Category: 2. World

This photo taken on July 2, 2025 shows a sign of the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference in Beijing, capital of China. With the theme “Building a Digital-Friendly City”, the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference opened here on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin)

This photo taken on July 2, 2025 shows the inaugural ceremony of the Global Digital Economy Cities Alliance during the opening ceremony of the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference in Beijing, capital of China. With the theme “Building a Digital-Friendly City”, the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference opened here on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin)

This photo taken on July 2, 2025 shows the opening ceremony of the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference in Beijing, capital of China. With the theme “Building a Digital-Friendly City”, the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference opened here on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin)

This photo taken on July 2, 2025 shows an exhibition area of the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference in Beijing, capital of China. With the theme “Building a Digital-Friendly City”, the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference opened here on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin)

Jean Tirole, a Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics, speaks during the opening ceremony of the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference in Beijing, capital of China, July 2, 2025. With the theme “Building a Digital-Friendly City”, the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference opened here on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin)

Beate Trankmann, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative for China, speaks during the opening ceremony of the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference in Beijing, capital of China, July 2, 2025. With the theme “Building a Digital-Friendly City”, the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference opened here on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin)

This photo taken on July 2, 2025 shows the opening ceremony of the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference in Beijing, capital of China. With the theme “Building a Digital-Friendly City”, the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference opened here on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin)

A visitor tries an MR device at an exhibition area of the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference in Beijing, capital of China, July 2, 2025. With the theme “Building a Digital-Friendly City”, the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference opened here on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin)

This photo taken on July 2, 2025 shows an exhibition area of the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference in Beijing, capital of China. With the theme “Building a Digital-Friendly City”, the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference opened here on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin)

This photo taken on July 2, 2025 shows an exhibition area of the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference in Beijing, capital of China. With the theme “Building a Digital-Friendly City”, the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference opened here on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin)

Guests attend the opening ceremony of the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference in Beijing, capital of China, July 2, 2025. With the theme “Building a Digital-Friendly City”, the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference opened here on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin)

Two people were found dead by firefighters tackling a blaze in Spain’s Catalonia region on Tuesday, as Europe endures scorching temperatures during the ongoing heatwave.

In a statement, Catalan authorities said the bodies were found after firefighters extinguished a fire in the Torrefeta area, near the town of Coscó.

A 10-year-old American tourist visiting the Palace of Versailles died after falling ill, French media reported.

Earlier, the country’s ecological transition minister said two heat-related fatalities were recorded in France, adding more than 300 people were treated by firefighters on Tuesday.

The European continent is experiencing extremely high temperatures, a phenomenon that the UN’s climate agency said is becoming more frequent due to “human-induced climate change”.

As reported by French broadcaster TF1, a child aged 10 collapsed at the courtyard of the royal estate, in front of her parents, at around 18:00 local time on Tuesday. Despite efforts by the castle’s security team and emergency services, she was pronounced dead an hour later.

For Spain and England, the month of June marked their hottest June since records began. Spain’s weather service, Aemet, said last month’s average temperature of 23.6C (74.5F) “pulverised records”, surpassing the normal average for July and August.

Firefighters worked throughout Tuesday night in Catalonia to define the perimeter of both the Torrefeta and Florejacs fires, according to the region’s fire service.

In a statement on Wednesday, the fire service said their efforts were focused on establishing the perimeter, extinguishing fires in buildings, and ruling out any more victims.

As of 22:37 local time on Tuesday (21:37 BST), Catalonia’s emergency services established they were working in a perimeter of about 6,500 hectares, which is about 40km (25 miles) long.

According to reports by Spanish media, the two people killed in the fire in Coscó were the owner of a farm and a worker. The pair were aged 32 and 45.

Firefighters said they found the two bodies “lifeless” when tackling the blaze. Catalonia’s regional president, Salvador Illa, said he would be visiting the area.

Spanish forecaster Aemet predicts that Wednesday will see highs of 41C in Córdoba, a city in southern Spain.

France’s ecological transition minister, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, said the two deaths in her country were a result of “heat-related illness”.

It comes as France registered its second-hottest June since records began in 1900. June 2025 only trails behind June 2023, when the country also experienced intense heat.

Four departments in France remain on the red alert level for heat, the highest level. These include Aube, Cher, Loiret and Yonne, according to the country’s weather service, Meteo France.

The forecaster predicts some storms in parts of eastern France, with highs of 37C in Metz in the north-east.

In Italy, a 75-year-old man in the Budoni, Sardinia, died after falling sick because of the extreme heat. Another man, 60, became sick while on the beach of Lu Impostu in San Teodoro. Emergency services tried to save both men without success.

Temperatures in the region have exceeded 40C in recent days.

Also in the Mediterranean country, two construction workers in Tezze sul Brenta, in the province of Vicenza, were rushed to hospital at 15:30 local time on Tuesday because they fell ill as a result of the heat while working in a hole.

One of the workers is in a coma, according to reports by Italian news agency Ansa, who report that he was resuscitated, intubated and taken to San Bassiano hospital by helicopter.

Dimple Rana, heat and microclimate specialist at sustainable development consultancy Arup, told the BBC there is “a big link between heat-related impact and age”.

In the UK, for example, most heat-related deaths were among older adults, Ms Rana said. Younger children, particularly those under five, were also at risk.

Another factor to consider is that often people on lower incomes undertake more manual work, Ms Rana said, meaning they are more exposed to higher temperatures.

Intense heat on Tuesday led to power outages in Florence city centre, due to a peak in consumption from air conditioners and some underground electrical cables overheating, Italian media reported.

The blackout on Tuesday afternoon meant homes, hotels and shops were without power. ATMs were also out of action and alarm systems in shops and other business premises were deactivated.

In Bergamo, the overheating of underground cables also caused a power outage in half of the city. On one side towards Piazza della Liberta, the lights were on and people could congregate outside, while on the other, towards Sentierone, no electricity meant dark shop fronts and little to no nightlife.

The blackout in Bergamo on Tuesday spanned several hours, with no power between 16:00 and 22:46 local time.

Heatwaves are becoming more common due to human-caused climate change, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Extreme hot weather will happen more often – and become even more intense – as the planet continues to warm, it has said.

Heat and microclimate expert Ms Rana said we need efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, through using more clean energy for example, but we also need to adapt.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which is the UN’s weather and climate agency, said on Tuesday that human-induced climate change means “extreme heat is becoming more frequent and intense”.

In a statement, the WMO added: “The effect of heat on human health is more pronounced in cities as a result of the urban heat island effect.

“This is where urban environments are significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas, especially during hot periods, due to an abundance of paved surfaces, buildings, vehicles, and heat sources.”

“This additional heat in cities exacerbates heat stress and can increase mortality during hot periods,” the agency said.

Iran is also considering an entry ban on IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, after rejecting his request to visit nuclear sites.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has signed a law suspending cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), amid growing tensions between Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog over monitoring access and transparency, after United States and Israeli strikes on its most important nuclear facilities during a 12-day conflict last month.

“Masoud Pezeshkian promulgated the law suspending cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Iranian state TV reported on Wednesday.

The move comes a week after Iran’s parliament passed legislation to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, citing Israel’s June 13 attack on Iran and later strikes by the US on Iranian nuclear facilities.

According to the parliament resolution, IAEA inspectors will not be allowed to visit nuclear sites without approval from Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

Iran’s foreign minister earlier this week said IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, whom Iranian officials have sharply criticised for failing to condemn Israeli and US strikes during the recent 12-day war, was no longer welcome in the country.

Officials have also criticised Grossi over a June 12 resolution passed by the IAEA board accusing Tehran of non-compliance with its nuclear obligations.

Iranian officials said the resolution was among the “excuses” for the Israeli attacks.

Iran has also rejected a request from IAEA chief Grossi to visit nuclear facilities bombed during the war.

“Grossi’s insistence on visiting the bombed sites under the pretext of safeguards is meaningless and possibly even malign in intent,” said Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on X on Monday. “Iran reserves the right to take any steps in defence of its interests, its people and its sovereignty.”

Earlier this week, Pezeshkian decried Grossi’s “destructive” conduct, while France, Germany and the United Kingdom have condemned unspecified “threats” made against the IAEA chief.

Iran’s ultra-conservative Kayhan newspaper recently claimed that documents showed Grossi was an Israeli spy and should be executed.

Iran has insisted no threats were posed against Grossi or the agency’s inspectors.

The 12-day war began when Israel carried out a surprise bombardment of Iranian nuclear facilities and military sites and assassinated several top military commanders and nuclear scientists. Tehran responded with waves of missiles and drones at Israel.

On June 22, Israel’s ally, the US, launched unprecedented strikes of its own on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz. A ceasefire between Iran and Israel took hold on June 24.

At least 935 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Iran, according to judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir, citing the latest forensic data. The deceased included 132 women and 38 children, Jahangir added.

Iran’s retaliatory attacks killed 28 people in Israel, according to authorities.

US President Donald Trump said the US attacks had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear programme, though the extent of the damage was not clear.

Araghchi has admitted that “serious” damage has been inflicted on nuclear sites.

But in a recent interview with US media outlet CBS Evening News, he said: “One cannot obliterate the technology and science… through bombings.”

Israel and some Western countries say Iran has sought nuclear weapons – an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.

US President Donald Trump urged Hamas on Tuesday to accept a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, saying that Israel had agreed to finalise such a deal, as its forces also stepped up operations in the Palestinian territory.

Nearly 21 months of relentless Israeli bombardment have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations.

The civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people today.

Trump, in a post on social media, said his representatives had met with Israeli officials about the raging conflict, ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington next week.

“Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to finalise the 60-day ceasefire, during which time we will work with all parties to end the war,” Trump wrote.

He said representatives of Qatar and Egypt, mediators in the conflict, would deliver “this final proposal”.

“I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this deal, because it will not get better — it will only get worse,” he warned.

Without directly mentioning Trump’s remarks, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said later that “a large majority within the government and the population is in favour of the plan to free the hostages”.

“If the opportunity arises, it must not be missed!” Saar wrote on X.

Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian fighters during Hamas’s 2023 attack that triggered the offensive, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 that the Israeli military says are dead.

Trump earlier on Tuesday said he would be “very firm” with Netanyahu when they meet on July 7.

The end of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran — which followed a US bombing mission on Tehran’s nuclear sites — has provided a window of opportunity for a deal, with Trump keen to add another peace agreement to a series of recent deals he has brokered.

Trump has complained he had been overlooked by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for his mediating role in various conflicts, including the recent one between India and Pakistan.

Families lose multiple members as Israeli bombing continues

Trump campaigned for office as a “peacemaker” who would use his negotiating skills to quickly end wars in Ukraine and Gaza, although both conflicts are still raging five months into his presidency.

However, Israel’s bombing of Gaza continues to rage on.

AFP footage from the area showed makeshift tent structures blown apart as Palestinians picked through the wreckage, trying to salvage what was left of their belongings.

One man held a pack of nappies, asking: “Is this a weapon?”

“They came here thinking it was a safe area and they were killed … What did they do?” said Maha Abu Rizq, whose uncle was killed in the strike.

AFP images from the nearby Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis city, showed medics treating young children covered in blood. Some appeared terrified while others lay still on hospital beds in bloodied bandages and clothes.

In southern Gaza, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that five members of the same family were killed in an Israeli air strike today that hit a tent housing displaced people in the coastal Al-Mawasi area.

Despite being declared a safe zone by Israel in December 2023, Al-Mawasi has been hit by repeated Israeli strikes.

Further north, Bassal said that four people from the same family were killed in a pre-dawn Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza City, and another five in a drone strike on a house in the central Deir el-Balah area.

AFP photographers saw Israeli tanks deploying at the Gaza border in southern Israel and children picking through the rubble of a destroyed home in Gaza City.

Others photographed Palestinians mourning over the bodies of relatives in the city’s Al-Shifa hospital and the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it did not have enough information to comment on the specific reports, but insisted it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities” in line with “international law, and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm”.

In response to reports of deadly strikes in the north and south of the territory, the Israeli army told AFP it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities”.

Separately, it said on Tuesday morning that in recent days it had “expanded its operations to additional areas within the Gaza Strip”, claiming to have eliminated fighters and dismantled what it called “terror infrastructure sites”.

Raafat Halles, aged 39, from the Shujaiya district of Gaza City, said “air strikes and shelling have intensified over the past week” and tanks have been advancing.

“I believe that every time negotiations or a potential ceasefire are mentioned, the army escalates crimes and massacres on the ground,” he said. “I don’t know why.”

The Israeli military onslaught in response to the Hamas-led Oct 7, 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures, has killed more than 56,600 people across Gaza.

The offensive has destroyed much of the housing and infrastructure in the enclave, including the hospital system. The death toll is feared to be much higher due to thousands missing under the rubble.

Netanyahu’s US visit

Netanyahu announced he would visit Trump and senior US security officials next week, amid mounting pressure to end the devastating fighting in Gaza and bring the remaining hostages home.

Trump, while visiting a migrant detention centre in Florida, said Netanyahu “wants to end it too”.

Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP the group is “ready to agree to any proposal if it will lead to an end to the war and a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of occupation forces”.

“So far, there has been no breakthrough.”

As she canvassed for Zohran Mamdani in New York City on Tuesday last week, Batul Hassan should have been elated. The mayoral candidate – a 33-year-old state assemblymember – was surging in the polls and would within hours soundly defeat Andrew Cuomo on first preference votes in the Democratic primary election.

But Hassan’s spirits were hampered by record-breaking temperatures. In Crown Heights, where she was the Mamdani campaign’s field captain, the heat index soared into the triple digits.

“I couldn’t think about anything but the heat,” she said. “It was so dangerous.”

Early that Tuesday morning, Hassan visited a public school polling site, where elderly workers sweltered without air conditioning. The city board of elections sent over paper fans, but they were no match for the heat.

If Mamdani is elected, that school could be retrofitted with air conditioning and green space to bring down temperatures as part of his green schools plan, or could even be transformed into a resilience hub for communities shelter amid extreme weather events.

“Seeing total infrastructural failure on election day emphasized the stakes of what’s happening with the climate crisis and the importance of the election,” said Hassan, who took time off from her day job at the leftist thinktank Climate and Community Institute to canvass.

Mamdani’s green schools plan is just one of his schemes to slash carbon emissions and boost environmental justice. If elected mayor, his plans for New York City would make residents “dramatically more safe” from extreme weather, said Hassan.

But the democratic socialist, who was endorsed by the national youth-led environmental justice group Sunrise Movement and student-led climate group TREEAge, did not place the climate crisis at the center of his campaign, instead choosing to focus relentlessly on cost-of-living issues. The model could help build popular support for climate policies, supporters say.

“Climate and quality of life are not two separate concerns,” Mamdani told the Nation in April. “They are, in fact, one and the same.”

Over the past two decades, Democrats increasingly focused on the climate. But often, their proposed schemes have been technocratic, Hassan said. Carbon taxes, for instance, can be impenetrably complex, making them difficult candidates for popular support. They can also be economically regressive, with “working class people experiencing them as an additional cost”, Hassan said.

More recently, Joe Biden coupled climate plans with green industrial policy and plans to boost employment. But even those projects can take years to affect tangible change, critics say. As president, for instance, Biden achieved historic climate investments in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). But its green incentives disproportionately benefited the wealthy, and its job creation remains invisible to most people around the country. One poll found only a quarter of Americans felt the IRA benefited them.

“Now with Trump, we see the pitfalls of the IRA, where there is real difficulty in consolidating enough political support to defend those climate policy achievements,” said Hassan.

Mamdani “learned from some of the mistakes” of the Biden administration, said Gustavo Gordillo, a co-chair of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which supported Mamdani’s campaign. His housing plan, for instance, aims to lower planet-heating pollution by boosting density, but his signature promise is a rent freeze.

That pledge could ensure residents are not priced out of New York City and forced to move to more carbon-intensive suburbs, and prevent landlords from passing the costs of energy efficiency upgrades or air conditioning installation to renters, preventing displacement, said Hassan.

Similarly, Mamdani’s headline transit goal was to make buses faster and free, which could boost ridership and discourage the use of carbon-intensive cars.

“Public transit is one of the greatest gifts we have to take on the climate crisis,” Mamdani said at a February mayoral forum.

Biden’s IRA placed little focus on boosting public transit, said Gordillo. This was a missed opportunity to cut emissions and also lower Americans’ fuel costs, he said.

“We need to expand mass transit to fight the climate crisis, which hasn’t been a priority for the Democratic establishment,” said Gordillo, who is an electrician by day. “But we also need to expand it because we want to improve people’s lives right now.”

As a New York assemblymember, Mamdani has backed explicitly green policies. He was a key advocate for a boosting publicly owned renewable energy production. The effort aimed to help New York “live up to the dream of our state as being a climate leader”, he said in 2022.

He also fought fossil fuel buildout. He coupled that climate focus with efforts to keep energy bills low, consistently opposing local utilities’ attempts to impose rate hikes, said Kim Fraczek, director of the climate nonprofit Sane Energy Project.

“His growing political influence is a clear win for communities demanding a just transition: renewable power, democratic control and relief from crushing energy costs,” said Fraczek.

Progressive cities like New York are often climate leaders. But if they price out working people, only the wealthy get to see the benefits of their green policies, Mamdani’s backers say.

By crafting popular climate policies, the Democratic nominee is also building a base of New Yorkers who will work to defend those plans in the face of threats from the Trump administration, they say.

“New Yorkers want an affordable city, clean and green schools, fast and free buses, and a rent freeze,” said Daniel Goulden, a co-chair of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America ecosocialist working Group. “But most importantly, New Yorkers want a future – one where they can live and thrive in New York.”

More than 400 stars and media figures including Miriam Margolyes, Alexei Sayle, Juliet Stevenson and Mike Leigh have signed a letter to BBC management calling for the removal of a board member, Robbie Gibb, over claims of conflict of interest regarding the Middle East.

The signatories also include 111 BBC journalists and Zawe Ashton, Khalid Abdalla, Shola Mos-Shogbamimu and the historian William Dalrymple, who express “concerns over opaque editorial decisions and censorship at the BBC on the reporting of Israel/Palestine”.

Delivered on the eve of Channel 4’s airing of the documentary Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, which the BBC commissioned but shelved as it said it “risked creating a perception of partiality”, the letter alleges the decision to drop the film “demonstrates, once again, that the BBC is not reporting ‘without fear or favour’ when it comes to Israel”.

It also accuses the BBC of being “crippled by the fear of being perceived as critical of the Israeli government” and claims the “inconsistent manner in which guidance is applied draws into focus the role of Gibb, on the BBC Board and BBC’s editorial standards committee” as “we are concerned that an individual with close ties to the Jewish Chronicle … has a say in the BBC’s editorial decisions in any capacity, including the decision not to broadcast Gaza: Medics Under Fire”.

Gibb, Theresa May’s former spin doctor and a former head of the BBC’s Westminster political team, led the consortium that bought the Jewish Chronicle in 2020 and, up until August 2024, was a director of Jewish Chronicle Media.

The letter, organised by a group of BBC insiders, says: “For many of us, our efforts have been frustrated by opaque decisions made at senior levels of the BBC without discussion or explanation. Our failures impact audiences.

“As an organisation we have not offered any significant analysis of the UK government’s involvement in the war on Palestinians. We have failed to report on weapons sales or their legal implications. These stories have instead been broken by the BBC’s competitors.”

The statement alleges Gibb has a “conflict of interest” which “highlights a double standard for BBC content makers who have themselves experienced censorship in the name of ‘impartiality’.”

It adds: “In some instances staff have been accused of having an agenda because they have posted news articles critical of the Israeli government on their social media. By comparison, Gibb remains in an influential post with little transparency regarding his decisions despite his ideological leanings being well known. We can no longer ask licence fee payers to overlook Gibbs’s ideological allegiances.”

The letter concludes: “We, the undersigned BBC staff, freelancers and industry figures are extremely concerned that the BBC’s reporting on Israel and Palestine continues to fall short of the standards our audiences expect. We believe the role of Robbie Gibb, both on the board, and as part of the editorial standards committee, is untenable. We call on the BBC to do better for our audiences and recommit to our values of impartiality, honesty and reporting without fear or favour.”

Owing to their fear of repercussions, the 111 BBC journalists signed anonymously.

A BBC spokesperson said: “Robust discussions amongst our editorial teams about our journalism are an essential part of the editorial process. We have ongoing discussions about coverage and listen to feedback from staff and we think these conversations are best had internally.

“Regarding our coverage of Gaza, the BBC is fully committed to covering the conflict impartially and has produced powerful coverage from the region. Alongside breaking news, ongoing analysis, and investigations, we have produced award winning documentaries such as Life and Death in Gaza, and Gaza 101.”

What has happened in Tibet since the Dalai Lama fled to Indiapublished at 10:20 British Summer Time

10:20 BST

Anbarasan Ethirajan
South Asia Regional Editor

Image source, Getty Images

For Tibetans, the Dalai Lama’s departure in 1959 was a
devastating turning point.

Thousands died fighting Chinese troops after he fled. The
Tibetan rebellion was brutally suppressed. Many dissidents were deported to
mainland China.

More than 80,000 fled their homeland.

After the Chinese government established the Tibetan Autonomous
Region (TAR) in 1965 a large number of Tibet’s monasteries and cultural
artefacts were destroyed.

Beijing restored its people’s freedom to practice their religion
in the 1980s, but monks and nuns often complained of persecution.

China also began a large-scale immigration of the Han Chinese
which Beijing argued helped the region economically. But Tibetan leaders said
it threatened their unique culture.

In 2008, tensions between Tibetan and Han Chinese communities in
Lhasa erupted into deadly violence that lasted for several days.

Image source, Getty Images

Today, Tibet remains tightly controlled by Chinese authorities.

According to Human Rights Watch, since 2016 China has dramatically accelerated the relocation of rural villagers and
herders in Tibet. It says the relocations—often to areas hundreds
of kilometres away—are voluntary and will “improve people’s livelihood” opportunities.

Beijing also says the region is one of the fastest growing provincial economies, with fresh
investments and improved living conditions.

But critics allege the flow of information from Tibet is tightly controlled.

Dharamshala, India/Hong Kong
CNN
 — 

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.

Asked about the Dalai Lama’s statement, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry 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.

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.

“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.

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.”

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.”