Evening Medusa

How to read news about celebrities who have gathered in the State Duma. The Russian authorities could have prevented 200 thousand deaths from Covid. Subway floods in China, killing at least 25 people

Good evening,

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This is Meduza's daily newsletter about the important news of the day. But before we get to them, let's see how the bear cub high-fived the woman who was looking after him - and then splashed around in a bowl of drinking water. Have you looked? Thank you very much, we give you five!

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Pulse

The main thing for the day - point by point

• In the list of phone numbers for surveillance through Pegasus, they found the numbers of 14 heads of state (including Emmanuel Macron) - as well as the number of Telegram founder Pavel Durov .
• The Moscow Public Monitoring Committee said that Ilnaz Galyaviev, who attacked a school in Kazan, was declared insane. The Investigative Committee later stated that the psychological and psychiatric forensic examination was “still ongoing.”
• Russia sent the Nauka module to the ISS . It was planned to launch back in 2007.
• In China, flooding is due to heavy rainfalls, which occur “once in a thousand years.” The subway in Zhengzhou was flooded, killing 25 people .
• The head of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, called the Yabloko party’s lawsuit “absurd, irresponsible and even petty.” The party is trying to challenge the refusal of publicly available video broadcasts from polling stations.
• SK told how he found a “private prison” near St. Petersburg while investigating a murder case.
• The Milwaukee Bucks became the NBA champion for the first time since 1971.

Texts of the day

Meduza special correspondent Andrei Pertsev tells how to read news about celebrities allegedly going to the State Duma. And he gets angry 😡

Before the September elections to the State Duma, the media often write that, for example, rapper Slava CPSU or Yulia Volkova from Tatu decided to become a deputy. Moreover, they write as if these celebrities were already on party lists and almost in parliamentary seats. In fact, the same Volkova just showed up at the United Russia primaries - and lost them. In general, star status is not enough to become a candidate. We have made a simple checklist of three criteria that will help you understand whether you should pay attention to the news about the parliamentary ambitions of another celebrity.

In Belarus they also decided to change the Constitution. We tell you what amendments the authorities want to make

Changes to the Belarusian Constitution have already been made twice: in 1996 and 2004. This time they propose to stipulate in the basic law that “marriage is the union of a woman and a man,” and the president must be over 40 years old. Well, and not only that . The further procedure is as follows: a specially created Constitutional Commission will send the amendments to Alexander Lukashenko, and then the changes will be submitted to a referendum (it should take place in early 2022).

Ben & Jerry's has refused to sell ice cream in the "occupied Palestinian territory." Israeli authorities called the decision a “shameful capitulation to anti-Semitism”

The company refused to renew a licensing agreement with its partner in Israel, which expires in December 2022, because it did not stop selling ice cream in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that "Ben & Jerry's has decided to appropriate the anti-Israeli ice cream brand." Bennett's predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, tweeted that Israelis now know "which ice cream NOT to buy."

Coronavirus

In Russia, under the guise of fighting coronavirus, not only rallies, but also single pickets were banned. How did this happen?

For a long time, single-person pickets were a relatively safe—though perhaps not the most spectacular—way of protest in Russia. Covid restrictions introduced in 2020 began to be actively used by the authorities not to contain the pandemic, but to detain opposition activists going out on pickets. According to OVD-Info, if in 2018 at least 121 people were detained during single pickets in Moscow, then in 2019 - no less than 143, and in 2020 - no less than 799. However, in fact, the authorities began tighten the rules for holding pickets much earlier , back in 2012.

The Russian authorities could have prevented 200 thousand deaths from Covid. But they refused the second lockdown because the economy was more important to them

The Liberal Mission Foundation released a report “More than Covid. Authoritarian regime and Russian society in the face of a pandemic.” It examines what the reaction of the Russian state and society was to the pandemic and why Russia, according to the authors of the report, is losing in the fight against coronavirus. We recounted the main conclusions of the report .

Due to the pandemic, about 700 Russians are stuck in New Zealand with expired passports

Passports, like other diplomatic mail, are carried to New Zealand only by diplomatic couriers, who have not flown to this country since March 2020 due to the quarantine imposed on all travelers, including holders of diplomatic passports. The Russian embassy in New Zealand says that without a passport you can still fly out of the country with a certificate from the consulate. And that some Russians may even have their New Zealand visa extended without a valid passport .

“I wanted to!” day

Tell us about local products you miss after moving

It all started, as usual, with us watching TikTok. In it, a girl who moved from Yekaterinburg to St. Petersburg told how she misses the “Magic” baked goods from the “Smak” bakery, the “Reftinskie” dumplings and the “Irbitsky” yogurt. And now we want to ask, what products from your home regions do you miss? If, of course, you left your hometown, region or country. Tell us using this link , so that everyone will want it!

Still, it’s a pity that the Glory of the CPSU will not be in the State Duma, your “Medusa”