Suriname’s parliament backed Jennifer Simons as the South American country’s first woman president on Sunday, setting the doctor and former parliamentary speaker on course to helm a nation on the cusp of a predicted oil boom.

Surinamese lawmakers backed Simons as president six weeks after the ruling party and its top opposition nearly tied in the race for legislative seats, leading to a coalition deal to install Simons as president.

Simons’ opposition National Democratic Party won 18 seats and current President Chan Santokhi’s Progressive Reform Party won 17 seats in the May 25 parliamentary election. Smaller parties won the remaining 16 seats.

Suriname’s president is elected indirectly. Following the general election, members of the National Assembly vote for the president, and a candidate must secure a two-thirds majority to win the office.

“I come into this office to serve, and I will use all my knowledge, strength and insight to make our wealth available to all of our people,” Simons, 71, said in a brief speech after lawmakers approved her appointment with a round of applause.

Simons vowed to pay special attention to young people and those who have not yet had the best opportunities.

“I am very aware of the responsibility now placed on our shoulders, a responsibility compounded for me by the fact that I am the first woman to hold this office,” she added. “I do not need many words. My thanks and we will get to work.”

Incumbent President Chan Santokhi, a 66-year-old former police commissioner who stood for re-election, had faced criticism over a lack of protections for the poorer and more vulnerable sectors of society.

Santokhi congratulated Simons on her election and told lawmakers he took responsibility for his shortcomings and hoped he would be remembered for his commitment. He said he would continue to serve the country after the transition as a member of parliament.

A coming boom

Suriname, a former Dutch colony independent since 1975, is expected to see a surge in revenues from the nation’s first big offshore energy development, an oil and gas project led by TotalEnergies TTEF.PA.

The Gran Morgu project is set to begin production in 2028. Discovered reserves may allow Suriname to compete with neighboring Guyana, whose economy grew 43.6% last year, as a prominent producer.

However, campaigning featured little debate about what the next government, which will hold power until 2030, should do with the income.

Simons’ election was agreed in a six-party deal two days after the parliamentary contest, but was not made official until Sunday’s vote. Her inauguration is scheduled for July 16.

Suriname’s parliament backed Simons for the post by acclamation, alongside National Party of Suriname (NPS) leader Gregory Rusland as her vice president.

Simons served as parliamentary speaker for a decade until 2020. She was second in vote tallies behind Santokhi, winning more than 41,700 votes. She is the head of the NDP, founded by former President Desi Bouterse, who dominated Surinamese politics for decades but died a fugitive last year.

NDP founder Bouterse left office in 2020, the year after he was convicted in the 1982 murders of 15 government critics.

When the conviction was upheld in 2023, Bouterse went into hiding, dying at the age of 79 at an unknown location on Christmas Eve.

Erin Patterson, the Australian woman accused of killing three relatives with a meal of death cap mushrooms baked in a Beef Wellington lunch, has been found guilty of three counts of murder and the attempted murder of the lone survivor.

A 12-member jury reached the verdict after around six days of deliberation following a 10-week trial in Morwell, a tiny town about an hour’s drive from the suburban dining room in Leongatha, Victoria, where the lethal lunch was served in July 2023.

Patterson’s former parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, died along with Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson. Heather’s husband Ian, their local pastor, survived after a weekslong stay in hospital.

Prosecutors alleged that Patterson deliberately laced the lunch with death cap mushrooms, highly toxic fungi that she picked after seeing their location posted on a public website.

Her defense lawyers argued the deaths were a “terrible accident” and that Patterson repeatedly lied to police out of panic when she realized she may have added foraged mushrooms to the meal.

Under Australian law, none of the jurors can be publicly identified, and they’re prohibited from disclosing jury room deliberations even after the trial ends.

It will never be known which pieces of evidence influenced each juror’s decision, but all 12 were required to agree on the verdict.

The trial has captivated audiences worldwide via news reports and four podcasts dedicated to unpacking each day’s evidence.

Patterson sat in court, listening as prosecutors called witness after witness, whose testimony, they alleged, told a compelling story of a triple murder that the jury found satisfied the legal standard of beyond reasonable doubt.

The fateful lunch

The agreed facts were that Patterson asked five people to lunch on July 29, 2023, including her estranged husband Simon Patterson, who pulled out the day before.

Within hours of the meal, the four lunch guests – Simon’s parents Don and Gail, and his aunt and uncle, Heather and Ian Wilkinson – became ill with vomiting and diarrhea. They went to hospital where they were placed in induced comas as doctors tried to save them.

Gail and Heather died on August 4 from multiorgan failure, followed by Don on August 5, after he failed to respond to a liver transplant. Ian Wilkinson survived and was finally discharged from hospital in late September, after almost two months of intensive treatment.

Death cap mushrooms contain amanita toxins that prevent the production of proteins in liver cells, leading to cell death and possible liver failure from about two days after ingestion.

Native to Europe, the lethal mushrooms have been found growing in several Australian states, and around the time of the lunch, they had been seen within a short drive of Patterson’s home in rural Victoria.

In finding Patterson guilty, jury members indicated they were convinced beyond reasonable doubt that she planned to kill all four guests by hiding death cap mushrooms in the lunch.

During the trial, the prosecution argued that Patterson had the opportunity to pick lethal mushrooms after seeing their location posted on the citizen science iNaturalist website.

The guilty verdict suggests the jury accepted the prosecution’s argument that she likely traveled to two sites in April and May 2023, and deliberately picked the mushrooms used in the meal.

Patterson admitted that on April 28 – the same day as cellphone signals put her in the vicinity of death cap mushrooms – she bought a dehydrator that she later dumped at a waste recycling center on August 2.

It had her fingerprints on it and contained remnants of death cap mushrooms.

The prosecution alleged that Patterson faked illness in the days after serving the lunch and tried to cover her tracks by disposing of the dehydrator and factory resetting her devices to delete evidence.

The prosecution did not have to prove motive.

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC accused Patterson of having two faces: One she showed the world that suggested she had a good relationship with the Pattersons, the parents of her estranged husband, and a hidden face she showed only her Facebook friends that suggested she wanted to cut ties with them.

In Facebook messages sent in December 2022, Patterson had expressed anger and frustration over Don and Gail’s reluctance to get involved in their son’s marriage breakdown.

“I’m sick of this shit I want nothing to do with them,” she wrote. “I thought his parents would want him to do the right thing but it seems their concern about not wanting to feel uncomfortable and not wanting to get involved in their son’s personal matters are overriding that so f*** em.”

And another message read: “This family I swear to f***ing god.”

During eight days of testimony including cross-examination, Patterson consistently pleaded her innocence, claiming she inadvertently added foraged mushrooms to the meal.

In his directions to the jury, Justice Christopher Beale said that Patterson’s admission that she told lies and disposed of evidence must not cause them to be prejudiced against her.

“This is a court of law, not a court of morals,” he said.

“The issue is not whether she is in some sense responsible for the tragic consequences of the lunch, but whether the prosecution has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that she is criminally responsible for those consequences,” he said.

The jury found that Patterson had intended to kill all four lunch guests and lied repeatedly on the stand to claim she didn’t.

Patterson will be sentenced at a later date.

This is a developing story. More to come

Indonesia’s rumbling Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki erupted Monday, sending a column of volcanic materials as high as 18 kilometers (11 miles) into the sky and depositing ash on villages.

The volcano has been at the highest alert level since last month and no casualties were immediately reported.

Indonesia’s Geology Agency recorded an avalanche of searing gas clouds mixed with rocks and lava traveling up to 5 kilometers (3 miles) down the volcano’s slopes during the eruption. Observations from drones showed lava filling the crater, indicating deep movement of magma that set off volcanic earthquakes.

The column of hot clouds that rose into the sky was the volcano’s highest since the major eruption in November 2024 that killed nine people and injured dozens, said Muhammad Wafid, the Geology Agency chief. It also erupted in March.

“An eruption of that size certainly carries a higher potential for danger, including its impact on aviation,” Wafid told The Associated Press from Switzerland where he was attending a seminar. “We shall reevaluate to enlarge its danger zone that must be cleared of villagers and tourist activities.”

The volcano monitoring agency had increased the alert status for Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki to the highest level after an eruption on June 18, and more than doubled an exclusion zone to a 7-kilometer (4.3-mile) radius since then as eruptions became more frequent.

After an eruption early last year, about 6,500 people evacuated and the island’s Frans Seda Airport was closed. The airport has remained closed since then due to the continuing seismic activity.

The 1,584-meter (5,197-foot) mountain is a twin volcano with Mount Lewotobi Perempuan in the district of Flores Timur.

Monday’s eruption was one of Indonesia’s largest volcano eruptions since 2010 when Mount Merapi, the country’s most volatile volcano erupted on the densely populated island of Java. That eruption killed 353 people and forced over 350,000 people to evacuate affected areas.

Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 280 million people with frequent seismic activity. It has 120 active volcanoes and sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

The owners of a pet lion that jumped a wall and attacked a woman and two children in the Pakistani city of Lahore have been arrested.

The woman and her two young children, aged 5 and 7, were taken to hospital, after being attacked in an alleyway when the lion escaped from a farmhouse in the neighborhood of Johan town on Thursday.

Security camera footage released by police showed the lion leaping over a concrete wall and pouncing on a woman from behind, knocking her to the ground. A man can be seen running out of the property the lion escaped from with an object in hand and chasing the lion away from the woman, before the wild cat takes off further down the road where the children were attacked.

They sustained injuries to their faces and arms but are now in stable condition, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Lahore police said in a video posted to social media that the lion had escaped from an open cage at the farmhouse and that it was recaptured by the owners, who promptly put it in a vehicle and went into hiding in another district.

Muhammad Faisal Kamran, Deputy Inspector General of Lahore Police Operations, said three people were arrested on Friday morning. “We’ve also captured the lion and transferred it to Wildlife authorities,” Kamran said.

Lahore police shared an image of three men in a police cell and video of the lion in a cage.

Owning wild cats as pets is seen as a status symbol in Pakistan and is not uncommon, but a license is required, and large cats must be kept outside city limits.

“This unfortunate incident highlights how wild animals are often kept in such places without a license, or permission — with no legal procedures followed — endangering the lives of many people,” Kamran said.

The Punjab government announced Sunday that it was undertaking a province-wide crackdown on those keeping lions without a license. So far, 13 lions have been captured and five individuals arrested in connection with violating wildlife regulations.

Ukraine said it struck a Russian air base on Saturday, while Russia continued to pound Ukraine with hundreds of drones overnight as part of a stepped-up bombing campaign that has dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the more than 3-year-old war.

Ukraine’s military General Staff said that Ukrainian forces had struck the Borisoglebsk air base in Russia’s Voronezh region, describing it as the home base of Russia’s Su-34, Su-35S and Su-30SM fighter jets.

Writing on Facebook, the General Staff said it hit a depot containing glide bombs, a training aircraft and “possibly other aircraft.”

Russian officials did not immediately comment on the attack.

Such attacks on Russian air bases aim to dent Russia’s military capability and demonstrate Ukraine’s capability to hit high-value targets in Russia. Last month, Ukraine said it destroyed more than 40 Russian planes stationed at several airfields deep in Russia’s territory in a surprise drone attack.

Russia fired 322 drones and decoys into Ukraine overnight into Saturday, Ukraine’s air force said. Of these, 157 were shot down and 135 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.

According to the air force, Ukraine’s western Khmelnytskyi region was the main target of the attack. Regional Gov. Serhii Tyurin said Saturday that no damage, injuries or deaths had been reported.

Russia has been stepping up its long-range attacks on Ukraine. Waves of drones and missiles targeted Kyiv overnight into Friday in the largest aerial assault since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. On Saturday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the number of people killed in the assault had increased to two. A further 31 people were wounded.

The fresh wave of attacks came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that he had a “very important and productive” phone call with US President Donald Trump.

The two leaders discussed how Ukrainian air defenses might be strengthened, possible joint weapons production between the US and Ukraine, and broader US-led efforts to end the war with Russia, according to a statement by Zelensky.

Asked Friday night by reporters about the call, Trump said, “We had a very good call, I think.”

When asked about finding a way to end the fighting, Trump said: “I don’t know. I can’t tell you whether or not that’s going to happen.”

The US has paused some shipments of military aid to Ukraine, including crucial air defense missiles. Ukraine’s main European backers are considering how they can help pick up the slack. Zelensky says plans are afoot to build up Ukraine’s domestic arms industry, but scaling up will take time.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down 94 Ukrainian drones overnight into Saturday, along with 45 further drones Saturday morning and early afternoon. No casualties were reported, but local officials in the Saratov region said 25 apartments were damaged by Ukrainian drones in the city of Engels.

Four Ukrainian drones were shot down while approaching Moscow on Saturday, according to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. Air traffic was briefly halted as a precaution at one of Moscow’s airports, Sheremetyevo, Russia’s aviation authority Rosaviatsiya said.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attended a religious gathering on Saturday, according to Iranian state media outlet Press TV, the first time he has appeared in public in several weeks.

Khamenei had not made a public appearance since his country was plunged into conflict on June 13, when Israel unilaterally bombed Iranian military and nuclear sites. The US later joined in, bombing three key Iranian nuclear sites before US President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire.

In video posted by Press TV on X, Khamenei waves to a crowd of black-clad worshippers marking the eve of Ashura, when Shia Muslims commemorate and mourn the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Husayn ibn Ali. The crowd greeted the cleric in turn with cheers and chants.

Weeks in hiding

Khamenei, the longest-ruling leader in the Middle East, reportedly spent the 12-day conflict with Israel and the US hiding in a bunker with little access to outside communications. During the conflict, both Israeli politicians and Trump openly discussed overthrowing Khamenei’s government and deposing him by force.

After reportedly rejecting an Israeli plan to kill Khamenei, Trump stated in late June that the cleric was an “easy target.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not rule out targeting Khamenei either, saying that his death would “not … escalate the conflict,” but rather “end” it.

In a recorded statement posted from an undisclosed location days after the ceasefire began, Khamenei was defiant, declaring victory over both Israel and the US. Khamenei took time to respond directly to US President Donald Trump, who had called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender” shortly before ordering US airstrikes.

“This (conflict) is not about our nuclear program,” Khamenei said. “This is about Iran surrendering … in his statement, (Trump) revealed the truth, he showed his hand. The Americans have had a fundamental issue with Islamic Iran since our revolution.”

“And it will never happen,” Khamenei said of Trump’s demand.

“The Islamic Republic had one social contract with society, which is that it deprived them of all freedoms … in return for providing security,” said Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group. “Now, that image has been shattered in the eyes of the Iranian people.”

US ‘won’t allow’ Iranian nuclear program

Khamenei’s new public appearance comes a day after Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that the US won’t allow Iran to restart its nuclear program.

“If they did start, there’d be a problem. We wouldn’t allow that to happen,” Trump said Friday.

Trump said he would discuss the previous strikes with Netanyahu, who is due to visit Washington on Monday.

The comments echo remarks made earlier on Friday by Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, who said his country must maintain “aerial superiority” over Iran to ensure it cannot rebuild its nuclear or missile production programs.

Trump reiterated his claim that Iran wants to meet with the US for talks, a statement Iranian officials have repeatedly denied.

The Trump administration has discussed possibly helping Iran access as much as $30 billion to build a nuclear program for civilian energy production, easing sanctions, and freeing up billions of dollars in restricted Iranian funds – all part of an intensifying attempt to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table, four sources familiar with the matter said.

A summit of leaders from the BRICS group of major emerging economies kicks off in Brazil Sunday – but without the top leader of its most powerful member.

For the first time in more than one decade of rule, Chinese leader Xi Jinping – who has made BRICS a centerpiece of his push to reshape the global balance of power – will not attend the annual leaders’ gathering.

Xi’s absence from the two-day summit in Rio de Janeiro comes at a critical moment for BRICS, which owes its acronym to early members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and since 2024 has expanded to include Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Iran.

Some members are up against a July 9 deadline to negotiate US tariffs set to be imposed by US President Donald Trump, and all face the global economic uncertainty brought on by his upending of American trade relations – putting the club under more pressure show solidarity.

Xi’s absence means the Chinese leader is missing a key opportunity to showcase China as a stable alternative leader to the US. That’s an image Beijing has long looked to project to the Global South, and one recently elevated by Trump’s shift to an “America First” policy and the US decision last month to join Israel in bombing Iranian nuclear facilities.

But the Chinese leader’s decision not to attend – sending his No. 2 official Li Qiang instead – doesn’t mean Beijing has downgraded the significance it places on BRICS, observers say, or that it’s less important to Beijing’s bid to build out groups to counterbalance Western power.

“(BRICS) is part and parcel of Beijing’s effort to make sure it isn’t hemmed in by the US allies,” said Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore.

But that pressure may have lessened with Trump in office, Chong added, referencing the US president’s shake-up of relations even with key partners, and for Xi, BRICS may just not be “his greatest priority” as he focuses on steering China’s domestic economy. Beijing may also have low expectations for major breakthroughs at this year’s summit, he said.

BRICS attendance sheet

Xi is not the only head of state expected to be absent in Rio.

The Chinese leader’s closest ally in the group, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, will only attend via video link, for the same reason he also joined a 2023 BRICS gathering in South Africa remotely. Brazil, like South Africa, is a signatory to the International Criminal Court and so would be obligated to arrest Putin on a court charge alleging war crimes in Ukraine.

The absence of two global heavy hitters leaves ample limelight for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will visit Brazil both for the summit and a state visit. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is also expected to attend.

Some new club members have yet to announce their plans, though Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto is expected in Rio after Southeast Asia’s largest economy officially joined BRICS earlier this year. BRICS partner countries, including some who aspire to join the group, will also send delegations. Uncertainty remains over whether Saudi Arabia has accepted an invitation to become a full member.

The sting of Xi’s absence for Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva may be blunted by the fact that the Chinese leader visited Brazil in November for the G20 summit and a state visit, when he and Lula inked a raft of cooperation agreements. The Brazilian leader also visited China in May, after attending a military parade in Moscow alongside Xi.

That recent diplomacy, low expectations for major breakthroughs at this year’s summit, and a heightened focus on domestic issues all likely factored into Xi’s decision to send Li, a trusted second-in-command, observers say.

China is facing steep economic challenges in the face of trade frictions with the US – and its leaders are busy charting a course for the five years ahead of a key political conclave expected this year.

In Rio, Li will likely be charged with advancing priorities like shoring up energy ties between Beijing and BRICS’ major oil-exporting members, while pushing for the expanded use of China’s offshore and digital currency for trade within the group, according to Brian Wong, an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong, who added that Xi’s absence shouldn’t be interpreted as a snub to BRICS.

“Whether it be the Sino-Russian partnership or Beijing’s desire to project its purported leadership of the Global South, there is much in BRICS+ that resonates with Xi’s foreign policy worldview,” said Wong, using a term for the extended group.

De-dollarization?

Launched in 2009 as an economic coalition of Brazil, Russia, India and China before South Africa joined a year later, BRICS roughly positions itself as the Global South’s answer to the Group of Seven (G7) major developed economies.

It’s taken on greater significance as countries have increasingly pushed for a “multipolar world” where power is more distributed – and as Beijing and Moscow have looked to bolster their international clout alongside deepening tensions with the West.

But BRICS’ composition – a mix of countries with vastly different political and economic systems, and with occasional friction between each other – and its recent expansion have also drawn criticism as leaving the group too unwieldy to be effective.

The disparate group’s efforts to speak with one voice distinct from that of the West often become mired in opposing views. A statement last month expressed “grave concern” over the military strikes against BRICS member Iran, but stopped short of specifically naming the US or Israel, the two countries that carried out the strikes.

Nonetheless, the US will be watching how the countries talk about one issue that has typically united them: moving their trade and finance to national currencies – and away from the dollar. Such de-dollarization is particularly attractive to member countries such as Russia and Iran, which are heavily sanctioned by the US.

Earlier this year, among the goals of Brazil’s host term, Lula included “increasing payment options” to reduce “vulnerabilities and costs.” Russia last year pushed for the development of a unique cross-border payments system, when it hosted the club.

What’s unlikely to be on the negotiating table, however, is the lofty goal of a “BRICS currency” – an idea suggested by Lula in 2023 that has drawn ire from Trump even as other BRICS leaders have not signaled it’s a group priority.

The US president in January threatened to place “100% tariffs” on “seemingly hostile” BRICS countries if they supported a BRICS currency, or backed another currency to replace “the mighty U.S. Dollar.”

As countries convene in Rio, observers will be tracking how strident their leaders are in promoting the use of national currencies at a meeting of a group where China is the leading member, but US global economic clout still looms large.

Thousands of people gathered in India’s Dharamshala on Sunday to celebrate the 90th birthday of the Dalai Lama – a key milestone in the life of the spiritual leader and Nobel Peace laureate known for his message of compassion and his quest for greater freedoms for Tibet under Beijing’s rule.

Undeterred by heavy monsoon rain and thick fog, crowds dressed in their finery packed the narrow streets from early morning and queued in droves hoping to catch a glimpse of the Dalai Lama at the Tsuklakhang Tibetan Buddhist complex.

Hundreds of hopeful attendees were left waiting to see if they would be allowed into the temple which reached full capacity before the festivities began, and was heavily manned by Indian police and security personnel.

Masked dancers in traditional outfits twirled to the sounds of gongs, pipes and horns as the Dalai Lama was led into the complex by two attendants.

Indian government ministers were set to attend the cutting of the celebratory cake, as well as Hollywood actor Richard Gere, a longtime supporter of the Dalai Lama.

The gathering marked the culmination of a days-long celebration that brought supporters and spiritual heads to the small city in India’s Himalayan foothills, which has served as the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile and home of the Dalai Lama since he fled Tibet during a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese communist rule.

Many had traveled far to join the celebration, such as Namgyal Dorjee Gongpa, from New Jersey in the United States.

“Every year, we take trips to India, which is the epicenter of the exile Tibetan setup so that my kids who are born in a foreign country… get back to their roots and learn and live their culture. So this is a great occasion because we can all take part in the celebration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday.”

In a birthday message on X, the Dalai Lama emphasized the importance of “achieving peace of mind through cultivating a good heart and by being compassionate.” Woven into his reflections was a pledge to continue promoting human values, religious harmony, ancient Indian wisdom and Tibetan culture, which “has so much potential to contribute to the world.”

At a ceremony on Saturday, as attendees prayed for his long life, he assured them of his “great physical condition” and raised his longevity goal to 130, two decades beyond his previous prediction.

While crowds gathered to celebrate his life, this year’s festivities carry heightened significance as a stage for the charismatic leader to address the looming question of what happens after his death.

Reincarnation

In a video message to religious elders on Wednesday, the Dalai Lama announced that he will have a successor after his death, and affirmed that his office has the “sole authority” to recognize his future reincarnation.

“No one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter,” the Dalai Lama said in his recorded message.

The statement sets the stage for a struggle over his succession between Tibetan Buddhist leaders in exile and China’s atheist Communist Party, which insists it alone holds the authority to approve the next dalai lama.

The Dalai Lama’s announcement was welcomed by many Tibetan Buddhists, who had been waiting for his decision on whether the centuries-old institution would end with his death – a question he had earlier said he would re-evaluate around his 90th birthday.

“I feel that he has thoughtfully considered the future and made it clear that the decision will be guided by the Tibetan people and Buddhist traditions and not by any external political interference,” she added.

“At the same time, like many Tibetans, I do have concerns about China’s attempts to politicize the reincarnation process by potentially appointing its own dalai lama… Their appointment of a dalai lama would not only be a distortion of our faith but also a strategy to undermine Tibetan identity.”

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, and experts expect that Beijing will seek to establish its own dalai lama after the current one – part of the party’s campaign to “sinicize” religion to ensure it aligns with Communist Party leadership and maintain its tightening grip over Tibet.

The Dalai Lama has previously stated that his successor will be born in the “free world” outside China, urging his followers to reject any candidate selected by Beijing.

Asked about the Dalai Lama’s latest statement on his reincarnation, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday reiterated Beijing’s long-held stance that the spiritual leader’s reincarnation must comply with Chinese laws and regulations, with search and identification conducted in China and approved by the central government.

Beijing has long sought to discredit the Dalai Lama and claims he is a dangerous “separatist.”

Since the 1970s, however, 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.

As China’s political and economic clout has grown, however, the Dalai Lama’s global influence appears to be waning, especially as old age makes it difficult to sustain his extensive globe-trotting. The spiritual leader has not met a sitting US president since Barack Obama in 2016, after numerous visits to the White House since 1991.

On his birthday, however, heartfelt messages poured in from world leaders, politicians, lawmakers and artists in a video compiled by Tibet TV, run by the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Obama wished a “very happy birthday to the youngest 90-year-old I know,” and thanked the Dalai Lama for his friendship.

“You’ve shown generations what it means to practice compassion and speak up for freedom and dignity. Not bad for someone who describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk,” he added.

Former US President Bill Clinton described the Dalai Lama as “one of the world’s greatest voices for peace, for dialogue, for understanding” whose teachings have “inspired millions to follow in your footsteps.”

He added: “In a time when we see the forces of division tearing at the fabric of our common humanity, we need your wisdom more than ever to remind us that what we share is more important than our interesting differences.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement on X: “I join 1.4 billion Indians in extending our warmest wishes to His Holiness the Dalai Lama on his 90th birthday.

“He has been an enduring symbol of love, compassion, patience and moral discipline. His message has inspired respect and admiration across all faiths. We pray for his continued good health and long life.”

But in Dharamshala, the Dalai Lama’s life and legacy were center stage on Sunday, a day Nyidon said “holds deep spiritual and emotional meaning for our community, symbolizing resilience and hope.”