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TONIGHT
• Not all heroes wear capes. These teach English for free to new immigrants, feed the hungry, make beds for needy kids, teach creative writing to prisoners and fight back against violence. This year’s Top 10 CNN Heroes make the world better. They’ll be honored – and the CNN Hero of the Year named – at 8 p.m. ET in “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,” hosted by Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa. It’s only on CNN.
MONDAY
• It’s the statistical peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, with the eight weeks around this date often prime time for conditions that fuel powerful storms. Right on schedule is Florence, which by late this week may well be hitting the East Coast. In the Pacific, Hurricane Olivia could affect Hawaii midweek as a tropical storm.
• Human Rights Day marks the anniversary of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The document starts with a line that, perhaps, we all should consult more often: “(T)he equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family (are) the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”
TUESDAY
• The next shoe in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation could drop when ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn is set to be sentenced. Mueller says Flynn, the highest-ranking Trump administration official to face charges, shouldn’t go to prison for lying about contacts with the ex-Russian ambassador to the US because Flynn helped prosecutors with at least three ongoing investigations.
• Top Democrats in the Senate and House reportedly will meet with President Donald Trump to hash out a big dispute over spending. Congress last week approved a two-week extension for a key funding deadline, pushing to December 21 the decision that could trigger a partial government shutdown. Trump wants $5 billion for a border wall, while Democrats point to $1.6 billion for border security in a Senate spending bill.
• Time magazine is due to announce its Person of the Year. While Time journalists have the final word, readers who weighed in via an online poll want the honor to go to record-setting South Korean boy band BTS. Other contenders were the cave divers who rescued a Thai soccer team from a flooded tunnel and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, whom the CIA says was complicit in the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
WEDNESDAY
• Top NFL officials gather in Irving, Texas, for a long-planned meeting. Reporters and fans are eager to learn whether league leaders will address recent police incidents involving players Kareem Hunt and Reuben Foster.
THURSDAY
• Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s “The Titan Games” banks on a kitschy Mount Olympus theme. It airs at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.
• Some of the nation’s best college athletes start competing for national bragging in the NCAA’s women’s volleyball championship. The final is set for Saturday night in Minneapolis.
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
• It’s a day for sleeping in, chilling out and celebrating – your most fundamental American freedoms. It’s Bill of Rights Day, marking the ratification of the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution. These are the ones you had to memorize in school and that protect, among other things, your rights to free speech, religion, the press and protest, to bear arms, to due process, to a jury trial and from unreasonable search or seizure.
• College football bowl season kicks off, with matchups set from Orlando to New Orleans to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It all leads up to the College Football Playoff in a few weeks.
• The world’s top cowboys and barrel racers vie for eight coveted titles – plus prize money, a gold buckle and a trophy saddle – in the National Finals Rodeo, which wraps up in Las Vegas.