welcome to al jazeera america. i am dale walters. these are the stories we are following for you: counting their blessings. they may be hard hit by the midwest tornados, making sure those who lost everything enjoy everything with family and friends. save me a drumstick, many punching a time clock as black friday sales get earlier and earlier. operation egypt, girls as lodge as 15 getting long prison sentences just for speaking their their minds. >> well, the balloons are up. the 87th annual massey's

thanksgiving day paradenitial additionally underway. balloons are flying and the crowds are out. lots of americans also taking part in a more recent thanks giving day tradition: shopping. black friday sales shifting forward to many stores to today. some stores have already been open now for hours. kilmeny duchardt is at one store, kma are. t. they opened at 6:00 a.m. when the doors opened, did shoppers rush in? >> well, not a lot of them, dale. actually, when i got here at 6:00 a.m., there were about a dozen shoppers lined up, and the woman in the front of the line was here for one of kmart's door-busting deals to get her hands on an android 7 tan blet on sale for $40. after that, there were shoppers trickling in and out. there wasn't a lot of activity. now, it's picked up a little bit. you have a lot of shoppers coming in for holiday convenience items, food items

that will probably be prepared for their dinners. so it's picked up a little bit but not exactly the crazy madness and mayhem that we see on black friday. >> kilmeny, i think the question a lot of people wonder is: is it worth it? do you get really good discounts on days like today, or should shoppers just wait, eat dinner and go to the black friday sales tomorrow? >> reporter: that's a good question. a lot of these retailers have chosen to stagger their deals a little bit, like kmart behind us here kmart had some door-busting deals at 6:00 a.m., but other items are going to be on sale later on this evening, and even tomorrow morning. so they are definitely spreading it out for two reasons. one is to prevent that stampede we have seen in the past that can even be fatal. and the second is to get customers to come in the door more than once over this shopping -- long shopping weekend. it's also a tactic on the part

of retailers to get customers who see an item that they want in the ad to come in, and it might not be on sale right then and there. so, they will buy it at the whole price and then they will bring it back for a price adjustment or to return it later, and once again, what that's doing is that's bringing customers back into the store. it's pretty clever. >> kilmeny joining us live from outside kmart. thank you and stay warm. $591,000,000,000. >> that's how much shoppers in the u.s. spent on black friday last year. every year, as you heard, the stores are opening their doors earlier and earlier, but they can't do so without the workers. erica pitzi has their story >> reporter: a proud and loving father of two girls, ty rilelee looks forward to this holiday? >> thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. i meet up with my family, my aunt did, my father, my uncles, my cousins, my nieces. everybody, and we all eat and then we fall asleep and we eat

some more. >> this year, he is particularly thankful because the new york rarely he works for, pc richard & son is closed for thanksgiving. proud of that fact, the company is airing a commercial. >> at pc richard and son, we believe thanksgiving should be spent at home. >> yet 33 million people are expected to hit the stores on the holiday, which is why macy's department store said it's opening for the first time ever. tricia cress will also be working her first thanksgiving. >> it's not like forced labor. it's our choice. >> some workers do feel forced to work. they took to facebook urging shoppers to boycott shopping on thanksgiving day. the page has more than 5,000 locks. michelle in pennsylvania said she quit her retail management job saying this whole shopping thing has gone way too far. >> kmart is not new to the line-up of retailers open for the holiday. this year, their stores are going to be open for nearly 48

straight hours between thanksgiving thursday and black friday. and that's going to take a lot of workers to keep things up and running. but employers say they are doing what they can to make the work worth it. for starters, most retailers pay time and a half. then there are places like wal-mart boosting employee discounts from 20 to 25% and providing a full thanksgiving meal to all three shifts of its workers. >> okay. well, if they are giving them a regimen like that, you can't beat that. you can't beat free money plus free food. >> brian williams will not get the free food at his security guard job but he will make more money on thanksgiving? >> i know i am getting holiday pay and that's more money for me and for my name to do things ty says you cannot put amount price on family things? >> i can't imagine not being there because i have to work. yeah, i have to work, but that's

a day you are supposed to be with your family. >> with this little one waiting for daddy at home? >> ♪ old mcdonald, had a farm ♪ eyehoh. >> she is cute. laws in rhode island, massachusetts and maine ban stores from opening on holidays. as we mentioned, our other cause for the celebration, reason for the season, the 87th annual macy's thanksgiving day parade now winding through downtown manhattan. john terrett has been following the parade. he is in mid town. what was the reaction? because you were there when word went out that the balloons were going to fly >> reporter: there was a huge cheer went up. i have never heard anything like it. all of the people, 8,000 volunteers that macy's wrong els for this parade. when the word went out from amy cute, who is the chief parade

officer, she said, we are flying. and everybody went hooray. a big cheer went up. >> that's good. in all seriousness, they took this very, very seriously indeed. and they have to because there are rules if not laws in place now after a couple of incidents in which people were hurt when these balloons came down too close to the ground during high winds. so had the winds been sustained at more than 23 miles an hour or gusting at more than 34 miles an hour, they won't have flown them because they couldn't have. i have a prime example here just behind me. we are on 34th and 8th. down there on 34th and 7th where the big balloons are turning right by macy's, itself, we just witnessed sponge bon who is being wrangled by about 90 people, including one of our own producers called tammy bloom. she does this every year. her whole family are doing it. i saw them earlier today. but sponge bob came right over like this right into the macy's shop front and then came all the

way back and that was because the crosswinds coming down 7th avenue. so you can see these balloons are very, very dangerous if not handled properly. this wind issue was and actually still is quite a big problem t we got away with it for another year. it's happened. it's coming to an end. everybo everyone is happy. >> it was touch and go. my neighbor named noah was building anar k, it was raping so fast. what a difference a day makes. >> right. i was out in it last night. the rain wasn't coming down. it was coming like that, as noah will no doubt tell you when you see him for thanksgiving dinner later. it was terrible. and there was a storm which really pounded the u.s. and a deadly storm, too, and i think that kind of compounded the issue. i think the police and macy's were worried about that. when we were out there with the balloon inflating last night down by the american museum of natural history, we did wonder whether it would fly. it was touch and go. but in the end, they flew, and everyone's happy. happy thanksgiving, dale.

>> john terret, happy thanksgiving to you, too. enjoy the celebration. as the nation marks this thanksgiving day with that big parade in the big apple and that early start to the holiday shopping season, the day means much more to some. nearly two weeks after that string of deadlytons, families in one town in illinois, coming together to give special thanks. andy is live in the tornado-ravaged town of washington. andy, how many of those who were displaced during the toranados are expected to turn out there today? >> reporter: they are expecting up to 1200, dale. this is turning out to be quite a spread here at the crossroads united methodist church here in washington. they have this one big room that they are setting aside foall of the folks they are expecting to come in. they have another big room behind here for even more folks. they don't know exactly how many but they are preparing food as if 1200 at least will show up. these volunteers who have put this whole spread together have been here since 5:00 in the morning working away. we know the red cross was going to come in here to help out but

we talked to the head kitchen master. she is a local volunteer with the church, with the salvation army and she said, no way. this is going to be my kitchen, and we are going to put together this feast the way i have been doing it for all of these years, and they can't even estimate how much food has been brought in from the local businesses like grocery stores and food banks, but they are expecting that maybe 1200 people, and they say they are working off of the inspiration of the folks who lost everything and there could be those folks here today, and it's not just here at crossroads, in fact, there is another church, another couple of churches in town, another high school where they are also preparing thanksgiving meals but this is expected to be the big one-and we will be watching as folks come pouring in here throughout the day. >> andy as you mentioned, a lot of those families did lose everything. what other types of aid are these victims going to be receiving? >> well, president obama, as you may have heard on tuesday, declared disaster areas for all of these southern and central counties, the federal disaster

areas. they are now eligible for feder federal aid in addition to the state and county money they are getting. that's great. yesterday, there was a blackhawks luncheon >> the chicago blackhawks have a cherry where they wereability round up more donations. there were folks like eric chalk and governor quinn. they attended that. >> that's all part of the process. here they were telling us this is not just for the folks that come in but the folks, the volunteers here are also going to be sending outed meals to those folks who feel they can't leave their property at this moment. dale? >> al jazeera, andy rogen. thank you very much. 14 egyptian women have been arrested for taking part in protests there. they were sentenced to more than 11 years in prison on wednesday. among them, seven minors who will go to a juvenile detention facility. they were convicted up under a new law that bans gonestrations without government permission.

tell us about the reaction to the sentences and that voc ally protest to the protest law, itself. people were angl certified at seeing 14 girls high risk criminals, the movement that does support the anti-coup alliance and former president mohammed morsi but what they typically did was before going to school or university? >> they stood in the street about half an hour, sometimes carrying balloons with the sign of the anti-coup alliance on it. other times, like on the day they got detained, they were forming a human chain. now, they weren't sentenced for thuggery, for destruction of

public property among other charges, something that the lawyer says they will now appeal. but certainly, it raises a lot of questions for many people, especially that they were detained before the protest law happened they know charged right in the middle of the uperror that exists in this country because of that protest law. >> hoda, we are hearing reports that a college student has been killed at cairo university during one of those anti-government rallies. is that what you are hearing? >> reporter: cairo university and other universities have been in turmoil for quite awhile. the anti-coup alliance has been holding amount of the demonstration in there the, steined events that support them are holding those demonstrations. they do turn violent once in a while. today, that is what happened. according to the interior ministry, the students spilled outside of the campus.

the interior ministries say the security forces used a protocol that is spelled out by this new protest law which is they first verbally warned the students stogo back inside the campus. the students remained outside. then they used a water canon and fired tear gas, but we did hear that one student has died with birdshot. so certainly, it is an escalation that keeps ongoing on, and, you know with this protest law, it's very difficult for anyone at this stage to carry out any kind of protest simply because now, the students have to go through the dean of the university, and the dean of the university has to ask the interior ministry's permission for these students to protest. so certainly, there is a feeling that the government is sort of all-out trying to stifle any voices of dissent, when they are

headed toward a constitutional revolution that promises to be al heated debate. the u.s. is offering to destroy syria's chemical weapons at sea. the obama administration saying the stock piles could be taken 0 board a 700 foot. international watchdog agency is removing the weapons from syria and would have to sign off on any such operation. vice president joe biden hoping to ease tensions with china on a visit to the region next week. on sunday, china declaring a portion of the east china sea as an air defense identification zone. they want foreign flyers to identify themselves, but the u.s. has already flown bombers over that area. craig leeson has more from hong kong. >> japan's military posted two aircraft as well. they said the flight went okay. there was no response from china. i guess they are happy that they have proven their point as well. south korea likewise had a

chance to put their grief answers personally to china, a strategic defense meeting was held and china was asked to modify these defense zones. china said that's not going to happen. so south korea said we are going to modify our air defense zone which is going to push it out further into china's. so it's tit for tat at this moment and who knows where it's going to end. >> craig leeson joining us from hong con. >> pope francis blasted the world and its focus on money. what he is doing in hopes of cleaning up the vatican finances. >> a deadly accident at a brazilian soccer stadium. it's raising questions about the rediness for the world cup. whole lot of money. whole lot of money. >> you are one of the voices of

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>> it is ghafrningzing live. you are looking at the sillbrations taking place in the

city of brotherly love. that the parade is the only free one in the nation. >> next year's world cup, two workers were killed at a construction accident in sa sao paolo. alan fisher has our story. >> workers in brazil are trying to get finished on deadline. this is the datest in a number of accidents and the most serious. it's dominating local t.v. coverage and from the air, it's easier to understand what's happened. a crane which was involved in lifting part of the roof has collapsed, crushing in to the roof of the stand. >> we were leaving for lunch. i heard a loud noise and looked back. i saw the arm of the crane falling with the peace that was holding, breaking everything. it was a huge noise. my workers working closer to the incidence said even the ground shook. >> that machine was moving slowly. it made a harsh movement which made the piece start

oscillating. it hit the corn of the stadium pushing the corner of the crane down. >> this stadium in sao paolo was due to be completed by december 31st. the organizers had admitted they were struggle to go have all 12 venues ready to go. fifa said in a statement, the safety of workers is the top priority for fifa, the local organizing committee and the if he had recall government. we know the safety of all workers has been par amount. the department of labor and the local authorities will fully investigate the reasons behind such a tragic accident. >> there have been huge protests at the money being poured into hosting the world cup. millions have tappy to the streets to express their anger. and there have been growing concerns about working conditions, not just in brazil but also at the site of the 2022 world cup in qatar. builders in brazil say the

stadium will be closed three days in tribute to the dead. local prosecutors may decide to shut down operations for 30 days to allow a full investigation. it's a significant setback for the organizers and for fifa. at the moment, no one is talking about moving the opening game away from here. alan fisher, al jazeera. >> pope francis is keeping a closer eye on vatican finances. he has appointed his personal secretary to report on two commissions. those being set up earlier this year. the commissions are looking into the management of the vatican bank. the spokesman says it is meant to smooth communication between those commissions and the pope. video from a central indiana high school showing how powerful tornados can be. the security camera footage was released, showing twisters tearing through the middle school in la fanafayette. hitting on sums in the. no one was inside. the county still hasn't decided

to rebuild or tear the school down. >> top of the morning to you all. it turns out mother nature got her act together right in time for thanksgiving. take a look at the beautiful day across much of the country. not looking at much cloud cover here or much precipitation except for right around the great lakes where we have some lake-effect snow showers but the goliath storm that produced snow, wind, hail and ice across the southwest moved off of the shoreline last night. you can see thursday conditions did improve quite a bit although we do have a few lake-effect snow showers. over all, it's looking like a beautiful day. now, chilly, definitely a chilly day. new york city reaching a high of 35. today, yesterday, we were right around 60 degrees. albany at 29, down in our nation's capitol. we are right at 40 degrees.

these are isobars meaning lines that show equal pressure. when you see lines close together, that means that it's going to be windy. today, as john terret said whenever he was outside, it's quite windy but the macy's day parade was able to continue because winds are diminishing quite a bit. 17 miles an hour in philly. 16 in the nation's capitol. we will continue as we track into the next couple of hours. lake-effect snow showers right around syracuse along interstate 90. be careful if you are traveling there. overall, beauty day here in new york city. 36 today, by the weekend will be closer to 40, but we will have to wait until next week. across much of the country, it's chilly. across the north central plains all the way down into the deep south, high temperatures are about 15 to 20 degrees below where they should be typically at this time of the year. nashville charlotte, clear down to new orleans, chillier but

conditions are definitely improving across portions of texas where we had snow, ice and rain, just a few days ago, 54 in dallas, 57 in san antonio and a gorgeous day in los angeles with their high of 71. >> lila, thank you very much. a very gnosh is in short supply. what's behind the shortage of knishes? why the popular word, knishes, why it may be back soon. we are going to leave you with the situation down if 'til delphia where they are distancing in the streets.

>> thanksgiving and hanukkah coinciding. one jewish delicacy is hard to find, seems to be a shortage of knishes. the streets of new york to investigate: >> reporter: we have suffered shortages around here in the past. >> on september 24th, when the

world's largest knish producer lost its key machine. >> it has created a shortage of this square fried version of the potato delicacy. >> uh-huh. >> there is one shear fire way to cause a media firestorm in new york, deprive us of a cherished local delicacy, once ordered by the dozens and sold in street carts, the square knish is more elusive in manhattan than peace and quiet. >> can i get a knish. >> to be honest, i have never actually eaten a knish. i enlisted laura sottor to help me understand what people are missing. >> you say knish people think in period of time, their ancestors, of strumming, people who came to lower east side. so, it has all of the history wrapped into it. >> a knish consists of a filling, usually mashed potatoes wrapped in doe. it was a factory fire at

kabillas that caused the shortage. >> the machinery responsible for making the s cuellar e knishes was destroyed. the firefighters did what they had to do but the water damage that the machine sustained rendered the machine inoperable. >> her family has squarcornered market on square knishes. a shortage means customers have rig to find alternative did like bidding for square knishes on ebay or opting for the less commercially. >> i like the doughiness they came in wax bags. you used to buy them on the beach. >> i visited yona schmilles. and talked to one of the owners, a square fried knish is simply

not a true knish? >> it must be round and big. if you haven't in the knish, you haven't tasted a knish. >> i devoured many round ones and with it, a piece of new york and jewish history. >> when are you going to get people back their knishes? >> we think they will be able to do that the last week in november and, hopefully, worst case scenario, the first week of december, which again does coincide with hanukkah this year. >> that's our hope. >> as. >> a few types of knishes you can find, suite potato and the more modern, japeleno and cheese. >> hanukkah began at sunday down. the mark the white house marked the

holiday. thanks for watching. "inside story" is next. is next on "inside story." is next on "inside story." >> aimed at the provisions in >> aimed at the provisions in the law that say employers must the law that say employers must pay for all aspects of women's pay for all aspects of women's healthcare include healthcare include contraception. contraception. one american employer is one american employer is resisting the new law and asking resisting the new law and asking the high court to de i