As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for his third visit to the White House this year, his host has made his expectations clear. US President Donald Trump, who has spoken often about his desire to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, said on Tuesday: “We’re looking for it to happen next week.”

Though the two leaders will celebrate the US and Israeli strikes in Iran, Gaza is very much on their agenda. “We want to get the hostages back,” Trump said.

Netanyahu, who is set to meet the US president on Monday, faces a critical decision at the crossroads of two very different conflicts: one precise and short, the other brutal and protracted. The long-time Israeli leader held two high-level meetings on Gaza already this week and is expected to hold another on Thursday, according to an Israeli official.

But the government has yet to decide on how to proceed in Gaza, a source familiar with the discussions said. That choice boils down to whether to pursue a ceasefire agreement or to intensify a military bombardment of the enclave that has already killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, as Israel tries to increase pressure on Hamas.

Earlier this week, the Israeli military recommended pursuing a diplomatic path in the strip after more than 20 months of fighting and the elimination of much of Hamas’ senior leadership.

“It’s harder now to achieve tactical goals,” the official said. The military could keep pursuing the destruction of Hamas’ military and governance capabilities, they added, but a political agreement could also be effective.

The far-right members of Netanyahu’s government are demanding an intensification of Israel’s campaign.

“No agreements. No partners. No mediators. Only a clear outcome: the destruction of Hamas and the return of the hostages from a position of strength,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the Religious Zionism party, on Monday.

But after almost two years of war, others have made clear that the release of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza is the priority.

“In my opinion, everything must be done to release the hostages. And we are over 600 days late. Everything must be done to bring everyone back – the living and the fallen. Not out of weakness – out of strength,” Minister of Welfare Ya’akov Margi said on Israel’s religious Kol B’ramah radio. Pressed on whether that includes an end to the war, Margi said, “I think we should enter negotiations, and everything should be on the table.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) already controls some 60% of Gaza’s besieged territory, forcing more than two million Palestinians – many of whom have been displaced several times – into shrinking areas near the coast. But negotiations have been stalled for weeks, unable to bridge a key gap. Hamas demands a permanent end to the conflict as part of any ceasefire agreement, while Israel has refused to commit to end the war.

“The IDF has reached the limit of what you can achieve with power,” said Israel Ziv, a retired major general who once led the military’s operations department. “Netanyahu has reached a crossroads, and he must make a choice,” he added.

One path is to leverage the achievements against Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas and push for a regional agreement that could include upgrading relations with Syria and Lebanon, Ziv said. Such an option would end the war in Gaza and secure the release of the hostages, but it risks collapsing Netanyahu’s government if the far-right parties quit the coalition.

“The second path is continuing the war – and even if it’s not officially declared, it would mean the conquest of Gaza,” said Ziv.

Over the weekend, Netanyahu said “many opportunities have opened up” following Israel’s military operations in Iran, including the possibility of bringing home everyone still held captive by Hamas. “Firstly, to rescue the hostages,” he said. “Of course, we will also need to solve the Gaza issue, defeat Hamas, but I believe we will accomplish both missions.”

The comments marked a potentially significant shift in how Netanyahu has laid out Israel’s goals in Gaza. For the vast majority of the war, he has prioritized the defeat of Hamas. In May, he said that was the “supreme objective,” not the return of the hostages.

But after the campaign against Iran, Netanyahu has signaled a newfound flexibility on negotiations, one that may quickly be put to the test at the White House as he meets an American president pushing for a deal.

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.

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, experts say.

“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.

Struggle over succession

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.”

Beijing has repeatedly said that the reincarnation of all Living Buddhas – or high-ranking lamas in Tibetan Buddhism – must comply with Chinese laws and regulations, with search and identification conducted in China and approved by the central government.

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.”

Australian airline Qantas says a data hack on Monday exposed the personal information of six million customers and it expects the amount stolen to be “significant.”

The hack penetrated a third-party customer service platform used by a Qantas contact center, the airline said in a statement on Wednesday. Six million customers have service records on the platform – with data including some of their names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flyer numbers.

However, the platform does not contain any customer credit card details, financial information or passport details, Qantas said.

After Qantas detected “unusual activity” on the platform, it took action and “contained” the system, it said. The statement said all Qantas systems are now secure, and there is no impact to the company’s operations or safety.

It’s not clear exactly how much data was stolen, “though we expect it to be significant,” the airline said. It is now working to support affected customers, and is cooperating with the Australian Cyber Security Centre, Australian Federal Police and independent cybersecurity experts on the investigation.

“We sincerely apologize to our customers and we recognize the uncertainty this will cause. Our customers trust us with their personal information and we take that responsibility seriously,” said Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson in the statement.

“We are contacting our customers today and our focus is on providing them with the necessary support.”

Qantas’ share price was down 3.5% in morning trading, against a 0.4% gain in the broader market, according to Reuters.

Australia has seen a series of major cyberattacks and company hacks in recent years. In 2019, a cyberattack targeted Australia’s ruling and opposition parties less than three months before a national election. Two years later, broadcaster Nine News suffered a cyberattack that forced a number of live shows off air – calling it the largest cyberattack on a media company in Australia’s history.

Most recently in 2022, cybercriminals in Russia conducted a ransomware attack on Medibank, one of Australia’s largest private health insurers. Sensitive personal data, including health claims information, was stolen from 9.7 million customers – some of which was then released onto the dark web.

Last year, Australia publicly named and imposed sanctions on a Russian national for his alleged role in the attack. He was an alleged member of the Russian ransomware gang REvil, which had previously launched large attacks on targets in the United States and elsewhere, before Russian authorities cracked down in 2022 and detained multiple people.