A contemporary art fair has opened in Kyiv under the theme that art can help society cope with the realities of war. Titled “This is Normal,” the fair features hundreds of works from expressive abstraction to surreal portraiture, but deliberately avoids any focus on the conflict. Organizers say the event also aims to revive Ukraine’s art market, which has struggled from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and then the Russian war. The fair has brought together prominent galleries, artists and collectors. Its director, Anna Avetova, said art is “one of the things that keeps us human.”

Public health experts are questioning the U.S. government's response to the hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship that involves Americans. President Donald Trump says “we seem to have things under very good control.” But experts and former government health officials say the response by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been feeble compared with how it dealt with similar outbreaks in the past. They say the CDC’s diminished role in the hantavirus outbreak is an indicator that the agency is no longer the force in international health or the protector of domestic health that it once was.

A hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean has sparked fear among Spanish passengers, not from illness, but from potential stigma upon returning home. Sensational news and memes have fueled anxiety, with many joking online about the ship being sunk. The World Health Organization emphasizes that hantavirus is not like COVID-19 and poses low public risk. However, some Spanish politicians express concern. Despite the ordeal, two Spanish passengers interviewed by The Associated Press remain optimistic about future cruises, viewing the event as a rare misfortune.

Footage obtained by The Associated Press of a cruise ship in a rare-virus outbreak shows deserted decks and medical teams in protective gear as the vessel and its nearly 150 passengers and crew waited another day for help off West Africa. Officials say three passengers have died, and at least four people are sick. Authorities say the outbreak involves hantavirus, which usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings. Two cases are confirmed. Passengers are isolating in cabins. The vessel is in the Atlantic off Cape Verde. Officials say it plans to move to Spain’s Canary Islands after medical evacuations. But Spanish officials said earlier Tuesday that they haven’t made a decision.

Ohio's primary election set up two marquee matchups in November. One is a U.S. Senate race that will help determine control of the chamber. The other is a governor’s race featuring a former presidential candidate and the state’s COVID-era health director. The Senate campaign is on track to be among the most expensive this year as Republicans try to hold onto their majority during a difficult midterm cycle. Former Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, will attempt to unseat Republican Sen. Jon Husted. In the governor’s race, biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy clinched the Republican nomination on Tuesday and will face off this fall against the state’s COVID-era health director, Democrat Amy Acton.

A recent trip to New Zealand to visit her pen pal of 40 years made an Associated Press reporter from New Hampshire wonder about the history of programs that bring strangers together to write letters. While the program that matched them as teenagers folded years ago, others are still going strong. And even though the government postal service in Denmark recently stopped delivering letters altogether, some see signs of a letter-writing resurgence. More than 15,000 people signed up for a pen pal program created by a writer for The New Yorker during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, an app called Slowly that mimics the anticipation of receiving a letter by delaying digital message deliveries has 10 million users.

Democrat Amy Acton is running unopposed in her party’s primary for Ohio governor, but she'll face some steep challenges in the November general election. The physician's most formidable obstacle may be the COVID-19 pandemic. Acton was Ohio’s public health director when the coronavirus hit the United States in early 2020. More than six years later, the orders that Acton signed at the behest of the state’s Republican governor to battle the virus have become a central line of criticism from Republicans. Those orders included closing schools, shuttering businesses, restricting sporting events and even suspending voting during the 2020 primary election.

Schools have been closed across Iran since the United States and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, with no word on when in-person instruction will resume. The fear of airstrikes has lifted since a fragile ceasefire went into effect, but life has not returned to normal. As with the COVID closures six years ago, it’s especially difficult for working parents with small children. The war has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, including more than 165 people killed in a strike on an elementary school. The ceasefire is set to expire early next week, with the U.S. and Iran still divided on key issues like Iran’s enriched uranium.