This Week in Explainers: Will India send back Sheikh Hasina to Bangladesh?

India’s neighbourhood has been volatile over the past year. Bangladesh is on edge once again after the death sentence of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and Gen-Z protests have returned to Nepal. Pakistan is a constant headache with its war-mongering.

Tension is also brewing between China and Japan. This comes after Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi suggested that her country could respond militarily if China moved to take control of Taiwan. Now, Beijing is piling up pressure by warning citizens against travelling and studying in Japan, suspending seafood imports and halting Japanese movie releases.

In the West, Donald Trump has a busy week. He had two big meetings at the White House: First, with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, for whom he rolled out the red carpet. And the second was with New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, which went surprisingly well.

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After the Gaza peace plan, Trump has a 28-point proposal to end the Russia-Ukraine war. It will force Volodymyr Zelenskyy to give up additional territory in the east, cap the size of its military, and agree never to join Nato. But will Kyiv compromise?

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1. More than a year ago, Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power in Bangladesh and forced to flee to India, where she is living in exile. Now, she has been sentenced to death by the country’s International Crimes Tribunal for crimes against humanity for her role in the crackdown on the 2024 protests. We explain the death sentence and what is next for her in these stories.

2. After the death sentence, there has been an increasing speculation over the extradition of Sheikh Hasina, who has been living in New Delhi in exile. Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said after the verdict that it was “obligatory responsibility” for India to send back the former prime minister. While India has an extradition treaty with its neighbour, can it turn a deaf ear to Dhaka’s plea? We look at the extradition treaty and New Delhi’s options.

3. All’s not well between China and Japan. And it all started with one remark by Japanese PM Sanae Taikichi. After she spoke about responding militarily if China moved to take control of Taiwan, Beijing has been seething. After two weeks, the spat shows no sign of ending. In fact, China is flexing its economic might by warning its citizens and students from travelling to Japan, suspending film releases and banning seafood from the country. Can Tokyo withstand this?

4. The Jeffrey Epstein saga continues to unfold. After a months-long fight to prevent the disclosure of the Epstein files, Donald Trump took a U-turn. He has signed a bill that compels the US Justice Department to release the documents. So what happens next in the scandal involving the sex offender and many of his influential “friends”? Will the full information be released soon?

5. Trump’s association with Epstein is no secret. It’s a subject that has been haunting his second presidency. So when a woman reporter asked the president a question about the files, he silenced her. “Quiet, quiet, piggy,” he remarked. However, this is not the first time Trump has snubbed a woman journalist. He has a poor track record.

“Quiet, piggy!”

— Donald Trump snaps at female reporter asking about the Epstein files. pic.twitter.com/QNzVwlWg2O

— Pop Base (@PopBase) November 18, 2025

6. The White House has an “important” guest earlier in the week – Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman. Trump rolled out the red carpet for the Crown Prince. He secured big investments and military hardware, the most prominent being the F-35s. Here is why the US promise to sell the jets to Saudi Arabia is so controversial.

7. After Gaza, a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine is in the works. But there is a catch. Kyiv has not been part of the talks. It’s hatched by the US and Russia. The proposal is said to pressure Ukraine to give up land and the desire to join the Nato. So what else is in this plan that aims to end the war?

8. Our last story is about outages. Half of the world’s internet stopped working on Wednesday… yes, once again. From ChatGPT to X, several websites were down. At the centre of this was Cloudflare. What is this invisible service?

That’s our reading list for this Sunday. Have a good one. If you want to understand the news better, you will find more such explainers here.

PS: On a lighter note, we tell you the story about the world’s first kiss.