stephen sondheim. tributes pouring in for the man behind some of broadway s biggest smashes. and shake the holiday season into high gear with the return of the famed rockettes. this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening we re going to tell you what we know and what we don t know tonight as a worrisome new covid variant rears its head labeled with the greek letter omicron and classified by the w.h.o. as a variant of concern. today the u.s. announcing restrictions on travel to here from south africa where the variant is spreading experts troubled by the large number of mutations. while there are early indications it could be more transmissible than previous variants, it is not known if it is more deadly and if it can weaken the effectiveness of vaccines uncertainty rattling financial markets today as the u.s. averages 90,000 new covid infections a day. in a moment, some of my conversation with dr. fauci about the omicron variant. but first, gabe gutierrez w
could sales top $9 billion today? severe weather threatens to mess up holiday travel in the northeast and pacific northwest. what you need to know. a labor strike at kellogg s drags on as union workers fight for better pay from companies they say are making record profits. online shoppers beware, cyber intelligence experts say thousands of fake web sites are popping up every day waiting to steal your money. we have tips to avoid getting scammed. and steve and steve hartman s on the road, with the story of a foster dad who is thankful for his expanding family and the kids who are thankful for him. this is the cbs evening news with norah o donnell. dokoupil: good evening and thank you for joining us on this post-holiday friday. i m tony dokoupil in for norah. and we re going to begin with growing concerns about the new variant of the coronavirus first discovered earlier this month in south africa and since turning up in belgium, israel, even hong kong. the world health
reports. here s what s happening at 2:00 p.m. eastern, 11:00 a.m. pacific time. we re going to begin with the breaking news. the omicron strain of coronavirus fueling new fears of yet another global surge. within just this last hour, germany reporting its first confirmed cases. the uk reporting new cases earlier as well. and today in the u.s., new york declaring a state of emergency. dr. anthony fauci on nbc this morning said he would not be surprised if it was already here in the u.s. i would not be surprised if it is. we have not detected it yet, but when you have a virus that is showing this degree of transmissibility and you re already having travel-related cases that they ve noted in israel and belgium and in other places, when you have a virus like this, it almost invariably is ultimately going to go, essentially, all over. scientists now rushing to determine how effective current vaccines are against omicron as countries around the world are racing to implement tr
nbc news business and technology correspondent jo ling kent joins me. jo, it s great to see you. you have big new numbers for us in the billions in spending yesterday. right? reporter: jose, that s right. we just got fresh new numbers about thanksgiving day online spending. adobe reporting $5.1 billion were spent on thanksgiving. now, when you look at what was expected, it s actually on the lower range of what was expected. so this may be a cause of inflation. a cost of living going up, gas and food prices on the rise right now. but well within the range of expectations. we do expect to see a record amount of money spent across retailers on this thanksgiving weekend. but on an anecdotal note in virginia and across the country including mall of america and minnesota, we are seeing the traditional lines and door busting parades of people really come down significantly. and that may have been accelerated by the pandemic, of course. but we re seeing online spending really incre