“The party plans had been months in the making and many invitees had already arrived on Martha’s Vineyard when former President Barack Obama belatedly announced he was canceling his huge 60th birthday bash scheduled for Saturday. ‘Due to the new spread of the Delta variant over the past week, the President and Mrs. Obama have decided to significantly scale back the event to include only family and close friends,’ Hannah Hankins, a spokeswoman for the former president, said in a statement Wednesday morning. ‘He’s appreciative of others sending their birthday wishes from afar and looks forward to seeing people soon'” – New York Times.