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Russia

After Russia Enters Syria War, A Spike In Terror Threats At Home

Police forces in Moscow
Police forces in Moscow
Nicolai Sergeyev and Alexei Sokovnin

MOSCOWRussian intelligence services are pursuing a network of Islamic State (ISIS) militants operating in Russia as the country faces an increase in terrorist activity, in response to Moscow's recent air campaign in Syria.

Kommersant has learned that a group of terror suspects, said to be trained in Syria, were detained after a raid this week on an apartment in western Moscow where officers seized and deactivated a homemade explosive, with a yield of about five kilograms of TNT equivalent.

Three young Chechen men have since appeared in court. Investigators say that one of those arrested, Aslan Baysultanov, was the organizer and that the group had planned to carry out an attack on a transport facility in Moscow, most likely the metro.

Before travelling by train and then bus to the Russian capital, Baysultanov is believed to have arrived in Chechnya from Syria to carry out terrorist attacks, according to sources at the nation's central intelligence organization, the Federal Security of the Russian Federation (FSB).

Guns, grenades, and detonators were seized. The FSB also claims Baysultanov took part in an ISIS training camp. The suspects could face 20 years prison if convicted of the charges of preparing a terrorist attack and production and distribution of explosives. The three have been remanded in custody until Dec. 12.

The search is on for several other suspects, including Elbrus Batirov, from the Kabardino-Balkar Republic in the North Caucasus. Batirov, who was once a fighter in his native Chegemsky distric near the border with Georgia, later led a local gang before escaping to Turkey.

The FSB has been targeting homegrown threats for a while. Its large-scale operation started with the arrest of North Ossetian suspect Rashid Yevloyev who had been wanted since 2014 for carrying out terrorism training.

Yevloyev's parents said he was about to receive an Islamic education in Turkey before he secretly crossed the Turkish-Syrian border and went to a camp in Aleppo, joining others from the South Caucasus for combat training. Yevloyev's lawyers have told Kommersant that their client has kept mum about his activities.

Meanwhile, the FSB and Russia's Internal Affairs Ministry responsible for Chechnya have been instructed to be on the lookout for other potential militants who have also arrived in the Caucasus from Syria.

The warning comes as ISIS called for jihad to be waged on Russia as Moscow intensifies its air campaign against Islamic militants in Syria.

In an online statement, ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani appealed to jihadists in the Caucasus, saying that "if the Russian army kills the people of Syria, then kill their people."

Russia said that its air force has hit 86 terrorist targets in Syria within 24 hours this week — the highest one-day tally since it launched its bombing campaign on Sept. 30.

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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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