The residents of eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region have been resilient in the face of the Russian war. But Russia’s introduction of upgraded, highly destructive “glide bombs” is changing civilians’ calculus.

• Paris gold: American gymnastics star Simone Biles powered a dominant U.S. women’s team in the finals, with a total score of 171.296.
• Israel strikes Beirut: The Israeli military says it targeted the militant commander accused of being behind the deaths of 12 children and teens in a rocket attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
• Venezuela unrest grows: Protests and clashes over accusations of a stolen election have spread after President Nicolás Maduro was awarded a third term on July 29 despite opposition claims of a landslide victory.
• U.S. racial income gap: A study by Harvard University and U.S. Census Bureau researchers found the income gap between white and Black young adults was narrower for millennials than it was for Generation X.

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President Joe Biden had resisted calls to reform the Supreme Court. Then came the July decision offering former presidents immunity for any official act.

At the Paris Olympics, Team USA’s swimmers have racked up the medals, building on legendary successes. But athletes from Australia and China have made their own statements.

Although recycling is popular in the U.S., consumers still have questions about the process and its effectiveness. We sort them out here.

In our progress roundup, we found pioneers west of Boston, where a community became the first in the U.S. to pilot an underground system to replace gas furnaces. And in Switzerland, older women fought in court for protection against climate change.

The watchdogs of good governance who say democracy is slipping seemed to gain traction Sunday. Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro claimed a hasty victory in a presidential election widely seen as flawed. By the next day, however, his opponents had gathered their own tally of votes, making a case to challenge his grip on power.

“I speak to you with the calmness of the truth,” said Edmundo González Urrutia, the opposition candidate regarded by many – even by Maduro supporters – as the rightful winner.

“A free people is one that is respected,” he added, “and we are going to fight for our freedom ... [with] calmness and firmness.”

His words are an echo of what many other pro-democracy leaders say in countries where rulers are suppressing democratic dissent.

“For us, there’s more than power; there’s truth,” said India’s opposition leader Rahul Gandhi after a strong showing in a recent election.

In dictator-ruled Uganda, opposition leader Bobi Wine defined the role of pro-democracy groups in a similar way. “We’ve been able to put truth on the table,” he said. “We don’t believe in revenge, but we believe in truth and reconciliation.” 

In Iran, Narges Mohammadi, the imprisoned activist who won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, said the people are “the determining factor in the democracy equation.”

In Belarus, opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said last year that the people “have chosen the path of non-violence against violence, love against hatred, creativity against brutality, solidarity against confrontation.”

Venezuela is the latest country to find itself midstream in a transition back to democracy. And it may be showing how tyranny unravels. “The superficial appeal of the rise-of-autocracy thesis belies a more complex reality – and a bleaker future for autocrats,” observed Kenneth Roth, then the executive director of Human Rights Watch, in a 2022 article in Foreign Policy.

Around the world, citizens keep affirming that power resides in calming truths, such as accurate vote counts and peaceful displays of equality.