“I don’t think I will be arrested,” Sam Bankman-Fried said on Twitter Spaces yesterday, hours before he was arrested.

The attorney general for the Bahamas announced last night that the former CEO of FTX had been arrested in the island nation, and American authorities explained that it came at their request. The US criminal charges against SBF won’t be unsealed until this morning, but, according to the NYT, they will include wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, and money laundering.

This alleged fraud stems from the shocking collapse of SBF’s crypto empire just over a month ago. Once worth $32 billion, FTX experienced a rapid wave of withdrawals, putting the company $8 billion short of remaining viable. The sudden implosion sparked investigations by regulators and the media, who discovered that SBF’s hedge fund, Alameda Research, had used billions in customer assets from FTX to fund high-risk bets of its own. For many, the question of SBF getting handcuffs was a matter of when, not if.

But the timing of the arrest was curious

It came just one day before SBF was set to testify virtually before the House Financial Services Committee about FTX’s collapse.

Not that he hasn’t said his piece already. Since his company filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, SBF had been talking to seemingly every media outlet that requested an interview, which is…highly unusual and inadvisable for someone being investigated by dozens of authorities around the globe. During these interviews, SBF acknowledged that his management of FTX was quite awful, but claimed he never intentionally committed fraud. Prosecutors obviously believe otherwise.

From hero to zero: If we told you six months ago that SBF would be arrested for alleged fraud before Christmas, you probably wouldn’t have believed us. For a time, he was the golden child of the crypto industry, bringing on the biggest superstars on the planet (including Tom Brady) to endorse his product. He had also become a force in the political world through tens of millions in campaign contributions.

Not too long ago, when he was bailing out failing blockchain companies, SBF was being hailed as crypto’s Warren Buffett. Now, he’s being compared to Bernie Madoff.—NF

Scientists had a nuclear breakthrough. The Department of Energy is expected to announce today that scientists at California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction with a net energy gain (meaning it produced more energy than it used). Scientists and governments have been trying to make that happen for decades because nuclear fusion, as opposed to the nuclear fission that current nuclear plants use, has the potential to create energy to power the world without producing carbon or radioactive waste. Still, it will be a long time before nuclear fusion becomes commercially viable as a source for energy.

A new Qatar bribery scandal has dropped. Qatar has long faced accusations that it bribed its way to becoming host of the World Cup, and now there are claims that it has since paid off EU Parliament officials to try to influence important votes. After ~20 raids in Belgium and the seizure of over $1 million in cash, four people were charged by Belgian prosecutors Sunday with corruption, money laundering, and other crimes involving bribes from “a Gulf State” (that’s been widely reported to be Qatar). The most high-profile official arrested was Eva Kaili, one of the European Parliament’s vice presidents. Qatar has denied any involvement.

Menthols won’t be available in California much longer. The Supreme Court rejected a bid by major tobacco companies to block a statewide ban on flavored tobacco products that was voted in by Californians last month. The companies, including Newport maker RJ Reynolds, told the court that menthol cigarettes account for around one-third of the state’s cigarette sales, and argued that the ban ran afoul of federal law. The ban is scheduled to take effect next week, making California the second state to outlaw such products (after Massachusetts).

For the nearly three years that the world has been grappling with Covid, China has stood out from the pack for its “zero Covid” policies that locked down residents for months at a time, stoking public anger and hammering its economy.

Now that it’s loosened many of those rules, the country is getting hit with a Covid wave that, for the rest of us, brings back memories of 2020.

While official case counts have been falling in Chinese cities, that drop reflects a significant rollback of testing. Reports suggest that Covid is ripping through the population right now, forcing businesses to close and straining a medical system that’s not equipped to handle a surge in Covid patients. Visits to fever clinics yesterday spiked 16x from the previous week.

An advisor on China’s Covid task force recently predicted that the upcoming Covid wave could infect 60% of residents. Given that China has a population of 1.4 billion, that means 840 million people could get Covid in the coming weeks.

Why will Covid spread so quickly? China’s population has low immunity to the virus. Due to Beijing’s Covid clampdown, many people haven’t been infected at all. And the government has refused to import effective mRNA vaccines from Western countries, instead relying on domestic jabs. The country’s elderly are especially susceptible: One-third of citizens 60 and over haven’t gotten a third, Omicron-specific shot.—NF

Apparently electric cars and AM radio don’t mix well. The New York Times reports that many EV manufacturers are booting AM radio from their vehicles, citing electromagnetic interference that causes pesky noise and static.

Tesla, Volvo, Porsche, Audi and some Volkswagen EVs already come without AM radio. Drivers of Ford’s 2023 F-150 Lightning electric pickup will also have to make due without ideologically charged hot takes from their favorite talk show host on their morning commute.

Technological solutions to make EVs and AM radio compatible do exist, but car manufacturers might not bother to accommodate a minority of radio listeners. Just 20% of US radio audiences listen to AM radio—and they tend to be older.

If the trend continues, growing EV adoption might spell the end of AM radio. Many AM stations are reliant on rush-hour listeners, and while FM waves are more resistant to electromagnetic interference, switching could be too costly for many radio stations, especially those that serve a niche audience.

There’s hope for AM aficionados: Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) recently requested that automakers avoid depriving drivers of AM radio. And it’s not nostalgia for crackle-filled ballgame broadcasts that’s influencing the 76-year-old politician’s stance. Markey claims that AM waves help government officials communicate with the public, particularly during emergencies.—SK

Stat: The Keystone oil pipeline leaked more than 14,000 barrels of oil in Kansas last week—almost enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool, according to the AP. It’s the largest spill in the pipeline’s history, but it’s not the only one. Counting this latest snafu, the pipeline has leaked more crude onto US land than any other pipeline since 2010 (nearly 26,000 barrels total), per Bloomberg. But it’s still an important conduit for oil, and it’s not clear when its operator, TC Energy, will be able to get it back up and running again after shutting it down when the spill started.

Quote: “A masterpiece.”

The New York Times ran an ad on Sunday for the Showtime series George & Tammy that was full of glowing quotes from major news outlets calling the show “enlightening” and the “best series of the year.” That wouldn’t be noteworthy except for one thing: The quotes were all fake. Turns out the paper accidentally went to print with a dummy ad mocked up by the network’s marketing department that featured placeholder quotes—though the error was caught in time to stick a correction in the same edition’s front section, which gets put together later.

Read: Why the US is great at invention, but not at what comes next. (The Atlantic)

When your listening personality is “goes with the flow”: Every song with over 1 billion Spotify streams.

Reading list: The 100 books published this year that are worth your time.

Break the cycle: Retailers, want to know how to keep sales up after Santa’s sleigh is fully grounded? Retail Brew breaks it down.

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Brew Mini: “Tower of Pisa feature” (four letters) is your sample clue for today’s puzzle. Whether you’ve been to Italy or not, we think you can solve the Mini.

Nutritional facts

We’ll give you the ingredient list for a popular food item, and you have to name it. Ready?

Sugar, Corn Syrup, Peppermint Oil, Red 40, Red 40 Lake

Is your business recession ready? This CFO Brew report details how to find your competitive edge.

On Business Casual, Nora speaks with gender-fluid fashion designer Harris Reed, who was recently tapped by global communications firm Edelman to lead its new “Gen Z Lab.”

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