Japan's central bank on Friday raised the benchmark interest rate to 1.25% from 1.0%, a 31-year-high.

The Bank of Japan has been trying to normalize monetary policy after decades of keeping interest rates near or below zero to try to encourage more borrowing and spending to counter deflation and pull Japan's economy out of the doldrums.

It's been a week since Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels stormed down the Red Sea coast, extending their reach to a key maritime chokepoint and threatening Saudi Arabia's oil exports.

The Houthis' biggest land grab in years reignited Yemen's 12-year civil war and pushed up global fuel prices. It also gave Iran another potential source of leverage as the United States has started to loosen Tehran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz, on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula.

The deadly collapse of a multistory building in Gaza has drawn new attention to the hardships facing Palestinians there nearly a year after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas promised to kickstart reconstruction.

But as talks faltered, plans for rebuilding stalled. Israel bars entry of almost all construction materials, making even repairs difficult. Many residents have since moved back into some of the hundreds of thousands of homes damaged by the war despite the risk of weakened foundations and unstable walls suddenly giving way.

A powerful bomb exploded Friday at a mosque near a building housing police offices in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 15 people and wounding 56 others, police and rescue officials said. The attack came as violence has surged in the region with security forces targeting militants.

The bombing occurred in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, when an attacker apparently rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the mosque, said Zulfiqar Hameed, the provincial police chief.

The world is deeply divided and the U.N.'s most powerful body is paralyzed when it comes to ending conflicts. But there's a way forward. So says the United Nations' top official.

On his way out of office at year's end after nearly a decade, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres — known for doom-and-gloom speeches about the state of the planet — said Thursday he finds hope and possibility in the coming years. But that, he says, is only if the world's governments can finally cooperate on curtailing conflict, upending inequality and grappling with the arriving juggernaut of artificial intelligence.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed leaders and representatives from seven regional countries for talks on deepening cooperation on Friday, as overnight Russian strikes in multiple regions sparked fires and caused several deaths and injuries.

The inaugural summit of the so-called "Carpathian Eight" brings together Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary, with the European Union also involved.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians rallied Friday in a government-organized show of defiance after months of war, pledging their readiness to take up arms in the biggest such demonstration since the United States and Israel attacked in February.

Iran's government has sought to rally the people and stress national unity, even as the economy worsens under a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and new U.S. sanctions meant to increase Tehran's economic pain.

The frictions in Russia's wartime economy are growing, as massive military spending balloons the budget deficit. Consumers and businesses are gloomier. Growth has slowed.

None of that, however, signals an imminent financial crisis or economic collapse, economists say. With crucial oil export revenues holding up due to high prices from the Iran war, the government is able to find the money to pay for its 4 1/2-year-old invasion of Ukraine, at least for now.

A tanker was struck in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, causing a fire that was extinguished, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).

"The CSO of a vessel has reported a tanker being hit by an unknown projectile, causing a fire onboard which has since been extinguished," the maritime monitor said, adding that the crew were safe, although the environmental impact of the attack was "unconfirmed".

Russians on Friday began three days of voting in the country's first wartime parliamentary election, which features virtually no opposition and is all but certain to secure the Kremlin's political dominance.

Authorities spread the election over the weekend in a bid to boost turnout among the 111 million eligible voters and even allowed electronic balloting. Polls opened Friday and will close Sunday.