EU-DIGEST

Russia’s world-changing revolution came 100 years ago this November, but our view of it has been shaped by the repression and massive death that came in its wake, as well as by decades of Russian-U.S. conflict. History professor Mark Steinberg is taking a fresh look at the events of 1917, both in a book on the revolution and through a series of talks this fall, including stops in Moscow and at the Chicago Humanities Festival. He spoke with News Bureau social sciences editor Craig Chamberlain.

Read more at: What should we make of Russia’s revolution now? | History at Illinois

Afghanistan is falling apart. With US and Nato troops leaving the country earlier than planned, experts are warning that the Taliban could take control of the country within six months. Currently the insurgents control the strategically important province of Helmand, and control or contest territory nearly every province in the war-torn country.

As many as 188 of Afghanistan’s 407 districts are directly under Taliban rule. With up to 85,000 full-time fighters), the insurgents have already forced thousands of troops belonging to the US-trained Afghan army to surrender or flee.

In response to the Taliban’s onslaught, local militias are fighting back. Most notable among them is a coalition of militias in northern Afghanistan called the Second Resistance, led by Ahmad Massoud (the son of Northern Alliance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was assassinated in September 2001).

The Second Resistance has several thousand fighters and militia commanders who have fought against the Taliban, mostly of Tajik origin. Massoud insists that the Taliban will not have the same success in fighting his coalition due to far greater resolve of his soldiers compared to the Afghan military. But henceforth he will have to operate without the help of Nato troops.

Read More at: Afghanistan: two decades of Nato help leaves a failed and fractured state on the brink of civil war

With US troops eyeing their final exit from Afghanistan in September, Germany pulled out all of its remaining troops on Tuesday. Last week, Germany's Defense Ministry said around 570 troops were still deployed.

The last of them have now been flown out of the northern city of Mazar — ending a nearly two decade-long mission. The contingent also included members of the KSK special forces, who were tasked with securing the camp during the move.

Read more at: Germany pulls last troops from Afghanistan, ending nearly 20-year mission | News | DW | 29.06.2021

If tradition holds (and who knows about that anymore), on a cold night this February Joe Biden will motorcade from his new home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue up Capitol Hill, and a new House sergeant-at-arms will proclaim, “Madame Speaker, the president of the United States!” In front of that so-familiar flag, the 46th president will ask a joint session of Congress for unprecedented, bipartisan help in facing the worst domestic crises since FDR and the Great Depression — a race to vaccinate millions of Americans as thousands die daily, amid food lines of the many unable to work.

Yet as Biden looks out over the House chamber, he will see staring back at him the blank faces of 147 lawmakers who just days earlier had voted to suspend not just the basic tenets of U.S. democracy but the very notion of rational truth in voting to halt the certification of the Democrat’s election, on utterly unfounded voter fraud claims. And arguably that’s not the worst of it.

Read more at: https://www.inquirer.com/columnists/attytood/congress-expel-members-who-aided-insurrection-20210114.html