Khaleda Zia, the former prime minister of Bangladesh who helped usher in democracy after a tumultuous period of military rule and who dominated the country’s politics for decades, has died. She was 80.

Tarique Rahman, a frontrunner in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, ended a 17-year exile in London and returned to Bangladesh, a move that signals a major shift in the South Asian nation’s political landscape.

Violence swept through parts of Bangladesh after the death of a prominent activist behind the 2024 mass uprising, deepening concerns about the South Asian country’s fragile political transition.

A court in Bangladesh sentenced former UK City Minister Tulip Siddiq in absentia to two years in prison in a case involving property deals with her aunt, the deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina.