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Geopolitics

Italian Police Detain Hundreds In Major Anti-Mob Sweep

IL TEMPO, ANSA (Italy)

Worldcrunch

ROME - Italian police arrested at least 116 people Friday, in two major anti-mafia operations in Rome and the southern Calabria region.

In pre-dawn raids along the coast near Rome, some 500 police officers apprehended 51 people. A helicopter, dog units and maritime police took part in what the Italian news agency, Ansa, calls the largest anti-mafia operation undertaken in and around the Itallian capital.

Also on Friday, a separate blitz was launched in Lamezia Terme, in Calabria - the heartland of ‘Ndrangheta mob syndicate – Rome daily, Il Tempo, reports. Another 65 arrest warrants were issued in this southern region from where the clan runs an international crime network.

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Lamezia Terme, where 65 people were arrested - photo: Lametino

Investigators told Ansa, these long-prepared operations targeted "" the "holy of holies' of the Roman and Sicilian crime."" Businessmen, politicians, lawyers, doctors and prison employees are among those targeted. Some of the suspects are believed to be involved in an insurance fraud system that financed the purchase of arms and drugs, while others are linked to murders and conspiracy to commit murder.

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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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