The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has detected multiple cases of the new COVID-19 variant NB.1.8.1, which has been linked toa spike in cases in China. A CDC spokesperson confirmed the findings to Fox News Digital, but said there had been too few cases for the strain to be included in the agencys COVID Data Tracker.A LOOK BACK AT THE EARLY DAYS OF CORONAVIRUS SPREAD"There have been fewer than 20 sequences of NB.1.8.1 in the U.S. baseline surveillance data to date, so it has not met the threshold for inclusion in the COVID Data Tracker dashboard," a CDC spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "We monitor all SARS-CoV-2 sequences, and if it increases in proportion, it will appear on the Data Tracker dashboard."The cases were reportedly detected through the CDCs airport screening program, according to CBS News, though the CDC spokesperson did not confirm this to Fox News Digital.TRUMP'S 'MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN' COMMISSION TO TARGET AUTISM, CHRONIC DISEASESWhile the CDC has detected the new variant in the U.S., the agency also reported on May 23 that emergency room visits for influenza, COVID and RSV are currently "very low." In its two-week predictions for COVID and influenza, the CDC said it expects the number of ER visits will likely stay at the current low level.A CDC map showing COVID-19 cases detected through wastewater (sewage) testing indicates that most states are seeing either low or very low levels of the virus. The only state experiencing a high level of viral activity, according to CDC data, is South Dakota.The COVID-19 NB.1.8.1 variant has been linked to a high number of cases in China and Hong Kong.Earlier this month, Hong Kong authorities issued a statement urging the public especially high-risk individuals to wear surgical masks. However, the statement also noted that there is no evidence NB.1.8.1 is more serious than other COVID-19 variants.

A CNN anchor is the co-author of a buzzy new book that sheds light on President Joe Biden's apparent mental decline in office and the cover-up orchestrated by his team, but various CNN figures were critical in the past of narratives that questioned his fitness.As Jake Tapper and co-author Alex Thompson promote "Original Sin," an account of the cover-up that features high-level Democratic sources, media critics have noted CNN and other mainstream outlets downplayed or were even hostile to the suggestion that Biden could be losing his grip before last year's debate against President Donald Trump.Here are four examples at CNN.NEW BOOK REVEALS BIDEN'S INNER CIRCLE WORRIED ABOUT HIS AGE YEARS BEFORE BOTCHED DEBATE PERFORMANCEVideos of Biden freezing up or appearing confused at various events went viral throughout 2024, but the White House aggressively pushed back, saying some of them were edited in a misleading fashion or didn't show what they purported.The term "cheap fakes" was popularized, and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre noted from the podium that fact-checkers and mainstream outlets also embraced the term.CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz pushed the White Houses narrative last year about a video of Biden appearing to freeze up at a fundraiser with Jimmy Kimmel, saying Biden had merely "looked out at the crowd for a few seconds" before walking offstage with President Barack Obama, adding that "Republicans and right-leaning media outlets" "used this moment to say that President Biden froze."Moments later during a panel discussion, CNN commentator and former Kamala Harris adviser Jamal Simmons called Biden's fundraiser moment an "obviously selected video.""These are cheap fakes, [as] the White House and Biden people are calling them," Simmons told CNN's Erin Burnett.Tapper feels differently about them.JAKE TAPPER DECLARES BIDEN WHITE HOUSE LIED ABOUT 'CHEAP FAKES' AFTER CNN PEDDLED NARRATIVE IN 2024"The Biden White House falsely- when people showed that clip and asked what was going on- said it was a cheap fake. They did this all the time when there was video that seemed to show Biden acting in an odd or unusual, seemingly out-of-it way, they would call it a cheap fake. It was not fake. It was actual video," Tapper said last week.In a story in the aftermath of the Robert Hur report where Biden was memorably described as an elderly man with a poor memory, CNN's website published an article expressing concerns about both Biden and Trump and what type of cognitive ability was normal for a person in their 80s.The article cited a professor who said Biden's issues with word recall were not necessarily indicative of someone having memory issues. Biden at times during the interview with Hur had difficulty remembering when he was vice president and the year of his son Beau's death in 2015.The article concluded with the professor saying that ageism was codified in how people talk to one another, suggesting that the skepticism about Biden was a form of prejudice against the elderly."Ageism is not just what people do to each other. Ageism is also a mindset that you carry within yourself," the professor said. "It actually impacts your health negatively."JAKE TAPPER'S PAST COVERAGE OF BIDEN'S COGNITIVE DECLINE UNDER SCRUTINY AHEAD OF HIS NEW BOOKEx-CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy repeatedly hammered proponents of the idea that Biden was in mental decline in his "Reliable Sources" newsletter before leaving CNN last year."For years, and particularly over the last few months, MAGA Media has portrayed Biden as a senile, mentally incapacitated elderly man who cannot remember what he had for breakfast, let alone run the federal government," Darcy wrote in a newsletter last June, before the then-president's disastrous debate.Darcy declared the debate would give Biden an easy chance to "puncture the narrative" that he lacked fitness for office, suggesting Republicans had stupidly lowered the bar so much that Biden would easily clear it and come out of the debate stronger."That's a worry for right-wing media figures, which risk seeing their bogus narrative about Biden being ripped up in real time," he wrote.Darcy also blasted the Wall Street Journal report last June about Biden's behind-the-scenes decline in his newsletter, saying it "owes its readers and the public better." Asked for comment by Fox News Digital about his past coverage, Darcy, who left CNN last year to start his own newsletter called Status, pointed to his newsletter Wednesday where he declared conservative media outlets were taking an undeserved victory lap.BIDEN INSIDER EXPOSES HOW WHITE HOUSE 'GASLIT' THE PUBLIC ABOUT FORMER PRESIDENT'S DECLINE"For years, right-wing media pushed a warped narrative of Joe Biden as a brain-dead puppet controlled by sinister, shadowy forces. Now theyre demanding vindicationbut they do not deserve it," he wrote.Even after Biden dropped out of the race last July, "The View" co-host and CNN commentator Ana Navarro was committed to defending his mental acuity in office.Later that week, Manhattan Institute official Reihan Salam wondered if Biden should even stay in office until his term ended, but Navarro erupted that any talk about his state behind the scenes was mere speculation."No, it is speculation! It is speculation! Because actually, unlike you, Ive actually seen the guy at 9:00 at night. I have seen him after he has had five different events in 24 hours," Navarro said at one point.Navarro appeared to have a strong interest in Biden, beyond that of a typical media pundit. Although she continues to identify as a Republican, the left-wing commentator is an avid supporter of the Democratic Party, hosted the second night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, and has referred to Biden and Harris as "Uncle Joe" and "Auntie Kamala."CNN has stood behind Tapper's past reporting in light of his new job, pointing to examples when he aggressively covered the subject. For his part, however, Tapper has said he feels "humility" about his past work on Biden and praised conservative media outlets for discussing what was in plain sight.Fox News Digital's Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: A group of House Republicans are requesting Fiscal Year 2026 spending bills to include language prohibiting federal funding for transgender experiments on animals.Republican Reps. Paul Gosar, Elijah Crane, Abraham J. Hamadeh of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Brandon Gill of Texas, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Pete Stauber of Minnesota and Troy E. Nehls of Texas are urging the chairman and ranking member of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies to prohibit transgender experiments on animals in its FY2026 appropriations bill.House Republicans have requested the committee include the following language: "None of the funds made available by this or any other Act thereafter may be used for research on vertebrate animals for the purpose of studying the effects of drugs, surgery, or other interventions to alter the human body (including by disrupting the bodys development, inhibiting its natural functions, or modifying its appearance) to no longer correspond to its biological sex."The letter, addressed to Chairman Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., and Ranking Member Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., points to the dozens of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants issued during former President Joe Biden's administration that are funding "wasteful and disturbing experiments to create transfeminine and transmasculine lab animals using invasive surgeries and hormone therapies."TRUMP ADMIN CUTS ADDITIONAL $1M IN FEDERAL FUNDING FOR 'TRANSGENDER ANIMAL' EXPERIMENTS$10M IN TAXPAYER FUNDS SPENT CREATING TRANSGENDER ANIMALS: REP. NANCY MACE"The transgender animals are then wounded, shocked, injected with street drugs and vaccines, and subjected to other disturbing procedures," the House Republicans said in the letter, as Fox News Digital reported earlier this year."President Trump has personally criticized these experiments on several occasions, and the Department of Government Efficiency has canceled millions in NIH grants funding transgender animal testing. However, many of these NIH grants funding gender transitions for lab animals are still active," House GOP members said.President Donald Trump condemned transgender animal experiments during his joint address to Congress in March. The White Coat Waste Project, a government watchdog group that testified about transgender animal experiments on Capitol Hill earlier this year, told Fox News Digital there are still "29 active taxpayer-funded grants that have been used to fund transgender animal tests.""We urge you to include the language above in the FY26 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill to ensure no more taxpayer dollars are wasted to fund transgender animal tests," the Republicans said in the letter.The White Coat Waste Project, in a statement to Fox News Digital, touted their role in halting taxpayer-funded "transgender animal tests," and celebrated the House Republicans' bill, led by Gosar, to stop more federally funded experiments."Thanks to White Coat Wastes viral investigations and collaboration with Rep. Paul Gosar and others in Congress, the Trump Administration has slashed spending on wasteful experiments that subject lab animals to invasive surgeries and hormone therapies to crudely mimic gender transitions in kids and adults and then wound, shock and inject the animals with vaccines and overdoses ofsexpartydrugs," Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President of White Coat Waste Project, said."These Trump cuts have already saved thousands of lab animals and millions of tax dollars, but dozens more NIH grants that funnel tax dollars to disturbing transgender animal tests are still active. Taxpayers shouldnt be forced to foot the bill for wasteful and cruel transgender animal tests, and Rep. Gosars commonsense effort to permanently defund them will ensure they wont have to."

Jeff Bezos and fiance Lauren Snchez packed on the PDA while soaking up the sun earlier this week ahead of their wedding this summer.In photos obtained by Fox News Digital, the 61-year-old Amazon founder was spotted getting handsy with the 55-year-old former entertainment journalist as the couple spent a day at sea with friends on Bezos' $500 million sailing yacht, which was anchored off the coast of Cannes, France. Bezos was seen playfully smacking and patting his bride-to-be on her backside while she tanned on a lounge chair next to a friend who smiled at the couple.Snchez showed off her toned figure in a leopard-print thong string bikini and a straw bucket hat while Bezos wore a navy blue T-shirt with blue and white patterned swim trunks.LAUREN SANCHEZ HOSTS STAR-STUDDED PARIS BACHELORETTE PARTY BEFORE BEZOS WEDDINGIn several photos, Bezos was seen kneeling on Snchez's lounge chair as he bent over to kiss and cuddle her. In other snaps, the billionaire was spotted rubbing Snchez's arms and nuzzling her neck.Snchez was photographed sitting up on her knees as she raised her fist in the air and bent over to grab her hat from a nearby table.The pair were later spotted side by side as they enjoyed lunch with their friends at a table on one of the yacht's decks.According to Architectural Digest, Bezos first commissioned his yacht, which he named Koru, in 2018, and it was delivered to the Blue Origin founder in 2023. At 417 feet long, Koru is the largest sailing yacht in the world, according to the outlet.MYSTERY COUPLE MISTAKEN FOR JEFF BEZOS AND LAUREN SANCHEZ AT CANNESThe three-masted yacht boasts nine staterooms, teak decks, three Jacuzzis, a swimming pool and a pickleball court. Koru is accompanied by a $75 million support vessel named Abeona, which features a helipad and a hangar.According to Architectural Digest, Snchez, a licensed helicopter pilot, has been spotted flying her helicopter to and from Abeona.Bezos proposed to Snchez while aboard Koru in May 2023, she told Vogue in November of that year.The two are staying in Cannes and have attended events celebrating the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Last Saturday, Snchez attended the Global Gift Gala in Cannes. She was given the Women Empowerment Award at that event for her "commitment to uplifting others, breaking barriers, and championing change," the Global Gift Foundation said in an Instagram post.On Sunday, Bezos and Snchez were spotted walking hand in hand through Cannes as they enjoyed a dinner date in town.On Thursday, the pair attended the glitzy amfAR Gala Cannes 2025, which raised funds to support AIDS research.In photos from the event, Snchez sat at a table with Bezos and kissed his cheek.Prior to arriving in Cannes, Snchez visited Paris, where she hosted a three-day star-studded bachelorette party.The festivities kicked off May 14 at the historic restaurant Lafayette's, where Snchez hosted a dinner for an intimate gathering of 13 women, including Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner, Katy Perry and Eva Longoria.LIKE WHAT YOURE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS"The atmosphere was very relaxed and very Parisian," a source shared with People. "It was a pre-wedding all-girl party for 13."Snchez later shared a photo of the group posing on Lafayette's rooftop with the Eiffel Tower in the background.CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER"Forever starts with friendship, surrounded by the women whove lifted me up, illuminated my path in dark times, and shaped my heart along the way," she wrote in the caption.On May 16, Snchez's bachelorette group was spotted heading to lunch before partying on a yacht. Snchez hosted another bachelorette event at Le Grand Cafe at Grand Palais May 17.In March, Puck News reported Bezos and Snchez had mailed wedding invitations. They will reportedly tie the knot this June in Venice, Italy.The city of Venice said later that month it was "mutually working and supporting" the organizers of the couples wedding.VENICE TO PLAY HOST TO BEZOS, SANCHEZ WEDDING, CITY SAYSVenice said at the time it would be "easy" for the city to "accommodate" the couples nuptials "without any disruption whatsoever to the city, its residents and visitors."

Earlier this year, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uncovered $4.7 trillion in untraceable Treasury Department payments.Prior to the discovery, Treasury Account Symbol (TAS) identification codes were optional for $4.7 trillion in Treasury Department payments, so they were often left blank and were untraceable. The field is now required to increase "insight into where the money is actually going," the Treasury Department and DOGE announced in February."Of the 1.5 billion payments that we send out every year, they are required to have a TAS, a Treasury Account Symbol. We discovered that more than one third of those payments did not have a TAS number," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government earlier this month.Fox News Digital asked Republican senators on Capitol Hill to respond to the approximately 500,000 in untraceable payments made by the Treasury Department each year.DOGE SAYS IT FOUND NEARLY UNTRACEABLE BUDGET LINE ITEM RESPONSIBLE FOR $4.7T IN PAYMENTS"I'm not surprised at all, unfortunately," Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, said before adding, "They were leaving complete fields undone when they were filling out their financials, so this is a common theme. I'm not surprised."TOP 5 MOST OUTRAGEOUS WAYS THE GOVERNMENT HAS WASTED YOUR TAXES, AS UNCOVERED BY ELON MUSK'S DOGESen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, called for an investigation into where those payments actually went."There's so much waste. There's so much fraud, There's so much abuse in our government," Schmitt told Fox News Digital. "I'm glad there was a laser-like focus on it. We ought to make many of those reforms permanent, but there probably ought to be some investigations here about where this money actually went. I mean this is taxpayer money. People work hard."After DOGE and the Treasury Department uncovered $4.7 trillion in untraceable funds, Marshall and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida introduced a bill in March requiring the Treasury Department to track all payments.The Locating Every Disbursement in Government Expenditure Records (LEDGER) Act seeks to increase transparency in how the Treasury Department spends taxpayer money."When you hear about this story that they didn't know where the money was going, it makes you mad because this is somebody's money, this is taxpayers' money when we have almost $37 trillion in debt, so this makes no sense at all," Scott said.The Congressional Budget projects that interest payments on America's national debt will total $952 billion in fiscal year 2025. That's $102 billion more than the United States' defense budget at $850 billion.CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP"We paid out more last year on our debt, $36 trillion in debt, with $950 billion in interest going to bondholders all over the world, including in China. That $950 billion didn't go to build a bridge or an F-35. We paid more on the interest on debt than we did to fund our military," said Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska."That is an inflection point that when most countries hit, you look at history, that's when great powers start to decline. So we have to get those savings."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has detected multiple cases of the new COVID-19 variant NB.1.8.1, which has been linked toa spike in cases in China. A CDC spokesperson confirmed the findings to Fox News Digital, but said there had been too few cases for the strain to be included in the agencys COVID Data Tracker.A LOOK BACK AT THE EARLY DAYS OF CORONAVIRUS SPREAD"There have been fewer than 20 sequences of NB.1.8.1 in the U.S. baseline surveillance data to date, so it has not met the threshold for inclusion in the COVID Data Tracker dashboard," a CDC spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "We monitor all SARS-CoV-2 sequences, and if it increases in proportion, it will appear on the Data Tracker dashboard."The cases were reportedly detected through the CDCs airport screening program, according to CBS News, though the CDC spokesperson did not confirm this to Fox News Digital.TRUMP'S 'MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN' COMMISSION TO TARGET AUTISM, CHRONIC DISEASESWhile the CDC has detected the new variant in the U.S., the agency also reported on May 23 that emergency room visits for influenza, COVID and RSV are currently "very low." In its two-week predictions for COVID and influenza, the CDC said it expects the number of ER visits will likely stay at the current low level.A CDC map showing COVID-19 cases detected through wastewater (sewage) testing indicates that most states are seeing either low or very low levels of the virus. The only state experiencing a high level of viral activity, according to CDC data, is South Dakota.The COVID-19 NB.1.8.1 variant has been linked to a high number of cases in China and Hong Kong.Earlier this month, Hong Kong authorities issued a statement urging the public especially high-risk individuals to wear surgical masks. However, the statement also noted that there is no evidence NB.1.8.1 is more serious than other COVID-19 variants.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has detected multiple cases of the new COVID-19 variant NB.1.8.1, which has been linked toa spike in cases in China. A CDC spokesperson confirmed the findings to Fox News Digital, but said there had been too few cases for the strain to be included in the agencys COVID Data Tracker.A LOOK BACK AT THE EARLY DAYS OF CORONAVIRUS SPREAD"There have been fewer than 20 sequences of NB.1.8.1 in the U.S. baseline surveillance data to date, so it has not met the threshold for inclusion in the COVID Data Tracker dashboard," a CDC spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "We monitor all SARS-CoV-2 sequences, and if it increases in proportion, it will appear on the Data Tracker dashboard."The cases were reportedly detected through the CDCs airport screening program, according to CBS News, though the CDC spokesperson did not confirm this to Fox News Digital.TRUMP'S 'MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN' COMMISSION TO TARGET AUTISM, CHRONIC DISEASESWhile the CDC has detected the new variant in the U.S., the agency also reported on May 23 that emergency room visits for influenza, COVID and RSV are currently "very low." In its two-week predictions for COVID and influenza, the CDC said it expects the number of ER visits will likely stay at the current low level.A CDC map showing COVID-19 cases detected through wastewater (sewage) testing indicates that most states are seeing either low or very low levels of the virus. The only state experiencing a high level of viral activity, according to CDC data, is South Dakota.The COVID-19 NB.1.8.1 variant has been linked to a high number of cases in China and Hong Kong.Earlier this month, Hong Kong authorities issued a statement urging the public especially high-risk individuals to wear surgical masks. However, the statement also noted that there is no evidence NB.1.8.1 is more serious than other COVID-19 variants.

The speech to the 2025 graduation class will mark his first military commencement address of Trumps second term.

The speech to the 2025 graduation class will mark his first military commencement address of Trumps second term.

Bill Belichick went viral in November 2023 after appearing shirtless on doorbell camera footage outside a home.The video resurfaced shortly after rumors of Belichick's later confirmed relationship with Jordon Hudson began. Reports originally stated that the home belonged to Hudson.But according to Pablo Torre, it was actually an AirBnB in Winthrop, Mass., and he had the couple who owned the home on his show to speak about the shock when they realized that the eight-time Super Bowl champion was on their doorstep.CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM"We saw the Ring video in the morning, not knowing who this was," the woman, who opted to stay anonymous, said, "but it was an older gentleman with a very young woman who checked in the night before."The woman's husband then butted in, bringing up his wife's concerns about this mysterious man."Shes said, Shes with this creepy old guy.' She thought her relative or a drug dealer was the first thing because of the age discrepancy. Remember you went, Must be a freaking coke dealer. I was like, What? Come on."So that was her first reaction. And then I start looking [and] Im like, That does look like Belichick!"CELEBRITY BOXING FOUNDER INVITES BILL BELICHICK'S FORMER AND CURRENT PARTNERS TO 'SETTLE BEEF' IN THE RINGThe owners of the home said Hudson had booked the stay. They added they had invited her to play golf, and that she had replied that she preferred a "men's senior shaft.""I didn't think anything of it at the time," the woman said.Belichick and Hudson's relationship was confirmed, but reports have said they began dating in early 2022. It's been rumored that they met on an airplane the year before.Hudson recently ripped Torre for "factually incorrect, slanderous, defamatory and targeted" reporting.Torre previously reported that Hudson had been banned from the University of North Carolina football complex earlier in May. However, the university released a statement denying that report shortly after Torre's report came out.The 73-year-old and 24-year-old made their relationship public last year. And Hudson gained more notoriety last month when she interrupted a CBS interview with Belichick.Fox News' Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.Follow Fox News Digitalssports coverage on X,and subscribe tothe Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.