North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters Monday morning, its neighbors said, days after the end of the South Korean-U.S. military drills that the North views as an invasion rehearsal.

The launches — North Korea's first known missile testing activities in about a month — came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Seoul for a conference. Outside experts earlier predicted North Korea would extend its run of missile tests and intensify its warlike rhetoric ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November to boost its leverage in future diplomacy.

A decade ago, President Vladimir Putin seized Crimea from Ukraine, a bold land grab that set the stage for Russia to invade its neighbor in 2022.

The quick and bloodless seizure of the diamond-shaped peninsula, home to Russia's Black Sea fleet and a popular vacation site, touched off a wave of patriotism and sent Putin's popularity soaring. "Crimea is ours!" became a popular slogan in Russia.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has railed against growing criticism from top ally the United States against his leadership amid the devastating war with Hamas, describing calls for a new election as "wholly inappropriate."

In recent days, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the country and a strong Israel supporter, called on Israel to hold a new election, saying Netanyahu had "lost his way." President Joe Biden expressed support for Schumer's "good speech," and earlier accused Netanyahu of hurting Israel because of the huge civilian death toll in Gaza.

President Vladimir Putin basked in a victory early Monday that was never in doubt, as partial election results underlined the Russian leader's total control of the country's political system.

After facing only token challengers and harshly suppressing opposition voices, Putin was set to extend his nearly quarter-century rule for six more years. Even with little margin for protest, Russians crowded outside polling stations at noon on Sunday, the last day of the election, apparently heeding an opposition call to express their displeasure with the president.

Pakistani airstrikes targeted multiple suspected hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban inside neighboring Afghanistan early on Monday, killing at least eight people, two days after insurgents killed seven soldiers in a suicide bombing and coordinated attacks in a northwestern region, officials said.

The Afghan Taliban government denounced the strikes, which are likely to further increase tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.

Israeli forces launched another raid on the Gaza Strip's largest hospital early Monday, saying Hamas militants had regrouped there and had fired on them from inside the compound, where Palestinian officials say tens of thousands of people were sheltering.

The army last raided Shifa Hospital in November after claiming that Hamas maintained an elaborate command center within and beneath the facility. The military revealed a tunnel leading to a bunker, as well as weapons it said were found inside the hospital, but the evidence fell short of the earlier claims, and critics accused the army of recklessly endangering the lives of civilians.

Israeli airstrikes hit several sites in southern Syria early Sunday wounding a soldier, Syrian state media reported.

State news agency SANA, citing an unnamed military official, said air defenses shot down some of the missiles, which came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights at around 12:42 a.m. local time. The strikes led to "material losses" and the wounding of a soldier, the statement said.

President Joe Biden expressed support Friday for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer after the senator called for new elections in Israel, the latest sign that the U.S. relationship with its closest Middle East ally is careening toward fracture over the war in Gaza.

Schumer, a Jewish Democrat from New York, sent tremors through both countries this week when he said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has "lost his way" and warned that "Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah" as the Palestinian death toll continues to grow.

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has returned to Instagram to tease a new brand that records show could feature jams, household items, cookbooks and cutlery.

The former actor left Instagram when she got engaged to Prince Harry, and as recently as last week, spoke about the dangers of social media. On Thursday, a new account called American Riviera Orchard appeared on Instagram, saying it was created by Meghan. The unverified account included photos of a logo and link to a website to join a waitlist to learn more details.

Frida Kahlo used her own experiences to inform her art. In that spirit, Kahlo's personal writings are used to help tell the story of her life in a new documentary, "Frida."

Filmmaker Carla Gutiérrez blends first person narration with archival footage and interpretive animation of Kahlo's work in the film, which is now streaming on Prime Video.