Rubio teases details of potential Trump, Putin in-person meeting after Russia-Ukraine ceasefire talks stall

Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed the timing of a potential face-to-face meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin regarding a ceasefire deal in Ukraine in an interview that aired Sunday. 

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday while returning to Washington, D.C., from Abu Dhabi that no peace in Ukraine would be reached until he met with Putin in person. The president added in a Truth Social post on Saturday that he planned to speak with Putin on the phone on Monday, followed by a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and some NATO leaders. 

Meanwhile, Rubio — who attended Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural mass in Rome on Sunday — said the Vatican has offered to host a direct meeting between Ukraine, Russia and possibly other parties. 

“Obviously, the Vatican has made a very generous offer to host anything — by the way, not just a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin, but any meeting, including at a technical level, you know — any meetings that need to be hosted, they’ve expressed a willingness to do so. So it’s a very generous offer that may be taken up on,” Rubio told CBS’ “Face the Nation” in an interview that was recorded on Saturday. “I mean, it would be a site that all parties would feel comfortable. So hopefully we’ll get to that stage where talks are happening on a regular basis, and that the Vatican will have the opportunity to be one of the options.” 

ZELENSKYY SHEDS DETAILS ON MEETING WITH VANCE, RUBIO IN ROME AFTER RUSSIA PEACE TALKS STALL

Rubio had a phone call with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on Saturday after Putin was a no-show to a face-to-face meeting the Russian leader called with Zelenskyy in Turkey last week. Despite Putin’s absence, the Ukrainian and Russian delegations did agree to a prisoner exchange of 1,000 people from each side, though a broader ceasefire or peace deal failed to materialize. 

CBS host Margaret Brennan asked Rubio if he spoke with Lavrov about lining up a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin. 

“Well, we talked about a variety of things,” said Rubio. “I wanted to get his readout on his view of how the talks went yesterday. They were not a complete waste of time. For example, there were 1,000 prisoners that are going to be exchanged, and that, from a humanitarian standpoint, is very positive. He explained to me that they are going to be preparing a document outlining their requirements for a ceasefire that would then lead to broader negotiations.”

Rubio said the Ukrainians will be working on their own proposal coming soon, and he hoped proposals from both sides would be “serious and viable.”

“So we’ll have to wait and see. But he wanted me to know, and he communicated in our call, that their side will be working on a series of ideas and requirements that they would have in order to move forward with a ceasefire and further negotiations,” he said.

Rubio said the U.S. is “testing” whether the Russian are just “tapping” them along, as Trump has suggested could be the case. 

ZELENSKYY SPEAKS WITH TRUMP, ALLIES AFTER RUSSIA PEACE TALKS BROKER NO CEASEFIRE

“On the one hand, we’re trying to achieve peace and end a very bloody, costly and destructive war. So there’s some element of patience that is required. On the other hand, we don’t have time to waste,” Rubio said. “There are a lot of other things happening in the world that we also need to be paying attention to. So we don’t want to be involved in this process of just endless talks — there has to be some progress, some movement forward. And if at the end of this, in the next few days, we get a document produced by both sides, and it shows that both sides are… making concessions and being realistic and rational in their approach, then I think we can feel good about continuing to remain engaged.”

“If, on the other hand, what we see is not very productive, perhaps we’ll have a different assessment. I also agree that, ultimately, one of the things that could help break this logjam — perhaps the only thing that can — is a direct conversation between President Trump and Vladimir Putin. And he’s already openly expressed a desire and a belief that that needs to happen, and hopefully that’ll be worked out soon as well,” he added.

Pressed on whether the in-person talks between Trump and Putin were being planned, Rubio reiterated that the president had already made that offer publicly. 

“The mechanics of setting that kind of meeting up would require a little bit of work, so I can’t say that’s being planned as we speak in terms of picking a site and a date,” Rubio said. “But the president wants to do it. He wants to do it as soon as feasible. I think the Russian side has also expressed a willingness to do it. And so, now it’s just a question of bringing them, bringing everyone together, and figuring out where and when and that meeting will happen and what it will be about.”

Rubio joined Vice President JD Vance in meeting with Zelenskyy at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Rome on Sunday. 

Vance and Rubio later met with Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for discussions on trade, the war in Ukraine and NATO spending, according to a spokesperson for the vice president. 

“The individual countries within Europe are important allies of the United States. But, of course, we have some disagreements, as friends sometimes do, on issues like trade, and we also have many agreements and many things we can work on together, and I’m looking forward to the conversation,” Vance told reporters at the top of the meeting. 

After the meeting, the vice president’s office released a statement saying that “the leaders discussed their shared goal of ending the bloodshed in Ukraine and provided updates on the current state of negotiations for a ceasefire and lasting peace.” 

Fox News’ Meghan Tomes and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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FLASHBACK: MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough mocks Hur report detailing Biden’s mental decline as ‘random s—‘

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough criticized then-Special Counsel Robert Hur on his program in 2024 for his controversial report, parts of which were highly covered by the media and raised concerns about former President Biden’s mental capabilities.  

“I wonder what pasture he will wonder off into,” Scarborough said on his program at the time in a clip that has resurfaced on social media, beginning his attack on Hur for his report, showed the president struggling with key memories, including when his son Beau died, when he left the vice presidency, and why he was in possession of classified documents he shouldn’t have had.

“You know, with Joe Biden, I noticed, he didn’t really tie his tie well,” Scarborough said, mocking the details that Hur gave in his original report. “The tie knot suggested that maybe [Biden] has arthritis in his left thumb.”

BIDEN STRUGGLES WITH WORDS, KEY MEMORIES IN LEAKED AUDIO FROM SPECIAL COUNSEL HUR INTERVIEW

“Where are you going with this?” Brzezinski asked Scarborough, her husband and co-host. 

“I’m just saying this guy says such random s—!” Scarborough said, demanding that Hur apologize for his report. 

“Does he hope he gets a judgeship? I think he does. I think he hopes he gets a judgeship if Donald Trump gets elected again because he’s trying out, because he humiliated himself with that display.” 

BIDEN INTERVIEW AUDIO REVEALS WHO BROUGHT UP BEAU’S DEATH — AND IT WASN’T HUR

Hur’s pivotal release of his interview with Biden has again resurfaced in national news media, with audio leaked to Axios of the original interview. 

The audio was leaked after more than a year of congressional lawmakers demanding its release amid questions about the former president’s memory lapses and mental acuity.

The transcript of Biden’s interview with Hur was released last year, and confirmed the president’s frequent memory lapses. 

When asked by Hur about where he kept papers he was actively working on around 2017 and 2018, Biden said that Beau Biden was either “deployed or is dying” at that time. Beau died in 2015. At one point, Biden said to himself “When did Beau die?” and a lawyer answered that it was 2015. 

Fox News’ Brie Stimson and Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

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Biden’s woes converge: Last-minute pardons under fire, calls for prosecution mount following Hur tape release

The release of audio recordings of former President Joe Biden‘s interview with special counsel Robert Hur have intensified criticism of the administration’s use of an autopen on official presidential orders and pardons.

The damning tapes, which bring Biden’s alarming mental decline into sharp relief, were kept under wraps by Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland. Now that Biden’s cognitive problems have been bared, some are calling for Garland to face prosecution for rejecting Congressional demands to release the tapes when he ran the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“Key decisions made in the final days of the Biden presidency, including using autopens to issue blanket pardons for the Biden Crime Family, must be fully examined. There are serious concerns that President Biden lacked the mental capacity to authorize those actions,” House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., posted to X on Saturday. 

Axios released hours of Biden’s interview with the special counsel’s office on Saturday – a year and a half after the interviews were held across a two-day period in the fall of 2023. The recordings showed the former president tripping over his words, slurring sentences, taking long pauses between answers and struggling to remember key moments in his life, including the year his son Beau Biden died of cancer. 

The recordings have further bolstered conservative outrage stretching back years that Biden’s mental acuity had cratered and that the Delaware Democrat who had served in the Senate for decades had become a “shadow” of himself and was unfit to lead the country as president. 

CRITICISMS MOUNT THAT BIDEN IS A ‘SHADOW’ OF HIMSELF AFTER DISASTROUS DEBATE: ‘NOT THE SAME MAN’ FROM VP ERA

The flurry of pardons Biden allegedly signed by autopen in the waning days of his administration included ones for his son Hunter Biden, his siblings and their spouses, retired Gen. Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and members and staff of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, told Fox News Digital in a phone interview on Sunday that he has long sounded the alarm over the validity of Biden’s pardons, as many lacked specifically what charges an individual was protected against. Instead, many of the pardons outlined blanket protections, such as preemptively pardoning Milley and Fauci from potential prosecution and blanket pardons for unidentified members of Congress who served on the J6 select committee. 

“I’ve been long of the position that the pardons, many of the pardons, are not valid based on the fact that they don’t pardon anything. It’s just a pardon for conduct that’s unnamed … it’s further confirmation that the pardons are not valid,” said Fitton, who had sued for the release of the audio recordings. 

WHAT IS AN AUTOPEN? THE SIGNING DEVICE AT THE HEART OF TRUMP’S ATTACKS ON BIDEN PARDONS

“A competent president would say, ‘How is it I could pardon someone for nothing?’” he continued. 

Fitton added that “more importantly, Biden should still be prosecuted” after he was “mollycoddled” by the Biden DOJ during the investigation into the documents he possessed from his days in the Senate and when he served as vice president. 

“The audio shows he was mollycoddled by the Justice Department, you know, because Hur was working for the Justice Department. … There’s an argument that the records he had as vice president, he could have. But that wasn’t the position of Justice Department. But certainly he didn’t have the right to have those records from his days of the Senate,” Fitton said. 

President Donald Trump railed on Truth Social that the release of the audio recordings revealed a “bigger scandal” about the use of an autopen under the Biden White House

“Whoever had control of the “AUTOPEN” is looking to be a bigger and bigger scandal by the moment,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Friday.

TRUMP CLAIMS BIDEN PARDONS ARE ‘VOID,’ ALLEGING THEY WERE SIGNED VIA AUTOPEN

He added: “THIS IS WHY THE UNSELECT COMMITTEE OF POLITICAL THUGS, WHO WERE GIVEN A FULL AND COMPLETE PARDON BY THE PERSON WHO WIELDED THE NOW ILLEGALLY USED AUTOPEN, DELETED AND DESTROYED ALL EVIDENCE AND INFORMATION FROM THEIR CORRUPT AND VICIOUS WITCH HUNT AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHER PEOPLE, WHOSE LIVES WERE COMPLETELY SHATTERED AND DESTROYED BY THIS HISTORICALLY CRIMINAL EVENT.”

Autopen signatures are automatically produced by a machine, as opposed to an authentic, handwritten signature. The conservative Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project first investigated the Biden administration’s use of an autopen earlier this year and found that the same signature was on a bevvy of executive orders and other official documents, while Biden’s signature on the document announcing his departure from the 2024 race varied from the apparent machine-produced signature.

The reports led to speculation that Biden aides had approved of executive orders and sweeping pardons, not the president. 

Hur led an investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents following his departure as vice president under the Obama administration. Hur announced in February 2024 that he would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, citing that Biden is “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Although a transcript was released, the White House asserted executive privilege over releasing recordings after Garland urged the administration not to release the recordings, according to a letter obtained by Fox News in May of last year. 

BIDEN’S ‘AUTOPEN SIGNATURE’ APPEARS ON MOST OFFICIAL DOCS, RAISING CONCERNS OVER WHO CONTROLLED THE WH: REPORT

“The audio recordings of your interview and Mr. Zwonitzer’s interview fall within the scope of executive privilege. Production of these recordings to the Committees would raise an unacceptable risk of undermining the Department’s ability to conduct similar high-profile criminal investigations–in particular, investigations where the voluntary cooperation of White House officials is exceedingly important,” Garland wrote in a letter to Biden last year, justifying why the recordings should not be released.  

PRESIDENT BIDEN PARDONS HIS SIBLINGS JUST MINUTES BEFORE LEAVING OFFICE

Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-OH, subpoenaed the Department of Justice in February 2024 for the recordings and other materials related to the interview and investigation, but to no avail. The House voted to hold Garland in contempt of Congress over the matter in June 2024. 

Comer announced on Friday that his committee will continue “its investigation into the cover-up of Biden’s mental decline and use of autopen” and the use of the pen when Biden pardoned members of his family.  

“The American people deserve to know who was actually calling the shots in the Biden White House, because it wasn’t Joe Biden. His mental decline was obvious to anyone paying attention. But instead of being honest, the Biden Administration, Democrats in Congress, and the legacy media lied and covered it up. They gaslit the American people while propping up a man who was unfit to lead,” Comer said in a press release on Friday, noting that Garland “defied” a subpoena to release the recordings. 

“Key decisions made in the final days of the Biden presidency, including using autopens to issue blanket pardons for the Biden Crime Family, must be fully examined. There are serious concerns that President Biden lacked the mental capacity to authorize those actions. The American people are done being lied to. We’re going to bring the truth into the light, and starting next week, those involved in the cover-up will begin to be put on notice,” Comer said in a statement on Friday. 

The recordings “demonstrate that Biden was completely out of it, and we already found documents that the Biden White House had changed the transcript, edited it to hide this. This is what they were hiding. There’s got to be accountability. Garland should be prosecuted by the Attorney General over the contempt he had for Congress to hide this,” Fitton said on Fox News last week. 

Fox News host Mark Levin said Garland “should be forced to testify before Congress under oath” over the alleged cover-up of Biden’s health. 

“Former Attorney General Garland heard these recordings and used lies and deceit to prevent them from being released to the American people before the Democrats nominated Biden. He should be forced to testify before Congress under oath and held to account for his grotesque abuse of power,” Levin posted to X

HUNTER BIDEN PARDON: MEDIA TAKES LATEST BLOW TO CREDIBILITY WITH BOTCHED COVERAGE OF BROKEN PROMISE

Hours before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, the White House announced pardons for both Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

Less than a half an hour before Trump became president, Biden pardoned members of his family, including his brother James B. Biden, sister Valerie Biden Owens, brother-in-law John T. Owens and brother Francis W. Biden. 

The former president had previously issued a “full and unconditional pardon” to his adult son, Hunter Biden, after he was convicted in two separate federal cases last year. Hunter Biden’s pardon covered a 10-year period, between 2014 to 2024, for any offenses he may have committed. 

“I do think that the Biden pardons need some scrutiny, and they need scrutiny because we want pardons to matter and to be accepted and to be something that’s used correctly. So, I do think we’re going to take a hard look at how they went and what they did. And if they’re null and void,” Ed Martin said in his final press conference while serving as acting U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. 

Trump claimed on Truth Social in March that Biden’s pardons were “void” due to the “fact that they were done by Autopen.” 

“The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” Trump claimed in a Truth Social post.

“In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them! The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime,” Trump added.

BIDEN STRUGGLES WITH WORDS, KEY MEMORIES IN LEAKED AUDIO FROM SPECIAL COUNSEL HUR INTERVIEW

Martin, who will now lead the Department of Justice’s “Weaponization Working Group” targeting political corruption within the federal law enforcement department, added in a media interview earlier this month that he had been investigating Biden’s last-minute pardons. 

“When [former President] Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, and it turned out that Marc Rich had paid a boatload of money to one of Clinton’s friend’s lawyers. That’s not corrupt, it’s not criminal, because the plenary power of the pardon. But in the case of Joe Biden and his pardons, they were so specific. Back 14 years, covering everything you’ve ever done. And when I say specific, they were broad, but they had time stuff on them,” Martin said earlier this month, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation. 

“And that at least leads to questions, because the plenary power’s true. But the question is what is going on here, and I did get responses from some of them and those questions are ongoing,” Martin continued.

Conservative social media users have sounded off that the recordings show Biden lacked the cognitive ability to know about the pardons or executive orders he allegedly signed off on. 

HUR TRANSCRIPT CONFIRMS BIDEN MEMORY LAPSES, CONTRADICTS PRESIDENT’S CLAIM ABOUT EXCHANGE OVER SON’S DEATH

“Joe Biden had no clue where he was for most of his presidency… Just listen to Robert Hur’s interview with him… He’s a complete mess. There’s no way Biden knew about the pardons, executive orders and directives coming out of his office,” conservative X commentator Tim Young posted to the platform.

“I’d say with the Hur tapes coming out, maybe those pardons can be challenged? Biden was CLEARLY mentally incapacitated,” conservative podcast host Shawn Farash posted to X. 

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Fox News Digital reached out to Biden’s office for comment on the tapes and subsequent backlash on Sunday morning but did not immediately receive a reply. 

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NTSB launches ‘go-team’ of specialized investigators after Brooklyn Bridge struck by Mexican Navy ship

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced Sunday it was launching a “go-team” to the Brooklyn Bridge after a Mexican Navy sailing ship crashed into the New York City landmark, killing at least two people aboard. 

The U.S. government agency tasked with investigating major transportation accidents did not initially offer more information about the “go-team” deploying to Saturday’s bridge strike but said updates would soon follow. 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, whose last update on the crash came around midnight, said the Mexican Navy tall ship Cuauhtémoc “lost power and crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge.” 

“At this time, of the 277 on board, 19 sustained injuries, 2 of which remain in critical condition, and 2 more have sadly passed away from their injuries,” the mayor wrote on X at 12:18 a.m. 

AT LEAST 2 DEAD AFTER MEXICAN NAVY SAILING SHIP COLLIDES WITH BROOKLYN BRIDGE IN DRAMATIC NYC CRASH

Adams said at that time a preliminary investigation showed the bridge sustained “no damage” and that the landmark “is now open to the public.” 

“We are praying for everyone on board and their families and are grateful to our first responders who quickly jumped into action, ensuring this accident wasn’t much worse,” he wrote early Sunday. 

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she regretted the passing of two crew members who “lost their lives in the unfortunate accident at the port of New York.” 

“Our solidarity and support go out to their families,” she wrote at 1:15 a.m. on X. “The Secretariat of the Navy, with the support of local authorities, is attending to the injured. The Ambassador of Mexico to the United States and staff from the Consulate General of Mexico in New York are assisting the Secretariat of the Navy.”

She also thanked Adams for his support. 

The Mexican Navy said on Saturday the ship was an academy training vessell. The incident happened during the “departure maneuver” during an instructional cruise titled, “Bicentennial of the Consolidation of Independence at Sea.” 

The cause of the collision remains under investigation. The ship was supposed to be leaving New York City on its way to Iceland at the time of the crash. 

In a scene captured in multiple eyewitness videos, the ship – which was flying a large Mexican flag – could be seen traveling swiftly in reverse toward the bridge near the Brooklyn side of the East River. Then, its three masts struck the bridge’s span and snapped, one by one, as the ship kept moving. Videos showed heavy traffic on the span at the time of the 8:20 p.m. collision. No one on the bridge was reported injured.

TRUMP SAYS MEXICAN PRESIDENT IS AFRAID OF CARTELS AFTER SHE REJECTED HIS OFFER TO SEND US TROOPS TO MEXICO

Sailors could be seen aloft in the rigging on the damaged masts but, remarkably, no one fell into the water, officials said.

The Cuauhtémoc – about 297 feet long and 40 feet wide, according to the Mexican Navy – sailed for the first time in 1982. The vessel’s main mast has a height of 160 feet, according to the Mexican government. Each year, the Cuauhtémoc sets out at the end of classes at the naval military school to finish cadets’ training. This year it left the Mexican port of Acapulco on the Pacific coast on April 6, according to the Mexican Navy. 

It arrived in New York City on May 13, where visitors were welcome for several days, the Mexican consulate said. The ship was scheduled to visit 22 ports in 15 nations over 254 days, 170 of them at sea.

It was unclear what caused the ship to veer off course. New York Police Department Special Operations Chief Wilson Aramboles said the ship had just left a Manhattan pier and was supposed to have been headed out to sea, not toward the bridge.

He said an initial report was that the pilot of the ship had lost power due to a mechanical problem, though officials cautioned that information was preliminary. Videos show a tugboat was close to the Cuauhtémoc at the time of the crash.

The Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883, has a nearly 1,600-foot main span supported by two masonry towers. More than 100,000 vehicles and an estimated 32,000 pedestrians cross every day, according to the city’s transportation department. Its walkway is a major tourist attraction.

Traffic was halted after the collision but was allowed to resume after an inspection, city officials said.

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As midnight approached, the broken boat was moved slowly up the East River, going under and past the Manhattan Bridge, aided by a series of tugboats, before docking at a pier.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Pompeii family’s desperate final moments revealed in new archaeological excavation

Archaeologists uncovered disturbing details about a Pompeii family’s fight for survival during the destructive eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

The Pompeii Archaeological Park announced the recent excavation in a Facebook post in April. Researchers investigated the House of Helle and Phrixus in Pompeii, finding proof of “residents’ attempts to save themselves from the ongoing eruption.”

The house consists of an entrance, an atrium with a water collection basin called an impluvium, and a bedroom — plus a room with a canopy and a banquet hall with “richly decorated walls.”

ANCIENT TOMB TIED TO ROMAN GLADIATOR DISCOVERED BY ARCHAEOLOGISTS

“This opening may have allowed lapilli (volcanic rock fragments) to rain inside the house during the early phases of the eruption, from which the victims, now found, tried to protect themselves by taking refuge in a room barricaded with a bed,” noted the statement, which was translated from Italian to English. 

“A cast of the bed was made by identifying voids in the solidified ash formed by the organic decomposition of the wood,” officials said. 

“Plaster was poured into the voids to reconstruct the shape of the bed preserved as an imprint in the ash.”

In one striking account, researchers found that a family placed a bed across a bedroom door as a makeshift barricade to protect themselves against the volcanic eruption.

EXPERTS SHOCKED BY ANCIENT KING ARTHUR MANUSCRIPT FOUND TUCKED INSIDE BOOK: ‘SURVIVED THE CENTURIES’

Archaeologists also came across the remains of at least four people in the house, including a child. 

“The child likely owned the bronze bulla found here, an amulet worn by boys until reaching adulthood,” the post said. 

Excavators also found various pantry items, which paint a vivid picture of daily life in Ancient Rome.

“Among various other objects discovered were a stash of amphorae stored under a staircase serving as a pantry, some used to contain garum, a widely used fish sauce; and a set of bronze vessels, including a ladle, a single-handled jug, a basket-shaped vase, and a shell-shaped cup,” the statement said.

The house may have also been undergoing renovation at the time of the eruption, as there were thresholds removed and traces of wall cutting sitting at the entrance of the residence.

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“However, it continued to be occupied by its residents, who, caught by the eruption, chose not to leave the house, meeting their end there,” the statement added.

The house was named for a mythological painting that depicts Elle and Phrixus, two figures in Greek mythology.

The painting was found on one of the house’s walls, though archaeologists do not believe that the inhabitants worshiped Greek gods.

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“[In] the 1st century AD, these stories no longer held the religious and cultural significance they had in the archaic and classical ages,” the archaeological organization said. 

“We must assume, therefore, that their function in the homes of the middle and upper classes was primarily entertainment, the display of economic and cultural status, and ‘beauty,’ which is also evident in this medium-sized domus.”

In a statement, Pompeii Archaeological Park director Gabriel Zuchtriegel said the excavation helps to confront “the fragility of life for all of us.”

“In this wonderfully decorated small house, we found traces of the inhabitants who tried to save themselves by blocking the entrance to a small room with a bed, of which we made a cast,” Zuchtriegel said. 

“This was because lapilli, volcanic stones, were entering through the atrium roof opening, threatening to invade the space,” he continued. 

“They didn’t make it; in the end, the pyroclastic flow arrived, a violent stream of scorching ash that filled every room here, as elsewhere, with seismic shocks having already caused many buildings to collapse.”

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