World
As the Dalai Lama turns 89, exiled Tibetans fear a future without him
In a monastery beneath snow-capped mountains in northern India, the Buddhist monk entrusted with protecting the Dalai Lama and foretelling his people’s future is concerned.
The Dalai Lama turned 89 on Saturday, and China insists it will choose his successor as Tibet’s chief spiritual leader. That has the Medium of Tibet’s Chief State Oracle contemplating what might come next.
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“His Holiness is the fourteenth Dalai Lama, then there will be a fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth,” the medium, known as the Nechung, said. “In countries, leaders change, and then that story is over. But in Tibet it works differently.”
Tibetan Buddhists believe that learned monastics are reincarnated after death as newborns. The Dalai Lama, who is currently recuperating in the United States from a medical procedure, has said he will clarify questions about succession — including if and where he will be reincarnated — around his ninetieth birthday. As part of a reincarnation identification process, the medium will enter a trance to consult the oracle.
The incumbent Dalai Lama is a charismatic figure who popularized Buddhism internationally and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for keeping alive the Tibetan cause in exile. Beijing sees him as a dangerous separatist, though he has embraced what he calls a “Middle Way” of peacefully seeking genuine autonomy and religious freedom within China.
The Dalai Lama turned 89 years old on Saturday. (AFP via Getty Images / File)
Any successor will be inexperienced and unknown on the global stage. That has sparked concerns about whether the movement will lose momentum or grow more radical amid heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington, long a source of bipartisan support for the Central Tibetan Administration, Tibet’s government-in-exile.
The CTA and its partners in the West as well as India, which has hosted the Dalai Lama in the Himalayan foothills for more than six decades, are preparing for a future without his influential presence.
President Joe Biden is expected to soon sign a bill that requires the State Department to counter what it calls Chinese “disinformation” that Tibet, which was annexed by the People’s Republic of China in 1951, has been part of China since ancient times.
“China wants recognition that Tibet has been part of China … throughout history, and this bill is suggesting that it would be relatively easy for Tibet supporters to get a western government to refuse to give recognition for such an extensive claim,” said Tibet specialist Robert Barnett of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.
U.S. lawmakers, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., visited the Dalai Lama last month to celebrate Congress passing the legislation, which Sikyong Penpa Tsering, who heads the CTA, called a “breakthrough.”
The bill is part of a strategic shift away from emphasizing Chinese rights violations such as forced assimilation, the Sikyong, or political leader, told Reuters. Since 2021, CTA has lobbied two dozen countries, including the U.S., to publicly undermine Beijing’s narrative that Tibet has always been part of China, he said.
With U.S. weight behind this strategy, the exiles hope to push China to the negotiating table, he said. “If every country keeps saying that Tibet is part of the People’s Republic of China, then where is the reason for China to come and talk to us?”
The Chinese foreign ministry said in response to Reuters’ questions that it would be open to discussions with the Dalai Lama about his “personal future” if he “truly gives up his position of splitting the motherland” and recognised Tibet as an unalienable part of China.
Tibetans participate in a protest march held to mark the 65th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, in the northern hill town of Dharamsala, India, March 10, 2024. (Reuters / Adnan Abidi / File)
Beijing, which has not held official talks with the Dalai Lama’s representatives since 2010, has also urged Biden not to sign the bill.
The office of the Dalai Lama, who has in recent years apologized for remarks he made about women and to a young child, referred an interview request to the Sikyong.
Succession questions
Most historians say Tibet was assimilated into the Mongol Empire during the 13th-14th century Yuan dynasty, which also covered large parts of present day China. Beijing says that it established its sovereign claim, though scholars believe the relationship varied greatly over the centuries and remote Tibet largely governed itself for much of the time.
The People’s Liberation Army marched into Tibet in 1950 and announced its “peaceful liberation”. After a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, a young Dalai Lama fled into exile in India.
In 1995, atheist China and the Dalai Lama separately identified two boys as the Panchen Lama, the second-most-important Tibetan Buddhist leader. The Dalai Lama’s pick was taken away by Chinese authorities and has not been seen since.
Many Buddhists consider Beijing’s choice illegitimate, though most expect a similar parallel selection for the next Dalai Lama given the Chinese government’s stance that he must reincarnate, and it must approve the successor.
In this photo shared by the Office of the Dalai Lama, U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, left, is greeted by Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, at the Tibetan leader’s residence in Dharamshala, India, June 19, 2024. (Tenzin Choejor/Office of the Dalai Lama via AP)
Chinese authorities have “tried to insert themselves into the succession of the Dalai Lama, but we will not let that happen,” said U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee during his Dharamsala visit last month.
India, whose troops clashed with China near the Tibetan plateau in 2022, has been less vocal about its position on succession.
“The U.S. … does not have to worry about border incursions as India does,” said Donald Camp, a former top South Asia official on the U.S. National Security Council.
But as home to tens of thousands of Tibetans and an ascendant voice on the global stage, Delhi will be pulled into the fray, observers of Indian diplomacy say. Hawkish commentators have already called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to meet with the Dalai Lama as a way of pressuring China.
Delhi’s Ministry of External Affairs declined to comment on the succession but its former ambassador to China, Ashok Kantha, said India would not be “comfortable with China trying to control that process.”
“Privately, we have told China … that for them the best option is engaging with the Dalai Lama and his representatives,” said Kantha. “Post-fourteenth Dalai Lama we don’t know what will happen.”
The respect that the Dalai Lama commands among Tibetan exiles has kept in check frustrations and a formal push for independence, though it isn’t clear if that balance will be maintained following his death.
Tibetan Youth Congress general secretary Sonam Tsering said his advocacy group respected the Middle Way but, like many other young Tibetans, it wanted full independence.
For now, Tibetans are focused on supporting the Dalai Lama in fulfilling his desire to return to his homeland before his death, he said.
But if the wish “is not fulfilled, then the emotional outburst, the emotional challenges they are going through, it’s very difficult to think of,” he said.
The Sikyong said CTA’s new emphasis on challenging China’s narrative united pro-independence Tibetans with those pursuing the Middle Way, as Tibet’s historical status was a point of common agreement.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of Buddhists and well-wishers around the world will gather to celebrate and pray for the long life of a leader who for them represents the strongest hope of an eventual return to Tibet.
But time for both the Dalai Lama and his people is starting to run out.
Meta is laying off about 8,000 workers, or about 10% of its workforce, the company said Thursday as it continues to ramp up spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure and highly paid AI-expert hires.
The company said it was making the cuts for the sake of efficiency and to allow new investments in parts of its business, as first reported by Bloomberg, which also said the company will leave about 6,000 jobs unfilled.
Also Thursday, Microsoft said it was offering voluntary buyouts to thousands of its U.S. employees.
The software giant plans to make the offers in early May to about 8,750 people, or 7% of its U.S. workforce, according to two people familiar with the plan who were not authorized to speak about it publicly.
While an alternative to the sudden layoffs removing tech workers from peers like Meta and Oracle, the savings are likely tied to a similar industry upheaval that is requiring huge spending on the costs of artificial intelligence. Meta has already warned investors that its 2026 expenses will grow significantly — to the range of $162 billion to $169 billion — driven by infrastructure costs and employee compensation, particularly for the artificial intelligence experts it’s been hiring at eye-popping pay levels.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives welcomed Meta’s cuts in a note to investors Thursday.
He said he sees it as part of a strategy of using AI tools to “automate tasks that once required large teams, allowing the company to streamline operations and reduce costs while maintaining productivity driving an increased need for a leaner operating structure.”
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, has spent billions of dollars operating an ever-expanding global network of data centers powering cloud computing services, AI systems and its own suite of productivity tools, including the AI assistant Copilot.
CNBC reported earlier Thursday on a memo from Microsoft’s chief people officer, Amy Coleman, announcing the voluntary retirement plan.
“Our hope is that this program gives those eligible the choice to take that next step on their own terms, with generous company support,” Coleman wrote, according to CNBC.
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Tensions escalated in the Strait of Hormuz April 22 after Iran’s IRGC seized two vessels in what analysts describe as “tit-for-tat” retaliation against the U.S. And one ship is linked to a billionaire shipping family tied to Presidents Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron.
Video aired on Iranian state TV purportedly shows IRGC soldiers seizing the container ships in the Strait, Reuters said Thursday.
One vessel, the MSC Francesca, is owned by MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, which was founded by Italian billionaire Gianluigi Aponte and is now controlled by his two children, Fox News Digital has learned.
“Some 20 Iranians armed to the teeth stormed the ship. Sailors are under Iranian control, their movements on the ship are limited but the Iranians are treating them well,” a relative of one of the MSC Francesca seafarers told Reuters.
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Soldiers take part in the seizure of the container ships MSC Francesca and Epaminondas in the Strait of Hormuz, according to footage broadcast on Iranian state TV and released April 22, 2026. (IRIB/Handout/Reuters)
“The ship is anchored 9 nautical miles from the Iranian coast. Negotiations between MSC and Iran are ongoing, our sailors are fine,” Montenegro’s minister of maritime affairs, Filip Radulovic, told state broadcaster RTCG.
Maritime intelligence firm Windward AI pointed to IRGC “tit-for-tat” tactics given the recent MSC vessel seizure.
This followed a U.S. naval blockade imposed on April 13, with Tehran warning of retaliation after U.S. forces also seized an Iranian vessel.
“The IRGC attacked three ships. It also captured and took in two of them — the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas — while the Euphoria managed to get away,” Windward AI co-founder Ami Daniel told Fox News Digital.
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Soldiers take part in the operation seizing the container ships MSC Francesca and Epaminondas in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian state TV April 22, 2026. (IRIB/Handout/Reuters)
“This is a ‘tit-for-tat’ exercise by the IRGC, which, along with the Houthis, has long claimed MSC is connected to Israel.
“Aponte, owner and chairman, has a Jewish wife, and MSC calls in Israel; however, so do all major liners.”
Diego Aponte, Gianluigi’s son, had been making “inroads with Trump’s circle,” Bloomberg reported April 13.
He also helped arrange a November 2025 White House meeting with Swiss business leaders that led to a preliminary deal to reduce the 39% tariffs imposed on Switzerland over the summer.
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The MSC executive chairman has been photographed with French President Emmanuel Macron. (Reuters/Stephane Mahe)
Over the last year, MSC’s relationship with the White House also positioned father Gianluigi Aponte as a key player in a $19 billion deal with Li Ka-shing, as MSC and BlackRock moved to acquire two Panama Canal ports under pressure from Trump to place them in “friendly” hands, according to the outlet.
With a net worth of at least $37 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, it is Gianluigi Aponte and his wife, Rafaela Aponte-Diamant, who appear to mingle with world leaders.
The MSC executive chairman and Rafaela have been photographed with French President Emmanuel Macron.
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The Panama-flagged MSC Francesca vessel docked in Long Beach, Calif., April 16, 2025. (Efrain Morales/Reuters)
Rafaela is also reportedly related to Alexis Kohler (his mother is said to be her cousin), who served as Macron’s secretary-general from May 2017 to April 14, 2025, and was described as “Macron’s second brain.”
The Aponte family’s vessel, carrying about 40 crew members, was taken toward Iran’s port of Bandar Abbas by the Iranian navy, sources told Reuters Thursday.
Four crew members, including the captain, are from Montenegro, officials said, while Croatia’s foreign ministry confirmed two Croatian nationals are also aboard.
MSC declined to comment, Reuters confirmed.
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The IRGC Navy claimed both vessels captured “were operating without the necessary permits.”
According to Lloyd’s List, the 2008-built MSC Francesca “normally operates in service between the U.S. West Coast, Asia and the Middle East Gulf.”
Published On 23 Apr 2026
Three professors at Atlanta’s Emory University in the United States have filed a lawsuit over their arrests during a 2024 campus protest over Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Their lawsuit on Thursday argued that the university broke its own free-speech policies when it called in police and state troopers to aggressively disband the protest, making 28 arrests.
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“The judicial system would find that Emory failed to protect its students, to protect its staff, to protect the educational mission of the university,” said philosophy professor Noelle McAfee, one of the plaintiffs.
“So this isn’t just about people’s individual rights. It’s our educational mission to train people in free and critical inquiry, to be able to learn how to engage with others, to be fearless.”
Laura Diamond, a spokesperson for Emory, responded that the university believes “this lawsuit is without merit”.
“Emory acts appropriately and responsibly to keep our community safe from threats of harm,” Diamond said in a statement. “We regret this issue is being litigated, but we have confidence in the legal process.”
The suit is just one example of how the nationwide wave of protests from 2023 and 2024 continues to reverberate on elite campuses.
There have been multiple instances where students and faculty have filed lawsuits against universities, arguing they were discriminated against because of the protests.
But the Emory suit is unusual. McAfee and her fellow plaintiffs — English and Indigenous studies professor Emilio Del Valle-Escalante and economics professor Caroline Fohlin — all remain tenured faculty members. None were convicted of any charges.
The civil lawsuit in DeKalb County State Court demands that the private university repay money the three spent defending themselves against misdemeanour charges that were later dismissed, along with punitive damages.
McAfee said she’s suing her employer “to try to get them to be accountable and to change”.
All three say they were observers on April 25, 2024, when some students and others set up tents on the university’s main quad to protest the war. They say Emory broke its own policies by calling in Atlanta police and Georgia state troopers without seeking alternatives.
McAfee was charged with disorderly conduct after she said she yelled “Stop!” at an officer roughly arresting a protester. Del Valle-Escalante said he was trying to help an older woman when he was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.
Fohlin said that, when she protested against officers pinning a protester to the ground, she herself was thrown face-first to the ground and arrested, suffering a concussion and a spine injury. Fohlin was charged with misdemeanour battery of an officer.
Emory claimed that those arrested that day were outsiders who trespassed on school property. But 20 of the 28 people arrested were affiliated with the university.
The professors said that, after their arrests, they were targeted by threats and harassment, part of a pushback by conservatives who said universities were failing to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism and allowing lawlessness.
Nationwide, however, advocates say there is a “Palestine exception” in which universities are willing to curb pro-Palestine speech and protest. Palestine Legal, a legal aid group supporting such speech, said Tuesday that it received 300 percent more legal requests in 2025 than its annual average before 2023, mostly from college students and faculty.
McAfee served as president of the Emory University Senate after her arrest. The body makes policy recommendations and has helped draft the university’s open expression policy.
She said she asked then-President Gregory Fenves in fall 2024 why Emory police weren’t dropping the charges against her and others. McAfee said Fenves told her that he wanted “to see justice”.
The open expression policy was revised after 2024 to clearly prohibit tents, camping, the occupation of university buildings and demonstrations between midnight and 7am.
Whatever the policy, McAfee said students are afraid to protest at Emory, saying the university has turned its back on what Atlanta civil rights icon John Lewis called “good trouble”.
“Students know right now that any trouble is not going to be good trouble at Emory, that they could get arrested,” she said. “So students are afraid.”
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