International
This week, 3-year-old Ziv Nitzan discovered a 3,800 year old artifact from the Middle Bronze Age in the ruins of Tel Azeka, an ancient town in Israel.
Confusing it for a rock, she picked up the stone and showed it to her family.
“When she rubbed it and removed the sand from it, we saw something was different about it,” Ziv’s sister Omer Nitzan said in a Facebook post from Israel’s Antiquities Authority on Tuesday. “I called my parents to come see the beautiful stone, and we realized we had discovered an archaeological find.”
Experts identified the relic to be a Canaanite seal or scarab.
“Scarabs were used in this period as seals and as amulets,” Egyptologist Daphna Ben-Tor said in a Facebook post. “They were found in graves, in public buildings and in private homes. Sometimes they bear symbols and messages that reflect religious beliefs or status. This beetle, considered sacred in the eyes of the ancient Egyptians, was a symbol of new life, because of the dung ball it created and then laid its eggs into it, from which new life would hatch.”
This scarab is only one of many artifacts discovered in Israel suggesting ancient Egyptian presence as Tel Azeka is a key archaeological site.
National
This week, flooding in the central United States leaves tens of thousands without power as the death count rises.
According to the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center, dozens of tornadoes ripped through states from Arkansas to Illinois on Wednesday and Thursday. The twisters flattened homes in their wake, collapsed a warehouse, and demolished a church.
At least seven deaths have been attributed to the storms.
Officials say one person was killed in southeastern Missouri on Wednesday, at least five deaths come from Tennessee across multiple counties, and an Indiana man died from touching a fallen power line.
30 million citizens are still at risk of tornadoes and flooding expected to worsen over the next few days.
“This is a catastrophic, potentially historic heavy rainfall and flash flood event,” the National Weather Service said in a forecast
In Paducah, Kentucky, emergency shelters are either full or entirely absent in some areas.
Lacy Boling, the director of the Paducah Cooperative Ministry transitional center has been answering calls from now homeless families.
“Unfortunately, some of these calls go, ‘There’s no place to go,’” she said. “We’re experiencing a housing shortage, just like everywhere else in the nation. There’s nowhere for people to go normally, and then you add on historic flooding, historic tornadoes … it just compounds the issue.”
Local
The LA28 events will be hosted in Oklahoma City for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
“This is really happening. The Olympics are coming to OKC,” mayor David Holt said in a press conference Monday. “Two sports, softball and canoe slalom, will be staged in their entirety in America’s 20th largest city. No city in the United States outside of Southern California has been given a similar opportunity.”
Due to a billion-dollar budget deficit, Los Angeles has been forced to give up hosting these events, granting Oklahoma City a chance to show off its world-class facilities.
“We have the only whitewater venue west of the Mississippi,” Holt said. “And then on the softball side, we have the largest softball stadium in the world by 2.5 times.”
Canoeing and kayaking would have been accommodated by the Sepulveda Basin in Los Angeles, but due to financial constraints, they will instead take place at Oklahoma City’s RiverSport Rapids.
“It is a full-on authentic whitewater channel just like you’d see in Colorado or somewhere, except it’s all artificial,” Mike Knopp, the founder of RiverSport Rapids said, adding that his facility’s advanced pumping system is capable of filling an Olympic–sized swimming pool in 80 seconds.
Oklahoma City is anticipating an enormous influx of tourists as the city prepares for nine days of competition and 10,000 ticketed seats daily.
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