Bangladesh’s ousted and self-exiled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to six months in prison by the country’s International Crimes Tribunal on Wednesday in a contempt of court case, a top prosecutor said.

Hasina has been facing multiple cases since she fled to India after deadly student-led protests in August, but it was the first time the former leader was sentenced in one of them.

Shakil Akand Bulbul, a leader of the Awami League party’s banned student wing Chhatra League, was also sentenced to two months in prison in the same case, Chief Prosecutor Muhammad Tajul Islam told reporters. The party had been led by Hasina for years.

A three-member ICT tribunal, led by Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder, delivered the verdict in their absence, noting that the sentences will take effect upon arrest or surrender, the prosecutor added.

The contempt charges stem from a leaked phone recording where Hasina was allegedly heard saying, “there are 227 cases against me, so I now have a licence to kill 227 people.”

A forensic report by a government investigative agency later confirmed the audio’s authenticity.

The ICT was originally set up in 2010 by Hasina’s own government to try 1971 war crimes.

Bangladesh’s interim administration, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, pledged to hold leaders, including Hasina, accountable for rights abuses and corruption, including the crackdown on the student-led uprising last July that toppled Hasina’s regime.

The tribunal has so far issued three arrest warrants for Hasina, including charges of crimes against humanity linked to the July violence. Hasina’s Awami League party remains banned while trials continue against the party and its former leaders.

Supporters of Hasina dismiss the charges as politically motivated, but the interim government insists the trials are crucial for restoring accountability and rebuilding trust in Bangladesh’s democratic institutions.

A prominent Catholic Church leader and ally of Pope Leo XIV has strongly criticized the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, describing the rounding up and deportation of immigrants as “inhumane” and “morally repugnant.”

McElroy was appointed to lead the archdiocese in the US capital by Pope Francis in January, the month of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration. He was among the more than 100 cardinals who took part in the conclave that elected the first American pope in May.

“This is simply not only incompatible with Catholic teaching, it’s inhumane and is morally repugnant,” he added.

“The scenes that occurred in Los Angeles where you saw mass agents of the government descending on car washers and Costco parking lots to round up whoever they can round up is not a sign of going after those who have criminal convictions.”

Trump has said his tough immigration policies are necessary to keep criminals off US streets and to ease the burden on US institutions. He has embraced the sinister image of a migrant detention facility surrounded by swampland and reptiles.

“It’s known as ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ which is very appropriate, because I look outside and it’s not a place I want to go,” Trump said Tuesday.

McElroy argued that the government had a right to deport people convicted of “serious crimes,” adding that the problems with immigration were rooted in an American political system that had failed to address immigration law and reform over the last 15 years.

But McElroy said people were now “afraid even to go to church” after the Trump administration removed the policy that prohibited immigration agents from making arrests in sensitive areas, like churches.

“What is behind this?” he asked, referencing the stricter immigration policies and enforcement tactics. “I fear that one of the main things behind it, in the minds of many who are pushing it, is the sense that the people who are coming to our country now are of a different kind.

“And that’s been a great theme in American culture and history all through our country’s immigration, when the Irish came, when the Italians came, when the Poles came, the refrain has been the same, ‘these are inferior people,’ and that’s what’s going on now… it’s an outrage.”

The cardinal, a former Bishop of San Diego, is one of several Catholic bishops who have spoken out against Trump’s migration policies.

But Vice President JD Vance, a devout Catholic who converted in 2019, earlier this year suggested the bishops’ criticisms of the Trump administration’s policies were motivated by financial interests because the church receives federal funding to resettle immigrants. McElroy hit back in the interview, saying the government funding was far from sufficient to cover the programs and the church had to pick up the shortfall.

“Those who say that haven’t done the math on what the church has been contributing over and above what the government has contributed to these programs,” he added.

Since his election, Pope Leo has urged respect for migrants, describing himself as “the descendant of immigrants, who in turn chose to emigrate.” McElroy said that while Leo XIV spoke about immigration in a “universal” context, “when you look at what he’s saying, it has clear implications for us.”

During the interview, Cardinal McElroy also criticized Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” – a sweeping piece of legislation that would extend tax cuts and increase funding for national security, partly paid for by the biggest cut to the federal social safety net in decades. He’s recently signed a letter with other bishops and faith leaders opposing the bill.

He said it appeared that millions would “ultimately lose their health care because of this bill so that billionaires can receive greater tax cuts,” adding: “There’s something radically wrong with a society that takes from the poorest to give to the wealthiest. It’s just wrong.”

In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson rejected the criticism – particularly that leveled at the Trump agenda bill.

“The American people elected President Trump, not a DC Archbishop, to serve as their President,” Jackson said. “President Trump is fulfilling the mandate the American people gave him in November to turn his campaign promises – like no tax on tips, social security, and overtime – into law. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill will be one of the most successful pieces of legislation ever passed and will supercharge our economy to benefit all Americans.”

When it came to church reforms and priorities for Pope Leo, McElroy talked about the importance of addressing the role of women.

He said this topic had been an “immensely powerful current” during recent Vatican assemblies, the synod, which looked at questions of church renewal and looked at how to include more women in decision making roles.

“The major thrust has to be look at where women ‘aren’t’ and then ask why?”

McElroy supports ordaining women as deacons, who carry out functions like a priest but without saying Mass or hearing confessions, which he says is consistent with the church’s theology. “It’s a controversial question within the church,” he admits, “but I think it would be important to move in that direction.”

Cardinal McElroy’s candidacy for Washington DC was bolstered by his doctorate in political science from Stanford University, which he was awarded for a thesis on moral norms in foreign policy.

“My great fear is that the lessons that nations will take away from this intervention against Iran is that if they have nuclear weapons then they won’t be subject to this sort of attack,” he said. “I think that’s an open question. Will this encourage more proliferation because the incentives are stronger now or clearer now, and that’s very ominous.”

Finally, the cardinal said he believes that Chicago-born Pope Leo would make a visit home – although he did not know when.

“I think when he does come to the United States it will be a great moment for our country.”

The Dalai Lama has announced that he will have a successor after his death, continuing a centuries-old tradition that has become a flashpoint in the struggle with China’s Communist Party over Tibet’s future.

Tibetan Buddhism’s spiritual leader made the declaration on Wednesday in a video message to religious elders gathering in Dharamshala, India, where the Nobel Peace laureate has lived since fleeing Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese communist rule in 1959.

“I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” the Dalai Lama said in the pre-recorded video, citing requests he received over the years from Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhists urging him to do so.

“The Gaden Phodrang Trust has sole authority to recognize the future reincarnation; no one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter,” he added, using the formal name for the office of the Dalai Lama.

The office should carry out the procedures of search and recognition of the future dalai lama “in accordance with past tradition,” he said, without revealing further details on the process.

The Dalai Lama has previously stated that when he is about 90 years old, he will consult the high lamas of Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan public to re-evaluate whether the institution of the dalai lama should continue.

Wednesday’s announcement – delivered days before his 90th birthday this Sunday – sets the stage for a high-stakes battle over his succession, between Tibetan leaders in exile and China’s atheist Communist Party, which insists it alone holds the authority to approve the next dalai lama.

In a memoir published in March, the Dalai Lama states that his successor will be born in the “free world” outside China, urging his followers to reject any candidate selected by Beijing.

That could lead to the emergence of two rival dalai lamas: one chosen by his predecessor, the other by the Chinese Communist Party, experts say.

“Both the Tibetan exile community and the Chinese government want to influence the future of Tibet, and they see the next Dalai Lama as the key to do so,” said Ruth Gamble, an expert in Tibetan history at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.

Samdhong Rinpoche, a senior official at the Dalai Lama’s office, told reporters on Wednesday that any further information about the procedures or methods of the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation would not be revealed to the public until the succession takes place.

Struggle over succession

Over a lifetime in exile, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, has become synonymous with Tibet and its quest for genuine autonomy under Beijing’s tightening grip on the Himalayan region.

From his adopted hometown of Dharamshala, where he established a government-in-exile, the spiritual leader has unified Tibetans at home and in exile and elevated their plight onto the global stage.

That has made the Dalai Lama a persistent thorn in the side of Beijing, which denounces him as a dangerous “separatist” and a “wolf in monk’s robes.”

Since the 1970s, the Dalai Lama has maintained that he no longer seeks full independence for Tibet, but “meaningful” autonomy that would allow Tibetans to preserve their distinct culture, religion and identity. His commitment to the nonviolent “middle way” approach has earned him international support and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

The Dalai Lama has long been wary of Beijing’s attempt to meddle with the reincarnation system of Tibetan Buddhism.

Tibetan Buddhists believe in the circle of rebirth, and that when an enlightened spiritual master like the Dalai Lama dies, he will be able to choose the place and time of his rebirth through the force of compassion and prayer.

But the religious tradition has increasingly become a battleground for the control of Tibetan hearts and minds, especially since the contested reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second-highest figure in the religion.

In 1995, years after the death of the 10th Panchen Lama, Beijing installed its own panchen lama in defiance of the Dalai Lama, whose pick for the role – a six-year-old boy – has since vanished from public view.

Under Tibetan tradition, the dalai lamas and the panchen lamas have long played key roles in recognizing each other’s reincarnations. Experts believe Beijing will seek to interfere in the current Dalai Lama’s succession in a similar way.

“There’s a whole series of high-level reincarnated lamas cultivated by the Chinese government to work with it inside Tibet. (Beijing) will call on all of those to help establish the Dalai Lama that they pick inside Tibet,” Gamble said. “There’s been a long-term plan to work toward this.”

Beijing has repeatedly said that the reincarnation of all Living Buddhas – or high-ranking lamas in Tibetan Buddhism – must comply with Chinese laws and regulations, with search and identification conducted in China and approved by the central government.

A “resolution of gratitude” statement released by Tibetan Buddhist religious leaders gathering in Dharamshala on Wednesday said they “strongly condemn the People’s Republic of China’s usage of reincarnation subject for their political gain” and “will never accept it.”

For his part, the current Dalai Lama has made clear that any candidate appointed by Beijing will hold no legitimacy in the eyes of Tibetans or followers of Tibetan Buddhism.

“It is totally inappropriate for Chinese Communists, who explicitly reject religion, including the idea of past and future lives, to meddle in the system of reincarnation of lamas, let alone that of the Dalai Lama,” he writes in his latest memoir, “Voice for the Voiceless.”