Raging Wildfires in France and Spain, and a Victory for Student Protestors in India
Since mid-July, huge, blazing wildfires have torn through France, Spain, and Portugal, forcing more than 350,000 people to evacuate their homes. In Spain, fires have burned dangerously near the cities of Madrid, the capital of Spain, and the city of Valencia. Just in the past week, over 116,000 people in Spain have been forced from their homes. Officials in the Spanish capital Madrid have said the fires are the worst the region has ever experienced. In France, French President Emmanuel Macron, visiting the fire-ravaged area in the Gironde region near the city of Bordeaux, called the “completely unprecedented” wildfire the “toughest since World War Two”. At its peak, the wildfire came in the vicinity of nine miles (15km) from the south of Bordeaux, although the city was never under serious threat of fire. French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has claimed that one fire is so strong that it “generates its own winds”. Approximately 250,000 people in the area have been evacuated.
India’s education minister has resigned on Saturday, meeting a demand of students whose as student anti-government protests swelled this week beyond the capital New Delhi and onto the streets of more than a dozen cities, calling for his resignation. After two months, students protesting in India as the “Cockroach Janta Party” (CJP) have won their fight to improve Indian education. The struggle began with a mean comment from the top judge of India’s supreme court. He compared young people without jobs to “cockroaches”. Abhijeet Dipke, an Indian political communication strategist, felt hurt by the comment. On social media, he asked: “What if all cockroaches came together?” Then 22 million people online followed and joined his cause. After weeks of camping out and protesting, government representatives met with the group, and by last Saturday, the government had agreed to a lot many of the CJP’s demands, including the education minister’s resignation, having to step down as well as a “fix the schools campaign” even after with this the party is still going strong.