TIME brought some of its 2022 Person of the Year recipients together Thursday night to celebrate the latest edition of the 95-year-old franchise. The Person of the Year reception, held at The Plaza Hotel’s glitzy Grand Ballroom, kicked off with cocktails and mingling—and included a video message from 2022 Person of the Year Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as an interview with actor and 2022 Icon of the Year Michelle Yeoh. Breakout Artist of the Year Mickey Guyton performed two of her hit songs to an enthusiastic crowd.

TIME’s new CEO Jessica Sibley welcomed guests at her first public speaking event since taking up the role last month. Award-winning poet, J. Ivy performed a spoken word piece. BlocPower founder Donnel Baird, the 2022 Dreamer of the Year—named by TIME and American Family Insurance—talked about helping families make their dreams bigger in a video message.

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Here are the biggest moments from TIME’s 2022 Person of the Year reception.

Volodymyr Zelensky paid tribute to freedom fighters around the world

TIME’s 2022 Person of the Year Volodymyr Zelensky adresses attendees in a video shown at the TIME 2022 Person of the Year reception, on Dec. 8, 2022.

Zelensky paid tribute to the freedom fighters of his country—and around the world in a video message. Nearly 10 months have passed since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, and since then Zelensky has emerged as a prominent world leader in his efforts to lead Ukraine’s battle for independence.

“It is an honor for me to represent the struggle of Ukrainians and the spirit of Ukraine, the spirit of freedom that echoes in the souls of so many people around the world,” Zelensky said. “This is the free world spirit, and let’s do everything for our spirit to win.”

Zelensky’s speech honored the brave doctors, farmers, journalists, and human rights lawyers, along with ordinary people, who stepped up to help the war effort. He also thanked those who supported Ukraine in its fight for freedom.

“It is an honor for me to represent the struggle of Ukrainians and the spirit of Ukraine, the spirit of freedom that echoes in the souls of so many people around the world,” Zelensky said. “This is the free world spirit, and let’s do everything for our spirit to win.”

Michelle Yeoh emphasized the importance of taking risks

Poupay Jutharat for TIMETIME’s 2022 Icon of the Year Michelle Yeoh onstage at the TIME 2022 Person of the Year reception, at The Plaza Hotel in New York City, on Dec. 8, 2022.

Yeoh, who TIME named the first-ever Icon of the Year, spoke to Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthal about the lessons she learned during the early stages of her four-decade career.

Starting off in Hong Kong action films with stars like Jackie Chan, Yeoh recalled how physically challenging her initial roles were, and how they prepped her to take greater risks and not be afraid of failure.

“First you must fall before you learn to fly,” Yeoh said. “I think that’s something that’s resonated throughout my life and my career.”

The 60-year-old actor carried her stunt skills into more recent roles like Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Everything Everywhere All At Once, which grossed over $100 million in global ticket sales.

Yeoh said she can’t believe she is finally receiving such enormous recognition.

“I think when I started my career, people would never have thought a little girl from Malaysia [would] one day [be] here getting the Icon of the Year award,” Yeoh said. “Thank you for your love and care and embracing someone who’s very different from you, [and] comes from a different place. I think that’s what the world is all about today.”

Mickey Guyton: ‘All I was trying to do is fight for equality in country music’

Poupay Jutharat for TIMETIME’s 2022 Breakthrough Artist of the Year Mickey Guyton peforming at the TIME 2022 Person of the Year reception, at The Plaza Hotel in New York City, on Dec. 8, 2022.

Guyton had some memorable performances this year, gracing the Capitol Lawn for PBS’s July 4 celebration and presenting the national anthem at the Superbowl. On Thursday night, she wowed the crowd with performances of “Somethin’ Bout You” and “Lay It On Me”—two of her most popular songs.

Despite the artist’s accomplishments, she told TIME at the event that she struggles with accepting fame. “I have impostor syndrome so I’m still working through feeling worthy,” Guyton said.

The musician is grateful to have the success she does now, but she had a long journey getting to this point. “My career took off right when I was about to quit,” Guyton said.

“​​When country music wasn’t working for me, I did think about quitting and starting a different genre. But I’ve loved country music so much, it’s just been something that’s in my bones and it’s something that I want,” she added.

As the first Black nominee for Best Country Album at the Grammys, Guyton has frequently spoken out about racial inequality in the country music industry and how difficult it’s been to get the community to address those issues. “This is the last thing I ever thought I would be at. All I was trying to do is fight for equality in country music, you know, and to be here, it is such an honor,” Guyton says.

It was unclear what the Washington Post meant when it reported on Thursday that the DOJ was asking a judge to hold the “Trump team” or “Trump’s office” in contempt of court. That presumably referred to Trump’s lawyers, but did it mean just his lawyers? What about Trump?

Now CNN is now clarifying that this includes Donald Trump himself and not just his lawyers. The DOJ really is asking the courts to hold Trump in contempt of court, for his failure to properly respond to its subpoena seeking information about the classified documents he stole.

So presuming the judge goes along with it, we’re now looking at Trump and his attorneys being held in contempt of court. This kind of thing tends to be quick and painful, because judges can apply any escalating penalties they want, on any timetable they want, in the name of forcing people to comply. Trump can use the Fifth Amendment to avoid having to testify against himself, but he cannot use the Fifth Amendment to avoid turning over documents and such – which is what the DOJ is squeezing him on.

Of course Trump is about to face a no-win situation where he can either provide evidence of his own guilt and help get himself indicted, or lie to the DOJ in way that’ll help get him indicted, or refuse to comply and nailed for contempt of court on his way to getting indicted.

We’ll see which bad option Trump picks. Perhaps more importantly in the short term, we’re about to see which option each member of his legal team picks. Unlike Trump, his lawyers have the option of getting extreme leniency (or even immunity) in exchange for flipping on Trump. Are they really willing to go to prison for him? At this point they have to know he’s going to prison anyway.

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The United Nations has expressed concern over threats to civil liberties posed by Indonesia’s new criminal code, warning the revised laws could result in the erosion of press freedom, privacy and human rights in the world’s third-largest democracy.

Indonesia’s parliament approved the legislative overhaul on Tuesday, part of a decades long process to replace its colonial-era penal code.

The criminal code includes laws that make it an offence to insult the president, the national flag and state institutions.

The laws also require people to get a permit to hold a protest and bans spreading fake news and views counter to state ideology.

Other articles which officials say aim to uphold “Indonesian values” in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation criminalise sex outside of marriage, cohabitation between unmarried couples, the promotion of contraception to minors and abortion for non-rape victims.

“The U.N. is concerned that several articles in the revised Criminal Code contravene Indonesia’s international legal obligations with respect to human rights,” the U.N.’s local office said in a statement released on Thursday.

“Some articles have the potential to criminalise journalistic work… Others would discriminate against, or have a discriminatory impact on, women, girls, boys and sexual minorities,” it said.

The code could also affect reproductive and privacy rights and exacerbate gender-based violence based on sexual orientation and identity, the statement said.

Civil society groups have slammed the new laws saying the changes constitute a huge democratic setback, and pose a particular risk to LGBT people, who could be disproportionately impacted by the so-called morality clauses.

“Same-sex couples cannot marry in Indonesia, so this clause also effectively renders all same-sex conduct illegal,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

Responding to criticism of the criminal code, Indonesia’s justice ministry noted the morality laws, which will not come into effect for another three years, can only be reported by limited parties, such as a spouse, parent or child.

“Investors and foreign tourists don’t have to worry about investing and travelling in Indonesia, because people’s privacy is still guaranteed by law,” the ministry said in a statement.

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German lawmakers are calling for a review of security arrangements at the Bundestag lower house of parliament after authorities detained members of a far-right group that they say were preparing a violent overthrow of the state.

German authorities on Thursday ordered 23 people to be held for questioning as they investigate the group. A former lawmaker from the far-right Alternative For Germany (AfD) was among those detained, according to German prosecutors.

Greens lawmaker Konstantin von Notz, chairman of the parliamentary committee that oversees the intelligence services, said the Bundestag’s security arrangements were not made for “enemies of the constitution” to be elected to parliament.

“We have to increase the protection concept for the Bundestag without sabotaging the everyday life of democratic lawmaker,” he told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.

The AfD has condemned the far-right group’s efforts and expressed confidence in the authorities’ ability to bring clarity to the situation quickly and completely.

Social Democrat lawmaker Sebastian Hartmann told the Funke media group: “The Bundestag should also review its security concept. Personally, I feel safe, but my confidence is not boundless.”

Investigators have said the group, many of whom were members of the movement Reichsbuerger (Citizens of the Reich), planned to install aristocrat Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss as leader of a new state and found evidence that some members planned to storm the German parliament and seize lawmakers.

Members of the Reichsbuerger do not recognise modern-day Germany as a legitimate state. Some of them are devoted to the German empire under monarchy, while some are adherents of Nazi ideas and others believe Germany is under military occupation.

“For the Bundestag, we will carefully examine which security measures we need to adapt,” Katrin Goering-Eckardt, vice president of the Bundestag, told the Funke media group.

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South Korea’s truckers union said it has decided to end a nationwide strike that disrupted supply chains, Yonhap reported on Friday, citing the results of a vote by union members.

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Judging by Friday’s quiet streets in China’s capital Beijing and the adherence to virus curbs by some city eateries, the anxieties created by ‘zero-COVID’ policies are likely to hamper a quick return to health for the world’s second-largest economy.

Although the government on Wednesday loosened key parts of the strict controls that kept the pandemic largely at bay for the past three years, many people and businesses appear wary of being too quick to shake off the shackles.

In the central city of Wuhan, where the pandemic erupted in late 2019, there were more signs of life with some areas busy with commuters on Friday. But locals say a return to normal is still a long way off.

“They’ve relaxed the measures but still, there’s nobody about,” said a taxi driver surnamed Wang, who didn’t want to give his full name.

“You see these roads, these streets … they ought to be, busy, full of people. But there’s no one. It’s dead out here.”

Yet China has been anything but placid during the past few weeks, with protests against COVID curbs in many cities across the country that marked the biggest show of public discontent since President Xi Jinping came to power a decade ago.

Some of those protesters, scooped up by China’s security apparatus, now face an anxious wait about their fate.

Little more than a month after the National Health Commission stressed commitment to its strict virus containment policy, saying it was “putting people and lives first”, it has sounded a retreat from “zero-COVID” and officials are now telling people they have less to fear.

Zhong Nanshan, a leading Chinese epidemiologist, said that 99% of people now infected with the virus would recover in 7 to 10 days, in comments reported by the People’s Daily, controlled by the ruling Communist Party.

But there are signs the reassuring new message has still to convince many of the country’s 1.4 billion people.

With the need for tests dropped and most infected people now being allowed to isolate at home, some have embraced new found freedoms. For others, habits formed under months of stifling lockdowns, are proving hard to break.

There were several empty seats in what should have been peak rush hour for commuters on the Beijing subway on Friday morning, even though the city this week scrapped the need to show negative tests to ride trains or enter offices. Some downtown restaurants were deserted at lunchtime.

Manufacturers remain cautious too, retaining COVID-19 curbs until they get a clearer picture of just how workplaces will be affected by the easing of stringent measures.

Businesses told Reuters they are expecting to have to grapple with long periods of absence by sick workers that could hamper operations, perhaps for months.

In downtown Beijing on Friday, a restaurant at a mall that serves local cuisine still doesn’t offer dine-in service while others on the same floor do.

“Although we are now allowed to resume eat-in service, our staff are sick and are still at home, so we haven’t got enough hands to serve meals,” a staffer told Reuters, requesting anonymity.

China’s current tally of 5,235 COVID-related deaths is a tiny fraction of its population of 1.4 billion, and extremely low by global standards. Some experts have warned that toll could rise above 1.5 million if the exit is too hasty.

Analysts and business leaders expect China’s economy to rebound late next year as it follows the rocky path trodden by the rest of the world to open up and live with the disease.

China’s battered yuan currency climbed to a three-month high early on Friday as investors looked beyond poor data to future growth prospects.

Noel Quinn, chief executive of HSBC (HSBA.L), which makes the bulk of its revenue in the Greater China region, told a financial forum in Shanghai that China’s new measures represented “meaningful progress”.

“I very much hope that they can be an important stepping stone towards the full reopening of mainland China’s borders as soon as practicable,” he told the Shanghai Bund Summit via video link.

A surge in infections will likely depress economic growth in the next few months, however.

“China’s three years behind, so what’s going to happen in China is what happened in the rest of the world,” said Jeffrey Goldstein, a China-based consultant who helps foreign brands manufacture goods in Asia.

“There’s going to be chaos.”

A Reuters poll forecast China’s growth to slow to 3.2% in 2022, far below the official target of around 5.5%, marking one of the worst performances in almost half a century.

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A U.S. legal scholar who has advised several Israeli leaders opposes judicial reforms sought by members of Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu’s incoming hard-right government, warning the country’s democratic credentials could suffer.

A focus of the proposed overhaul is the Israeli Supreme Court, whose independence from the fractious Knesset parliament and occasional interventions in legislation Harvard University professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz has cited in his pro-Israel advocacy.

Some members of both Netanyahu’s Likud party and of his religious-nationalist coalition allies want more government and parliamentary involvement in selecting justices. They also want Knesset powers, they say, to override Supreme Court rulings.

They accuse the court of overreach and the bench of being unrepresentative of the public. Israelis opposed to the reforms deem the court as a bulwark for minority rights and a separation of synagogue and state.

“There should be no override whatsoever on issues of basic liberty – gay rights, equality for Arabs, voting issues,” Dershowitz said on Thursday during a visit to Israel, where he discussed the matter with Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and far-right figures.

“Those are the core of what the Supreme Court should be doing – without having to fear that a political majority of one can basically undo important and significant human rights.”

A general override, Dershowitz said, “would make my job a lot harder in defending Israel in human rights courts, in the court of public opinion, on university campuses.”

“Israel does have a very vibrant system of checks of balances, and the judiciary is the crucial part of that, and it is a gem. It’s respected all over the world.”

Israelis might compromise, he said, by agreeing to keep the Supreme Court out of political or economic decisions not involving human rights, or by requiring sweeping majority votes for overrides rather than the proposed 61 out of 120 lawmakers.

Dershowitz was dismissive of the suggestion that Israel’s government should get more sway over the nine-member committee for selecting Supreme Court justices or that nominations should undergo Knesset review.

The committee is made up of three justices, two ministers, two Knesset members and two lawyers.

“I think the (Israeli) system is a much better one than the United States,” he said. “We’ve had lots and lots of unqualified justices appointed to the (U.S.) Supreme court politically. The Senate confirmation hearings are a disaster.”

Half-a-century of studying Israel’s Supreme Court had convinced him of its political fluidity, Dershowitz said, rejecting calls for the bench to better reflect the electorate.

“It’s supposed to be elitist, non-representative and aloof,” he said. “A good court should be criticised by both sides – because it’s counter-majoritarian.”

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