That’s it from me for 2022. Barring some tremendous news emergency, the live updates – and myself – will be taking a break until January. I hope you are all able to have a bit of a break from the news as well.

Before I go, I’d just like to thank the rest of The Spinoff’s news team for chipping into the live updates throughout the year, making them far more exciting and well crafted than just an extended monologue from me. I also need to shout out the brilliant news brain that is Toby Manhire and my editor Madeleine Chapman.

And, of course, I want to thank you all for reading, emailing and pointing out my most glaring spelling/grammatical errors.

Have a wonderful end to the year and see you all in 2023.

Today is the final day of regular live updates for 2022, so we’re going out on a high. Relive some of the best/worst/in between news moments from the year with this extra special (but still 10 question) edition of The Spinoff’s Friday Quiz.

Conspiracy theorists Billy TK and Vinny Eastwood have been found guilty of organising an anti-lockdown protest in Auckland.

The protest was held outside TVNZ’s studios back in the earliest days of last year’s level four lockdown.

Both TK and Eastwood denied any wrongdoing, telling the court that the Black Lives Matters protests under alert level two were not met with any legal action.

Judge Winter did not believe this was of any relevance. “What may or many not have happened in respect of that other protest, was not the subject or direct evidence in this trial,” he said, as reported by Stuff.

After the guilty verdicts were handed out, there were reportedly “scoffs” from supporters in the public gallery and a man yelled at Judge Winter: “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Along with today’s news that TVNZ will become the new home of free-to-air cricket, Spark has confirmed the end of its Spark Sport streaming service in the second half of 2023.

In a statement, Spark blamed “escalating content rights costs and a broader range of investment opportunities across its business” as the key drivers of the decision. 

Spark’s chief executive Jolie Hodson said the company had struggled to reach the scale it had aspired to with Spark Sport, partly due to Covid disrupting a number of sporting events around the world. “That slower than expected start, coupled with the escalating costs of content rights globally, makes it difficult to justify the type of investment Spark Sport requires when we have a wider range of investment opportunities across our broader business,” she said.

ICYMI: Today is the final day of regular live updates for 2022. Here’s a recap of the biggest news event of 2022. 

It feels like a lifetime ago, but the parliament protest was actually this year. In February, thousands of anti-mandate, anti-vax, anti-government, anti-anything protesters gathered on the lawns of parliament for what would turn into a three-week long occupation.

Like all the media, we covered the event compulsively at the time – including here in the live updates, as I spent a week among the protesters down in Wellington. You can read my summary of events here.

The protest ended in (literal) flames a few days after I left, but The Spinoff team – who were all working remotely at the time – were glued to various livestreams on March 2 as chaos erupted on the parliamentary precinct. In case you feel the need for a reminder of what went down on that day, may I suggest two pieces. Firstly, Dylan Reeve writing on the rapid spread of misinformation on the final day of the protest. And secondly, Toby Manhire asking the question: what happens next?

For more of what The Spinoff covered in 2022, you can check out this succinct wrap from our editor Mad Chapman.

Cricket has found a new free-to-air home – thanks to a new deal between Spark and the state broadcaster TVNZ.

The terms of the arrangement will see TVNZ take over the transmission for “many of the sports currently available on the platform”, including all Blackcaps and White Ferns tests, T20 matches and one day internationals played in New Zealand, as well as all Super Smash matches.

“We are really excited to be the home of New Zealand Cricket for the coming years,” said TVNZ director of content Cate Slater.

“Te Reo Tātaki TVNZ has always been focused on bringing the moments that matter to New Zealanders, and we are looking forward to helping all Kiwis get behind our national cricket teams with live coverage across our channels and TVNZ+.”

TVNZ will take over the broadcast rights beginning with the 2023/24 season through to the end of the 2025/26 season. “This is a very good outcome for the game of cricket in New Zealand,” said New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White.  “Having cricket on TVNZ safeguards the professional game; it safeguards the community game, and it provides unprecedented access for Kiwi cricket fans.”

Today is the final day of The Spinoff’s live updates for 2022. Of course, if any major news breaks over the summer break, we’ll jump back online and keep you informed. But I’m really, really hoping we won’t have to do that.

I’m writing this yesterday because The Spinoff held its end of year celebration last night and it’s entirely possible I won’t be in any ideal state to report on the news right now.

But anyway, I thought I’d start the final day of updates off with a little flashback to the very start. On January 10 this year I provided a brief state of play on the Covid-19 outbreak. And knowing what we all now about how 2022 would evolve in terms of both case numbers and restrictions, it makes for interesting reading.

Here is what I wrote on January 10, 2022:

• Yesterday’s 1pm update confirmed 64 cases of Covid-19 were detected at the border over a 48 hour period. While it’s not known how many of these were omicron cases, the vast bulk are expected to be the new variant. If you cast your mind back to mid-to-late 2021, the number of border cases on a daily basis was usually in the single digits and, occasionally, zero.
• Australia is the latest country to suffer a mammoth surge in omicron cases. Yesterday saw just under 100,000 cases across the country, down from the previous record set on Saturday when 116,025 cases were confirmed. In Victoria alone, more than 44,000 new infections were registered.
• The US hit one million daily infections earlier this month – the first country in the world to reach the grim milestone.
• Worldwide, 10 million omicron cases were recorded last week.

And, for comparison, here is an extract from the Covid-19 update health officials gave on December 12, 2022:

• The number of new Covid-19 infections has risen again, with 40,098 reported over the past week. About 11,000 of those were listed as reinfections.
• The Ministry of Health said the average number of new cases being registered each day has increased to 5,721. There are now 514 people in hospital with Covid-19 and 14 in intensive care.