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The Dalai Lama said on Wednesday that the ancient Tibetan Buddhist institution he leads will live on after he dies, putting an end to speculation that he would be the last person to hold the role as he plans to reincarnate.

As part of celebrations marking his 90th birthday, the Nobel Peace laureate also signalled that China, which Tibetan activists accuse of suppressing their language, culture and religion, should stay out of the process of choosing the next Dalai Lama.

The 14th Dalai Lama’s rare remarks came as anxiety mounts over who will follow him as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism.

“I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” said the Dalai Lama, who has spent almost 70 years living in exile in India after fleeing Tibet, an autonomous Himalayan region of China.

“I hereby reiterate that the Gaden Phodrang Trust has sole authority to recognize the future reincarnation,” he said, referring to an organization he founded. “No one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter.”

The Chinese government responded`to the comments swiftly, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson saying that any succession planning must comply with laws and regulations, according to Reuters.

The Tibetan spiritual leader made the announcement days ahead of his 90th birthday on July 6, after a conference of representatives of the four major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism in the Indian city of Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

It’s unusual for a living Dalai Lama to talk about his successor, the search for whom begins only upon his death because it involves reincarnation. But as the 14th Dalai Lama grows older, there is growing worry that a gap in leadership could be taken advantage of by the Chinese government.

“I think His Holiness feels the need to reassure people by basically letting them know that he is thinking about the succession,” Thupten Jinpa, his English translator of four decades, said in a phone interview from India last week.

Identified as a baby in 1937, the 14th Dalai Lama was formally recognized two years later. In addition to his role as spiritual leader, he served as temporal leader of Tibet starting in 1950, when he was 15 and China began annexing the region.

In 1959, when he was 23, the Dalai Lama and thousands of other Tibetans fled to India after a failed uprising against Communist rule, eventually settling in Dharamsala.

Since the 1970s, the goal of the movement has shifted from Tibetan independence to achieving genuine autonomy within China. In recent years the Dalai Lama has also stepped down from his political role, which is now a democratically elected position.

In March, the Dalai Lama said in a new book that his successor would be born in the “free world” outside China, so that the traditional mission of the Dalai Lama could continue. According to the Central Tibetan Administration, there are about 130,000 Tibetan exiles around the world, mostly in India and Nepal.

The Dalai Lama had previously said in 2011 that the institution of the Dalai Lama did not necessarily have to continue at all, and that he would leave it up to the Tibetan Buddhist community.

Since then he has received appeals from a variety of constituencies, and the “unanimous” response, Jinpa said, has been that there should be a 15th Dalai Lama.

“For the Tibetan people, his name has come to symbolize the nation,” said Jinpa, who has assisted the Dalai Lama with a number of books including the recent “Voice for the Voiceless.”

There is also concern that if they don’t select a new Dalai Lama, China could name one who goes unchallenged.

“Sadly, the PRC government probably will want to play a role, just as it inserted itself in the process of the recognition of the Panchen Lama,” Jinpa said, referring to the second-highest spiritual leader in Tibetan Buddhism.

In 1995, the Dalai Lama recognized a 6-year-old boy in Tibet as the 11th Panchen Lama, after the previous one died six years earlier. The boy was forcibly disappeared by the Chinese government three days later, rights groups say, and has not been seen in public since.

China then chose its own Panchen Lama, imposing him on the six million people in Tibet.

The Tibetan government-in-exile does not recognize the Beijing-appointed Panchen Lama, who rarely appears in public but pledged loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party in a closed-door meeting last month with President Xi Jinping, state media reported.

If Beijing also tries to name a Dalai Lama, “Tibetans would not be surprised,” Jinpa said. “They would be disappointed and annoyed, but I don’t think they would be surprised.”

The Chinese government says Tibet has prospered under its rule, and that it has improved infrastructure and social conditions and promoted economic development. It says the Dalai Lama is “a political exile engaged in separatist activities under the guise of religion,” and that the reincarnation of Tibetan lamas should be controlled by Beijing.

Reincarnation “must comply with Chinese laws and regulations” and “follow the process that consists of search and identification in China, lot-drawing from a golden urn, and central government approval,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in March.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law an overhaul of California’s landmark environmental protection rules that he says is essential to address the state’s critical housing shortage and long-running homeless crisis.

The Democratic governor widely seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate called the two-bill package a historic reshaping of environmental rules that, while initially well intentioned, too often resulted in tangles of litigation and costly delays that strangled much-needed development.

Newsom said the bills, which he signed Monday night, represent the most consequential housing reform in recent California history.

“We have too much demand chasing too little supply,” Newsom said at a news conference. “So many of the challenges that ail us can be connected back to this issue.”

Once known for stratospheric growth, it is possible the nation’s most populous state could lose a handful of U.S. House seats in the 2030 census because population has been shifting to states like Texas and Florida, where the cost of living is more affordable.

And with about 18 months left in office, the term-limited Newsom is also looking to bolster his legacy by attempting to tackle one of the state’s most intractable problems — soaring rents and home prices that are out of reach for many middle-class families. When first seeking the governorship, Newsom said he wanted to end California’s housing shortage by building millions of new homes, a goal the state appears unlikely to reach by the time he leaves office in January 2027.

It was difficult to predict how much activity would follow.

“I think the increase will be incremental rather than a boom,” said planning expert Bill Fulton, former mayor in Ventura and director of planning and economic development in San Diego. He noted in an email that many other factors come into play, including financing from lenders, the cost of construction materials and the availability of workers.

With the race to succeed him underway, Republicans have faulted Newsom and the Legislature’s dominant Democrats for doing little to control costs for everything from utilities to housing.

With a dire housing shortage, Newsom said nothing less than trust in government was on the line — the ability to produce results. It’s about “the reputation of the state of California,” he said.

Newsom had threatened to reject the state budget passed last Friday unless lawmakers overhauled the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, a 1970s law that requires strict examination of any new development for its impact on the environment.

The governor and housing advocates maintain that CEQA put up bureaucratic roadblocks that have made it increasingly difficult to build housing in the state of 39 million.

Lawmakers passed the transformative measure despite opposition from environmental groups.

Jakob Evans, a senior policy strategist for Sierra Club California, said in a statement that “these half-baked bills written behind closed doors will have destructive consequences for environmental justice communities and endangered species across California.”

Newsom called it a step toward solving the state’s housing affordability problem.

“This was too urgent, too important, to allow the process to unfold as it has for the last generation,” he said after signing the bill.

Earlier this year, Newsom waived some CEQA rules for victims of wildfires in Southern California, creating an opening for the state to reexamine the law that critics say hampers development and drives up building costs.

The state budget passed last week pares back a number of progressive priorities, including a landmark health care expansion for low-income adult immigrants without legal status, to close a $12 billion deficit.

There was no evidence of the onetime rivalry between President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday as they came together in a common cause: opening an immigrant detention center in the swampy heart of Florida.

Trump and his top deputies visited the Everglades, where Florida officials delivered a win for his anti-immigration agenda and positioned the state at the forefront of his crackdown.

The facility, which Republican leaders dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” is set to house 3,000 detainees and took just eight days to construct.

“It might be as good as the real Alcatraz,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. “It’s a little controversial, but I couldn’t care less.”

The push behind “Alligator Alcatraz” is not only to keep Florida aligned with Trump on immigration but also to reposition some of the state’s biggest Republican players politically. DeSantis, for instance, fought vocally with Trump during the 2024 presidential primaries; during the visit Tuesday, however, he and Trump praised each other.

“You are my friend, and you’ll always be my friend, and we may have some skirmishes, even in the future. I doubt it, but I will always come back, because we have blood that seems to match pretty well,” Trump said.

“I think it is a 10,” Trump added of their relationship. “Maybe a 9.9. … We get along great.”

DeSantis, unprompted, quickly chimed in with a reminder that he endorsed Trump as soon as he exited the presidential race in early 2024.

“The thing about it is, I endorsed him,” DeSantis said. “Raised one of his PACs millions and millions of dollars.”

Trump and DeSantis, along with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, toured the facility in a made-for-TV presentation of the opening of what is one of the largest immigrant detention facilities in the country.

A number of the media outlets on the tour were Trump-friendly organizations, who asked questions that praised him or allowed him to hype his agenda.

One reporter asked him to weigh in on the “disastrous handling of the border” by President Joe Biden’s administration, while another had him comment on how his “beloved New York City may well be led by a communist soon.”

“What’s your message to Gov. Gavin Newsom?” right-wing YouTube personality Benny Johnson asked.

Trump responded that the “first thing” Newsom, the governor of California and a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, should do “is come here and learn something.”

The political undertones of the event were hard to ignore. Among those Trump invited to attend was Rep. Byron Donalds, a Florida Republican running for governor in 2026. At the same time, DeSantis’ wife, Casey DeSantis, continues to consider a competing run for governor.

During a roundtable discussion Tuesday, Donalds — sitting just a couple of feet from DeSantis — said he “commended” him for his work to combat illegal immigration. The moment represented political foes’ setting aside their feud, at least for the day.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a close DeSantis ally, hatched the idea for Alligator Alcatraz last month, but it got national traction when DeSantis did a live tour of the facility Friday on “Fox and Friends,” which caught the Trump administration off-guard.

Noem and top adviser Corey Lewandowski supported the facility but wanted the opening Tuesday to be the formal public rollout, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.

“DeSantis upset Noem and Lewandowski with his Fox News tour of the detention site,” a Republican operative familiar with the process said. “Noem wanted an event for Tuesday and didn’t want anyone having eyes on the site and needed to push until Tuesday because she was traveling.”

The Republican operative said Noem’s staff asked DeSantis not to do the Fox News tour.

“The DHS team asked DeSantis not to do his Friday event,” the person added. “DeSantis did what was best for DeSantis and got out in front…angering both Noem and Lewandowski.”

Another source familiar with the matter said the ire did not stem directly from the White House but from Lewandowski.

“He lost his s—,” the person said.

Lewandowski and DeSantis’ political team did not respond to requests for comment. The White House called the assertion “fake news.”

“Leave it to the Fake News NBC to write about baseless gossip following a hugely successful event with President Trump, Secretary Noem and Governor DeSantis at Alligator Alcatraz,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement. “Here’s the real story that the state-of-the-art facility will play an important role in fulfilling the President’s promise to keep Americans safe and deport criminal illegal aliens.”

“The President is grateful to work with both Secretary Noem and Governor DeSantis on this project,” she added.

Still, the event signaled that DeSantis was publicly rekindling his relationship with Trump, and to some degree it was seen as a boon for his attempt to again regain national political footing for a potential presidential campaign in 2028, even as Vice President JD Vance is widely seen as the current front-runner.

“No one thought Trump would so closely embrace DeSantis today,” said a longtime Florida operative who was at the event. “We didn’t think he would try to undercut him or insult him, but Trump was over the top in his praise today. I don’t know what that means, but it was a good day for Ron DeSantis.”

The Everglades facility has given DeSantis and the state’s Republican leaders, including Uthmeier, a boost to their fundraising efforts, even as Democrats have decried the effort as cruel to those accused of being in the country illegally.

“‘Alligator Alcatraz’ is a callous political stunt,” said David Jolly, a former Republican member of Congress who is running for governor as a Democrat in 2026. “Florida’s most pressing challenge is the housing affordability crisis created by Republican leaders, not immigrants working to support our state’s economy.”

Since the announcement of the facility, there have also been protests — including one Tuesday for the opening — and a lawsuit filed by environmental groups concerned over the impact it could have on the Everglades.

The facility was made possible by DeSantis’ using emergency powers he enacted in 2023. The state built what amounts to a tent city, hiring a dozen vendors and seizing land from Miami-Dade County over local leaders’ objections. The facility is housed on a little-used airstrip that includes a runway that DeSantis said can be used to quickly fly undocumented immigrants to third countries if deportation is deemed appropriate.

The students were found dead in a home roughly a half-block from campus. Authorities tied Kohberger to the murders through cellphone data, security camera video and DNA on a knife sheath discovered at the scene.

Prosecutors had been pursuing the death penalty.

According to Goncalves’ family, the Latah County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office first mentioned the possibility of a plea deal Friday. They said they received an email two days later with the proposed agreement attached.

According to the Idaho Statesman, the letter — reportedly signed by Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson — says the apparent deal would secure Kohberger’s conviction and send him to prison for the rest of his life.

“This agreement ensures that the defendant will be convicted, will spend the rest of his life in prison, and will not be able to put you and the other families through the uncertainty of decades of post-conviction appeals,” the letter says, according to the newspaper.

NBC News has not seen the letter, and the prosecutor’s office has not confirmed its authenticity. A lawyer for the Goncalves family said “it appears there is a plea deal that has been offered and accepted.”

What do the families say about the apparent agreement?

The Goncalves family said they were “beyond furious” with the prosecutor’s office after they accused officials of failing to seek their input on the agreement.

After they received the proposed deal, the family said in a statement, they told the prosecutor’s office that they were a “HARD NO” and reiterated their position that authorities should seek the death penalty.

“After more than two years, this is how it concludes with a secretive deal and a hurried effort to close the case without any input from the victims’ families on the plea’s details,” they said in a statement Monday.

In an interview with NBC’s “TODAY” show, Steve Goncalves said the state of Idaho had “failed me” and “my whole family.”

A representative for Ethan Chapin’s family said they plan to attend Wednesday’s hearing in support of the agreement.

The families of Mogen and Kernodle did not respond to requests for comment. Kernodle’s aunt told TMZ that they wanted Kohberger to face a jury and that she hopes the judge delays any decisions related to Wednesday’s hearing.

In a statement, Kohberger’s family asked the media for privacy, respect and “responsible judgement.”

“We will continue to allow the legal process to unfold with respect to all parties, and will not release any comments or take any questions,” they said. “We ask that you respect our wishes during a difficult time for all those affected.”

When is the hearing?

The hearing, which will be livestreamed, is scheduled for 11 a.m. local time at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise.

Public seating is first-come, first-served, a court spokesperson said. A journalist from The Associated Press will act as a pool photographer.

A warehouse storing fireworks in California caught fire and exploded Tuesday, sending a fireball into the air, launching debris and causing pyrotechnics to detonate above the site, according to officials and video from the scene.

The Yolo County Sheriff’s Office said the warehouse, near the Esparto area northwest of Sacramento, exploded and was actively burning.

It was not immediately clear whether there were injuries.

“We urge everyone to avoid the area so that fire crews and emergency responders can safely do their work,” the sheriff’s office said on social media. “A one mile evacuation area has been placed around the scene.”

Firefighters responded to the area just before 6 p.m., NBC affiliate KCRA of Sacramento reported.

Helicopter video taken by KCRA showed fires at the facility, including at least one building ablaze, and fireworks launching into the air and detonating.

The video shows white smoke rushing from inside the building out through the roof before a large explosion and fireball, with many airbursts from fireworks.

The cause of the fire and explosion was unknown Tuesday night, the sheriff’s office said.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit said it was responding to the commercial and vegetation fire in Yolo County.

Esparto is a community of around 3,000 almost 30 miles northwest of Sacramento.

The explosion happened near the border between Esparto and Madison, which lies to the east, the sheriff’s office said.

LONDON — Rap-punk duo Bob Vylan on Tuesday rejected claims of antisemitism over onstage comments at the Glastonbury Festival that triggered a police investigation and sparked criticism from politicians, the BBC and festival organizers.

The band said in a statement that it was being “targeted for speaking up” about the war in Gaza.

Police are investigating whether a crime was committed when frontman Bob Vylan led the audience in chants of “Death to the IDF” — the Israel Defense Forces — during the band’s set at the festival in southwest England on Saturday.

The British government called the chants “appalling hate speech” and the BBC said it regretted livestreaming the “antisemitic sentiments.” U.S. authorities revoked the musicians’ visas.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has inflamed tensions around the world, triggering pro-Palestinian protests in many capitals and on college campuses. Israel and some supporters have described the protests as antisemitic, while critics say Israel uses such descriptions to silence opponents.

In a statement on Instagram, Bob Vylan said: “We are not for the death of jews, arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine. … A machine that has destroyed much of Gaza.”

Alleging that “we are a distraction from the story,” the duo added: “We are being targeted for speaking up.”

The BBC is under pressure to explain why it did not cut the feed of the performance after the anti-IDF chants. Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said “the airing of vile Jew-hatred” by the BBC was a moment of “national shame.”

“It should trouble all decent people that now, one need only couch their outright incitement to violence and hatred as edgy political commentary, for ordinary people to not only fail to see it for what it is, but also to cheer it, chant it and celebrate it,” he wrote on X.

Avon and Somerset Police said it is investigating Bob Vylan’s performance, along with that by Irish-language hip-hop trio Kneecap, whose pro-Palestinian stance has also attracted controversy. Kneecap member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh has been charged under Britain’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London last year.

Since the war began in October 2023 with a Hamas attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people, Israel has killed more than 56,000 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

HAVANA, Cuba — The Cuban women’s national volleyball team was denied a chance to play in a tournament in Puerto Rico following the new visa restrictions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Cuban Volleyball Federation said last week that the team, comprising 12 athletes, a referee and several coaches, had their visa request denied and will be unable to attend the tournament later this month.

“The disappointment is huge because I train every day, every hour of training is leading up to this and dedicate myself to it,” national team player Laura Suarez told The Associated Press. “It’s really disappointing not to be able to participate in the competition, which is what I’ve been preparing myself for.

Cuba was scheduled to play in the NORCECA Women’s Final Four tournament in Manatí, Puerto Rico. The tournament includes Puerto Rico, Mexico and Costa Rica and it awards ranking points toward qualification for the Volleyball Nations League.

“We were focused on the competition because it’s right there,” said Dayana Martínez, another player. “Arriving at the embassy and being denied the visa affects us a lot because that competition gives us points to improve our ranking,”

The Cuban team’s coach, Wilfredo Robinson, said the decision means his team is likely to miss out on the Nations League.

“The competition grants points for each match and at the end it all adds up,” Robinson said. “In September, we have another tournament and if we get there needing to achieve 80 or 100 points we are not going to be able to do it.”

The United States added Cuba to a list of 12 countries with restrictions for entering the U.S. or its territories, effective from early June. It includes nationals from Afghanistan, the Republic of Congo, Iran, Venezuela and other nations.

“Denial of visas is part of a racist and xenophobic list of visa restrictions,” Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez wrote on his X account.

In a message sent to The Associated Press, the U.S. Embassy in Cuba stated that, according to its privacy policies, it could not comment on specific cases but that directives were being implemented to secure the borders and protect U.S. communities and citizens.

The Cuban women’s national team won back-to-back world championships in 1994 and 1998. It also won three Olympic golds in a row in Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000.

The U.S. measures are likely to impact many more Cuban athletes who depend on international competitions, including some on American soil to qualify for major championships and the next Olympics scheduled to be played in Los Angeles in 2028.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Israel has “agreed to the necessary conditions” to finalize a cease-fire deal in the Israel-Hamas war.

“My Representatives had a long and productive meeting with the Israelis today on Gaza. Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to finalize the 60 Day CEASEFIRE, during which time we will work with all parties to end the War,” Trump said on Truth Social.

“The Qataris and Egyptians, who have worked very hard to help bring Peace, will deliver this final proposal,” he added. “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.”

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The Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Hamas has yet to weigh in on Trump’s announcement.

The president’s post comes ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House, scheduled for Monday.

Warning: This article contains some spoilers from season three of Netflix’s “Squid Game.”

The final episodes of Netflix’s “Squid Game” Season 3 push the dystopian series into darker moral territory, with one of its most emotional arcs centered on Player 222, a pregnant woman forced to fight for her life and that of her unborn child.

Player 222, Kim Jun-hee (played by Jo Yu-ri), is introduced as a quiet but resilient contestant.

Viewers soon learn she was lured into the game after being conned by her ex-boyfriend, Player 333, Lee Myung-gi (Im Si-wan), who tricked her into investing in a cryptocurrency scam that leaves her in debt.

Here’s what to know about her fate, and her child’s.

What happens to Player 222 in the games?

In a pivotal hide-and-seek challenge, Jun-hee breaks her ankle and goes into labor.

With help from Player 149, Jang Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim), a former nurse, and Player 120, Cho Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon), the show’s first transgender character, she gives birth while hiding from guards and other competitors.

Injured and exhausted, Jun-hee fights to continue but ultimately realizes she cannot survive the next round.

In a heartbreaking moment, she says goodbye to her friend Seong Gi-hun (Player 456, played by Lee Jung-jae) and willingly falls to her death, entrusting her newborn to him.

In a grim twist, the game’s creators assign the baby her mother’s number, officially making the infant the new Player 222.

What happens to Player 222, the baby?

By the final game, only three players remain: Gi-hun, Myung-gi and the baby, who is Myung-gi’s child.

During the “Sky Squid” challenge, Myung-gi attempts to take the child, but falls to his death after Gi-hun’s coat tears under his weight.

But there’s a catch: Myung-gi’s death occurred before the round officially began. The game cannot end until one more player dies. Gi-hun faces an impossible choice — kill himself, or kill the baby.

Honoring his promise to Jun-hee, Gi-hun chooses to leap to his death, saving the child. Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun), better known as Front Man, takes the baby.

Where does the baby end up?

The show picks up six months later. Detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) receives a package: the infant, along with a debit card and a note that reads, “The winner.” The final image shows the newborn cradled in Jun-ho’s arms.

“Squid Game” creator Hwang Dong-hyuk told Netflix’s press site Tudum, “Ultimately, the baby represents the future generation.”

“I believe we also have the responsibility and duty to try everything that we can in our power to leave a better world for the future generation.” he continued. “The baby coming out the winner was in line with the meaning of ‘Squid Game’.”

So, is the baby real or CGI?

The question on every “Squid Game” viewer’s mind: Is the baby real?

Lee Jung-Jae clarified to Variety that a robotic doll was used.

“The robot had actual facial expressions. It would wiggle like a newborn baby, and the weight was quite realistic. So that helped me a lot with my performance,” Lee said.