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Dhaka, Bangladesh — A student-led uprising in Bangladesh against government hiring rules culminated this week in the prime minister fleeing, with Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus set to lead a caretaker government.

At least 450 people were killed in more than a month of deadly protests that ended the autocratic rule of 76-year-old prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Here are five key dates explaining how the protests toppled the government in the South Asian nation of about 170 million people.

July 1: Blockades begin

University students build barricades blocking roads and railway lines to demand reforms to a quota system for sought-after public sector jobs.

They say the scheme is used to stack the civil service with loyalists of Hasina’s ruling Awami League.

Hasina, who won a fifth term as prime minister in January after a vote without genuine opposition, says the students are “wasting their time.”

July 16: Violence intensifies

Six people are killed in clashes, the first recorded deaths in the protests, a day after bitter violence when protesters and pro-government supporters fought in Dhaka with sticks and hurled bricks at each other.

Hasina’s government orders the nationwide closure of schools and universities.

July 18: Hasina rebuffed

Students reject an olive branch from Hasina, a day after she appeals for calm and vows that every “murder” in the protests would be punished.

Protesters chant “down with the dictator” and torch the headquarters of state broadcaster Bangladesh Television and dozens of other government buildings.

Clashes escalate despite a round-the-clock curfew, the deployment of soldiers and an internet blackout.

Days later, the Supreme Court rules the decision to reintroduce job quotas was illegal.

But its verdict falls short of protesters’ demands to entirely abolish reserved jobs for children of “freedom fighters” from Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan.

August 5: Hasina toppled

Hasina flees Dhaka by helicopter as thousands of protesters storm her palace, with millions on the streets celebrating, some dancing on the roof of armored cars and tanks.

Bangladesh army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announces in a broadcast on state television that Hasina had resigned and the military would form an interim government.

August 8: Yunus to lead

Nobel Peace Prize winner Yunus, 84, flies to Dhaka to lead a caretaker government.

He is expected to be sworn in later in the day, to begin what the army chief has vowed will be a “beautiful democratic process.”        
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ISLAMABAD — An independent U.S. federal government agency reported Wednesday that Afghanistan has experienced a “continual and significant” decline in religious freedom under the de facto Islamist Taliban rule. 

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, or USCIRF, charged in its new report that Taliban authorities “have continued to repress and significantly stifle any action or behavior that does not conform with their strict interpretation of Islam.” 

The Taliban seized power after the exit of U.S.-led international forces in August 2021. De facto Afghan authorities have implemented an extreme interpretation of Islamic laws, leading to sweeping curbs on personal freedoms and restricting Afghan women from participating in most aspects of public life. 

The USCIRF stated that the hard-line leaders have silenced religious clerics, prevented religious minorities from observing religious ceremonies, and continued to restrict the movement and educational access of Afghan women and girls. 

“Under de facto Taliban rule, the use of corporal and capital punishment has resumed in Afghanistan to penalize perceived violations of Shariah [Islamic law]. Punishments include public executions, lashings and floggings, stoning, beatings, and acts of public humiliation, such as forced head shaving,” the report said. 

The Taliban have not immediately commented on the findings of the U.S. watchdog and do not respond to VOA queries because they have banned the media outlet in Afghanistan.  

The U.S. report came on a day when the Taliban-run Supreme Court announced that a man and a woman were publicly flogged in the Afghan capital, Kabul, after being convicted of an “illicit relationship.” It did not elaborate and stated that the female convict received 32 lashes, while the man was flogged 39 times. 

Nearly 600 individuals, including women, have been publicly flogged in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, drawing an outcry and calls from the United Nations to immediately end the corporal punishments for being in breach of international law. 

In June, the fundamentalist authorities flogged more than 63 people, including 14 women, in a packed northern Afghan sports stadium after convicting them of homosexuality, adultery and other “immoral crimes.”  

The Taliban also have publicly executed at least five Afghans convicted of murder, citing the Islamic concept of retributive justice known as qisas. 

The United States and the world at large have refused to recognize Taliban authorities as the official government of Afghanistan, citing restrictions on women’s access to education and employment, among other human rights concerns.  

Girls ages 12 and older are not allowed to attend secondary school, making Afghanistan the only country in the world with this restriction, while female students have been barred from universities. Most Afghan women are prohibited from working in both public and private sectors, including the U.N. 

The USCIRF recommended in its 2024 annual report that Washington designate Taliban-run Afghanistan as a “country of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act for alleged “severe violations” of religious freedom. It also called for continued targeted sanctions on Taliban officials responsible for severe violations of religious freedom. 

The Taliban have persistently rejected allegations of human rights abuses or discrimination against women leveled in U.N. reports and by international human rights groups as propaganda against their Islamic administration.  

The de facto government insists women’s rights in Afghanistan are being protected under Islamic principles, and that the Taliban’s “judicial system provides justice” to the people in line with the Quran and Shariah, or Islamic law.
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As Japan this week marks 79 years since the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by nuclear bombs at the end of World War II, Japanese officials have restated their aim to rid the world of atomic weapons. However, after decades of pacifism, the country is undergoing profound changes in its attitude to military power amid multiple regional threats. Henry Ridgwell reports from Tokyo.
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Bangkok — Thailand’s Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday to dissolve the opposition Move Forward Party and ban its executives — including up-and-coming lawmaker Pita Limjaroenrat – from politics for a decade.  

The court’s decision is the latest dilution of democracy by the conservative Thai establishment which refuses to cede power to pro-democracy movements, reform advocates say.

The nine judges decided that Thailand’s largest parliamentary party should be dissolved and its executives banned from politics for 10 years for breaching constitutional protections of the monarchy with a 2023 election campaign call to reform the royal defamation law, which criminalizes criticism of the monarchy, Thailand’s top institution.  

“’The party’ intended to weaken the monarchy …making it the enemy of the people,” the court’s ruling said.

“The court considers their actions antagonizing towards the [royal] institution,” it added.

Move Forward’s predecessor party, Future Forward, was disbanded by the same court in 2020.

Even with Future Forward barred, the Move Forward Party in recent years sustained efforts to amend the law which protects the monarchy from criticism and allows long jail terms and has seen dozens of democracy advocates charged and convicted in recent years for insulting or disparaging the Thai monarchy.

By now legally sidelining the Move Forward Party, the ruling on Wednesday effectively nullifies the votes of 14 million Thai citizens – in a country with a population of some 71 million.

Speaking to reporters later, a grim-faced Pita denied the party had set out to antagonize the monarchy.

“You may be disappointed and angry, I understand you, let it all out today … tomorrow we will pass through it … we’re not going to let it eat us up,” he said.

“We have to express our anger at the polling station instead of every election from here on out.”

Many Thai observers expressed dismay.

“This lost decade of Thai democracy continues,” Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang, a constitutional scholar at Chulalongkorn University, told VOA.

“This is now our new normal,” he said.

International observers waded in on the dissolution of a party – which, with Pita in the lead – carried hopes of a democratic reset for a country worn down by a decade of government run by former generals – turned civilian politicians.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the U.S. was “deeply concerned” by a ruling which “disenfranchises the more than 14 million Thais” who voted for Move Forward.

Last year’s poll victory generally humiliated the older, better-funded conservative parties and spread anxiety among the establishment.

The voters’ ballots made clear in 2023 that dominant, establishment interests in Thailand could be at risk when younger Thai citizens got behind progressive policies proposed to reform the kingdom’s monopolistic economy and top-down politics and dilute the power of the royalist army in the country’s politics. 

Move Forward gradually, during the second half of 2023 and early 2024, was nudged into an opposition role by a conservative coalition and by senators appointed by the previous military-stacked government.

Then the party and its 43-year-old dynamic leader, Pita, a Harvard graduate, was besieged by legal cases. Wednesday’s ruling obstructs and stalls the promising political career of Pita.

‘This is not justice’

Many of the party’s 144 lawmakers are expected to migrate within 60 days to a new party, which has been prepared in the event of dissolution.

Some in Move Forward, instead, may defect to the governing coalition, headed by Pheu Thai, the political vehicle of billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, who at 75 remains at the center of the kingdom’s politics.  

The government, though, also faces potential upheaval in the weeks ahead.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, a real estate tycoon who entered top-level politics at age 62, faces a court decision, scheduled next week, which could lead to his removal as government leader after barely a year.

The Constitutional Court is planning to rule on the consequences of Srettha appointing a key cabinet member with a checkered past. The cabinet member, in a chief of staff type role, resigned in May after a previous conviction re-emerged in public, disqualifying him from office.

The Constitutional Court has a history of banning Thai political parties, especially those that advocate for better, stronger democratic institutions in Thailand and which have rattled the conservative order for two decades with election wins.

“This case is another example of blurring the line between legality and political preference,” said Verapat Pariyawong, who teaches Thai law and politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, and advises The Parliamentary committees.

“But I am not at all surprised given that such lines have been crossed so many times before, at the heavy price of weakening democracy,” he told VOA.

Move Forward Party leaders have said ideas of reform are likely to remain relevant in Thailand and especially if political and economic stagnation settles in, likely alienating and frustrating another rising generation of young Thais.

Thailand, which has endured a coup d’etat, roughly every seven years since it dropped in 1932 absolute rule by kings, was led by Prayuth Chan-ocha from 2014 to 2024.

He seized power as army chief in a 2014 coup from the elected government, sparking a “lost decade” of slow growth, flat wages, delayed entry to the digital economy and slumping standards in education as well as a general smothering of free speech and dissent.  

As the court’s ruling condemned the party, Move Forward released a social media video with the tagline “Unbreakable.”

But some young Thais say they are now disillusioned by the chances of change.

“I’ve been prepared for this, but we just have to keep fighting,” said Nannapas Chanphasit, 20, who said she voted in her first election last year and now feels her ballot has been “voided.’”

“But this is not justice. Many of my friends say they want to leave Thailand because in two, three years’ time, we will graduate and prospects for our lives here are bleak … High cost of living. Low pay. Just no future.” 
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KATHMANDU, NEPAL — A helicopter crashed in a forest outside Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, shortly after takeoff on Wednesday, killing all five people on board, an official said. The crash is the latest of more than a dozen air crashes in the mountainous region since 2000.

The helicopter, operated by Air Dynasty, crashed into a Himalayan forest in Shivapuri National Park of Nuwakot district, 57 kilometers (35 miles) from the capital, deputy Chief District Officer Krishna Prasad Humagain said.

Police spokesperson Dan Bahadur Karki confirmed all four passengers were Chinese nationals, three men and one woman, while the pilot was a Nepali male.

Residents saw a fire emanating from the forest and alerted authorities, he said.

The helicopter, which was en route to Rasuwa district from Kathmandu, lost contact with air traffic control three minutes after takeoff, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said in a statement.

More than 360 people have died in plane or helicopter crashes in Nepal in the past 24 years.

Wedged between India and China, landlocked Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest peaks, and its planes often service small airports nestled in remote hills or near peaks blanketed in clouds.
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Taipei, Taiwan  — From teaching at a high school in China to his experience serving on a key congressional committee that focuses on relations between Beijing and Washington, Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz has a decades-long connection with China dating back to the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

As an educator, Walz taught American History, culture, and English to Chinese students at the Foshan No.1 High School in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong in 1989, the year that saw hundreds of thousands of Chinese students protesting against the ruling Chinese Communist Party in Tiananmen Square.

“China was coming, and that’s the reason that I went,” Walz said in a 2007 interview with The Hill, a Washington D.C.-based news website. During his one-year teaching stint in China, Walz was nicknamed “Fields of China” by his students due to his kindness.

His time in China had an impact on his perspectives of Chinese people’s lives under the ruling Communist Party.

“If they had the proper leadership, there are no limits on what they could accomplish,” he said in an interview with the Star Herald in 1990, describing teaching in China as “one of the best things” he has ever done.

His interest in China didn’t stop there. Upon returning to the United States, Walz and his wife set up a company named “Educational Travel Adventures” to coordinate summer trips to China for American high school students.

Five years after the Tiananmen Square protests and the Chinese government’s violent crackdown, Walz returned to China with his wife for their honeymoon and they brought along two American high school tour groups. Walz continued running the summer exchange program to China for American students with his wife until 2003.

Advocating human rights in China

After becoming a member of Congress in 2007, Walz continued to focus on issues related to China. During his time in Congress, Walz served on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which focuses exclusively on human rights issues in the country.

Walz quickly established himself as a vocal critic of the Chinese government, holding regular meetings with high-profile activists from China and Hong Kong, including prominent Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong and Tibet’s spiritual leader Dalai Lama.

In an interview with VOA in 2014, Walz recounted his impression of witnessing the student-led protest in Tiananmen Square unfold. “I remembered waking up and seeing the news on June Fourth that the unthinkable had happened,” he said.

While most Americans at the time decided to leave China due to security concerns following the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, Walz said he felt it was “more important than ever to go” to China because he wanted to ensure that “the story was told” and let the Chinese people know that the outside world was with them.

In addition to engaging with activists from China and Hong Kong, Walz also co-sponsored several resolutions on key human rights issues in China, including demanding the release of Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo and Chinese activist Huang Qi, as well as co-signing the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in 2017.

In one of his congressional remarks in 2016, Walz highlighted the importance of having “constructive dialogues” with Beijing to ensure “the preservation of traditional Tibetan culture and Tibet’s fragile ecology.”

“The U.S. was founded on the ideas of universal freedom, and I believe that we must continue to urge the Chinese government to provide less regulated religious freedom to the Tibetans,” he said at the time.

Foreign policy boost

In addition to being a vocal critique of China’s human rights record, Walz also expressed concerns about China’s attempt to expand its presence in the South China Sea in 2016, citing Beijing’s efforts to build artificial islands in the disputed water as the reason to oppose Washington’s attempt to reduce military spending.

Despite his strong stance on China’s human rights record and military posture, Walz continued to stress the importance of maintaining cooperation with China. “I don’t fall into the category that China necessarily needs to be an adversarial relationship,” he said in a video interview with Agri-Pulse Communications.

“I think we need to stand firm on what they are doing in the South China Sea, but there [are] many areas of cooperation that we can work on,” Walz added.

Some analysts say Walz’s deep connections to China and track record in U.S.-China diplomacy could potentially help the Democratic presidential pair make more informed decisions on foreign policy, especially on issues related to China.

“I think [his emergence as Democratic vice-presidential nominee] is going to put a lot of people who care a lot about American foreign policy in this part of the world at ease, knowing that there is someone on the ticket who is informed, has spent time in the region, and is not starting from square one when it comes to learning about American foreign policy in East Asia,” said Lev Nachman, a political scientist at National Taiwan University.

He said since Walz has expressed many humanistic views of the Chinese people, Tibetan people, and Hong Kongers, the Minnesota governor could add more nuance to the policy debate related to China in the United States.

“He may be able to articulate the need to push back against China’s authoritarianism and human rights violations in different parts of the world in a way that doesn’t vilify Chinese citizens or doesn’t lean antagonistically in this overtly scare tactic rhetoric that I think a lot of U.S.-China discourse has turned into in the U.S.,” Nachman told VOA by phone.
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sydney — Workers at Australian state-owned submarine builder ASC Ltd began a four-day strike on Wednesday, escalating a campaign for higher wages that threatens maintenance work on the aging submarine fleet Australia must rely on until its nuclear-powered AUKUS replacements arrive in the 2030s.

The 100-hour strike began at noon on Wednesday and includes all of the roughly 350 blue-collar workers at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in South Australia state, where Australia maintains its fleet of Collins-class submarines, according to the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU).

The strikes, the latest in a series since May, are adding months of delays to maintenance work on two of Australia’s six Collins submarines, according to the union.

ASC said in a statement it could not comment on submarine availability for national security reasons.

Workers are striking over what they say are discrepancies in pay between those employed by ASC Ltd in South Australia state and Western Australia state.

Unions say the workers in South Australia are paid 17.5% less on average and want ASC Ltd to equalize pay for their workers in the two states.

“Workers are frustrated with the company,” said AMWU South Australia Assistant State Secretary Stuart Gordon, who flagged the possibility of more strikes next week.

“ASC has said it would address pay parity and come to the bargaining table. But clearly the company has refused to do either.”

ASC said unions had rejected multiple offers and it will continue to negotiate in good faith.

The shipyard is vital part of Australia’s naval infrastructure and is where ASC and British firm BAE Systems, will jointly build Australia’s fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, the core component of the 2021 AUKUS pact between Australia, Britain and the United States.

Australia announced last month a $1.4 billion dollar, four-year contract with ASC to extend the life of the Collins class submarines until the AUKUS replacements are ready.
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Colombo, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s ruling party nominated a scion of the controversial Rajapaksa family Wednesday to challenge the incumbent president in Sept. 21 polls, the first since the country’s unprecedented economic meltdown.

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party named Namal Rajapaksa, 38, as its candidate at a Buddhist ceremony at their party office in the capital Colombo.

“After careful consideration, the party decided to make Namal Rajapaksa our presidential candidate,” SLPP Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam said.

Namal was a former sports minister under his father Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency, which ended in January 2015.

His uncle, Gotabaya, also won the presidency in November 2019, but was forced out during the economic crisis in 2022.

The entry of a Rajapaksa into the fray formalized a widening split in the government ahead of the election.

A majority of legislators from the SLPP had wanted the party to back their new ally, President Ranil Wickremesinghe, after praising him for turning the economy around after the 2022 crisis.

Wickremesinghe is not from the SLPP.

But he had its backing to replace then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, after Gotabaya fled and resigned following months of protests over corruption and mismanagement.

Despite the downfall of Gotabaya, the SLPP enjoyed a majority in the 225-member parliament, controlled the government — and had supported Wickremesinghe.

However, the parting of ways began when the election was called last month.

That revealed the splits in the once-dominant SLPP, a nationalist party appealing to the Sinhala majority.

The SLPP said it will campaign to elect Namal as the next president, turning the presidential poll into a battle among four main candidates.

Wickremesinghe had contested two presidential elections and lost both. However, he had been prime minister six times since entering parliament in 1977.
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DHAKA, Bangladesh — Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus has been chosen to head Bangladesh’s interim government after the nation’s longtime prime minister resigned and fled abroad in the face of a broad uprising against her rule.

Known as the “banker to the poorest of the poor” and a longtime critic of the ousted Sheikh Hasina, Yunus will act as a caretaker premier until new elections are held. The decision followed a meeting late Tuesday that included student protest leaders, military chiefs, civil society members and business leaders.

Hasina was forced to flee Monday after weeks of protests over a quota system for allocating government jobs turned into a broader challenge to her 15-year rule, which was marked by a rising economy but an increasingly authoritarian streak.

Hasina’s departure has plunged Bangladesh into a political crisis. The army has temporarily taken control, but it is unclear what its role would be in an interim government after the president dissolved Parliament on Tuesday to pave the way for elections.

Student leaders who organized the protests have wanted Yunus, who is currently in Paris for the Olympics as an adviser to its organizers, to lead an interim government.

He could not immediately be reached for comment, but key student leader Nahid Islam asserted that Yunus agreed to step in during a discussion with them. The 83-year-old is a well-known critic and political opponent of Hasina.

Yunus called her resignation the country’s “second liberation day.” She once called him a “bloodsucker.”

Pioneered use of microcredit

An economist and banker by profession, Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for pioneering the use of microcredit to help impoverished people, particularly women. The Nobel Peace Prize committee credited Yunus and his Grameen Bank “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.”

Yunus founded Grameen Bank in 1983 to provide small loans to entrepreneurs who would not normally qualify to receive them. The bank’s success in lifting people out of poverty led to similar microfinancing efforts in other countries.

He ran into trouble with Hasina in 2008, when her administration launched a series of investigations into him. He had announced he would form a political party in 2007 when the country was run by a military-backed government but did not follow through.

During the investigations, Hasina accused Yunus of using force and other means to recover loans from poor rural women as the head of Grameen Bank. Yunus denied the allegations.

Hasina’s government began reviewing the bank’s activities in 2011, and Yunus was fired as managing director for allegedly violating government retirement regulations. He was put on trial in 2013 on charges of receiving money without government permission, including his Nobel Prize and royalties from a book.

He later faced more charges involving other companies he created, including Grameen Telecom, which is part of the country’s largest mobile phone company, GrameenPhone, a subsidiary of Norwegian telecom giant Telenor. In 2023, some former Grameen Telecom workers filed a case against Yunus accusing him of siphoning off their job benefits. He denied the accusations.

Earlier this year, a special judge’s court in Bangladesh indicted Yunus and 13 others on charges in a $2 million embezzlement case. Yunus pleaded not guilty and is out on bail for now.

Yunus’ supporters say he has been targeted because of his frosty relations with Hasina.

‘Eureka moment’ launched movement

Yunus was born in 1940 in Chittagong, a seaport city in Bangladesh. He received his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in the United States and taught there briefly before returning to Bangladesh.

In a 2004 interview with The Associated Press, Yunus said he had a “eureka movement” to establish Grameen Bank when he met a poor woman weaving bamboo stools who was struggling pay her debts.

“I couldn’t understand how she could be so poor when she was making such beautiful things,” he recalled in the interview.
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WASHINGTON — Harrison Li, the son of Kai Li, a Chinese American wrongfully detained in China since 2016, felt a mix of emotions after witnessing the recent return of Americans wrongfully imprisoned in Russia.

Last Thursday, President Joe Biden and the families of those released celebrated the return of three Americans and a permanent resident, including two journalists and an activist, as part of the largest prisoner exchange since the Soviet era.

Kai Li is one of at least three Americans wrongfully detained in China. He was arrested in Shanghai in September 2016 and in 2018 was sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage, which he has consistently denied. The other two wrongfully detained by China are Texas businessman Mark Swidan and California pastor David Lin.

The U.S. State Department does not disclose the number of wrongful detention cases due to privacy concerns and the sensitivity of efforts to secure the release of wrongfully detained U.S. nationals.

“U.S. citizens are not required to register their travel to a foreign country with us, and we do not maintain comprehensive lists of U.S. citizens residing overseas,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA in an email when asked about the total number of wrongfully detained Americans in China.

For the past eight years, Harrison Li has urged two consecutive U.S. administrations to secure his father’s release.

“Our family is extremely pleased to see the return of Paul Whelan, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Evan Gershkovich back to the U.S. and wish them and their families the best in the long road to recovery,” Li told VOA in a written statement.

“Once again, President Biden has shown his willingness to make difficult decisions that prioritize the safety of Americans unjustly detained abroad … except in China.”

Li expressed frustration over the lack of attention given to his father’s case by the U.S. administration.

“All we can do is once again remind the President that my dad has suffered unjustly for almost 8 years now, and that he must act to ‘finish the job’ before it’s too late,” Li wrote.

Several members of Congress are also urging the Biden administration to secure the release of Americans wrongfully detained in China.

Congressman Michael McCaul, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, told VOA that Americans wrongfully detained in China and elsewhere deserve to be home with their families.

“One American wrongfully detained abroad is too many,” he said. “As wrongfully detained Americans returned home this week from Russia, we cannot forget about those held around the world, including those in China — particularly Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and David Lin.”

Families call for urgent action

Katherine Swidan, the mother of Mark Swidan, revealed that her son has been on a hunger strike for many days. He has been detained in China since 2012 on narcotics trafficking charges, which he denies.

“Mark’s been on a hunger strike for 115 days. He’s lost a lot of weight, and he’s been sick. His leg was swollen, and they did a very sparse medical exam,” Swidan told VOA.

According to Swidan, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns visited her son in the past.

“When he went to see Mark, he told Mark the next time I come to see you, hopefully it will be to bring you home,” Swidan said.

That message left both her and Mark full of hope, but Mark continues to experience disappointment and anger and has had suicidal tendencies.

“When I talked to him, he said he was in a room with, like, nine other people, seven to nine people. He is doing gardening, planting stuff. But he is furious because he doesn’t understand why they are not pushing for him to come home,” she said.

Renewed focus

Peter Humphrey, a former British reporter in China, was arrested in 2013 and sentenced to two and a half years in prison for illegally obtaining citizen information. He was released early in June 2015 due to health reasons and was deported after medical treatment in Shanghai.

Now a nonresident researcher at Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for China Studies, Humphrey uses his experience to assist foreign citizens detained in China and help them contact government officials. He says he has supported some American detainees whose cases remained unreported for fear that publicity would make their situations worse.

Humphrey believes that after last week’s U.S.-Russia prisoner exchange, the United States should refocus its attention on Americans improperly detained in China and elsewhere.

“These people are arbitrarily detained, and the American government should wake up and understand the fact that it is their duty of care to protect American citizens in China who become victims of this false and cruel process of Chinese justice,” he told VOA. “Some talks are happening but not like significant progress.”

Travel advisory

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said the department has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas.

“Secretary Blinken, Ambassador Burns, and other senior U.S. government officials continue to advocate for the immediate and unconditional release of wrongfully detained U.S. citizens in meetings with PRC officials,” the spokesperson told VOA. “The U.S. mission in China will continue to offer consular services to every U.S. citizen detained in the PRC.”

The Department of State travel advisory is at Level 3 for mainland China, recommending that U.S. citizens reconsider travel due to arbitrary enforcement of local laws, exit bans and the risk of wrongful detentions.

“The sad facts are that the PRC has blocked U.S. citizens, including college students, minors, businesspeople and tourists from leaving the country. U.S. citizens have been wrongfully detained by the PRC, and the PRC often arbitrarily enforces its own laws,” the spokesperson said.

Family appeals

Nelson and Cynthia Wells, whose son Nelson Wells Jr. was detained in China in 2014 and sentenced to life imprisonment for “drug smuggling” (later commuted to 22 years), have written letters to three consecutive U.S. presidents about their son’s imprisonment but have never received a response.

“We also don’t know if they received the letters,” they said. “I really believe that if we’re high-profile people, well, if we’re famous, or we’re a top athlete, or we have a lot of money, or we have any type of political connections, then we might get some recognition,” Nelson Wells told VOA.

The case has drawn the attention of U.S. Senators John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy, who are advocating for Nelson Wells Jr. to be recognized as “wrongfully detained.” Last October, Nelson and Cynthia Wells spoke with House Speaker Mike Johnson, who assured them he continues to address the issue.
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TOKYO — More than 120 people died of heatstroke in the Tokyo metropolitan area in July, when the nation’s average temperature hit record highs and heat warnings were in effect much of the month, Japanese authorities said Tuesday. 

According to the Tokyo Medical Examiner’s Office, many of the 123 people who died were elderly. All but two were found dead indoors, and most were not using air conditioners despite having them installed. 

Japanese health authorities and weather forecasters repeatedly advised people to stay indoors, consume ample liquids to avoid dehydration, and use air conditioning, because elderly people often think that air conditioning is not good for one’s health and tend to avoid using it. 

It was the largest number of heatstroke deaths in Tokyo’s 23 metropolitan districts in July since 127 deaths were recorded during a 2018 heatwave, the medical examiner’s office said. 

More than 37,000 people were treated at hospitals for heatstroke across Japan from July 1 to July 28, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. 

The average temperature in July was 2.16 degrees Celsius (3.89 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the average over the past 30 years, making it the hottest July since the Japan Meteorological Agency began keeping records in 1898. 

On Tuesday, heatstroke warnings were in place in much of Tokyo and western Japan. The temperature rose to about 34 C (93 F) in downtown Tokyo, where many people carried parasols or handheld fans. 

“I feel every year the hot period is getting longer,” said Hidehiro Takano from Kyoto. “I have the aircon on all the time, including while I’m sleeping. I try not to go outside.” 

Maxime Picavet, a French tourist, showed a portable fan he bought in Tokyo. “It works very, very well,” he said. “With this temperature, it’s a necessity.” 

The meteorological agency predicted more heat in August, with temperatures of 35 C (95 F) or higher. 

“Please pay attention to temperature forecasts and heatstroke alerts and take adequate precautions to prevent heatstroke,” it said in a statement. 
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DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladesh’s Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will head the country’s interim government after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down and fled the country amid a mass uprising against her rule led mostly by students. 

The announcement early on Wednesday came from Joynal Abedin, the press secretary of President Mohammed Shahabuddin. Abedin spoke to The Associated Press over the phone. 

Abedin also said that the other members of the Yunus-led government would be decided soon after discussion with political parties and other stakeholders. 

The leaders of the student protests, the chiefs of the country’s three divisions of the military, civil society members, as well as some business leaders held a meeting with the president for more than five hours late on Tuesday to decide on the head of the interim administration. 

The students had earlier proposed Yunus and said he agreed. He is expected to return to the country from Paris soon, local media reported. 

Following the decision, student leaders left the president’s official house shortly after midnight Tuesday obviously satisfied and welcoming the decision. 

Earlier, Bangladesh’s president dissolved Parliament, clearing the way for new elections to replace the longtime prime minister who resigned and fled the country following weeks of demonstrations against her rule that descended into violence. 

President Mohammed Shahabuddin also ordered the release of opposition leader Khaleda Zia from house arrest. Zia, a longtime rival of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was convicted on corruption charges by Hasina’s government in 2018. 

On Tuesday, some senior positions in the military were reshuffled. The student protesters said they would not allow any military-backed government. 

The streets of Dhaka, the capital, appeared calmer Tuesday, with no reports of new violence as jubilant protesters thronged the ousted leader’s residence. Some posed for selfies with soldiers guarding the building, where a day earlier angry protesters had looted furniture, paintings, flowerpots and chickens. 

Dhaka’s main airport resumed operations after an eight-hour suspension. 

The Bangladesh Police Association said it was launching a strike across the country because of a lack of security after numerous police stations were attacked on Monday and “many” officers were killed, though it didn’t give any number of the dead. 

It said officers would not return to work unless their safety is assured. The association also apologized for violent police attacks on student protesters, saying officers had been “forced to open fire” and had been cast as the “villain.” 

Hasina fled to India by helicopter on Monday as protesters defied military curfew orders to march on the capital, with thousands of demonstrators eventually storming her official residence and other buildings associated with her party and family. 

Protests against a quota system for government jobs, which critics said favored people with connections to her party, grew into a broader challenge to her 15-year rule, which was marked by human rights abuses, corruption and allegations of rigged elections amid a brutal crackdown on her opponents. 

A bloody crackdown on the demonstrations led to clashes that left scores dead, further fueling the movement. 
…

ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban said Tuesday that about 3.7 million former refugees have returned to the country since the Islamist group took power three years ago. The statement was a response to the International Organization for Migration, or IOM, which reported last week that more than twice as many Afghans have left the country since 2020.

Which side is correct? Possibly both.  

The dispute began with a July 31 IOM report that said “nearly 8 million Afghans” have departed the country over the last four years. 

Of those, said the IOM, 85% moved to neighboring countries, mostly Iran and Pakistan, and almost 1 million headed to Europe. The IOM said almost 70% of Afghans who went to Iran cited a lack of job opportunities as the main factor driving their migration. 

The Taliban-run Ministry of Refugees and Returnees challenged the IOM figure, saying there has not been such a significant exodus of people from the country since the Soviet invasion and subsequent decade-long occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. 

“In the last three years alone, 3.7 million Afghan citizens have returned home, marking the first instance of such a substantial influx in the last 40 years in Afghanistan’s history,” the ministry declared. 

The ministry accused the U.N. agency of issuing false and misleading figures to attract donor funding. 

While neither side’s figure can be independently confirmed, it’s conceivable that both numbers are accurate.  

Afghanistan has experienced significant outflows and inflows of people this decade. Many Afghans flee turmoil sparked by the withdrawal of the U.S.-led anti-terrorism coalition and the return to power of the Taliban, who continue to battle Afghan insurgent groups as well as sanctions imposed by Western countries over human rights concerns, mainly laws that ban women from most aspects of public life. 

At the same time, many Afghans are getting a cold welcome in what they hoped would be countries of refuge. In its report, the IOM acknowledged that the number of Afghans repatriating from Iran “remains consistently high.” It stated that nearly 1 million Afghans came back home in 2023, with “70% being undocumented and 60% forcibly returned.” 

Meanwhile, neighboring Pakistan reported this week that its crackdown on undocumented foreigners in the country has led to the repatriation of nearly 700,000 Afghans in the last 10 months. Another 1.4 million legal Afghan refugees remain in the country. 

IOM and its partner agencies have repeatedly urged all countries to “immediately halt the forced returns of Afghans, both in the short and long term, until conditions are established to ensure safe, dignified, and voluntary returns, regardless of legal status.” 

Climate change impact 

Meanwhile, Save the Children reported Tuesday that extreme weather events forced at least 38,000 people, about half of them children, from their homes in Afghanistan in the first six months of this year.  

The aid group said, “While most displacements in recent decades have been due to conflict, in 2022, climate disasters became the main reason people fled their homes and moved to other areas within Afghanistan.”  

The report noted that more than one-third of Afghans are facing crisis levels of hunger, driven mostly by climate shocks and high food prices. 

Recent U.N. reports have cited drought as the main reason for disaster-driven displacement in Afghanistan, ranked as the sixth most vulnerable country to the impacts of climate change.  The assessments found that 25 of the 34 Afghan provinces “face severe or catastrophic” drought conditions, affecting more than half the country’s more than 40 million population. 

The Taliban reclaimed power in August 2021 from the then-internationally backed government in Kabul, as the United States and NATO troops withdrew from the country after almost two decades of involvement in the Afghan war. 

No country has officially recognized the fundamentalist Taliban regime over its sweeping restrictions on women’s rights to education, employment, and public life, among other human rights concerns.  

The international isolation has deterred potential partners from providing development assistance to help Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in addressing climate change and post-conflict reconstruction challenges.
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SAINT-DENIS, France — Three-time world champion Quan Hongchan of China won the gold medal Tuesday in the women’s 10-meter platform at the Paris Olympics to defend her title from Tokyo.

Quan set the tone on her first dive, recording a perfect score of 10 from all seven judges. The dive was a forward 3½ somersaults, setting off wild cheers among a venue packed with Chinese fans.

Chen Yuxi of China took silver, a repeat of their finish three years ago at the Tokyo Olympics.

Kim Mi Rae of North Korea won bronze, adding to the silver medal she claimed earlier in women’s 10-meter synchronized, which was the country’s first medal in Olympic diving.

Quan scored 425.60 points on five dives, compared with 420.70 for Chen and 372.10 for Kim. Caeli McKay of Canada was fourth with 364.50 points.

The two Chinese women teamed up earlier to win the 10-meter synchronized in Paris.

China is aiming for an unprecedented sweep of the eight diving golds. The Chinese so far have won five golds after winning the four synchronized competitions in the opening week of the Games.

Quan and Chen had big leads over the field after the preliminary round on Monday, but those scores do not carry over to the final. It didn’t matter. They piled up the same margin there.
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New Delhi — The Indian foreign minister said that India, which shares a long land border with Bangladesh, has put its border forces on high alert following the collapse of Sheikh Hasina’s government.

He also confirmed that the former prime minister is in the Indian capital after she fled the country Monday, following weeks of widespread protests led by students.

“At very short notice, she [Hasina] requested approval to come for the moment to India. We simultaneously received a request for flight clearance from the Bangladesh authorities. She arrived yesterday evening in Delhi,” Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told parliament on Tuesday.

Hasina was one of India’s closest allies in South Asia, and the dramatic fall of her government in Bangladesh presents a challenge for New Delhi, which had built strong ties with Dhaka during her 15 years in office.

She stepped down after scores of people were killed during a violent crackdown on a student-led uprising that erupted last month.

Jaishankar said that India is in touch with the army in Bangladesh, which took control after Hasina’s resignation.

“Our border-guarding forces have also been instructed to be exceptionally alert in view of this complex situation in the last 24 hours. We will naturally remain deeply concerned till law and order is visibly restored,” Jaishankar said.

India shares a largely porous border of more than 4,000 kilometers (almost 2,500 miles) with Bangladesh along several of its eastern and northeastern states, where insurgent groups used to be active. During Hasina’s tenure, however, the border had been relatively calm because those groups had not been allowed to take sanctuary in Bangladesh.

The Indian minister also expressed concern about the status of minority communities in Bangladesh, a mostly Muslim country. “What was particularly worrying was that minorities, their business and temples also came under attack at multiple locations. The full extent of this is still not clear,” Jaishankar said.

European Union diplomats in Bangladesh have echoed similar concerns. EU heads of mission “are very concerned about incoming reports of multiple attacks against places of worship and members of religious, ethnic and other minorities in Bangladesh,” EU Ambassador to Bangladesh Charles Whiteley posted on social media platform X.

Bangladesh’s president dissolved parliament Tuesday, paving the way for the formation of an interim government. Student groups that led the uprising against Hasina have said they want Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel laureate and a pioneer of microfinance, to help lead the interim government.

Yunus, who is currently in Paris, has called Hasina’s resignation the country’s “second liberation day.”

In an interview with Indian broadcaster NDTV Tuesday, Yunus said the country had “got rid of a very authoritarian government.” He said, “The ultimate goal for stability is to bring democracy, which was completely denied in Bangladesh.”

Yunus also said that restoration of law and order was the biggest priority facing Bangladesh. “If that cannot be achieved, there will be a spillover effect in neighboring countries,” including India and Myanmar, he said.
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Taipei, Taiwan    — Taiwan’s presence at the Paris Olympics isn’t all about the medals its athletes have racked up in badminton, skeet shooting, gymnastics and boxing. The sight of security guards and other spectators snatching signs and items away from Taiwanese fans is also grabbing global attention.

On Saturday, during the badminton men’s doubles semifinal between Taiwanese shuttlers Wang Chi-lin and Lee Yang and their Danish opponents, a spectator’s green towel with the word Taiwan on it was taken from him by a security guard during the match.

Meanwhile, several videos circulating on social media showed a man who, believed to be a Chinese national, ripping a poster shaped like Taiwan from a Taiwanese woman’s hands and tearing it into pieces. The man was also taken away by security guards.

On Monday, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry called on French authorities to investigate the incident, which it described as “violent and against the Olympic values of friendship and respect.”

Taiwanese spectators and analysts say the incidents highlight the tremendous pressure Taiwan has long faced from China.

“Taiwan’s international space continues to be suppressed by China over the last few years and these suppressions are also emerging in the sports arena,” Chiaoning Su, an associate professor of journalism and communication at Oakland University, told VOA by phone.

China views Taiwan as part of its territory and says it must return to Chinese control — by force if necessary. Beijing also works to limit Taiwan’s international space and recognition, blocking it from participating in global organizations.

Despite being widely recognized as Taiwan, the self-ruled democracy competes at the Olympics under the name “Chinese Taipei,” a compromise that the government of the Republic of China, Taiwan’s official name, reached with the International Olympic Committee, IOC, in 1981. That agreement allows athletes from Taiwan to compete but only using a non-political flag and without a national anthem.

The white flag that Taiwan carries at the games bears some elements of its official flag and the Olympic rings.

Under rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, the restrictions also apply to Taiwanese spectators, which prohibit any demonstration or political, racial and religious propaganda at Olympic venues.

Despite those restrictions, Taiwanese spectators continue to find ways to cheer on their athletes, such as using images of bubble tea or Mandarin characters like they did during the men’s doubles final between Taiwan’s Wang and Lee and their Chinese opponents on Sunday – won by Wang and Lee, incidentally.

BB, a 33-year-old Taiwanese artist who helped to design a banner featuring a cup of bubble tea and the cartoon-style Wang and Lee, told VOA that she was happy to see her art playing a role in Taiwanese people’s attempt to bypass restrictions at the Paris Olympics.

“A Taiwanese girl in Paris asked me to design a sign for the men’s doubles final, so I drew a cup of bubble tea to represent Taiwan and discretely put two tiny Taiwan maps on the shirts and rackets of Lee and Wang in that poster,” she said.

BB says she hopes her art can help some Taiwanese spectators in Paris not to be bothered by the frustration that comes with the restrictions they face.

Despite Taiwanese spectators’ efforts, some videos on social media platform X, showed that signs with the phrase “Let’s Go” in Mandarin were still confiscated by security guards at the venue.

Some Taiwanese spectators described the screening of signs bearing elements related to Taiwan as “outrageously broad-based” and that it felt like Taiwanese people were being “specifically targeted.”

“One Taiwanese guy was asked by a security guard to either cover up the word ‘Taiwan’ on his shirt or take off his shirt, so in the end, he used tape to cover up the six letters,” Sandy Hsueh, the president of the Taiwanese Association in France, told VOA by phone.

In her view, such targeted moves are out of proportion and “totally unfair.”

In a written response to VOA, the IOC said all interested parties fully support the approach laid out by the agreement reached in 1981 and the agreement’s terms remain “fully applicable.”

While Taiwanese people face a wide range of restrictions at the Olympic venues in Paris, some say their efforts to push back against the restrictions have earned the support and sympathy of other foreign spectators.

“Some foreigners would ask us why the security guards were taking away our stuff and after listening to our explanation, they would start cheering for the Taiwanese athletes,” Betty Hsiao, a 35-year-old journalist who is attending the games in Paris, told VOA by phone.

She said that since Taiwanese people are already used to facing China’s international suppression, they know how to seize opportunities to highlight Taiwan’s unique identity.

“After Lee and Wang won the gold medal on Sunday, many Taiwanese people were chanting ‘Team Taiwan’ because the security guards couldn’t stop us from doing that, and during the award ceremony, many Taiwanese people were singing along with the anthem,” Hsiao added.

Oakland University’s Su says that creativity and resilience of the fans shows they are still finding a way to survive in the tiny space Taiwan has internationally.
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Dhaka — Bangladesh’s uncompromising ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia has been released from years of house arrest after her bitter enemy Sheikh Hasina was ousted as premier and fled as protesters stormed her palace. 

The ferocious rivalry between the two women — born in blood and cemented in prison — has defined politics in the Muslim-majority nation for decades. 

Zia, 78, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for graft in 2018 under Hasina’s rule. 

Hasina, 76, was ousted on Monday after mass protests, with the army chief declaring the military would form an interim government. 

Orders were then issued for the release of prisoners from the protests, as well as Zia. 

Zia is chairperson of the key opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP). Party spokesman A.K.M Wahiduzzaman told AFP Tuesday that she “is now freed.” 

She is in poor health, confined to a wheelchair with rheumatoid arthritis and struggling with diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver. 

Decades-long feud

The enmity between Zia and Hasina is known popularly in Bangladesh as the “Battle of Begums”, with “begum” a Muslim honorific in South Asia for powerful women. 

Their feud has its roots in the murder of Hasina’s father — the country’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — along with her mother, three brothers and several other relatives in a 1975 military coup. 

Zia’s husband Ziaur Rahman was then the deputy army chief and effectively took control himself three months later. 

He kickstarted economic recovery in poverty-stricken Bangladesh with privatizations but was killed in another military coup in 1981.  

The BNP mantle fell to his widow, then a 35-year-old mother of two young sons who was dismissed by critics as a politically inexperienced housewife. 

Zia led opposition to dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad, boycotting sham elections in 1986 and mounting street protests. 

She and Hasina joined forces to push Ershad out in a wave of protests in 1990 and then faced off in Bangladesh’s first free polls. 

Zia won and led from 1991-96, and again in 2001-2006, as she and Hasina alternated in power. 

Mutual dislike 

Their mutual dislike was blamed for a January 2007 political crisis that prompted the military to impose emergency rule and set up a caretaker government. Both were detained for more than a year. 

Hasina won elections in December 2008 by a landslide and led uninterrupted until she fled to India in a helicopter on Monday. 

She had tightened her grip on power by detaining tens of thousands of BNP members. Hundreds also disappeared. 

Zia was convicted and jailed in 2018 on graft charges her party rejected as politically motivated. 

She was later released into house arrest on condition she neither took part in politics nor went abroad for medical treatment. 

Son in exile 

Zia’s first Cabinet was hailed for liberalizing Bangladesh’s economy in the early 1990s, sparking decades of growth.  

However, her second term as the premier of an Islamist-allied coalition was marked by graft allegations against her government and sons. 

There was also a series of Islamist attacks, one of which killed more than 20 people and almost claimed Hasina’s life. 

The anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion police unit Zia created has been accused of hundreds of extrajudicial killings. 

Her eldest son Tarique Rahman led the BNP from exile in London while she was in jail but he was convicted in absentia and sentenced to life in prison over his alleged role in a bomb attack on a Hasina rally in 2004. 

The BNP says the charges were a politically motivated attempt to expel Zia’s dynasty from politics. 

Zia won respect for her resolute attitude, although her inability to compromise left her unable to cut deals with important allies at home or abroad. 

That defiance extended even to the death of her youngest son from a heart attack in Malaysia in 2015. 

Hasina went to her home to offer sympathy and condolences, but Zia did not open the door. 
…

…

DHAKA, Bangladesh — A key organizer of Bangladesh’s student protests Tuesday called for Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus to be named as the head of a new interim government, a day after longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country after weeks of deadly unrest.

Nahid Islam, the organizer, in a video post in social media said the student protest leaders have already talked with Yunus, who consented to take over considering the present situation of the country.

Bangladesh’s figurehead president and its top military commander said Monday that an interim government would be formed soon.

Yunus, who called Hasina’s resignation the country’s “second liberation day,” faced a number of corruption accusations and was put on trial during the former prime minister’s rule. He received the Nobel in 2006 after he pioneered microlending, and he said the corruption charges against him were motivated by vengeance.

Islam said the student protesters would announce more names for the government, and it would be a difficult challenge for the current leadership to ignore their choices.

Hasina resigned and fled the country Monday after weeks of protests against a quota system for government jobs descended into violence and grew into a broader challenge to her 15-year rule. Thousands of demonstrators stormed her official residence and other buildings associated with her party and family.

Her departure threatened to create even more instability in the densely populated South Asian nation that is already dealing with a series of crises, from high unemployment to corruption to climate change. Amid security concerns, the main airport in Dhaka, the capital, suspended operations.

The streets of Dhaka appeared calmer Tuesday, with no reports of new violence. Jubilant protesters were still thronging the ousted leader’s residence. Some even took selfies with the soldiers guarding the building, where a day earlier angry protesters had looted furniture, paintings and even the former prime minister’s flower pots and chickens.

On Tuesday, the operations at Dhaka’s main Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport resumed after eight hours of suspension.

Violence just before and after her resignation left at least 109 people dead and hundreds of others injured, according to media reports, which could not be independently confirmed. More than a dozen were reportedly killed when protesters set fire to a hotel owned by a leader in Hasina’s party in the southwestern town of Jashore. More violence at Savar, just outside Dhaka, at least 25 people died, the reports said. Another 10 people died in Dhaka’s Uttara neighborhood.

In the southwestern district of Satkhira, a total of 596 prisoners and detainees escaped from a jail after an attack on the facility, the United News of Bangladesh agency reported.

It said the jailbreak took place on Monday evening amid chaos gripping the country, as police stations and security officials were attacked across the country.

Police in Dhaka mostly left their stations and assembled in a central barracks in fear of attacks after several stations were torched or vandalized.

The military chief, Gen. Waker-uz-Zamam said he was temporarily taking control of the country, and soldiers tried to stem the growing unrest. Mohammed Shahabuddin, the country’s figurehead president, announced late Monday after meeting with Waker-uz-Zamam and opposition politicians that Parliament would be dissolved and a national government would be formed as soon as possible, leading to fresh elections.

Speaking after the embattled leader was seen in television footage boarding a military helicopter with her sister, Waker-uz-Zaman sought to reassure a jittery nation that order would be restored. Experts, though, warned the road ahead would be long.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party Tuesday urged people to exercise restraint in what it said was a “transitional moment on our democratic path.”

“It would defeat the spirit of the revolution that toppled the illegitimate and autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina if people decide to take the law into their own hands without due process,” Tarique Rahman, the party’s acting chairman, wrote on the social media platform X.

In a statement Monday, the United Nation’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, said the transition of power in Bangladesh must be “in line with the country’s international obligations” and “inclusive and open to the meaningful participation of all Bangladeshis.”

Hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets waving flags and cheering to celebrate Hasina’s resignation. But some celebrations soon turned violent, with protesters attacking symbols of her government and party, ransacking and setting fires in several buildings.

“This is not just the end of the tyrant Sheikh Hasina, with this we put an end to the mafia state that she has created,” declared Sairaj Salekin, a student protester, on the streets of Dhaka.

Protests began peacefully last month as frustrated students demanded an end to a quota system for government jobs that they said favored those with connections to the prime minister’s Awami League party. But amid a deadly crackdown, the demonstrations morphed into an unprecedented challenge to Hasina, highlighting the extent of economic distress in Bangladesh, where exports have fallen and foreign exchange reserves are running low.

Waker-uz-Zaman promised that the military would investigate a crackdown that had left nearly 300 people dead since mid-July, some of the country’s worst bloodshed since the 1971 war of independence, and which had fueled outrage against the government. Nearly 100 people, including 14 police officers, were killed Sunday, according to the country’s leading Bengali-language daily newspaper, Prothom Alo. At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks.

“Keep faith in the military. We will investigate all the killings and punish the responsible,” he said.

The military wields significant political influence in Bangladesh, which has faced more than 20 coups or coup attempts since independence in 1971. But it was not clear if Hasina’s resignation or the military chief’s calls for calm would be enough to end the turmoil.

Throughout the day, people continued to pour into and out of Hasina’s official residence, where they set fires, carried out furniture and pulled raw fish from the refrigerators. They also massed outside the parliament building, where a banner reading “justice” was hung.

Crowds also ransacked Hasina’s family’s ancestral home-turned-museum where her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — the country’s first president and independence leader — was assassinated. They torched major offices of the ruling party and two pro-government TV stations, forcing both to go off air. At least three other TV stations were attacked.

Hasina, meanwhile, landed at a military airfield near New Delhi on Monday after leaving Dhaka and met India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, the Indian Express newspaper reported. The report said Hasina was taken to a safe house and is likely to travel to the United Kingdom.

The 76-year-old was elected for a fourth consecutive term in a January vote that was boycotted by her main opponents. Thousands of opposition members were jailed before the polls, and the U.S. and the U.K. denounced the result as not credible, though the government defended it.

Hasina had cultivated ties with powerful countries, including both neighboring India and China. But relations with United States and other Western nations have been strained over lost civic freedoms in the predominantly Muslim nation of 170 million people.

Her political opponents have previously accused her of growing increasingly autocratic and have blamed the unrest on that authoritarian streak. In total, she served more than 20 years, longer than any other female head of government.

Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, told the BBC that he doubted his mother would make a political comeback, as she has in the past, saying she was “so disappointed after all her hard work.”
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WASHINGTON — Thai progressive leader Pita Limjaroenrat and his Move Forward party won the biggest bloc in the country’s House of Representatives in elections last year. But Pita’s bid to become the country’s prime minister failed to receive enough support in the parliament.

Pita spoke recently with VOA about a ruling expected this week by the Constitutional Court in Thailand on whether to dissolve the Move Forward party and to ban Pita and other party executives from politics. Prosecutors have alleged party officials violated the constitution by campaigning for an amendment of a law, known as Article 112, which shields the country’s royal family from defamation.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: How would you describe your feeling ahead of the ruling?

Pita Limjaroenrat: Content. I’m very happy with what I have achieved. It’s true that it’s a very much a roller-coaster political ride, from an election winner to a parliamentarian at risk of being banned for either 10 years or potentially for the rest of my life. But I have chosen to look at it from where I have come from. It’s an honor for me to serve my country and to have done my best in the past three or four years. As a rookie leader, as a new party, to be able to bring about change and hope, within the hearts of the Thai people.

VOA: In the opinion column that you penned for The Economist on Aug.1, you wrote, “Move Forward and I have become the latest casualties of such judicial overreach…. The elite’s judicial overreach and other quick fixes designed to preserve status quo will not always work in the long run.” Why does the tone differ from being “content?”

Pita: I wanted to point out that this is quite systematic. I’m trying to tell the readers from my penmanship that I’m not the first one. I’m the last casualty; that means I’m not the first one. And there has been 33 political parties [put] in the graveyard in the past 20 years. So if you look at it from a macro perspective, that means, you know, it’s quite a systemized way of keeping elected politicians at bay. Thirty three political parties, 249 politicians being stripped away of their political rights. So, you know, I’m not taking it personally, just for me. And I’m trying to tell the readers that the stakes are not just about my personal political future nor about only the future of my party, but it’s really all about democracy as a whole in this country.

I’m not giving up and I’m not losing hope. I still remain optimistic because I travel all around the country meeting young people who are still very much alive and very much ready to cast the ballots in the voting booth. So ballots over battles, ballots over bullets.

VOA: What about the impact of the verdict specifically in shaping the conversation about Article 112 in Thailand?

Pita: You know, finally, as a country, as a society, we should be able to have a safe space, or a mechanism, to make sure that diversity or diverse views or conflicts get dissolved away. And that’s why we thought that parliament would be the best place to find that consensus.

VOA: The court case draws international attention. What does this court fight mean to your ambition for Thailand’s global stature?

Pita: The international community is concerned in terms of similar values, which go beyond borders. But to me, personally, I feel like the definition of constitutional monarchy, the Thai way, has to be developed within the Thai society itself.

It’s a kind of governance that finds that kind of proportion, or the kind of balance, with the constitution, which is about the people and the monarchy. And each country is different. So I’m not trying to look outside of Thailand and define that definition.

VOA: What political bargains have you made? Any areas that you think should not be compromised?

Pita: I think I am flexible in terms of operations, but very consistent in terms of principles. You know, the more I wait, the more I wait to become the leader of the country, I feel the need to double down on the reform agendas that I have made, whether it’s demilitarization, whether it’s de-monopolization, whether it’s decentralization.

I’m willing to be flexible on various things. For example, I remember when I was forming the coalition and there was a questioner asking that, ‘if I join your coalition and the quota is supposed to be this X amount of ministers, can I have two more? Because I felt like that’s a mark that would switch me from not joining your coalition, to joining your coalition.’ I said, ‘fine, as long as you promise to us, through that MOU, that you will deliver X and X policies that you and I campaign on, before people cast the votes for us.’ So that is an example of a flexibility I’m willing to do. But not like a reversal, or flip-flop politics.

VOA: If this is one of the last remarks you will share to your constituents before you’re banned from holding a political office, what would you say?

Pita: Keep moving forward. … I can speak on behalf of the people on various things as long as, you know, there are people who are willing to listen to me. Keep moving forward.

So parliament might not be my playground and Thailand doesn’t want me, but all over the country will be my playground. ASEAN will be my playground. Asia will be my playground. And the world will become my playground until we can meet again.

 
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