the existing law protecting workers from being fired because of their sex "does not include sexual orientation."

NBC News' Pete Williams observed the decision was "a stunner, frankly, coming from this conservative Supreme Court." Brendan Morrow

President Trump is about to take his incredible grudge against his former attorney general to the next level.

Jeff Sessions is running to reclaim the Alabama Senate seat he gave up to become Trump's first attorney general — a spot he was fired from just after the 2018 midterm elections. But before Sessions can head back to the Senate, he has to beat out former college football coach Tommy Tuberville for the GOP nomination — and survive Trump's massive grudge.

Trump pretty openly disliked Sessions even while he was still serving in the administration, particularly because Sessions recused himself from overseeing former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Trump has even said the only reason he gave Sessions a job was because the senator was one of his first endorsers, notably joining Trump onstage at a rally in Mobile, Alabama, in late 2015. In just a few weeks, Trump will return to the same Mobile arena for another rally, but this time Tuberville will join him, CNN reports.

If there's one thing that can be said about Trump, it's that he knows how to twist the knife. Kathryn Krawczyk