Vice President Mike Pence departed for the Middle East this week, proceeding with visits to Egypt, Jordan, and Israel despite the government shutdown. The trip was labeled a national security measure, the White House told Politico, to avoid shutdown-related cancellation.

In Cairo on Saturday, Pence met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who expressed displeasure with President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last year. Pence described the conversation as "disagreement between friends," saying he "heard el-Sisi out."

On Sunday, Pence spoke with King Abdullah II of Jordan, who said after the Jerusalem announcement, the U.S. must "rebuild trust and confidence" in the possibility of a two-state solution. The vice president assured him the United States is "committed to continue to respect Jordan's role as the custodian of holy sites, [and] that we take no position on boundaries and final status" in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Bonnie Kristian

President Trump went after former Vice President Joe Biden for his age on Friday and declared himself a "young, vibrant man."

Trump spoke to reporters after Biden officially entered the 2020 race on Thursday. Biden is 76 and would be the oldest person elected president, a title currently held by Trump, who is 72.

Asked how old is too old to be president, Trump responded, "Well, I just feel like a young man. I'm so young. I can't believe it. I'm the youngest person. I am a young, vibrant man."

Trump then hit Biden by saying, "I look at Joe, I don't know about him. I don't know." When asked how he will beat Biden in 2020, Trump predicted, "I think we beat him easily." Brendan Morrow

President Trump's Friday morning tweet has raised two big questions: Has he never heard of the "i before e" rule, and did he just give himself a new presidential responsibility?

On Friday, Trump tweeted a very complimentary quote from the so-called "cheif hostage negotiator, USA." It's true that America has a "chief hostage negotiator," but it's very unclear where this apparent quote from this unnamed person came from.

The most likely explanation would be that Gary Noesner, a former chief of the FBI's Crisis Negotiation Unit, made one of his occasional TV appearances and said something nice about Trump. But seeing as Fox & Friends doesn't seem to have Noesner on Thursday's lineup, there's a stronger chance that John Barron has reemerged. Barron is the so-called "Trump Organization representative" who tried to serve Trump stories to New York media back in his real estate days — and who reporters were very aware was Trump himself.

The tweet probably had something to do with a Thursday Washington Post report that said Trump pledged to pay a $2 million hospital bill for Otto Warmbier, who North Korea detained in 2016, and who died six days after he returned to America. After all, Trump denied paying anything to North Korea for Warmbier in a tweet sent just 20 minutes before this one, and also complained about former President Barack Obama's handling of hostage situations. Kathryn Krawczyk

Avengers: Endgame opened in the U.S. with Thursday previews as film-industry analysts predict the Marvel sequel will surpass Avengers: Infinity War's opening weekend of $257 million, Deadline reports. Many have predicted the film will gross between $260 million and $270 million in what would be the biggest domestic opening in history, with some estimating North American debut ticket sales of $300 million.

Only six movies in history have achieved a domestic opening greater than $200 million. With the movie opening in 4,600 theaters in North America, it will have the widest release ever. Endgame is expected to rake in $850 million to $900 million in its global debut, possibly even topping $1 billion, according to The Hollywood Reporter says. The film already has smashed records for pre-sold tickets. Harold Maass

President Trump on Friday said the United States did not pay North Korea any amount of money for the return of Otto Warmbier.

North Korea, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, presented the U.S. in 2017 with a $2 million bill for Warmbier's hospital care after a State Department official went to retrieve the detained American student. Warmbier had been comatose for 15 months by then and died shortly after returning to the United States.

This U.S. envoy, the Post reported, signed an agreement saying the U.S. would pay this $2 million bill, but it was unclear whether the bill ended up being paid. Trump on Friday denied that it was.

Trump did not deny the underlying report that North Korea presented the United States with a bill and that the U.S. said it would pay it, though. The Post had reported that this order to sign the agreement was passed down directly from Trump, and Warmbier's father in response said this sounded like "ransom."

Trump later in the morning tweeted a quote from a "hostage negotiator" praising him as the "greatest hostage negotiator that I know of in the history of the United States" but did not cite a source. Brendan Morrow

This week, Merriam-Webster announced it added more than 640 new words to its dictionary in April. There are words you probably know or can figure out, like "clapback" and "vulture capitalism," and words you probably already assumed were in the dictionary: "Gig economy," "on-brand," "screen time." You can also now affirm that "purple" sometimes means areas split between Democrats and Republicans, and "snowflake" can also refer to "both 'someone regarded or treated as unique or special' and 'someone who is overly sensitive.'"

But if you've been stumped by what it means to stan Game of Thrones or wondered why everyone's laughing at the Nickelback stans, and you've not wanted to dig through the disreputable detritus of Google results, well, you're in luck.

The entire entry is illuminating, but the key point is that "stan" can be a noun or verb, it's pronounced like it looks, it is often used disparagingly, and it means to be or show yourself to be "an extremely or excessively enthusiastic and devoted fan." Its etymology traces the word back to Eminem stans who stanned his 2000 hit "Stan." Now you know.

You can also discover what a "bottle episode" is, learn the definitions of "swole" and "garbage time," and read the company's lexicologists wax poetic about the changing English language at Merriam-Webster. Peter Weber

A federal three-judge panel ruled unanimously Thursday that Michigan's map of congressional and state legislative districts was unfairly drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature to give the GOP "a strong, systematic, and durable structural advantage in Michigan's elections and decidedly discriminates against Democrats."

The judges gave the GOP legislature until Aug. 1 to draw new maps acceptable to the state's new Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer. If they fail, or the map still violates the First Amendment rights of Democrats, the court will draw the new maps. The new districts must be ready by the 2020 election, the court found, and it ordered new state Senate elections in 2020, not 2022 as scheduled, in any gerrymandered district. A majority of Michigan's 14 congressional elections could be held in new districts next year, too.

"This court joins the growing chorus of federal courts that have, in recent years, held that partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional," the judges wrote in their opinion. The case was brought by the League of Women Voters of Michigan. State GOP lawmakers said they will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, which may choose to suspend it until the high court hands down rulings on two other partisan gerrymandering cases in June.

"The decision is likely a boon for Democrats, who in 2018 failed to win a majority of the seats in the state House of Representatives, state Senate, or the state's U.S. congressional delegation despite winning the overall popular vote in all three cases," Reuters notes. Peter Weber