Bangladesh’s relatively short history has been dominated by fights for independence, democracy, and economic advancement. And now Prapti Taposhi, an economics student at Jahangirnagar University, is one face of its newest struggle: for fairness.

She was among the first students to take to the streets this July in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, to protest government job quotas for veterans of the country’s 1971 war for independence and their descendants.

But as the demonstrations grew, so did violence against protesters – and Ms. Taposhi’s own sense of injustice.

There have been nearly 200 deaths reported since July 16 – including three of Ms. Taposhi’s close friends – marking one of the most violent weeks in the country’s history. When the government responded to the chaos by shutting off the internet, deploying soldiers, and imposing a nationwide curfew, an outraged Ms. Taposhi led other young women through the streets by burning torch.

Pulok Kumar

Prapti Taposhi carries a torch during a protest in Bangladesh in 2020. The economics student was among the first students to take to the streets in July 2024, calling for job quota reform.

“The protests against inequality are increasing day by day,” she says, her words laced with both fear and anger, and her wrist bandaged from an injury sustained during a demonstration. “The peaceful, student-centric, and apolitical protest has evolved into a mass movement against autocracy.”

Against the backdrop of a dearth of economic opportunities for young people, these protests are, in some ways, a generational pushback against the sacrosanctity of Bangladesh’s founding national narrative. But the movement has come to transcend generations, and grown well beyond a policy question.

Saad Hammadi, policy and advocacy manager at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Ontario, says it is now fueled by anger at inflation and cost of living, corruption, clampdowns on freedom of expression, and other autocratic tendencies of the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

“This is a protest for fairness. It’s a protest for transparency, and for accountability,” he says.

Root of unrest

The quota system was introduced in 1972 by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of Prime Minister Hasina and the architect of modern Bangladesh. It set aside 30% of government jobs for “freedom fighters,” as well as 10% for victimized women and 40% for underprivileged groups. It was extended in 1997 and 2010 to include children and grandchildren of the veterans – leading to perceptions that the quota system was perpetuating an elite class.

In 2018, students took to the streets demanding reform. The government abolished the system. Then in June 2024 the High Court declared the abolition of quotas illegal, sparking a new wave of protests that culminated in a massive demonstration July 1. A week later, protesters – who had gained the support of the main opposition party – clashed with members of the student wing of the ruling party.

On its face, the protests are about jobs. To much fanfare, Bangladesh is on track to graduate from the United Nation’s Least Developed Countries list in 2026. But not everyone has benefited. Young people face an unemployment rate of 12.5%, three times the overall rate, and the reinstallation of quotas generated resentment about an unequal distribution of wealth.

The protests, initially peaceful, turned violent on July 14 when Ms. Hasina criticized students as the “descendants of Razakar,” a derogatory term that refers to people who supported the Pakistani military during the Bangladesh Liberation War. “If the grandchildren of freedom fighters don’t get the quota, then will the grandchildren of Razakars get it?” she said.

Anik Rahman/AP

Students clash with police during a protest over a controversial quota system for government job applicants, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 18, 2024.

For Ms. Taposhi, being dismissed as a “Razakar” was deeply insulting, and many young people are weary of the politicization of Bangladesh’s independence movement.

“I think the resentment of the young generation is how the government creates this divide of ‘us versus them,’ and how the government defines love for the country,” says Mr. Hammadi. “To build love of country, it is important to listen to the people, create room for them to cherish the country’s history and opportunities that a state can offer. Instead we’ve seen a lot of young people have to move out of the country for better opportunities.”

On July 18 and 19, several government buildings were vandalized, with two metro stations set fire, as well as a major data center, the headquarters of the country’s largest broadcaster, and others. The student protesters, for their part, have denied responsibility for the vandalism. Security forces were seen using sound grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets to contain the crowds.

These are not the first protests that Ms. Hasina has faced. In 2018, protests over quotas and a student-led march for road safety dogged the government. In 2020, several issues including the government’s handling of violence against women pushed Bangladeshis to the streets. Many of the same students marching today, including Ms. Taposhi, participated in those protests. But the current wave of demonstrations is one of the biggest and most deadly.

“Violence always gets escalated with ignorance and arrogance,” says Professor Manosh Chowdhury from the Department of Anthropology at Jahangirnagar University. “[This] government was always arrogant in dealing with the students – during the quota movement and road safety movement in 2018, too.”

Altaf Qadri/AP

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina casts her vote in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. The leader has come under fire for her government's crackdown on student protests.

Return to normalcy?

On Sunday, the Supreme Court ruled that quotas for descendants of “freedom fighters” must be rolled back from 30% to 5% – a victory for protesters. The internet was also partially restored this week, and though schools remain closed, signs of normal life have returned to Dhaka’s streets. Now, protesters are demanding the government face the consequences for the deadly unrest, and stop the widespread arrests of activists and opposition leaders.

“The state killings and subsequent violence were completely avoidable,” says Salim Reza Newton, a political analyst and senior faculty in the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Rajshahi. “However, a totalitarian government often loses the ability to think rationally and calmly, especially when confronted with a mass protest that carries a seemingly hidden spirit of challenging the regime.”

Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center, agrees that the movement shows a growing disconnect in Bangladesh between the government and the public.

“The very moment the government cracked down hard, the entire dynamic took on a different dimension,” he says. “It became a large anti-government movement focused around issues of state repression and, more broadly, autocracy.”

It is unclear how transparently or thoroughly Ms. Hasina’s government will respond to protesters’ demands. On Wednesday, authorities said the government had formed a committee to investigate the events of the past week – including determining official casualty figures – but this may not satisfy protesters.

Bangladeshi youth, who bore the worst of the violence, say they will not step down.

“It was possible to have a talk and have a peaceful solution before all the blood was shed,” says Ms. Taposhi. “This autocratic government now only has the disgust of young people. The way people saw unarmed students and civilians being killed by the armed law enforcement agencies … this government can never regain the trust, support, or respect of the Bangladesh people.”

Sara Miller Llana contributed reporting from Toronto. 

David Swanson/Reuters

Tesla CEO Elon Musk looks on during the 2024 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, May 6, 2024.

As an uber entrepreneur, Elon Musk has blazed many trails in new technology. When it comes to politics, the path he’s forging may turn out to be a lonely one.

In the past month, the CEO has endorsed former President Donald Trump,  then walked back a reported pledge of $45 million per month to the Republican nominee, saying the initial report was “simply not true.’’ He has vowed to fight the “woke mind virus” of gender transitions. And he has argued on X, his social media platform, that the Democratic Party has drifted too far left.  

Such overt political activity stands in sharp contrast with many American chief executives’ reluctance to get politically entangled this election year. Until Mr. Musk’s move, no Fortune 100 executive had donated to the former president’s current campaign. 

The reason: The risk to the reputations of themselves and their companies is becoming too great. 

“Many are quite cautious,” says Bruce Freed, president and co-founder of the Center for Political Accountability, a nonprofit advocacy organization in Washington. “CEOs are looking to keep doors open” with both Republicans and Democrats.

Mr. Musk may be feeling the heat himself. On Tuesday, his electric vehicle (EV) company, Tesla, reported the lowest profits in five years. The slump has many causes, including slower-than-expected growth industry-wide and increased competition from carmakers with newer models. Some analysts worry that Mr. Musk’s political activity is also hurting the company, turning off liberal-leaning car buyers, who up to now have been Tesla’s bread-and-butter customers.

Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

Tesla electric vehicles are parked at a Tesla dealer in Paramus, New Jersey, July 23, 2024. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has endorsed Donald Trump.

His preferred candidate, Mr. Trump, has vowed to end federal EV subsidies on the first day of his administration. 

Endorsement risks and rewards

In the weeks since his felony convictions and the assassination attempt on his life, the Republican presidential nominee has picked up several big endorsements, including one from billionaire hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman, who joined Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman and venture capitalist David Sacks in supporting the former president. But chief executives of consumer-facing companies have traditionally been more reluctant to take sides because of the Michael Jordan dictum: “Republicans buy sneakers, too.”

Avoid politics, avoid turning off customers, the basketball superstar and Nike sneaker icon famously said to explain his decision not to endorse a Democrat in a 1990 U.S. Senate race. Increasingly, CEOs appear to be heeding that advice, with Mr. Musk being the exception who proves the rule.

As late as 2012, nearly 30% of the Fortune 100 CEOs donated to the Republican presidential candidate, according to Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, president of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute. By 2020, it was less than 5%. This year, it was zero until Mr. Musk came along.

The risks of a consumer backlash are rising. In 2019, when Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus backed Mr. Trump’s reelection campaign, the home-improvement chain tried to distance itself from the comments, pointing out that Mr. Marcus had retired as CEO years before. Mr. Marcus’s subsequent pro-Trump remarks have sparked repeated calls from consumers for a boycott of Home Depot. Research suggests that such boycotts rarely mobilize much consumer support.

Politics, social media, and consumer backlash 

Last year, however, consumers on the right found success in fighting what they call “woke” capitalism, specifically pro-LGBTQ+ company actions. When Bud Light launched a limited ad campaign featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a consumer boycott reduced sales and caused the brand to lose its position as the nation’s most popular beer. It is now No. 3. 

Similarly, a 2023 consumer backlash against Target’s Pride month marketing campaign, which included the display of transgender swimwear, caused the retailer to restrict this year’s Pride campaign to online sales and select stores.

How much of Target’s change of heart was due to lost sales remains an open question. “A lot of the challenge for Target was the fact that employees felt unsafe in the stores,” says Nien-hê Hsieh, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. “There were serious threats to employees.”

Richard Brian/Reuters/File

Hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman, shown speaking during the SALT conference in Las Vegas, May 18, 2017, has endorsed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

CEOs and profit margins

Mr. Musk sounded a similar anti-LGBTQ+ theme in an interview published Tuesday where he said he lost his son to “the woke mind virus” after the son came out as transgender. The same day, he denied a report that he would give the Trump campaign $45 million a month, saying his donations would be much lower. 

Mr. Musk’s activities have clearly hurt X (formerly Twitter) since he bought it in 2022. Advertisers and users have dropped away, and revenues have plunged. What’s not clear is how much of that is due to Mr. Musk's changes to the platform versus his political moves (he reactivated Mr. Trump’s Twitter account after it was permanently suspended following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots). Time will tell whether a similar fate awaits Tesla.

Several surveys suggest that the EV maker has suffered reputational damage, especially among Democrats. A Bloomberg survey of more than 5,000 Tesla Model 3 owners last year found that many were disenchanted with Mr. Musk. Still, 87% said they were thinking about buying a Tesla the next time around. Mr. Musk argues that the end of federal EV subsidies would hurt his competitors much more than Tesla.

“A fundamental responsibility of leaders is to bring people together,” David Bach, soon to be president of Swiss business school IMD, writes in a recent California Management Review article. “CEO political activism can be [a] potent tool in this respect. Yet in the face of deep stakeholder division on a salient issue, this leadership imperative cautions against taking sides.”

A week after local retired fire Chief Corey Comperatore died from a shooter’s bullet, Pastor John Neyman built a sermon around a simple idea: Mr. Comperatore’s life and death have new meaning in a nation riven by partisanship.

Mr. Neyman is a spiritual leader in this Trump stronghold north of Pittsburgh, which was shaken earlier this month by an attempted assassination of the former president at a political rally. Mr. Neyman says that stereotypes of the predominantly white, working-class area tend toward “sort of redneck,” reactionary, and socially and economically backward.

Yet as he tends his grieving flock at SonRise Community Church in nearby Sarver, Mr. Comperatore’s hometown, Mr. Neyman has seen a different version of Americans who have long sat at the fulcrum of national politics and whose current hopes and attitudes may shape the upcoming presidential election.

So far, those who live in and around Butler have channeled emotions into grief rather than into anger or fear. And they have lowered the temperature in their conversations, acutely aware of the negative impact of volatile politics on communities.

“People are sad but determined,” says Mr. Neyman. “My job now is to help them forgive what is happening and not give way to anger.”

Eric Gay/AP

A memorial for retired firefighter Corey Comperatore rests by a fence outside the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 17, 2024, the rally site where former President Donald Trump was wounded in a July 13 assassination attempt. Two other rally attendees were also wounded.

Support for affected families

This community, while working to heal from the recent shooting, is like countless others across the United States trying to heal in a bigger sense by addressing social and economic stress. Rising threats of political violence nationwide have also put many on edge. Yet Butler and nearby towns are still finding hope and signs of progress.

Mr. Neyman and others here say that while traumatic, this sobering moment has also proved to be a centering one.

In conversations with people in the region since the shooting, University of Pennsylvania political scientist Anne Norton has found their focus is less on the near-assassination of former President Donald Trump and more on Mr. Comperatore and two other rallygoers, David Dutch and James Copenhaver, who were critically wounded July 13.

Butler’s rallying around the Comperatore family symbolizes a focus on “common wisdom,” says Professor Norton. One clue, she says, is that debate around American gun culture has been notably muted despite the shooter’s use of the controversial AR-15-style rifle used in many recent mass shootings.

Eric Gay/AP

Family, friends, and community members attend a candlelight vigil for retired firefighter Corey Comperatore at the Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pennsylvania, July 17, 2024. Mr. Comperatore was killed at a rally for former President Donald Trump four days earlier.

“There’s a consensus that we’re just not going to have a battle about this, that political violence is bad – that this should never happen again,” she says.

“We’re still standing”

Scott Curcio, an engineer, is staying cool under a tent at the second annual Family and Freedom Festival in adjacent Evans City. Also a woodworker, he sells wooden American flags of his own design and manufacture.

Mr. Curcio’s father worked in the steel mills. He remembers how personally his dad took the layoffs that came as the steel industry globalized in the early 1980s. Yes, they were tough, thankless jobs. But when jobs returned a decade later, his father marched proudly back into the mill.

Today, the plight of such workers is high on the priority list. After new environmental rules threatened 1,300 high-paying jobs at what is now Cleveland-Cliffs Butler Works, workers’ agitation convinced the Biden administration to help fund environmental improvements at the plant so jobs could stay in the area. 

“We’re taking haymakers, but we’re still standing,” says Mr. Curcio.

It’s true that former President Trump is popular here, he says, but many voters are less concerned about popularity and personality and more concerned about helping communities. The shooting not only was shocking but also drove home a larger point – hot rhetoric and political violence aren’t solving problems in places like Butler.

“The problem as I see it, and I’m not alone, is that everyone in power is fighting each other, and we’re not getting anywhere,” Mr. Curcio says.

Patrik Jonsson/The Christian Science Monitor

Scott Curcio, a Butler County engineer, sells his custom-made wooden U.S. flags at the Family and Freedom Festival in Evans City, Pennsylvania, July 20, 2024. The festival was held just a few miles from the Trump rally shooting a week earlier.

Mr. Trump rallied here shortly before the 2020 election. This summer’s July 13 rally was intended to set the stage for Mr. Trump accepting the Republican nomination in Milwaukee. 

“Butler, Westmoreland, Beaver, and similar counties become very key [for the Trump-Vance ticket],” says Matthew Levendusky, author of “Our Common Bonds: Using What Americans Share To Help Bridge the Partisan Divide.” “That’s why Trump did that rally there, and why he’ll do more in similar locales throughout the fall – to try and mobilize voters to turn out for him.”

Butler area’s complex history and identity

A city of 13,000 in a county of about 200,000, Butler is nestled amid steep hills on the banks of Connoquenessing Creek. John F. Kennedy famously stumped in this conservative stronghold in 1960, joking that the local Nixon Lodge would soon be called the Kennedy Inn. 

Mr. Trump isn’t the first president to face fire here. As a young man, George Washington came within inches of being felled near here as he trekked through the Allegheny wilderness in 1753, “being shot at by an Indian less than 15 paces from him,” according to a state historical society marker.

A 19th-century oil boom laid the foundation for a bustling downtown as a diverse population settled the city. But by the 1980s, deindustrialization hit the region hard, depressing wages and introducing social scourges like drug addiction.

Although Butler’s median household income of $81,000 is higher than the national average, many here feel the pinch of economic hardship or uncertainty. 

A sign outside a local paving firm philosophically sums up the paradox: “One nation, under God. Help wanted.”

University of South Carolina Upstate sociologist Colby King grew up in Butler County and returns every year to visit his parents and friends, always stopping by the famous Burger Hut for a meal. Judging by data and his observations, he says service and caretaker work make up nearly 70% of jobs, compared with 13% of manufacturing-related jobs.

“I think their work caring for and serving their neighbors demonstrates the solidarity and sense of community I saw through my dad and his co-workers a generation ago,” he says. 

Professor Norton, similarly, credits the region’s stability partly to the 19th-century Protestant settlers who were deeply anti-imperialist, egalitarian, and progressive. 

Those settlers’ values, she says, remain. In one of Pennsylvania’s most conservative counties, local voters gave more support to Vermont’s liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary than to Mr. Trump in the general election, she says.  

“These are things that continue to exist that are powerful and ordinary and visceral, but most people don’t connect it to national politics at this moment,” she says. “If you go issue by issue, you get a much more complicated and interesting portrait of American political alignment.”

Last month, when Venezuela’s wildly popular opposition party leader was touring the country, the owner of a restaurant prepared to lend her team space for a political meeting. But the gathering never happened: The government of President Nicolás Maduro preemptively slapped the restaurateur with fines, closed his restaurant, and confiscated his truck and other equipment.

More than frightening the owner, who asked to remain anonymous in hopes of recuperating his assets, it pushed him to double down on a sentiment that’s growing among Venezuelans in recent years: “It’s time to hand over power,” he says of Mr. Maduro’s 11-year tenure. “My future depends on” it, he says.

His experience is part of a cosmic shift taking place in Venezuela right now. Citizens are exhausted by a repressive government that has all but forgotten the poverty alleviation and social programs that launched the popular movement of former President Hugo Chávez in 1998. Long hesitant to speak out against chavismo, as the political project now led by Mr. Maduro is called, citizens today are wearied by losing food aid or suffering government retaliation. And they are starting to share political opinions with strangers on public transportation, attend opposition rallies, and heckle government officials.

Amid the political, economic, and humanitarian crises that have pushed nearly 8 million Venezuelans to flee home over the past decade – and left the vast majority of the remaining population in poverty – more than 80% of Venezuelans say they want this weekend’s presidential election to change their country’s trajectory.

A shifting tolerance of Mr. Maduro is putting unprecedented attention – and pressure – on his government.

Matias Delacroix/AP

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro dances during a campaign rally in the Catia neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, July 18, 2024. His popularity has plummeted in recent years, but he has few incentives to step down from power.

But a rejection of chavismo won’t necessarily spell victory for the opposition. Democracy has nearly evaporated in Venezuela: There are few remaining independent institutions or checks on the executive, and the media is largely state-controlled. Few expect the race to be free or fair July 28.

In Mr. Maduro’s attempts to cling to power, his government has barred popular opposition candidates from running, made registering to vote more complicated, and targeted citizens working far outside the political sphere with exaggerated consequences for demonstrating support for the opposition. The question now is whether these final, obvious moves to stay in office will work – or what other plans Mr. Maduro may have in store.

“The government’s attempt to scare people tells me they are running out of ideas,” says Phil Gunson, a Caracas-based senior analyst at International Crisis Group, a global think tank.

Growing resistance – and obstacles 

Ángel Subero Vásquez, a regional coordinator for the opposition party Voluntad Popular, has made big changes in his lifestyle over the past few months in light of Mr. Maduro’s crackdowns.

“I have never experienced this level of political repression before,” says the political staffer in his early 30s.

Mr. Subero relies on multiple phone lines to avoid work conversations getting intercepted. He rarely walks alone anymore. One of his colleagues is in prison, arrested earlier this month on trumped-up charges of “conspiracy plans” to allegedly undermine the vote.

Mie Hoejris Dahl

Ángel Subero Vásquez, regional coordinator of the opposition party Voluntad Popular in Caracas, says that if Nicolás Maduro wins another term July 28, he will likely leave the country.

“This doesn’t just hit you personally; it hits ... everything around you,” he says.

Government repression used to target high-profile critics. But it has evolved, now touching operational staff members like Mr. Subero – but also truck drivers and informal workers selling empanadas. Anyone suspected of providing services or crossing paths with key members of the opposition can fall prey.

This “comes from a place of weakness,” says Mercedes De Freitas, director of Transparencia Venezuela, a nongovernmental organization that exposes corruption.

There were more than 75 arbitrary detentions in the first 15 days of the presidential campaign, which launched July 4, according to Laboratorio de Paz, a Venezuelan NGO.

The government’s recent tactics may be backfiring, fueling frustration among average Venezuelans and generating sympathy for the opposition, says Mr. Gunson.

Sitting on a battered bus that clatters through a former government stronghold here on a recent morning, passengers casually discuss the upcoming presidential election – something unheard of in public even a year ago.

“What kind of socialism is this?” one man says angrily, pointing as the bus passes dilapidated homes.

Ms. De Freitas says citizens are less cautious about openly criticizing the government because everyone else seems to be doing it. The repression and poor governance “has become too much for people,” she says.

Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters

The electoral ballot for Venezuela's July 28 presidential elections shows sitting President Nicolás Maduro's face 13 times, while candidates from traditional opposition parties feature candidates that have been co-opted by Mr. Maduro. It feeds into concerns that the vote won't be free or fair.

What next?

Earlier this year, Mr. Maduro barred his key opponent, María Corina Machado, from running for president. She has achieved a messiahlike status among Venezuelans, who have united behind the opposition for the first time in decades. The president repeated the playbook with an academic chosen by Ms. Machado to replace her as the party coalition’s candidate. Now the opposition is backing the replacement of the replacement, Edmundo González Urrutia, a retired diplomat in his 70s whom the government has allowed to stay in the race. Polls show the opposition has more than a 20-point lead.

It’s become clear that Mr. Maduro can bar candidates – but not their popularity. His focus has shifted to keeping voters away from the ballot box at home and abroad. The government has spread false information about the opposition, closed and renamed voting centers to create confusion among the electorate, relocated voters to districts far from their homes, and created a disorienting ballot on which Mr. Maduro’s face appears 13 times.

Venezuela’s electoral authorities have denied access to international observers, though they are allowing a few experts from The Carter Center and the United Nations to follow the election. That’s not enough to ensure a free vote though, says Juan Carlos Galindo Vacha, an electoral expert and former head of Colombia’s National Civil Registry.

Fernando Vergara/AP/File

A group of migrants, mostly Venezuelans, crosses a river during the journey through the Darién Gap from Colombia into Panama, hoping to reach the U.S., Oct. 15, 2022.

Defining moment

If Mr. Maduro clings to power, it will likely trigger national protests, Mr. Gunson says. Last week, the president threatened Venezuela could fall into a “civil war” if he loses.

Mr. Subero says that if the government stays in power, he’ll join the estimated quarter of the population that’s already fled Venezuela: “It will be either prison or exile.”

A June survey estimates that if Mr. Maduro wins another term, some 30% of Venezuelans still at home would consider leaving. The number could actually be even higher, Mr. Gunson warns, “not because people don’t want to leave,” but because regional neighbors are closing their doors to Venezuelan migrants – and many here don’t have the resources to leave.

Even if the opposition takes power, economic and security challenges will not evaporate. Experts say the economy would likely need 20 years to recover. Venezuela is home to the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but oil production dropped more than 75% over the past decade. Last year, Mr. Maduro committed to ensuring competitive elections in exchange for a partial lifting of U.S. sanctions on the oil and gas sectors. Following the suspension of Ms. Machado, sanctions were reinstated in April.

“They can steal the elections,” say Mr. Subero. But it’s a shortsighted way to hold on to power “when the majority of the country wants Maduro to leave.”

As Paris celebrates the kickoff to the Olympics, a sports statesman starts his goodbyes. 

Basketball star LeBron James, who is carrying the U.S. flag with tennis player Coco Gauff at Friday’s opening ceremony, first participated in the Olympics 20 years ago. This will be his fourth – he sat out in 2016 and 2020 – and last. For this reporter, and basketball fan, it made me want to be here to witness these Games more. 

Mr. James has flourished, winning gold with the men’s team twice, and bronze in his 2004 debut in Greece. Two decades later, this Olympics is shaping up to be one of encouragement and poise – and may even include another visit to the podium.

This time, he is literally the standard-bearer – chosen by his fellow athletes to represent them.

Another basketball great, Stephen Curry, nominated him for the honor. “He has represented what it means to be excellent both on and off the court in his commitment to service and to uplifting the community in all ways that he knows how has been a lifelong passion,” Mr. Curry said in a video. “And the work speaks for itself.”

Michael Conroy/AP

LeBron James (center) laughs between Stephen Curry (left) and Anthony Davis as the U.S. men's basketball team practices at the Summer Olympics, July 24, 2024, in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France.

Mr. James sets the tone this year as the oldest (nearing age 40) and most decorated U.S. basketball player. After an exhibition game against Canada earlier this month, he gathered teammates on the court, put his arms across as many shoulders as he could reach, and offered words of encouragement. 

“I think LeBron – I don’t want to speak for him –  but I think he understands, like, ‘I’ve been through it. We have guys who haven’t,’” said managing director Grant Hill, who chose the members of this year’s team, at an event for reporters in New York this spring. Mr. Hill, himself an NBA Hall of Famer and Olympic gold medalist, added that Mr. James is a leader at the Olympics in the same way he has been to NBA players on the championship teams he’s been on.

The combination of Mr. Curry and Mr. James, Mr. Hill said, reminds him of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson playing on the 1992 Olympic Dream Team. Paris marks the first time the two superstars have played together.

Watching Mr. James and Mr. Curry in the game versus Canada earlier this month was beautiful. Basketball is my favorite sport. I love the language of body movements, jumping and cutting with no-look passes, windmill dunks, and long-range 3-point balls raining down. I fell in love with the language of the game like a hopeless romantic years ago. Watching this group, led by Mr. James, has been nothing short of spectacular. Every fast break. Every crisp pass. Every steal and block. Every dunk.

Gold is again the goal for Mr. James and his fellow ballers – though it may not be as easy as in the past. In an unexpected nail-biter against South Sudan last weekend, Mr. James saved the day for Team USA with a game-winning layup with eight seconds left to play. The result was a 1-point win over a motivated South Sudan team appearing in the Olympics for the first time.  

“I’m going to be honest: I like those better than the blowouts,” The Associated Press reported the forward saying. “At least we get tested.”

Kin Cheung/AP

South Sudan's Khaman Maluach (left) and Team USA's LeBron James compete during an exhibition game in London ahead of the Paris Olympics, July 20, 2024.

Another pre-Olympic exclamation point was when he put the team on his back in a win against the FIBA world champs, Germany, a few days after the South Sudan game. 

This is all much different from when Mr. James debuted at the Olympics 20 years ago as the NBA Rookie of the Year. That was before his grit and determination would be questioned. In time, he overcame those obstacles and won four championship rings. He honed his leadership chops by being consistent, working on his craft, and committing himself to getting better. Today he holds the record as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.

“Team USA has given so much ... to me over the last 20 years,” Mr. James said when accepting the honor of carrying his country’s flag. He added an allusion to America’s election-year atmosphere. “In a country that’s so divided, I hope that moment will unite us or bring us together,” he said in a video shared by NBC’s “Today” show. 

It is special and sobering that this will be Mr. James’ last Games. He told reporters during training camp for the Olympics that he doesn’t have many years left in the NBA. He was clear that he won’t be at the Games in 2028, when they come to Los Angeles, where he has played with the champion Lakers for the past half-dozen years. Like Mr. Hill, co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks, Mr. James wants to be an NBA owner. He has his sights set on a new team in Las Vegas.

Men’s basketball couldn’t have had a better storyline this summer than Mr. James leading the charge in his final Games. 

Michael Jordan participating in 1992 inspired Mr. Hill to play in 1996. The snowball effect of those NBA All-Stars participating led to Mr. James and another Lakers great, Kobe Bryant, playing years later. One superstar stepping up to lead begets another. I’m happy to see this, because it means someone else great will come after Mr. James.

Ever wonder how Olympic basketball teams are chosen? Read our coverage here.

Reuters

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez participate in a rally in Caracas, July 25.

Three months ago, Edmundo González Urrutia was still what he had always been – a soft-spoken and little-known career diplomat who, by his own admission, harbored no political ambitions. Yet on Sunday in Venezuela, he represents the hopes of voters seeking to end more than a quarter century of repressive autocratic rule.

Mr. González typifies more than just the possibility of a change in government. Polls show him winning by as much as 40% against incumbent President Nicolás Maduro. His improbable rise offers a study in how societies recover their ideals of freedom and democracy through humility and civic agency.

“Our commitment is to rebuild Venezuela ... so that political adversaries see each other as adversaries and not as enemies,” he told Le Monde. “My government will be one of reconstruction. Not one of vengeance.” 

Mr. González is a stand-in for the more popular and longtime opposition leader María Corina Machado. She was banned from holding public office for 15 years after winning a primary election last October with 93% of the vote. In March, Ms. Machado and other opposition leaders rallied behind Mr. González as her proxy.

That consensus marks a shift in how Venezuelans may emerge from a prolonged period marked by corruption, economic decline, and erosion of democratic principles under Mr. Maduro and his predecessor, the late leftist populist Hugo Chávez.

“Political leaders have put the good of the country before everything else and abandoned their ambitions in favor of a candidate who didn’t want to be one,” wrote José Toro Hardy, a Venezuelan economist, in Le Monde.

Ms. Machado and like-minded opponents once saw foreign intervention as critical to change. She gradually came to see that the real source of democratic renewal was in defusing the fear, division, and false patronage that autocracies depend on. “We have learned wonderful lessons,” she said in a TED Talk in 2011. “The first lesson is that we need collective empowerment to face fear and division. We went from disbelief to being [too] worried to protest, to activism.” 

Though banned from running for office or even sleeping in hotels or eating in restaurants, she has campaigned across the country without interruption – not just to promote Mr. González, but to strengthen a sense among ordinary Venezuelans that freedom is based on individual dignity and self-worth. While she shies away from expressing her faith in public, she has characterized that message as a “spiritual fight.”

Venezuela, wrote the writer and poet Pedro Varguillas Vielma in the magazine Nacla, is “a country in tatters, held together by its people.” If voters reject Mr. Maduro on Sunday, few see him leaving peacefully. That does not unsettle Mr. González and Ms. Machado. “Our strength is in redemption and unity,” she posted on the social platform X recently.  In one of the most troubled corners of Latin America, the light of democratic virtue is breaking through.