As a new interim government in Bangladesh headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was sworn in Thursday, many are asking, What just happened?

Over the past 15 years, the story of Bangladesh has been one of unequivocal progress.

Once the third-poorest country in the world, Bangladesh steadily advanced on the right indexes: Textile and garment exports grew, as did access to education, while child poverty and maternal mortality fell. Bangladesh crackled with more widespread electricity. It constructed new roads, and cleaned up its water.

So the sudden ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina this week, who had led Bangladesh during this entire era of growth, sent shock waves around the world.

For most Bangladeshis, however, it’s no mystery. Underneath macroeconomic success, Bangladesh has been watching inequality grow, even as poor people have grown wealthier, feeding into resentment and testing tolerance for worsening government corruption. And this year, as inflation put everyday goods out of reach for many citizens, that gap became too big to bridge. Indeed, bloody protests over the last month – which left 300 dead and ultimately led to Ms. Hasina’s resignation Monday – revealed a disconnect between outside views of progress and the experiences of regular Bangladeshis. 

“There was this rhetoric of Bangladesh as racing on the highway of development, whereas the people were dealing with day-to-day life [amid] price hikes,” says Sharmee Hossain, a senior lecturer at North South University in Dhaka and member of the University Teachers’ Network. “There was a huge disconnect. And I think that’s where the dissatisfaction of the people grew, and the gulf between the government and the general people of Bangladesh started to widen.”

Fatima Tuj Johora/AP

Protesters celebrate at the Parliament House premises after news of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's resignation, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Aug. 5, 2024.

Today, Bangladeshis are setting out to redefine their own notion of progress. It’s a historic moment – and a perilous one.

“Bangladesh is an incredible story of success and struggle,” says Tazreena Sajjad, a senior professorial lecturer in the Department of Peace, Human Rights, and Cultural Relations at American University in Washington.

This week, “there has been euphoria,” she says. “Expectations are through the roof. We need to give people time to ... revel in the moment, but also recognize that these moments are extremely contentious, extremely uncertain, extremely violent, and sometimes, extremely disappointing.”

Emerging visions for Bangladesh’s future

In a country with a long history of people’s movements, some, including Dr. Yunus himself, are calling this one “a second Victory Day” – a reference to Bangladesh’s first “victory” in its 1971 liberation war.

Bangladeshis across the country and across classes have expectations for how to advance forward. Construction worker Shahin Rahman, who lives four hours west of Dhaka, says he wants a better standard of living. “Fifteen years ago, both incomes and prices were low, and we could afford basic goods,” he says. “Now, prices are beyond our reach.”

Surjana Alam, who is educated but unemployed in northern Bangladesh, says she wants more opportunities for economic advancement, particularly in rural communities.

For Fahim Foysal, a middle-class worker in Dhaka, it’s “zero tolerance for corruption in government offices and better control over inflation.”

Aritri Debnath, a young student at Eden Mohila College in Dhaka, has loftier goals: “I hope for true independence and a discrimination-free country with no religious bias in the future,” she says. 

Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who was recommended by Bangladeshi student leaders as the head of the interim government in Bangladesh, arrives at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Aug. 8, 2024.

The student protesters who drove the movement were initially fighting a policy of government quotas that hindered their job prospects, and reset their demands amid the hardhanded response of the Hasina government, demanding the prime minister step down. This week, they threw support behind Dr. Yunus, who won the Nobel in 2006 for his work in creating a microcredit industry that has served millions of people living in poverty, particularly women and girls. 

Geoffrey Macdonald, a visiting expert on South Asia at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, says naming Dr. Yunus could herald progress for political development in Bangladesh. The economist and his organization, Grameen Bank, “have this ethos of grassroots development, of listening to the people,” he says.

That’s something Ms. Hasina’s critics say she increasingly failed to do.

Hasina’s mistakes and challenges ahead

Building on the legacy of her father – independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – Ms. Hasina was once a beacon for Bangladeshi democracy and female empowerment. But in recent years, she was accused of being partial to cronies and stamping out dissent.

“The government repressed political opponents for too long,” says Mahmudul Sumon, a professor in the department of anthropology at Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka. “They didn’t take the path of dialogue to resolve the political crisis.”

Mohammad Saiduzzaman Khan, an independent government and development analyst in Dhaka, says that the export industry that fueled economic growth did not increase opportunities for formal employment. Growth took precedence over human development and democracy, he says. 

“Limited social and economic well-being together with lack of governance triggered the turmoil,” he says, “despite significant achievements and milestone initiatives in particular sectors.”

Altaf Qadri/AP/File

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina checks her watch as she waits to cast her vote in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024.

Dr. Yunus formed an interim government today, including two student protesters, but many immediate challenges remain.

Amid the conflict, the police disbanded. Violence against religious minorities in the Muslim-majority nation, particularly Hindus, has been reported across the country. The economy is still reeling after the Hasina government imposed a curfew and shut off the internet. Students only returned to school this week.  

Student protesters have filled in some of the vacuum, working as traffic police, guarding temples and religious houses of worship for non-Muslims, and cleaning the streets.

Dr. Sajjad, who was in Bangladesh doing research when the student protests escalated, says she feels hopeful for the progress of the nation, in large part because of students who led the nation to this moment. 

“This generation has demonstrated an incredible love for their country, and have shown an awareness of the political ... [and] economic challenges in the country,” she says. “They took on what most people thought was impossible.”

Sara Miller Llana contributed reporting from Toronto. 

Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

President Joe Biden meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, July 25, 2024.

When President Joe Biden assembled a coalition of countries to help Israel thwart an Iranian aerial onslaught in April, the White House had high hopes the mission might reap something of a twofer from Israel.

First, the demonstrated value of international partners might dissuade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from pursuing the increasingly go-it-alone course he was taking in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, officials suggested.

And second, Mr. Biden’s willingness to deploy significant military resources for Israel’s defense – and his “no daylight” public support for Israel – might result in a reciprocal willingness to achieve the president’s priorities of avoiding a wider war in the Middle East and bringing the Gaza war to a close.

But now, as the White House works around the clock once again to avoid a sharp escalation in the Middle East and a wider war that no party seems to want, there is also deep frustration with Mr. Netanyahu and faltering trust in his willingness to cooperate on quieting the region.

Instead of just “taking the win,” as Mr. Biden advised after Iran’s coordinated attack was successfully rebuffed, Mr. Netanyahu has pursued a course that has heightened tensions to the brink of war. Moreover, that course has stymied Mr. Biden’s demands that a cease-fire be reached in Gaza this month.

With Iran and Hezbollah, Tehran’s well-armed proxy in Lebanon, promising retaliation for last week’s assassinations of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah military commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut, Israelis are living with the threat of a devastating attack coming at any moment.

In response to the daily assertions that retaliation is coming, the Israeli government has advised the United States that any targeting of civilians will be met with a “disproportionate” response, U.S. officials have said.

Public versus private

In this tense climate, the U.S. is not wavering from its full support for Israeli security, and is positioning additional military assets in the region and coordinating with the coalition of countries that sprang to Israel’s defense in April.

But privately U.S. officials express frustration that, as they see it, Israel has been taking actions with the effect of undermining U.S. goals – while knowing the U.S. will come to its defense if those actions provoke a military response.

Aziz Taher/Reuters

People watch a broadcast of an address by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as they sit in a cafe in Tyre, Lebanon, Aug. 6, 2024.

Indeed, Mr. Biden’s exasperation with Mr. Netanyahu exploded in a recent phone call between the two, when the president reportedly shouted at the Israeli prime minister and told him in heated undiplomatic terms to stop misleading him.

In this context, the Biden administration’s nonstop diplomatic efforts might seem doomed.

But diplomacy does still have a chance, some regional analysts say: Not solely or perhaps even primarily as a manifestation of U.S. power in the region, but because no one, least of all Iran, wants to trigger a costly war.

“All the indications are that no one – not Iran, not Hezbollah, not Israel – wants a devastating and unpredictable war right now,” says Hanin Ghaddar, Friedmann fellow in Middle East affairs at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“If Iran ends up responding in a way that Israel can tolerate,” she adds, “then I think there is still room for a bigger role for diplomacy.”

Others say the U.S. must press forward with diplomacy to avert escalation – with the long-term goal being to allow the U.S. to reduce its Middle East footprint.

“Policymakers in Washington should do everything possible to prevent the outbreak of a full-scale regional war” in the Middle East, says Michael DiMino, a former CIA counterterrorism officer who is now a fellow at Defense Priorities, a Washington think tank promoting restraint in U.S. foreign policy.

Such a conflict “would not serve the security interests of the United States, Israel, or the world,” he says.

Diplomacy’s impact?

No one thinks Iran and Hezbollah can be dissuaded from taking some retaliatory action in response to the assassinations. But days have gone by without Iranian missiles or attack drones flying – after Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his G7 counterparts Sunday to expect the retaliation within 48 hours. And that suggests to some administration officials and experts that intense diplomatic contacts and back-channel communications with Iran are slowing and modifying the response.

Majid Asgaripour/WANA/Reuters

Iran's acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, at left, meets with Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 4, 2024.

At an emergency meeting Wednesday of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Iran’s acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani said his country would respond to Mr. Haniyeh’s killing on its territory at “the right time” and in an “appropriate” manner.

And in a speech Tuesday commemorating Mr. Shukur, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said his organization is “committed to responding” to the recent assassinations. Insisting “it will come,” he also asserted that “Israel’s week-long wait is part of the punishment.”

But Ms. Ghaddar says there are good reasons to think every party involved wants to avoid an unpredictable escalation right now.

“Iran cannot afford a war,” she says, underscoring the country’s weak economy, a government still in formation after recent elections, and a national priority of protecting an advancing nuclear program.

Hezbollah, she adds, is keen to end what she calls the “daily” erosion of its military officer corps in Israeli attacks.

“They are desperate to stop the bleeding,” she says. “So I would think they will go with a response that will be enough to tell their people they avenged these deaths,” she adds, “but one that will still leave room for diplomacy to get to a cease-fire.”

Noting further that Mr. Nasrallah has said Hezbollah would act alone if it had to, she says, “Especially in light of Israel’s preemptive actions, they don’t have the luxury of delaying it [retaliation] much longer.”

As for Israel, she says, “Despite the boldness we’ve seen recently, they don’t want a wider war either.

“They’ve been at war for 10 months now,” she adds, “so they want to restock and rest up before they would go into Lebanon” after Hezbollah.

A focus on Gaza

Even amid the nervous waiting game, U.S. officials continue to insist that a Gaza cease-fire remains just inches away, as Mr. Blinken said again this week.

Speaking with reporters Wednesday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that despite rising tensions, the parties to the cease-fire negotiations “are as close as we think we have ever been” to a deal.

Mr. Kirby refused to comment on recent reports of Mr. Biden’s frustrations with Mr. Netanyahu or White House suspicions that the Israeli leader is playing on the president’s loyalties to Israel while offering nothing in return.

But he did venture to cast the blame for the lack of a cease-fire in Gaza on both Hamas and Israel, despite White House insistence months ago that Israel was fully on board.

“The deal hasn’t been accepted,” Mr. Kirby said, “because neither side has signed up to it.”

Like the alligator spotted this week swimming through a flooded suburban neighborhood in Bluffton, South Carolina, Tropical Storm Debby posed real danger as it slammed the U.S. Southeast, causing floods and seven deaths as of Wednesday afternoon.

“Debby was a mean girl,” Savannah, Georgia, Mayor Van Johnson said at a Wednesday press conference after Debby dropped 13 inches of rain on parts of Georgia’s coast and drenched large swaths of the Southeast. “She ... just stayed there and just rained and rained and rained.”

If warming temperatures mean larger, more dangerous storms, Debby isn’t the most severe example. But its impacts have been  significant as the storm has swept inland. The trend has already been pushing storm-prone states to respond with safety and readiness efforts that helped to mitigate the current storm’s damage.

The rise of “sponge storms”

Weather experts say the “sponge storm” now soaking the rest of the East Coast embodies a profound weather shift: Big storms are behaving in wetter ways. A warmer ocean, for one, likely fueled Debby’s impact, loading it with up to 20% more rain than a similar storm 100 years ago would have had, climate scientists say. Debby dropped nearly 18 inches on Summerville, South Carolina, just to the northwest of Charleston by the time rains largely subsided there on Wednesday.  

In turn, such supersoaker storms create a reckoning in affected states – exposing deep gaps in flood insurance, forcing building code upgrades, and exacerbating income inequities, all of which will impact the resilience of American communities.

“Storms like Debby, these slow-movers that have copious amounts of rainfall, have significant impacts,” says Thomas Graziano, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Water Prediction, in Silver Spring, Maryland. “As our population grows and we continue to build infrastructure [near water], there’s more opportunity to be impacted by these floods.”

Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 provided an early clue of a shift toward the new soaker syndrome. Allison hit southeast Texas, rained for four days, and left 38 inches of water in some places, killing 22.

Hurricane Harvey in 2017 drove the point home. After rapidly intensifying to a Category 4 storm, Harvey dropped 51 inches of rain over five days on some parts of Texas. Perhaps as many as 80% of flood victims weren’t insured, meaning they had to rely on relatively small Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants to rebuild. Most homes in flood plains are not insured. Federal flood insurance costs an average of $700 a year – which for some owners is a budget-breaker.

Marco Bello/Reuters

A youth driveway-surfs on floodwater as Tropical Storm Debby moves off Georgia to the North Atlantic, in Isle of Palms, South Carolina, Aug. 6, 2024.

Powerful Hurricane Ida in 2021 was followed in 2022 by Hurricane Ian, which bulldozed parts of Fort Myers, caused historic river crests, and left floodwaters in central Florida for a month. 

The trend continues. According to Colorado State University’s Department of Atmospheric Science, early-season storm activity in 2024 is already topping records set in 1933 and 2005.

Effects in hurricane region and beyond

While citizens, officials, and academics can argue about the causes and solutions, there is no question that climate change is upon us. And physical science steers effects. Storms can absorb up to 7% more moisture for each degree Fahrenheit of extra heat. Warmer temperatures also “increase updrafts, where the wind in the middle of the storm is flying upward at a faster rate, so ... that faster wind wrings the sponge out over a region,” says Daniel Gilford, a cyclone expert at Climate Central, a nonpartisan research group.

Total precipitation on the heaviest rainfall days is going up across the United States, according to the National Weather Service’s Office of Water Prediction. Flood losses have gone from approximately $4 billion a year in the 1980s to $17 billion per year between 2010 and 2018, according to FEMA testimony to Congress.  

“No matter how you slice the information, we’re seeing increases in the number of extreme rainfall events,” says Mr. Graziano.

Rising efforts on adaptation and safety

In some ways, Debby’s relative lack of destruction showed that communities may be adjusting to a new normal around climate and extreme weather events. 

Long accustomed to urban flooding, low-lying Charleston instituted an effective curfew earlier this week as residents hunkered down. Water rescue crews were staged, but no rescues were required, although rescues occurred elsewhere in the Southeast.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, new granular city maps show likely flood spots, helping residents prepare. In recent years, homeowners on Tybee Island have used FEMA grants to raise their low-lying homes above Debby’s flood level.

Changes in construction standards and materials are also making a difference. The State University of New York survey of post-Ian photos of Fort Myers showed 18 homes built before 1981 were completely swept away by Hurricane Ian. But a house in the same area built in 2020 remained standing, its roof largely undamaged.

When Hurricane Ida struck the Gulf Coast, the insurance industry found that the $14 billion spent on New Orleans’ levees after Hurricane Katrina had paid off.

“We are seeing some good actions on the community and government side, but [we still need] to be more responsive and more proactive,” says Nicholas Mesa, a graduate research assistant with Colorado State University’s Tropical Weather and Climate Change Group, in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Resources for citizens

Former FEMA director Pete Gaynor cites the National Risk Index as a good source for citizens to gauge disaster risks in their own neighborhoods. “I would tell anyone living anywhere, if you understand your risk, then we have empowered you to do something about it,” he says.

The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which provides a 1-to-5 rating based on hurricane wind speed, has long been part of U.S. storm response. But scientists have traditionally struggled to detail the impact of future flooding. Making plans was based mostly on past experiences and conjecture.

This year, however, the Office of Water Prediction began rolling out new flood inundation maps.

“It’s truly transformative to be able to show  – down to the street level  – where the water is going to be, when it’s going to be there, how long it’s going to be there, and what infrastructure is going to be impacted,” says Mr. Graziano. “With that information you can take action.”

Mr. Gilford at Climate Central says debate and tough decision-making lie ahead, to determine how better data will guide building codes, insurance rules, and development patterns. 

“There are a lot of people who are acutely vulnerable to the impacts of flooding, a lot of communities in harm’s way that don’t have the resources to brace for a hurricane’s impact,” he says. “Are we making policies and decisions that serve everyone? That’s an important thing to consider.”

In Hawaii, everyone knows where they were on Aug. 8, 2023, when fires raced down the hills and devoured Lahaina town on Maui.

At least 100 people were killed and 12,000 displaced in the deadliest U.S. fire in over a century. The past year has been hard, and events this week honor those who died as well as the community’s remarkable resilience, symbolized in the green leaves of the town’s scorched historic banyan tree.

Along with commemoration, a question of Lahaina’s identity has emerged: What should be the future of this picturesque harbor town, which has seen its own transformation from capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom, to whaling mecca, to plantation lands, and finally to tourist center and economic driver of Maui?

An answer might come from a surprising place – the neighboring island of Molokai.

Across the Pailolo Channel, the mountains of Molokai are visible from Lahaina. After all, it’s only a 30-minute boat ride away. The cousin islands share history, families, and culture. Yet Maui is built largely on tourism, while Molokai is mostly agrarian, with far fewer people. On this, the least developed of the Hawaiian Islands, you can still identify everyone by the car they drive. There are no high-rise buildings, no freeways, no traffic lights.

Now, the shock of devastation on Maui has caused many residents to rigorously investigate questions about tourism, economics, and identity that have been tested on Molokai for years.

Marco Garcia/AP/File

Hikers overlook a bluff on the Kalaupapa Peninsula in Kalawao, Molokai, Hawaii.

The difference in tourism between these two islands is enormous. In June, 216,065 visitors came to Maui, while a mere 2,478 visited Molokai, according to Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism. Cattle ranching and pineapple cultivation were long-time businesses on Molokai, with small-scale farming becoming increasingly prevalent today. Many Molokai residents follow Indigenous subsistence practices – hunting, fishing, gathering – which supply about a third of the food.

It’s a lifestyle closely tied to land and ocean. Nearly half the population lives below the federal poverty line. 

“We’ve always marched to our own drum,” explained Malia Akutagawa, who is from Molokai and is an associate professor of law and Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawaii, in an interview last year. “We never prioritized tourism. People thought we were backwards, but we just wanted something different.”

Molokai has the highest percentage of residents of Native Hawaiian ancestry in the state – more than 60%. Over the decades, this population has vigorously resisted the development of tourism on the island, thwarting the expansion efforts of Molokai Ranch, once the island’s largest employer. In 2008, the resort, owned by a Hong Kong investment group, shuttered its hotels, restaurants, movie theater, and golf course. 

“Molokai has humbly been a showcase for what it means to be a Hawaiian community attempting to be healthy,” explains Todd Yamashita. Mr. Yamashita, who was born and raised on Molokai, is the co-owner of the local solar energy company Sun Farmers, as well as the former president of Hoahu Energy Cooperative Molokai.

Mr. Yamashita calls this a time of “huge transition” for Hawaii as a whole, where living by the values of sustainability and self-reliance could take precedence over tourism. His solar company primarily services Native Hawaiian families who have not had access to reliable electricity.

“I have no other choice but to live by my values,” he says. “I would put my life on the line for this island.” 

Courtesy of Scott Diekema

Storefronts of downtown Kaunakakai, Molokai in Hawaii, shown here in August 2023, the same week as the Lahaina fire, haven't changed much in the last 100 years.

Now, it seems as if Lahaina is interested in following that example by dialing down tourism.

This summer, a proposal to eliminate more than 7,000 short-term rentals on Maui was passed by the Maui and Molokai planning commissions. The proposal aims to free up rentals that serve predominantly tourists so that the housing can become available for residents. 

“We simply cannot continue to prioritize offshore investments over the needs of our people,” said Richard Bissen, mayor of the County of Maui, which includes Molokai, at the commission hearing July 10.  

Following the August fires, housing costs on Maui hiked to extraordinary levels. Single bedroom apartments went from $1,800 to $2,500, as an already limited housing stock became nearly impossible to find postfire. Meanwhile, thousands were still living in Federal Emergency Management Agency-funded rooms at the Kaanapali beach resorts.

“It’s a slow-moving disaster,” says Autumn Ness, executive director of the newly founded nonprofit Lahaina Community Land Trust, which seeks to “keep Lahaina lands in Lahaina hands.” She points to disturbing trends before the fire – overtourism, real estate wealth, and the trend toward short-term rentals – as overrunning residents.

The trust is working to help displaced Lahaina residents “stay home,” Ms. Ness explains, by offering them financial help to rebuild their properties, or by buying the property directly.

“We keep that land in Lahaina hands forever,” she says. “We’re almost leveraging our fire relief effort to correct a problem that was prefire, which is the displacement of Lahaina residents by economic forces.”

The Lahaina trust has been working with Molokai Heritage Trust, which is currently trying to acquire Molokai Ranch – one of the largest landowners in the state. “We’re not reinventing the wheel,” says Ms. Ness. “We’re learning from them.”

While organizations push for a new tourism balance on Maui, local businesses that rely on tourism are being forced to navigate a changing scene. Tourism still hasn’t recovered. The most recent state data shows that overall visitor spending on Maui dropped 27% in May compared with the same time last year. The number of visitors also declined – by 25%.  

Lindsey Wasson/AP

Tourists take photos near the water on a reopened area of Front Street, July 5, 2024, in Lahaina, Hawaii. Cleanup and rebuilding efforts continue after the 2023 wildfire that killed over 100 people and destroyed the historic town of Lahaina on the island of Maui.

David Jung, owner of the Lahaina Cruise Company, is still unable to operate his business out of Lahaina harbor, and has had to let go 30 employees. Mr. Jung lost his home and close friends in the Aug. 8 fire. Now, he’s living on Oahu, waiting to restart on Maui.

This month, the state government, County of Maui, Hawaiian Electric, and other defendants agreed to a $4 billion settlement for victims of the fires. It addresses hundreds of lawsuits filed by individuals, businesses, and insurance companies.

“The tourists didn’t start the fire,” says Mr. Jung, arguing that the tourism industry is being unfairly blamed. It’s government officials who have the express responsibility of protecting the people, he says. “We should blame ourselves” for electing them. 

Mr. Jung cautions against listening to just the loudest voices who are calling for less tourism.

The adjustment to a culture that’s less dependent on tourism can be tough financially, as residents of Molokai can attest. Clare and Gordon Albino have run Molokai Outdoors for 25 years, seeing firsthand the decline of tourism. It’s been a tough year for them fiscally, and they’ve shrunk their payroll from 10 employees down to one.

But the feast or famine business model is just a reality on Molokai. “If we make it to November, we could be hiring,” says Ms. Albino.

Ultimately, the couple view their work as more than a job in the tourism industry. 

“We’re here to educate the visitors on what Molokai is all about,” says Ms. Albino. “It’s really important to find that balance.” 

Breakers Victor Montalvo and Sunny Choi will soon compete for Team USA at the Summer Olympics in Paris. The No. 1 B-boy and B-girl have been part of the buzz surrounding breaking – word to the wise, do not call it breakdancing – as a sport in the Games for the first time. Breaking was introduced in the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2018, and the sport’s popularity helped push the International Olympic Committee to officially include it for 2024. Among the reasons the IOC chose it: to increase youth engagement.

“My mind will be blown when I see it on TV,” says Michael Holman, founder and director of the New York City Breakers, a breaking collective that started in 1982. Mr. Holman wrote a proclamation for breaking to be an Olympic sport in 1984. He was also one of the first to write down official rules for breaking competitions.

Mr. Holman says that he first saw the potential for breaking to be a sport because of the athleticism of the crews. They had amazing footwork, he says, but they also had slick power moves – like flares, spins, and windmills. 

“There will be a part of me that feels like I had something to do with this, at least spiritually. I will feel incredible pride,” Mr. Holman says of the upcoming competition.

What are the origins of breaking? 

Breaking started in New York City in the 1970s. Breaking crews battled one another in front of DJ stands surrounded by crowds. The breakers won or lost a battle based on how loudly the crowd applauded. 

Breaking looks much different today from in the 1980s, when it was popularized by movies like “Beat Street” or “Breakin’” and “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.” Original breakers emulated soul singer James Brown. Latino youths added a heightened sense of gymnastic movements to the art form, and over time the influence of kung fu movies with swipes and arm movements became a part of it, Mr. Holman says.

“The music should inspire the moves. The music should be just as important to the moves as the way you wrote the routine and the combinations,” Mr. Holman emphasizes.

Much like gymnastics, breaking incorporates physical movement, strength, and skill coordination. It is also a global phenomenon, with European and Asian countries leading the way in hosting tournaments year-round. 

How will Olympic breaking be judged?

A nine-member panel will judge each category, B-boys and B-girls, with 16 competitors in each one. 

Athletes perform for one minute, but points won’t be deducted if a routine goes a little longer. Each battle is a three-round, rapid-fire competition: When one breaker ends their routine, the next starts up. 

What makes breaking different from other Olympic sports is that breakers will not be able to choose their own music, and will have to dance to a medley curated by a DJ. Breakers are judged on technique, vocabulary, execution, musicality, and originality. Each category accounts for 20% of the score.

“Music is the most important thing to us,” Mr. Montalvo said while meeting with the media in April. “We have the breaking playlist, but we don’t know what the song is. Sometimes you don’t like the song, but you gotta go out there and fake it till you make it and act like it’s the best,” he added.

Yves Herman/Reuters

Victor Montalvo, aka B-boy Victor, has qualified for the 2024 U.S. Olympic breaking team.

Much of modern breaking consists of complex power moves: windmills, which feature dancers spinning upside down while their legs kick out in a circle; freezes, in which performers stop with their hands on the floor and with their legs arched back or crossed while staying still; and headspins. The routine is rounded out with footwork and dancing.

Mr. Montalvo and U.S. team members will have in mind what routines they bounce and spin to the best, but most importantly, they will be improvisational while they entertain the judges.

“With breaking you gotta be creative, you gotta have style, you gotta have individuality, you gotta have your own fingerprint,” he says.

How were the breakers on the U.S. Olympic team chosen?

Dancers are selected a variety of ways. Mr. Montalvo won a gold medal at the 2023 WDSF World Breaking Championship in Belgium to qualify. Ms. Choi captured gold at the Pan American Games in 2023 to earn her spot on the women’s team.

Mr. Montalvo started breaking in his hometown near Orlando, Florida, when he was 6 years old. His father and uncle, who learned the art in Mexico in the 1980s, taught him.

Ms. Choi learned breaking while in college at the University of Pennsylvania. She has traveled the world and seen the talent of breakers from as young as 5 years old to those in their 30s, like her, or older.

“I’m trying to match them in soul, who I am, in showing my character about me, myself, and being able to represent my community,” she says of hip-hop and breaking while at the media event. 

Now that breaking will be on a larger stage, Ms. Choi says, it is important that it not get diluted, and that people properly know about and respect the culture. She plans to pay homage to the originators, OGs as they are called, and talk about the culture.

Breaking helps her dig deep into herself and focus when she has moments of depression. “The better I understand myself, the better I can do out there and the better that I can show up,” she says.

She is used to not being able to pick her own music in competitions. If she could choose, though, she leans toward artists ranging from current Grammy-nominated rapper Pusha T to old-school rap group N.W.A. “It depends on my mood,” she says, smiling.

Mr. Montalvo sees their role as an important one. “A lot of people talk about breaking losing the essence throughout the years. So I feel like it’s up to the newer generation to dig into those roots and then bring that essence back into the dance.”

Read more of our coverage: Women’s sports are having a moment. The Olympics are showing why.

AP

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in Tehran after giving his approval to newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian (right), July 28.

For more than a week, ever since the assassination in Tehran of a top Hamas leader, Iran has promised revenge against Israel, blaming it for the killing. The long delay has been telling for many reasons. One may be a desire for peace among many Iranians.

A hint of this mood lies in a report that President Masoud Pezeshkian pleaded with Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ali Khamenei, to avoid a direct strike on Israel. A retaliatory attack by Israel on economic targets, he said, would be devastating, according to the Iran International news site. It would also erode “citizens’ trust” in the regime.

That trust is already severely lost. A rigged election in June and July that brought Dr. Pezeshkian to power saw the lowest voter turnout in the 45-year history of the Islamic Republic. And Dr. Pezeshkian was the most reformist of the four chosen candidates. During the campaign, he warned, “The gap between the people and the state has led to an aversion to taking significant decisions, which the public might not support.”

After the election, Dr. Pezeshkian warned of the need to heed public desires: “When 60 per cent of the people do not vote, it means we must recognise that there is a flaw in our work. If we are to stand against the enemy, it is the people who will stand, and [the government] cannot do it alone.”

A desire for peace is reflected in the turn against political Islam by most Iranians. A confidential government survey found that 73% support a separation of religion and politics, the BBC reported. And as more Muslims in Iran have stopped practicing their religion, at least two-thirds of the country’s mosques have closed.

Some Iranians have even taken to openly supporting Israel. Videos on social media show students purposely not stepping on Israeli flags painted at the entrance of schools. Some people have hung banners on a city street reading, “We stand with Israel.” An exiled dissident, Vahid Beheshti, told the Israeli parliament in January, “The good news is that you have an army of 80 million Iranians who are thirsty for freedom and democracy.

If the supreme leader chooses to avoid direct revenge and only let Iran’s proxies attack Israel, it may be for many reasons. Not least could be that even the most autocratic of regimes is concerned about losing its legitimacy with the people. And when the people openly want peace, revenge is less of an option.