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Michelle Obama opened up on “Call Her Daddy” about whether she believes the U.S. is ready for a female president. The former first lady discussed a wide range of topics during her interview with Alex Cooper on the Jan. 21 episode of the podcast, including the scrutiny she faced while in the public eye and the media’s focus on her appearance during Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Obama also expanded on comments she made last November about whether she would ever consider running for president herself and what that says about the country’s readiness for a woman in the Oval Office. “As we saw in this past election, sadly, we ain’t ready,” Obama said. “That’s why I’m like, don’t even look at me about running, because you all are lying. You’re not ready for a woman. You are not.” She previously touched on the subject during a conversation with actor Tracee Ellis Ross for a live taping of her podcast, “IMO,” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Nov. 5, 2025. Ross asked Obama whether serving as first lady had affected “the room that we’ve made for a woman to be president.” “You know, we got a lot of growing up to do,” Obama said. “And there’s still, sadly, a lot of men who do not feel like they can be led by a woman, and we saw it.” Speaking with Cooper, Obama elaborated further. “We’ve come a long way,” she said. “Whether people really feel yet that they can follow a woman as president… we’d be silly to think there aren’t some gut… I don’t know, like we’re not even analyzing what those feelings are about because we’re trying to pretend it’s all better.” “How could it be all better?” she continued. “We’ve been feeding off this bone for so long, it doesn’t just go away. It takes time. But we’re moving. We are moving in that direction.” Michelle Obama Nov 15, 2025 Michelle Obama says the U.S. is ‘not ready' for a woman president Michelle Obama Aug 14, 2025 The 3 words of dating advice Michelle Obama gave her daughters celebrity couples Jul 16, 2025 Barack and Michelle Obama break silence on divorce rumors “There are men out there who would not vote for a woman,” she said. “Let’s just be real about it and put that on the table and talk about what that’s about.” “Let’s not be mad because I made the statement,” Obama added. “Let’s look at the fact that we’ve had two really qualified female candidates.” “We have qualified women. They’re not perfect, they don’t cross every T and dot every I, there’s a falling-shortness that happens,” she said. “But why can’t we talk about that? Why are we pretending that didn’t just happen?” Cooper noted that some critics have argued that disliking certain candidates does not necessarily mean the country isn’t ready for a woman president. “We’re still growing,” Obama responded. “I think it’s going to happen. Are we ready now? I don’t know. Let’s prove us wrong. I would love that.” Cooper also raised a hypothetical scenario in which President Donald Trump changes the law and runs for a third term, asking whether Barack Obama would ever consider returning to politics. “I hope not,” Obama said. “I would actively work against that. I would be at home working against it.” “I do believe in the need for new vision,” she added. “This is a hard job, and it requires new energy, new vision all the time, new ways of looking at the world. So, I do think that eight years is enough.” “How are we going to build new leaders if the same people keep doing it again and again and again?”

Charles McAvoy Sr. did not want his son to take over the family plumbing business. He made sure that, for Charlie McAvoy, becoming a professional hockey player would be more than just a pipe dream. “My dad, he always told me he had bigger dreams for me, that he wanted more for me than just to take over McAvoy Plumbing and Heating,” said Charlie, now a defenseman for the Boston Bruins who is set to compete in the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics with the U.S. men’s hockey team. “He gave me every opportunity in the world to follow my passions.” It was an opportunity his father never had growing up. Charles — before spending 30 years running a four-generation plumbing business on Long Island, New York — was a promising hockey player himself. But as the youngest of seven siblings, the expenses of travel hockey were too costly, and he was unable to play beyond high school.     “The opportunity was probably there, but the finances weren’t always there,” Charles said on an episode of NBC Local’s “My New Favorite Olympian.” “And travel hockey was not cheap back then. And the hours were much different. The ice slots were not available as they are now. So, we stuck with it as long as we could. But my dad just couldn’t swing it. “I didn’t get that opportunity, and I wanted to make sure that Charlie and his sisters had that opportunity to play and give it their best.” Charlie began skating at the age of 3. He wouldn’t follow in his ancestors’ footsteps while on skates, but he’d go on to learn elements of the work ethic and physical grind that made the family business successful for decades. He’d spend some days — often under the sweltering summer sun — as a plumber’s helper.    “I’d be all excited to go do it,” he said. “And very early in the day, I found out that we were doing some undesired work.” Like jackhammering the sidewalk and digging through sand to reach a water main with his father. “He threw me the shovel and basically was like, ‘Hey, dig until you hear a pipe,’” Charlie said. Charlie said he has the utmost respect for plumbers and trade workers, but he knew his father wanted something different for him — like a career where the tools of the trade include a hockey stick and puck instead of a jackhammer and wrench. “Every day I saw him work, he’s putting everything he has into that,” Charlie said. “So, I knew I owed it to him to put everything I had into hockey, the same way.” His father also happened to quite literally have the keys to success … as in the keys to the local hockey rink. 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics May 19, 2025 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina: See dates, sports, how to watch, more 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics Jun 16, 2025 Get to know Team USA Olympians ahead of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics Jun 9, 2025 How to watch the 2026 Olympics in Milan Cortina “I was converting the whole building from oil to gas and putting in new equipment and gas lines, et cetera. So, they gave me the keys,” Charles said. “They said, anytime I want to use it, go. And Charlie was young and we took full advantage of that. We were probably there every night of the week when he was a little guy.” Charlie began to develop the skating skills he’d later use on the ice while competing for a Stanley Cup and gold medal. “His skating took off because skating is the whole game and he just loved getting on the ice,” Charles said. “I’d get off because I’d be exhausted from work and he would just stay out there and I would just sit and let him do his thing.” After growing up on Long Beach, an oceanfront city on the south coast of Long Island, Charlie played two seasons with USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program in Michigan. He went on to play for Boston University, being named a first team All-American in his sophomore season. Charlie was then selected by the Bruins with the 14th overall pick…

A public school district north of Minneapolis said ICE agents detained four of its students in recent weeks, including a 5-year-old. Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, said in a Wednesday news conference that four of the district’s students had been “taken” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in recent weeks. Two of the students were on their way to school, she said. On Tuesday afternoon, 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were taken into custody by ICE agents in their driveway, just after the child returned home from preschool that day, Stenvik said. She added that another adult who lived in the home and was present at the time of the incident “begged” the agents to let him take care of the kid, but the agents refused. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that “ICE did NOT target a child.” McLaughlin said that ICE agents were targeting the boy’s father, and that during the arrest, Conejo Arias “fled on foot — abandoning his child. For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child” while agents apprehended the father. A bystander took this photo of Conejo Ramos with agents on Tuesday and provided it to the school district, giving them permission to share with the media. (Courtesy Columbia Heights Public Schools) “Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “This is consistent with past administration’s immigration enforcement.” Taking questions from reporters in Minneapolis on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance spoke about ICE’s detention of a 5-year-old boy in the city earlier this week. “I see the story, and I’m a father of a 5-year-old, actually, 5-year-old little boy. And I think to myself, ‘Oh, my God, this is terrible. How did we arrest a 5-year-old?’” Vance said. “Well, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?” he said. Marc Prokosch, an immigration attorney representing the family, said he believed both father and son are being held in Texas currently. “I’m exploring whether we file a habeas corpus petition to get him out,” he said at Wednesday’s news conference. “We’d have to actually file that down in Texas now and then, also continuing to look through the family’s overall immigration case, because obviously, Liam doesn’t have his own individual case. It’s the family as a whole.” NBC News reached out to Prokosch for further comment but he did not immediately respond. Stenvik noted that the family involved “is following U.S. legal parameters and has an active asylum case with no order of deportation.” “Why detain a 5-year-old?” Stenvik asked Wednesday. “You can’t tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.” The Columbia Heights Public Schools released a statement saying that 20 minutes after the boy and his father were taken, “the middle school brother came home to a missing dad, a missing little brother, and a terrified mother.” Conejo Ramos is escorted by a federal agent on Tuesday in a photo taken by a bystander who gave the school district permission to share with the media. (Courtesy Columbia Heights Public Schools) Conejo Ramos’ teacher Ella Sullivan said that his removal has been a shock. “He comes into class every day, and he just brightens the room,” she said. “His friends haven’t asked about him yet, but I know that they’ll catch on, and it’s just a very unfortunate situation. It should not be happening.” Additionally, on Tuesday, Stenvik said a 17-year-old student was removed from their car and “taken by armed, masked…

Ryan Coogler’s blues-steeped vampire epic “Sinners” led all films with 16 nominations to the 98th Academy Awards on Thursday, setting a record for the most in Oscar history. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters showered “Sinners” with more nominations than they had ever bestowed before, breaking the 14-nomination mark set by “All About Eve,” “Titanic” and “La La Land.” Along with best picture, Coogler was nominated for best director and best screenplay, and double-duty star Michael B. Jordan was rewarded with his first Oscar nomination, for best actor. Paul Thomas Anderson’s father-daughter revolutionary saga “One Battle After Another,” the favorite coming into nominations, trailed in second with 13 of its own. Four of its actors — Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn — were nominated, though newcomer Chase Infiniti was left out in best actress. In those two top nominees, the film academy put its full force behind a pair of visceral and bracingly original American epics that each connected with a fraught national moment. Coogler’s Jim Crow-era film — the rare horror movie to win the academy’s favor — conjures a mythical allegory of Black life. In “One Battle After Another,” a dormant spirit of rebellion is revived in an out-of-control police state. Both are also Warner Bros. titles. In the midst of a contentious sale to Netflix, the 102-year-old studio had one of its best Oscar nominations mornings ever. As the fate of Warner Bros., which Netflix is buying for $72 billion, hangs in the balance amid a challenge from Paramount Skydance, Hollywood is bracing for potentially the largest realignment in the film industry’s history. The 10 films nominated for best picture are “Bugonia,” “F1,” “Frankenstein,” “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme,” “One Battle After Another,” “The Secret Agent,” “Sentimental Value,” “Sinners” and “Train Dreams.” Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme” and Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” all scored nine nominations. The nine for “Marty Supreme” included a third best actor nod for 30-year-old Timothée Chalamet, the favorite in the category he narrowly missed winning last year for “A Complete Unknown.” With Jordan and Chalamet, the nominees are Leonardo DiCaprio for “One Battle After Another,” Ethan Hawke for “Blue Moon” and Wagner Moura for “The Secret Agent.” Nominated for best actress was the category favorite, Jessie Buckley (“Hamnet”), along with Rose Byrne (“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”), Kate Hudson (“Song Sung Blue”), Renate Reinsve (“Sentimental Value”) and two-time winner Emma Stone, who landed her sixth nomination, for “Bugonia.” ACADEMY AWARDS 8 hours ago Oscar nominations 2026: See the full list ACADEMY AWARDS 22 hours ago How to watch 2026 Oscars nominations announcement: Time, stream ‘KPop’ leads a field light on big hits The year’s most-watched movie, with more than half a billion views on Netflix, “KPop Demon Hunters,” scored nominations for both best song (“Golden”) and best animated feature. Sony Pictures developed and produced the film, but, after selling it to Netflix, watched it become a worldwide sensation. Blockbusters otherwise had a difficult morning. Universal Pictures’ “Wicked: For Good” was shut out entirely. While “Avatar: Fire and Ash” notched nominations for costume design and visual effects, it became the first “Avatar” film not nominated for best picture. The biggest box-office hit nominated for Hollywood’s top award instead was “F1,” an Apple production that landed four nominations. The streamer partnered with Warner Bros. to distribute the racing drama. This year, the Oscars are introducing a new category for casting. That new honor helped “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” pad their already impressive stats. Along with those two films, the nominees are “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme” and “The Secret Agent.” An international shift continues The academy, which has expanded its overseas membership in…

And the 2026 Oscar nominees are…. Nominations for the 98th Academy Awards were announced live Thursday morning from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles by actors Lewis Pullman and Danielle Brooks. While horror films have traditionally been left out of the Oscars, Ryan Coogler’s vampire tale “Sinners” made history with 16 nominations, including Directing, Best Picture and Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, his first Oscar nomination. No movie has ever landed more than 14 nominations — something achieved only by “All About Eve,” “Titanic” and “La La Land.” Paul Thomas Anderson’s father-daughter revolutionary saga “One Battle After Another,” trailed in second with 13 nominations. This year, the Academy is recognizing casting directors for the first time, adding the new category last year. The last time a competitive category was added was in 2001, with best animated film. The Oscars will take place on March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and will be televised live on ABC and Hulu at 7 p.m. ET on ABC. Conan O’Brien is returning as host. See the full list below: Best Actor Timothée Chalamet, “Marty Supreme”Leonardo DiCaprio, “One Battle After Another”Ethan Hawke, “Blue Moon”Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners”Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent” Best Actress Jessie Buckley, “Hamnet”Rose Byrne, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”Kate Hudson, “Song Sung Blue”Renate Reinsve, “Sentimental Value”Emma Stone, “Bugonia” Best Director Chloé Zhao, “Hamnet”Josh Safdie, “Marty Supreme”Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”Joachim Trier, “Sentimental Value”Ryan Coogler, “Sinners” Best Cinematography “Sinners”“One Battle After Another”“Train Dreams”“Frankenstein”“Marty Supreme” Best Picture “Bugonia”“F1”“Frankenstein”“Hamnet”“Marty Supreme”“One Battle After Another”“The Secret Agent”“Sentimental Value”“Sinners”“Train Dreams” Best Supporting Actress Elle Fanning, “Sentimental Value”Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, “Sentimental Value”Amy Madigan , “Weapons”Wunmi Mosaku, “Sinners”Teyana Taylor, “One Battle After Another” Best Supporting Actor Benicio Del Toro, “One Battle After Another”Jacob Elordi, “Frankenstein”Delroy Lindo, “Sinners”Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another”Stellan Skarsgård, “Sentimental Value” Best Makeup and Hairstyling “Frankenstein”“Kokuho”“Sinners”“The Smashing Machine”“The Ugly Stepsister” Best Original Score “Bugonia”“Frankenstein”“Hamnet”“One Battle After Another”“Sinners” Best Live Action Short Film “Butcher’s Stain”“A Friend of Dorothy”“Jane Austen’s Period Drama”“The Singers”“Two People Exchanging Saliva” Best Animated Short Film “Butterfly”“Forevergreen”“The Girl Who Cried Pearls”“Retirement Plan”“The Three Sisters” Best Adapted Screenplay “One Battle After Another”“Hamnet”“Bugonia”“Train Dreams”“Frankenstein” Best Original Screenplay “Blue Moon”“It Was Just an Accident”“Marty Supreme”“Sentimental Value”“Sinners” Best Casting Nina Gold, “Hamnet”Jennifer Venditti, “Marty Supreme”Casandra Kulukundis, “One Battle After Another”Gabriel Domingues, “The Secret Agent”Francine Maisler, “Sinners” Best Costume Design “Avatar: Fire and Ash”“Frankenstein”“Hamnet”“Marty Supreme”“Sinners” Best International Feature Film “It Was Just an Accident”“The Secret Agent”“Sentimental Value”“The Voice of Hind Rajab”“Sirat” Best Original Song “Dear Me” from “Diane Warren: Relentless”“Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters”“I Lied to You” from “Sinners”“Sweet Dreams of Joy” from “Viva Verdi!”“Train Dreams” from “Train Dreams” Best Production Design “Frankenstein”“Hamnet”“Marty Supreme”“One Battle After Another”“Sinners” Best Documentary Feature Film “The Alabama Solution”“Come See Me in the Good Light”“Cutting Through Rocks”“Mr. Nobody Against Putin”“The Perfect Neighbor” Best Film Editing “F1”“Marty Supreme”“One Battle After Another”“Sentimental Value”“Sinners” Best Visual Effects…