New York Times | France, Ukraine, Uber: Your Monday Briefing New York Times Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, a centrist and a far-right candidate, were set to advance after the first round of elections in France. Though their supporters celebrated, some acknowledged that the election had not been won yet. The run-off will be ... |
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France, Ukraine, Uber: Your Monday Briefing - New York Times
American monitor killed in Ukraine when mine blasts vehicle Charlotte Observer A land mine blew up a vehicle carrying an OSCE monitoring team in the separatist Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine on Sunday, killing an American observer and wounding two European members of the mission, officials reported. The mission's deputy ... |
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American monitor killed in Ukraine when mine blasts vehicle - Charlotte Observer
The Tenth Kyiv Security Foruman important foreign affairs conference conducted annually by the Open Ukraine Foundationoccurred on April 6-7. Headed by Ukraines former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and his wife Terezia, the conference underscored an important message: the need for the West to stay engaged and maintain security in the borderlands between Russia and Central Europe, particularly in Ukraine, the most important country in Eastern Europe between the Baltic and Black seas.
This year, the tenth anniversary event was titled "Old Conflicts and New Trends: Strategies for a Changing World. For Ukraine today, security challenges are defined by the continuing war in the east, the occupation of Crimea, the new US administrations efforts to find its own voice, and Europes ongoing crises and weaknesses.
The conference was crowded with important figures, underscoring its high profile. President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groisman, and Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin all delivered policy addresses. The prime ministers of Estonia, Lithuania, and LatviaJri Ratas, Saulius Skvernelis, and Mris Kuinskis, respectivelyalso spoke. Deputy Secretary General of NATO Rose Gottemoeller represented the Alliance, and US Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch gave a speech.
Russia was represented by three opposition figures: former Duma member Ilya Ponomarev, who voted against the annexation of Crimea and now lives in Kyiv; Dr. Lilia Shevtsova, a veteran policy analyst and former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; and Professor Andrey Zubov, who was fired from the Moscow State Institute for International Relations for opposing Russian aggression in Crimea.
The Forum opened on the day the European Parliament voted to allow Ukrainians visa-free travel to the European Union. However, European countries still lack a unified position on Ukraine, which plays into Moscows hands. Some of the populist and extreme right parties in France and Italy, such as Marine Le Pens National Front, and Italys Five Star Movement, have taken pro-Russian positions.
The Forum revealed three important messages. First, Ukraines will is strong. Every Ukrainian speaker at the event expressed a commitment to fightand diefor their country. Answering a question from the public, senior Slovak and Lithuanian defense officials both said that in their countries, people would sacrifice their lives for independence. But attendees expressed doubts whether Western Europeans are equally committed.
Second, the Intermariumthe borderlands area from the Baltic to the Black Sea, which includes the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldovais consolidating. The interaction between Poles, Ukrainians, and Balts is at all-time high. Romanians and Bulgarians are also crucial to buttress this strategic area, which is standing up to Russian pressure. However, their ability to resist Moscows ambitions depends on NATO and US support.
What Europe and the United States are missing in Ukraine and the neighborhood is a clear understanding that both history and geography are dictating Russias push west. That push started in the fifteenth century with Ivan III, who occupied the Novgorod Republic, the only democracy that has ever existed on Russian soil. What ensued was a bloody purge and relentless expansion to the west, which included wars against Sweden under Ivan the Terrible a century later. In the eighteenth century, the Russian Empire eventually destroyed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and with it, Ukrainian Cossack independent proto-states.
Russia will always treat countries to its west, including Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and the Baltic states, as buffers at best, and zones for economic, security, and cultural expansion at worst. Western decision makers always need to keep this in mind.
Part of the EUs relative disengagement comes from a lack of funding. European security budgets, with a few exceptions, are still below the 2014 Wales NATO summit target of 2 percent of GDP. Without increased defense funding, Europeans have to rely on the United States, which currently has other prioritiesfrom North Korea and the South China Sea to Iran and Syria. European countries, especially Germany, need to begin funding their own eastern borderland security efforts.
Third, and most important, Western policies toward Ukraine need American leadership. The Kyiv Security Forum demonstrated that Germany, Italy, France, and the UK have different priorities when it comes to Russia and Ukraine. Without the Trump administrations clear understanding of where the US national interests and priorities lie and its policy leadership and implementation, in terms of both NATO and its allies cooperation, Ukraine could become a flashpoint with far-reaching implications.
The Tenth Kyiv Security Forum accomplished many things; above all, it clarified that Ukraine is committed to a long-term fight, but that a gathering even as well organized as this one is no replacement for either political leadership or military power. Those need to be provided by the United States and its NATO allies.
Ariel Cohen is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and principal of International Market Analysis Ltd. He tweets @Dr_Ariel_Cohen.
The article was first published by The Atlantic Council.
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More Solidarity with Ukraine Needed, Say Speakers at the Kyiv Security Forum - Huffington Post
In nearly two decades of cricket reporting, it is still easily one of the more bizarre sights this writer has witnessed.
It was December 2006 in Centurion, with South Africa having an unassailable 3-0 lead in the one-day international (ODI) series with India.
Ahead of the final match, several of the Indian players knew that they would soon be on a flight back home, with no part to play in the Test series to follow.
One of them was Suresh Raina, such a breath of fresh air on his introduction to the side a year earlier.
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Now, with Indias batsmen all at sea in seam-friendly conditions, Raina was being singled out as an example of everything that was wrong with Greg Chappells coaching methods.
It had been less than 18 months earlier that Rahul Dravid, soon to be appointed captain after the axing of Sourav Ganguly, spotted Raina at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.
Within weeks, he and Chappell had ensured that Raina, 19, was fast-tracked into the India squad, and a debut in Sri Lanka.
But in alien conditions, and with the first flush of form having deserted him, Raina looked hopeless, especially against the short ball directed at the body.
Away from the main practice area at Centurion, even as his teammates were packing up, Raina was wielding a stump and facing Ian Frazer, Chappells assistant, who was throwing a golf ball at him from 10 yards away.
For Chappell, Raina was the prototype of the young cricketer he wanted to mould young, selfless, enthusiastic, and with an impeccable work ethic.
He was firm in his belief that the skill deficit could be bridged. And he was not the only one.
In May 2007, nearly half a year after he had been dropped, Lawrence Booth now editor of the Wisden Cricketers Almanack wrote of Raina: "The way he dismantled England during an ODI in Faridabad in March 2006 hinted at a rare genius, and Greg Chappell never stopped singing his praises. Aged 20, he has plenty of time on his side."
That was in a Wisden Cricketer feature on the 10 cricketers who would "define" cricket in the next decade. There was no mention of MS Dhoni to put this in context.
If he was stuck with the label of "Chappells boy" in his initial years and he was so sensitive about it that he refused to answer any questions about his coach-mentor during an interview with this writer in 2010 Raina soon came to be identified as part of the "Dhoni camp", whatever that meant.
From the inception of the Indian Premier League in 2008 until the time the Chennai Super Kings were banned for two seasons after the 2015 season, Raina was a fixture in canary yellow.
More often than not, he was brilliant. In each of the first seven seasons, he topped 400 runs, at a strike-rate in excess of 140, the only batsman to do so.
And it wasnt as though he owed his India place to Dhoni and his exploits in Chennai either. When the definitive account of Indian cricket is written, it will record that Raina played two of the most important cameos in the countrys history.
Without his 34 not out in the quarter-final against Australia who hadnt lost a knockout game in the showpiece event since 1996 and 36 in the semi-final against Pakistan, there would have been no Indian World Cup win in 2011.
But with the emergence of a new power generation, weaned on the IPL and overseas tours with the A team, Raina has slipped down the pecking order to such an extent that he no longer possesses a central contract.
His last Test appearance was in January 2015 and his last ODI appearance was against South Africa in Mumbai in October 2015.
With ill health, his own and his infant daughters, plaguing him, he was a peripheral figure in the Indian domestic season. Some in the Indian cricketing fraternity went to the extent of saying he had lost his appetite for the game.
Raina scoffs at that notion. In his last international outing, a Twenty20 international against England in February, he scored a 45-ball 63 that included five sixes.
In six IPL matches, he has 243 runs off just 164 balls. With a major tournament looming, it would be a shock if he was not at least considered for the squad.
Still just 30, his race is far from run.
Things to watch for in the Indian Premier League this week
Malingas struggle
Like Raina, Lasith Malinga has been one of the IPLs central figures, absolutely central to the Mumbai Indians title triumphs in 2013 and 2015.
He had not played since, missing the entire 2016 campaign through injury. The road back this season started well enough, but has since encompassed two poor games, among the worst of a storied career.
First, the Gujarat Lions left him with figures of one for 51. After that, the Kings XI Punjab batsmen cashed in to the tune of 58 runs, without a wicket, from his four overs.
With Mumbai top of the table, no panic buttons are being pushed. But if the trend continues, Malinga the leagues leading wicket-taker with 147 could find himself in an unfamiliar role on the sidelines.
Has Uthappas time come and gone?
When he should have been picked for Indias Twenty20 squad, after a stellar 2014 IPL season that saw him score 660 runs at a strike-rate of 137.78, Robin Uthappa was ignored.
Shikhar Dhawan, who has always struggled to come to grips with the format, continued in the Indian team, and Uthappa, whose returns dipped in 2015, did not make the team for the World Twenty20 on home soil in 2016. After another underwhelming season in 2016, he has roused himself with 174 runs at a strike-rate of 161 in five innings this season.
At 31, it would be a surprise if the selectors turned to him. But with the ability to keep wicket as well, all Uthappa can do is keep churning out the runs.
Tripathis moment of fame
Right from season one, the IPL has provided 15 minutes of fame, and sometimes more, for journeymen cricketers.
Swapnil Asnodkar starred for Rajasthan Royals in their title-winning season. Paul Valthaty struck a memorable hundred for Kings XI Punjab in 2011. And Kamran Khan, who is now back to farming, enjoyed a brief spell in the limelight with left-arm slingshots that were subsequently ruled illegal.
Now, we have Maharashtras Rahul Tripathi, whose white-ball record in domestic cricket is even more modest than his first-class stats.
But after starting the season with 10, 33 and 31 Tripathi smashed a 32-ball half-century against Sunrisers Hyderabad, the defending champions.
At 26, chances are that he is another Asnodkar rather than an India prospect, but for a faltering Pune side, he is proved an inspired opening gambit.
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IPL 2017: Suresh Raina's heroics for Gujarat Lions highlight his hunger for the game - The National