A woman in her 70s was killed Monday and 17 other people were injured in twin attacks in the central Israeli city of Raanana, according to hospitals treating the victims.

Israeli police said two suspects stole vehicles and ran over a number of people in the city north of Tel Aviv, in what it called a “suspected hit-and-run terror attack.”

The suspects, who were from the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank and were related to each other, have been detained, police said.

A hospital outside Tel Aviv said it was treating seven children injured in the attacks.

A 16-year-old boy who suffered a serious head injury was in surgery, and six other children aged between 10 and 16 were in “mild to moderate” condition, according to Dr. Ron Barnett, director of the department of emergency medicine at the Schneider Center for Pediatrics.

The attacks came the day after Israel’s war against Hamas passed the 100-day mark.

Without claiming responsibility, Hamas said the attacks were “a natural response to the occupation’s massacres and its continued aggression against our Palestinian people” and called for more attacks against Israel.

Police said sweeps were still being conducted in the area to ensure there were no further threats.

The French Foreign Ministry said two French citizens were among the injured.

“We strongly condemn the terrorist attack which left at least one dead and 17 injured, including several children, today in Raanana. Nothing justifies terrorism,” the statement said. “Two young compatriots are among the injured.”

Tensions have been heightened in the occupied West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7.

Israeli settlers or soldiers have killed at least 340 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said last month that 2023 was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the territory since it began keeping records in 2005.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

She was charged with “spreading propaganda” against the Islamic Republic regime, her family said.

The 51-year-old rights activist was awarded the Nobel in October for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.” That battle has come at a huge personal cost – Mohammadi has spent most of the past two decades in prison.

During her trial, she refused to attend court proceedings or participate in questioning, the family said.

On top of the extra 15 months in prison, the new sentence orders Mohammadi to “two years of exile outside Tehran and neighboring provinces,” according to her family.

Mohammadi was also given a two-year travel ban, “a two-year ban on membership in social-political groups, and a two-year ban on using a smartphone,” the statement added.

The latest sentencing is Mohammadi’s fifth conviction since 2021 and her third while incarcerated.

Mohammadi was already serving a sentence of ten years and nine months, accused of actions against national security and propaganda against the state. She was also sentenced to 154 lashes, a punishment rights groups believe has not been inflicted so far, along with restrictions on travel.

A ‘deceitful scheme against women’

Last August she was sentenced to an additional year in jail for her continued activism behind bars, after she gave a media interview and a statement about sexual assaults in prison, which she says have “significantly increased,” leading her to describe the abuse as now “systematic.”

Mohammadi’s new sentence comes shortly after two journalists were temporarily released on bail after being imprisoned in Iran following their coverage of the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, according to state-run media.

Convicted in October, journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi are currently awaiting a verdict on their appeals, according to Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA. The women were allowed to leave their Tehran jail on Sunday with a bail of 10 billion tomans each (nearly $200,000 each), IRNA reported. They are also banned from leaving the country, it said.

Hamedi and Mohammadi were arrested in late September 2022, after protests spread across Iran fueled by the death of 22-year-old Amini, who died while in the custody of Iran’s morality police after being arrested for allegedly wearing her headscarf improperly.

The Peregrine spacecraft — which launched last week on the first US mission to aim for a moon landing in over 50 years — is headed back toward Earth and expected to make a fiery reentry after a critical fuel leak dashed its lunar ambitions.

The failed moon landing attempt is a setback for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, program, which recruits private companies to help the space agency investigate the lunar surface as it aims to return humans to the moon later this decade.

Astrobotic Technology, the company that developed the Peregrine lander under a $108 million contract with NASA, revealed Sunday that it made the decision to dispose of the spacecraft by allowing it to disintegrate midair while plunging back toward Earth.

“While we believe it is possible for the spacecraft to operate for several more weeks and could potentially have raised the orbit to miss the Earth, we must take into consideration the anomalous state of the propulsion system and utilize the vehicle’s onboard capability to end the mission responsibly and safely,” according to an update posted to the Pittsburgh-based company’s website. “We do not believe Peregrine’s re-entry poses safety risks, and the spacecraft will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.”

The Peregrine vehicle’s impending demise comes after the spacecraft faced challenges while en route to the moon, including an “anomaly” that resulted in its solar-powered battery pointing away from the sun and the fuel leak that left the spacecraft without enough propellant to complete its planned mission to gently touch down on the lunar surface.

It’s not yet clear what caused the leak.

Astrobotic and NASA are expected to give further updates on the mission during a news conference at 12 p.m. ET on Thursday.

“It is a great honor to witness firsthand the heroic efforts of our mission control team overcoming enormous challenges to recover and operate the spacecraft,” said Astrobotic CEO John Thornton in a Sunday statement. “I look forward to sharing these, and more remarkable stories, after the mission concludes on January 18. This mission has already taught us so much and has given me great confidence that our next mission to the Moon will achieve a soft landing.”

Weighing disposal options

Astrobotic did have other options for disposing of the Peregrine lander.

The spacecraft could have been left to the cosmos, destined to spend eternity in the dark expanse. But the company said it decided against that route considering the “risk that our damaged spacecraft could cause a problem.” The Peregrine lander would essentially become a piece of uncontrolled garbage, capable of smashing into other objects in space, such as operational satellites.

The company may have also considered allowing the Peregrine vehicle to crash-land on the moon, as many spacecraft have done — intentionally and unintentionally — on lunar missions of years past.

When it returns to Earth, the vehicle will be obliterated as it smashes into the planet’s thick atmosphere at high speeds. The company said its decision to bring Peregrine back came after receiving “inputs from the space community and the U.S. Government on the most safe and responsible course of action.”

Critical errors

If Peregrine had reached the moon, it might have become the first US spacecraft to land on the lunar surface since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

But the company acknowledged just hours after its spacecraft launched on January 8 that a soft landing on the moon would not be possible.

Astrobotic then switched course — aiming to operate the vehicle as a satellite as its tanks were drained.

Peregrine’s fuel leak slowed in the days following its launch, leaving the spacecraft with the ability to limp along for thousands of miles.

For the vast majority of the mission, the Peregrine lander has been controlled solely by its attitude control thrusters, which are tiny engines mounted to the side of the lander and designed to maintain stability or make precision movements.

At one point, the company said it was able to briefly power on one of the spacecraft’s main engines, which are designed to give up to three bursts of power to push the Peregrine lander farther out toward the moon after reaching space.

But — because of the fuel leak — long, controlled burns of the main engines were impossible, Astrobotic said.

As of Monday, the company said the spacecraft was about 218,000 miles (351,000 kilometers) from Earth.

What Peregrine could and couldn’t accomplish

Astrobotic was able to power on some of the science instruments and other payloads on board the lander.

Two of NASA’s five payloads — the Neutron Spectrometer System and the Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer — were able to gather data on radiation levels in space, the space agency announced in a January 11 news release. While NASA had hoped to take those measurements on the lunar surface — where it’s planning to return astronauts later this decade — space agency officials indicated the data was still valuable.

The Peregrine lander was also able to activate a new sensor, developed by NASA, that was designed to help the spacecraft land on the moon. Called the Navigation Doppler Lidar, it uses lasers and the Doppler effect — which employs wave frequency to measure distance — to make precision navigations.

“Measurements and operations of the NASA-provided science instruments on board will provide valuable experience, technical knowledge, and scientific data to future CLPS lunar deliveries,” said Joel Kearns, the deputy associate administrator for exploration with NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, in a statement.

But at least one of NASA’s science instruments — the Laser Retroreflector Array — was not able to function. The LRA is a collection of eight prisms embedded in aluminum that can reflect lasers and relay precise locations. NASA engineers designed the array to become a permanent feature on the moon, helping other spacecraft orient their locations.

Likewise, an array of other payloads designed specifically to operate on the moon remain trapped aboard the Peregrine lander. They include a rover developed at Carnegie Mellon University and five tiny robots from the Mexican Space Agency that were designed to be catapulted onto the lunar surface.

The Peregrine spacecraft is also carrying various mementos, letters and even human remains that customers paid to fly on the mission.

He’s been known as the Crown Prince of Denmark since the age of three, but on Sunday, he left Copenhagen’s Christiansborg Palace as King Frederik X, sovereign of Europe’s oldest monarchy.

Denmark’s royal transition was sparked just weeks ago by the bombshell announcement from Queen Margrethe II on New Year’s Eve, when she revealed her intention to abdicate in early 2024. The news that Frederik’s hugely popular mother, the world’s only reigning queen, would relinquish the throne shocked Danes across the country.

Margrethe had become Europe’s longest-serving monarch on the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. The pair were known to be close, and it was widely assumed that the Danish head of state, like her distant cousin, viewed her role as a job for life.

However, it seems the 83-year-old has had a change of heart and stepped aside exactly 52 years to the day after she ascended the throne. So, who is Denmark’s new king and what kind of monarch will he be?

A rebellious teen

While the Danish monarchy stretches back more than 1,000 years, today its royals have a limited role under the country’s constitution. Danes are immensely proud of their royal family and monarchs play an important ambassadorial role.

Borup said Frederik will be “a different kind of king,” explaining that he is “very down to Earth and interested in sports whereas his mother is more culturally distinguished.” She added that “his main challenge might be his way with words,” as he is “not known to be great at freestyling in front of a crowd.”

Born in 1968, Frederik André Henrik Christian is the first child of Margrethe and her late husband, Prince Henrik, who died in 2018. His forename was chosen in line with the Danish royal custom of the male heir apparent being named either Frederik or Christian. His only sibling, Prince Joachim, was born in 1969.

Growing up in the public eye was not easy for the shy young royal. He received his primary education at Krebs’ Skole, an elite private school in Copenhagen, before going to boarding school in Normandy, France. Frederik was uncomfortable with the media attention and anxious about his destiny. By the early 1990s, many saw him as a “party prince” with a penchant for fast cars.

His time at Aarhus University helped rehabilitate his reputation and in 1995 he became the first Danish royal to gain a master’s degree. His political science studies included a year abroad, at Harvard, where he was enrolled under the pseudonym of Frederik Henriksen – a nod to his father.

While in the US, Frederik – who is also fluent in French, English and German – earned his diplomatic stripes serving at Denmark’s UN mission for several months in 1994. He was later posted to Paris for a year, as first secretary of the Danish embassy in 1998.

Accomplished athlete

Frederik has also undergone extensive military training in all three branches of the Danish military, most notably completing training in the navy’s elite Frogman Corps, where he was nicknamed “Pingo” (“Penguin”).

In addition to being a decorated military officer, he has shown himself to be an eager and extremely capable sportsman. Over the years, he has run multiple marathons – in Copenhagen, Paris and New York – and in 2013 he became the first royal to compete in an Ironman, finishing with a time of 10:45:32.

He was also a member of the International Olympic Committee between 2009 through 2021 and, in 2000, he took part in a four-month, 2,795-kilometer (1,737-mile) dog-sled expedition across northern Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.

Frederik also gained popularity at home through his Royal Run initiative. Launched in 2018 to mark his 50th birthday, the sporting challenge has since become one of the largest running events in the nation, with more than 80,000 participants every year.

Meanwhile, much like his British counterpart, King Charles III, the 55-year-old has also become a keen environmentalist. Since Copenhagen hosted the COP15 climate talks in 2009, he has been firmly engaged in highlighting the perils of climate change and promoting Denmark’s role in a greener future.

Danish royal experts say that while Frederik is popular with the public, he will face challenges upon his accession – which will see him become king and head of state of Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

“Crown Prince Frederik is a much more informal person than his mother,” said historian Lars Hovbakke Sørensen. “He needs in the future to appeal more also to Danes who are not interested in sport, by showing an interest for other issues, if he would like to keep the broad support for the monarchy.”

The former royal correspondent and author of “1015 Copenhagen K,” an unauthorized biography of the family, explained that “although he has said publicly for some years that he is now comfortable with his future role, deep down there is amongst many Danes still a lingering doubt and he needs to overcome that – no matter how popular he is.”

Chance encounter

Frederik put his bachelor days behind him when he met Australian sales executive Mary Elizabeth Donaldson. The pair met at a rowdy Sydney pub in 2000, while the crown prince was in Australia for the 2000 Summer Olympics. As the story goes, Mary didn’t realize she was being charmed that night by real-life royalty.

Four years later, the pair wed in a lavish ceremony at Copenhagen Cathedral before a congregation of kings, queens and honored guests and watched by millions around the world.

They now have four children: Christian, 18, who becomes Denmark’s new crown prince on his father’s accession, 16-year-old Isabella and 13-year-old twins, Vincent and Josephine. The couple have tried to give their children a more informal upbringing than Frederik had by sending them to regular state schools.

And ordinary Danes have also embraced Mary, who has been praised for her poise and commitment to social causes.

Villemann describes Mary as “the power behind Frederik” and describes her transition from commoner to beloved royal as “remarkable and impressive.”

The royal expert points to several of the future queen’s priorities over the years such as her work in mental health and tackling bullying and loneliness through her foundation. She explained: “I dare say that Mary has led the way for the likes of the Princess of Wales in choosing causes and spreading awareness in the way she has used her royal platform.”

According to Borup, Mary will be the “greatest asset for the monarchy” in the years ahead.

“She wasn’t born royal but you’d think she was. She carries herself with such grace and is an amazing representative for the nation of Denmark,” she said. “She’s known to always be well prepared, and she’s taken on some pretty substantial tasks, such as shining a light on domestic violence.

“When Mary and Frederik met in Australia, the story used to be that she was lucky to run into a fairytale prince. I think time has shown he was even luckier.”

Taiwan has lost another diplomatic ally to China just days after its presidential election in what Taipei said was both sudden and designed by Beijing to suppress the island’s “democratic achievements.”

The Pacific Island nation of Nauru on Monday announced it had severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan and established ties with China, a decision confirmed by Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry.

The move is the latest blow to Taiwan’s efforts to retain its dwindling number of diplomatic allies, and comes just two days after Taiwan’s voters defied China’s threats to elect a new president loathed by Beijing.

Lai Ching-te, the current vice president and a staunch defender of Taiwan’s distinct identity and sovereignty, won the presidential election on Saturday, handing the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) a historic third straight term.

Beijing had repeatedly warned Taiwan’s voters that his election would increase the risk of conflict.

China’s ruling Communist Party views Taiwan as its own territory, despite having never controlled it, and has ramped up diplomatic pressure on Taipei in recent years, including by poaching its allies.

During the DPP’s eight years in power, Taiwan has lost 10 diplomatic allies to China.

On Monday, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry condemned China in “the strongest possible terms” for Nauru’s diplomatic switch, which it said came at “a key moment” following the presidential election.

“China’s move is to suppress Taiwan’s democratic achievements,” Taiwan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tien Chung-kwang told reporters.

Tien added that the severance of ties was a “very sudden move” by the Nauru government, which had congratulated Lai’s presidential victory over the weekend.

Tien said Taiwan will immediately suspend all official interactions with Nauru “to defend national dignity,” including closing its embassy and asking the Pacific Island nation to close its embassy in Taiwan.

Tien also claimed that Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry had received information that Chinese officials had courted politicians in Nauru with offers of economic assistance.

He refused to put a figure on the alleged inducement, but said it was “beyond what we are able to assist our diplomatic allies with.”

In a regular news briefing Monday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson did not divulge whether Beijing had pledged financial aid to Nauru, but welcomed its move.

“It is Nauru’s right decision made on its own volition as an independent sovereign nation to announce its recognition of the one-China principle, its severance of ties with Taiwan and resumption of diplomatic relations with China after Taiwan’s election,” spokesperson Mao Ning said. “This also shows that the one-China principle is a general trend and the common aspiration of the people.”

This is the second time Nauru has severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The Pacific Island country first cut ties in 2002, followed by a resumption in 2005.

The Nauru government said its resumption of diplomatic relations with China was “in the best interests” of the country and its people.

“This means that the Republic of Nauru will no longer recognize the Republic of China (Taiwan) as a separate country but rather as an inalienable part of China’s territory, and will sever ‘diplomatic relations’ with Taiwan as of this day and no longer develop any official relations or official exchanges with Taiwan,” it said in a statement.

Nauru’s switch of allegiance leaves Taiwan with only 12 diplomatic allies, mostly small nations in the Pacific Ocean and Latin America, and the Vatican.

Nauru’s announcement came as an unofficial US delegation reaffirmed “rock solid” US support for Taiwan during a visit to the island to meet its current and incoming presidents.

Washington cut formal ties with Taiwan in 1979 after switching diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.

But since then, the US has maintained close unofficial ties with Taiwan and is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

Many other Western nations, including several in Europe, have also retained informal relations with Taipei in the guise of trade offices.

Analysts say these unofficial relationships with powerful Western nations are in many ways more consequential than the official diplomatic ties it maintains with a handful of smaller countries.

However, formal diplomatic relations allow those countries to advocate on behalf of Taiwan in international bodies that the island is locked out of, such as the United Nations.

The fairy-tale rise of an Australian sales executive to the upper ranks of European royalty was completed Sunday when Crown Princess Mary Elizabeth of Denmark became the country’s Queen Consort.

The final stretch of Mary’s path from Tasmania to the Danish throne was cleared on New Year’s Eve by the surprise abdication of Queen Margrethe II, who announced that she intended to step down.

It’s an exceedingly rare move in Denmark, where a monarch hasn’t abdicated since 1146 when King Eric III gave up the crown to join a monastery, according to the Royal House.

Margrethe’s eldest son, Crown Prince Frederik, took the throne as the new king, while his wife, Crown Princess Mary, became the world’s first Australian-born queen, a development that has delighted her supporters back home.

For many of Mary’s Australian admirers, it’s a fitting finale to a romance that famously began in a rowdy Sydney pub around the time of the Olympics in 2000.

As the story goes, the two locked eyes in the Slip Inn, considered an unlikely place to find a Danish royal, much less the origins of a couple who would later become Denmark’s future king and queen.

Millions watched the couple get married in 2004. Two decades later, their ascension to the throne captivated audiences worldwide – from Copenhagen to the Tasmanian capital of Hobart, where Mary was born.

Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff said in a statement that the state “could not be prouder of Crown Princess Mary.”

“With her demonstrated humility, grace and kindness I am sure Crown Princess Mary will be embraced as Queen alongside her husband, King Frederik, once proclaimed later this month,” Rockliff said.

“I look forward to watching the next generation, and Tasmania’s own-born Queen, lead Denmark’s future.”

A royal abdication

For the most part, Queen Margrethe’s New Year’s Eve speech covered the familiar territory of a monarch summing up the highs and lows of the year just passed.

She touched on the tragedy of war, of innocent lives lost in Gaza, the spread of antisemitism and the importance of Denmark’s support for Ukraine. She spoke about climate change, the challenges of artificial intelligence, and the pride she has in her grandson, Prince Christian, who has just turned 18.

Then the monarch turned to her own life and how recent successful back surgery had given her cause to think of the future. More specifically, she said she considered “whether now would be an appropriate time to pass on the responsibility to the next generation,” and she concluded that “now is the right time.”

“On 14th January, 2024 – 52 years after I succeeded my beloved father – I will step down as Queen of Denmark. I will hand over the throne to my son Crown Prince Frederik,” Margrethe said.

The announcement temporarily paused New Year’s celebrations in Denmark, as royal correspondents rushed to fill in the gaps.

“Nobody knew,” Kristian Ring-Hansen Holt told ABC breakfast television in Australia.

Juliet Rieden, editor-at-large for The Australian Women’s Weekly, said most Danes expected Margrethe to be in the job for life, much like Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, who ruled until her death in September 2022.

“I think she did it so her son, Crown Prince Frederik, didn’t have to do it in the early stages of his monarchy, so she could get it all out of the way and then he could start with a fresh slate,” Rieden said.

It also reflects the reasoning of a pragmatic monarch who wanted to present the royal family as offering value for money, led by two of their most popular members, Rieden said.

“The royal family is running at 82% popularity in Denmark – these are the sorts of figures politicians dream about,” said Rieden.

Denmark’s royals have a limited role under the country’s constitution, with power resting with parliament. Monarchs play an important ambassadorial role as well as signing off on new legislation.

A popular royal

Mary was born in 1972 to a Scottish mathematics professor and a British executive assistant. According to her official biography, she started her education in Houston, Texas before moving back to Hobart to attend school and university.

Mary’s introduction to the working world included stints as an advertising executive and travel around Europe before she landed a role with a Sydney-based property firm. It was there that she met Frederik, a young Danish prince who she’d later marry at Copenhagen Cathedral in a lavish ceremony televised worldwide.

Four children followed including Prince Christian, now next in line to the throne.

Aside from being praised for her poise and fashion sense, Mary has gained a following for her staunch commitment to social causes through The Mary Foundation, established in 2007.

“She’s a fierce advocate for the sexual rights of women and girls. She’s a fierce advocate for refugees. So she’s proved her worth as a serious role model and leader in Denmark, and I think Australia can be very proud of the sort of royal she has become,” said Rieden.

Trips home typically generate local headlines but not all have been welcome.

Late last year, media worldwide carried stories of Prince Frederik’s alleged romance with Mexican-born actress Genoveva Casanova.

Casanova issued a statement vehemently denying the claims and threatening legal action against Lecturas, the Spanish magazine that published images of them on a night out. The Royal House hasn’t commented.

“I think that that was probably an annoyance, one of those ‘never complain, never explain’ scenarios from the Danish royals,” said Rieden. “Nothing happened as far as they were concerned.”

When the new generation of Danish royals ascended the throne, there was little of the the pomp and pageantry that accompanied the coronation of Britain’s King Charles III last May.

Queen Margrethe abdicated at a meeting of Council of State, an advisory body for the monarchy, before the new king and queen appeared on the balcony of Christiansborg Palace with the Danish prime minister.

That is likely to increase interest in Mary in Australia, said Rieden, who added that putting the princess on the cover of The Australian Women’s Weekly magazine typically leads to higher sales.

“She’s a very, very popular cover star. So I think that popularity can only increase now she is to become a queen,” she said.

Life in the tiny oil-rich kingdom of Brunei came to a standstill Sunday for a grand royal wedding attended by heads of state and royals from Bhutan and Middle Eastern countries, the highlight of 10 days of celebrations.

The lavish ceremony saw Prince Abdul Mateen, the tenth child and fourth son of Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, wed his long-time partner, Yang Mulia Anisha Rosnah, the granddaughter of a royal adviser.

The couple exchanged vows at Istana Nurul Iman, the official residence of the sultan and the world’s largest residential palace – with 1,788 rooms, 257 bathrooms, and air-conditioned stables for 200 polo ponies.

A wedding procession through the streets of the capital Bandar Seri Begawan followed with crowds of supporters gathering for hours in scorching heat to catch a glimpse of the royal newlyweds.

Standing in the back of an open-top Rolls Royce, Mateen and his bride waved to the crowds as they were driven to their solemnization ceremony at a gold-domed mosque.

The 32-year-old prince, a British-trained and educated military officer in the Brunei Royal Armed Forces who’s sixth in line to his father’s throne, has become the modern face of Brunei’s royal family.

Once hailed by tabloids and magazines as one of Asia’s most eligible bachelors, Mateen has an active presence on Instagram where he shares personal photos with his 2.6 million followers. A post he made on December 31 announcing his engagement drew tens of thousands of likes and congratulatory comments.

According to media reports, his bride, Anisha, is said to be an entrepreneur who runs a tourism company and a silk clothing label.

The sultan and members of the Brunei royal family are known to live extravagant lifestyles and have thrown lavish parties – including legendary 50th birthday celebrations for the sultan in 1996 that cost an estimated $25 million and included a private concert by Michael Jackson and polo match with Britain’s then-Prince Charles.

10 days of celebration

The royal wedding celebrations began on January 7 with a traditional Muslim pre-wedding ceremony known as the Khatam Quran, which involves the bride reciting a complete reading of the Quran. The royal bride wore a white hijab and traditional Malay wedding dress, a white Baju Kurung, which was designed by Malaysian designer Teh Firdaus, who shared photos of it on Instagram.

The official Islamic solemnization ceremony took place on January 11.

At another traditional ceremony called the Berbedak Pengantin Diraja or “powdering ceremony” – which began with an indoor parade of spear carriers – the couple arrived separately in bright red Malay wedding suits. They were blessed by members of their families who applied colored powder to their hands – a ritual symbolizing blessings for fertility and wealth.

Celebrations reached a high on Sunday with the formal wedding, as the prince, dressed in a ceremonial military uniform, walked down the aisle with his new bride, who wore a diamond tiara and traditional white wedding gown adorned with jewels.

The ceremony, drawn from Brunei’s centuries-old history as an Islamic monarchy, was attended by royals from Bhutan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, as well as leaders from neighboring countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong shared several photographs of the festivities on social media, writing: “Weddings are joyous occasions. To Their Majesties Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Queen Raja Isteri, our warmest congratulations on this happy occasion.”

Nation of vast wealth

Brunei is a tiny nation located on the Southeast Asian island of Borneo, which it shares with Malaysia and Indonesia.

The country, which gained independence from Britain in 1984, has a population of less than 500,000 but is one of the world’s richest states due its massive wealth derived almost entirely from oil and gas reserves.

Its ruling royal family, the House of Bolkiah, is headed by Mateen’s father, Hassanal, the world’s longest-reigning monarch.

The sultan also heads the government as Prime Minister and holds several cabinet portfolios including Minister of Defense, commanding Brunei’s military as well as finance and foreign affairs.

The country enforces strict rules like alcohol bans. Homosexuality, even if consensual, is outlawed. Like its Muslim-majority neighbors Malaysia and Indonesia, which have seen a rise in conservative Islam in recent times, Brunei has adopted strict Islamic laws punishing homosexuality and adultery.

In 2019, the sultan came under fire from governments and human rights groups around the world for introducing the Sharia Penal Code, which included death by stoning and the amputation of limbs for theft.

Farmers across Germany have been bringing major roads to a standstill in protests in recent days, piling misery on Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition amid fury over subsidy cuts.

The protests are expected to reach new heights on Monday, with a crowd of over 10,000 people and their tractors set to descend on the capital in a rally organized in conjunction with the German freight industry.

Multiple other protests are planned across the country, which come as official data showed Germany’s economy shrank last year for the first time since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now, many are warning that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is capitalizing on the chaos for its own political gain.

In the shadow of Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate, a convoy of up to 500 tractors lined up every day last week in freezing pre-dawn temperatures.

To keep themselves warm, farmers lit fires and drank hot mugs of tea and coffee.

Major road blockages have stretched across cities from east to west including Hamburg, Cologne, Bremen, Nuremberg and Munich – with up to 2,000 tractors registered for each protest. Images showed convoys of tractors and trucks, some with protest banners, blocking German roads from the early-morning hours.

Outside cities, Germany’s fast-moving motorways have also been targeted by protesters, severely disrupting the flow of traffic.

Farmers are enraged about government austerity plans, which would cut tax breaks for agriculture. Many have warned they will be driven out of business.

“I am here to protest for a new election in this country, because we are in difficulties with our government. They don’t hear us, they make regulations that harm every one of us, not only the farmers but everyone in this country. And we think enough is enough.”

Steven, a farmer from Western Pomerania who did not give his last name, said: “All the farmers standing here are worried about their livelihoods, about the livelihoods of farmers… This will only stop if the government resigns and there are other solutions.”

Scholz’s government sparked a backlash in December when it made unexpected changes to a 2024 budget draft, modifying some of its planned subsidy cuts on January 4. Farmers say this doesn’t go far enough, however, and are calling for a complete reversal.

Germany’s AfD party has increasingly made its presence felt at this week’s demonstrations.

Some of the tractors have been adorned with AfD posters, reading “Our farmers first” and “Germany needs new elections.” Far-right supporters wearing AfD vests could also be seen standing next to the vehicles.

On social media, the AfD’s official Facebook page has been reposting images from the protests and writing messages of solidarity with the demonstrators.

“Supporting democratic protests like this against traffic light madness will continue to be a concern of our hearts,” one post reads.

“We will stay with you on the road, so that a policy for tax breaks, for supporting our agriculture and for the interests of our own citizens is finally made. The traffic light will soon be standing all alone.”

The “traffic light” is a reference to Scholz’s coalition government – an allusion to the colors of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens it is comprised of.

On his personal Facebook page, the controversial leader of the AfD in the Eastern German state of Thuringia, Björn Höcke, launched an appeal: “Fellow citizens, we will see you on the roads!”. The far-right politician is classified an extremist by Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

Other images shared on social media showed members of right-wing extremist groups including The Homeland and Third Way, as well as the AfD, attending a rally in Berlin. In Dresden, a video showed people with flags from the right-wing Free Saxony party clashing with police.

Scholz, meanwhile, failed to address the nationwide demonstrations the entire week. While attending a ceremonial commissioning of a new Deutsche Bahn maintenance depot – Germany’s main rail operator – in the city of Cottbus on Thursday, the Chancellor was met with angry protesters.

He refused to engage with them and did not directly address the unrest in a speech he gave at the event – a move which has caused further outrage among farmers who don’t believe their voice is being heard by the federal government.

Polarization using existing rifts

For Johannes Kiess, a sociologist specializing in right-wing extremism at the University of Leipzig in eastern Germany, the AfD’s involvement in the unrest doesn’t come as a surprise.

He points out that although the AfD’s own manifesto does not support the interests of Germany’s farmers, the far-right party has a history of exploiting division.

“To this end, it tries to increase the polarization using existing cleavages like rural versus urban.”

He continues: “The AfD used the Eurozone crisis as a window of opportunity to get started in the first place. Activists from the far-right were literally waiting for such an opportunity and with the so-called refugee crisis in 2015 they got a second crisis that helped them grow considerably.

“Migration is known as the bread-and-butter-issue for the far-right. Since then, the AfD has indeed used every crisis to fuel polarization, for example the pandemic, the war against Ukraine. Sometimes it works well, sometimes not.”

According to Kiess, the AfD has a clear market-liberal stance advocating for the abolishment of all kinds of subsidies, including those for farmers, directly flying in the face of what the farmers are protesting for.

“And they are against climate friendly subsidies in particular, which could help farmers transform their businesses to make them environmentally and economically more sustainable.

“In fact, the AfD along with the CDU and the governing coalition even voted for the abolishment of the subsidies in question.”

The AfD, which has recently enjoyed record-high polling, is hoping for major gains in three eastern state elections this year – Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg. Polling data released on Thursday put the party comfortably ahead of its rivals in all three states.

While the regional elections do not directly affect federal politics, they could send a worrying signal to Scholz’s SPD-led government ahead of next year’s general election.

Far-right coup fantasies

German ministers and a domestic intelligence chief have warned how right-wing extremists could try to exploit the farmers’ protests.

Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who experienced the farmers’ anger first-hand when a group of protesters tried to storm the ferry he was disembarking last week, has spoken of the far-right’s “coup fantasies.”

“Calls with coup fantasies are circulating. Extremist groups are forming and nationalist symbols are being openly displayed,” Habeck told reporters on Monday.

“It is becoming clear that something has slipped in recent years, which has taken the boundaries off legitimate democratic protest.”

“And above all, we have seen that the Alternative for Germany in Thuringia, which has been classified as right-wing extremist in Thuringia since 2021, has also very specifically declared its solidarity with the farmers and called for corresponding protest marches.”

Kramer added that the farmers’ associations themselves have distanced themselves from the far-right. “They have made it very clear that they want nothing to do with them and that they are fighting for their own interests and concerns and do not want to be co-opted by the right-wing extremists.”

Similarly, Kiess said that although farmers in Germany tend to be conservative-leaning, the majority do not support the far-right.

“As in all segments of the population, there is also support of the AfD among farmers. However, farmers are known to vote disproportionally more for the conservative CDU/CSU [Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union].

“The current frustration with politics in general, not just the current government and subsidies for farmers, poses the risk of farmers becoming more susceptible to the far-right as they feed on the anti-establishment theme,” he said.

Nadine Schmidt and Claudia Otto reported from Berlin and Sophie Tanno reported from and wrote in London.

More than four years after Costco’s first store in the country caused a stir, shoppers in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen this week flocked to the US retailer’s latest outlet on Chinese shores.

Costco unveiled its new 44,500-square-meter store in the city often dubbed China’s “Silicon Valley” on Friday, drawing large crowds in search of bargains and imported products.

It’s the US retailer’s sixth store in the world’s second biggest economy, but its first foray along the southern coast of the country, which is home to the headquarters of Chinese tech giants like Tencent and DJI and a rapidly growing middle class. Shenzhen alone has a population of more than 17 million and, in 2022, a GDP of $460 billion, according to its local government.

Many had waited in line for more than an hour to get in.

Images on Chinese social media showed customers filling the isles of the 15,000-square-meter shopping space, many with trolleys loaded to the brim.

Lots-O’-Huggin’ Bear, a fluffy villain from Pixar’s Toy Story 3, was also in high demand.

Social media was awash with images of people taking home the giant version of the bear, measuring five feet tall. A smaller version, less than half the size, sold out within hours.

Lin, who had waited in line for an hour, said she was impressed because the staff helped her get fruit from a high shelf.

“There are shop managers passing us the cherries and it was so gentlemanly of them,” she said.

Another patron Olin Wang praised the selection on offer. “I feel like Costco is quite special because it imports brands you can’t find elsewhere,” she said.

In China, Costco faces intense competition from online shopping platforms, such as Taobao and Pinduoduo, in a market where consumers are accustomed to online retail. It also faces competition from rival US brands like Sam’s Club, which is owned by Walmart. Sam’s Club has four branches in Shenzhen already.

When Costco opened its first store in Shanghai in 2019, it had to shut down early on its first day after it was overwhelmed by the number of shoppers.

Chaotic scenes saw people lining up for hours, crawling under the shop gates and wrestling for bags and rotisserie chickens. Traffic on surrounding roads came to a standstill, with vehicles clogging up the streets in line for the parking lot.

Since then, Costco has expanded in China but mostly near Shanghai, the country’s economic and financial hub, where there are two stores.

Indonesia’s Marapi volcano has erupted for the second time in weeks, the country’s geological agency said Sunday.

According to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, the 2,891-meter-high (9,500 feet) volcano began erupting at 6 a.m. local time (6 p.m.ET).

The volcano in West Sumatra province erupted at least twice, the agency said according to Reuters.

Reuters also reported nearby houses, vehicles and evacuation tents set up by the local disaster agency were covered in volcanic ash.

The ministry warned residents and visitors not to go within a 4.5 kilometer (2.8 mile) radius of the Verbeek Crater where the eruption took place and told residents in nearby communities to wear masks in the event of falling ash.

Some residents also went to health facilities to receive respiratory check-ups, Reuters added.

A previous eruption on December 3 killed 23 hikers who were on the mountain at the time, and saw volcanic ash being spewed as high as 3,000 meters (9,843 feet) into the air.

Mount Marapi is among the most active volcanoes in Indonesia which lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire with 127 active volcanos – more than anywhere else in the world.

It has erupted 11 times during the early 21st century, with it deadliest single event having killed 60 people in 1979.