The U.S. military has finished installing a floating pier in the Gaza Strip. Officials said Thursday that they're poised to begin ferrying badly needed humanitarian aid into the enclave besieged over seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war. The final construction sets up a complicated delivery process more than two months after U.S. President Joe Biden ordered it to help starving Palestinians as Israeli restrictions on border crossings and heavy fighting prevent food and other supplies from making it into Gaza. American officials insist U.S. troops will not set foot in Gaza, though they acknowledge the danger of operating near the war zone.

Some of the lawmakers who accompanied Donald Trump to court sat in the front two rows, directly behind the former president. Others were relegated to the back of the gallery Thursday because there wasn’t enough room in the rows reserved for the Trump’s entourage. Those in the front row at Trump’s hush money trial appeared to look at their phones for large chunks of the morning. When Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche was discussing one of Michael Cohen’s past appearances before Congress, he drew a chuckle from some of the House members when he observed: “When congressmen ask you questions they tend to go on and on.”

Prosecutors' star witness is back in the hot seat at Donald Trump's New York hush money trial. Defense lawyers are continuing to try to chip away at Michael Cohen’s crucial testimony implicating the ex-president. Cohen's credibility could determine the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s fate in the case. Trump did not look at Cohen as he entered the room, gazing straight ahead. Prosecutors are trying to prove Trump schemed to suppress a damaging story he feared would torpedo his 2016 presidential campaign and then falsified business records to cover it up. Trump says he did nothing wrong.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping reaffirmed their “no-limits” partnership that has deepened as both countries face rising tensions with the West, and they criticized U.S. military alliances in Asia and the Pacific region. At their summit Thursday, Putin thanked China’s proposals for ending the war in Ukraine, which have been rejected by Ukraine and its Western supporters as largely following the Kremlin’s line. Putin’s two-day visit to one of his strongest allies and trading partners comes as Russian forces are pressing an offensive in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region in the most significant border incursion since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.