Trucks carrying badly needed aid for the Gaza Strip have rolled across a newly built U.S. floating pier into the besieged enclave for the first time. The shipment Friday is the first in an operation that American military officials anticipate could scale up to 150 truckloads a day entering the Gaza Strip as Israel presses in on the southern city of Rafah as its 7-month offensive against Hamas rages on. But the U.S. and aid groups also warn the pier project is not considered a substitute for land deliveries that could allow in all the food, water and fuel needed in Gaza. Before the war, more than 500 truckloads entered Gaza on an average day. Israeli restrictions on border crossings and heavy fighting hinder food and other supplies reaching people there.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is focusing on trade and cultural exchanges during his state visit to China that started with bonhomie in Beijing and a meeting with China’s leader Xi Jinping that deepened their “no limits” partnership as both countries face rising tensions with the West. Putin is attending a China-Russia Expo in the northeastern city of Harbin on Friday and meeting with students at Harbin Institute of Technology. Harbin was once home to many Russian expatriates and retains some of those historical ties in its architecture, such as the central Saint Sophia Cathedral, a former Russian Orthodox church. While Putin's trip has been short on concrete proposals, he and Xi have made clear their ties are strong.

After 73 years and a long fight with the Army, a Korean War veteran from Minnesota who was wounded in combat is set to finally get his Purple Heart. The U.S. Army notified 96-year-old Earl Meyer last month that it had granted him the medal, which honors service members wounded in combat. He's scheduled to receive it in a ceremony Friday in St. Peter. An Army review board had rejected Meyer’s application several times due to a lack of paperwork. It reversed course after a campaign by his three daughters and attorney, and intervention by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and the service’s top noncommissioned officer.