January 24, 2024

Wednesday, January 24, 2024. Annette’s News Roundup.

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Joe is always busy.

Biden and Harris paint Trump as freedom’s enemy in abortion rally in Virginia.

MANASSAS, Va. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday condemned abortion bans that have increasingly endangered the health of pregnant women, forcing them to grow sicker before they can receive medical care, and he laid the blame on Donald Trump, his likely Republican challenger in this year’s election.

“He’s betting we won’t hold him responsible,” Biden said to a crowd of hundreds of cheering supporters. “He’s betting you’re going to stop caring.”

“But guess what?” he added. “I’m betting he’s wrong. I’m betting you won’t forget.”

The rally with Vice President Kamala Harris came on the same day as the Republican primary in New Hampshire, where Trump aims to tighten his grip on his party’s presidential nomination, and it demonstrated how Democrats hope to harness enduring anger over abortion restrictions to blunt his comeback bid.

Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court less than two years ago in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a decision enabled by three conservative justices appointed by Trump.

“The person most responsible for taking away this freedom in America is Donald Trump,” he said.

The speech was Biden’s bluntest yet on abortion and the status of reproductive health, but it was disrupted several times by protests over Israel’s war in Gaza. One person shouted “shame on you!”

“This is going to go on for a while; they got this planned,” the Democratic president said as the protestors were escorted out one by one.

Biden and Harris were joined by their spouses, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, at Monday’s rally. It’s the first time the four of them have appeared together since the campaign began, a reflection of the importance that Democrats are putting on abortion this year.

Jill Biden told a story about a friend who became pregnant in high school, years before Roe v. Wade. The friend, she said, needed to get a psychiatric evaluation to be declared mentally unfit before she could get the abortion.

“Secrecy, shame, silence, danger, even death. That’s what defined that time for so many women,” she said. “And because of Dobbs that’s where we’re finding ourselves back again, refighting the battles we had fought.”

Emhoff told the crowd that the fight for abortion rights needed men as well.

“Reproductive freedom is not a woman’s issue,” Emhoff said. “It’s an everyone’s issue.”

The four of them spoke in front of a blue banner that spanned the width of the stage and said “Restore Roe” in bold letters. The crowd hummed with energy, chanting “four more years” and booing Trump’s name, a glimpse of the enthusiasm that has been largely missing from Biden’s low-key events since announcing his reelection campaign last April.

Biden was introduced by Amanda Zurawski, a Texas woman whose water broke only halfway through her pregnancy. Because Roe v. Wade had just been overturned, she was unable to get an abortion until she went into septic shock.

“What I went through was nothing short of barbaric. And it didn’t need to happen,”said Zurawski, who has also testified before Congress and sued Texas along with several other women. “But it did, because of Donald Trump.”

Democrats view Virginia as a success story in their fight for abortion rights since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. In last year’s legislative elections, the party maintained control of the Senate and won a majority in the House. It was a defeat for Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who had proposed new limits on abortion and had been considered a potential presidential candidate.

“The voice of the people has been heard and it will be heard,” said Harris, the first woman to serve as vice president.

She also targeted Trump in her speech, describing him as “the architect of this health care crisis” caused by abortion restrictions around the country.

Harris was in Wisconsin on Monday to mark the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the first stop in a nationwide series of events focused on abortion.

“In America, freedom is not to be given. It is not to be bestowed. It is ours by right,” she said. “And that includes the freedom to make decisions about one’s own body — not the government telling you what to do.”

While Harris and Democrats have embraced abortion as a campaign issue, many Republicans are shying away or calling for a truce, fearful of sparking more backlash from voters.

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, recently made a plea to “find consensus” on the divisive issue.

“As much as I’m pro-life, I don’t judge anyone for being pro-choice, and I don’t want them to judge me for being pro-life,” she said during a primary debate in November.

Trump has taken credit for helping to overturn Roe v. Wade, but he has balked at laws like Florida’s ban on abortions after six weeks, which was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who dropped out of the Republican nomination race over the weekend.

“You have to win elections,” Trump said during a recent Fox News town hall.

Abortion is also the focus of Biden’s new television advertisement featuring Dr. Austin Dennard, an OB-GYN in Texas who had to leave her state to get an abortion when she learned that her baby had a fatal condition called anencephaly.

“In Texas, you are forced to carry that pregnancy, and that is because of Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade,” Dennard said.

Although Democrats want to restore the federal rights that were established in Roe v. Wade, there’s no chance of that with the current makeup of the Supreme Court and Republican control of the House. The White House is pushing against the limits of its ability to ensure access to abortion.

On Monday, it announced the creation of a team dedicated to helping hospitals comply with the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which requires hospitals receiving federal money to provide life-saving treatment when a patient is at risk of dying.

The Department of Health and Human Services said it would improve training at hospitals concerning the law and publish new information on how to lodge a complaint against a hospital.

Some advocacy groups have said complaints should be enforced more aggressively. Last week, The Associated Press reported that federal officials did not find any violation of the law when an Oklahoma hospital instructed a 26-year-old woman to wait in a parking lot until her condition worsened to qualify for an abortion of her nonviable pregnancy. (Associated Press).

Americans Feel Better About the Economy. Will That Help Biden?

The White House is embracing a nascent uptick in economic sentiment. It is likely good news — but how it will map to votes is complicated.

Low approval ratings and rock-bottom consumer confidence figures have dogged President Biden for months now, a worrying sign for the White House as the country enters a presidential election year. But recent data suggests the tide is beginning to turn.

Americans are feeling more confident about the economy than they have in years, by some measures. They increasingly expect inflation to continue its descent, preliminary data indicates, and they think interest rates will soon moderate.

Returning optimism, if it persists, could bolster Mr. Biden’s chances as he pushes for re-election — and spell trouble for former President Donald J. Trump, who is the front-runner for the Republican nomination and has been blasting the Democratic incumbent’s economic record.

But political scientists, consumer sentiment experts and economists alike said it was too early for Democrats to take a victory lap around the latest economic data and confidence figures. Plenty of economic risks remain that could derail the apparent progress. In fact, models that try to predict election outcomes based on economic data currently point to a tossup come November.

“We’re still very early in the election cycle, from the perspective of economic factors,” said Joanne Hsu, who heads one of the most frequently cited sentiment indexes as director of consumer surveys at the University of Michigan. “A lot can happen.”

The University of Michigan’s preliminary survey for January showed an unexpected surge in consumer sentiment: The index climbed to its highest level since July 2021, before inflation surged. While the confidence measure could be revised — and is still slightly below its long-run trend — it has been recovering quickly across age, income, education and geographic groups over the past two months.

Confidence Is Still Down, but It’s Improving

Preliminary January data from the University of Michigan survey suggested that consumer confidence is back at summer 2021 levels.

Recovering confidence could help Mr. Biden, said Neil Dutta, an economist at Renaissance Macro, especially if consumer sentiment continues to pick up this year as he expects.

If sentiment simply hovered at today’s levels, he said the simple historical relationship between consumer confidence readings and incumbent vote share would give Mr. Biden about 49 percent of the vote.

But the job market is strong, gas prices are moderate and the stock market just hit a new record, all of which could drive further improvement.

Ray Fair, an economist at Yale, has for decades produced the most closely followed model of how the economy feeds into election outcomes. His model uses hard economic data — growth and inflation — to predict votes. Its latest update suggested that Democrats face a 50-50 chance of winning the White House in November, and similar odds in the House.

Why is the race predicted to be so close under this model at a time when economic growth is solid? It boils down to inflation. Voters tend to have long memories when it comes to price increases, Mr. Fair said. They think about how much prices have increased over the course of a president’s tenure, not just the latest inflation reading.

That means that while prices have climbed at what is historically a fairly normal pace over the past six months, voters are likely to remember 2022 and late 2021, when they were jumping rapidly.

“Voters look back further than that — the fact that the price level is higher than when Biden took office is what voters are picking up,” Mr. Fair said.

That said, two big surprises to Mr. Fair’s model came in 2016 and 2020, when Mr. Trump performed less well than would have been predicted based on the state of the economy alone. So it is possible that if such a drag repeats — if there is what Mr. Fair called a “negative Trump residual” — it will help Mr. Biden collect a bigger vote share even with higher prices. (But there are too few data points to test that possibility, Mr. Fair notes on his site.)

There are also a lot of uncertainties about how consumer confidence and the economy in general will feed into election outcomes this time around. There’s no question that what is happening with the economy will matter, said Michael Lewis-Beck, a political scientist at the University of Iowa.

“The role of the economy is about as fundamental as it gets: It’s like the rivers flowing to the sea,” he said.

But Mr. Lewis-Beck pointed out that other factors — like the sense of isolation that has dogged many people since the coronavirus and the fact that Mr. Trump is a former president who may be seen by voters as a “quasi-incumbent” — could muddy how closely economic data and election results track one another.

Still, what happens with the economy over the next six months is likely to influence how Americans feel as voters move toward the polls later this year.

If the economy slows, that could be bad for the White House. Months of higher Federal Reserve interest rates could begin to weigh on growth, for instance, or geopolitical turmoil in the Middle East could push up gas prices.

But most economists expect the Fed to begin cutting interest rates and for the economy to cool gradually in 2024. Forecasters in a Bloomberg survey expect unemployment to rise by about half a percentage point by the end of the year, for inflation to continue to slow, and for economic growth to moderate but remain positive.

That mildly hopeful outlook may explain why Mr. Biden’s administration is now talking up the improving consumer sentiment data — which has long seemed to lag improvement in the real economy. Mr. Biden noted the latest jump during a speech on Friday and said that “we’ve got more to do,” as he also highlighted recent economic progress.

“People are looking at all of these things,” Mr. Lewis-Beck said. If Mr. Biden wants to convince voters, he “should stay on message, and I think it will eventually get through.” (New York Times)

Meet the woman who will lead the parade.

Biden Aide Is Taking Reins of His 2024 Re-election Campaign.

The aide, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, who was the campaign manager for President Biden’s 2020 bid, will move from the White House to his re-election headquarters in Wilmington, Del.

President Biden has approved a shake-up of the leadership of his campaign, and will dispatch a top White House aide to take over functional control of his re-election effort just as former President Donald J. Trump appears to be seizing control of the Republican primary contest to oppose him.

The aide, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, who was the campaign manager for Mr. Biden’s 2020 campaign and has served as a deputy chief of staff in the White House since he became president, will move to the Biden 2024 headquarters in Wilmington, Del., and direct the campaign’s efforts, according to five people familiar with the discussions.

It is unclear precisely what title Ms. O’Malley Dillon will take at the campaign or when the announcement will be made, though it could come later this week. Julie Chávez Rodríguez, the campaign’s manager since shortly after it began in April, is expected to retain that title.

“Our campaign manager is and will continue to oversee the president’s re-election efforts, and this campaign will remain laser-focused on defeating Donald Trump and MAGA extremism at the ballot box this November,” said Michael Tyler, the campaign’s communications director.

The move formalizes a setup in which Ms. O’Malley Dillon has for months overseen the campaign’s direction from Washington.

When the Biden campaign held a December retreat for staff members at its headquarters, it was Ms. O’Malley Dillon who led the proceedings — not Ms. Chávez Rodríguez, according to two people who attended the session but were not authorized to speak publicly about it. (New York Times).

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There was a Primary in New Hampshire.

The Republican Primary.

What we learned last night.

1.Trump is a liar. Oh, we didn’t need to learn that?

2.

3.

4.

One more thing.

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You probably heard. The Oscar nominations came out yesterday.

One important thing to note about Oscar nominations is that they’re voted on by branch.

Directors vote for directors, writers for writers and so forth, while everyone votes on best picture.

For the big show, everyone in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences votes for everything, so populist fare has a better chance of snagging some wins. (Source: Wapo).

So we can wonder how many female directors voted for Director?

Greta Gerwig, who directed the top-grossing movie Barbie, and Celine Song, who directed the beautiful best picture nominee Past Lives, probably wonder too.

“Barbie made $1.4 billion and was a cultural phenomenon, yet its director wasn’t nominated. Only eight women have been in [the].. nearly 100-year history [of the Academy].” (Rolling Stone)

Barbie herself - Margot Robbie - had no nomination either.

See the full list of Academy Award nominees below.👇

Best Picture

“American Fiction,” Ben LeClair, Nikos Karamigios, Cord Jefferson and Jermaine Johnson, producers

“Anatomy of a Fall,” Marie-Ange Luciani and David Thion, producers

“Barbie,” David Heyman, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, producers.

“The Holdovers,” Mark Johnson, producer

“Killers of the Flower Moon,” Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Martin Scorsese and Daniel Lupi, producers

“Maestro,” Bradley Cooper, Steven Spielberg, Fred Berner, Amy Durning and Kristie Macosko Krieger, producers

“Oppenheimer,” Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan, producers

“Past Lives,” David Hinojosa, Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, producers

“Poor Things,” Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone, producers

“The Zone of Interest,” James Wilson, producer

Best Director 

Justine Triet — “Anatomy of a Fall”  

Martin Scorsese — “Killers of the Flower Moon”  

Christopher Nolan — “Oppenheimer”  

Yorgos Lanthimos — “Poor Things” 

Jonathan Glazer — “The Zone of Interest”  

Actor in a Leading Role 

Bradley Cooper — “Maestro”  

Colman Domingo — “Rustin” 

Paul Giamatti — “The Holdovers”  

Cillian Murphy — “Oppenheimer”  

Jeffrey Wright — “American Fiction”  

Actress in a Leading Role 

Annette Bening — “Nyad”  

Lily Gladstone — “Killers of the Flower Moon”  

Sandra Hüller — “Anatomy of a Fall”  

Carey Mulligan — “Maestro” 

Emma Stone — “Poor Things”  

Actor in a Supporting Role

Sterling K. Brown — “American Fiction”  

Robert De Niro – “Killers of the Flower Moon”  

Robert Downey Jr. — “Oppenheimer”  

Ryan Gosling — “Barbie”  

Mark Ruffalo — “Poor Things”  

Actress in a Supporting Role 

Emily Blunt — “Oppenheimer”  

Danielle Brooks — “The Color Purple”  

America Ferrera – “Barbie”

Jodie Foster — “Nyad”  

Da’Vine Joy Randolph — “The Holdovers”  

Adapted Screenplay

“American Fiction,” written for the screen by Cord Jefferson

“Barbie,” written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach

“Oppenheimer,” written for the screen by Christopher Nolan

“Poor Things,” screenplay by Tony McNamara

“The Zone of Interest,” written by Jonathan Glazer

Original Screenplay

“Anatomy of a Fall,” screenplay by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari

“The Holdovers,” written by David Hemingson

“Maestro,” written by Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer

“May December,” screenplay by Samy Burch; story by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik

“Past Lives,” written by Celine Song

Cinematography 

“El Conde” – Edward Lachman

“Killers of the Flower Moon” – Rodrigo Prieto

“Maestro” – Matthew Libatique

“Oppenheimer” – Hoyte van Hoytema

“Poor Things” – Robbie Ryan

Original Song 

“The Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot,” music and lyric by Diane Warren

“I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie,” music and lyric by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt

“It Never Went Away” from “American Symphony,” music and lyric by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson

“Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from “Killers of the Flower Moon,” music and lyric by Scott George

“What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie,” music and lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell

Costume Design 

“Barbie” – Jacqueline Durran

“Killers of the Flower Moon” – Jacqueline West

“Napoleon” – Janty Yates and Dave Crossman

“Oppenheimer” – Ellen Mirojnick

“Poor Things” – Holly Waddington

Sound

“The Creator,” Ian Voigt, Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn, Tom Ozanich and Dean Zupancic

“Maestro,” Steven A. Morrow, Richard King, Jason Ruder, Tom Ozanich and Dean Zupancic

“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” Chris Munro, James H. Mather, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor

“Oppenheimer,” Willie Burton, Richard King, Gary A. Rizzo and Kevin O’Connell

“The Zone of Interest,” Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn

Original Score 

“American Fiction” – Laura Karpman

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” John Williams

“Killers of the Flower Moon” – Robbie Robertson

“Oppenheimer” – Ludwig Göransson

“Poor Things” – Jerskin Fendrix

Live Action Short Film

“The After,” Misan Harriman and Nicky Bentham

“Invincible,” Vincent René-Lortie and Samuel Caron

“Knight of Fortune,” Lasse Lyskjær Noer and Christian Norlyk

“Red, White and Blue,” Nazrin Choudhury and Sara McFarlane

“The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” Wes Anderson and Steven Rales

Animated Short Film 

“Letter to a Pig,” Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter

“Ninety-Five Senses,” Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess

“Our Uniform,” Yegane Moghaddam

“Pachyderme,” Stéphanie Clément and Marc Rius

“War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko,” Dave Mullins and Brad Booker

Documentary Feature Film 

“Bobi Wine: The People’s President,” Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp and John Battsek

“The Eternal Memory”

“Four Daughters,” Kaouther Ben Hania and Nadim Cheikhrouha

“To Kill a Tiger,” Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia Principe and David Oppenheim

“20 Days in Mariupol,” Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath

Documentary Short Film 

“The ABCs of Book Banning,” Sheila Nevins and Trish Adlesic

“The Barber of Little Rock,” John Hoffman and Christine Turner

“Island in Between,” S. Leo Chiang and Jean Tsien

“The Last Repair Shop,” Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers

“Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó,” Sean Wang and Sam Davis

International Feature Film 

“Io Capitano” (Italy)  

“Perfect Days” (Japan)  

“Society of the Snow” (Spain)  

“The Teachers’ Lounge” (Germany) 

“The Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom) 

Animated Feature Film 

“The Boy and the Heron,” Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki

“Elemental,” Peter Sohn and Denise Ream

“Nimona,” Nick Bruno, Troy Quane, Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary

“Robot Dreams,” Pablo Berger, Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé and Sandra Tapia Díaz

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Amy Pascal

Makeup and Hairstyling 

“Golda,” Karen Hartley Thomas, Suzi Battersby and Ashra Kelly-Blue

“Maestro,” Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgiou and Lori McCoy-Bell

“Oppenheimer,” Luisa Abel

“Poor Things,” Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston

“Society of the Snow,” Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí and Montse Ribé

Production Design 

“Barbie,” production design: Sarah Greenwood; set decoration: Katie Spencer

“Killers of the Flower Moon,” production design: Jack Fisk; set decoration: Adam Willis

“Napoleon,” production design: Arthur Max; set decoration: Elli Griff

“Oppenheimer,” production design: Ruth De Jong; set decoration: Claire Kaufman

“Poor Things,” production design: James Price and Shona Heath; set decoration: Zsuzsa Mihalek

Film Editing

“Anatomy of a Fall” – Laurent Sénéchal

“The Holdovers” – Kevin Tent

“Killers of the Flower Moon” – Thelma Schoonmaker

“Oppenheimer” – Jennifer Lame

“Poor Things” – Yorgos Mavropsaridis

Visual Effects

“The Creator,” Jay Cooper, Ian Comley, Andrew Roberts and Neil Corbould

“Godzilla Minus One,” Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” Stephane Ceretti, Alexis Wajsbrot, Guy Williams and Theo Bialek

“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” Alex Wuttke, Simone Coco, Jeff Sutherland and Neil Corbould

“Napoleon,” Charley Henley, Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet, Simone Coco and Neil Corbould (source. Variety).

Barbenheimer - Margot Robbie - “Barbie.” Cillian Murphy — “Oppenheimer.”

“Barbenheimer turned out fine for everybody. It's funny to look back now and remember that the showdown between Barbie and Oppenheimer, because they opened the same weekend, was ever treated as any kind of either-or competition that would have a single victor. They both made a ton of money, though Barbie made more; they both received a bunch of Oscar nominations, though Oppenheimer received more. (Barbie had eight, including one for Ryan Gosling's extraordinarily silly supporting work as Ken. More true comedy nominations, please!) They were very different kinds of "event" pictures we could stand to have more of: well-made, surprising, vibrant and memorable, in completely different ways.” (NPR).

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Did you doubt it?

New York is the world’s best city.

15% of survey respondents in other cities said they’d move to NYC in a heartbeat.

This year, city-dwellers were asked about the quality and affordability of the food, culture and nightlife scenes in their city and how their city makes them feel, from happiness to romance. Survey respondents were also asked about which other city they would most like to live in.

Our city ranked highest by its residents across the board, from food and drink to nightlife, culture and beauty. Plus, it turns out 15% of survey takers from other cities said they’d choose New York City to move to. 

Of course, as major cheerleaders for our city, we must agree. 

There are constant must-see exhibits across art galleries and museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art and the American Museum of Natural History. Its neighborhoods hold the foundation together with their respective community-led events like the Queens Night Market in Flushing, the Lunar New Year Parade in Chinatown and the West Indian Day Parade in Crown Heights. No matter the time of year, there’s always a good party to go to, from a “Sip and Stitch” gathering inside a designer’s Chelsea studio to the all-out blowouts of Bushwick’s House of Yes.

Coming up in NYC this year are a lot of exciting art and exhibit openings as well as new Broadway and Off Broadway shows, new restaurant openings and much more—all adding to the excitement. You check out our roundup of the best openings here.

A few months ago, we asked Candace Bushnell, author and journalist known for Sex and the City, what makes NYC so special. We think she said it best:

"New York has so many things: it has culture, it has society and it also has really interesting people and I always feel like, every time I go out in New York, I'm going to have at least one really interesting conversation with somebody.

New York is also a place where people come to make it. Nobody comes to New York saying, 'Oh I'm going to fail or do nothing.' People really come to make it and, especially as a woman, it's a place where you can be ambitious and you can strive and say, 'I want to be really successful,' and you will find so many other women that feel the same way. In some ways, it's really a woman's city."

Yes, it is “the city that never sleeps” because its restaurants, bars and shops are open 24 hours a day, but the adage extends to New York City’s spirit, too. This vibrant metropolis is always adapting, always innovating and always pushing the boundaries. It’s never asleep. It’s fully awake. All of this set within the historic boundaries of the city makes NYC shine despite its grit.

Find the full list of 50 here: timeout.com/bestcities