Throughout their war against Russian invaders, Ukrainian defenders have fought to maintain their morale against a more powerful enemy. After a frustrating wait for supplies, fighters on the front are hoping for a shift in momentum.

• Bangladesh prime minister resigns, flees: Weeks of protests against a quota system for government jobs descended into violence and grew into a broader challenge to Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule. The Monitor’s Sina Hasan adds that some Bangladeshis, facing an uncertain future, are worried about a possible resurgence of religious fundamentalism and the safety of the country’s non-Muslim population.

• Anti-immigrant riots: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says a “standing army” of specialist police will be set up to deal with violence spurred by misinformation and “far-right thuggery.”

• Hurricane Debby: The Category 1 storm made landfall on Aug. 5 in northern Florida. Forecasters say heavy rain could spawn catastrophic flooding in Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia.

• UN staff fired: A U.N. investigation found sufficient evidence that nine staff members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) may have been involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

The Federal Reserve is signaling a cut in interest rates to sustain economic growth. The timing means some will call the move politically motivated, even though central bankers say they act independently of politics.

As Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro clings to power following an internationally contested election, citizens hoping for change are leaning into the resilience they’ve built over the past decade.

Team USA’s track and field members, from Noah Lyles to Sha’Carri Richardson, are known for their perseverance. Over the weekend, those stars, plus a host of other U.S. athletes, showed how they manage the pressure of a world stage. 

In our progress roundup: Cellphones enable so much communication that the content is not always highly valued. But in Kenya, farmers can receive sophisticated information via text messages. And in Brazil, hundreds of crowdsourced photos contribute to a map that is aiding plans ahead of the next big flood.

Since 1988, Bangladeshi soldiers have served as United Nations peacekeepers in 43 world trouble spots.  Now, in their home country, they may be applying lessons learned from those assignments – lessons such as empathy, mutual respect, and reconciliation between foes.

On Monday, after Bangladesh’s longtime leader Sheikh Hasina Wazed fled the country following weeks of police crackdowns on protesters, many people are counting on the army to restore full democracy under civilian rule. They want a new government to address the protesters’ main demands: fair government employment and an end to corruption.

“We will not achieve anything else through fighting and violence,” army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman said in a televised address as he announced plans for talks with various political parties to form an interim government.

Will the military be able to quickly guide the country back to a healthy democracy? From 1975 to 2011, Bangladesh endured 29 successful or attempted coups. It is unclear to what extent, if any, the army may share responsibility alongside the police for the violent repression of civilians. In a meeting with General Zaman on Friday night, the BBC reported, junior officers expressed concern that imposing a curfew might require them to fire on civilians. The next day, military leaders openly defended the right of citizens to protest.

That stance may have roots in a military ethic shaped more by the force of reason than by bullets. A four-star general with a master’s degree from King’s College in London and a reputation for integrity, Mr. Zaman assured Bangladeshis that “all killings, all injustices” will be “examined.” His promise of transparency reflects a key lesson in rebuilding societies torn by conflict. As a U.N. peacekeeper in Liberia, General Zaman observed the role that truth-telling played in the West African country’s search for reconciliation after a brutal civil war.

“Please keep up your trust in the army,” he asked in his afternoon address. “We will restore peace to the country.”

Fortified with the news of Sheikh Hasina’s abdication, Bangladeshis greeted soldiers in the streets with joy. Their sense of relief and possibility reflects a key lesson from U.N. peace missions. As Paul Williams of George Washington University wrote for The Africa Center for Strategic Studies, “Peacekeepers are never in total control of their legitimacy because it depends on the perceptions of other actors.”

An army conditioned by decades of peacekeeping has so far won the goodwill of the citizens it serves. “As a nation we have a new moral stance and we will make the best of it,” Sayem Faruk, an entrepreneur in Dhaka, the capital, told The Financial Times. “We won’t let politicians like these take over again.” Now, the renewal of stability depends on keeping the people’s confidence through equality and honest governance.