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• The best Apple Black Friday deals include discounts on iPhones, AirPods, iPads, and Apple Watches.
• The $250 AirPods Pro are available for a low price of $190 at Woot. 
• The Beats Studio 3 Wireless are also 50% off at Target now, bringing the price down from $350 to $175.
• Save $200 off an Intel-based MacBook Air, available for $799 on Amazon.
• Retailers like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy are offering tons of discounts on Apple Watches, iPads, and MacBooks too.

While Apple doesn't usually offer Black Friday deals, that doesn't mean you can't get big savings on Apple products during this shopping weekend. Retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy have already slashed prices on Apple Watch, Airpods, iPads, iPhones, laptops, and more, and we expect those discounts to continue through the weekend and into Cyber Monday. 

And, if you prefer to buy direct from  Apple, you won't be missing out: The company is offering gift cards of up to $150 when you buy eligible products.

Among the best Apple Black Friday deals is the AirPod Pro wireless earbuds, which usually cost $250. Woot is selling them for $190, which is incredible for one of the best accessories you can get.

Also worth a look are the Beats Studio 3 Wireless headphones that are on sale for $175 on Target at the moment — that's 50% off the full $350 price tag. It's a good time to get Apple headphones right now with these deals. 

AirPods Black Friday deals

You can also find this price on Apple AirPods with a Wireless Charging Case at Walmart and Best Buy.

iPhone Black Friday deals

iPad Black Friday deals

Mac computer Black Friday deals

Apple Watch Black Friday deals

You can also find this price on the Apple Watch Series 6 at Walmart.

Beats headphones Black Friday deals

You can also find this price on the Powerbeats Pro at Target and Amazon.

Apple Black Friday deals FAQs

Does Apple offer deals on Black Friday?

Instead of discounts off products, Apple usually offers gift cards when purchasing select products on Black Friday. Last year, for example, Apple's promotion included gift cards up to $200 on select purchases. Apple has not yet said whether it plans to offer a similar deal in 2020. But, last year it made the announcement on November 25, so we may hear more about upcoming gift card promotions in the coming days.

Should I buy from Amazon, Target, Best Buy, or Walmart?

Many of these retailers offer very similar deals on products like the AirPods and the Apple Watch, which means you'll have a couple of options should one retailer go out of stock. In instances where multiple retailers offer the same product at the same price, consider which retailer is most convenient for you in terms of shipping options. If you have an Amazon Prime membership and want to get the product as fast as possible, it might make more sense to purchase through Amazon. But, if you'd rather pick up the item at your nearby Target or Best Buy, you should consider ordering from your preferred brick-and-mortar retailer. Note to make sure you are purchasing from the retailer, not a third-parth reseller.

Do these stores offer curbside pickup?

Yes, Target, Best Buy, and Walmart all offer curbside pickup. But, you should check with your local retailer since the rules may vary by location and items purchased. Walmart, for example, says that not all stores offer curbside pickup for Black Friday deals.

How do we choose the best Apple deals?

We select products that meet our high standard of coverage based on testing and research. This includes testing Apple's products as well similar devices from its main competitors.

We also research prices across retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy and compare them against Apple's prices to find the deals that are worth paying attention to.

How do we return an Apple product?

Got an Apple product as a gift, but you don't need it? Check out our guide on how to return products to major retailers, including Amazon, Apple, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart.

• Chinese pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm on Tuesday applied to the country's health regulators to launch its COVID-19 vaccines for public use, based on multiple news reports. 
• However, close to a million people have already been injected with experimental shots since the Chinese government authorized the vaccines for emergency use in July. 
• The rush to access these experimental shots has spurred fears of a booming black market for vaccines, Bloomberg News reported. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Chinese pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm on Tuesday sought government approval to officially bring its coronavirus vaccines to market, but close to a million people have already been injected with experimental shots under the government's emergency use program, according to multiple reports. 

The latest rush to get inoculated with Sinopharm's emergency shots has left some worried about the formation of a black market for vaccines, per Bloomberg News. 

As vaccine developers in Western countries prepare for the global distribution and administration of COVID-19 vaccines, Sinopharm said it has been testing the safety and efficacy of its two inactivated coronavirus vaccines. However, it has yet to release any public data regarding the vaccines' efficacy in their phase-three trials. 

That has not stopped some people from seeking out the vaccine, which is meant for frontline workers. 

One anonymous source told Bloomberg that he paid $91 for two doses of what he believed to be a Sinopharm vaccine.

"You just transfer him the money via Alipay, but he won't tell you the details because apparently it's black market," the source told Bloomberg, referring to the digital payments app run by Alibaba. 

Sinopharm's application to officially launch its vaccines came after Pfizer and Moderna's recent announcements that their vaccines were 95% and 94.5% effective, respectively. 

AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford had announced that their two-dose vaccine could be up to 90% effective, but an error in the trial has cast doubt on its efficacy rate. AstraZeneca's CEO Pascal Soriot on Thursday said the company will likely retest its COVID-19 vaccine. 

The rush to secure Sinopharm vaccines in China sheds light on the potential challenges of ensuring equitable and transparent distribution of coronavirus vaccines across the globe.

People who have successfully accessed the experimental Sinopharm vaccines in China are usually those who have privileged connections and want protection before traveling. 

Staff in government ministries and state-owned companies as well as bank employees have encountered low barriers to becoming vaccinated, according to Bloomberg. 

When you buy through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. Learn more.

• Target is a major player every Black Friday, bringing excellent deals to compete with other large retailers like Amazon and Walmart.
• The sales are already rolling in, so we've highlighted the best current Black Friday 2020 deals below.
• We've also answered any questions you might have below, including when the sales start, how to hold your place in line from home, and what to buy during the event. 
• Read Insider Reviews' Black Friday 2020 deals and Cyber Monday 2020 deals coverage for more savings.

Every year, Target offers great deals on Black Friday and 2020 will be no different. Though you can't expect the same experience of mile-long lines and overflowing carts in-store, there will still be excellent deals ahead. 

Target's Black Friday 2020 deals have already begun and they will continue through the end of the month. For the best deals and answers to any questions you might have, keep reading.

Best Target Black Friday 2020 home and kitchen deals

Best Target Black Friday 2020 smart home and tech deals

Best Target Black Friday 2020 bedding and mattress deals

• Save up to 20% on mattresses including Casper, Tuft & Needle, and more.

Best Target Black Friday 2020 toy and gaming deals

• Get Nintendo Switch games for only $40, including Splatoon 2, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and more.
• Buy one, get one 50% off toy brands including Marvel, Melissa & Doug, and more.
• Save 25% on STEM toys including National Geographic and more.
• Find bikes for kids starting as low as $39.

Best Target Black Friday 2020 audio deals

Best Target Black Friday 2020 fashion deals

• Save 30% on Ray-Ban and Oakley sunglasses.
• Save 30% on men's sweaters.
• Save 30% of boots for men, women, and kids.
• Find Lucky Brand jeans starting at $39.99.

When does Target's Black Friday sale start?

Every week of November, Target is offering new Black Friday deals, with ads provided the week before. Here are the specifics:

• November 1 through 7: Deals on electronics including headphones and smart home accessories
• November 6 through 8: Deals on small home appliances including $40 off the Keurig K Mini and $150 off the Dyson V8
• November 8 through 14: Deals on kitchen and floor care
• November 15 through 21: Deals on electronics, apparel, and beauty products
• November 22 through 28: Deals on toys, kitchen, floor care, electronics, and gaming

Sign up for email notifications here to get Target's weekly ads delivered straight to your inbox. 

When will Target stores open for Black Friday?

Target has yet to announce its official hours on Black Friday, November 27, but we do know that stores will be closed on Thanksgiving Day. Deals are going to be available both in-stores and online — though you might have more luck finding things in stock when shopping online. We'll update this section as soon as store hours are clarified. 

If you're planning to brave the crowds and wait in the inevitable lines come Black Friday, Target offers this handy online feature to save your spot in line. Simply enter your zip code to find your closest Target location, and it will enable you to "hop in line" before leaving the house. 

What should I buy from Target on Black Friday?

During Black Friday, Target will be featuring discounts on toys, kitchen goods, vacuums, electronics, and gaming gear. 

Last year, Target offered 50% off select toys and buy one, get one 50% off for the rest. This promotion included the season's best and newest toys, making it a great chance to pick up gifts for the kids in your life.

Small kitchen appliances were also deeply discounted during Black Friday last year, just as they are every year. Highlights included $70 off the PowerXL Vortex Air Fryer, $100 off the Nespresso VertuoPlus Coffee and Espresso Machine, and $45 off the 6-quart Instant Pot Duo Nova. This year, we expect to see similarly deep discounts on the same types of kitchen gear: stand mixers, electric pressure cookers, blenders, coffee makers, and the like. 

Last year's Black Friday was also a great time to buy vacuums of every type: robot, cordless, and upright. Specifically, we saw $150 off the Dyson V8 Animal, $260 off the Dyson Ball Animal 2, and $100 off the Roomba iRobot 690. For Black Friday 2020, we'll likely see all-time lows on the latest from brands like Dyson, Bissell, Roomba, Shark, Hoover, and more. 

Electronics like headphones, tablets, and smart home gear drop to record-breaking low prices every Black Friday from many retailers, including Target. Last year the 7th Gen 10.2-inch iPad was $100 off, the Beats Studio3 was $70 off, and the Google Home Mini was $30 off. Many of these discounts were price matched from other retailers like Amazon and Walmart, so if you were a REDcard holder, it was beneficial to shop the deals from Target to get an extra 5% off.

Both consoles and games saw great prices during last year's Black Friday. All PS4 and Xbox One games were only $30, the Xbox One 1 TB console was $150 off, and many other bundle deals featured discounts on games and consoles combined. Don't cross your fingers for deals on new consoles like the PS5, Xbox Series X, and Oculus Quest — older consoles are likely to be the only ones on sale.

What is the Target Circle loyalty program?

Target Circle is the retailer's free loyalty program. It offers perks like exclusive deals, coupons, and even 1% earnings (that can't be combined with REDcard savings). If Target is on your Black Friday hit list, it's worth signing up for Target Circle and downloading the Target app to access exclusive discounts — it's free to do so. 

What benefits do Target REDcard holders get on Black Friday?

As always, REDcard holders save 5% on all orders from Target and free shipping on most things. This is extra beneficial for Black Friday when 5% savings really add up over the many purchases. REDcard holders also have a longer item return window — an extra 30 days specifically. 

Deals by store

• Amazon Black Friday deals
• Apple Black Friday deals
• Best Buy Black Friday deals
• Bombas Black Friday deals on socks and loungewear
• Brooklinen Black Friday deals on bedding, sheets, towels, and more
• Casper Black Friday deals on mattresses, sheets, pillows, and more
• Dick's Sporting Goods Black Friday deals
• GameStop Black Friday deals
• The Home Depot Black Friday deals
• Kohl's Black Friday deals
• Leesa Black Friday deals on mattresses, pillows, and more
• Macy's Black Friday deals
• Nordstrom Black Friday deals
• Rhone Black Friday deals on men's workout clothes and fitness apparel
• Sephora Black Friday deals
• Target Black Friday deals
• Tommy John Black Friday deals on men's and women's underwear and loungewear
• Udemy Black Friday deals on online courses
• Ulta Black Friday deals
• Walmart Black Friday deals
• Wayfair Black Friday deals

• Netflix's "The Queen's Gambit" rose continuously in audience demand in its first month of release, according to data from Parrot Analytics.
• At its peak demand on November 20, "The Queen's Gambit" was over 20 times more in demand than the average series in the US.
• Chess-set sales also soared 125% in the US in the weeks after the series debuted, according to The New York Times.
• Netflix said on Monday that "The Queen's Gambit" was its biggest limited series yet.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Netflix said on Monday that "The Queen's Gambit" was its biggest limited series yet and was watched by 62 million households in its first 28 days (a view is counted if an account watches two minutes or more). And new data suggests it got there by steadily growing into a word-of-mouth hit.

When the series debuted on October 23, it was only around five times more "in demand" than the average series in the US, according to Parrot Analytics. The research company measures "demand expressions," which account for the engagement, viewership, and desire for a series.

By its peak demand on November 20, "The Queen's Gambit" was over 20 times more in demand than the average series in the US.

The chart below illustrates its growth in its first month.

The show is still far from some of the most in-demand shows in the US. Disney Plus' "Mandalorian," for instance, was 96 times more in demand than the average series.

But "The Queen's Gambit" is notable because its popularity continued to increase over its first month of release, breaking the mold of most binge-released shows, Parrot Analytics said.

Parrot Analytics attributed much of the rise to research around the show, which kept interest up. For instance, chess-set sales soared 125 percent in the US in the weeks after the series debuted, according to The New York Times.

"The Queen's Gambit" also landed on the most recent list of Nielsen's top streaming titles at No. 10, with viewers watching 551 million minutes of the series in the US over its debut weekend.

And the series seems to be popular around the world. Netflix said that it cracked its daily top 10 lists of popular titles in 92 counties and ranked No. 1 in 63 countries. 

• Venezuela has some of the worst healthcare in the world, and the coronavirus has only made the situation worse.
• At one public hospital in Caracas, there's no running water, and a shortage of medicine means cancer patients at times have to provide their own if they want treatment.
• We went inside a Venezuela hospital with crumbling infrastructure to see how a 9-year-old cancer patient is coping in such a tough environment.
• View more episodes of Business Insider Weekly on Facebook.

COVID-19 made a dire situation worse for 9-year old Camila. She has been battling cancer for over a year in Caracas, Venezuela.

Shortages and a depreciating currency have caused the price of medicine to spike. And even going to the hospital has become more challenging as officers enforce a strict coronavirus lockdown.

Camila's family knows this firsthand. The child found out she had cancer when police officers stopped her parents' car as they were driving her to the hospital for another round of tests.

The officer was giving them a hard time, and her father lost his patience. "Gilberto was pissed, and it got to a point that he said, 'Come on man, she has cancer!'" Yurima, Camila's mother, told Business Insider Weekly.

Camila knew she had the same disease as her friends at the Institute of Oncology Dr. Luis Razetti. Some of them passed away after we visited the hospital a few months ago.

At the public hospital, doctors have been forced to cancel surgeries because there is only one operating room in service. The other four are in disrepair.

Dr. Gabriel Romero, an oncologist at the hospital, told us in a phone interview that at times he hasn't been able to accept new patients because he doesn't know when he'll be able to treat them.

He said that there is no morphine to treat patients in palliative care. And there is no formaldehyde to perform biopsies.

Even something as vital as running water is only occasionally available at the hospital. Seventy percent of the country's hospitals only have water one or two days a week. And only 9% have regular access to running water, according to a survey that was conducted by local doctors alongside the World Health Organization.

The shortage of water makes it impossible to clean the restrooms. "When you see the restrooms the patients use, you'll say, 'I don't understand how someone who is sick has to go inside a bathroom like this one,' said Lisbeth Añez, the founder of Mama Lis Foundation, a nonprofit that donates medical supplies to the hospital.

Many families depend on organizations like Añez's to find the medicine they'll need for their treatment. Shortages have forced doctors at the public hospital to tell patients that if they want to be treated, they have to bring in everything they'll need themselves.

But that's not easy in a country where the minimum wage is around $2. "We have patients that come from very low socioeconomic backgrounds, that at most they'll have enough to eat," said Dr. Manuel Camacho, a pediatric oncologist who is treating Camila.

At times, patients travel hundreds of miles to cross into neighboring Colombia where medicine is cheaper and in stock.

The Venezuelan government hasn't consistently published official data in years, but organizations like the Anticancer Society of Venezuela estimate the number of cancer deaths has increased yearly since 2014.

The plight of cancer patients caught the attention of local media last year when 11-year-old Erick Altuve passed away of stomach cancer at another public hospital, according to Reuters. His mother said he had not received his medication for months because of widespread shortages.

When the coronavirus struck, few countries were as unprepared as Venezuela with it's crumbling health infrastructure. President Nicolás Maduro claims his government has been able to save dozens from COVID-19 "thanks to the free, quality, world-class care."

His government has reported about 100,000 coronavirus cases, but watchdog groups say the number is probably much higher. The Ministry of Health did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

Maduro's regime has said in the past that the healthcare issues are being exaggerated by the opposition. And he argued that US sanctions are to blame for the country's economic collapse.

But experts say the health crisis began well before the sanctions. And mismanagement and corruption within Maduro's Socialist Party is what actually led to the oil-rich nation's downfall.

Those who can have been fleeing the country. More than 20,000 doctors have left since 2014, according to the Pan American Health Organization.

At the Institute of Oncology, nurses make about $8 a month. Meanwhile, Camacho says doctors don't charge more than "a kilo of cheese." But he has no plans of leaving Venezuela.

For patients like Camila, Camacho is their only hope. "That's why I'm still here, for these babies that need it," he said.

Camila has now gone through months of chemotherapy after doctors removed the tumor on her left leg. And she knows exactly what she wants next: "What I need is a massage and a spa," she said.

But there's one thing she wants even more than a spa day. "Health," she said.

• Dena Roché is a wine consultant and founder of Vin Roché, a private wine services business based in Phoenix, Arizona. 
• After 10 years working as a travel writer, Roché decided to make a career change centered around her love and knowledge of wine and launched Vin Roché.
• Through partnerships with other vendors, Roché's clients have access to a wine club membership and direct delivery services, as well as curated wine dinners and virtual themed tastings. 
• A late-stage career change can be challenging, so Roché says it's important to combine something you're passionate about with your existing skills and expertise.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

For the last 10 years, I was living a dream life, paid to go on vacation and write about it for magazines and online publications. Through a lot of networking and pitching ideas, I built up my reputation and portfolio as a freelance travel writer.  But with the surge of bloggers and influencers willing to do my job literally for free, my industry began to die before my eyes. The COVID-19 pandemic and global lockdown was the proverbial nail in the coffin. 

Unlike many people who make a radical career transition to leave a soulless job, I was being forced out of a career I loved. The thought of a typical office job without flexibility and the ability to travel was panic-inducing, but so was the stack of bills piling up. Stuck in lockdown, I had plenty of time to think of my plan B. 

I didn't want a job I despised to be my only option, I wanted to find something I loved.

I realized that through traveling to 32 wine regions around the world, touring countless wineries, and tasting a diverse amount of wine, I'd developed a strong interest and expertise in wine. I was fascinated by how the same grape could taste so different depending on terroir, the winemaker's style, and the accompanying food. In April of this year, I decided that wine was my new path to success.

Since I'm not a night owl, I quickly ruled out working in a restaurant, so instead I decided to create a private wine services business, called Vin Roché. I know what you're thinking, launching a business during the worst economic recession of my life was a bit crazy, but the thought of being chained to an office was even worse. 

Moving from travel journalist to a private wine educator might seem like a stretch, but there are a lot of similarities.

I've found that while people want to learn a bit about wine, what they really want is to have an interesting experience, and that lies in weaving a good story about the wine, where it's from, and who made it. It's almost like telling a story verbally instead of writing it down. For me as the storyteller, it's even more gratifying because I actually get to see people's reactions and watch their aha moments, whereas with writing it's hard to know if what I wrote actually inspired anyone.

Even if it seems your new job has little in common with your old, every industry has transferable skills that you can bring to a new role to sell yourself to a prospective employer or boost confidence in your entrepreneurial journey.

While many skills carry over, I felt that even though I know a lot about wine from my travels and self study, it was important to get some formal training too. In April, I began studying with the Court of Master Sommeliers, the international organization that certifies sommeliers. Unfortunately, the pandemic canceled my planned test this fall and pushed it into early 2021, but instead of waiting to launch the business, I pushed forward. 

Read more: A former chef and restaurateur founded a successful snack brand after overcoming addiction. He shared how investing in his self-care made him a better leader and entrepreneur.

I was inspired by colleagues and friends who told me the person who cared the most about my credentials was me, not my prospective customers.

For most of my clients, it's all about a fun and entertaining  experience.

I officially opened for business in July. My clients initially come through word of mouth, and were on the wine sales side. But I'm now implementing a public relations strategy and social media ads to help get the word out to grow the tastings and private events from one event a month to a target of eight within the next six months. While COVID-19 has made aspects of the business slow to start, one thing that made this business viable was that there are multiple lines of revenue. 

I do private wine dinners and tastings, sell a collection of French and California wines, consult, and will lead exclusive wine region travel in the near future. While all of our services are customized, wine dinners generally start at $250 and wine tastings are dependent on the cost of the wine.  

COVID-19 actually created a new segment of my business-virtual wine tastings. It's essentially the same tasting I'd do for clients in their home, but now it's over Zoom. It's pretty cool because it allows clients to invite friends in Phoenix, New York, or Miami to a virtual party and taste wine together in a way they couldn't normally on a Friday night. 

Partnerships are vital for getting the word out about my small business.

I sell a strong, diverse portfolio of wine through a relationship with the Boisset Collection so my clients have access to a wine club and direct-to-their-door delivery, a big selling point because of COVID-19. 

I developed a relationship with Phoenix's top private chef, William Turner, to offer curated wine dinners and tastings through our respective businesses. I'm also partnered with Sebastien Noel of My French Vineyard to add a winemaker's knowledge to tastings and on wine tours. Now, I'm working to create relationships with boutique wineries in various wine regions to get ready to be able to offer VIP wine travel experiences. 

Read more: 4 women who are redefining the male-dominated alcohol industry and making a substantial profit in the process

Making a late-stage career transition is never easy, but having a job you love is worth it.

For me the key was to find something else that I was passionate about, and also to find a way to incorporate my old career with the new. In my case that is offering Vin Roché wine vacations, and continuing to write with a focus on wine travel and wine. Whether COVID-19 forced you into a career shift or you've wanted to make a move for a long while, it is possible to reinvent yourself in 2020. 

Dena Roché is a luxury lifestyle journalist published in BBC, Forbes, American Way, United Hemispheres, Modern Luxury, and more. She is also the founder of Vin Roché. You can connect with her on Instagram @denaroche.

• Iran's top diplomat, Javad Zarif, on Friday suggested Israel was involved in the reported assassination of a top nuclear scientist. 
• Iranian media on Friday reported that nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in a small city not far from Iran's capital, Tehran.
• "Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice — with serious indications of Israeli role —shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators," Zarif tweeted
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Friday said there are "serious indications" of Israeli involvement in the reported assassination of a top nuclear scientist in a shootout not far from the capital, Tehran. 

"Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice — with serious indications of Israeli role —shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators," Zarif tweeted.

"Iran calls on [international] community — and especially EU — to end their shameful double standards & condemn this act of state terror," the top Iranian diplomat added. 

The Israeli Embassy in Washington did not offer a comment when contacted by Insider. 

Iranian media on Friday reported that nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in Absard, located roughly 40 miles to the east of Tehran. Fakhrizadeh, a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officer, was widely considered to be the father of Iran's nuclear program. 

The reported assassination also came less than two weeks after the New York Times reported President Donald Trump has consulted senior advisors about the possibility of conducting a strike on Iran's main nuclear facility. A number of top advisors reportedly urged Trump against pursuing such a strike, warning it could catalyze a broader conflict with his time in the White House waning. 

Tensions between the Washington and Tehran have reached historic heights under Trump, with relations declining precipitously ever since the president made the controversial decision to withdraw the US from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal — formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The US and Iran were also pushed to the brink of war in the early days of 2020 after Trump ordered a drone strike that killed Qassem Solemani, the country's top general. 

Hossein Dehghan, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, in a tweet on Friday made an apparent reference to Trump while issuing a warning to those responsible for Fakhrizadeh's reported assassination. 

"In the last days of their gambling ally's political life, the Zionists seek to intensify and increase pressure on Iran to wage a full-blown war," Dehghan said. "We will descend like lightning on the killers of this oppressed martyr and we will make them regret their actions!"

Mark Fitzpatrick, an associate fellow with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Insider there "are ample reasons to suspect US involvement" in the reported assassination. Fitzpatrick cited Trump's desire to strike Iran and the recent report of the president's request for military options, as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's recent meetings in Israel. 

Fitzpatrick also said that "the assassination is consistent with Trump's efforts to prevent his successor from restoring the JCPOA."

The White House did not offer a comment when contacted by Insider. 

No group or government has claimed responsibility for Friday's attack.

Iran has accused Israel of involvement in previous killings of scientists. Israel was also suspected of being behind an act of sabotage on Iran's main nuclear facility in July. And back in August an Israeli hit squad took out an Al Qaeda leader in Tehran.

Henry Rome, a senior analyst for the Eurasia Group, in a statement said "the most plausible explanation" at the moment is that Israel is responsible for Fakhrizadeh's killing. 

• You can stop Google from tracking some aspects of your online activity by changing your Google Account settings.
• Google tracks many details about you whenever you use your Google account on your computer, laptop, tablet, and phone.
• Here's how to stop Google from tracking your web activity, location, YouTube history, and more. 
• Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

Google has worked its way into virtually every aspect of your life, and the search giant's network of interrelated apps and services capture, share, and rely on a great deal of personal information about you. Google tracks your search history, for example, as well as your mobile device's location, the ads you view, the videos you watch, and more.

If you prefer, you can configure Google to stop tracking you — at least, for the most part — though if you do, you'll lose the benefit of all of Google's personalization features. 

How to stop Google from tracking you

No matter what device you are using, you can disable most of Google's various tracking features:

On an iPhone, you can easily disable Google's Location History tracking. Read our article on disabling Google tracking on an iPhone.

On an Android phone, you can disable Location History and location tracking for your entire device or individual apps. Read our article on disabling Google tracking on Android devices.

On a computer, you can disable Google from using your Google Account settings in a web browser. Read our article to learn how.

What you need to know about Google tracking on your accounts and devices

No matter which way you choose to disable Google's tracking features, you're generally using the same Google Account settings. For the most part, Google tracks you based on your account, not your device — so if you disable Google tracking using the Web & App Activity or Location History settings, you're turning off tracking on every device that uses that specific Google Account. 

There is an important exception: In the Location History settings, you can click "Devices on this account" to see all the phones and tablets being tracked. You can choose to uncheck any of those devices to stop Google from tracking it. This lets Google track some of your activity, but not all of it.

Likewise, you can deny specific Google apps permission to access your phone's location services — this prevents Google from tracking your location even if you leave Location Services turned on for other devices. 

Google tracks other data that you can disable as well

In addition to web activity and location tracking, Google tracks other data as well, in particular your YouTube viewing history and details about you that inform the ads you see online. You can see more details about both of these on the Data & personalization page in your Google account settings. 

To disable YouTube tracking, read our article about how to stop tracking on your computer.

The Ad personalization section of the Data & personalization page displays a wealth of information about what Google knows about you and how it is applied to the ads you are served. If you want, you can disable ad personalization entirely (click the button to slide it to the left) but it only affects the ads you see — it does not reduce the number of ads you are served, nor does it prevent Google from continuing to collect information about you. 

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

• How to permanently delete your Google account, but save all your emails and other data
  

• How to enable two-factor authentication on your Google account for added security

• How to stop Google from tracking your iPhone's location

• How to turn off or limit personalized ad tracking on your iPhone to protect your privacy

• How to see your Google location history in Google Maps, and delete or turn off its location tracking

• Bitcoin slumped further through the Thanksgiving holiday as intense profit-taking dragged on prices.
• The world's most popular cryptocurrency has tumbled as much as 5.9%, to $16,242.70, over the past 24 hours.
• The slump was Bitcoin's biggest since the coronavirus pandemic slammed markets in March, and it reversed the weeks-long rally that placed the token within a hair of its record high.
• Other cryptocurrencies including Ethereum and XRP were caught in the sell-off and sank as well.
• Watch bitcoin trade live here.

Profit-taking over the Thanksgiving holiday stalled Bitcoin's rally and kept the token from overtaking a 2017 record.

The world's most popular cryptocurrency has sunk as much as 5.9%, to $16,242.70, over the last 24 hours. The slide was Bitcoin's biggest since the coronavirus pandemic first roiled markets in March, and it reversed the weeks-long uptrend fueled by renewed bullishness.

Bitcoin came within $300 of an all-time high on Wednesday, when it reached an intraday high of $19,494. As the coin cleared the $19,000 resistance level on Tuesday, all eyes were on whether it could rise above $20,000 for the first time.

Read more: Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson called the last 2 market sell-offs. He told us the 3 indicators he used to make his predictions — and detailed how he keeps his cool in downturns when others are making doomsday forecasts.

"This instrument remains as volatile and highly speculative as ever," Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at Oanda Europe, said on Friday. "There may be more reasons to be bullish on cryptos than there were three years ago, but some things simply haven't changed. The wild ride continues."

The cryptocurrency's sell-off dragged on other tokens throughout the day. Ethereum fell as much as 8.1% and XRP sank by 15.9% at 24-hour lows.

Bitcoin enjoyed extraordinary momentum heading into the Thanksgiving holiday. PayPal's adoption of cryptocurrencies sparked the token's rally in October, and bullish commentary from Wall Street giants including Mike Novogratz and Rick Rieder further boosted prices. New interest from retail investors extended the surge before Thursday's about-face.

Read more: Goldman Sachs hedge fund VIP list has crushed the S&P 500 60% of the time since 2001. These are the 15 stocks hedge funds love and hate the most right now.

Bitcoin has still more than doubled in 2020 despite its slump. The magnitude of its rise and fall through the year resembles its boom and bust of 2017. It remains to be seen whether intense price swings pull Bitcoin back to about $3,000, as it did three years ago. While some have touted a wider investor base as a key support for the cryptocurrency, others are unconvinced that Bitcoin's wild volatility will cool anytime soon.

Bitcoin traded at $17,054.31 as of 8:20 a.m. ET, up 135% year-to-date.

Now read more markets coverage from Markets Insider and Business Insider:

An innovation-focused portfolio manager at a $158 billion firm shares 8 disruptive stocks across multiple industries he thinks could grow 30% every year over the next decade

The stock-market impact of millennial investors has been overblown as trading volumes decline — and it's actually the older crowd who's exerted more influence, JPMorgan says

US corporate profits jumped a record $495 billion in the 3rd quarter as the economy reopened

• The Arcadia Group, which owns British brands including Topshop, Miss Selfridge, and Dorothy Perkins, could appoint administrators early next week, sources told Sky News.
• The collapse of the group would put 13,000 jobs at risk.
• Arcadia's brands have been hit by two national lockdowns, which forced non-essential businesses, including clothing stores, to shut.
• In a statement to Sky News, Arcadia confirmed its boards "have been working on a number of contingency options to secure the future of the group's brands."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The struggling fashion conglomerate the Arcadia Group, which has come under fire in recent years, is on the brink of administration, sources told Sky News.

The collapse of the group, which owns British brands including Topshop, Miss Selfridge, and Dorothy Perkins, could put 13,000 jobs at risk.

Arcadia is preparing to appoint administrators from Deloitte as soon as early next week, the sources said, though the plan is yet to be finalized.

In mid-November, sources told Sky News that the group was in urgent talks to secure a £30 million ($40 million) loan for winter, but these proved unsuccessful.

The group owns more than 500 stores across the UK. The sites were shut between March and June during the national lockdown, when all non-essential businesses had to close. The stores in England had to shut again in early November for a four-week lockdown that ends on December 2.

If administrators are called in, Arcadia will continue trading both online and in stores, pending lockdown restrictions, while it waits for buyers, one source told Sky News.

Fast fashion giant Boohoo is likely to be among prospective buyers for Topshop, Arcadia Group's most valuable brand, Sofie Willmott, content head of apparel at GlobalData, told Business Insider. But e-commerce giant Boohoo is unlikely to want to manage its physical stores, meaning that Topshop could be made an online-only brand.

In a statement to Sky News, Arcadia confirmed that its boards "have been working on a number of contingency options to secure the future of the group's brands."

Stores will be reopening next week when the lockdown ends, it added.

The demise of a fashion empire

Apparel is one of retail sectors hit the most by the pandemic. But Arcadia has arguably been harder hit than many of its clothing competitors.

Though some of its brands have well-established e-commerce channels, the majority of their sales are still usually generated in stores, Willmott explained. "Digital channels will not have made up for the significant sales lost from store closures during lockdowns," she said.

Online competitors like Asos and Boohoo have to able to swoop in and record surging profits during the pandemic.

But these fast fashion retailers were already stealing the Arcadia Group's customers prior to the pandemic. Arcadia's share of the UK clothing has slumped to 2.7% in 2020 from 4.5% in 2015, according to figures from GlobalData.

In May 2019, Topshop filed for bankruptcy in the US and shut all of its 11 stores there.

The struggling retail group cut around 500 head office roles in July, and furloughed its retail staff.

Much of the group's controversy comes from its chairman, Sir Philip Green. The business tycoon paid out a £1.2 billion  ($1.6 billion) dividend to his wife, who is Arcadia's registered owner, just three years after he bought the group for £850 million ($1.1 billion).

Green also owned the department store chain British Home Stores, which he infamously sold for just £1 ($1.33) in 2015. The chain went bankrupt the next year in the UK's biggest retail collapse since 2008, causing the closure of 163 stores and the loss of around 11,000 jobs.

In June 2019, Green was charged with four counts of misdemeanor assault after a fitness instructor reportedly accused him of unwanted groping in Arizona. Just months before that, a member of the UK parliament named him as the subject of several sexual harassment, racial abuse, and bullying allegations.

• A new map of the Milky Way galaxy places Earth closer to the galaxy's center.
• That also puts it closer to the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way: Sagittarius A*. 
• The good news: We're not moving closer to the black hole, and we aren't currently in danger of getting sucked in.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It seems that Earth has been misplaced.

According to a new map of the Milky Way galaxy, the solar system's position isn't where we thought it was. Not only is it closer to the galactic center — and the supermassive hole therein, Sagittarius A* (pronounced Sagittarius A-star) — it's orbiting at a faster clip.

It's nothing to be concerned about; we're not actually moving closer to Sagittarius A*, and we're in no danger of being slurped up. Rather, our map of the Milky Way has been adjusted, more accurately identifying where we have been all along.

And the survey beautifully demonstrates how tricky it is to map a galaxy in three dimensions from inside it.

It's a problem that has long devilled our understanding of space phenomena. It's relatively easy to map the two-dimensional coordinates of stars and other cosmic objects, but the distances to those objects is a lot harder to figure out.

And distances are important — they help us determine the intrinsic brightness of objects. A good recent example of this is the red giant star Betelgeuse, which turned out to be closer to Earth than previous measurements suggested. This means that it's neither as large nor as bright as we thought.

Another is the object CK Vulpeculae, a star that exploded 350 years ago. It's actually much farther away, which means that the explosion was brighter and more energetic, and requires a new explanation, since previous analyses were performed under the assumption it was relatively low energy.

But we're getting better at calculating those distances, with surveys using the best available technology and techniques working hard to refine our three-dimensional maps of the Milky Way, a field known as astrometry. And one of these is the VERA radio astronomy survey, conducted by the Japanese VERA collaboration.

VERA stands for VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) Exploration of Radio Astrometry, and it uses a number of radio telescopes across the Japanese archipelago, combining their data to effectively produce the same resolution as a telescope with a 2,300 km- (1,430 mile-) diameter dish. It's the same principle behind the Event Horizon Telescope that produced our very first direct image of a black hole's shadow.

VERA, which started observing in 2000, is designed to help us calculate the distances to radio-emitting stars by calculating their parallax. With its incredible resolution, it observes these stars for over a year, and watches how their position changes relative to stars that are much farther away as Earth orbits the Sun.

This change in position can then be used to calculate how far a star is from Earth, but not all parallax observations are created equal. VLBI can produce much higher resolution images; VERA has a breathtaking angular resolution of 10 millionths of an arcsecond, which is expected to produce extraordinarily high-precision astrometry measurements.

And this is what astronomers have used to refine our solar system's position in the Milky Way. Based on the first VERA Astrometry Catalog of 99 objects released earlier this year, as well as other observations, astronomers created a position and velocity map of those objects.

From this map, they calculated the position of the galactic center.

In 1985, the International Astronomical Union defined the distance to the galactic center as 27,700 light-years. Last year, the GRAVITY collaboration recalculated it and found it closer, just 26,673 light-years away.

The VERA-based measurements bring it closer still, to a distance of just 25,800 light-years. And the Solar System's orbital speed is faster, too — 227 km (141 miles) per second, rather than the official velocity of 220 km (137 miles) per second.

That change may not seem like much, but it could have an impact on how we measure and interpret activity in the galactic center — ultimately, hopefully, leading to a more accurate picture of the complex interactions around Sagittarius A*.

Meanwhile, the VERA collaboration is forging ahead. Not only is it continuing to make observations of objects in the Milky Way, it's joining up with an even larger project, the East Asian VLBI Network. Together, astronomers hope, the telescopes involved in this project could provide measurements of unprecedented accuracy.

The Vera Astrometry Catalog was published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan.

• Friday is Native American Heritage Day, a time to celebrate Native American culture, their contributions to US history, and to recognize the injustice they have endured in the US. 
• Business Insider spoke with Joy Harjo, the country's poet laureate and the first Indigenous person to hold the title since the position was created in 1937. 
• Harjo shares her goals as poet laureate and discusses her recent projects to raise awareness of Native American culture.
• She also talks about the important role poetry plays in grief and healing, and how more Americans have been turning to the art form in recent months amid the coronavirus pandemic. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Over the past few months, Joy Harjo, the nation's poet laureate and the first Indigenous person in US history to hold the title, has been receiving a lot more emails and handwritten letters. 

She says many people have been writing to thank her for her poetry, share their own, or ask for verses to help them cope with hardship and grief as the country deals with the coronavirus pandemic.  

Harjo, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, has perhaps one of the most interesting jobs: to serve as an ambassador for poetry and a leader in art. Just last week, she was reappointed for a third term to serve as poet laureate for 2021. Appointed by The Library of Congress, the poet laureate serves as the official poet of the United States. 

The importance of doing so while the country mourns more than a quarter of a million dead is not lost on her. 

"The interest in poetry and the need for poetry as solace and direction has really emerged during this time," she tells Business Insider. "Poetry can be found during times of grief, times of transformation."  

In addition to helping the country heal, Harjo feels deeply responsible to help raise awareness of the culture, the hardships, and the successes of Native Americans. 

"We're human," she said. 

In the past year, Harjo published a visually mesmerizing online interactive "poetry map" showcasing the poetry of 47 Native Americans' work, as well as a book of her own poetry, "An American Sunrise," which highlights the suffering Indigenous peoples endured because of forced relocation in the US. 

For Native American Heritage Day, Business Insider talked with Harjo about what she hopes to accomplish as poet laureate and the role poetry plays in society. 

Editor's note: This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

The role poetry plays in national healing

We're in difficult times. Has the coronavirus pandemic inspired any new poetry for you? 

I actually haven't written any poetry recently. I've been busy compiling a poetry anthology for the Library of Congress, working on a music album, "I Pray For My Enemies, "coming out in March, and have been working on a memoir, "Poet Warrior, A Call for Love and Justice," to be published in September. 

So I haven't had time to write poetry. But the interest in poetry and the need for poetry as solace and direction has really emerged during this time. 

Poetry can be found during times of grief, times of transformation. I've been in touch with experts who tell me that readership of poetry has gone up. 

People go to poetry for solace. A poem can hold things that ordinary language cannot. And that's one reason I wound up in poetry because four lines, 10 lines, even an epic poem can carry history, can carry a moment of social unrest and perhaps point in a certain direction or shift meaning in a way with metaphor and language in a way that political rhetoric cannot. 

Have you seen an uptick in the number of people reaching out to you recently? 

I've seen a lot of people come to poetry, write poetry because of what it offers especially during times like these, amid multiple storms. It's all coming together and we need these places that carry wisdom and insight. 

I've been getting a lot of letters and emails and requests. A lot. I don't know if it's because I'm the poet laureate or because of the times we're in — perhaps it's both of those things combined — but I've gotten a lot of requests and emails recently. The nature of the requests are more attuned toward wanting something to help get them through this time, or writing about how important my work or the work of others to help them move through these turbulent times, almost like a rudder, almost to say, 'Here's where we're going. Here's how to get there.'  

Raising awareness of Native American culture 

What does it mean to be the nation's first Indigenous poet laureate? 

It's opened a tremendous doorway for Native People. I heard it was widely celebrated, and it still is, that there's a Native person in this position. It brought a much larger awareness to indigenous peoples in this country, and that we're human beings. 

What do you hope to accomplish in your third year as poet laureate? 

We just launched the poet laureate project, "Living Nations, Living Words," a story map of 47 contemporary Native Nations poets reading and discussing their work. There is an educators' toolkit in the works, and a Norton anthology of the poems will be published this May. I will be promoting this project as well as continue my ambassadorship on behalf of poetry in this country. 

How did you first come to poetry as a form of self-expression? 

I came to poetry as an undergraduate studio art major at the University of New Mexico. I was impressed by the preciseness of language required in word constructions you could carry with you anywhere. Poems could hold almost anything. I heard and met my first living Native poets there, including Simon Ortiz, Leslie Silko and many others. They reminded me that the art of poetry is a crucial ingredient to questioning and growth, that the roots of poetry are oral. They were tools of transformation as we fought for Native rights. 

How old were you? Do you remember what some of your first poems were about? 

I was around 22 or 23 years old. My first poems were centered in the southwestern landscape and in what was going on in our Native community.

The need for poetry and the importance of diversity 

One of your poems, "Remember" really stands out to me. It reads, in part: 

"Remember the earth whose skin you are:

red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth

brown earth, we are earth." 

Tell me about it, it seems especially relevant today. 

We are really one person. Even as we are individually incredibly diverse peoples and languages and poetry, we're still, at the same time, one. That diversity of experience goes into making one solid whole. My poetry helps remind me, poetry of others, helps remind me of this. I think that poem speaks to a universal need or urge to remind people that it's the diversity of experience that makes this life so rich. 

Why does the world need poetry right now? Why should people take time out of their day to read or write it? 

Poetry demands that we listen, that we open the door to a deeper awareness that is always present in every moment, even in the ordinary. To read and write sharpens the skill of listening, which is crucial to any art or endeavor, including any aspect of business. It is in listening you gain knowledge, go all the way around a task, a question, or a problem instead of running past a moment or quandary towards an easy or unsatisfying fix. 

When you buy through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. Learn more.

• Amazon is discounting many of its own devices for Black Friday, including Fire TV streaming sticks.
• All four of the Fire TV devices are discounted at least 30%, and three of the four are at their all-time lowest prices.
• These streaming devices let you control your TV with just your voice and are compatible with satellite and cable boxes so you can still watch live TV.
• Check out our guide to the best media streaming sticks and devices for more recommendations, and find all the best Black Friday tech deals here.

Amazon's Black Friday 2020 deals are already in full swing, making it the ideal time to pick up the Amazon devices you've been considering buying. This is especially true if you've had your eye on any of Amazon's Fire TV products.

By supplying you with easy, hands-free access to your favorite streaming services, hit movies, TV shows, and more, Fire TV sticks and devices take care of your media-viewing needs.

The Fire TV streaming media players include three types of sticks and the Fire TV Cube. Each works with your current TV setup to give you access to Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Netflix, and other streaming services.

All four products are on sale through Black Friday, and the best deals are highlighted below. Included with each of the deals is a one-year subscription to the Food Network Kitchen app (which auto-renews at $39.99 per year).

All of the devices below come highly recommended, and the Fire TV Stick 4K is one of the top picks in our buying guide.

The best Amazon Fire TV deals for Black Friday 2020:

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Stream 4K video straight to your television with the compact Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K, which supports Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HDR10+.

Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite 

The Fire TV Stick Lite is the most powerful streaming media player at this price and has HDR support and 1080p resolution playback. The $17.99 price tag matches the lowest amount that the Stick Lite has been offered at.

Amazon Fire TV Cube

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Recently updated in September, the new Fire TV Stick has HDR compatibility and 60 fps playback that help it keep up with advancements in streaming quality. This is a historically low price.

• Whole Foods and Amazon sent out an email to customers in some southern states saying that the turkey they purchased may not live up to "quality" standards. 
• While the turkeys are still safe to eat, customers will get a $50 Amazon gift card credited to their account. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Whole Foods sent out an email to customers in some southern states on Thursday morning explaining that they purchased a Turkey that may not live up to the company's "quality" standards. 

The email "stressed there was no known food safety or health risk with any of the turkeys," according to CNN Business.

While the turkeys were still safe to eat, Whole Foods will still be providing those who purchased the unsatisfactory product a $50 credit toward their Amazon account. (Amazon is the parent company for Whole Foods.) 

According to a company spokesperson, the statement was sent to customers in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and two stores in the Florida panhandle. 

Customers took to Twitter to express their concern with the smell of the Turkey's that had been purchased. 

—Richard Brown (@Richard___Brown) November 26, 2020

—Erica Siegel (@ericasiegel) November 26, 2020

—Tim Roten (@TiminWS) November 27, 2020

Whole Foods responded to the concerns, often pointing customers in the direction of the USDA's recommendations for handling turkey. 

Read More: Inside Amazon's 'whirlwind courtship' of Whole Foods, as told by the grocery chain's founder John Mackey

This is on top of other precautions Whole Foods took before the holiday to ensure that customers would have a smooth Thanksgiving. 

This year the retailer unveiled the 'Turkey Protection Program' in which customers could "insure" any turkey bought between November 11-12 by purchasing a $35 Whole Foods gift card. If the turkey turned out underwhelming for any reason, those who bought the insurance could file a claim starting today. 

• Public health experts warned for months that Thanksgiving dinner would be the perfect place for the coronavirus to spread.
• They suggested people limit their feasts, just for this year, to single-household affairs.
• Still, more than a third of Americans surveyed by Insider said they would not be changing anything at all about how they ran Thanksgiving 2020, despite the looming virus threat.
• Many said they'd travel, and most said they'd mix households without wearing masks or opening up windows.
• By next year, vaccines will be widely available, making it very wise to hold off until Thanksgiving 2021 to do a big spread.
• Still, it's difficult to blame Americans for doing the holidays-as-usual this year, given the utter failure of the country's leaders to rally together and get the virus under control.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Every year, Thanksgiving provides a-near perfect recipe for infectious diseases to spread.

People gather indoors, en masse, to cook, eat, drink, laugh, shout, fight, hug, kiss, and exchange air for hours on end. Everyone is exposed to everyone else: the young, the old, family, neighbors, and friends. 

This is an ideal environment for the novel coronavirus to run wild and kill people.

That is why, while empathetic to our innate desires to mingle, leading public health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci said time and time again: Stay home on Thanksgiving if you can, gather outdoors if you must, and keep any interactions with other households brief, small, masked, and well-ventilated.

However, many Americans did not heed their advice.

An Insider poll of 1,110 people across the US found that roughly one third of those (37%) surveyed were not changing anything about how they ran Thanksgiving. 31% of those asked said the CDC's recommendation not to travel this year had no impact on their plans. Most (57%) said they were going to mix different households at their dinner tables without wearing masks, opening windows, or using fans.

Yes, a third of the country has undermined the collective good faith efforts of everyone else to stay isolated, and keep our medics, essential workers, elders, and other vulnerable individuals safe.

But it would be trite to see this third of the country as malicious people. Everyone is mentally and emotionally exhausted, from going months without "normal" family connections. And they are justifiably frustrated: so many of our leaders, both local and national, have not done near enough within their power yet to prevent this virus's rampant spread across the nation and to deploy solid, evidence-based policies with enough systemic heft to make a dent in the pandemic.

So, let's not direct our ire at our neighbors who did not do the right thing around the table this year.

But, don't let their indifference to the virus infect your home, either. You could truly save someone's life if you avoid big celebrations until 2021.

Thanksgiving would have prompted an uptick in coronavirus cases even if we were well-prepared. We were not.

Canadian Thanksgiving seeded more spread of the virus there in October.

In Wuhan, Thanksgiving-like gatherings of tens of thousands of families sharing potluck meals for Lunar New Year in January ignited the virus too.

But the fact that the US was completely in the red already when it came to new coronavirus infections means this Thanksgiving will likely go down as the deadliest holiday gathering the world has seen during this pandemic.

Americans are tired and confused

After more than nine months of conflicting messages, unclear guidance, and indecision about the virus, it's understandable that Americans are tired and confused.

The virus situation in the US is so impossible to contact trace that some health departments are essentially giving up. In many places it's still very difficult to get a test, and neither vaccines nor decent treatments to help quell the virus are here yet.

We've been asked — for many, many months on end — to voluntarily stay away from our relatives, cancel big weddings, parties, and holiday plans, in order to be good sports and save lives during the pandemic. But, at the same time, we've witnessed very conflicting and confusing policy decisions, which have done more to keep people comfortable as temperatures tumble, rather than focusing on what's safest, or economically best. Many bars and restaurants are still open, while schools are closed, making pandemic restrictions feel uselessly frustrating and scientifically pointless. 

Add in a sprinkling of American exceptionalism, and it's easy to see why Thanksgiving was not universally cancelled. 

"As a country we've been raised to believe that we do our own thing," former CDC outbreak investigator and Osmosis CMO Dr. Rishi Desai recently told Insider.

"If you're not in the ICU yourself, you don't see this as a big deal. What you notice is that it's affecting your life. You're bored, you're tired, you're lonely, and that's your experience. And so people act on their experience much more than they act on ration, reason, logic, data."

One doctor says he doesn't blame patients for doing Thanksgiving as normal this year, he blames our leaders

Dr. Eli Perencevich, an infectious disease specialist in Iowa City recently told Insider that many of his patients told him they were planning to do Thanksgiving as normal, with extended family, and without masks. And yet, many of them have heart disease and emphysema, health conditions that doctors like him know can make the virus life-threatening.

He worries that these Thanksgiving celebrations could be the patients' last; it is pretty likely the coronavirus will be present at family dinner tables, given the current spread of the virus throughout the US. It is reasonable to expect that some of these people will die after their Thanksgiving meals end.

—Salt Lake Health (@SaltLakeHealth) November 24, 2020

As Dr. Henry Walke, the CDC's COVID-19 incident manager, said on a call with reporters last week: "One of your family members, from coming together in this family gathering, actually could end up being hospitalized and severely ill and die."

But Dr. Perencevich didn't fault his patients for their big Thanksgiving plans.

The blame, he says, lies more with public officials, who haven't made it clear how to stay safe during the pandemic, or provided the good leadership, testing, and contact tracing required to squash the virus down across the US. 

"It's just devastating that we're in this point where folks have gotten mixed messages, and a lot of people are getting sick because of it," Perencevich said.

He noted how politicians and local health authorities have too often let bars remain open when cases are exploding, and made it perfectly defensible for people to walk around indoors in public places without masks.

"It's going to get worse for the next weeks, no matter what we do, but we're not really turning the ship at all," he said. "So it looks like it's going to just keep getting worse."

Holding out for a big Thanksgiving in 2021 will be worth the wait 

The truth is, holding off on big gatherings, for now, still has life-saving benefits.

By Thanksgiving 2021, it's likely every adult in the US will have already had access to very safe, effective coronavirus vaccines. Treatments for the virus may improve too, making any illnesses contracted then less deadly and debilitating than they are right now. 

So if you're part of the 10% of people who said they would bundle up and eat outside this year, the 17% of people who said they would open windows and increase ventilation at the Thanksgiving table, the 38% who didn't mix it up with any other households Thursday, or the 19% who canceled turkey dinner plans, know that you've done a good thing for your country, and that your sacrifice won't last forever. 

"2021 is going to be a much, much better year," Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University's school of public health, told Insider.

"My best guess is sometime late summer to fall [2021], you can spend time with somebody else and not feel that anxiety that we all feel right now. It's less than a year away."

About our polling: SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by age and gender. Our polling data collected 1,110 respondents surveyed on November 21 and 22. All polls carried approximately a 3% margin of error.

When you buy through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. Learn more.

• GameStop's Black Friday sale is now on, offering major discounts on games, game consoles, accessories, collectibles, and more. 
• The most notable deals include up to 55% off of some Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One games, a Nintendo Switch collectible bundle, and PC gaming accessories.
• For more deals coverage, check out our Black Friday 2020 shopping guide here, and all the best Black Friday tech deals here.
• Looking to track limited-time Black Friday deals in real time? We're on top of that, too.

The GameStop Black Friday sale is well underway, with massive discounts on a number of games for Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One. However, don't expect to find deals on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X or their games and accessories.

Those consoles are brand-new and generally won't see deals until at least the next Amazon Prime Day. However, we've found a fancy Nintendo Switch bundle as well as some great savings on PC gaming accessories. Below, we've collected up some of the best GameStop deals you can snag right now.

The best Black Friday GameStop deals

Now, you may be bummed out to learn that PS5 and Xbox Series X deals aren't happening, but remember that these two consoles can play most if not all games from the libraries of the previous generation and upscale their performance at that. So, if you already snagged one of the newest consoles, these deals should still be relevant to you.

Note: If another retailer is currently offering an even better discount than GameStop on an item, we've included a link to that store instead.

Check out our gaming buying guides and reviews

For more video game, console, and computer recommendations, check out our various gaming reviews and buying guides.

• PlayStation 5 review
• Xbox Series S review
• Xbox Series X review
• "Spider-Man: Miles Morales" (PS5) review
• "The Last of Us II" (PS4) review
• The best gaming consoles
• The best Nintendo Switch games
• The best Nintendo Switch accessories
• The best gaming headsets
• The best gaming PCs
• The best gaming laptops

• The day before Thanksgiving was the biggest air travel day since the beginning of the pandemic.
• The CDC warned against any travel for the holiday.
• About a third of Americans said that the CDC recommendation didn't affect their plans, according to an Insider survey.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

This year, the CDC warned Americans that traveling for Thanksgiving could be dangerous, and advised that, "the safest way to celebrate Thanksgiving is to celebrate at home with the people you live with." Despite the guidance, the day before Thanksgiving was the biggest air travel day since the beginning of the pandemic.

According to an Insider survey, 37% of people did not plan to change how they celebrated Thanksgiving this year. They traveled on planes, trains, and buses around the country, despite pleas from the CDC. The US' infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned that airports and other travel would be a source of infection.

"That's what's going to get us into even more trouble," he said, warning Americans.

Take a look at what it was like traveling for Thanksgiving during a pandemic.

The TSA reported 1,070,967 travelers on November 25, the day before Thanksgiving.

Source: TSA

It was the busiest air travel day since March 16.

Last year, 2,624,250 passed through TSA checkpoints the day before Thanksgiving, so traffic was down about 40%.

Source: Business Insider

"CDC is recommending against travel during the Thanksgiving period," Dr. Henry Walke, the CDC's COVID-19 incident manager, said on a call earlier in November.

Source: Business Insider

"Airports have constant traffic going through them with travelers coming to and from various locations around the globe...we cannot be sure everyone is using the same precautions as we are, nor if they have been advised to," emergency medicine physician and K Health's chief diagnosis office Neil Brown told Business Insider.

Source: Business Insider

The greatest risk in airports and in flying comes from interacting with people closely, more than infected surfaces.

Airports across the country implemented strategies to minimize potential infections.

Some airports, like Seattle-Tacoma International in Washington, removed many of the seats at gates to encourage distancing.

Source: Business Insider

Other airports added facial recognition technology to let passengers minimize human contact before boarding.

Source: Business Insider

Masks are mandatory in many airports and on all US airlines, and some have also reduced food and beverage service.

"What we're concerned about is not only the actual mode of travel, whether it's an airplane or a bus or a car ... but also it's the transportation hubs," Walke said.

Source: Business Insider

People lining up to board trains, planes, and buses are often crowded, which can be dangerous, Walke said.

Source: Business Insider

Some travel hubs also became sites for rapid COVID testing.

Source: Gothamist

At Penn Station, travelers could self administer rapid tests.

• A-J Aronstein is the dean of Beyond Barnard, a program that provides career and professional advising resources for students and alumnae of Barnard College.
• As college seniors prepare to graduate into an economic recession brought on by the pandemic, Aronstein says they should rethink their approach to networking and job hunting.
• Instead of searching for jobs solely online, ask your in-person connections if they know of anyone hiring. Begin casually networking with companies or professionals you admire to build a personal connection with them, instead of just asking for a job.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Class of 2021 is now well into their final year of college and will soon face an uncertain and highly competitive labor market. While securing a coveted internship or early-career position is achievable, it requires balancing the challenges of a final year of school with a creative approach to finding opportunities and a strategic approach to networking. 

Job hunting during a recession always provokes anxiety, and this recession — kicked off by a global pandemic — can seem especially complex and daunting. Eight months into COVID-19, the United States is experiencing rates of infection and hospitalization that exceed those at any previous point, with the fate of Federal economic aid still uncertain at best.  

It's easy to feel like every part of life as we know it has changed since the pandemic began.

Still, some aspects of the complicated transition out of college life remain the same. Seniors are fully immersed in their classes, thinking deeply about issues relative to their fields of study, and a financial crisis should not derail them from pursuing their passions. 

The situation that young job seekers will face is manageable, if handled correctly. As the dean of a center that provides lifelong career services at a top liberal arts college, I've helped countless graduates navigate their way to  employment. Here's what upcoming graduates should do to prepare.

1. Explore how your skills can apply to a wide range of jobs

Seniors should use this final year of college to explore how the skills they've acquired as part of their chosen major, minor, or elective coursework can be applied to a wide range of jobs. Your major does not need to dictate your career path, and taking too narrow of a focus can prevent students from recognizing and considering less obvious opportunities.

Highly specialized skills can be transferred across many fields, provided that you have the ability to translate your work into language that resonates in the workplace. In other words, employers may or may not care that you studied — for example — realist fiction or ancient Greek. But they will care that you committed yourself to work that was collaborative and challenging, and that required the development of project-based skills like data analysis, research, or creative thinking.

Read more: A 24-year-old Roblox developer making over $1 million a year shares how he launched his own game development studio

2. Expand your job search beyond looking online

Few people realize that many job openings are advertised by word of mouth weeks before they are formally posted. A sizable number of positions are created for specific individuals, and plenty of jobs are never posted at all. Networking, within specific academic circles and more broadly, is critical for learning about such opportunities. 

Seniors should take time early in the year to build a strong network by bolstering relationships, conducting research, and coauthoring publications with their professors and other faculty members. This not only deepens valuable connections but also strengthens a student's resume, CV, or graduate school application. A study published in the journal Nature Communications showed that "junior researchers who coauthor work with top scientists enjoy a persistent competitive advantage throughout the rest of their careers, compared to peers with similar early career profiles but without top coauthors." 

3. Connect with potential employers first before asking for a job 

Seniors should also begin casually networking with industry professionals, but with an important caveat: Connect on the basis of shared interests, not an urgency to lock down a job. Many organizations need additional support during this time, which creates an opportunity to establish an interest in the field and eagerness to contribute. 

Even when companies are not actively posting jobs, students should consider reaching out to professionals who work at businesses that interest them to show enthusiasm for a project or initiative and propose a freelance arrangement or part-time work.

Reframe how you think about networking, and appreciate the many benefits of talking with people who share your interests. Networking is not contacting strangers and simply asking them for a position. Instead, it is the opportunity to build a community of support with individuals who are pursuing intellectual or professional work that aligns with your interests.

Read more: 3 recent grads making over $100,000 a year as freelancers share how they managed to build successful businesses right out of college

As seniors prepare for their final semester of college and envision how their careers might unfold in a post-coronavirus world, it's essential that they develop a thoughtful plan of action for the last few months of their lives as undergraduates. The transition from academia to the job market is an important and complicated one, and failing to connect how your skills acquired in college can lead to a wide range of career prospects is a real missed opportunity. 

Taking time in the final year of college to reflect on and catalog achievements while building a strong network is the key to gainful employment and a meaningful career.

A-J Aronstein is dean of Beyond Barnard and senior advisor to the provost at Barnard College. In this capacity, he oversees advising and supportive resources for students and alumnae on career exploration, job and internship applications, fellowships, and graduate and professional school. He was previously the inaugural director of graduate and postdoctoral career development at the University of Chicago.

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Black Friday 2020 is here. As usual, online and in stores, Walmart is one of the most popular retailers to shop during Black Friday.

This year, you can once again find great deals on all the products you need for gifting and personal use. A couple of the best deals available now are $102 off the Samsung 50-inch 6900 Series Smart TV and nearly $70 off the Apple Watch Series 6.

Below, you'll find answers to frequently asked questions, plus the best deals you can take advantage of right now. 

Walmart Black Friday 2020 TV deals

Walmart Black Friday 2020 Apple deals

Walmart Black Friday 2020 tech deals

Walmart Black Friday 2020 home deals

Walmart Black Friday 2020 baby and kid deals

When does Walmart's Black Friday sale start? 

Walmart, like many retailers, is trying something new for Black Friday 2020 and Cyber Monday 2020. Instead of a weekend of markdowns and deals, Walmart will stagger its offers and introduce new ones every day until Black Friday. Of course, in-store on Black Friday, November 27 at 5 a.m. local time, but shoppers can order the same deals online on November 25 at 7 p.m. EST.

How we select the best Black Friday deals at Walmart

• We only choose products that meet our high standard of coverage, from brands we've tested and trust.
• We compare the prices against other retailers like Amazon, Target, and Best Buy and only include the deals that are the same or better (not including promotional discounts that come from using certain credit cards).
• We research price history thoroughly, to ensure that every deal we list is actually worth your time.

Can you shop at Walmart in person this year?

Yes, but don't expect the mad rush during Black Friday like in years past. This year, Walmart will also limit store capacity to just 20% during its Black Friday sales. Plus, there will be safety precautions, including masks for staff and shoppers, plus carts will be sanitized. 

Since Walmart scheduled each set of discounts online a few days in advance, shoppers should consider heading in-store only when they miss a deal.  

Does Walmart have curbside pickup?

Every year around the holiday season, shipping delays and lost packages present a big headache for many consumers. To help alleviate that stress, Walmart offers contact-free curbside pickup for online orders. Going this route can save shoppers from any shipping-related headaches, so you'll have your orders on hand much sooner than if shipped.

What Black Friday deals should you buy at Walmart?

Historically, Walmart's Black Friday markdowns are on par with those offered by Best Buy, Target, and Amazon — and this year is no different. Outside of a few select doorbusters, we expect each retailer to price-match their competitor's prices during Black Friday. Shoppers can expect big savings on several TVs, streaming media players, kitchen appliances, and more. 

Deals by store

• Amazon Black Friday deals
• Apple Black Friday deals
• Best Buy Black Friday deals
• Bombas Black Friday deals on socks and loungewear
• Brooklinen Black Friday deals on bedding, sheets, towels, and more
• Casper Black Friday deals on mattresses, sheets, pillows, and more
• Dick's Sporting Goods Black Friday deals
• GameStop Black Friday deals
• The Home Depot Black Friday deals
• Kohl's Black Friday deals
• Macy's Black Friday deals
• Rhone Black Friday deals on men's workout clothes and fitness apparel
• Target Black Friday deals
• Tommy John Black Friday deals on men's and women's underwear and loungewear
• Udemy Black Friday deals on online courses
• Ulta Black Friday deals
• Wayfair Black Friday deals

When you buy through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. Learn more.

• As part of their Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, many e-learning platforms and products like Coursera, edX, Udemy, MasterClass, CreativeLive, Babbel, Rosetta Stone, Kindle, and Audible are offering online courses and subscriptions for free or at a discounted price.
• Below, we break down the deals for each platform, our recs for the best courses, plus how to give them as gifts.
• Read Insider Reviews' Black Friday 2020 deals and Cyber Monday 2020 deals coverage for more savings.
• Sign up for Insider Reviews' weekly newsletter for more buying advice and great deals. 

Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are often associated with physical products like TVs or headphones, but e-learning deals shouldn't be overlooked. Not only can online courses help you pivot careers, explore affordable grad school alternatives, and keep you entertained during the coming months of pandemic lockdown, they can also make for very thoughtful and unique holiday presents.

Below, you'll find some of the biggest e-learning platforms, such as Coursera, edX, Udemy, MasterClass, CreativeLive, Babbel, and Rosetta Stone, with details on the deals and, if applicable, gifting instructions. You'll also get a few course recommendations based on what's the most popular on each platform, from favorites like Yale's The Science of Well-Being to coding, photography, language, cooking, and personal development offerings. Check out the deals below, as well as the best Black Friday deals right now.

The best e-learning Black Friday 2020 deals:

Deals from Coursera

The deal: Learners can either redeem a select free course or get their first subscription month free from now until December 4. 

Some popular courses: 

Deals from edX

The deal: edX's Cyber Monday sale starts on Black Friday, November 27, and lasts through November 30. Users can get 20% off verified certificates and program bundles using the code CYBER2020 at checkout.

Some popular courses: 

Deals from Udemy

The deal: All classes are up to 90% off (or as low as $9.99) from now until November 27. 

How to gift it: Every course's landing page has a "Gift this course" button (it's on the top left-hand side next to the "Share" button).

Some popular courses:

Deals from MasterClass

The deal: From now until November 30 (11:59 PT), you can buy two annual MasterClass memberships for the price of one (valid if you redeem within the memberships within 365 days). A membership will get you access to all the courses on MasterClass for a year. You can read more about the terms here.

How to gift it: This is meant to be shared, so you can gift the second free membership to someone via an email link once you purchase. You can also buy individual courses by hitting the "Gift" button on the course's landing page (Note: you'll have to scroll down a little to find it).

Some popular courses:

Deals from Codecademy

The deal: From November 25 to December 4, all annual plans are 25% off with the promo code CYBER25. It applies to both student and non-student memberships.

Some popular courses:

Deals from CreativeLive

The deal: All online classes on CreativeLive are up to 80% off.

How to gift it: There's a "Gift Class" button under the "Buy Class" button on the right-hand side of each course's landing page.

Some popular courses:

Deals from Rosetta Stone

The deal: From now until November 30, you can get an annual subscription for $7.99 a month (one payment of $95.88) or a lifetime membership for $189 (usually $199).

How to gift it: You can buy a Rosetta Stone subscription for someone and they can pick the language they want to learn once they get the email.

Some popular courses:

Deals from Babbel

The deal: For Black Friday, you get 35% off a three-month subscription, 45% off six months, and 55% off a year through November 29. 

How to gift it: Just like Rosetta Stone, you can gift a subscription for someone and have them pick from 14 languages.

Some popular courses:

Deals from Audible

The deal: New Audible members will save almost 40% on the first six months of an Audible Plus membership — just $4.95 a month — through November 25.

How to gift it: While the sale discounts don't apply to gift memberships, you can still get one for someone (or buy them an individual title).

Some popular audiobooks:

Deals from Kindle

The deal: On Black Friday (November 27) through Cyber Monday (November 30), the Kindle Paperwhite will be $45 off ($84.99) and the Kindle Oasis will be $174.99 ($75 off). New Kindle Unlimited subscribers can get two months of access to more than one million books, Audible audiobooks, and magazines for just $0.99. 

How to gift it: You can gift a Kindle Unlimited membership by selecting "Add a Gift Receipt" when checking out.