Florida calls itself a bulwark of freedom. That’s one reason so many move here. Others find it repressive, and are ready to leave.

• Ukraine advances, Russia responds: Ukraine’s army chief says troops control nearly 500 square miles of Russia’s Kursk region. Nighttime Russian drone and missile attacks on Aug. 26 struck across Ukraine. A day earlier, a heavy barrage pounded energy facilities. 
• Immigrant spouses: A federal judge in Texas issued a temporary pause on the Biden administration’s protections that would allow immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens a path to citizenship. 
• Telegram CEO arrested: French prosecutors have arrested Pavel Durov. He was detained in a judicial inquiry opened last month involving 12 alleged criminal violations.
• Sea levels: A report from the United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization says some areas of the Pacific are rising at twice the rate of the global average.
• British pop band reunion: Oasis, known for hits like “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” will tour the British Isles next summer after its 2009 split.

Read these news briefs. 

Accepting Boko Haram’s child soldiers back into Nigerian society has been controversial. But advocates say this radical act of compassion is the only way their society can heal. 

To stop far-right rioting, the United Kingdom is looking to stamp out the sort of online activity that fostered the violence earlier this month. But the legislation that the government might use is under fire for being both too weak and overboard.

Educators knew tutoring could help with pandemic-related learning loss. With signs that it is also reducing absenteeism, some in education are wondering how the tool might have a more permanent place in the school day. 

In our progress roundup, there’s more recognition that everyone from athletes to people with disabilities deserves to be accommodated. Sports fans are supporting stars’ taking care of their mental health. And formal venues – from ballet stages to classical music halls – are getting less stuffy to allow enjoyment by more patrons.

One of the world’s most poignant scenes in August was that of students in largely Muslim Bangladesh guarding places of worship for the country’s religious minorities, mainly Hindus. A student movement, organized to bring about equality in job hiring, had ousted a dictator Aug. 5 and then extended its embrace of civic equality by protecting Hindus from violent persecution by radicals during a period of political chaos. 

A new interim government also set up a hotline for people to report attacks on religious institutions. “Bangladesh is a country of communal harmony,” said a new religious affairs official, Dr. A.F.M. Khalid Hossain. “There is no problem in observing [Muslim] fasting and [Hindu] puja at the same time in this country.”

The attacks on Hindus have largely ended, but the head of the new interim government, Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, has continued a drive for peace by visiting a Hindu temple Aug. 14. He delivered this message:

“I am here to say we are all equal. ... In our democratic aspirations, we should not be seen as Muslims, Hindus, or Buddhists, but as human beings.”

“Do not make distinctions among us,” he said. “Exercise patience and judge us later – what we were able to do and what we couldn’t. If we fail, criticise us.”

As he prepares his South Asian nation for free and fair elections, Dr. Yunus – globally famous for creating a system of microloans for poor people – keeps setting a model of inclusiveness, from the diverse makeup of his interim Cabinet to his assurance of support for the world’s largest camp of refugees.

An estimated 1.3 million mainly Muslim Rohingya who fled persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar live in a Bangladeshi settlement near the town of Cox’s Bazar. Dr. Yunus told foreign diplomats Aug. 18 that he will back ongoing humanitarian aid to the camp and work with other countries to eventually return the refugees to their homeland “with safety, dignity and full rights.” He has long been a champion for the Rohingya and is well known for urging people to break down the walls of prejudice based on religion, place of birth, or ethnicity.

He has also promised Bangladeshis that they would live as a family with no room for discrimination. So far, both he and the student antidiscrimination movement that brought him to power are getting it right: “Equality” is really a verb, not a noun.