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The 93rd Oscars had an impossible checklist: Revitalize the format, celebrate the movies, bring back awards show glamour, avoid a ratings disaster, get audiences excited about going back to the movies and put on a pandemic-safe show in person and without Zoom. It’s a big haul, not to mention the non-pandemic fact that the only thing that had gotten more predictable than the Oscars was people criticizing the Oscars. Associated Press Film Writer Lindsey Bahr writes that it was a show made for people who love learning about movies. And while it may have been the most successful pandemic awards show, Bahr hopes it's also the last.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Delhi has been cremating so many bodies of COVID-19 victims that authorities are getting requests to start cutting down trees in city parks for kindling, as a record surge of illness is collapsing India's tattered health…

Actor and director Regina King opened the 2021 Oscars with frank talk about racial injustice, setting a tone for several others after a year of mourning and protest. King talked about the guilty verdict at Derek Chauvin's trial, saying if the police officer hadn't been convicted of killing George Floyd, she may have traded her “heels for marching boots.” Tyler Perry used his speech accepting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to speak out against racial hatred. And best live action short co-director Travon Free wore a jacket lined with the names of Black people killed by police. 

Fernando Tatís Jr. scored on Eric Hosmer’s sacrifice fly in the 11th inning and the San Diego Padres rallied from a late six-run deficit for an 8-7 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Manny Machado delivered the tying RBI single in the ninth inning for the Padres, who claimed their third win in this dramatic four-game series between Southern California rivals in appropriately theatrical fashion. San Diego trailed 7-1 entering the seventh, but scored two runs in each of the next three innings. Chris Taylor hit a three-run homer and pinch-hitter Sheldon Neuse also homered during a five-run sixth inning by the Dodgers.

President Joe Biden is rounding out his first 100 days in office, and focusing on reigning in the coronavirus seems to have paid off. Biden can check off nearly all his campaign promises centered on the pandemic. And, in addition, he has delivered on a number of his biggest campaign pledges focused on climate change and the economy. But some issues have proven to be tougher for the Biden administration, particularly on immigration. Biden is grappling with how to enact promised reforms in the face of a steep increase in unaccompanied minors seeking to cross the border.

Brad Keselowski did it exactly right this time and finally got that last-lap victory, winning in overtime Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. Keselowski is the ninth driver to win through 10 NASCAR Cup races this season and avenged the embarrassing Team Penske gaffe in the season-opening Daytona 500 when he and teammate Joey Logano triggered a last-lap crash as Keselowski tried to pass Logano for the victory.  Keselowski led just one lap, the last one. 

Frances McDormand has two more Oscars. She may hang on to them a little more tightly. McDormand won the Academy Award for best actress for her performance in “Nomadland.” The movie also won best picture and McDormand collected a trophy as a producer. She won best actress honors in 2018 for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” That Oscar was stolen at the post-show Governors Ball, though it was quickly recovered. McDormand's first best actress win came in 1996 for “Fargo.”  McDormand won over front-runner Carey Mulligan of “Promising Young Woman” and Viola Davis of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Andra Day of “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” and Vanessa Kirby of “Pieces of a Woman” were first-time nominees.

Chloé Zhao has made history at the Academy Awards. Zhao won the Oscar for best director for “Nomadland,” becoming just the second woman and the first woman of color to win the award. This was the only year in Oscar history with two female nominees, Zhao and “Promising Young Woman” director Emerald Fennell. Only seven women have ever been nominated. Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win, for “The Hurt Locker,” in 2009. It was the first Oscar for the 39-year-old Zhao, who was born in Beijing and went to college and film school in the United States. “Nomadland” was her third feature.    

The premise was simple at the Oscars. Questlove plays a song and a chosen celebrity had to guess if the tune was ever nominated for or won an Oscar. The trivia game was run by “Judas and the Black Messiah” actor Lil Rel Howery towards the end of the live show. When Howery called on Close, E.U.’s “Da Butt” played for a few seconds. Howery expressed doubt that Close would know the song, but she proved him wrong. In what was surely a scripted moment, Close knew the song’s name, who wrote it, what movie it was in, the backstory on why it wasn’t nominated — and then thrilled viewers by performing the dance on live television.

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares opened higher in Asia on Monday after a strong finish last week on Wall Street. Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul and Shanghai all started out with modest gains and U.S. futures also edged higher. Oil prices slipped.…

Daniel Kaluuya, Chloé Zhao, Emerald Fennell and the film “Another Round” were among the winners at Sunday's Academy Awards. Kaluuya won the trophy for best supporting actor for his work in “Judas and the Black Messiah.” Zhao won for directing “Nomadland.” Fennell won for writing the screenplay for “Promising Young Woman.” “Another Round” from Denmark won best international film. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” won for both costume design and makeup and hairstyling. The sound award went to “Sound of Metal,” while the best animated short film went to “If Anything Happens I Love You.”

“Soul” has won the heart of Oscar voters. The Pixar film won the Academy Award for best animated feature Sunday night, continuing the Disney division’s dominance in the category. Directed by Pete Docter and featuring the voices of Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey, “Soul” follows a middle school band teacher who dreams of being a jazz musician and tries to escape the afterlife to do it. Docter says “This film started as a love letter to jazz, but we had no idea how much jazz would teach us about life.” Pixar has now won the award 11 times in the 20 years since the category was established.

Madison Bumgarner threw a seven-inning no-hitter, an achievement that won’t count in the Major League Baseball record book but completed a dominant day of Arizona Diamondbacks pitching for a 7-0 win over the Atlanta Braves and a doubleheader sweep. After Zac Gallen threw a one-hitter to win the opener 5-0, Bumgarner did even better. Bumgarner casually shook hands with catcher Carson Kelly after the final out. Then the rest of the Diamondbacks joined in with the tall left-hander and the celebration livened up around the mound. Officially, Bumgarner’s gem won’t count in the list of no-hitters. MLB’s eight-man committee on statistical accuracy decided in 1991 that a no-hitter was a game of nine or more innings that ended with no hits.

Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman outlasted Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel to win the Zurich Classic in a playoff that capped a tight and tense final round Sunday. Smith and Leishman won with a par on their second trip up the par-5 18th after Oosthuizen pushed his tee shot into the water and narrowly missed an 11-foot putt for par. The Australians forced the playoff by shooting a 2-under 70 in alternate-shot play at the PGA Tour’s lone regular-season team event. Oosthuizen and Schwartzel began the round with a one-stroke lead, but shot a 71 with three pars and two bogeys.

Christa Ludwig, a renowned interpreter of Wagner, Mozart and Strauss who starred on the world’s great stages for four decades, had died at her home in Klosterneuburg, Austria. She was 93. Her death was announced Sunday by the Vienna State Opera. A mezzo-soprano who also succeeded in soprano roles, Ludwig made her Vienna State Opera debut in 1955 and sang 769 performances of 42 roles in Vienna and debuted at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1959. She sang 119 performances of 15 roles at the Met.

Tristan Jarry made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season and Jake Guentzel scored in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 1-0 victory over the Boston Bruins on Sunday. Jarry has won his last four decisions, including a sloppy 7-6 home win against New Jersey last week, in which he allowed six third-period goals. He rebounded two nights later against the Devils and has earned a point in 11 of his last 12 starts. Guentzel scored his 21st at 4:03 of the third period to help the Penguins win their fourth straight.

Kevin Durant scored 33 points in his latest return from injury, Kyrie Irving had 34 and the Brooklyn Nets beat the Phoenix Suns 128-119 in a matchup of two of the NBA’s top teams. Durant missed three games after bruising his left thigh early in a loss to Miami last Sunday and has been limited to just 25 games this season. Blake Griffin scored 15 points for the Eastern Conference leaders. Devin Booker scored 36 points and Deandre Ayton had 20 points and 13 rebounds for the Suns, the No. 2 team in the West who are seeing the best of the East on their current trip.

Shohei Ohtani’s tiebreaking solo home run in the eighth inning helped the Los Angeles Angels to a 4-2 win over the Houston Astros to snap a four-game skid. It was the second consecutive game with a homer for the two-way star, who is tied for the MLB lead with seven home runs and who is scheduled to pitch on Monday. A two-run homer by Yuli Gurriel tied it in the seventh inning before Ohtani sent a fastball from Luis Garcia 440 feet into center field to put the Angels up 3-2. Anthony Bemboom added an insurance run with an RBI single in the ninth.  

Red carpet glam was back Sunday at the Oscars. Diane Warren and Leslie Odom Jr. kicked off the pandemic era’s first big parade of fashion in looks of white and award-worthy gold in Los Angeles. Warren served up a Valentino tuxedo in bright white with a sequin turtleneck, all by Valentino. Fellow nominee Odom shined in a glistening gold double-breasted tux, gold shirt included, from Brioni. Glenn Close, nominated for “Hillbilly Elegy,” paired a jewel-tone blue embellished caftan from Armani Prive with dark slacks and gloves. And she, like so many others on hand, was back in heels.

A look at the best and worst first-round draft picks for each NFL team. They range from Hall of Famers Peyton Manning, Lawrence Taylor and LaDainian Tomlinson to such busts as Tony Mandarich, Lawrence Phillips and JaMarcus Russell. The players were chosen by AP sports writers who regularly cover the 32 teams.

N'DJAMENA, Chad (AP) — Chad's military transitional government said Sunday it would not negotiate with the rebels blamed for killing the country's president of three decades, raising the specter that the armed fighters might press ahead with their threats to…