Wildfires threaten France. Cubans look to Brazil for new home

0:00This message comes from NPR sponsor Raymond James, a firm where wealth management, banking, and capital markets solutions start with the connections between people. That's the power of personal. Disclosures at RaymondJames.com. Today on State of the World, wildfires in France, and some Cubans no longer look to the U.S. for a new home.

0:26You're listening to State of the World from NPR, the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. It's Thursday, July 30th. I'm Christine Arismath. Cubans are increasingly heading south to places such as Brazil to escape their country's worsening economy. We'll hear more in a moment. First, to France, where for the first time in a week, officials in the region of Bordeaux say they are optimistic that they may have control over fires that have already ravaged more than 100 ,000 acres of land. And tens of thousands of people who were evacuated got the green light to return home.

1:04NPR's Eleanor Beardsley is in Bordeaux in southwest France. She spoke to All Things Considered's Juana Summers. Eleanor, what is it like there? What have you seen and been hearing from people? Yeah, well, when I got off the train this morning, it felt like stepping into an oven with a searing sun beating down, and there was an acrid smell in the air. Residents say depending on the wind, it has been smoky or not, with all these fires, you know, around the city. Although I must say that Paris feels like an oven right now, too. Honestly, with four heat waves before the month of August has even begun, the entire country is parched.

1:38The interior minister said today that firefighters are battling 12 fires around the country right now. But the most serious fires have been here, and a top official in Bordeaux said there are only two active points in these fires now, so they are mostly under control. I mean, that has to be such a relief for people there. What are they telling you? Yeah, people are extremely relieved. You know, I actually met up with a French fire modeling scientist at San Jose State University's Wildfire Research Center in California. Aurelien Coste grew up here, though, and he's working in a rather new scientific field, he said, of trying to predict the dynamics of fires.

2:15And we went to a burned forest where the trunks were blackened and the soil was ashy gray sand. Two firefighters actually lost their lives there. Cost said the fires in Bordeaux this time were similar to recent devastating blazes in California because they were so intense and huge that they interacted with summer storms. He said it becomes like a giant feedback loop. There's this tunnel between the fire and the storm that can go six miles high, a column of heat and gas, and you cannot put it out. He said this fire cloud phenomenon is called pyrocumulonimbus. Here's Cost. You can have downdrafts that are very, very intense.

2:55And so when this downdraft, they hit the ground, you know, they can form winds that are going in any direction. So this makes the fire behavior very erratic. So it's very hard for the firefighters to anticipate what the fire is doing. So he says with global warming, intense fires like this will surely be part of France's future. I have to say, Eleanor, that sounds pretty frightening. What about those people that we were talking about who were evacuated? Are they headed home now? Yeah, that's some good news. They absolutely are. But a lot of the roads are still closed, especially if there's only one road in and out of a forested area because they're reserving that for firefighters.

3:30But I went to the main Bordeaux Convention Center today where 6 ,000 people have been sleeping on cots for the last week. I met 90-year-old Maria Lallana. She said she left so quickly that she forgot everything she needed. Here she is.

3:49She says, we fled in such a panic, she told me, I left behind my teeth, my glasses and my hearing aids. But she said she felt welcomed. Everyone told me that they really felt welcomed. They had doctors and veterinarians there and many people had brought their pets. There were dogs and cats everywhere. Now there were two firefighters, those two I just mentioned, who lost their lives. They are being mourned. But there are no other reported deaths at this point. And so while some 250 homes did burn in the Bordeaux suburbs, many people here feel the toll could have been a lot worse. That's NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reporting from Bordeaux, France.

4:26She spoke to All Things Considered's Juana Summers.

4:32Next, to South America. For decades, many Cubans seeking a new life have looked north towards the United States. But as Cuba's economic crisis deepens and U.S. immigration pathways close, more are looking south to Brazil. Reporter Catherine Osborne has more.

4:56On a Sunday morning in the southeastern Brazilian city of Volta Redonda, a group of Cuban migrants gather for Bible study and singing.

5:12Many of them sought asylum in Brazil just in the last year, after the Trump administration cut off permissions to migrate to the U.S. One is 57-year-old José Ramírez. He says there aren't many options now for Cubans who want to leave the island. Friends told him Brazil offered something increasingly rare. Asylum seekers can work legally while their claims are processed and receive government social services. For many Cubans, that's made Brazil one of the few viable destinations. But getting there isn't easy.

5:46Nearby Guyana is visa-free for Cubans, he says. So many fly there and enter Brazil by crossing the Amazon rainforest. It's a sharp reversal from just a few years ago, when migrants were making the same journey north through this region. Now Ramirez works at an air conditioning company. In his free time, he learns how to cook Brazilian food with his new neighbors. like the stew feijoada.

6:14Ramirez is far from alone. Last year, more than 41 ,000 Cubans applied for asylum in Brazil, a record according to the Brazilian government. The country has stayed relatively open to asylum seekers at a time when not only the United States, but also European and other Latin American countries are tightening their borders. In Brazil, anti-migrant sentiment hasn't become a major political issue, says Larissa Getirana of refugee services group Caritas. It's because we don't have a large percentage of migrants in Brazil, so it doesn't translate to politics. Still, even Brazil has become somewhat less welcoming in recent years.

6:56Getirana says Brazil has tightened its migration policy since around 2023, partly in response to pressure from the United States. During the Biden administration, Washington encouraged countries across Latin America to make it harder for migrants who plan to continue to the U.S. border. I would say that Brazil is still very open compared to other countries, but we definitely have seen better times. For fleeing Cubans, reaching Brazil means a hard journey and learning a new language, Portuguese. But many say when they get here, some things feel familiar. 35-year-old Cuban musician José Ángel Quindelán now lives near Rio de Janeiro.

7:37Quindelan says Afro-Brazilian culture has parallels with Afro-Cuban culture. The similarities even inspired him to write a song about Havana and Rio.

7:53He says he came to Brazil looking for a new start and found something that felt familiar. For NPR News, I'm Catherine Osborne in Rio de Janeiro.

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