Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the results of Bangladesh’s political reckoning, mass anti-graft protests in the Philippines, and a suspected act of sabotage on critical Polish infrastructure.
Crimes Against Humanity
Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia on Monday, ending a monthslong trial that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year. The 453-page judgment, delivered by the country’s three-judge International Crimes Tribunal, offered the harshest ruling ever imposed on a Bangladeshi leader.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the results of Bangladesh’s political reckoning, mass anti-graft protests in the Philippines, and a suspected act of sabotage on critical Polish infrastructure.
Crimes Against Humanity
Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia on Monday, ending a monthslong trial that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year. The 453-page judgment, delivered by the country’s three-judge International Crimes Tribunal, offered the harshest ruling ever imposed on a Bangladeshi leader.
“Sheikh Hasina committed crimes against humanity by her incitement, order, and failure to take punitive measures,” one judge said.
Anti-government demonstrations ignited in July 2024, with student protesters opposing the reinstatement of civil service job quotas for veterans of Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war and their families—a policy that demonstrators argued was effectively state patronage for children whose parents supported Hasina’s Awami League party. At the time, youth unemployment was at more than 11 percent.
To suppress dissent, Hasina ordered the lethal use of weapons, drones, and helicopters against protesters, and she directed that demonstrators be hanged for their actions. Up to 1,400 people were killed and thousands more were injured, largely by gunfire from security forces, according to a United Nations report in February. The protests, which ended on Aug. 5 and forced Hasina to flee to India, marked the worst political violence in Bangladesh since the country’s independence.
Interim Bangladeshi leader Muhammad Yunus heralded the ruling on Monday as a “historic verdict” while urging calm moving forward. Dhaka’s foreign ministry called on India to extradite Hasina as well as former Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who was also sentenced to death in the same case. New Delhi acknowledged the ruling and said it would “engage constructively” with Bangladeshi authorities but did not provide further details.
“The path ahead requires not just legal accountability but rebuilding trust between institutions and citizens,” Yunus said.
Hasina cannot appeal the decision unless she turns herself in or is detained within the next 30 days. However, the former leader does not appear willing to return to Dhaka. Hasina dismissed the domestic war crimes court on Monday as a “rigged tribunal” and wrote that the death penalty ruling revealed the “brazen and murderous intent of extremist figures within the interim government.” The Awami League called for a national shutdown on Tuesday to protest the verdict.
In February, Bangladesh is expected to hold parliamentary elections to choose a new government. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the Jamaat-e-Islami party, and the National Citizens Party are expected to put up candidates, but Yunus has barred the Awami League from participating. On Sunday, Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed, told Reuters that the Awami League will block next year’s election if this ban is not lifted.
“We will do whatever it takes,” Wazed said. “Unless the international community does something, eventually there’s probably going to be violence in Bangladesh before these elections.”
Rights activists have accused Yunus’s administration of using the country’s recently amended counterterrorism law to arbitrarily detain alleged Awami League supporters. “The interim government should not be engaging in the same partisan behaviour that Bangladeshis had to endure under Sheikh Hasina, whether it is stuffing the prisons with political opponents or shutting down peaceful dissent,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
Today’s Most Read
The World This Week
Tuesday, Nov. 18: U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
NATO chief Mark Rutte visits Slovakia.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hosts Moldovan Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu.
Wednesday, Nov. 19: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz hosts Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
Thursday, Nov. 20: Tonga holds a general election.
Friday, Nov. 21: The United Nations Climate Change Conference, hosted in Brazil, concludes.
Saturday, Nov. 22: South Africa hosts the two-day G-20 leaders’ summit.
Sunday, Nov. 23: Guinea-Bissau holds a general election.
Republika Srpska holds an early presidential election.
Monday, Nov. 24: European Union trade ministers and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick convene in Brussels.
Angola hosts the two-day EU-African Union summit.
What We’re Following
Anti-graft protests. More than 200,000 protesters took to the streets in the Philippines on Monday for a second day of anti-graft demonstrations. The largely peaceful rallies, which began on Sunday with more than half a million people and are expected to continue through Tuesday, have demanded that Manila hold top officials to account for suspected corruption in government-funded flood mitigation projects, which some analysts suggest may have contributed to the country’s low economic growth in recent months.
Irregularities in the flood control projects were first revealed over the summer, and testimonies later detailed how members of Congress and public officials allegedly took billions of dollars’ worth of kickbacks from construction companies to rig the bidding process and grant them lucrative contracts—leaving the typhoon-prone nation with incomplete or inadequate flood defenses. Many have accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of responding too slowly to the allegations, which involved his cousin, former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Last Thursday, Marcos vowed to arrest those responsible by Christmas. However, critics are still calling for his ouster, fomenting internal dissent. This week’s protests were organized by the Iglesia ni Cristo, an influential Filipino religious sect that previously backed the administration and still supports Vice President Sara Duterte, who had a falling-out with Marcos early in their term.
“Act of sabotage.” An explosion targeting Poland’s railway network appears to have been an “unprecedented act of sabotage,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X on Monday. It is unclear who caused Sunday’s blast, which damaged the Warsaw-Lublin line connecting the Polish capital to the Ukrainian border and which is often used to deliver European aid to Kyiv. However, some experts are blaming Moscow.
The frequency of Russian sabotage, cyberattacks, and drone incursions into Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries has increased since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Just last month, Polish and Romanian authorities arrested eight people suspected of planning attacks on behalf of Moscow.
“The enemy is preparing for war, setting the conditions for an act of aggression on Poland,” said Gen. Wieslaw Kukula, chief of the general staff of the Polish Army. Tusk vowed on Monday to catch those responsible, adding that an investigation is already underway.
Voting in Latin America. Leftist candidate Jeannette Jara took home nearly 27 percent of the vote in the first round of Chile’s presidential election on Sunday, putting her just ahead of far-right rival José Antonio Kast’s roughly 24 percent. Jara is backed by the country’s governing coalition and is the first Communist Party member to be in Santiago’s presidential runoffs. However, experts on Monday still have Kast favored to win when the final round is held next month.
Latin America has seen a right-wing shift in recent years, as many voters increasingly prioritize crime and immigration over progressive reforms. Kast has focused on such issues in his campaign, suggesting that Chile should build hundreds of miles of ditches and walls to prevent undocumented migration into the country. These parties have also capitalized on Trump’s return to the White House in January as evidence that conservative coalitions can secure stronger alliances with the United States.
But right-wing momentum isn’t without challenge in the region. More than 60 percent of Ecuadorians voted against a constitutional referendum on Sunday that would have allowed far-right President Daniel Noboa to rewrite the constitution and authorize a U.S. military base on the country’s soil, among other policies. These results marked a sweeping rejection of Noboa’s efforts to consolidate power and a blow for Trump, who has sought closer relations with Quito in recent days.
Odds and Ends
Amid escalating tensions with the United States, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro called for “peace, peace, peace” during a rally with supporters on Saturday. To drive home his point, Maduro performed an (off-key) rendition of the first words in John Lennon’s hit single “Imagine,” adding, “Long live the eternal memory of that great poet and musician.” It is unclear if Maduro’s message is having the desired impact on the White House, but Trump did say on Sunday that the United States is considering having talks with the Venezuelan leader.
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