Editors

USA TODAY

Trump to cheer on the military at Army-Navy game

Upholding a tradition for U.S. commanders-in-chief, President Donald Trump will attend Saturday's Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia and will be officiating the coin toss. He will be the 10th sitting president to attend the game, a tradition that began with Theodore Roosevelt in 1901. Trump also attended in 2016 when he was president-elect. Barack Obama was the most recent president to attend the game, in 2011. The annual Army-Navy football game, a series between the two military academies, has a long, storied history dating back to its first game in 1890. It's been played 128 times, mostly in Philadelphia, but also all over the country. Trump is also expected to make a staffing announcement this weekend at the game; he suggested to reporters it would deal with the military's joint chief of staffs.

Prefer to listen? Check out the 5 things podcast below and subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts:

Legendary Heisman club will add another member

The Heisman Trophy, presented to the nation’s “most outstanding college football player,” will be awarded Saturday night in New York. The ceremony will begin at 8 p.m. ET and be broadcast on ESPN. The three finalists for the award are Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa; Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray; and Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins. All three led their teams to conference championships while watching records tumble. If Murray wins, it will be a repeat for Oklahoma as QB Baker Mayfield – who ended up going No. 1 in the NFL draft – won in 2017. If Tagovailoa wins, it will be the first for Alabama since Derrick Henry’s 2015 campaign. If Haskins wins it would give Ohio State a record-setting eighth Heisman win, and the school’s first since Troy Smith won in 2006.

Winter storm could bring snow, sleet, rain to the southern U.S.

A winter storm that dropped record-breaking downpours on Los Angeles is expected to pack a powerful mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain – maybe even a tornado or two – as it crawls across the southern United States this weekend. Significant delays at airport hubs such as Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Atlanta could make a mess for air travelers and ripple across the country through the weekend, forecasters warned. By Saturday, the rain and flood threat will shift to the Deep South and Southeast. Along the northern edge of the storm, from Missouri to the Carolinas, more freezing rain and ice is likely. Late Saturday and through Sunday, the storm is forecast to blanket the central and southern Appalachians with heavy snow, potentially crippling the region. Snow and ice are expected to extend from eastern Oklahoma to the southern Appalachians late Sunday.

China preparing to explore dark side of the moon

China is preparing to launch a ground-breaking mission to soft-land a spacecraft on the largely unexplored far side of the moon, demonstrating its growing ambitions as a space power to rival Russia, the European Union and the U.S. The mission is scheduled to blast off aboard a Long March 3B rocket early Saturday. The moon’s far side, known as the dark side because it faces away from Earth, remains comparatively unknown, with a different composition from sites on the near side where previous missions have landed. With its Chang’e 4 mission, China hopes to be the first country to ever successfully undertake such a landing.

Tourist sites in Paris to close amid protest fears

The Eiffel Tower announced that it will be closed to visitors on Saturday due to the protests called in the French capital by the yellow vest movement. Several museums and other cultural sites will also close their doors fearing a repeat of the rioting in Paris city center last weekend. Since the unrest began Nov. 17 in response to a sharp increase in diesel taxes, four people have been killed in protest-related accidents. Now the demands of the “yellow vest” movement – named for the fluorescent safety gear that French motorists keep in their cars – is pressing for a wider range of benefits from the government to help workers, retirees and students. President Emmanuel Macron met Friday night with about 60 anti-riot security officers who will be deployed in Paris. He made the unannounced visit, without the press, to a fort used as military accommodation in Nogent-sur-Marne, east of Paris, and thanked the officers for their work.

Contributing: Associated Press