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Geopolitics

Le Monde To Macron: Grant Snowden Asylum In France

Leading French daily says that France (and the West) must live up to claims as protectors of freedom as represented by the exiled American whistleblower.

Snowden has appeared all over Europe, always remotely.
Snowden has appeared all over Europe, always remotely.
Le Monde

-Editorial-

PARIS — During the Cold War, Western democracies rightly denounced the mass surveillance put in place by Eastern totalitarian regimes, offering refuge to dissidents who protested against such violations of basic freedom.

A few decades later, the Orwellian dystopia of disappearing privacy is becoming more and more concrete around the world, thanks to state intelligence agencies and the complicity of the giant internet companies. The revelation that civil liberties were being nibbled away at came to light thanks, in great part, to Edward Snowden: the talented techie turned enemy of the state in his native country, the United States.

In 2013, the secret documents he leaked to the press revealed large-scale surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency, his employer. In the wake of the September 11th attacks, taking advantage of the widespread use of the internet and exponential storage capacities, intelligence services began secretly and systematically capturing citizen communications— without any democratic oversight whatsoever.

Snowden's revelations triggered a greater awareness of the standing of civil liberties, not just with political powers— who themselves were sometimes spied on by the intelligence agencies of allied countries— but also with the public. It shone a light on the ambiguous role of the top American tech firms and cleared the way for the burgeoning counter-attack by government authorities, whose rights were being eroded by the ambitions of the likes of Google and Facebook.

That Edward Snowden, flying towards a South-American exile around this time six years ago, ended up finding refuge in Moscow, where his passport was confiscated by the U.S. during a layover, doesn't change anything: he remains the world's most famous whistleblower, a powerful force in spurring a global mobilization to preserve civil liberties.

Earlier this week, Snowden spoke by teleconference on French radio station France Inter to speak about his new book. Recalling that he had applied, in vain, for asylum in France during the presidency of François Hollande, Snowden said he hoped current President Emmanuel Macron would reconsider letting him enter. If that happened, France would be doing itself an honor to welcome and protect him.

The West shouldn't allow Putin to stake a claim as protector of this freedom fighter.

The former French president rejected his application in 2013 because Snowden was not physically on French soil, which is a condition for asylum in the Geneva Convention. But since 1946, France has had the right to extend beyond French borders a special protection procedure that extends to anyone persecuted for their efforts to uphold liberty. French Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet has stated that she's in favor of this ruling, as is a top ally of Marcon, European Parliament member Nathalie Loiseau, who believes Snowden "has done humanity a service."

There's no denying the shock that welcoming Snowden to France would create, nor the potential consequences of such an important decision in terms of intelligence cooperation.

The whistleblower's current situation shouldn't let us forget that authoritarian countries like Russia and China are the first to use the internet to repress their citizens. It is for this exact reason that Western democracies shouldn't allow Vladimir Putin to stake a claim as protector of the freedom fighter that is Edward Snowden. Granting him asylum would be a good way for Macron to put into practice what he preaches about human rights being "the common good of all Europe," and about France's particular singularity in this world on this regard.

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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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