NEWS

5 things you need to know Monday

Editors

USA TODAY

A monument to Nobel Prize founder Alfred Nobel in New York City.

1. Nobel Prize season kicks off

Nobel season is upon us. The Nobel Prize judges started Monday a series of daily announcements revealing this year's winners. First up: John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser won the 2014 Nobel Prize for medicine. Is it true that only one in 20 Nobel laureates are a woman? Was Hitler really nominated for the peace prize? With the medicine prize kicking off this year's Nobel announcements, it's time to refresh what's true or false about the prizes created in 1895 by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel. Take the quiz.

As the Supreme Court begins its new term this week, pro-life advocates hold a prayer vigil on the plaza of the high court in Washington on Oct. 5, 2014.

2. Supreme Court begins new session

The Supreme Court opens for business Monday in what aptly could be called a tale of two terms: the cases already on the docket, and the potentially historic ones to come. When the justices begin the 2014 term, their first case will focus on the number of working taillights needed to navigate North Carolina. As the weeks and months pass, their attention will turn to Facebook, fish and facial hair. But not far from their minds will be the proverbial elephant in the courtroom: same-sex marriage. Before the term is out, the justices almost surely will decide its constitutionality, perhaps changing forever the definition of the American family.

3. Hong Kong protests shrink, offices reopen

Schools reopened and government workers returned to their jobs in Hong Kong on Monday as pro-democracy protests dwindled in the heart of the city's business district.

4. Hewlett-Packard plans to break into two

Amid turmoil in the tech industry, Hewlett-Packard plans to announce as early as Monday that it's breaking into two parts as it separates its personal-computer and printer businesses from its corporate hardware and services operations. The tech giant, a pioneer in business computer that has struggled in recent years from falling PC sales, has been undergoing a multiyear restructuring program by CEO Meg Whitman.

Hewlett-Packard is breaking into two parts, separating its PC and printer operations from the rest of its business.

5. Typhoon Phanfone passes over Tokyo

A powerful typhoon raced across Japan's crowded Kanto plain before moving offshore Monday, bringing heavy wind and rain and driving more than 400,000 people into temporary shelters. By noon, the sun had broken out in Tokyo and officials were working to re-open bridges and elevated highways that had been closed due to heavy winds and return city services to normal.

Pedestrians struggle to cross a street in Miyazaki, southern Japan, in heavy rain and strong winds caused by a powerful typhoon approaching Japan on Oct. 5, 2014.

And, the essentials:

Weather: The national weather forecast for Monday calls for a slight risk of severe weather in the Ohio Valley and across the South.

Stocks: U.S. stock futures were trading higher ahead of the bell.

TV Tonight: Wondering what to watch tonight? TV critic Robert Bianco looks at Gotham, Scorpion, Supernatural special.

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Contributing: Calum MacLeod, Kirk Spitzer, Associated Press

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