Evening Medusa

Will Sputnik work against the omicron. How Kim Jong Un changed North Korea in 10 years. Why was the Parker probe sent to the Sun?

Good evening,

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This is Meduza's daily newsletter about the main news of the day. For starters, a messenger of memes. Remember the cats who were not sold fish (but only showed)? In general, the circle is closed, and now the cats will sell the fish themselves. Beautiful…

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Pulse

The main thing for the day - point by point

• Russia put forward conditions for NATO and the US on security guarantees. One of them is that Ukraine should not join NATO.
• for the seventh time in a year The Central Bank raised the key rate - immediately to 8.5%.
• Roskomnadzor threatened to block YouTube for deleting the German RT channel.
• The State Duma adopted a law on Fan ID . From June 2022, tickets for sports competitions will be sold using a “fan ID”.
• Pussy Riot members Luce Stein and Maria Alyokhina were placed under administrative arrest . They were accused of promoting Nazi symbols.
• Sex and the City actor Chris Noth has been accused of sexual assault by two American women . He stated that the meetings were held by mutual agreement.
• A Polish soldier fled to Belarus across the border and asked for asylum there . State TV of Belarus immediately recorded an interview with him.

Texts of the day

Kim Jong Un has ruled North Korea for ten years. Did he turn the country into a "second China"? Or made the regime tougher?

On December 17, 2011, Kim Jong-un became the ruler of North Korea. At that time he was only 29 years old. During his reign, he managed to carry out successful economic reforms in the country, finally quarreled with the United States and made the political regime even more totalitarian. About everything that has happened in the DPRK in the past ten years , Meduza talked with an orientalist, a lecturer at Kunming University in Seoul, Andrei Lankov.

Astrophysicist Sergei Bogachev answers naive questions about the Parker probe

The American probe "Parker" became the first spacecraft that "touched" the Sun. He flew up to him at a distance of 10 million kilometers, and subsequently closer to 6 million kilometers. But why, despite such distances, is it said about the probe that it “touched” the Sun? Doctor of Sciences and Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergey Bogachev, who works as the chief researcher at the Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun, answered this and other questions about the Parker mission.

Interview with singer Grechka - about the conflict with Zemfira, the decline in popularity and how to learn to accept yourself

Today, Grechka (Anastasia Ivanova) released a mini-album "Disney Sunset". In this release, she simultaneously lives through a breakup and tries to let go of the childhood illusions that have shaped her ideas about life. Meduza Special Correspondent Sasha Sivtsova talked to the singer about why say goodbye to Disney, about Russian melancholy and working with a psychologist, and also about Yanka Diaghileva, Zemfira and Alexei Navalny.

Podcast "What Happened"

We speak with Yuri Saprykin. He almost finished writing a book about director Sergei Solovyov. But I never had time to show the text to my hero

On December 13, director Sergei Solovyov died in Moscow. During his life, he made more than 20 films, the most famous of them were "Assa", "Black Rose - the emblem of sadness, red rose - the emblem of love", "One Hundred Days After Childhood", "Anna Karenina", "Under the Starry Sky", "Station Master". "Assa", released in 1987, acquired a cult status and became one of the symbols of perestroika. In the film, the songs of Boris Grebenshchikov, "Kino" and "Bravo" were sounded, in the final scene of the picture, Viktor Tsoi performs "We are waiting for changes." In this issue, journalist Yuri Saprykin talks about the life and films of Sergei Solovyov. Now Saprykin is finishing the book about the director, which he wanted, but did not have time to show to his hero.

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

The coronavirus

Does Sputnik V work against the omicron?

On December 15, a study was published stating that the Russian vaccine cannot neutralize the new variant of the coronavirus at all. Or, at least, works worse than other drugs studied. But it is still too early to lament over the particular inefficiency of Sputnik: the quality of this study - at least in terms of the Russian vaccine - is highly questionable. So far, we can only assume that the effectiveness of Sputnik V against omicron infection is indeed reduced - as with all other vaccines, but may increase sharply with the introduction of the third - booster - dose .

Duet of the day

Big Russian Boss and Big Russian Cat

You probably know Caracal, nicknamed Shlepa (more precisely, Gosha), because this year he managed to give an interview to the Dozhd TV channel (he was declared a “foreign agent” in Russia). But the rapper Big Russian Boss has not given a reason to talk about himself for a long time. But now there was a reason: the Boss decided to make a documentary about cats! Why did he come to visit Shlepe . Of course, we did not expect this, but we are very happy!

We believe that every rapper should make a documentary about cats, your "Medusa"