Vieira, returns to the anchor chair in studio 1a, as we kick off our special homecoming week today, monday, september 8th, 2014. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning. Welcome to today on a monday morning. Its been a while since ive said this. Im matt lauer alongside Meredith Vieira, and al roker and natalie morales. Yeah. How does it feel to wake up . It feels really good to wake up, no. This is so much fun. Its great. Great for us, too. Meredith was already in, in my room, on my table with this wonderful little note that said, hey, censored, your Worst Nightmare is back. Im here you needed to put that little censored on there. Normally i draw it on your mirror in lipstick. Security told me i couldnt do that anymore. I know they did. Meanwhile, how about this breaking news . Its great. Natalie the royal family is set to expand as william and kate revealed that she is expecting. Nbcs Kelly Cobiella is outside Buckingham Palace. Good morning to you. Reporter it was supposed to be all about harrys 30th birthday this week, coming up next monday. Kate just stole the show with the news shes expecting baby number two. The announcement was made this morning. Its only been over a year since we were awaiting the big arrival of Prince George, the heir to the throne, the future king of england. Prince william and kate made the announcement that theyre expecting their second child saying in a statement, were delighted with the news. Theyre getting a number of well wishes online, including from the prime minister, offering his many congratulations. As with the first pregnancy, the duchess is finding out its not so easy the Second Time Around either. Shes apparently suffering from severe morning sickness again. She has canceled her events for the immediate future and is being treated by doctors at kensington palace. Matt . Big news, Kelly Cobiella at Buckingham Palace. Here at home, dangerous wildfire at Yosemite National park has led to the evacuations of more than 100,000 tourists as the flames were fan bid high winds. Reporter good morning, meredith. A very popular destination for tourists. During the day, you can see the smoke from this fire rolling over the top of these trees. At this hour more than 700 acres have been burned and this fire is a long way from being contained. It was pretty scary. Reporter this morning, about 100 hikers at californias Yosemite National park are glad to be safe after a fastmoving wildfire forced a series of helicopter rescues sunday. Its raging the opposite side of the mountain. Reporter it burned at least 700 acres and sent smoke rising up the half peak in yosemite valley. No injuries were reported. The fire is moving quickly. Were not sure what the fire behavior is going to do. In an effort to keep everybody safe who may be back there, were just getting them out as quickly as possible. Right now that is by helicopter. Reporter dozens of firefighters, backed by seven helicopters and a plane were working to extinguish the fire. The blaze is believed to have been sparked by a Lightning Strike july 20th. Because of this fire a number of different trails are blocked in the park. We dont want people hiking on them for visitor safety. Reporter despite smoke and alternative route down the mountain, some evacuated hikers still maintained a positive attitude. I was really proud. It was a big, adventurous hike for me to do 14 miles today. I didnt expect the helicopter ending, but things happen. Reporter despite the blaze, Yosemite National park and its facilities remain open. If youre hoping to hike the iconic half dome any time soon, youre going to have to wait. Matt, meredith . Thank you very much. Lets talk now about the growing threat from isis militants and how the u. S. Is going to handle that situation. In an exclusive interview on meet the press, president obama said he will lay out his plan a little later this week. Nbc chief Foreign CorrespondentRichard Engel is in northern iraq. Richard, good morning to you. Reporter good morning. The president said there is no indication of any imminent isis threat to the u. S. But that the threat is growing and must be addressed. The u. S. Military has carried out nearly 150 air strikes in iraq, dropped food and helped refugees, but this morning, isis remains strong and savagely brutal. The Group Released new video of its men, humiliating and executing roughly 200 syrian troops. The next phase is now to start going on some offense. Reporter the president told meet the press he now has a strategy. What i want people to understand, though, is that over the course of months, we are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum of isil reporter he will outline his full plan in a speech on wednesday. On sunday, he gave chuck todd a preview. We are going to systematically degrade their capabilities, were going to shrink the territory that they control. And ultimately were going to defeat them. Reporter thats easier said than done. The plan is to rebuild the iraqi army, which has mostly collapsed even though the u. S. Spent a decade training it. And back ethnic kurdish militias, which the iraqi army doesnt trust. The u. S. Will also try to form a coalition with neighboring Muslim States and breathe life into the moderate opposition in syria, which the administration has largely ignored for years. They plan to do all of this from afar. The notion that the United States should be putting boots on the ground, i think, would be a profound mistake. Reporter u. S. Officials have suggested the plan to defeat isis in syria and iraq could take three years. There are those who say it could take a lot longer. The president keeps talking about pakistan as a model, how u. S. Air strikes and drone strikes in the tribal areas have weakened al qaeda there. But the u. S. Has been doing that in the tribal areas of pakistan for nearly a decade. It seems the u. S. Has become the air force for failed states. Matt . Richard engel in iraq this morning. Chuck todd is nbcs political director and moderator of meet the press. Chuck, good morning to you. Good morning. The president says no boots on the ground. He does say were going to systematically degrade their capabilities, shrink the territory that they control and ultimately defeat them. How specific is he going to get in terms of his plan on wednesday . I think he wants to get fairly specific. He has to get buyin from congress. He meets with congressional leaders tomorrow. While he claims he doesnt need a full operation to expand for his plan, for his strategy to deal with isis, he does have enough that he wants them to have an up or down vote on it, have a debate on it. I think he will get somewhat specific because he needs boots on the ground, matt. Theyre not going to be american boots, as he pledged on the interview with me. He does need some boots on the ground. Will they be Saudi Arabian boots, kurdish boots . Thats the job of secretary of state john kerry right now. Isis is a sunni Extremist Group that only pose a threat to syria and iraq, but many nations in the middle east. How much help do you think the administration will get . They think theyre going to get a lot of help. Of course, there is a little bit of a credibility issue. Saudis and jordanians have not been happy with this administration. At this point, it does look as if the president s pledges that hes going to do these air strikes, what he has already done in iraq is going to turn the tide a little bit and perhaps the jordanians and saudis, in particular, will come into this coalition. Their goal, matt, is to make this coalition against isis, make it look like the coalition that george h. W. Bush, back in 1990 and 91, the one he put together to go after saddam hussein. They dont want a Small Coalition of two or three nations where its just the United States and a couple of symbolic countries. Chuck todd, thank you very much. Doctors with the centers for Disease Control are keeping an eye on a mysterious respirator virus that has sent kids to hospitals. The outbreak could get even worse with the School Sessions under way. Reporter this is what doctors call ground zero of their outbreak, all kids like 4yearold cali ann have arrived at childrens Mercy Hospital with a respiratory virus. She started out with coughing, not being able to stop. Reporter with coldlike symptoms, fever, body aches and coughing, up to 30 kids a day are arriving at this hospital. Many so sick, theyve been placed in intensive care. I was scared and i knew this one was a really bad virus. Reporter with children who suffer from asthma most at risk, doctors in missouri suspect the outbreak is called by enterovirus d68, a cousin of the common cold, likely spread at school and rarely seen in the u. S. More children are going into our Critical Care unit from this virus than any of the other respiratory viruses that we commonly see. Childrens mercy isnt alone. States like illinois and ohio have outbreaks. In colorado, more than 900 cases at Childrens Hospital in aurora. This morning, the cdc says 10 states are asking for help. It felt like i was going to day. Reporter 13yearold was lifted to e. R. When he couldnt breathe. His mother thought she was losing her baby boy. He was unresponsive. He was laying on the couch and couldnt speak to me, was turning white and had blue lips. Reporter with no deaths reported, today will is making a full recovery. Back in missouri, cali anns doctors hope shell be out of the hospital soon. A widespread virus that some doctors now call an epidemic. For today, miguel almaguer, nbc news, los angeles. Really scary. Very scary stuff. No question. Natalie is here right now with some encouraging news tied to the ebola outbreak. Natalie . The third american stricken with ebola is showing some signs of improvement. Its still too early to say if dr. Rick sacra is in the clear. He contracted the illness while working with pregnant women at a hospital in liberia. He is being treated at the Nebraska Medical Center in omaha where doctors are using a Research Drug to treat him. Rescue efforts are under way in india this morning to find victims swept away by violent floodwaters. Thousands of people are stranded in kashmir and northern parts of pakistan. 320 people have died, 2500 villages have been submerged and thousands of people have climbed on to rooftops to try to survive. Its been called the worst flooding in the country in 60 years. A car crash leads to a gas explosion and partial collapse of a hotel in lexington, kentucky. Police say a man accidentally drove his car into the side of a fairfield inn. They say he hit a gas line. The Hotel Manager went from room to room, knocking on doors, and was able to evacuate the hotel just in time, because then minutes later, there was a gas explosion. And, thankfully, there were no serious injuries. But the hotel is likely a total loss, as you see by the damage there. The hunt is on for a Mountain Lion after it attacked a 6yearold california boy. The boy was hiking with his parents. Another family on the trail near cupertino when the big cat attacked boy and tried to drag him away. Boys parents were able to fight the Mountain Lion off and they rushed their son to the hospital. He is recovering this morning from puncture wounds and scratches. Tracking dogs were brought in to find the Mountain Lion and, if found, the animal will be euthanized. Winning her Third Straight u. S. Open title, the win a big milestone for serena. It marks her 18th career grand slam championship, tying a couple of alltime greats, Chris Everett and martina navratilova. Shell be joining us later. Wow thats mazing. Many titles do you have of anything . Nothing. Thanks for being approximate back. Mr. Roker is here. How many titles do you have . I just have one. I cant say it. Chief meteorologist. Thats right. Pain in the tuckus week continues, well show you what weve got going on. A lot of wet weather making its way up the coast. Atlanta, they had Flash Flood Warnings in effect until 10 00 this morning. Low clouds, heavier rain this morning. Then well look for storms developing later in the day. So not quite out of the woods yet. Along a weak stationary front, low pressure is going to be developing during the afternoon and into the evening hours. Tonight, the systems are going to kind of sit and spin and bring a lot of rain. In fact, right along the North Carolina virginia coast, we could see locally three to five inches of rain. This rain will start to push up into the northeast by this time tomorrow. Were going to get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 seconds. Small measures that add up to make our whole even greater. Little by little we can do a lot. Because. Small is huge. Visit www. Wellsfargo. Com to see how big small can be. 7 15. Good monday this morning. Im meteorologist christina loren. A strong onshore flow means the cool ocean air will continue to move inland all day long. We have plenty of stratus clouds over the golden grate brid een. 76 on the peninsula, 70 on the east short, 82 degrees out in the trivalley. Now to a fitting farewell to comedian joan rivers. She received the starstudded red carpet sendoff that she had joked about on sunday. Nbcs ron mott, good morning to you. Reporter matt, good morning. It may be a long while before we stop talking about joan rivers. Fans are still streaming by to pay their final respects here at her home. Books are surging online and her legacy is being honored, just as she would want. It was a final farewell joan rivers envisioned for herself, alist celebrities like Sarah Jessica parker and hugh jackman showing up in bunches for a Memorial Service that might have deserved an r rating, exactly what friends say she would want. There was the donald, barbara walters, whoopi and rosie. Hugh jackman sang this song and the entire congregation gave joan one last standing ovation and nobody wanted to sit down. Reporter the sendoff the comic legend ordered up was classic joan rivers, light on formality. Heavy on the flippant. I want my funeral to be a huge showbiz affair with lights and cameras and action. I want it to be hollywood all the way. Dont give me some rabbi rambling on. Reporter outside the legion of fans took it all in, while inside howard stern took the program in a direction no one saw coming. The rabbi did a beautiful job opening up. And joan said i dont want a rambling rabbi. Howard stern gets up, unannounced, opens with a line that brought the house down. But, boy, was it risky. Reporter chorus opened, bagpipes finished. Melissa rivers and her son, cooper, getting cheers from the crowd as they left. She read a letter she had written to her mother. And melissa is so strong. It was poignant and funny. She has been a rock throughout all of this. Reporter and as the week gets under way, the investigation into what caused joan rivers death continues. Matt . Ron, thank you very much. Great lady. Really great lady. No question about it. Carson is on duty in the orange room following reaction from the big news from the royal family. Good morning, meredith. Nice to see you. Nice to see you. You would think that at the rate that weve been announcing babies on the today show i had three last month you would think they were working on the today show. The heir and the spare. The spare is on the way. Kate middleton is pregnant. Battle stations, everyone. This is what weve been waiting for. It feels like that. Theres Prince George overjoyed at the idea of having a younger sibling. Remember the doors, natalie . I sure do. St. Marys. Natalie in front of those door. Sounds lovely, springtime in london. You can send your well wishes, orangeroom. Carson, thank you. The search for malaysia 370 six months later. Why hasnt a single trace of that plane or passengers been found . Would you know what to do if someone broke into your house in the middle of the night . Jeff rossen and a team show you how to survive a home invasion. First this is today on nbc. Coming up on trending, prices dads at a one direction concert plus from the hit band themselves. We are a collection of smalls. Its in this spirit that ingu u. S. Is becoming a new kind of company. A home saved. 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