Academy Awards, XFL returns, coronavirus outbreak: 5 things to know this weekend
Who'll win Oscars' best picture? Who knows?
Will Sam Mendes' World War I thriller '1917' win best picture at Sunday's Academy Awards? Or will it be Quentin Tarantino's 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'? Maybe Martin Scorsese's gangster epic 'The Irishman'? With no clear frontrunner, the night's biggest drama is likely to be which of five serious contenders will take the top prize, writes Paste BN's Brian Truitt. For the second straight year, there will be no official Oscars host: Various celebs will do the honors as they did last year, when Kevin Hart dropped out after anti-gay remarks surfaced. Follow @usatodaylife for real-time coverage of this year's show, which airs live on ABC at 8 p.m. ET/5 ET. Red carpet coverage kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET.
- Making the case: Why each best picture nominee deserves to win
- Predictions: Who will win, and who should
- Oscar shockers: Most-shocking Oscar moments of all time
- Oscar re-do: 15 films that should have won best picture
Prefer to listen? Check out the 5 things podcast below and subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts:
Coronavirus outbreak: Anger and cases grow in China
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases has risen again in China while fatalities increased to 722 on Saturday, as the ruling Communist Party faces backlash over the outbreak. The Chinese government said another 3,399 people had been diagnosed over the last 24 hours, raising the total number of cases on the mainland to 34,546. Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said a U.S. citizen diagnosed with the virus died in Wuhan, China, earlier this week, apparently the first American fatality of the outbreak. The U.S. announced later Friday that it is prepared to spend up to $100 million to help China and other countries fight the outbreak, according to the Associated Press.
- 'Getting a little squirrely': Americans stuck in Wuhan are bored, hungry for coronavirus info
- Pangolins may have spread coronavirus to humans: What to know about the Wuhan virus
Revamped XFL football league debuts
The new-look XFL will kick off this weekend with a pair of games Saturday and two more on Sunday. And in this new league, with eight teams in the inaugural year, there's no telling how this season will shake out. All eight teams were in Houston for training camp last month, which featured some joint practice sessions and scrimmages. But the coaching staffs generally kept their best players on the margins and left their best plays uncalled, which means it's a real mystery which of these teams will emerge as the favorite once the real games begin. Here's a look at the XFL coaches, quarterbacks, key players, betting odds and everything else you need to know about the eight teams in the XFL.
- 10 players to watch: Former NFL starters and hidden gems
- Preseason All-XFL team: Predicting which players will shine
- XFL officials: Every crew will have at least one female member
Here comes the sun: Solar Orbiter set for launch
NASA's Solar Orbiter probe is set to blast off Sunday from Florida's Cape Canaveral on a nearly 65 million-mile journey to the sun. Launching atop an Atlas V rocket, the 10-foot-long spacecraft — a $1.5 billion mission with the European Space Agency — will use 10 different instruments to measure magnetic fields, waves, energetic particles and plasma escaping the sun. It also aims to make up-close observations of the sun through telescopes and capture the first photos of the star's poles.
Swiss voters to decide whether homophobia should be a crime
Swiss voters will head to the polls Sunday to decide whether homophobia — hate crimes or discrimination based on sexual orientation —should be criminalized. In 2018, the Swiss parliament approved a motion to widen the country’s anti-racism laws that protect citizens from racial, ethnic and religious persecution to include discrimination based on sexual orientation. But a conservative political party, the Federal Democratic Union (UDF), launched a referendum against expanding the anti-discrimination laws, claiming that such “useless censorship” would restrict freedom of speech. If passed, Switzerland would join a handful of other European nations like Denmark and the Netherlands where homophobia is a criminal offense.
Contributing: Associated Press