PRESS REVIEW – Monday, August 31: The international press tell the story of a heroic headmaster in Nepal who managed to save more than 1,600 pupils, while the Nepali press lambast a lack of accountability for major polluters. Meanwhile in France, back-to-school season reopens wounds over child sex abuse in before- and after-school clubs. Finally, do ants and bees have a concept of voting?
Rajendra Dadabi, who is headmaster at Tribhuvan Trishuli secondary school, managed to save the lives of his 1,643 pupils during last week’s flash floods, as The Times recounts. Meanwhile, an opinion piece in The Himalayan Times denounces Western hypocrisy when it comes to climate justice, underlining that Nepal produces just 0.1 percent of global carbon emissions, but “is now paying, in bodies and bridges, for a century of somebody else’s industry.” In France, as children return to school for the new year, after an avalanche of reports of child sex abuse in public childcare facilities last year – and more surfacing this summer – both Le Parisien and Le Figaro report on parents whose trust is seriously damaged. Finally, an article in National Geographic studies the voting and voting-adjacent behaviours of ants, bees and other insects.