Op-ed Columnist: Hope In Arizona

(TEL AVIV, Israel) — Israel faced new condemnation Monday for strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah that local health officials said killed at least 45 Palestinians, including displaced people living in tents that were engulfed by fire. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there had been a “tragic mistake” and that Israel was investigating. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Israel has faced surging international criticism over its war with Hamas, with even some of its closest allies, particularly the United States, expressing outrage at civilian deaths.

(SEOUL, South Korea) — A North Korean rocket carrying its second spy satellite exploded midair on Monday, state media reported, after its neighbors strongly rebuked its planned launch. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said it launched a spy satellite aboard a new rocket at its main northwestern space center.

(OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb.) — Generations of American families have grown up not knowing exactly what happened to their loved ones who died while serving their country in World War II and other conflicts. But a federal lab tucked away above the bowling alley at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha and a sister lab in Hawaii are steadily answering those lingering questions, aiming to offer 200 families per year the chance to honor their relatives with a proper burial. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “They may not even have been alive when that service member was alive, but that story gets carried down through the generations,” said Carrie Brown, a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency lab manager at Offutt.

Few acts are as synonymous with the late-’90s pop boom as the Backstreet Boys. With the release of the quintet’s 1996 self-titled album, which housed now-classic anthems such as “Quit Playin’ Games (with My Heart),” the group, comprising members Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, Brian Littrell, and Kevin Richardson, exploded in Europe before gaining momentum in the U.

(BRUSSELS) — Relations between the European Union and Israel took a nosedive on the eve of the diplomatic recognition of a Palestinian state by EU members Ireland and Spain, with Madrid suggesting sanctions should be considered against Israel for its continued attacks in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Spain that its consulate in Jerusalem will not be allowed to help Palestinians. At the same time, the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, a Spaniard, threw his full weight to support the International Criminal Court, whose prosecutor is seeking an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others, including the leaders of Hamas. “The prosecutor of the court has been strongly intimidated and accused of antisemitism,” Borrell said.

SUPERIOR — The hundreds of goats munching dead vegetation on a patch of roadside open space represent this Boulder County town’s latest effort at staving off wildfires. The goats, encircled by electric fencing and guarded by herding dogs, were grazing Wednesday between a residential neighborhood and the El Dorado K-8 School near the intersection of Mount Sopris Parkway and Indiana Street. Just up the road marks the bounds of the Marshall fire, Colorado’s most destructive wildfire that killed two people and destroyed more than $2 billion worth of property in Superior, Louisville and unincorporated Boulder County in December 2021. Investigators concluded the disastrous blaze began with reignited embers on the grounds of an international religious cult and from sparks from a broken power line about 2,000 feet away.