News briefs

Laura Richardson confirmed as Southcom commander, second Army woman to wear 4 stars

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Lt. Gen. Laura Richardson as the next commander of U.S. Southern Command this week, the first woman to lead the Doral, Florida-based joint military command responsible for South America, Central America and the Caribbean.

Richardson is the second Army woman to reach the four-star general rank. The first was Gen. Ann Dunwoody, who attained the rank in 2008 and retired in 2012.

Richardson was confirmed early Wednesday morning at the end of a marathon U.S. Senate session, part of a flurry of moves before the Senate adjourned until September.

In a statement, the Pentagon praised Richardson’s promotion along with the confirmation of former U.S. Rep. Gil Cisneros as the undersecretary for personnel and readiness.

“We now have 21 nominees to be confirmed by the Senate,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said during a briefing on Wednesday. “Additionally, the Senate confirmed Army Lt. Gen. Laura Richardson to command U.S. Southern Command and receive her fourth star.”

A Southcom spokesperson said Wednesday that a chain of command ceremony hasn’t been scheduled yet. Richardson’s predecessor,Adm. Craig Faller, took command six weeks after his October 2018 Senate confirmation.

Richardson, a career military officer, led the U.S. Army North at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston since July 2019.She previously was the deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army forces at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and served abroad in Iraq, Afghanistan and South Korea.

—McClatchy Washington Bureau

Law enforcement deputized to start rounding up missing Texas House Democrats

AUSTIN, Texas — Law enforcement can immediately begin rounding up fugitive House Democrats, who have been avoiding the Texas Capitol for weeks in protest of an elections bill they say will suppress voters.

The House sergeant-at-arms on Thursday deputized members of the Texas Department of Public Safety to bring them to the chamber,according to spokesman Enrique Marquez. “That process will begin in earnest immediately,” he said in a statement.

House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Beaumont Republican, signed civil arrest warrants for 52 absent Democrats earlier this week. The decision to send officers after them is a significant escalation in Republicans’ efforts to draw their colleagues back.

The House cannot conduct business without at least 100 members present and as of Thursday, they were still a few short. Just after 4:15 p.m. Central time, the chamber came to order briefly and gaveled out until 2 p.m. Friday.

While more than 40 Democrats had successfully gotten court orders protecting them from arrest, the Texas Supreme Court on Thursday invalidated them. Gov. Greg Abbott celebrated the high court’s ruling on Twitter.

“The Dems have filed some of the most embarrassing lawsuits ever seen,” the Republican governor wrote. “Time for them to get to the Capitol and do the job they were elected to do.”

State Rep. Gene Wu, a Houston Democrat, said Democrats will “not be deterred.”

—The Dallas Morning News

Tokyo virus situation is out of control, panel expert says

A member of a Tokyo Metropolitan Government coronavirus advisory panel of experts said it was now impossible to control the spread of COVID-19 in the capital.

“Infections are raging at disaster level — it’s an emergency,” Norio Omagari said at a Thursday panel meeting with Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike. “It’s impossible to control the situation.”

His comments came as the city and national governments consider whether to extend a state of emergency in Tokyo, which is experiencing its worst-ever wave of virus cases as it has joined the list of countries battling surges attributed to the delta variant. The emergency is currently set to be lifted at the end of August.

The imposition of successive states of emergency has become less effective over time, with many bars and restaurants ignoring instructions to close early and stop serving alcohol. Several experts have blamed the government for issuing mixed messages about the seriousness of the situation, including by staging the Olympics, saying this may have prompted people to drop their guard.

Koike called for measures that would reduce the frequency of people’s outings by 50%, compared with the period immediately prior to the current emergency, echoing the advice of a government panel reported by public broadcaster NHK earlier in the day. She urged people to avoid going on vacation and stay away from their home towns.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, whose public support hit new lows this week amid criticism of his handling of the pandemic,has rejected the idea of European-style lockdowns to contain the virus, ahead of a general election that must be held in the next three months. He has told reporters he’s relying on the vaccine rollout, and has also set limits on which patients can be hospitalized, in a bid to conserve resources.

Japan has fully vaccinated about 36% of its population, compared with 60% in the U.K. and 51% in the U.S., according to Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker.

Tokyo found 4,989 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday, near a record of 5,042 hit a week ago. The number of patients in hospitals and those in serious condition is continuing to hit records, putting the capital’s health care system under strain. Tokyo had 218 people suffering serious symptoms, its highest yet, while it has 392 beds available for those in serious condition.

Japan’s central government is considering extending the state of emergency into September, and expanding it to more regions,the Sankei newspaper reported earlier Thursday.

—Bloomberg News