We showed you what it took to put together. Hoda is ready to share an amazing song. Sheening a light on remarkable kids today. Thursday, september 25th, 2014. 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 thursday morning. Im matt lauer along with hoda kotb. I got emails from people overnight who say they heard little portions of the song you have put together on the internet overnight. Yes, sneak on there, Sarah Bareilles and cyndi lauper, its raining, it is sticky outside the high school is packed with supporters supporting pediatric cancer, so thank you to everybody that came out to support it. Terrific. Maybe we can get it on itunes. That would be great. We will have the premier of that video in a little while. Lets get to our top story, a busy morning for you, al, widespread flooding in the south and soaking rains in the east. Thats for sure. We will start in texas, where yesterday they had their heaviest day of rain ever, upwards of seven to eight inches of rain, swamping roads, causing high water rescues aswell people were rescued from their cars. The good news is the rain is letting up there. They will have more showers, boy, nothing like they had yesterday. As we look here in the northeast, we are watching rain making its way up from the south from cape may, new jersey on up into times square, heavy rain making its way. It will continue. This is a weak noreaster. If this was late november, wed be talking snowstorms instead of rain. We have low flood flashes making its way into parts of new england. The heaviest will be in parts of new jersey, parts of long island, on into parts of new england, coastal gales. I think the good news is they will get the yankee game in. Could be some delays. Yankee fans love you. It will be good. All right, al, thanks, so much. Now to the fight to bring down isis, new airstrikes were launched in syria by the u. S. And its arab allies. This just hours of problem addressed the u. N. And call again what he called the network of death. Nbc correspondent Richard Engel has the latest. Reporter the u. S. Is expanding its military campaign against isis, in syria and iraq. The president said this is just the beginning. These terrorists believe our countries will be unable stop them. The safety of our citizens demand that we do. Reporter but isis now has capecots. In algeria, a militant said it beheaded a french hostage as a threat from isis. The threats arent slowing down the u. S. Led air war against isis and Al Qaedalinked groups, including a little known cell u. S. Intelligence call the Khorasan Group that was allegedly planning attacks on u. S. Airliners. U. S. Officials say they are increasingly convinced the groups leader, a 23yearold kuwaiti, an aid to Osama Bin Laden was killed in a raid monday night. But there are many more fighters in syria, controlling dozens of towns and cities. The biggest one is ra ka, the isis capital in syria. French Television Broadcast a woman with a hidden camera, risking her life to take these images. It shows armed men on checkpoints, armed women, too. All the women fully veiled. Suddenly the women filming is spotted by Morality Police and questioned about her veil. They tell her to cover up even more, they can see her face, they say. She apologizes as they move on. But a city run according to isis moral code. Like with all of these internet videos, we cant independently verify. Matt. We are now right on the border in southeast turkey with syria. There is a developing situation here. All of these young men you see behind me are Syrian Refugees who have been living in turkey and the reason theyre here is they want to cross this border, they want to go pence syria and they want to fight isis. Now that the u. S. Is launching airstrikes, these men have decided it is time to go into syria and fight isis on the ground. Matt. Richard engel in turkey this morning. Thank you very much. The u. S. Ambassador to the United Nations joins us now exclusively. Madam ambassador, its great to see you. Its great to be here. Mr. Times the president has said the tide of war is receding, at the General Assembly last year, he said we are shifting away from a perpetual war footing. Yesterday he said the only language understood by killers like isis is the language of force. Are we heading back to a perpetual footing of war . But what we are doing is engaging a campaign to degrade and ultimately destroy this monstrous group and to the extent that we have been at war with al qaeda over these many years, that is the kind of effort that you will see against them. Are we at war against isis . We are at war against group of isil, yes. One thing missing from his speech yesterday, he did not wage criticize the president of syria as he has in the past. What is noticeable to me in the two days since airstrikes began pence syria, assad has remained silent. Is that silence a tacit acknowledgement on both sides we are hoep helping assad . Well, president obama has made clear on virtually every speech on the effort against isil, that syria is not a reliable partner on this and he has let isil establish a safe haven. Most of their strikes are still against civilian neighborhoods and moderate opposition groups. They havent been serious in that effort. In defense of iraq, there was no way to defend the people in the region. When you warned your counterpart at the United Nations from syria, these airstrikes were about to happen, did he express approval or did he express outrage . Well, they have come out and said we want to coordinate. This is what we have been saying all along, our point back is you are committing terror against your people. Are you the ones using weapons and barrel bombs. It seems to me we have three distinct enemies, we have isis. We got the Khorasan Group. The offshoot of al qaeda and assad forces. That old expression of the enemy of my enemy is my friend doesnt seem to fit the bill here anymore. Have we gotten ourselves into a situation that will be impossible to untangle . Look. It is very complicated. I think people have had a hard time of tracking who is what. What we know is the vast majority of the certain people have wanted this war to end for a very long time. They cant tolerate the leadership aglerns. Nor can they tolerate the leadership you saw in the video of a rule that is so brutal that supreme to go around fully veiled even if thats not their choice. People get their hand chopped off, public beheadings, et cetera. I want to talk about ebola. The cdc came out by and said by january there could be 1. 5 Million People with ebola. Its a global threat. One life worker said i have worked in many crises if 20 years, its the first time i can see a situation that nobody wants to come. People are afraid to come. Thats it. When you talk to your counterparts at the u. N. , are you competent they will send the people to the region that can shop outbreak . You put your finger on the issue. A lot of people want to say we gave at the office, we are saying we need doctors, furthers, engineers. President obamas leadership on this as with isil has been key. Are there other people following . Last week we had a first ever emergency investigation, 134 cosponsors of the revolution. We are calling on those 34 countries to cough up more than checking a box and cosponsoring a revolution but a willingness to actually join us. The fact that there is an american foothold there. There will be 3,000 troops setting up a task force has given them more confident. We will translate that into world commitment over time. But we dont have time to wait. Thank you so much for joining us in the studio today. Thanks, matt. Hoda. All right, matt, thanks. The man charged with the abduction of a university of virginia student is behind bars. Jesse matthews was captured 1,300 miles from where he was last seen with Hannah Graham. Reporter hoda, good morning. That suspect is being held in the jail right behind me. The big question this morning, how in the world did he end up here, all the way in texas . Its still unclear when he got here. Today a nationwide man hunt is over. Overnight, Police Caught up with the man suspected of abducting missing university of virginia student Hannah Graham. We are here tonight to announce that because of the collaborative efforts to the federal bureau of investigation and state and local Law Enforcement across this nation, Jesse Matthew is in custody in galveston, texas. 32yearold jesse math sthus arrested 1,300 miles from where he was with 18yearold Hannah Graham the night she disappeared. The hero is a deputy with the Galveston County sheriffs office. Wednesday afternoon, that deputy responded to a suspicious person call, the deputy questioned him and ran the plates on his car. Police in charlottesville, virginia, have been looking for that vehicle, believing he could be using it. Sure enough, he was, matthews was taken into custody without incident. Students back at uva reacted to the news with relief. Im glad he has been found. I think thats a relief for all of us. Of course, we are all supporting hannah. While the suspect has been found, there is sill no sign of Hannah Graham. We are asking every person within the sound of my voice to help us find Hannah Graham. Jesse matthews is scheduled to appear before a judge in a few hours. Here in texas, he is charged with failure to identify himself as a fugitive and giving false information. Gabe, thank you so much. Police chief timothy longo, good morning to you. You found your suspect a thousand miles away in texas. How did you guys track him down. We wont go into the details anne other than to say we had a tremendous am of support from the fbi and certainly the other state agencies. The fbi was hugely important with respect to tracking the movement of mr. Matthews and certainly the Galveston County sheriff office, their attention to detail was one of the aspects that brought mr. Matthews into custody. We are not going into 13e68 how that occurs. I know its early on, is Jesse Matthews cooperating with the authorities to lead you to where Hannah Graham may be . At this point i dont have enough information to really respond to that question. As you know, our last interaction with mr. Matthews saturday, he invoked his right to council. He asked for an attorney. Commonwealth afforded him such. We have nod had any conversation with him since. Chief, among the charges, one is abduction with the intent to defile. We seen the under surveillance evidence out there. What other evidence specifically links him to that charge . Again, we are being very tight lipped with respect to the types of evidence that brought us to the issue of probable cause this past week. One can only imagine, though, when we are conducting a search of a residence, in this case, a vehicle, we are sending evidence off to the laboratory, awaiting results. We have gotten the results back. Its because of that that we got to the probable cause level now. One of the reasons we are so cautious, we are awaiting additional evidence from the lab we hope to get later this week to further advance this investigation and support that charge. Hannah grahams parents awaiting any information on their daughter. Where is the search focusing, chief . The search is daybyday the Virginia Department of management is working hard with their search and rescue efforts category over probably close to 90 of the city has been searched and outlying areas, marlboro county, we will continue to very aggressively search for the rural and wooded areas around the city in an effort to try to find lana. We are hopeful that we will find hannah and return her to her parents, hopefully. We will continue to have that hope until such time that we have evidence to the contrary. Thank you so much, chief. Thank you, maam. Natalie is here now with new developments in the case of tony stewart. No criminal charges will be filed against pass the car star tony stewart in the death of track driver kevin ward. That is a decision by the new york state grand jury looking into the august 9th accident. The 20yearold ward was hit and killed when he got out of his car on the track to talk to him. A test came back positive for marijuana at the time of the accident. Ward is still cleared, by he could face a civil lawsuit. Police in pennsylvania believe they have spotted a suspect wanted in the death of ap tryer. Eric greene was seen in the distance, rugged terrain that separated them gave frein the ability to disappear. Sfrn accused of killing two Pennsylvania State troopers, one trooper died. The other was wounded. A woman seen on tape being punched by a california Highway Patrol officer has reached a millionandahalf settlement. The officer seen repeatedly hitting her has agreed to resign. Officer Daniel Andrews claimed the woman resisted arrest when he tried to keep her from walking on to a los angeles freeway. The officer could still face possible criminal charges. And terrifying moments caught on wednesday when a los angeles woman hid on the roof of her house to avoid an intruder, take a look, she is crouching down near a window on the roof. The breakin suspect who followed her just a few feet away from her makes your skin crawl. Minutes earlier the woman call police when she spotted the man pence her house wearing only a flannel shirt. She climbed out the second story window and awaited for help t. Suspect said to be homeless was arrested a couple minutes later. Thank goodness for that. You saw his over the top touchdown dance in the movie. Gooding was invited to participate in a blackhawks preseason game if chicago. Participants get three chances, for gooding, hes a huge fan, plays in street time. Take a look, third time the charm there. Check out the celebration damages. The jacket comes off. The shirt comes off. You know what they say, what he says, show him the money for that shot thats all you need to see there. Way to go, cuba. Mr. Roker is doing the forecast. Its a soggy one. Yes, it is, here in the northeast, as we look at the national map, we show you we got wet weather, High Surf Advisory along the Southern California coast. Southern texas looking at wet weather as well. Fog in the northern plains. We will be looking at record heat possibly in the plains. We will get to that in the next half hour. Meantime, your local forecast is coming up in the next 30 seconds. Good morning. Im meteorologist bill henley. A damp start to the day and a windy one, too. Wet and windy conditions this morning. Well see improvement as the rain tapers off to a drizzle and temperatures warm to the middle to upper 60s. Clearing off tomorrow. In fact, a really nice friday. High of 77 degrees. Look at the weekend, sunshine, low humidity. And temperatures in the low 80s. Warm weather continues on monday. A chance of showers tuesday and wednesday. Have a great day. Thats your latest weather. Thank you so much. One of the top personalities has been suspended for a tirade on the scandals in the nfl. Bill simmons hosted a podcast where he weighs in on pop culture. Espn silenced him for three weeks. Heres what we know on monday, bill was on his podcast calling about nfl commissioner roger good em. Called him a liar, basically accused him of seeing the ray rice case before le said he saw them. Take a listen. Goodell, if he didnt know what was on that tape, hes a liar. Imsaying im sayingse lying, few you put him on a lie decker test. If one person says that to me, im going public. You leave me alone. Hes a liar, i guess i will talk about that on my podcast, call me, say im in trouble. I dare you. Well, they did. Those that operate with the journalistic standards, bill simmons did not meet those obligations, as a result we have suspended him for three weeks. As soon as the statement came out the free simmons trended on twitter. Vir schully 100 saying espn way too tough on bill simmons. They think its terrible. They mentioned the three weeks suspension bill has is a week longer tan the initial suspension of ray rice. Wow the Washington Post writes in, simmons has such a big following because he voices his opinion on sports and now espn suspend him for doing just that. Car stephen king, thank you very much. Coming up, an extremely Disturbing Police shooting caught on tape. And the please. A man shot and wounded after being stopped for not wearing a seatbelt. That trooper out of a job, now facing criminal charges. Unbelievable. Could you forgive him . A man caught on camera kissing a member of his staff, first, this is today on. 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