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.

Violence is raging across New Caledonia for the third consecutive day. France has imposed a state of emergency in the French Pacific territory. Authorities boosted security forces’ powers to quell deadly unrest in the archipelago, where some residents have long sought independence from France. French authorities in New Caledonia and the Interior Ministry in Paris reported on Thursday that five people, including two police officers, have been killed in the violence. The unrest came after protests earlier this week over voting reforms pushed by President Emmanuel Macron’s government turned deadly. At least sixty members of the security forces were injured and 214 people were arrested in Thursday's clashes. That's according to the territory's top French official.