Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Glimmers of hope

Another holiday season has been smothered by Covid-19—not to mention armed conflict, potential armed conflict and the growing threat to democracies once considered unshakeable. But the whole of humanity is about to receive a gift (assuming everything works as intended): a window on our very creation and that of everything around us. The largest, most expensive and definitely most sophisticated space telescope ever built is scheduled to lift off Christmas Day from the north coast of South America. Dwarfing its older cousin Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope is to take up station almost 1 million miles from Earth. Once there, it might just see all the way to the birth of the universe, upwards of 13 billion years ago. Maybe when the first images come back next summer, today’s crises won’t loom as large. —David E. Rovella

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.

Air carriers scrapped more than 3,500 flights for Friday and Saturday, led in the U.S. by United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, as surging Covid-19 infections and the prospect of bad weather disrupted holiday travel. In Japan, where officials have had the virus on the run, it’s looking like the U.S. military may ruin that effort with an outbreak on one of its bases. Worldwide, cases continue to rise and healthcare systems face a flood of new patients with space and staff shortages. Nevertheless, new treatments for the infected and a drumbeat of reports that the dominant strain of the coronavirus is less severe than previous iterations has provided some hope. Here’s the latest on the pandemic.

Pandemic? Inflation? No problem says Wall Street. U.S. stocks set a new closing record Thursday, capping a holiday-shortened week with gains following encouraging reports about the economic risks posed by the omicron variant.

With an accelerating buildup of armaments (though without the troops to man them) on the Ukraine border, Vladimir Putin claims he isn’t threatening to invade again. But he has managed to get the U.S. to the table to discuss his proposals for remaking eastern European security. The ongoing war by separatists in the east of Ukraine, backed by Moscow, has killed more than 14,000 since Putin last invaded in 2014, annexing Ukraine’s Crimea region. What’s the Russian president’s strategy? Eli Lake writes in Bloomberg Opinion that the former KGB lieutenant colonel could be impersonating Richard Nixon.

Vladimir Putin at his annual news conference in Moscow on Dec. 23. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

President Xi Jinping’s crackdown continues. China plans to tighten scrutiny of domestic firms’ overseas share sales and ban those whose listing could pose what Beijing considers a national security threat. All Chinese companies seeking initial public offerings and additional share sales abroad would have to register with the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Chinese social media erupted on Friday over allegations that Walmart had stopped selling items from Xinjiang at Sam’s Club in China. The United Nations has determined that Beijing has imprisoned upwards of 1 million Muslims in that region—ethnic Uyghurs widely believed to have been subjected to forced labor and worse. On Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law restrictions on goods from Xinjiang. Meanwhile in Hong Kong, works of art memorializing the massacre of as many as 2,600 demonstrators in Tiananmen Square by the Chinese government were removed overnight. Beijing this year has sought to crush free speech and assembly in the financial hub via what it calls a national security law.

The Goddess of Democracy statue at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2020. Photographer: Billy H.C. Kwok/Bloomberg

Though still caught in a major energy crisis thanks to pandemic whiplash and potential machinations in Moscow, Europe is seeing natural gas prices fall. The reason? More tankers are crossing the Atlantic with U.S. fuel to supply the energy-starved region.

Tesla is disabling a feature in its vehicles that allowed drivers and passengers to play video games while driving.

• Bangladesh ferry fire kills at least 37 passengers.
• Flight bans leave Hong Kong stranded as new rules freeze routes.
• But the U.S. is easing its earlier ban on southern Africa travel.
• Russia leans on Google and Facebook parent with record fines.
• Kenya’s shilling woes to persist as it weakens for a second year.
• Tom Barrack prosecutors condemn his paying aide’s legal fees.
• TikTok sued by content moderator traumatized by graphic videos.

Alex Rodriguez’s goals in business started as soon as he turned pro. Now on the other side of one of the most successful—and controversial—careers in baseball history, his ambitions are accelerating. From real estate mogul to professional basketball team owner, the former favorite (and villain) of the New York tabloids is looking to remake his image, and perhaps achieve some level of redemption. Bloomberg Quicktake’s Jason Kelly sits down with the former New York Yankees All-Star.

Alex Rodriguez Photographer: David Nicholson/Bloomberg Quicktake

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