As support drops, Trump claims election is rigged

As allegations of sexual misbehavior continued, with a ninth accuser telling her story to the Guardian on Saturday, Donald Trump’s campaign allies joined his accusation of a “rigged election”, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani speaking in racially charged terms amid growing fears of a violent backlash from Trump supporters. The Republican presidential nominee furthered the charge, tweeting: “The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary – but also at many polling places – SAD.” Such comments have raised the prospect that Trump will not concede if he loses in November, although his running mate, Mike Pence, said his party would accept the result. The Trump campaign meanwhile showed signs of fracture over allegations of groping and inappropriate behavior, and as previously solid support drops in places like New Hampshire and Nevada, Republican leaders are bracing for civil war. Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, is clucking like a chicken. A CNN poll-of-polls put Clinton at 47% to Trump’s 39%.

Trump warns of ‘rigged’ election as Giuliani makes racially charged claims

Assault on key Islamic State city begins

A long-awaited Iraqi government offensive to seize Mosul after two years of Isis control has begun, with columns of armor and troops moving on the city in northern Iraq. The start of the offensive, which has been months in the planning, was announced on state television in the early hours of Monday. “Thank God we are now fighting them in the outskirts of Mosul, and God willing the decisive battle will be soon,” said Iraq’s prime minister, Haider al-Abadi. Up to 1.5 million civilians are believed to be in the city, raising fears of a humanitarian disaster.

Battle for Mosul ‘decisive’ against Isis but not ‘divisive’ in Trump v Clinton

US woman spends 900 days in Egyptian jail

For two years after she was arrested in Cairo, Aya Hijazi refused to give up hope that Egypt’s courts would let her, an American who ran a child welfare clinic but was accused of child abuse and human trafficking, go free to reunite with her family. Nine hundred days after she was arrested with her Egyptian husband, she has started to lose that hope. Now her family and lawyers are speaking out, in an attempt to raise awareness of her plight.

‘No end in sight’: detention wears on for American who ran Egypt children’s clinic

A trip to the morgue to scare teens off guns

Khari Edwards, an executive at Brookdale University hospital in East Brooklyn, aims to jolt kids “desensitized to violence” with a graphic 90-minute seminar that culminates in a visit to the morgue. Sixteen middle school students dressed in navy blazers and striped ties are shown a cadaver wrapped in a white sheet. “What we’re trying to show you is: this is the end,” Edwards says. “We want you to never have to come down here.” Edwards hopes that by being exposed to the reality of death, young people will make choices that keep them away from guns. Some parents and researchers, however, consider it a counterproductive scare tactic.

‘Scared straight’ programs divide parents as kids see gruesome results of violence

On the road with the Clinton family business

As Dan Roberts watches, America’s most likely next first family are retracing familiar steps. Hillary Clinton is at a masonic shrine in Pennsylvania, where she spoke during her 2008 primary campaign. Some 250 miles west, husband Bill begins a bus tour through Ohio. Two hours east, Chelsea has just done her bit at a rally in the suburbs of Philadelphia. As Roberts writes: “This is what they do.” And all the while, politics goes on: WikiLeaks has released what are purported to be the text of Hillary Clinton’s controversial speeches to Goldman Sachs and other banks.

Second coming: on the road with the Clintons

Police plead for end to clowning problem

Police are pleading for end to evil clowns, a “Clown Lives Matter” march was called off, and schools are banning clown costumes though some stores are sold out. Hysteria over “creepy clown” sightings has been rising to fever pitch. The situation is so absurd that police departments are pleading with the attention-seekers to stop dressing up as evil clowns to scare people while one woman attempted to organize a “peace march” in support of clowns.

Clown sightings: hysteria in the US reaches a fever pitch

Irish fear Brexit

Irish leaders have warned of an economic “disaster” on both sides of the border without decisive action to confront the effects of Britain’s departure from the European Union. Amid warnings of “incalculable consequences” for the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, will convene a cross-border summit. Some forecasters fear Ireland could be harder hit than Britain.

Irish leaders fear Brexit will bring economic disaster

The future of pop culture

AI, VR and smartphones are changing the way we consume culture, but what comes next? Guardian writers describe entertainment’s new frontiers: movies will probably become an expensive, high-culture sort of ritual, like the opera; AR video games will infiltrate the real world, blending believable fictional characters and in-game action with real life in ways you can only currently achieve using strong hallucinogens and whiskey. In music, albums will exist as the exception rather than the rule: a prestige, ultra-fetishised indulgence where fan demographics allow.

The future of pop: robot performers, an avatar Drake and a Kanye superstore

Venus: the original ‘habitable’ planet

Its surface is hot enough to melt lead and its skies are darkened by toxic clouds of sulphuric acid. Yet conditions on Venus, often referred to as Earth’s evil twin, were not always so extreme. According to new research the planet may have been the first place in the solar system to have become habitable. A study to be presented this week will conclude that at a time when primitive bacteria were emerging on Earth, Venus may have had a balmy climate and vast oceans up to 6,562ft deep.

Was Venus the first habitable planet in our solar system?

Polo Ralph Lauren: the shoplifter’s favorite

For some New Yorkers in the 80s, one fashion label was coveted more than any other: Polo. Morwenna Ferrier surveys the era when Brooklyn-based shoplifting crews, the United Shoplifters Association and Ralphie’s Kids, would congregate on Rockaway Avenue on the 3 train and Utica Avenue 4 station before terrorising Manhattan department stores such as Barneys and Bloomingdales. The two gangs also routinely robbed one another but in 1988, a chance meeting in Times Square led them to join forces – and focus on lifting RL.

How Ralph Lauren Polo became one of the most shoplifted labels in history

In case you missed it …

There has never been a better time to be a couch potato: an endless stream of shows, old and new, delivered online without pricey cable or satellite packages. Critics have called it TV’s golden age – but some analysts say “peak television” is coming to an end. US viewers are shredding steep cable bills in favor of Netflix and streaming services, but abroad streaming services are struggling to expand. Executives are planning for a less luxurious future, in which TV shows may be briefer, lower-budget and filled with product placement. Meanwhile, Netflix offers only 31 of the top 250 movies.

Netflix and ill: is the golden age of TV coming to an end?