Saturday, December 17, 2022

Welcome to the final edition of the Reuters Weekend Briefing for 2022, and thanks for keeping the open rate respectable. On this Saturday, I wish you happy holidays and a better new year, and of course I share some news.

Workers transfer a body at a funeral home in Beijing, December 17, 2022. REUTERS/Alessandro Diviggiano

New COVID model predicts over 1 million deaths in China

Latest projection: China's lifting of stringent COVID-19 restrictions could result in an explosion of cases through 2023, according to the U.S.-based Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, a group that governments and companies have relied upon throughout the pandemic.
The coming weeks: Lunar holidays are coming in January, a time when millions of city-dwellers travel. Authorities say they plan to protect rural communities as cases spread in Beijing and demand rises for funeral and cremation services.

Russia mounts one of its biggest attacks on Ukraine

Friday: Russia fired more than 70 missiles at Ukraine, knocking out power in the second-biggest city and forcing Kyiv to implement emergency power outages nationwide.
What's next: President Vladimir Putin sought proposals from his armed-forces commanders on how they think the campaign should proceed. The weekend looks grim as rescuers recovered the body of a 1-year-old boy from the rubble of a Russian strike on a residential building in Kryvyi Rih, the regional governor said.

Now everybody knows what doxxing is

They're back: Elon Musk suspended, then reinstated, the Twitter accounts of five journalists over what he said was doxxing, the sharing of other people's private or personal information. This all but guaranteed blanket media coverage and debates about how much of a free-speech absolutist Musk is.
Now, about the money: Musk's team has reached out to investors to raise new funds for Twitter, one of those investors said. This comes as advertisers flee over worries about how the new owner is policing tweets, which is hurting revenue and making it harder to pay interest on the $13 billion Musk borrowed to buy the company.

Sam Bankman-Fried could face long road to fraud trial

Last Monday: The FTX founder was swiftly indicted after the collapse of his crypto empire, but a trial in New York is likely more than a year away as prosecutors build out their case and both sides spar over evidence.
Next January: Media organizations in a few weeks will make their case to a bankruptcy judge that FTX should be forced to publicly disclose the names of its customers.

Peru ministers resign after protest deaths

What happened: Pressure rose on Peru's fledgling government as two cabinet members resigned following deadly protests that have rocked the country since former President Pedro Castillo's removal from office and arrest last week.
Regional response: Mexico is consulting with Peruvian authorities about an asylum request from Castillo, while its president criticized Lima's state of emergency and blasted the U.S. ambassador there for meeting new President Dina Boluarte.

Before I forget...
Big Goldman Sachs layoffs are coming, so is the World Cup final match between Argentina and France. We also have more of our "year-ender" coverage to share, including roundups on how electric-vehicle production may surge despite low sales, the rising cost of climate change and why food prices will stay high in 2023. Be safe out there, and see you in a few weeks.

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