Navy fleet set to resume operations
Compiled from news services
The U.S. Navy has reactivated a fleet responsible for overseeing the East Coast and North Atlantic — an escalation of the Pentagon’s focus on a resurgent Russia and its expanding military presence.
2nd Fleet, deactivated in 2011 to preserve funds for new ships, will resume operations in Norfolk, Va., on July 1, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson told reporters Friday.
“This is a dynamic response to the dynamic security environment,” Adm. Richardson said onboard the carrier George H.W. Bush. “So as we’ve seen this great power competition emerge, the Atlantic Ocean is as dynamic a theater as any and particular the North Atlantic, so as we consider high-end naval warfare, fighting in the Atlantic, that will be the 2nd Fleet’s responsibility.”
Allegations surface
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz has withdrawn from a writers’ festival amid allegations that he had forcefully kissed a woman and showed aggressive behavior toward others.
Writer Zinzi Clemmons said the incident happened when she was a 26-year-old graduate student. She had invited Mr. Diaz to speak at a workshop, but Mr. Diaz “used it as an opportunity to corner and forcibly kiss me,” Ms. Clemmons wrote on Twitter. Other female writers have since come forward, accusing Mr. Diaz of mistreatment and misogynistic verbal abuse.
Ms. Clemmons confronted Mr. Diaz during a live Q&A session Friday at the Sydney Writers’ Festival, where Mr. Diaz was a panelist. Ms. Clemmons stunned the crowd after she grabbed a microphone, not bothering to introduce herself, and questioned Mr. Diaz about the alleged incident six years ago, when she was a graduate student at Columbia University, people who witnessed the exchange told BuzzFeed.
Election influence ban
TORONTO — In the wake of allegations of Russian interference in elections in the United States and elsewhere, the Canadian government unveiled sweeping legislation this week to ban foreign entities from spending money to influence elections, require “identifying taglines” on all political advertising and force political parties to reveal what voter information they collect.
The bill comes as concerns mount about the potential of foreign adversaries and social media platforms to influence elections and as questions are being raised about the secrecy of the techniques that Canadian political parties and others have developed to scrape and profit from voters’ data.
But the measure may be too little, too late: Even if the bill passes before lawmakers break for summer recess, there might not be enough time to implement the changes before the next federal election in 2019.
Sheikh daughter drama
Human Rights Watch on Saturday asked Dubai’s ruling sheikh to reveal the whereabouts of his daughter after a French ex-spy and others say she fled the emirate, only to be arrested off the coast of India.
A statement by the organization marks the latest twist in the cloak-and-dagger drama surrounding the disappearance of Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum, who friends believe has been returned to Dubai after fleeing in late February. She was detained March 4 in a seaborne raid, witnesses said.
Sheikha Latifa’s father is Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai’s ruler and the United Arab Emirates’ vice president and prime minister.