Queen Bey announced a world tour following her performance — one that included a May 14 return to San Francisco. Everyone rejoiced. Well, almost everyone. MORE: Even Queen Bey couldn’t save Coldplay The 49ers announced Tuesday that they’d be cancelling a planned May 14 sleepover at Levi’s Stadium, one that was to reward a bunch of Girl Scouts for their cookie-slinging. It would have allowed the girls to spend a night at the stadium, meet the 49ers cheerleaders and have some pizza and watch movies on the field....

“What’s the science behind the FAA extending the mask mandate on planes? Biden keeps pushing the deadline over and over and over again,” Florida Republican Representative Carlos A. Gimenez wrote on Twitter. “States and local communities have been rolling back these useless mandates for months. It’s time Biden do the same.” The criticism came shortly after the TSA issued a statement on Thursday saying that following a recommendation from the U....

It’s the first time Biden has used the term invasion to describe Putin’s decision to recognize the independence of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics—two Russia-backed separatist regions of eastern Ukraine—and send troops to the area. The president faced criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for failing to deem the move an “invasion” even as tanks were seen rolling into Donetsk on Monday night. The White House’s principal deputy national security adviser Jonathan Finer also beat Biden to the punch, stating Moscow’s aggression was in fact an invasion when pressed by CNN on Tuesday morning....

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said that the agency’s “top priority is the health and safety of the children in our care.” “We are assessing the Texas directive concerning licensed facilities providing care to unaccompanied children and do not intend to close any facilities as a result of the order,” Sarah Lovenheim, assistant secretary for public affairs at HHS, wrote on Twitter....

The Kaiser Family Foundation, which regularly releases a Vaccine Monitor report looking at the profile of the unvaccinated, found that while 37% of unvaccinated adults are white Republicans, second on the list were Hispanic adults comprising 18% of the group. But while 65% of unvaccinated whites and 58% of unvaccinated Republicans reported they are “definitely not” getting the vaccine, that number was only 13% among Latinos, with 27% saying they were still taking a “wait and see” approach....

In a speech in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Trump falsely claimed he had already won the election, despite no news organizations declaring a victor. He also called for ballots to stop being counted before many millions of votes had been tallied, baselessly alleging that fraud was taking place, and vowed to mount a legal challenge. “We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court,” he said, without elaborating on exactly why....

The Biden administration move to remove every single member of the Pentagon’s policy advisory boards allowed Austin to avoid selectively firing late Trump administration appointments. Pending nominees, like Corey Lewandowski, the former head of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and one of his most outspoken cable news advocates, were also blocked from being seated. Numerous Democrats touted this move, saying President Joe Biden is finally “draining the swamp.” Such advisory boards are used to influence the actions of the defense secretary, particularly in how it will affect U....

On Tuesday, Biden spoke at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the site of a consequential Union victory during July 1863 of the U.S. Civil War, and echoed the words of Civil War President Abraham Lincoln in calling America “a house divided.” “Today, once again, we are a house divided. But that, my friends, can no longer be. We are facing too many crises, we have too much work to do, we have too bright a future to have it shipwrecked on the shores of anger and hate and division,” Biden said, according to NPR....

A day after polls started closing, the presidential election is still too close to call, although Biden is within six points of victory, according to the Associated Press. Even if the former vice president reaches the 270 electoral college votes needed to win, lawsuits could prevent a winner from being declared for weeks, and at this point in the game both candidates are expecting to be declared the winner....

The poll, which was conducted by OH Predictive Insights, surveyed 600 likely voters in Arizona from May 9 to May 11. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. According to the poll, Biden received 50 percent of supporters in Arizona, while 43 percent sided with Trump. Biden has held a steady advantage over Trump in the state since March, receiving support from 49 percent of respondents then and 52 percent in April....

Some conservative commentators expressed their opinions about Daskalakis, who is openly gay, and criticized President Joe Biden for deciding in August to appoint him to the position. “Meet Demetre Daskalakis. Demetre was just appointed by Joe Biden to be the official White House National Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator. Demetre proudly wears the official symbol of the Church of Satan: The Pentagram. Joe Biden appointed a Satanist to the White House,” Newsmax host Benny Johnson tweeted on Thursday....

FiveThirtyEight reported the president’s approval rating as of Thursday, his 240th day in office. Though Biden’s rating dropped from 50.3 percent in August, it is higher than Donald Trump’s 38.8 percent at the same point during his presidency. However, the poll shows that Biden currently has less approval than Barack Obama did, with 53.4 percent on his 240th day in office, while George W. Bush had 83.2 percent and Bill Clinton 48....

The White House released on Friday a list of 40 world leaders invited to take part in the virtual meeting, a concept first established under former President George W. Bush, carried on by former President Barack Obama but scrapped by Biden’s predecessor, former President Donald Trump. Among the notable names on the list are Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, as Washington officials feuded with both Beijing and Moscow in the first two months of Biden’s administration....

Ghost guns are handmade firearms, which can be assembled without commercial serial numbers and sold to buyers who have not undergone background checks necessary for retail purchases. In the aftermath of two mass shootings that took place in Georgia and Atlanta last month, a group of Democratic state attorneys expressed concern about the lack of regulations effected to manage ghost gun sales in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland....

Oil prices have skyrocketed in recent months, largely because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, sending the White House scrambling to find ways to bring down the cost at the pump. Biden told reporters on Monday that he hoped to have a decision on implementing a gas tax holiday by “the end of the week,” adding that his administration is also considering sending out gas rebate cards. Such a move would still need to make its way through Congress, but it could lower prices at the pump by as much as 18 cents a gallon....

If the federal government and Federal Reserve were to ultimately issue a CBDC, it would be the first time in a century that America has released an entirely new currency. Although the executive order’s language leaves the door open for federal agencies to recommend against the creation of a digital dollar, the evidence strongly suggests this will not occur, and that the White House will formally propose a plan for a digital currency by the end of the year....

After Omicron, a new coronavirus variant of concern, was identified, Biden instituted a ban on travelers entering the United States from South Africa and six other African countries. Amid a decline in Americans’ approval of how Biden’s been handling the pandemic, the travel restrictions appear to be a winning issue with voters, and a recent poll found a majority of Americans agree with the measure. A Hill-Harris X poll released Tuesday found that 71 percent of all voters backed Biden’s imposition of travel restrictions on several Southern Africa countries....

Both Biden and Sanders released campaign ads on Tuesday night amid a clash over the former vice president’s history on Social Security. Sanders, as part of his campaign to become the next president, has accused Biden of frequently backing proposals to cut benefits during his time as a senator. Biden’s campaign video accused Sanders of launching “dishonest attacks” against him. The video was released after Biden urged the Vermont senator to “disown” a so-called “doctored” video, shared on social media by members of Sanders’ campaign team, appearing to show Biden agreeing with former Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s view on privatizing the Social Security program....

The president was responding to a question from a reporter who asked about Russia’s allegation that Ukraine was planning to deploy nuclear weapons or a “dirty bomb” on its own territory. Some Western officials have warned that Russia’s accusation could be a pretext for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military to escalate the war against Ukraine. “I spent a lot of time today talking about that,” Biden said in response to the reporter’s question....

A new Quinnipiac poll, released Wednesday, showed Biden leading Trump by 11 points in Florida, with 51 percent of likely voters supporting the Democrat and 40 percent supporting the Republican. A previous September 3 poll showed Biden ahead by 3 points in the state with 48 percent of support compared to Trump’s 45 percent. Trump trailed behind Biden by an even larger margin—13 points—in Pennsylvania. The former vice president pulled 54 percent of support among likely voters, compared to the president’s 41 percent....