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Defaced Holocaust mural finds new home in Rome's Shoah Museum

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Defaced Holocaust mural finds new home in Rome's Shoah Museum

The Shoah Museum in Rome has acquired a piece by reserved contemporary pop artist aleXsandro Palombo after it was defaced in an apparent act of antisemitism.

The mural, which depicts Liliana Segre and Sami Modiano, the last two Italian survivors of Auschwitz, was defaced multiple times and even erased by vandals.

Segre and Modiano are shown in striped clothing under green bullet-proof vests with yellow Stars of David on them, and there are even representations of the serial numbers tattooed on them by the Nazis. The perpetrators vandalized Segre and Modiano’s faces, as well as the stars on their chests, but left the numbers on their arms untouched.

“They took away my face, my identity, they erased the yellow star, but they left the number tattooed on my arm,” Segre said.

aleXsandro Palombo’s mural depicting Holocaust survivors Liliana Segre and Sami Modiano before it was vandalized (aleXsandro Palombo)

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aleXsandro Palombo’s mural depicting Holocaust survivors Liliana Segre and Sami Modiano after it was vandalized (aleXsandro Palombo)

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Palombo eventually reproduced the piece, and it is now part of the museum’s permanent collection.

“Art is the highest expression of freedom, and repeatedly attacking a work that portrays two survivors of Auschwitz highlights how the very value of democracy and all our freedoms is in danger,” Palombo said in a statement. “The gesture of courage and resistance of the Shoah Museum of Rome and the Italian Jewish community is a great and precious lesson in civilization for all of us, who responded to the antisemitic violence and hatred of these new forms of social and cultural terrorism with a powerful action of the Risorgimento.”

Palombo has made several pieces honoring the Holocaust, and his other works have not been spared from vandalism.

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A piece entitled “Arbeit macht frei,” which shows Hungarian writer and Holocaust survivor Edith Bruck wrapped in an Israeli flag was also defaced, with much of the flag being erased. The title of this mural is the same phrase the Nazis put on the gates of Auschwitz, and it translates to “work makes you free.”

Bruck told Italian newspaper La Stampa that she was saddened but not surprised by the vandalism, saying that “antisemitism is a tsunami.”

The mural of Bruck has also been acquired by the Shoah Museum in Rome.

aleXsandro Palombo’s mural of Hungarian writer and Holocaust survivor Edith Bruck before and after it was defaced by vandals (aleXsandro Palombo)

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Another one of Palombo’s pieces that was vandalized was entitled “Halt! Stoj!,” which depicted Segre, Modiano and Burk alongside Pope Francis, who is outfitted with a cross and a sign reading “antisemitism is everywhere.” The four are depicted as Simpsons characters, a common motif for Palombo. While the image of the pope was not damaged, vandals defaced the Stars of David on the three Holocaust survivors.

aleXsandro Palombo’s mural of three Holocaust survivors and Pope Francis before and after it was vandalized. (aleXsandro Palombo)

Palombo, a contemporary pop artist and activist, used pop culture references in his artwork, including celebrities and cartoon characters from the Simpsons and Disney. One of his most iconic works is the “Simpsons deported to Auschwitz,” which shows Marge, Homer, Maggie, Bart and Lisa before and after the concentration camp, referencing the emaciated state of Holocaust survivors liberated from Nazi camps.

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Stocks fall and oil prices gain after Trump warns the Iran ‘clock is ticking’

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Stocks fall and oil prices gain after Trump warns the Iran ‘clock is ticking’

HONG KONG (AP) — Asian stocks mostly retreated and oil prices jumped on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump warned Tehran that the “clock is ticking” as U.S.-Iran negotiations over a permanent end to the war stall.

U.S. futures fell and markets in Japan and South Korea pulled further back from their records. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 1% to 60,815.95, a decline led by technology-related stocks. It reached all-time intraday high levels last week above 63,000.

The yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond surged to as high as 2.8%, its highest level since the late 1990s, part of a shift toward higher yields as the Bank of Japan gradually raises interest rates and higher energy costs raise expectations of rising inflation. That’s up from around 2.55% just one week ago.

Seoul’s Kospi climbed 0.3% to 7,516.04 after trading lower earlier in the day. It crossed the 8,000 mark for the first time on Friday, supported by buying of technology shares driven by the boom in artificial intelligence, but later declined partly on profit-taking by investors.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.4% to 25,596.68. The Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% lower to 4,131.53, after China reported weaker-than-expected retail data for April.

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Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.5% to 8,505.30.

Taiwan’s Taiex dropped 0.7%, while India’s Sensex fell 0.1%.

Oil prices rose after Trump warned Iran in a social media post that “the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them” following a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump has set deadlines for Iran and then backed off, so investors have remained cautious about the situation in the Strait of Hormuz and how it is impacting global energy flows, including oil and gas. The strait is still mostly closed, and the U.S. has also imposed its own sea blockade on Iranian ports since last month.

A drone strike over the weekend on a United Arab Emirates’ nuclear power plant added to worries over a potential escalation in the conflict.

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Brent crude, the international standard, gained 0.7% to $110.02 per barrel. It was trading at roughly $70 a barrel in late February before the start of the Iran war. Benchmark U.S. crude was trading 0.8% higher to $106.31 per barrel.

“Re-escalation risks are increasing,” ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a research note. While there has also been a pick up on shipping activities over the past week around the strait, they said, “this can change quickly.”

The pair also noted that the oil market was reacting to the lack of tangible results on the Iran war after last week’s widely-watched summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, even as the White House said both the U.S. and China had agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open.

U.S. officials had hoped that Beijing could use its influence, given its economic ties with Iran, to help broker a peace agreement and reopen the strait. Trump said last week in an interview that Xi told him China “would like to be of help” in negotiating an end to the war. So far it’s been unclear how Beijing might do that.

The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury was at around 4.60%, up from 4.47% last Thursday and sharply higher than the nearly 4% level it was holding at before the Iran war.

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On Friday, the benchmark S&P 500 dropped 1.2% from the record it set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite lost 1.5%.

In other dealings early Monday, the U.S. dollar rose to 158.86 Japanese yen from 158.62 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1635, up from $1.1622.

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Canada confirms hantavirus case linked to cruise ship outbreak that has killed three passengers

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Canada confirms hantavirus case linked to cruise ship outbreak that has killed three passengers

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Canadian health officials on Sunday confirmed that one of four Canadians who returned from the MV Hondius cruise ship, the subject of an international Andes hantavirus outbreak, tested positive for hantavirus. Three people connected to the outbreak have died.

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The Public Health Agency of Canada confirmed the positive test after British Columbia’s top public health officer previously described the case as a “presumptive positive.”

“One individual’s sample was confirmed positive for hantavirus,” the agency said in a statement.

Officials said additional testing will be conducted at a national laboratory. It was not immediately clear whether that testing was for confirmation, strain characterization or another purpose.

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Experts say cruise outbreaks get more attention due to public reporting rules, but many travelers still plan to sail as booked. (Myloupe/Universal Images Group)

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The development comes as global health officials continue monitoring the rare hantavirus outbreak tied to the MV Hondius, which has sickened multiple passengers.

As of May 13, the World Health Organization said 11 cases had been identified in connection with the cruise outbreak, including eight confirmed cases, two probable cases and one inconclusive case. Those figures included three deaths. The Associated Press later reported that the Canadian confirmation brought the number of people from the ship who had tested positive to 10.

Canadian health officials said four Canadians returned home from the MV Hondius, though only one has tested positive for the virus.

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The rare Andes virus, which was linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak, is the only known hantavirus strain that has the capability to spread from person to person, usually through prolonged close contact. (Andres Gutierrez/Anadolu)

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The confirmed patient and a traveling companion — identified as a Yukon couple in their 70s — returned from the cruise together. The companion later tested negative, officials said.

A third person in their 70s from Vancouver Island remains in isolation, along with a British Columbia resident in their 50s.

So far, no confirmed U.S. cases tied to the cruise ship have been reported, though WHO said as of May 13 that one U.S.-repatriated passenger had inconclusive laboratory results and was undergoing retesting.

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Pictured is the MV Hondius, the cruise ship tied to a hantavirus outbreak after a stop in Argentina that left three passengers dead. (Europa Press Canarias via Getty Images)

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Last week, however, health officials in Ontario County, New York, announced they were investigating a suspected locally acquired hantavirus case unrelated to the cruise ship.

The Ontario County Public Health Department said there was no risk to the general public. Officials also said the strain typically seen in the United States is not known to spread from person to person.

The outbreak linked to the MV Hondius began after the Dutch cruise ship, carrying 147 passengers and crew members, departed Argentina on April 1 for a South Atlantic voyage.

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The outbreak has prompted heightened precautions internationally, including in the Netherlands, where Radboud University Medical Center quarantined 12 staff members after officials said a hantavirus patient’s blood and urine were not handled under the strictest protocols recommended for the virus strain.

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The outbreak has also sparked comparisons to the coronavirus pandemic. However, Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel previously told Fox News Digital there is “no comparison.”

He noted hantavirus is difficult to spread.

Passengers evacuated from the hantavirus-stricken Hondius cruise ship walk with their belongings after disembarking at Eindhoven Air Base, Netherlands, on May 12. (Piroschka van de Wouw)

“It’s not airborne … in terms of respiratory droplets hanging in the air,” he said. “It’s very difficult to transmit.”

While coronavirus “moved in the direction of humans in a significant way,” hantavirus has not, except for “very rare” cases of human-to-human transmission, he added.

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The World Health Organization has assessed the risk to the global population as low, while noting that current evidence suggests subsequent human-to-human transmission may have occurred on board. Andes virus is the only hantavirus known to have documented person-to-person transmission, though such spread is considered rare.

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Siegel also noted hantavirus cases have been reported in the United States for decades, though they remain “very rare.”

Fox News Digital’s Brittany Miller and Angelica Stabile, along with The Associated Press, contributed to this report.

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Moment of collision between two Navy jets at Idaho air show

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Moment of collision between two Navy jets at Idaho air show
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Two US Navy jets collided during an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, sending both aircraft crashing to the ground in front of spectators. All four crew members ejected safely before impact.

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