Evening Medusa

The Biden administration's first talks with China turned into a skirmish. We analyze how the year of the fight against the pandemic went in Russia. The security forces came to the editorial office of MBKh Media and the offices of Open Russia

Good evening,

This is Meduza's daily newsletter about the important news of the day. Let's start with the best news: our planet is reliably protected from an alien invasion - after all, Arnold Schwarzenegger himself is on guard ! He took first place in the voting, which was held by the British television channel Blaze. The top 20 also included Will Smith, Bruce Willis, Sigourney Weaver and even Donald Trump.

Subscribe to our newsletter - we will tell you where to run if the aliens attack. Or share the link in social networks or messenger.

Pulse

The main thing for the day - point by point

• to the editorial office of MBKh Media and the offices of Open Russia in St. Petersburg and Moscow Searches came .
• Joe Biden said that "at some point" he will talk with Vladimir Putin. So he commented on the proposal to hold an open discussion.
• Ilya Yashin demanded that the UK punish the organizers of the Crimean Spring concert at Luzhniki for non-compliance with sanitary standards. The Kremlin said the stadium was 50% full.
• Ella Pamfilova remained at the head of the Central Election Commission for another five years.
• Russian mixed martial arts fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov has officially retired .

Texts of the day

We explain the essence of the skirmish between Putin and Biden from the point of view of linguistics, diplomacy and scientific psychology

What does the use of the word "killer" mean? And "mmm hmm" before Biden's affirmative answer? And the call of the Russian ambassador? Or a review? And how is one different from the other? Is Putin right when he says that whoever calls names is called that himself? And how can this be translated into English? We answer all questions and close the topic.

In the first talks between the Joe Biden administration and China, the parties criticized each other for more than an hour and did not agree to anything.

The talks took place in Alaska and began with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expressing "deep concern over China's actions, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyberattacks on the United States, economic violence against our allies." In response, Politburo member Yang Jiechi accused the US of suppressing other countries "using its military power and financial hegemony" and added that America has no right to "speak to China from a position of strength." In general, the conversation did not work .

Israeli scientists have been able to grow mouse embryos to the point where they have limbs and a beating heart

Scientists around the world have been growing mammalian embryos “in vitro” since the 1930s to study all stages of embryonic development and find out the causes of anomalies. So far, embryos have learned to grow up to the stage of implantation in the uterine wall - but outside the womb they die. Scientists from the Weizmann Institute for the first time managed to grow about a thousand mouse embryos in a bioreactor until the 11th day of development (a total pregnancy in mice lasts 20 days). The ultimate goal of scientists is to recreate "in vitro" the entire process, including fertilization.

The coronavirus

On March 19, 2020, the first Russian woman died from the coronavirus. We tell how the year of the fight against the pandemic went

The main and saddest result: Russia was among the countries with the highest mortality from covid by any metric. Throughout the year, Meduza has been monitoring the actions of the government — the introduction of quarantine in the spring, its lifting after the May holidays, the adoption of new restrictions in the fall — and now it is analyzing the results of these actions .

Other news about coronavirus:

• The European Commission announced the beginning of the third wave of the epidemic in the EU countries and recommended accelerating the pace of vaccination.
• Specialists from the hospital at the University of Oslo have concluded that the AstraZeneca vaccine is indeed capable of causing blood clots. At the same time, the European Medicines Agency recognized the vaccine as safe.
• Manufacturers of medical masks asked the prosecutor's office to check public procurement of potentially dangerous respirators.

Podcast "What Happened"

In recent years, more and more repressive laws have been adopted in Russia. Will it be easy to cancel them in the future?

In recent months, the State Duma has tightened punishment for slander, made it more difficult to participate in rallies, and also introduced a ban on educational activities without the consent of state authorities. Prohibitions have been in place for several years. Lawyer and Doctor of Law Ilya Shablinsky explains what to do with this legal array, when (and if) the democratization of the country begins.

Listen to What Happened on Meduza . And subscribe to Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Yandex.Music and other podcast services.

goodbye day

Or what to do if you want to leave work early

Here's how the actor Jan Tsapnik did it. One of the members of the film crew arrived late at the site of the series "Knee-Deep", in which Tsapnik plays. The actor burst into such a tirade : “I officially warn you that you can masturbate, you can shoot. But exactly at six o'clock I send you to dick - and ******* [leave] into the sunset. The latecomer tried to justify himself by saying that Tsapnik had taken more time to swear than his being late. He said, "Close your birdhouse, you little turd," and left.

However, perhaps the video was filmed to promote the series. So do not rush to say goodbye to colleagues like Jan Tsapnik.

We're leaving for sunset until Monday, your "Medusa"