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Geopolitics

From Aung to Zimbabwe, Foreign Pressure Goes Only So Far

Protests in Indonesia against Aung San Suu Kyi
Protests in Indonesia against Aung San Suu Kyi
Stuart Richardson

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's three decades in power may finally be over.

Gunfire broke out late Tuesday in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare as military panzers moved in to prevent anyone from accessing government offices. At around 5 a.m. Wednesday, Maj. Gen. S.B. Moyo, a ranking member of the army, appeared on state television. "We wish to assure the nation that His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe Comrade RG Mugabe and his family are safe," the commander said in his statement, Al Jazeera reports. "We are only targeting criminals around him who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country."

We can only guess who these "criminals' might be, while human rights activists will scoff at the idea that Mugabe doesn't deserve such a label. Since the end of the Cold War, Zimbabwe has been a virtual pariah state, run with an iron hand by the now 93-year-old Mugabe, who has mixed Marxist-Leninist ideology with opportunistic Black African nationalism to hold on to power at all costs.

Having long denounced U.S. and Western imperialism, and his internal rivals in the southern African country, Mugabe's latest power grab was the recent removal of his vice president in an apparent bid to clear a path to power for his wife, Grace Mugabe.

Mugabe in 2008 — Photo: Sgt. Jeremy Lock

The Johannesburg-based African News Agency reports this morning that Mugabe will step down and his wife will leave the country, though observers caution that the situation remains fluid — and the strongman has managed in the past to survive similar attempts to unseat him.

Zimbabwe's recent history is a reminder that autocratic leaders — dictators and the democratically elected alike — are not apt to cede to international pressure. At the 31st ASEAN summit in Manila, which ended Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised objections to the Philippines brutal crackdown on drugs, which has reportedly resulted in more than 12,000 extrajudicial killings by police.

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines made it clear he won't stand for any external critique of his government. "It is a personal and official insult," he decried at a press conference. "I only answer to the Filipino. I will not answer to any other bullshit, especially foreigners. Lay off."

The summit's host was not the only attendee to face criticism. Trudeau, alongside the UN, the United States, as well as numerous other organizations and countries, have called on the government of Myanmar to end widespread violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority in the western state of Rakhine.

World leaders had once thought they could influence Myanmar, whose de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, won the Nobel Prize for standing up to decades of junta rule. But in a very different manner than either Duterte or Mugabi, the "Lady" is having none of it.

Some will argue that criticism from abroad only ends up boosting a bad leader's popularity at home. Still, saying nothing in the face of injustice can never be the right message.

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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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