a massive winter blast grips the nation. from the midwest to the east coast. 63 million people in the path of

the storm, packing snow, sleet and ice. major cities canceling school, and hundreds of flights already delayed. meteorologist michelle grossman is tracking the timing of the system and how it could impact your commute. the timeline leading up to the new orleans attack comes into focus. the fbi revealing new details about the attacker and his previous trips to the city, while president biden prepares to mourn with the victims' families. lawmakers set to certify the election in just hours. the security in place to prevent anything like the january 6 attack, exactly four years ago today. thinking outside of the box with unwanted gifts. how the next generation robots are handling holiday returns. and the lions roar into the playoffs as the top seed after rocking their rival vikings in the sunday night spotlight. we have the highlights as we kick off this monday, january 6th. "early today" starts right now.

good morning. glad you're with me. i'm frances rivera. we begin with a massive and powerful winter storm sweeping across the country. winter storm alerts issued for 65 million americans from the great plains to the east coast. blizzard conditions brought roads across the middle of the country to a stand still. first responders struggling to get to all the stranded drivers. >> it's significant. it's hard to keep up with it. we've got rollovers that happened in time past. we're still going to wrecks. and a lot of these first responders are getting stuck. >> nearly 1800 flights were canceled nationwide yesterday. the bluegrass airport in kentucky was completely shut down, and more than a thousand flights have already been canceled. and amtrak is canceling trains across the mid atlantic and northeast. it brought strong winds and a chill to the south. the national weather service confirming the first tornado of the year in southeast arkansas. and today, as the conditions

continue to push east, schools will be closed in philadelphia, washington, d.c. and many other cities. counties along the east coast have declared emergencies as the storm gets closer. let's get an update now on the impact from nbc meteorologist michelle grossman. good morning. so much to watch this morning. >> there is, hi there, frances. great to see you. this is a big storm in size and also really powerful. we're looking at a couple things. snow, it will be heavy at times in some spots. ice, moderate ice in portions of virginia. power outages, also really cold temperatures. so the power out with the cold temperature will be tougher today. and then on the southern side of the storm, we're looking at heavy rain and could see severe weather in portions of the southeast. that's what radar looks like. can you see the snow from the midwest to parts of the mid atlantic. we have an ice storm warning in purple.

that includes paducah and winter weather advisory for today. as we go throughout today, we're going to see the storm system moving off to the east. it's going to bring all sorts of trouble impacting the morning commute and the evening commute. we'll talk more about this and just the week ahead. today is january 6th. and it's been four years since a mob of trump supporters stormed e capitol building while lawmakers were certifying the election of joe biden. this time when congress meets it's to certify the reelection of donald trump. let's go to chris pollone in washington, d.c. the capitol police aren't taking any chances with security this year. >> reporter: that's correct. nobody is. good morning. authorities are making sure that there can't be a repeat of that day exactly four years ago when supporters of donald trump tried to stop the certification of the

2020 election that mr. trump lost. fencing and barriers have been established around the capitol building, and police have also shut down several surrounding streets ahead of the proceedings set to start at around 1:00 eastern time this afternoon. this time around, mr. trump is the legitimate winner of the election, and it is vice president kamala harris who will oversee the certification of his 312 electoral votes and her own defeat. democrats have already said they are not planning to contest the result, unlike in 2021 when several prominent republicans objected during the vote count. meanwhile, funeral observances have begun for former president jimmy carter. a motorcade transported him to his hometown of plains, georgia. the procession stopped at the georgia state capital where he used to serve as the governor. he will lie in propose at the presidential center until tomorrow morning. he'll then be flown to washington where the public will

be invited to pay their respects as he lies in state here at the capitol. a funeral service is set for thursday morning. all living former presidents, including president-elect trump are expected to attend the ceremony. president biden and first lady jill biden will travel to new orleans today to grieve with the families and community members impactcted by the tragi attack on the new year's day that left 14 dead. this comes as the fbi releases new videos and information about the 42-year-old terror suspect. nbc's kathy park has the latest. >> reporter: for the first time, the fbi sharing this chilling glimpse of what they say was part of the planning of shamsud-din jabbar's terror attack, recorded on his meta glasses as he biked around the french quarter, later capturing a glimpse of himself in the mirror. >> meta glasses appear to look like regular glasses, but they

allow a user to record videos and photos hands free. >> reporter: on the night of the attack, surveillance cameras capture jabbar placing two coolers containing improvised explosive devices on or near bourbon street. neither were detonated. one was moved out of the way by someone investigators say had no idea what was inside and had no connection to the attack. the fbi, which blurred this video says the october visit is one of at least two trips jabbar made to new orleans prior to the deadly new year's day attack that killed 14 people. where were the glasses recovered? and did jabbar wear them during the entire timeline of the attack? >> the glasses were recovered on the person of jabbar, and we believe he was wearing them throughout the evening. >> reporter: and he was recording the entire time? >>o we don't have any indication that he was actually recording, but he was wearing those glasses. >> reporter: the atf now says it will retest explosive materials they first believed to be

extremely rare but now think could be a more common explosive as a probe examines jabbar's past domestic and international travel, including cairo, egypt. >> were any visit to those countries may or may not have any indication as to the reasons behind this attack in our city. >> reporter: a moment of silence before the new orleans saints took the field against the buccaneers. hundreds gathered on bourbon street to pay their respects where we spoke with the brother of the last victim to be identified. >> took care of other people kids. she only have one son. we all love her. wish she was back. >> our thanks to kathy for that report. ukraine has launched a new surprise offensive in the russian region of kursk. it appears to be an attempt to seize more territory from russia ahead of the inauguration of donald trump in two weeks. reports of a ukrainian attack first appeared on russian military blogs before the kremlin confirmed it.

nbc news could not independently verify the claims, and it was not immediately clear how significant the assault is. now let's get a quick check on the week's forecast with michelle grossman. going to make it tough for everybody, just mobilize and get back to the grind after the holidays. >> i know. and this storm is not helping in the east. because we're looking at that big, powerful storm bringing some snow, some rain, some ice. that's the big story on this monday. another big story is the cold air in place from the northern plains to the southern plains. it will be chilly there as well. sunny and mild throughout the southwest. higher elevation snow in portions of the pacific northwest. snow in the rockies. then as we look towards wednesday, windy and chilly throughout portions of the northeast, also in new england. notice temperatures only in the teens and 20s there. well below average still in the southern plains . by friday, watching a storm system in portions of the gulf

northern plains. it's cold in the mid atlantic. that's going to set the stage for some snow, some ice, and looking at storms in the south. all right, that's your monday forecast. >> thanks so much, michelle. mufasa is now the king of the jungle and the box office. disney's prequel, mufasa, took in $23.8 million, finally edging out sonic the hedgehog three in its third week in theaters. the speedy sonic was runner-up with $21.2 million. wicked rounded out the top five for the first box office weekend of the year. still to come, the biggest surprises from the golden globes. and we're back in a minute with a robot rolling out the future of holiday returns.

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some companies are now going high tech when it comes to retail returns. steve patterson has the latest on what companies are doing to get their items back to them quickly and your refunds back to you faster. >> reporter: it might look like something out of a sci-fi film set in the future. but these real-life things are sending them back. inside this facility owned by u.p.s., tim fair says they're using new technology to tackle an old, but growing problem. some $890 billion a year in merchandise is returned.

but on top of that expense is the costly process of getting all that stuff back. easily returns a expensive. some re using a.i. to analyze giant piles of returned clothes like this to determine if and how they can be put on shelves. and here at happy returns it's all about robots. how much more efficient is this than a human doing it? >> yeah, so we doubled our productivity. >> reporter: wow. >> when we implemented this. so that's a radical advancement. >> reporter: here's how it works. what do i do? >> you start your return online. >> reporter: you take your unwanted gift and drop it off unboxed at a happy returns site which could be at an ulta store for example and it gets shipped here. that's when the robots get to work. and this is what workers are calling the dance floor. more than a hundred automated robots pushing packages from retail to the warehouse in an attempt to revolutionize the way we think about returns. let's say you're returning

something. we would combine those items with, your return with ten or 15 other returns from a bunch of different returns. they'll take it to a single box. when that box is full, we'll put it on a pallet, and once a week we'll ship all those items. >> reporter: the robots cut processing times down significantly, meaning items can get to retailers and back on the shelf more quickly and cheaply. but, do those savings come at a cost? what about the guys and girls who work here and, like, am i looking at people who are going to have their jobs replaced? >> most of our employees are very excited. we've made the job easier for them and allowed them to move away from more challenging tasks into areas where they can have more value. >> reporter: what does it look like five, ten years from now? >> we're committed to the vision and putting in the next round of plans. >> reporter: a new technological revolution in the world of

returns. steve patterson, nbc news, valencia, california. now to the golden globes that kicked off hollywood's 2025 award season with glitz and glamour, shogun took home four awards, making it the biggest small-screen winner of the night. emilia perez, about a mexican cartel boss garnered four awards, including best motion picture, musical or comedy, leading the pack for film. carlos sophia gascon who plays the title character made history as the first openly transgender woman to be nominated for a globe for a leading film role. and the brutalist followed closely behind with three wins, including best drama film and best actor for adrian brodie. hacks snagged best musical tv series, and baby reindeer won two, including best limited tv

series. coming up, historic sendoffs and a coach firing, week 18 had it all. we recap it all, including detroit's dominance over minnesota. as the people you love get older, their risk of severe flu and covid goes up. last year, those viruses hospitalized nearly 1 million people 65 and older. so if someone you love is older, talk with them about vaccines. can neuriva support your brain health? mary. janet. hey! eddie. no! fraser. frank. frank. fred. how are you?

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got an opening. jahmyr gibbs, touchdown, detroit. >> one team emerged as the true king of the nfc north. the detroit lions locked up the division and top seed of the conference for the first time in this history on the season finale on sunday night football. jahmyr gibbs pillaged the defense of the minnesota vikings with four total touchdowns, while detroit kept their rival out of the end zone and on the road for the playoffs. detroit secures home field advantage and the coveted first-round bye with a 31-9 win. and while last night's game filled in the pieces, the

buccaneers cruise to their fourth straight nfc south tight with a win over the saints, as mike evans logged his historic season with a thousand receiving yards on the last play of the game. and good news for broncos country. you're riding to the playoffs. they blanked the chiefs. it will be denver's first post-season appearance since their super bowl 50 victory. the bucs will host the commanders right here on nbc sunday. for the second week in a row, a lowly nfl team cost itself a spot in the draft. the victory caused new england to drop in the top choice in the upcoming draft to the fourth pick. the team also announced the firing of rookie head coach jerod mayo shortly after the me. the upset by the pats allowed

the three-win tennessee titans to secure the first overall pick in the draft followed by the cleveland browns and new york giants at two and three respectively. when we come back, more and more unemployed people are struggling to find work. and chick-fil-a customers are left with a bad taste in their mouth. premier protein, my ride or die. boom! if you know, you know. let's go. this stuff changed my life. so good. high protein. check. one gram of sugar. oh, yeah. and a flavor for every vibe. (♪♪) (♪♪) premier protein. sweeten the journey. we're in a limestone cave, letting extreme residue build up to put finish jet dry to the test. dishwashers are designed to use jet dry to defend against tough residues for a practically spotless shine.

always dry scoop before you run. listen to me, the hot dog diet got me shredded. it's time we listen to science. one a day is formulated with key nutrients to support whole body health. one a day. science that matters. narrator: at this very moment, children at st. jude are fighting to survive. with a gift right now, you can join the battle to save lives. katy: without saint jude, i don't know where we would be. can we see snuggles? they have given children with cancer, like my winston, a chance. christine: she has neuroblastoma and it has spread to her liver. i try to enjoy every minute with her because i do not know when would be my last moments with her. narrator: time is running out to give a year-end gift that can help. st. jude children's research hospital save lives.

because cancer doesn't stop during the holiday season. please call, go online, or scan the qr code right now and give $19 a month to help make it the season of hope for families at saint jude. tammie: just that feeling that was, like, so hard on your heart that my kid's not going to live. every day now, it's like a gift. narrator: for just $19 a month, you can make a difference. please become a st. jude partner in hope right now. franchet: those that donate, it's more than a miracle for me. it's more than a blessing. (voice breaking) they have done so much for me and my family. narrator: join with your credit or debit card for only $19 a month, and we'll send you this st. jude t-shirt you can proudly wear to show your support. katy: all these children deserve to live, and i would love for it to be the day where no other family has to fear losing their child to cancer.

you've given us hope. narrator: please don't wait until the last minute. make your donation now to help st. jude save lives. here's what's making headlines this morning. doctors are applauding a move by the u.s. surgeon general to add a cancer warning to alcohol labels. the surgeon general's new advisory warns alcohol is the third leading cause of cancer. many unemployed office workers are struggling to find jobs. 1.6 million americans have been searching for a job for at least six months. that's 50% more since the end of 2022. president biden signed a new law to boost social security payments. the social security fairness act

will increase social sececurity for public employees like teachers, firefighters, police officers and more who receive pensions. and chick-fil-a customers are complaining about the famous waffle fries after the fast food chain announced a slight adjustment to its recipe. the chain says the new recipe allows the fries to stay crispier for longer, but some customers say the new fries are just dry and grainy. "early today" will be right back. long after guests leave, viruses and bacteria linger. air fresheners add a scent. but only lysol air sanitizer helps erase the trace, eliminating odor and killing 99.9% of viruses and bacteria in the air. scent can't sanitize. lysol can. as the people you love get older, their risk of severe flu scand covid goes up.. last year, those viruses hospitalized nearly 1 million people 65 and older. so if someone you love is older, talk with them about vaccines. when your clothes come out looking newer, longer...

you get to take them for a spin. again... ...and again... ...and again. persil cleans and helps keep clothes looking newer, longer. get that new clothes feeling. wash with persil. can neuriva support your brain health? mary. janet. hey! eddie. no! fraser. frank. frank. fred. how are you? support up to seven brain health indicators, including memory. when you need to remember, remember neuriva. this weekend at the white house, president biden awarded the nation's highest civilian honor, the presidential medal of

freedom to more than a dozen politicians, philanthropists and cultural icons. aaron gilchrist was there. >> reporter: 19 new recipients of the presidential medal of freedom, the nation's highest cilian honor. >> you feed the hungry. you give hope to those, those who are hurting. and you craft the signs and sounds of our movements and memories. >> reporter: a lengthy standing ovation for hillary clinton. [cheers and applause] the former first lady, senator and secretary of state applauded as the first major female nominee for president. and jose andres, with world central kitchen. and a powerful moment with michael j. fox.

fighting the ravages of parkinson's disease, the star of tv and film taking to the stage as an advocate for parkinson's research and development. >> the presidential medal of freedom is awarded to george w. romney. >> reporter: emotional former senator mitt romney accepting the honor for his father. and president biden celebrating magic johnson. magic helping biden easily drape his medal, despite their nine-inch height difference. and, a suave denzel washington, marking the moment with a long embrace for biden, who's bestowing his last round of medals just days before the end of his presidency. >> i'm grateful for the work you

inspire for enerations to follow. a documentary about melania trump is under way with mrs. trumplisted as executive producer. it comes as her husband prepares for his second term as president. and as mr. trump's relationship with amazon founder jeff ezos comes under scrutiny. he frequently clashed with bezos or his companies. coming up, a week-long hoda-bration kicks off. tune in for the special surprises and

the first winter storm of the year wreaking havoc from the midwest to the east coast. sleet, snow