Israel struck “terror targets of the Hezbollah Aerial Unit (127)” in the southern suburb of Dahieh, Beirut, the Israel Defense Forces said, as large plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the Lebanese capital late on Thursday.

Lebanon’s state-run NNA news also reported strikes from Israeli drones, saying that a “series of warning strikes, numbering more than seven” had targeted the city’s southern suburbs.

The Israeli military had previously warned of a coming strike in the area, intended to target alleged “underground UAV production facilities” controlled by Hezbollah.

IDF Arabic Spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued an “urgent warning” via social media earlier on Thursday, urging residents of “Al-Hadath, Haret Hreik, and Burj Al-Barajneh,” neighborhoods to immediately evacuate buildings marked in red on attached maps and adjacent structures, and to stay at least “300 meters away” for safety.

A second “urgent warning” was issued by the Israeli military via a post on X accompanied by a satellite photo of Lebanon with highlighted zones they said showed the locations of Hezbollah sites. The warning urged residents to evacuate nearby buildings “immediately and stay at least 500 meters away from them.”

The announcement prompted widespread panic and evacuations, according to NNA. Social media video captured Thursday night showed dozens of cars leaving neighborhoods in the city’s south.

The strikes were carried out as Muslims in Lebanon prepared to celebrate Eid al-Adha, known as the Feast of Sacrifice, on Friday. Most Muslims in Lebanon usually celebrate the eve of Eid which fell on Thursday evening local time.

Israel previously struck the same neighborhood, a Hezbollah stronghold, in late March. A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon had been brokered in November 2024, but strikes on southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah militants and facilities have continued.

A sweeping new travel ban on citizens from a dozen nations was announced by the White House on Wednesday, reviving a defining effort from the first Trump administration to crack down on entries from specific countries.

Trump said in a video posted Wednesday that new countries could be added to the travel ban as “threats emerge around the world.”

The 12 countries targeted – plus seven more, which face partial restrictions – are mostly nations with frosty, adversarial or outwardly antagonistic relations with Washington. Many are either failed states or in the throes of repressive rule, and some are governed by groups that took control after years of US involvement in their affairs.

For all but four of the 19 countries hit with restrictions, the administration pointed to high rates of their nationals overstaying their visas after entering the US.

Visa overstays have received renewed scrutiny since the Boulder, Colorado, attack last weekend against a group campaigning in solidarity with the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. The suspect in that attack was originally from Egypt, which was not on Wednesday’s travel ban list. He obtained a two-year work authorization that expired in March, a Homeland Security (DHS) official said.

Seven countries were included because the administration deemed they pose a “high level of risk” to the US: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

The travel ban does not target existing visa or green card holders, and it also features carve-outs for some visa categories and for people whose entry serves US interests.

Its impact will vary greatly from country to country; some nations only receive a few hundred nonimmigrant visas per year, while others have seen hundreds of thousands of people enter the US in the past decade.

Seven African countries

Travel to the US has been fully restricted for citizens from Chad, Sudan, Libya, Eritrea, the Republic of Congo, Somalia and Equatorial Guinea. Meanwhile, a partial restriction has been imposed on nationals from Burundi, Togo and Sierra Leone.

The US does not issue a high number of visas to most of those countries – only a few hundred or a few thousand people per year were granted immigrant and nonimmigrant visas in 2023, according to State Department data.

The White House said Somalia had been identified as a “terrorist safe haven,” led by a government that lacks “command and control of its territory.” This year, the US carried out airstrikes in Somalia against ISIS and affiliated targets, in a joint counterterrorism effort with the nation.

Relations with Sudan have soured; last month, the Trump administration said it would impose sanctions on the military-led Sudanese government after finding that it used chemical weapons last year during its ongoing war with a rival military faction. The US has been unable to broker a ceasefire to end the conflict that has raged on for two years, leaving tens of thousands dead.

The White House has also had a frosty relationship with Chad, which demanded the removal of American troops from its territory last year, as well as with Eritrea, whose military the Biden administration accused in 2023 of committing war crimes during a conflict in northern Ethiopia.

Similar reprimands have been made by the US State Department against state and non-state actors in Libya, which it accused of committing crimes against humanity.

Chad had one of the highest rates of visa overstays of any country included in the ban; around half of the people admitted to the US from the central African nation overstayed their visa in the 2023 financial year, according to the DHS, though the numbers of Chadians granted such visas was relatively small. The White House said Wednesday that Chad’s overstay rate is “unacceptable and indicates a blatant disregard for U.S. immigration laws.”

The African Union Commission said in a Thursday statement it was “concerned” about the impact of bans “on people-to-people ties, educational exchange, commercial engagement, and the broader diplomatic relations that have been carefully nurtured over decades.”

“While recognising the sovereign right of all nations to protect their borders and ensure the security of their citizens, the African Union Commission respectfully appeals to the United States to exercise this right in a manner that is balanced, evidence-based, and reflective of the long-standing partnership between the United States and Africa,” its statement read.

Afghanistan, Iran and Yemen

The ban targeted three Middle Eastern adversaries with which the US has limited or no diplomatic ties.

The US does not formally recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s official government. The militant group reclaimed power in 2021 amid a chaotic and deadly withdrawal of US forces under the Biden administration. Afghans who helped the US government during Washington’s two-decade involvement in the country are exempt from the ban; they fall under a Special Immigrant Visa program that has allocated more than 50,000 visas since 2009.

The Trump administration targeted Yemen’s Houthi rebels with airstrikes for several weeks earlier this year, in response to the group attacking ships and disrupting trade routes in the Red Sea. The Houthis control much of western Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.

Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela

Haiti has been in the grips of violent unrest for years. Gangs control at least 85% of its capital, Port-au-Prince, and have launched attacks in the country’s central region in recent years. The violence has left more than one million Haitians internally displaced.

Two other Latin American nations – Cuba and Venezuela – also face restrictions, though Trump stopped short of implementing a full ban. The move comes a week after the Supreme Court allowed Trump’s administration to suspend a Biden-era humanitarian parole program that let half a million people from the two countries, plus Nicaragua, temporarily live and work in the US each year.

Trump in March revoked temporary humanitarian parole for about 300,000 Cubans, amid a record number of arrivals of migrants from the Caribbean island.

Of all the countries targeted, the new restrictions may impact Venezuelans the most. More than 55,000 people from Venezuela received nonimmigrant visas to enter the US in 2023, and nearly 800,000 Venezuelans in total were granted such visas over the preceding decade, according to the State Department.

Myanmar and Laos

The White House said both Laos and Myanmar, also known as Burma, have failed to co-operate with the US over the return of their nationals.

Myanmar’s ruling military junta has spent the past four years waging a brutal civil war across the Southeast Asian country, sending columns of troops on bloody rampages, torching and bombing villages, massacring residents, jailing opponents and forcing young men and women to join the army.

The junta is headed by a widely reviled army chief who overthrew the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and installed himself as leader, and the nation was thrown into further turmoil by a devastating earthquake in March.

The US and Laos meanwhile have a complicated history, hampered by the US bombing of the country during its war in Vietnam. But relations have improved dramatically this century, and the US-Laos partnership is one of the most stable and productive of all 19 countries targeted by Wednesday’s ban.

Egypt not included

Egypt was spared inclusion in the travel ban, even though the restrictions were expedited after an Egyptian national was charged with attempted murder after the Molotov cocktail attack in Boulder, Colorado.

Egypt has long been a key US partner in the Middle East. Relations between Cairo and Washington date back to 1922, when Egypt gained independence from the United Kingdom, and have continued ever since.

According to the US embassy in Egypt, some 450 Egyptians travel to the United States annually on professional and academic exchange programs.

The Arab nation has also historically been the second biggest recipient of US military aid, following Israel. Since 1978, the US has contributed more than $50 billion in military assistance to Egypt, according to the American embassy, though some of this aid has been occasionally withheld on account of the country’s human rights record.

“Egypt is a valued U.S. partner in counterterrorism, anti-trafficking, and regional security operations, which advance both U.S. and Egyptian security,” the US embassy said in 2023.

Friday marks 81 years since D-Day, the first day of the Normandy landings that laid the foundations for the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

The invasion – codenamed Operation Overlord – saw of tens of thousands of troops from countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada landing on five stretches of the coastline of Normandy, France – codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword beaches.

Planning for D-Day began more than a year in advance, and the Allies carried out substantial military deception to confuse the Germans as to when and where the invasion would take place.

When was D-Day?

The operation was originally scheduled to begin on June 5, 1944, when a full moon and low tides were expected to coincide with good weather, but storms forced a 24-hour delay. Allied divisions began landing on the five beaches at 6:30 a.m. on June 6.

What does D-Day stand for?

The term ‘D-Day’ was military code for the beginning of an important operation, with the first ‘D’ being short for ‘Day.’ This means that D-Day actually stands for ‘Day-Day.’

According to the Royal British Legion, the phrase ‘D-Day’ was used fairly often before the Allied invasion in June 1944. After this, however, the two became synonymous, and now D-Day is commonly understood to refer to the beginning of Operation Overlord.

Which Allied countries were involved?

D-Day saw unprecedented cooperation between international armed forces, with more than 2 million troops in the UK in preparation for the invasion, according to the Imperial War Museums (IWM).

Most of these troops were American, British and Canadian, the IWM reports, but troops also came from Australia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Poland to participate in Operation Overlord.

What preparations were made?

The Allied troops’ invasion was coordinated across air, land and sea, in what can be described as amphibious landings.

These were preceded by an extensive bombing campaign to damage German defenses, as well as the employment of deception tactics.

Operation Bodyguard was an umbrella term for the deception strategy leading up to the Allies’ invasion of Europe in June 1944. Operation Fortitude was a tactic under this umbrella specifically related to the Normandy invasion, and was intended to make Nazi Germany believe that the initial Normandy attacks were merely a diversion and that the true invasion would take place elsewhere.

According to the IWM, Fortitude North intended to trick the Germans into believing that the Allies would attack Norway, and Fortitude South was designed to convince the Germans that the Allies were going to invade Pas de Calais, a French department northeast of Normandy that is closer to the UK.

What happened on D-Day?

The US troops were assigned to Utah beach at the base of the Cotentin Peninsular and Omaha Beach at the northern end of the Normandy coast. The British subsequently landed on Gold Beach, followed by the Canadians at Juno, and finally the British at Sword, the easternmost point of the invasion.

By midnight, the troops had secured their beachheads and moved further inland from Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword.

However, not all the landings were successful; US forces suffered substantial losses at Omaha Beach, where strong currents forced many landing craft away from their intended positions, delaying and hampering the invasion strategy.

Heavy fire from German positions on the steep cliffs, which had not been effectively destroyed by Allied bombing before the invasion, also caused casualties.

How did the Germans try to defend themselves?

According to the IWM, Germany’s reaction to Operation Overlord was “slow and confused.”

Weather conditions on June 6 were still poor, many senior commanders were not at their posts, and Operation Fortitude convinced Adolf Hitler that the Normandy invasion was a feint before a bigger attack at Pas de Calais.

Germany’s air force was in action elsewhere, countering American bombing operations over Germany. Its navy ships were docked in ports or already destroyed by the Allies. This left only the German army to defend against Operation Overlord, according to the IWM.

On top of this, the success of Operation Fortitude meant that many army units were kept away from the Normandy battlefield until July, as an attack in Pas de Calais was still expected.

German troops manning coastal defenses “did as much as they could have been expected to,” the IWM says, before eventually being “silenced” and Allied units advanced inland.

How many people died on D-Day?

On D-Day alone, around 4,440 Allied troops were confirmed dead, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), with more than 5,800 troops wounded or missing.

Because Omaha Beach was the bloodiest landing beach, the US Army lost the most men in the amphibious landings. Some 2,500 American troops died in the beach assault and airborne operations on D-Day, according to the CWGC.

The precise number of German casualties on the day is unknown, but they are estimated to be between 4,000 and 9,000.

Who were the Bedford Boys?

Of the tens of thousands of troops that stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, 44 were soldiers, sailors and airmen from Bedford, Virginia, in the US.

Within minutes of reaching Omaha Beach, 16 of these men were killed and four were wounded. Another Bedford soldier was killed elsewhere on Omaha Beach, and three others were presumed killed in action, bringing Bedford’s D-Day fatality figure to 20 men.

According to the National D-Day Memorial Foundation, Bedford suffered the highest known per capita D-Day loss in the US.

What followed D-Day?

Despite securing a stronghold on the French coast on D-Day, the Allied forces faced the risk that German bombardment could push them back into the sea.

They needed to build up troop numbers and equipment in Normandy faster than the Germans, allowing for a continued invasion into mainland Europe.

The Allies used their air power to slow the German advance toward Normandy by blowing up bridges, railways and roads across the region. This allowed the Allies to gain total control of Normandy 77 days later and move on toward Paris, which they liberated in August 1944.

What impact did the operation have on the war?

The US Department of Defense calls D-Day the “successful beginning of the end of Hitler’s tyrannical regime.” The IWM calls it the “most significant victory of the Western Allies in the Second World War.”

By being able to get forces into Normandy, the Allies were able to begin their advance into northwest Europe. Though World War II lasted nearly another year in Europe, the success of Operation Overlord led to the liberation of France and allowed the Allies to fight the Germans in Nazi-occupied Europe.

The US’ National World War II Museum says that a good way to appreciate the significance of D-Day is to imagine what would have happened if the operation had failed. According to the museum, another landing would have not been possible for at least a year.

In this time, Hitler could have strengthened Nazi-occupied Europe’s coastal defenses, developed aircraft and weapons, bombed the UK even more heavily and continued his killing campaign, the museum says.

Fighting by the Allies on the western front and Russian soldiers on the eastern front eventually led to the defeat of the German Nazi forces.

On May 7, 1945, the German Third Reich signed an unconditional surrender at Reims, France. Victory in Europe (V-E) Day is celebrated the following day as that’s when the armistice went into effect.

North Korea says it has successfully refloated a new destroyer that capsized upon launch last month, with state media reporting the damaged vessel will be moved to a dry dock in a different shipyard for repairs.

“After restoring the balance of the destroyer early in June, the team moored it at the pier by safely conducting its end launching on Thursday afternoon,” a report from the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

A satellite photo taken by Planet Labs on June 5 showed the formerly stricken vessel righted and seemingly floating in water away from the pier where the disastrous launch took place.

The 5,000-ton destroyer is the country’s newest warship and was meant to be a triumph of North Korea’s ambitious naval modernization effort.

Instead, a malfunction in the launch mechanism on May 21 caused the stern to slide prematurely into the water, crushing parts of the hull and leaving the bow stranded on the shipway, KCNA reported at the time. A day later, state media reported the damage was not as bad as initially feared.

Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who witnessed the failed launch in the northeastern city of Chongjin, called it a “criminal act,” and the government quickly said it arrested four people it claims are responsible for the launch accident.

Kim ordered officials to swiftly repair the as-yet-unnamed ship before the late-June plenary session of the ruling Workers’ Party, calling it a matter of national honor.

KCNA reported Friday that Kim’s goal will be met.

“The next-stage elaborate restoration is to be carried out at the dry dock of the Rajin Dockyard for the period of 7-10 days,” KCNA reported, adding that Central Committee Secretary Jo Chun Ryong, who is leading the repair effort, said “the perfect restoration of the destroyer will be completed without fail” before the plenary meeting.

The quick action to refloat the ship surprised analysts, who, based on satellite images of the accident, thought the process would take much longer.

“Sheer manpower and – let’s face it – an innovative approach to righting the ship, delivered a solution in two weeks that people like me didn’t expect for four to six,” said analyst Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain.

The innovative approach apparently was using aerostatic balloons attached to the ship’s hull to help balance and refloat it, satellite imagery showed.

Damage to the hull was less severe than analysts expected when they saw what happened on May 21.

During the sideways launch, in which the ship was supposed to slide into the water laterally, the stern of the warship slipped into the water while the bow remained on land.

Analysts thought the stresses placed on the hull and keel during such an accident could have potentially led to its scrapping.

But “the hull damage must have been significantly less than estimated,” Schuster said.

Schuster said if North Korea can devote the same effort to internal repairs to the warship as it did to refloating it, it could be made ready for sea trials much sooner that he would have thought after the accident.

Internal spaces of the ship, as well as machinery and electronics, will have to be purged of sea water and dried salt in the repair process, he said.

“Nearly everything is doable if you are willing to commit the resources and have the human talent to employ it,” Schuster said.

Russian ballistic missiles and drones have been launched toward Ukraine from multiple directions, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram Friday.

Tkachenko accused Russia of hitting residential areas with the drone attack, saying a high-rise building the the Solomyansky district of Kyiv was damaged.

Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko also reported fires in the districts of Holosiivskyi and Darnytskyi of the Ukrainian capital.

Ukrainian air defense units have been activated in the Obolon area of Kyiv, Klitschko said on Telegram early Friday morning local time.

“The attack on the capital continues. Stay in shelters!” the mayor said.

The Russian missile attack on Ukraine comes days after Ukraine’s security service launched a series of daring, large-scale drone attacks deep inside Russia, striking airfields and hitting 41 Russian military aircraft.

On Tuesday, Ukraine also launched an attack on the Kerch Bridge, the only direct connection point between Russia and the annexed Crimean Peninsula, with 1,100 kilograms of explosives that had been planted underwater.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The fragile trade truce between the United States and China has, for now, been pulled back from the brink.

US President Donald Trump finally got his long-anticipated phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, during which the two agreed to resume trade talks that had stalled over accusations from each side that the other had reneged on previous promises.

Thursday’s 90-minute conversation brought a temporary reprieve from an escalating feud between the superpower rivals, but it offered no clear path toward resolving their deep-rooted divisions – especially over crucial supply chains that both sides consider vital to national security.

US officials accused China of backpedaling on its pledge made during May talks in Geneva to ease export restrictions on rare earth minerals critical to a wide range of industries. Beijing, meanwhile, has bristled at Washington’s moves to warn companies against using China’s most advanced AI chips, restrict chip design software sales to China and “aggressively revoke” Chinese student visas.

“After what happened during the past 10 days, I already call (the phone call) a win,” said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Washington-based Stimson Center think tank.

“Both sides acknowledge that this was a positive interaction, and the two leaders coming together can solve problems. It’s good for their strong man image and leadership credentials.”

While Trump had repeatedly expressed keenness for the call, including complimenting Xi’s toughness in a late-night social media post this week, Xi has taken his time in picking up the phone.

“The Chinese state is under significantly less pressure than its American counterpart in coming to the negotiating table,” said Brian Wong, an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong. “The Chinese leadership joined the call from a position of political strength, even whilst economic concerns are very much alive and real.”

Supply chain bottlenecks

Trump’s eagerness to talk – and his speediness in declaring that he had “straightened out” the dispute over rare earth exports with Xi – has once again demonstrated to the Chinese leader just how powerful his nation’s dominance in the sector is.

Since April, when China announced the export controls, the new system has disrupted the shipment of the minerals, raising alarms among officials and businesses alike in Europe and America.

In the Chinese readout, Xi insisted that China had “seriously and earnestly” complied with the agreement, even as US officials have repeatedly accused Beijing of slow-walking approvals for rare earth exports.

Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, noted that official rules dictate that applications for export licenses can take up to 45 working days to be approved.

“In principle, I can agree to export to you, but I can speed things up or slow them down. In reality, on a technical level, it also depends on the overall bilateral trade and economic atmosphere,” he said. “If the bilateral relationship is good, then I’ll go a bit faster; if not, I’ll slow down. But you can’t say I’m violating the agreement — I’m still following the standard procedures.”

While American businesses are likely to see more export licenses approved in the next couple of weeks, according to Wu, the export control regime is here to stay.

Zhiqun Zhu, director of the China Institute at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, put it more bluntly, calling China’s dominance on rare earths “one of the few cards” it holds in the trade war.

“Why would the US government expect China to give up the rare earth card to please the US if it treats China as the enemy?” he wrote in an article prior to the Trump-Xi call.

In the days leading up to the phone call, Chinese scholars have suggested that Beijing should use its leverage on rare earths to get Washington to ease its own export controls on cutting-edge chips. Unlike rare earths, China doesn’t dominate this industry at the highest levels, and it views any supply bottleneck on the US side as an obstacle to its technological development.

Following his conversation with Xi, Trump announced that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will join Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in the next round of trade talks.

That was noted by observers in both China and the US as a sign that US export controls may now be up for negotiation in a potential win for Beijing.

“The US Department of Commerce is responsible for export controls, which means that in the next stage, China-US negotiations will likely go beyond tariffs and also address issues such as export controls and entity sanctions,” Wu said.

During his first term in office, Trump lifted a ban on American companies doing business with Chinese telecom giant ZTE at Xi’s request to get a trade deal. But six years on, easing export controls on China will be a tough sell in Washington, where blocking Beijing’s access to advanced American technologies has become a rare bipartisan issue.

“Just having Lutnick there (in the trade talks) doesn’t mean that the US is going to make concessions on semiconductors,” Sun said.

She predicts more flare-ups of tensions down the road. “This ‘three steps forward two steps back’ is going to be the norm from now on. We’re not going to see a deal agreed without any drawbacks, and we’re going to see this repeating itself,” she added.

Different approaches

While the call signaled temporary relief, it also exposed stark differences in how the US and China approach their trade disputes: Trump tends to treat trade as a primary and standalone issue, whereas Beijing often views it in the context of broader bilateral relations.

Trump said in his Truth Social post that the hour-and-a-half conversation phone call was “focused almost entirely on TRADE,” while the Chinese readout singled out Xi’s stern warning on Taiwan – the reddest of lines for Beijing – and the issue of Chinese student visas.

The Chinese leader urged the US to “handle the Taiwan question with prudence” so that “‘Taiwan independence’ separatists” will not be able to “drag China and America into the dangerous terrain of confrontation and even conflict.”

The contrast strikes at the core of the gulf between China and the US, Wong said.

“Whilst Trump views the competition through primarily trade surplus/deficit terms, Xi views territorial integrity as … more important than the country’s economic interests,” he said.

From Beijing’s perspective, there are plenty of worrying signs. Last weekend, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Asian allies that China posed an “imminent” threat to Taiwan, a self-governing democracy Beijing views as its own and has vowed to take control of, by force if necessary.

Days before, Reuters had reported, citing US official sources, that Washington plans to ramp up weapon sales to Taipei to a level exceeding Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China’s intensifying military pressure.

Another issue of concern for Beijing is the fate of Chinese students in the US. Last week, Secretary of State Macro Rubio, a known China-hawk, announced a plan to “aggressively revoke” visas for Chinese students, a move that has caused widespread anxiety and anger in China.

The Chinese readout quoted Trump as saying that Chinese students are welcome in the US. Trump later told reporters in the Oval Office: “Chinese students are coming. No problem. No problem. It’s our honor to have them.”

Wu said the adjustment of the visa policy will be a test of Trump’s leadership. During their call, Xi told Trump that the two leaders should “take the helm and set the right course” for bilateral relations, saying it’s particularly important to steer clear of “various disturbances and disruptions.”

“This remark had a clear target – it implies that within Trump’s team, there are people trying to disrupt or undermine the bilateral relationship, so now it’s up to President Trump to show leadership,” Wu said.

A young Tibetan controversially appointed by China’s atheist Communist Party as the second-highest spiritual leader in Tibetan Buddhism has pledged to make the religion more Chinese.

Gyaltsen Norbu was installed by Beijing as the 11th Panchen Lama in 1995 in defiance of the religion’s highest authority the Dalai Lama, whose pick for the role — a six-year-old boy — has since vanished from public view. China has yet to reveal any information on the whereabouts of the missing boy.

The Beijing-appointed Panchen Lama is dismissed as an imposter by many Tibetans at home and in exile, but he is often quoted in China’s state-run media toeing the Communist Party’s line and praising its policies in Tibet.

In a rare meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday, Gyaltsen Norbu vowed to make his own contributions to promoting ethnic unity and systematically advancing “the sinicization of religion,” state news agency Xinhua reported.

The remarks refer to a sweeping campaign unleashed by Xi with an aim to purge religious faiths of foreign influence and align them more closely with traditional Chinese culture – and the authoritarian rule of the officially atheist Communist Party.

Gyaltsen Norbu also vowed to keep Xi’s teachings firmly in mind, resolutely support the party’s leadership and firmly safeguard national unity and ethnic solidarity, according to Xinhua.

He was told by Xi to carry forward the “patriotic and religious traditions” of Tibetan Buddhism and contribute to fostering “a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation,” Xinhua reported.

The meeting comes on the 30th year of the disappearance of the Dalai Lama appointed Panchen Lama.

Following the 1989 death of the 10th Panchen Lama, the second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama named Tibetan child Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as his colleague’s reincarnation.

But three days after he was chosen, according to the US government, Gedhun and his family were disappeared by the Communist Party, which then appointed an alternative Panchen Lama. Gedhun hasn’t been seen in public since.

In a statement marking that anniversary, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced Chinese authorities for “abducting” him and his family. He called on Beijing to immediately release Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and “stop persecuting Tibetans for their religious beliefs.”

In 2020, the Chinese government publicly acknowledged the fate of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima for the first time, describing him as “a college graduate with a job,” and that neither he nor his family wished to be disturbed in their “current normal lives.”

Meanwhile, Gyaltsen Norbu has occupied an increasingly high-profile role since becoming an adult, joining a top Chinese political body, often appearing at important events in Beijing and meeting large crowds in the Tibetan regions of China.

The contested appointment of the Panchen Lama is widely seen by experts and the Tibetan exile community as Beijing’s attempt to pave the way for the passing – and reincarnation – of the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile since fleeing to India following a failed Tibetan uprising against Communist Party rule in 1959.

For decades, the Dalai Lama has been a persistent thorn in Beijing’s side as he commanded the loyalty of many Tibetan people from exile and kept their struggle for greater autonomy alive on the world stage. Chinese officials have condemned the Nobel Peace Prize laureate as a “separatist” and a “wolf in monk’s robes.”

The Dalai Lama has said he will release details about his succession around his 90th birthday in July. In his latest book, “Voice for the Voiceless,” the Dalai Lama said his successor will be born in the “free world,” which he described as outside China.

Beijing has insisted it will choose his successor – as well as the reincarnation of all Tibetan Buddhist lamas, but the Dalai Lama and his supporters have said that any successor named by China would not be respected.