Six In The Morning Sunday 18 April 2021

Dominic Raab: UK fully supports Czech hunt for Skripal suspects

Foreign secretary hints he believes same Russian cell behind Salisbury poisoning and Czech explosion

Dan Sabbagh and Luke Harding

Sun 18 Apr 2021 13.18 BST

The British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said the UK stood in “full support” of the Czech Republic after the country’s police announced they were hunting two Russians suspected of carrying out the Salisbury poisonings, in relation to an explosion at an arms depot.

The Czech authorities said on Saturday they were seeking Alexander Petrov, 41, and Ruslan Boshirov, 43, in connection with a previously unexplained 2014 explosion at a munitions dump in Vrbětice, which left two dead.

The duo are believed to be Russian GRU officers – real names Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga – who entered the UK under the names of Petrov and Boshirov in the run-up to the poisoning of former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia – and were present on Czech territory in October 2014, when the explosion occurred.

Insensitive and InefficientThe Illusion of Rapid Antigen Tests

Germany is hoping that rapid antigen tests will help navigate the country out of the third coronavirus wave currently gripping the country. But they aren't up to the task. Other strategies could prove more effective.

By Rafaela von Bredow und Veronika Hackenbroch

A middle-aged couple is leaning against a high table outside a gardening store in the Charlottenburg neighborhood of Berlin, both of them making strange, throaty noises. "Should we ask someone?" The woman seems annoyed.

She and her husband are there to buy a few plants, but before they can begin examining the greenery on this spring weekend, they must first take a rapid antigen test to see if they are infected with SARS-CoV-2. The test is from the Chinese company Hygisun, available for 5 euros to those who can't otherwise present a certified corona test at the entrance.

How Black Lives Matter put slave reparations back on the agenda

The US House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to advance a bill that would create a commission to study the idea of reparations for slavery, an idea that has also been gaining ground in Europe since Black Lives Matter protests went global last summer.

Legislation to create a commission to study slavery reparations for Black Americans cleared a House committee in a historic vote this week, sending it on its way to a full House vote for the first time more than three decades after it was introduced. If the legislation, HR 40, is passed by the Democrat-controlled House, it would go to the evenly divided Senate, with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.

“Reparations are ultimately about respect and reconciliation – and the hope that, one day, all Americans can walk together toward a more just future,” said Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, a sponsor of the bill.

In its latest lurch to the far right, Denmark plans to send some refugees back to Syria

By Tara John, CNN

Updated 1015 GMT (1815 HKT) April 18, 2021

It felt like paradise when Dania and Hussam first moved to Denmark.

They did not speak a word of Danish yet the Scandinavian country was an outpost of calm for the siblings, who fled the destruction and death that followed the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

"I can hardly remember anything but war in Syria," Dania, 22, told CNN of her time growing up on the outskirts of the country's capital, Damascus. She said what drew her family of five to Denmark was its reputation for welcoming refugees -- being the first country in the world to sign the United Nations Refugee Convention in 1951.

Japan to procure enough COVID vaccines for all eligible by end of September

Japan's vaccine minister said Sunday that Pfizer Inc will increase supply of its coronavirus vaccine, allowing the country to procure enough doses by the end of September to inoculate all eligible residents.

Taro Kono said on a Fuji TV program that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla agreed to boost supply during telephone talks Saturday held as part of the premier's three-day visit to Washington for a meeting with President Joe Biden.

"We will work on a detailed schedule," Kono said during the program.

DeSantis Vaccine Slogan Is ‘Seniors First’ – But ‘Rich, White Seniors First’ Is What Happened

As Florida’s coronavirus vaccine distribution rolled out, white, well-off communities disproportionately received better access to the shots.

By S.V. Date

Over and over and over, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has described his COVID-19 vaccination plan in just two words: “Seniors First” — yet the addition of two extra words at the beginning might have made it far more accurate: “Rich” and “White.”

Because, while coronavirus vaccines are more broadly available in Florida today just as they are nationally, DeSantis’ earliest efforts, particularly his high-profile visits to the opening of “pop-up” vaccine clinics around the state, favored wealthier, whiter communities — which also happen to be his voting base.

“I’m 71 years old, and I haven’t been able to get one,” said Willie Smith, a Black retired truck driver and Air Force veteran, during a visit to Little Buddy’s Neighborhood Store to pick up some lottery tickets. “I’ve been trying to go online, but I haven’t been able to get one. They’re always full.”