Today. How much light will they really shed on the lingering questions and conspiracy theories . Those stories plus new breakthroughs in the mysterious abduction and release of a california mother. Important new vaccine recommendations you need to know about. And houston, we have liftoff. Thats into right center field. Well hit. Wont be caught. The astros cap a stunning comeback to beat the dodgers in an extra inning thriller, evening the world series at one game a piece today. Thursday, october 26th, 2017. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and savannah guthrie, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Hi, everybody. Good morning. Welcome to today on a thursday morning. It is shaping up to be an interesting day at airports all across the country. Interesting. Okay. It is our top story. The major security changes taking effect today for all flights that are coming into the united states. And the new measures could mean even more time at the airport. Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez now is at the worlds busiest airport, atlanta. Gabe, good morning to you. Reporter savannah, good morning. The deadline for the changes to go into effect is today, and some airlines are telling passengers to arrive an extra 30 to 60 minutes earlier at overseas airports for the new security measures. The changes are prompted by the same terror concerns that sparked that ban on carrying laptops aboard some International Flights last spring. This morning, coming home from sydney, barcelona or london might take a little longer. New security measures are in effect on all u. S. Bound flights from a foreign airport, affecting 180 airlines, 2,100 daily flights and 325,000 passengers. Im all for the extra security. Reporter the changes include closer inspections of personal electronic devices, more security in passenger areas and around the airport, and more thorough interviews with travelers as they check in, hoping to identify terrorists. All the airport workers are safe. If we have to stand a little bit more in line, im okay with that. Reporter the security upgrades first announced by the u. S. Government this summer after intelligence suggests that isis was able to augusmuggle explosives in laptops. Laptops had to be checked until security at the airports improved. It did. The tsa recently imposed rules requiring u. S. Domestic travelers to remove all Electronic Items larger than phones, such as tablets and ereaders, for screening. Im thankful the steps are being taken. It is a minor inconvenience. Reporter the vast majority of overseas airlines and airports have already met the new, stricter requirements. Among the top concerns, terrorists who board who go through multiple countries before boarding a flight for the u. S. Gabe gutierrez leading us off. Thank you. A lot more to get to, including President Trump taking on his critics and touting great unity within the gop. That despite a public rebuke by two key republican senators. We have complete coverage starting at the white house with nbcs kristen kel we arwelker. Reporter good morning. Despite the gop defections, President Trump is taking a victory lap, insisting he still has most of his party on his side and will be able to accomplish policy goals, like tax reform. And mr. Trump is also taking aim at democrats after new revelations they helped pay for that relating to his possible ties to russia. President trump down playing talk of a republican civil war, appearing on the fox business network. We have actually in the republican party, in a true sense, we have great unity. Reporter even after two prominent gop senators, bob corker and jeff flake, afail ee the president s character. Both men retiring next year. Mr. Trump insisting he can could want on them to support his agenda, including tax reform. I really know they want tax cuts. They know we need it for the country. Reporter flake acknowledging, he would have faced an uphill battle for reelection. That is a difficult position to take in a republican primary, the position that ive taken, that we ought to stand up. Reporter the president taking a swipe at flake. His poll numbers are terrible. So he did the smart thing for himself. This way, he can get out somewhat gracefully. Reporter and mr. Trump again defending his condolence call to the widow of sergeant la david johnson, insisting he had no trouble recalling the Fallen Soldiers name. They put a chart in front, la david. It says, la david johnson. So from the beginning, theres no hesitation. One of the great memories of all time. Reporter asked by nbcs Hallie Jackson about his civility, mr. Trump touted his own intellect. Could you be more civil as leader of this country . I think the press makes me more uncivil than i am. You know, people dont understand, i went to an ivy league college. I was a nice student. I did very well. Im a very intelligent person. Reporter the president emboldened after revelations the democrats helped pay for research originally funded by republican donors that led to that nowfamous dossier, about the alleged relations to russia. Whats your reaction . Its very sad, what theyve done with the fake dossier. I think it is a disgrace. It is a very sad its a very sad commentary on politics in this country. Reporter a former Clinton Campaign official says they didnt know about the dossier during the campaign, but if they had, would have used it. The Trump Campaign is responding to reports that a Data Analytics firm it hired reached out to wikileaks founder Julian Assange about Hillary Clintons emails. The Trump Campaign saying, we as a campaign made the choice to rely on the voter data of the Republican National committee to help elect president donald j. Trump. Any claims that voter data from any other source played a role in the victory are false. Kristen, thank you very much. Another issue front and center at the white house today, the Opioid Epidemic. According to a new report, the president is ready to declare it a Public Health emergency. Will that help solve the problem facing cities and families across the country . Nbcs chief White House CorrespondentHallie Jackson has more on the president s plan. Good morning. Reporter lets talk about what the Public HealthEmergency Declaration would do according to usa today. This would loosen some regulations and give states more flexibility in how they shift around federal funding. According to the paper, this would stop short of the National State of emergency. The president s Opioid Commission recommend it. Experts say any attention directed to this serious crisis could help. The president promising something soon to show how he plans to fight the nations opioid crisis. Were going to be doing a very, very important meeting on opioids. In terms of declaring a National Emergency. Reporter but this morning, were learning the president will stop short of declaring a broader state of National Emergency and, instead, will declare the Opioid Epidemic a Public Health emergency, according to usa today. The less sweeping proclamation expires after 90 days but can be renewed. The paper says that will give states more lee way to shift federal funding to addiction treatment, free up Labor Department grants for people seeking help. Let patients talk to their doctors over the phone rather in person. Tap a special fund to give the health and Human Services agency more flexibility. The fund only has 57,000 in it. The hope, the administrations moves will put pressure on congress to do more to fight the crisis. With the president s own Opioid Commission estimating drugs kill, on average, 142 americans every day. Thats more than guns and Car Accidents combined. That means we have a 9 11 every three and a half weeks in america. If we had a terrorist organization that was killing 142 americans a day on our soil, how much would we be willing to spend to stop it . Reporter governor christie chairs the commission after promises like these from donald trump on the campaign trail. It is a huge problem all over our country. Reporter and this pledge. Were going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis. Reporter it has taken time for the president to declare a National Emergency, like he promised. Stalling progress, his health and Human Services secretary resigned, and his pick for drug czar withdrew. The president facing fire for being slow to act with critics arguing his proposals for Health Care Reform could be counterproductive. With medicaid cuts, significant cuts being proposed as part of President Trumps revamped health care plan, that will really hit a lot of opioid and drug treatments very significantly. Reporter todays announcement potentially a significant step for thousands of families. With governor christie recently telling matt, the president is not deterred, but determined. Do you think hell follow through on that promise . I do. What would you say to him, to do it sooner rather than later . Ive already said it to him. Whats his response . Hes ready. Reporter and the president is ready to make that speech, rolling all of this out at the white house later on this afternoon. Just to give you context here, the last time there was this kind of Public Health emergency on a nationwide level was before the h1n1 virus situation in 2009 2010. Savannah . Hallie, thank you. We should mention, we have a lot more of your conversation, matt, with governor christie, including how his state has recovered five years after superstorm sandy. Thats tomorrow morning on today. Now new developments in the Harvey Weinstein scandal with more accusers coming forward, pressure is mounting on the Weinstein Company to do more. Stephanie gosk is here with the latest on that. Good morning. Good morning, guys. Another accuser. Another allegation of Sexual Assault. This time, the alleged victims attorney, gloria allred, leveled a challenge at the weinsteins board of directors. They want to do right by the accusers, she says, they need to pay them. It is time for the Weinstein Company to put their money where their mouths are. Reporter attorney gloria l allred is calling on the company weinsteins cofounders to set up a fund and pay his accusers. The harm its caused to their careers and health continue and must be addressed. Reporter allred sat next to her client, actor and model natasha ma natasha malte, the latest woman to accuse the movie mogul of Sexual Assault. He said he could give me a part in an upcoming movie. Reporter late one night, he pound on her hotel room door. Once inside, she says, weinstein forced her to have sex. Just wanted it to end. I played dead. Afterwards, i laid there in complete disgust. Reporter weinsteins spokesperson repeatedly said, any allegations of nonconsensual sex are unequivocally denied by weinstein. Now his former company is under fire, facing a new lawsuit. We allege that the Weinstein Company knew that one of its Key Executives and part owner, Harvey Weinstein, was engaging in sexual misconduct. Reporter after firing weinstein when the allegations of Sexual Assault first surfaced in the media, the Weinstein Company board said, these allegations come as an utter surprise to the board. Any suggestion that the board had knowledge of this conduct is false. Im moving out. Reporter actor Dominique Hewitt accuses weinstein of forcing her to have oral sex. As many times as i said no and resisted, i feel like he was not going to let up on the idea. Reporter hewitt announced her lawsuit days after a civil rights investigation was opened against the company. Women have alleged Sexual Assault to rape. The powerhouse that won 22 oscars for films like Silver Linings playbook and the kings speech, hangs in the balance. A company that was going to make an emergency investment fell through. Weve reached out to the board but have not heard back. At the power woman breakfast this morning in los angeles, survivors of Sexual Assault are expected to speak. They include at least two weinstein accusers. Thank you very much. Other news, five women have come forward to accuse journalist and author Mark Halperin of sexual harassment. He is a senior political analyst for nbc news and acknowledged last night that he had engaged in, quote, inappropriate behavior around women he worked with at abc news over a decade ago. In a statement to cnn, he said, i now understand from these accounts that my behavior was inappropriate and caused others pain. For that, i am deeply sorry and i apologize. Under the circumstances, im going to take a step back from my day to day work while i properly deal with this situation. According to cnn, none of the women reportedly alleged incidents to abc news management. Nbc news has not independently verified the accusations. Msnbc issued the following statement. We find this story and the allegations very troubling. Mark halperin is leaving his role as a contributor until the questions around his past conduct are fully understood. Let us take a turn. Todays muchanticipated release of classified government files about the assassination of president john f. Kennedy is in the news. What are we going to learn from them, and will they satisfy the conspiracy theorists . Nbc National CorrespondentPeter Alexander is at the National Archives with more on this. Peter, what can you tell us . Reporter hey, matt. Good morning to you. The anticipation certainly building. Will this be the final chapter in one of the most defining episodes of American History . Among those fueling the suspense, President Trump himself green lighting this release, ironically, while on a trip to dallas. Tweeting, so interesting. That infamous drive through dallas has fueled farreaching conspiracy theories for more than a half century. Today, americans could learn new details about one of the countrys enduring mysteries. Federal law requires the National Archives release all of its jfk files by today. Among the key questions, did oswald act alone . Did the u. S. Government know more about the assassins movements than its priestly led on . Was oswald under cia surveillance during a trip to mexico city, where he visited the soviet and cuban embassies . The real story, maybe, is that the cia knew only seven weeks before the assassination that oswald may have threatened the president. He returned. The cia does what it always does, told no one. Reporter multiple investigations concluded oswald was the lone gunman. His own story dying when he was shot shortly after his arrest. Americans arent convinced. To this day, more than 60 believe kennedys assassination was a conspiracy, an abrupt end to camelot. Almost like the film broke in our lives. It broke from wone era of glamor and excitement and hope. The future looked very bright. Then it was over in a flash. Reporter the National Archive says, we assume that much of what will be released will be tangential to the assassination. Historians will be pouring over more than 3,000 longsealed files, hoping they reveal a cia personality profile of oswald, whether the fbi had evidence he was bragging about plans to kill kennedy, and maybe a handwritten letter from first lady jackie kennedy, detailing funeral arrangements. 54 years after his tragic death, the jfk mystery remains alive. I think that we will never be able to put a period at the end of the sentence, Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, and have everybody agree with that. Its a case that will never go away. Reporter how will those thousands of documents be released today, and exactly when . Even that remains its own mystery, though we assume the National Archives will post them to their website, at which point sleuths and scholars alike can dive . Fascinating. Thank you very much. Mr. Roker is here with our first check of the weather. Were looking a a tropical system possibly developing, from florida all the way up into new england. Invest 93l, next 30 days, could become a tropical system. Heres the fiveday development zone. No matter what happens, we see the moisture from this coming up into southern florida. We could be looking at three to five inches there. It continues up the coast. Low pressure develops. Upper level trough enhances that moisture, increasing the flood threat. Look at the rainfall amounts through monday. Anywhere from three to five inches of rain, central and southern florida. As you come up the coast, from Cape Hatteras all the way to new england and the northeast, we could be looking at three to fiv