to talk about this, i'm joined by norman roule, who had a 34-year career at c.i.a., including as stationef in the middle east, and was thege national intele manager for iran until september 2017. >> norman roule, welcome to what's the significance to his killing and the impact on iran's nuclr program. >> good evening. the killing of the 59-year-old iranian official removes from iran its greatest stitutional memory on itsza weapoon program. it will be very difficult for iran to replace tis, and it will actually impair their ability to reestablisa weaponization program, should they decide to do so. >> reporter: what's thebe messagg sent by whoever killed him, and not only today but the ref cent death top al quaida figure reported in tehran and myspterious losions throughout iran, including at one of ian's top nuclear facilities? >> these incidents, as well as the killing of i.r.g.c. force soleimani earlier this year, message to iranis that their most sensitive individuals, personnel and issues are not beyond the reach of wstern security services. idllly, it would tel iranian officials they

so iran is going to have to w decide exactt they do that >> reporter: norman roule, thank you very much mr. my pleasure. >> awaz: there are now more than 90,000 people hospitalized iththe country ovid-related illness, the ghest number since the pandemic began. hospital i.c.u.s are nearly filled in some places. the u.s. currently averages more than 1,500 deaths a day-- a number that could rise once reporting resumes after the holiday weeken all of this is putting enormous strain on healthcare workers,. including nurs here with more on that is bonnie castillo. she's the executive director of national nurses united, the country's largest nunion, representing 170,000 registered nurses. bonnie castillo, welcome to the "newshour". as we see cases surging, the graphs are astounding. you see the number of new recor daily high infections growing. when you look at the map across thcountry, you see no corner of the nation is untouched. the darker thee shading, worse the surge. so when you look at the nurses do the front line, whahey not have right now that they need to do their jobs and do them sa