After 73 years and a long fight with the Army, a Korean War veteran from Minnesota who was wounded in combat finally got 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 received 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 intervention by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and the service’s top noncommissioned officer.

The U.S. ambassador to Japan has stressed the importance of increased deterrence and his country’s commitment to its key ally as he visited two southwestern Japanese islands at the forefront of Tokyo's tension with Beijing. Rahm Emanuel on Friday visited Yonaguni, Japan’s westernmost island just east of Taiwan, a self-governed island also claimed by China. He later visited another Japanese island, Ishigaki, home to Japan Coast Guard patrol boats defending the disputed East China Sea islands and Japanese fishermen from armed Chinese coast guard ships that routinely enter Japanese waters. Japan is further accelerating its military buildup under a 2022 security strategy that focuses on counter-strike capability with long-range cruise missiles.

Trucks carrying badly needed aid for the Gaza Strip have rolled across a newly built U.S. pier and into the besieged enclave for the first time. Friday's shipment is the first in an operation that American military officials anticipate could scale up to 150 truckloads a day. It comes as Israeli restrictions on border crossings and heavy fighting hindered the delivery of food and other supplies seven months into the Israel-Hamas war. But the U.S. and aid groups warn that the floating pier project is not a substitute for land deliveries that could bring in all the food, water and fuel needed in Gaza. Before the war, more than 500 truckloads entered the territory on an average day.

Israeli troops have recovered the bodies of three hostages in the Gaza Strip. The military said Friday the three were killed at a music festival during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, and their bodies were taken into Gaza. Among those found were German-Israeli Shani Louk. A photo of the 22-year-old's twisted body in the back of a pickup truck became emblematic of the attack. The military did not say where the bodies were found in Gaza. Israeli forces are currently invading the southern Gaza city of Rafah, saying it’s the last stronghold of Hamas and hostages are being held there.