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Towns on Ukrainesceasefire line are markingthree years since some were retaken by government forces frompro-Russian separatists. But there is little cause for celebration:houses in Marinka, Krasnogorovka and Avdiivka bear the scars of war. Some of these scars are recent, including a large house with nine apartments that was destroyed in shelling in late July.

The war in eastern Ukraine is a forgotten conflict in many ways. It is talked aboutas frozen or hidden yetthere is little recognition that the fight is still rumbling on. Unlike Bosnia or the border between Georgia and the breakaway statelets of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, eastern Ukraine witnesses dozens of exchanges of fire a day. Visiting the front line forseveral days makes it clearjust how active this conflict still is.

In early July, Theresa May and Boris Johnson met with Ukraines Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman ata summit in London designed to show continued western support for Kiev. Delivering Ukraines ambitious reform agenda is not just good for Ukraine but good for the whole of Europe, Boris reassured his guests. The Foreign Secretary also said the UK was at the forefront of sending a British military training mission to aid Ukraines armed forces.

The US is even moredeeply involved in the Ukrainian imbroglio. Paul Manafort, Donald Trumps campaign chairman in 2016, was closely linked to Ukraines former pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. An article in Bloomberg publishedin May noted that in the decade before he worked for Trump, Manaforts efforts did for Moscow what its finest minds had failed to do: help get a pro-Russian candidate installed in Kiev.

The deep connections that the 2014 Ukraine crises had to the West and Moscow arenow at the heart of the continued suspicion overshadowing relations. The Zapad military exercise in September in Belarus is being closely watched by NATO countries and neighbours over fears that it is more than just a military drill. In early August, Ukraine participated in a NATO exercisein Georgia called Noble Partner. Troops from the UK, Germany, Turkey, Slovenia and Armeniaall took part.

This is why what happens today on the ceasefire line in the Donbas matters. With more than 10,000 killed in the conflict so far, the border between the Ukraine army and the separatists is at the heart of the Wests conflict with Moscow. Ukraine is trying to become part of the EU and NATO. It wants to refurbish its army along NATO lines. Speaking to commentators and officials in Kiev it is clear that they feel the country has turned the corner on reforms and that the war has enabled the country to set a clear national agenda.

However, the soldiers on the ground are still seeing action almost every day. This includes larger calibre ordinance, such as 120 mm mortars, being fired a clear violation of the agreements signed in Minsk in February 2015 between Ukraine and Russia. The separatists in Donetsk and Lugansk, where millions of people still reside, show no sign of seeking peace or being willing to allow the Ukrainian government to return to these areas. Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, will not be returned to Ukraine. At the moment therefore it seems this is a slow war of attrition. Ukrainians argue this itis alsoa drain on Russias economy because Russia is close to the separatists. But the war is fought on Ukrainian soil and it istaking its toll on civilians and military personnel. For now, this low level conflictshows no sign of stopping any time soon.

Link:
Ukraine's slow war of attrition still rumbles on - Spectator.co.uk (blog)

Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 18 visited the city of Sevastopol in Crimea, triggering an angry rebuke from Kyiv, which accused him of disregarding international law by traveling to the Ukrainian peninsula seized by Moscow three years ago.

Putin's visit included a trip to a memorial complex honoring a coastal battery that defended Sevastopol during World War II, where he and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev placed flowers and met with members of the Night Wolves, a pro-Kremlin biker movement.

The trip is at least the ninth visit by Putin to Crimea since it was annexed by Russia in March 2014. Both the United States and the European Union have hit Moscow with several waves of sanctions over the land grab and Russia's backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry denounced Putin's visit in an August 18 statement, condemning it as a "gross violation of Ukraine's state sovereignty and territorial integrity."

The ministry added that it had delivered a note of protest to the Russian Foreign Ministry over what it called Moscow's "cynical and demonstrative disregard" for "generally accepted norms of international law."

In March 2014, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution declaring that the Russian-orchestrated referendum on Crimea's secession from Ukraine was invalid and urging the international community "not to recognize any alteration of the status" of the peninsula.

The measure passed by a vote of 100-11 with 58 abstentions.

"Crimea and the city of Sevastopol are and will remain an integral part of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

The war between Russia-backed separatists and Kyiv's forces that followed the Crimea annexation has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014 and persisted despite a pact known as Minsk II, a February 2015 agreement on a cease-fire and steps to resolve the conflict.

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Putin Angers Ukraine With Visit To Russia-Annexed Crimea - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

While the intelligence community continues to look into Fancy Bear, the hacking group widely believed to have broken the Democratic National Committees cybersecurity last year, authorities are reportedly getting help from Ukraine. The New York Times reports that a hacker credited with developing one of the tools used during the DNC infiltration has been speaking with police (just writing malicious code is not criminal, so he hasnt been charged) and been made available to the FBI.

Profexer, as he is known online, created the P.A.S. web shell, though Serhiy Demediuk, head of the Ukrainian Cyber Police, told theTimesthat he told us he didnt create it to be used in the way it was. The software was freely available online.

Also newly reported in theTimesreport is that the FBI is in possession of evidence of a Russia-linked electoral hack that happened in Ukraine in 2014. Traces of the same code from that hack were found by researchers investigating the DNC.

Whats interesting is that the Ukrainian election cyberattack revealed damning connections between the Russian government. Heres how it played out:

Intriguingly, in the cyberattack during the Ukrainian election, what appears to have been a bungle by Channel 1, a Russian state television station, inadvertently implicated the government authorities in Moscow.

Hackers had loaded onto a Ukrainian election commission server a graphic mimicking the page for displaying results. This phony page showed a shocker of an outcome: an election win for a fiercely anti-Russian, ultraright candidate, Dmytro Yarosh. Mr. Yarosh in reality received less than 1 percent of the vote.

The false result would have played into a Russian propaganda narrative that Ukraine today is ruled by hard-right, even fascist, figures.

The fake image was programmed to display when polls closed, at 8 p.m., but a Ukrainian cybersecurity company, InfoSafe, discovered it just minutes earlier and unplugged the server.

State television in Russia nevertheless reported that Mr. Yarosh had won and broadcast the fake graphic, citing the election commissions website, even though the image had never appeared there. The hacker had clearly provided Channel 1 with the same image in advance, but the reporters had failed to check that the hack actually worked.

The DNC hack shared code with the 2014 Ukrainian hack, in which circumstantial evidence points to Russia government collaboration. As has often been the case throughout this process, the evidence falls short of conclusive, though the similarities in tools and tactics during both hacks are tough to ignore.

Two years ago, Andrew Macias became a meme after a reporter asked if hed miss his mom while he was at school and he started to cry.

Breitbarts editor-in-chief tweeted just the word war, and the replies are exactly what youd expect.

Redditors, too.

The Grease classic reimagined for the resistance.

James Damore also claims his anti-diversity memo empowered women at Google.

Silicon Valley is cracking down on hate speech but Gab.ai wants no part in that movement.

Earlier this week, a music site pointed out 37 white-power bands available on Spotify.

For when you need to protect your data quickly.

From cases thatll keep your phone charged all night to something that doesnt look basic AF, weve got a phone case for everyone.

Cloudflare kicked the Daily Stormer offline in part because it could.

Facebook Anon was taken offline following the 2016 election.

Google, GoDaddy, Twitter, Facebook, and Cloudflare have all cut ties with the site.

One hacker whose code was used is speaking with authorities.

Michael Cohen tweeted he has no tolerance for racism and included a half-dozen pictures of himself with black people for dramatic effect.

Its playing catch-up with Netflix.

Its no longer about equal access to an open dialogue.

Jefferson Davis, the lone president of the Confederate, briefly had some company on Wikipedia today.

Think of the statues, please.

See more here:
Ukraine Is Proving Key to the DNC Hack Investigation - New York Magazine

The 25-year-old custodian will play in the AFC Cup knockouts later this month for Bengaluru FC

Federation Cup champions Bengaluru FC are to face DPR Korean side 4.25 SC on April 23rd in the first of the two legs of the AFC Cup knockout rounds.

On Wednesday, they released a 25-member squad list which had been registered for the AFC Cup.

Juventus 12/1 to win Champions League

However, with the club having signed goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu on August 16th, the question on everyones mind is whether the player would be allowed to ply his trade in the said competition.

Gurpreet's return to India - a wise move?

The answer is in the affirmative and this is thanks to the shrewd planning on behalf of the club.

The last date to register players for the AFC Cup tie was August 6th. Not known to many Gurpreets name was included in the 26-player list submitted.

The catch was that the JSW-owned club had to submit the contractual documents including the International Transfer Certificate (ITC) at least seven days before the first leg of the AFC Cup knockout game, ie, by midnight on August 16th.This is was what the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had demanded from Bengaluru FC.

Exclusive Q&A with the architect of BFC's Gurpreet coup

Following the breakdown of the potential move to Portuguese club Boavista FC, Bengaluru FC moved swiftly in the market to directly deal with Stabaek FC. The Norwegian club had problems of their own as they had to sign Gurpreets replacement, John Alvarage from Sweden before the end of the transfer window with the deadline being August 16th.

On Wednesday, Bengaluru FC officials had alerted the concerned authorities at the AFC, All India Football Federation (AIFF) and the Norwegian FA to act swiftly in order to ensure that they get the ITC and that his contractual obligations are processed just in time. In fact, the ITC was submitted at 11:30 pm IST, just 30 minutes prior to the expiry of the deadline.

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The Blues have been plotting the move for Gurpreet for the last six weeks or so and have finally managed to rope him in. He will participate in the first training session with the rest of the team on Friday.

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Gurpreet Singh Sandhu: How is he eligible to play in AFC Cup - Goal.com

Obscured by the tumult surrounding President Trumps horrendous response to the violence in Charlottesville, Va., the White House managed to take a significant positive step this week: issuing an executive order designed to lower regulatory barriers to infrastructure projects, and to speed up and simplify the process for obtaining necessary permits and clearances.

It wasnt the first White House to try. When I worked there in 2009, I called a meeting of agency officials, asking them to explore how we might streamline the permitting process for both individuals and companies.

About halfway into the one-hour meeting, I realized that none of the officials had offered even a single word in response to my question. Instead, they explained why nothing could be done as if the purpose of the meeting was to demonstrate that the status quo was great, and that it would be impossible to change it.

The status quo is not great. Its ridiculous. If the permitting bureaucracy were a supervillain, it would be the Blob. It can take several years, and millions of dollars, to obtain environmental clearance for construction permits, even if the goal is to develop green infrastructure and to improve the environment.

Significant reforms are needed in three areas.

The first involves the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to catalogue and consider environmental effects before they can proceed with actions that might hurt the environment. Its a well-intended law with an important goal, but in some respects its also a case study in unintended consequences.

Under the law, developers often have to navigate an expensive and costly approval process, potentially including draft environmental impact statements, comments on environmental-impact statements, nasty public hearings and final environmental-impact statements. If they manage to get through all that, they might well face a lawsuit from an environmental organization, maybe from community groups, and maybe from self-interested companies who just dont want the competition.

Environmental-impact statements can run to hundreds of pages. The review process can easily take three years or more, so agencies and developers sometimes just give up.

The second problem involves the number of entities with veto power. If you want to improve an airport, build a new highway or increase sources of renewable energy, you might have to deal with several state agencies, local officials and two or more federal agencies as well as an assortment of private organizations with economic or environmental concerns.

If even one of those agencies wants a delay, or has some kind of bee in its bonnet, it can stop the project in its tracks. For countless people (including small businesses and even individuals), its something out of Kafka: No ones in charge.

The third problem involves bureaucratic culture. For many permitting authorities, the incentive is to delay, to require more documentation or to just say no.

If an agency maintains the status quo, it will avoid negative public attention, noisy complaints from interest groups and potentially serious risks (environmental or otherwise). It might even look like a hero. It wont bear the costs of refusing to allow a project to go forward, even if they turn out to be very high for the American people.

Alert to these problems, the Obama administration issued some significant reforms, which included greater transparency, coordination and accountability. But more streamlining needs to be done.

Trumps executive order calls for tracking every major infrastructure project, with public disclosure of deadlines and of whether theyve been met, alongside potential penalties for poor performance. Importantly, it also requires measurement of the costs of environmental reviews.

One of its best provisions calls for one federal decision, meaning there will be a lead agency for every major infrastructure project with the responsibility for navigating the project through the federal environmental review and authorization process.

The order also imposes new obligations on the Department of the Interior, the Office of Management and Budget and the Council on Environmental Quality requiring them to reduce burdens and simplify the process.

For Trumps order to work, everything will depend, of course, on implementation. As President Harry Truman said of his Army-trained successor, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower: Hell sit here and hell say, Do this! Do that! And nothing will happen. Poor Ike it wont be a bit like the Army.

Defeating the Blob will require sustained follow-through from the executive branch, and both dedication and toughness on the part of its leadership. But lets give credit where its due: This weeks executive order provides an excellent foundation for achieving that goal.

Cass Sunstein is a Bloomberg View columnist.

2017, Bloomberg View

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Obama vet cheers Trump's assault on the red-tape Blob - New York Post