Keyboards instead, with Record Online sales for the traditional kickoff to the black friday spree. I can sit at my keyboard and hit five stores at the same time. Plus well look ahead to cyber monday. How to find the best deals on electronics, and much more. Threatening revenge. Iran lashing out after its Top Nuclear Scientist is killed in a roadside attack outside tehran. Was israel responsible . And what does it mean for the future of u. S. Relations with iran, as the new administration prepares to take over. Were live with the latest. Sidelined. Overnight the nfl announces its closing Team Facilities across the League Monday and tuesday, after some players and staff gathered with out of town visitors for thanksgiving. This after the League Postponed the steelers ravens game for a second time. With the playoffs fast approaching, the nfl facing its biggest challenge yet. Today, saturday, november 28th, 2020. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with peter alexander, Kristen Welker and dylan dreyer. Welcome to today. Thanks for joining us post thanksgiving on this saturday morning. We talk about the nfl, nhl, major league baseball, the nba and now its the nfls turn. Yet another delay for sports fans. Hopefully well get back on track. I know your husband is keeping a close eye on that. Yes, he is. We want to begin with todays top story, though. Fears that the nationwide coronavirus outbreak could explode after this Holiday Weekend. Thats right. More than 13 million americans have been diagnosed with the virus with nearly 4 million of those just in november alone. Nearly 193,000 new cases were reported friday, and more than 265,000 americans have died from covid19. We have full coverage of the crisis from president elect bidens plan for the pandemic to the ongoing economic impact. We want to begin with nbcs Gabe Gutierrez, though, outside mt. Sinai hospital in new york city. Gabe, good morning. Reporter peter, good morning. In the coming days the governor here plans to roll out what he calls a winter plan to stop the virus from resurging. Still, across the country there are mounting questions about Vaccine Distribution and testing, as hospitalizations hit record highs. This weekend, millions of americans will be heading home after traveling for thanksgiving, and there are mounting concerns of another spike in covid cases, much like we saw after memorial day, the fourth of july, and labor day. We are so full and have so many critical patients that the state is helping us to find icu beds. Reporter the numbers are staggering. 65 americans dying from covid every hour, 114 testing positive every minute. Were getting patients, Covid Patients transferred from as far as like 60, 70 miles away because theres just no room for them in their area hospital. Reporter across the country the lines for covid testing are growing longer, including in new york staten island. Theres no reason it should take this long. Everywhere you go, theres lines. Its crazy. Reporter but the largest Nursing Union says a survey of 15,000 nurses say they have never been testified, this despite major sports leagues conducting thousands of tests a week for their athletes. T is i absolutely outrageous that National Sports stars are getting routinely tested when nurses arent. Nurses are your line of defense. Theyre your only line of defense. Reporter in the latest sign that a Covid Vaccine could be around the corner, a source familiar with the planning tells nbc news that United Airlines is preparing to fly chartered cargo flights to help distribute doses if pfizers vaccine is approved by regulators. United wont confirm details but says it will support a Vaccine Distribution effort on a global scale. The faa says its supporting the first mass air shipment of a vaccine vaccine. In los angeles, hundreds of thousands of doses could be stored in these stateoftheart freezers. The vaccines are becoming available right at the time were experiencing another surge, so the nurses who commonly would be the ones to administer the vaccine are needed at the bedside to care for Covid Patients. Reporter also, los angeles county, the nations largest by population, Just Announced stricter restrictions. The new stayathome order will ban most public and private gatherings. It takes effect mondays are peter and kristen. Gabe gutierrez in new york city today. Gabe, thanks so much. Dr. Seline g ouchounder is Infectious Disease specialty and a member of president elect joe bidens covid19 advisory board. Doctor, good morning to you. Thank you for joining us. Lets dive right in. We are just coming off of the thanksgiving holiday and it will take several weeks for us to know what the exact will be in terms of increasing covid cases. As we head into christmas, what worries you most . Well, i am worried about whats been happening over the thanksgiving holiday with respect to coronavirus transmission. We know that it takes up to 14 days for people to develop symptoms after an exposure and it can take another week or two before they get sick enough to go to the hospital and another couple of weeks after that before you start to see deaths. So if you look at that timeline, that means that a lot of people who were celebrating thanksgiving perhaps not socially distanced, outside their household bubble, will be in the hospital, unfortunately, celebrating christmas and new years in the icu this year. Dr. Gounder, the crisis is bad but no more acute than in the icus or hospitals that are at or over capacity. We keep hearing from Health Care Workers who are basically at their limits. What is your plan with the new administration on day one to address the problems that hospitals are facing . Well, one challenge is that its not really for any administration to manufacture Health Care Workers. Thats just not something anybody can do. It takes many years of training to have new doctors and nurses. So that, unfortunately, is going to be a challenge. In contrast to the surge we had in march and april in new york city when only certain parts of the country were really being hit hard, at that time we could pull doctors and nurses from other parts of the country to help. But now that the entire country is experiencing a surge, its really going to be difficult to pull Health Care Workers from one area to help in another. Dr. Gounder, you, the biden transition team, has just started to coordinate with the Trump Administration after a delay. Are you confident that youre back on track and that you will be on track to distribute a vaccine on day one in office . Look, were working very, very hard to make sure that we are on track to start distributing vaccines. I think you will actually see the beginnings of Vaccine Distribution even before january 20th and thats a good thing. We really do want to see Health Care Workers and persons who are at risk of severe disease, whether theyre the elderly or people with underlying medical conditions or communities are color, we really want to see the vaccine get to people as soon as possible so we can start to benefit from some of these scientific advancements. All right, dr. Gounder, thank you so much. Appreciate you joining us this morning. My pleasure. Like almost Everything Else this holiday season, the pandemic has had a dramatic effect on the retail industry. The postthanksgiving rush is unlike anything weve seen before. Nbc Business Correspondent jo ling kent has the very latest on that. Jo, good morning. Reporter hey, peter, hey, kristen, good morning to you guys. Despite the economic crisis, the pandemic has accelerated the huge move to Online Shopping. The long lines we saw at stores this year were not necessarily to get inside the stores but for Curbside Pickup and buy online and pick up in store. The pandemic very quickly changing the way we shop, perhaps for good. The dash for black friday looking remarkably different this season. It feels like saturday or like a sunday, normal weekend. Reporter crowds were thin and masked up. Keep your mask up above your nose while you shop around. Reporter but shoppers still demolishing records, spending online like never before. I can sit in front of my machine and hit five stores at the same time. Reporter online black friday sales are on track to hit a recordbreaking 9. 6 billion, soaring up to 29 . Do the math, thats shoppers spending more than 6 million a minute. We see a lot of spending across products that keep people connected and keep people occupied. So video games and board games. Reporter and many of those orders placed for Curbside Pickup. It allows people to Purchase Online, visit the store and pick up their items later. It allows them to avoid shipping costs. Its seen an increased level of popularity. Reporter for those who did venture out stores were prepared, with sanitation stations, markers for social distancing and a limit on how many can shop inside at once. To keep both frontline workers and customers safe, some Stores Selling super hot items online only to discourage crowds. Despite more than 20 million workers on unemployment and a long string of retail bankruptcies this year, Holiday Spending is expected to rise up to 5. 2 . The frenzy of spending means checking off your list early is more critical than ever, with shipping delays anticipated and less to choose from. Because of the decisions retailers made early this year, they didnt buy a thousand yellow sweaters in extra small because they dont want to be left with that inventory if they dont sell it off. Reporter as we head into cyber monday and cyber week as its known, according to adobe, the biggest discounts online will be computers, electronics, appliances and toys. Thats basically whats selling the fastest. Youve got star wars toys, hot wheels, super mario 3d, apple air pods and air fryers, guys. I was starting to take notes quickly. I hadnt heard air fryers was a hot thing. By the way, amazon is a dominant player. Now theyre on a record hiring spree, arent they . Reporter yeah. Amazon has been hiring at breakneck speed bringing on half a million workers this year so far. Because of the huge demand were seeing from the pandemic. So were talking about warehouse workers all across the country as well as software and hardware engineers, plus corporate workers at their campuses all across the country. Whats remarkable is that this number, guys, reportedly does not include any seasonal holiday jobs or the thousands of delivery drivers you see out there. There are also Delivery Service providers. Those folks are often contractors. So this comes as amazon and its ceo, jeff bezos, facing allegations of antitrust in washington. The size of amazon under federal scrutiny right now in a big way, guys. A good time to remind folks its Small Business saturday. Support your local businesses today. Jo, thank you so much. Indeed. Get going on that holiday shopping. Good reminder. We want to head overseas now and turn to iran which is threatening revenge this morning, a day after its Top Nuclear Scientist was assassinated outside tehran. Iran blaming israel and the increased tensions could spell trouble for the incoming biden administration. Molly hunter has the very latest. Molly, good morning to you. Reporter kristen, peter, good morning. No comment yet from the white house. No comment from israel yet. But it was just two weeks ago the New York Times was reporting that President Trump had to be dissuaded from launching a strike on iran for fear that it would escalate a broader regional conflict, and this morning thats exactly the fear. This morning, iran accusing israel of assassinating its Top Nuclear Scientist in a roadside ambush outside of tehran. The foreign minister pointing to israel calling it an act of state terror. Iranian state media published photos showing the aftermath. A black suv with bullet holes, blood streaked on the ground. Nbc news has not verified the details of the attack. Irans defense minister now saying there was also an explosion. State media reporting that gunmen were lying in wait along the road. For the last two decades. Mohsen fakhrizadeh was the architect behind the effort to design an atomic warhead. He was the most significant person in the most significant military and scientific project in iran, so you can deduct from that, he is the iranian dr. Strangelove. Reporter iranian scientists have been killed before. Israel always suspected but never confirmed. Two years ago israeli Prime Minister netanyahu called him out by name. Remember that name, fakhrizadeh. Reporter iranian officials maintain its for peaceful purposes, not weapons. There is a feeling of anger and anxiety here. Many iranians feel that this may be the first strike in a chain of events before President Trump leaves office, while Senior Iranian officials are calling for hard revenge. Reporter tensions rising at the ending of a year that started with america killing irans top military commander. Now, anything President Trump does now could complicate president elect bidens plans to reengage with iran, but it all comes down to how iran responds. Irans Supreme Leader tweeting this morning, take a look, they will investigate this crime and firmly prosecute its perpetrators and its commanders. Thats not the same Strong Language we saw from the foreign minister. Peter, kristen. Molly hunter reporting from london for us. Thank you so much. Back here in washington this morning, President Trump on twitter touted the killing of the iranian scientist, but here at home, hes still dealing with yet another big defeat in court as he tries to challenge the election results. Nbcs white house correspondent, kelly odonnell, has the very latest this morning. Kelly, good morning. Reporter good morning, peter. President trump used his twitter megaphone to sendi out news reports about the death of that Iranian Nuclear scientist. Although the white house and u. S. Are not commenting on what happened or who is responsible. Today President Trump is at camp david. Marine one ferried him from the grounds of his virginia private golf property. While the president played that course, another of his election cases was rejected by a Pennsylvania Appeals Court that found no merit to claims the Trump Campaign had been treated differently than bidens. The court found calling an election unfair does not make it so, charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here. The president also made the false statement on twitter that president elect joe biden can only enter the white house as president if he can prove that his, quote, ridiculous 80 million votes were not fraudulently or illegally obtained. Well, president elect joe biden has no such burden. Vote totals are certified by states and the outcome will be finalized next month by the electoral college. When that happens, President Trump has said he would accept the need to move out of the white house. But until then he plans to keep fighting, with one trump lawyer even tweeting that they hope to appeal this pennsylvania case to the u. S. Supreme court. The president also plans to keep campaigning himself, saying he will go to georgia next week to help the two republican senators there who are facing runoff elections that will determine control of the u. S. Senate. Peter. Kelly odonnell on the north lawn of the white house this morning. Kelly, thank you very much. Lets turn now to bill karins whos in for dylan this morning. Hes got our first check of the Holiday Travel forecast. A lot of people undoubtedly going to be on the roads despite these warnings not to travel this weekend, bill. Whats it looking like . Unfortunately, weve got a big storm coming, especially for sunday into monday. Now were watching the storm starting to brew in areas of texas. Already starting to snow in north texas and amarillo, heavy rain around houston. The storm really begins to intensify as we go through sunday. Heavy rains will push through the south. Anyone traveling from memphis to atlanta, airport delays likely and wet roads too. Then the storm races up the eastern seaboard. If you have travel plans at the airports on monday from d. C. To philadelphia to new york to hartford, providence and boston, its going to be heavy rain and its going to be strong, gusty winds. I do expect major travel delays at the airports on monday. The back side of this storm, were going to be talking about snow. For many of you, its going to be the first snow of the season. This will be through tuesday. But watch out from detroit to columbus to cleveland, buffalo, areas from west virginia, and we may even see some snow as far south as tennessee and northern ge its cold and clear outside right now. 39 degrees in san jose. Look at the temperature trend. Well remain in the 30s. At least to around 7 00, 8 00. Then well slowly start to warm into the 50s. Eventually getting mostly Clear Conditions through