The Oscars, Selection Sunday, & Best Places to Work

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Adam Rogers
March 16, 2026

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The Academy Awards returned to Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre with Conan O’Brien hosting for a second consecutive year. The ceremony celebrated a wide range of films, with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another emerging as the night’s biggest winner, taking six Oscars including best picture.
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, which entered the ceremony with a record 16 nominations, won four awards. Coogler and Anderson both earned their first Oscars in the screenplay categories. Sinners also produced a historic moment when Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman to win the Oscar for best cinematography.
Michael B. Jordan won best actor for his dual role in Sinners, while Hamnet star Jessie Buckley won best actress, becoming the first Irish performer to take the prize. The ceremony also featured one of the rare ties in Oscars history, with The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva sharing the best live-action short film award — only the seventh tie ever.

The NCAA unveiled the brackets for the 2026 men’s and women’s March Madness tournaments on Selection Sunday. Duke (32–2) earned the top overall seed in the men’s field after winning the ACC championship, while defending champion UConn secured the women’s top seed with an undefeated 34–0 record.
Arizona, Michigan, and reigning champ Florida join Duke as the men’s No. 1 seeds. One of the most debated selections involved Miami (Ohio), which finished 31–1 but played one of the weakest schedules in Division I. The RedHawks were placed in a “First Four” play-in game as a No. 11 seed, needing a win to reach the Round of 64.
On the women’s side, UConn enters as the favorite to repeat, led by stars Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd. Other No. 1 seeds include UCLA, South Carolina, and Texas. The tournaments begin this week with the First Four games on the 17th before the full 64-team fields tip off on the 19th.

Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic, Stanford, Mass General, and Columbia University are testing CAR-T therapy as a potential treatment for multiple sclerosis. There is currently no cure for MS, which can cause vision loss, mobility problems, and memory decline.
In MS, parts of the immune system mistakenly attack myelin — the protective coating around nerve fibers — disrupting signals between the brain and body. One group of immune cells, called B cells, helps drive that attack. CAR-T therapy extracts a patient's T cells, genetically engineers them to target harmful B cells, and infuses them back into the body. Current MS drugs struggle to reach B cells in the brain, but CAR-T cells appear able to.
The trials are in very early stages with only a handful of patients enrolled. "It could turn out not to be effective, so we have to be cautious," said Dr. Jeffrey Cohen, who is leading the Cleveland Clinic trial. Still, Grace Miller, 46, enrolled last May and is increasingly taking steps without her cane.

Florida's legislature passed a bill requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, with DeSantis expected to sign it. (More)

A federal judge blocked DOJ subpoenas targeting Fed Chair Jerome Powell, ruling they were designed to pressure him into cutting interest rates rather than investigate any actual crime. (More)

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng met in Paris on Sunday to begin trade talks expected to set the stage for Trump's visit to Beijing later this month. (More)

Anti-government protesters attacked a Communist Party office in northern Cuba Saturday, a rare outbreak of public unrest driven by worsening blackouts and food shortages following a U.S. oil blockade. (More)

Iran's foreign minister flatly rejected Trump's claim that Tehran wants a deal to end the war, saying Sunday that Iran sees "no reason" to negotiate with the US (More)

Bolivian forces captured Uruguayan drug lord Sebastián Marset — a DEA priority fugitive linked to 16 tons of cocaine and a prosecutor's murder — and handed him to U.S. custody Friday. (More)

US stock markets closed lower on Friday (S&P -0.61%, Nasdaq -0.93%, Dow -0.26%). All three indexes finished lower on the week. (More)

More than 830,000 tax filers requesting paper refund checks are facing delays after Trump ordered federal agencies to switch to electronic payments. (More)

Billionaire Tilman Fertitta is negotiating a $31.5 billion deal to buy Caesars Entertainment at $32 per share. (More)

Cameron Young won the Players Championship by birdieing the 17th hole to tie Matt Fitzpatrick, then watched Fitzpatrick bogey the 18th to hand him the title. (More)

The US beat the Dominican Republic 2-1 to advance to the championship game of the World Baseball Classic. (More)

Formula 1 canceled its April races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia Saturday due to the widening conflict in the Middle East, with no replacement events planned. (More)

A Sydney tech entrepreneur used AI to help develop a personalized mRNA vaccine for his cancer-stricken rescue dog, and early results show one tumor shrinking by half. (More)

New guidelines from major heart groups recommend doctors start screening and treating cholesterol in patients as young as 30, much earlier than previous guidance advised. (More)

More than 150 passengers and crew on the Star Princess got norovirus during a Caribbean cruise that ended Sunday, the CDC said. (More)

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