Xi Jinping will travel to North Korea next week for a rare visit just weeks after the Chinese leader hosted US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin for separate, nearly back-to-back visits. Xi will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a two-day state visit starting from next Monday, state media Xinhua announced on Friday. North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency also confirmed the trip. The visit will be Xi’s first to North Korea since 2019, and the latest overture from Beijing to warm a historical but often complicated relationship with its neighbor. It will also be Xi’s first overseas trip this year.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/04/china/china-north-korea-xi-kim-intl-hnk
Israel secretly deployed elite military and intelligence units to Azerbaijan during the war with Iran as part of a network of covert sites across the Middle East to facilitate operations against Iran, four sources familiar with the matter said. The forces operated out of several locations in southern Azerbaijan, two of the sources said, adjacent to Iran’s northern border and, at its closest point, only about 60 miles from the Iranian city of Tabriz, which Israel struck during the war. Special commando units were also deployed to the location and carried out intelligence-gathering missions and drone operations, the other two sources said, giving Israel a valuable perch from which to see into northern Iran during the war.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/05/middleeast/azerbaijan-israel-iran-war-intl
Do not mistake the massive mixed martial arts arena rising out of the White House lawn for a political statement, insists Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White. It is, he told CNN, simply part of the celebration for America’s 250th birthday. That distinction matters to White, who has repeatedly declared himself finished with politics despite spending years as one of President Donald Trump’s most visible allies — speaking at the last three Republican National Conventions and helping the GOP make inroads with the young male voters key to Trump’s return to the White House. Many of those same voters appear just as eager as White to leave politics behind.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/05/politics/ufc-white-house-dana-white-trump
Police have arrested the son of actor James Handy’s girlfriend in his death after he was found stabbed in the chest in Los Angeles, law enforcement said Thursday. Officers responded to a home Wednesday morning after a 911 caller said, “I am the son of man, I just killed the man of sin,” according to the Los Angeles Police Department. They found the 81-year-old who appeared in films like “Jumanji” and “Top Gun: Maverick” in the front yard stabbed in the chest and unconscious, according to police. He was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/05/entertainment/actor-james-handy-death-los-angeles-hnk
A Sherpa climbing guide who was believed to have died high on Mount Everest was found crawling back to Base Camp after spending almost a week on the mountain with no food or bottled oxygen. For six days, there had been no radio contact or sign of Hillary Dawa Sherpa, 52, who was last seen on May 29 resting above Camp 3, which sits at 7,060 meters (23,163 feet). He became separated from his client and climbing team, who had already descended and were among the last group on Everest before it closed for the season. The ladders across the Khumbu Icefall, which are carefully fixed by Sherpas to help climbers navigate the most treacherous section of the climb, had already been dismantled, according to one mountaineering company.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/05/travel/everest-rescue-hillary-dawa-sherpa-intl-hnk