Our first story, too, is about responsibility. Parents have a huge role to play in how their children act – including how they handle guns. But a remarkable shift in legal philosophy in Georgia puts one dad on the hook for murder.

• Alexei Navalny’s lawyers on trial: Three lawyers who represented the late opposition leader are being tried in Russia. Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin, and Alexei Liptser were arrested in October 2023 on charges of involvement with an extremist group. 
• Rise in foreign-born residents: The percentage of U.S. residents born outside the country reached its highest level in more than a century in 2023, according to a survey released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
• North Dakota abortion ban struck down: A judge rules that the state constitution creates a fundamental right to access abortion before a fetus is viable.
• First private spacewalk: Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman performs it, hundreds of miles above Earth, on Thursday. The high-risk endeavor was previously reserved for professional astronauts.

Read these news briefs. 

Ukraine’s Azov Brigade has been much maligned, especially by Russia, for a Nazi-tainted past. But today its renowned fighters proudly and emphatically assert their modern self-definition as patriotic nationalists with a broad appeal.

Iran’s dispatch of ballistic missiles to Russia could backfire if the shipment provokes Washington into lifting its refusal to let Ukraine aim U.S.-made long-range missiles deep into Russian territory.

About every three days, a child in the United States dies from an agriculture-related injury. One expert is cultivating lifesaving skills among teen farmers. 

Long-term problems like housing shortages and hunger can feel insurmountable. This week’s progress roundup shows significant movement on both fronts. In Latin America, food insecurity declines. And in Namibia, innovative management of an invasive species is helping to boost housing stocks.

Not many nations reinvent themselves twice within one month. Yet in August, Bangladesh did just that.

First, a student-led uprising forced an autocratic ruler to flee, restoring democracy in the South Asian country and renewing people’s faith in civic equality. Then days later, a country with the world’s largest delta saw its worst flooding in more than three decades, lasting into early September. Perhaps in part because of the democratic renewal, citizens by the tens of thousands gave time and money to more than 5.5 million people affected by the heavy rains.

The spontaneous generosity ranged from girls breaking open their piggy banks, to famed actors taking supplies to inundated villages, to a concert with some 30 bands raising money. The university students who led the uprising quickly pivoted to aid work and donation collection.

“The flooding has given us an opportunity to rediscover a missing characteristic of the nation – the united strength,” wrote journalist Shiabur Rahman in The Financial Express.

“The empathy the nation has shown for the flood victims is unprecedented,” he stated. “Volunteers – both trained and untrained – coming from different strata of society rushed to the affected areas to join the relief activities risking their lives, alongside the government efforts.”

Mr. Rahman makes a crucial connection between the two big events in August: “If we enjoy more freedom and get united, combating disasters will be easier for us.”

Bangladesh is already known as a social innovator with its use of microloans for poor people to start a business. And with other wise reforms, its poverty rate has plummeted in recent years. Yet as the low-lying country experiences increased flooding from extreme weather, it is also setting a model for citizen participation in disaster response. The mass action in August and into September by its “climate volunteers” has not gone unnoticed in other countries working to increase volunteerism to deal with wildfires, storms, and drought.

“Very few pay attention to the skills of volunteers and citizens who often lead response as disasters unfold,” Janne Parviainen, a researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute, wrote for Euractiv media network last year. He adds that a bottom-up approach to climate adaptation “should be cherished.” In Bangladesh, for sure, people now cherish their climate volunteers, perhaps as much as they cherish their democracy.