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In The News

Kim Jong-Un Blames U.S., Iraq Election Results, Bi Superman

Kim Jong-Un Blames U.S., Iraq Election Results, Bi Superman

At least 15 were killed following floods in northern China

Anne-Sophie Goninet, Jane Herbelin and Bertrand Hauger

👋 Halu!*

Welcome to Tuesday, where Iraq's hardline Shia cleric claims election victory, the UK confronts its historic COVID failure and Superman comes out as bisexual. We also look at "silent" Chinese investment in Latin America's railway sector.

✉️ You can receive our LGBTQ+ International roundup every week directly in your inbox. Subscribe here.

[*Inuktitut - Inuit]

🌎  7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• COVID update: Thailand will reopen next month for fully vaccinated travellers from at least 10 low-risk countries. In the U.S., Texas governor Greg Abbot has issued an executive order banning mandatory vaccination for employees, including in private companies, in the state. Meanwhile in the UK, a new report says that the British government's early response to the coronavirus pandemic last year and its failure to act quickly was "one of the most important public health failures" in the country's history.

• Shia cleric wins Iraq elections: Shia Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's party won 73 seats in parliament, the biggest gains in Iraq's elections after a record low turnout.

• North Korea accuses U.S. of threatening peace: Kim Jong-un, speaking beside the country's largest missiles during an exhibition, said the U.S. was the "root cause" of instability on the peninsula and that North Korea's weapons development was necessary in the face of the U.S. hostile policies.

• Interpreter who helped rescue Biden leaves Afghanistan: After a personal plea to the U.S. president, Aman Khalili, an Afghan interpreter who had sheltered then-Senator Joe Biden from a snowstorm in 2008, has been evacuated from his country along with his family.

• Beirut blast investigation paused again: The probe into the Beirut port explosion that killed more than 200 people last year has been suspended for a second time in less than three weeks, after two politicians summoned for questioning filed a new complaint against the judge leading the investigation.

• At least 15 dead in China floods: Heavy rain and flooding are battering China's northern province of Shanxi, leaving at least 15 people dead and forcing more than 120,000 to evacuate. The floods also forced some of the country's key mines to shut down, driving the price of coal to a new record high.

• France to ban plastic packaging for fruits & veggies: In a bid to reduce plastic waste, France has published a list of some 30 fruits and vegetables that will have to be sold without plastic packaging from January 2022.

🗞️  FRONT PAGE

Brazilian daily O Globo celebrates the 90th anniversary of Christ the Redeemer, a "symbol" of the country and one of Rio de Janeiro's most visited sites.

📰  STORY OF THE DAY

China, the silent conductor in Latin America's big rail projects

China's global investment tentacles have reached South American railways, where Chinese firms are "silent" partners in expanding rail networks, through financing or sale of rolling stock, reports Gwendolyn Ledger in Latin American business magazine America Economia.

🚆⚠️ Chinese investment in Latin America's railway sector has gotten off to a shaky start. Over the past decade, the Asian superpower may have suffered from its unfamiliarity with regional and domestic policies, but it's going full steam ahead on investment in an industry where there is much to gain, but also much to risk. Francisco Urdinez, a politics professor, cites the aborted Mexico City to Querétaro railway project as a cautionary tale: The deal was canceled for corruption, and public opinion singled out the Chinese firm in the scandal, even though it was part of a multi-company consortium.

💰 Diego Leiva, a Ph.D. student at Australia's Griffith University, says, "I think they're starting to learn quite a bit and starting to have more success." Leiva points out that Chinese investments abroad are changing as they have grown at a slower rate, lost money and experienced problems in their own economy. He says that authorities are asking firms to be more considerate of risks before investing. For example, they "won't do the entire project anymore, but come in, let's say, through procurement — selling train cars, assorted inputs."

🏗️ In May 2021, the Chinese were successful bidders to build the first leg of the Mayan Train project from Palenque to Escárcega, in the eastern state of Campeche. Their proposal amounted to $781 million and was put together as part of a consortium. In Brazil, they are processing the Ferrogrão project (also known as the EF-170 railway), designed to link the Mato Grosso state with the northern state of Pará. Another Brazilian project is the Pará railway, a joint enterprise between CCCC and Vale mining.

➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com

📣 VERBATIM

"The idea of replacing Clark Kent with another straight white savior felt like a missed opportunity."

— In an interview with the New York Times, DC Comics writer Tom Taylor commented on the upcoming issue of his Superman: Son of Kal-El series in which Jon Kent (son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, and the franchise's current Superman) comes out as bisexual.

✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet, Jane Herbelin and Bertrand Hauger

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Green

Forest Networks? Revisiting The Science Of Trees And Funghi "Reaching Out"

A compelling story about how forest fungal networks communicate has garnered much public interest. Is any of it true?

Thomas Brail films the roots of a cut tree with his smartphone.

Arborist and conservationist Thomas Brail at a clearcutting near his hometown of Mazamet in the Tarn, France.

Melanie Jones, Jason Hoeksema, & Justine Karst

Over the past few years, a fascinating narrative about forests and fungi has captured the public imagination. It holds that the roots of neighboring trees can be connected by fungal filaments, forming massive underground networks that can span entire forests — a so-called wood-wide web. Through this web, the story goes, trees share carbon, water, and other nutrients, and even send chemical warnings of dangers such as insect attacks. The narrative — recounted in books, podcasts, TV series, documentaries, and news articles — has prompted some experts to rethink not only forest management but the relationships between self-interest and altruism in human society.

But is any of it true?

The three of us have studied forest fungi for our whole careers, and even we were surprised by some of the more extraordinary claims surfacing in the media about the wood-wide web. Thinking we had missed something, we thoroughly reviewed 26 field studies, including several of our own, that looked at the role fungal networks play in resource transfer in forests. What we found shows how easily confirmation bias, unchecked claims, and credulous news reporting can, over time, distort research findings beyond recognition. It should serve as a cautionary tale for scientists and journalists alike.

First, let’s be clear: Fungi do grow inside and on tree roots, forming a symbiosis called a mycorrhiza, or fungus-root. Mycorrhizae are essential for the normal growth of trees. Among other things, the fungi can take up from the soil, and transfer to the tree, nutrients that roots could not otherwise access. In return, fungi receive from the roots sugars they need to grow.

As fungal filaments spread out through forest soil, they will often, at least temporarily, physically connect the roots of two neighboring trees. The resulting system of interconnected tree roots is called a common mycorrhizal network, or CMN.

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