5 things to know this weekend
Trump heads to Asia to talk North Korea, trade deals
President Trump will kick off his first visit to Asia this weekend, a 12-day trip through five countries including Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. All eyes will be on Trump’s highly anticipated speech in Seoul, where he’s expected to pressure allies like China into confronting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump is also expected to push for new trade policies and will likely discuss the new tax cut plan he’s trying to push through Congress. He’ll wrap up his trip at the East Asia Summit in the Philippines which ends Nov. 14.
Runners show resilience at the New York City Marathon
This Sunday, 50,000 runners will descend on New York City just days after a terror suspect plowed a rental truck onto a bike path in lower Manhattan. Marathon runners say the race is an opportunity to showcase the city’s strength and hope it can provide a positive boost for New Yorkers. The New York Police Department is planning to beef up security for the marathon in the wake of what officials called the deadliest terror attack in the city since 9/11. There will be twice as many rooftop observation teams and sniper teams keeping watch over the 2.1 million spectators lining the marathon route.
Goodbye daylight saving, hello standard!
Just like pumpkin spice, falling leaves and football, another rite of autumn is upon us: The end of daylight saving time. The switch, set to occur at 2 a.m. Sunday, was first implemented in the U.S. during World War I as a way to conserve fuel with the Standard Time Act of 1918 — also known as the Calder Act — and is observed in approximately 70 countries. If you're keeping count, we don't go back to daylight saving until Sunday, March 11, 2018, about a week before spring begins.
College football season kicks into high gear
As the calendar turns to November, the biggest weekend of the college football season so far awaits. Each major conference features three to four College Football Playoff contenders. By Sunday, that number could be trimmed to one or two. With such a large number of games impacting the playoff race — including an important in-state rivalry between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State — our experts offer their bold predictions and Week 10 winners.
Stay calm, folks: Rumors of nationwide blackout are a hoax
Another rumor will bite the dust this weekend after the Internet was littered with questions about a nationwide blackout. The Department of the Defense will conduct a “communications interoperability” training exercise from Saturday until Monday, where it will try to establish radio contact with all 3,143 counties in the country. For days, conspiracy theorists on Facebook and Twitter dressed up the training grid exercise as a massive communications blackout and grouped it with planned nationwide anti-Trump protests. "The exercise will simulate a power-outage scenario. It will not impact any public or private communications," Charlie Stadtlander, a chief spokesman for the U.S. Army Cyber Command division, told WFAA-Dallas. "There will be no power outages of communications systems or electricity."
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