this is a rigged system, folks. but we're not going to let it happen. >> donald trump's words don't make me sick anymore. they make me furious. and now the sprint to wednesday's third and final debate. heart of america's voting system. fire bomb, the north carolina headquarters torched along with nazi graffiti warnings. >> right now, iraq has launched a massive offensive to retake mosul from isis at the direction of u.s. military advisers. then 21 girls kidnapped over two years ago by boko haram reunited with family.

"early today" starts right now. great being with you this morning. i'm frances rivera. the offensive to retake the iraq city of mosul from isis has begun. the terror group has controlled iraq's second largest city for the past two years. iraqi prime minister says the time of victory has arrived. adding that isis would be punished and the city rebuilt. iraqi forces have surrounded the city cutting off any supply and escape routes. for isis fighters. matt bradley joins us live from iraq. and matt, the long awaited battle is under way. >> reporter: the problem here is that so far this operation has been limited to just the kurdish fighters and the american troops. as you noted, they have announced this several hours ago. now, the kurdish role in this is also very tense. the kurds have so far moved into

part of the city and retaken several village said that are populated mostly by religious and ethnic minorities, but the kurds are not going to be allowed to penetrate into mosul proper. this highlights a lot of the problems surrounding this operation. this is a delicately choreographed dance. iraqi military and u.s. military forces are very confident that mosul will eventually fall. the important thing here is how to retake mosul. it's balancing all o different ethnic and minority grouped that make up the country and make it so hard to govern. that's why in the coming weeks we'll see a lot of different interplay between the shiite groups, the sunni fighters coming in from the west, the kurdish groups coming in from the north, and the iraqi military itself. it's so important for lubody to portray this upcoming offensive as a victory from the iraqi military with buy in and support

>> no doubt a complex and crucial operation there. matt, thank you. >> authorities are on the hunt for suspects after the gop headquarters in north carolina was fire bombed and the words nazi republicans get out of time or else were spray painted on the side of a wall of a nearby building. the interior of the headquarters was damaged beyond repair and authorities say the attack happened when a bottle of flammable liquid was thrown through the animals representing hillary clinton and dems in north carolina fire bombing our office in orange county because we're winning. he followed up saying all safe in orange county, north carolina. with you all the way. we'll never forget. now we have to win. proud of you all. while hillary clinton tweeted, the attack was horrific and unacceptable. very grateful that everyone is safe. and just two days until the

americans head to the voting booth to decide the next leader of the free world, and donald trump says it's the same polling booths that have been set against him. >> hillary is running for president in what looks like to many people a totally rigged election. the election is being rigged all big lies. it's a rigged system. this is a rigged system, folks. but we're not going to let it happen. >> trump then tweeting the election is absolutely being ri distorted media pushing crooked hillary but also many media polling places. sad. trump blaming media bias is not a new tactic for him, but blaming polling places is entirely different, and one trump surrogates openly refuted on the sunday shows. >> he said to reporters, they're the ones who have rigged it. it's pretty clear what he means. he's never talked about cheating in the polling place. >> the american people are tired of the obvious bias in the

that's where the sense of a rigged election goes here. >> i believe the news media -- i believe the rigging is the level of national establishment. i don't think it's add the level of stealing votes at the precinct level. >> now trump is openly contradicting his own surrogates. nbc contacted the trump campaign for clarification on just which polling stations the nominee meant, so far no answer has been given. meanwhile, republicans are refuting trump's accusations with senator jeff flake tweeting "elections are not rigged." and house speaker paul ryan. issuing this statement, quote, our democracy relies on confidence in election results and the speaker is fully confident the states will carry out this election with integrity. and trump responded by bashing ryan posting, "the democrats have a corrupt political machine pushing crooked hillary clinton, we have paul ryan always fighting the republican nominee." and he ramped it up, hitting ryan with more bruising tweets. despite trump's assertion of a rigged system, a 2014

over 1 billion ballots cast in a state-wide and nation elections between 2000 and 2014. and for their part, trump supporters say the republican ticket will unequivocally accept the election day outcome one way or another. >> will you, mr. mayor, approve of and respect the outcome of the election? >> of course. >> we will absolutely accept the results of the election. >> now a ninth woman has come forward with allegations against donald trump, telling the guardian newspaper the gop nominee sexually assaulted her. nbc news has not verified the allegation. one of hillary clinton's stronger surrogates senator elizabeth warren reacted with fury. >> some people say it makes them sick to hear donald trump talk like that. well, not me. donald trump's words don't make me sick anymore. they make me furious. >> and the accusations seem to

trump campaign, with 68% now saying they believe trump has made unwanted sexual advances towards women. just 14% say they believe he has not. and in that same poll, 63% say the recent allegations and that 2005 "access hollywood" video does not impact their vote, while 35% say it does have an impact. and a reminder for you, the third and final debate is wednesday night at 9:00 eastern 6:00 pacific time right here on nbc. >> after be reunited after being kidnapped and held captive for two years, finally smiles and tears of joy for 12 nigerian school girls as they were reunited with their families. the emotional ceremony was held sunday in the nigerian capital. they were released last week by boko haram militants. but it took them several weeks to reach them from a remote

it's not clear how the release was negotiated. nigerian authorities are denying captured militants were released in exchange for the girls. 197 of the 276 students kidnapped in april of 2014 are believed to still be in the hands of boko haram. negotiations continue for their release. >> china pafs's rocket blasted off carrying astronauts to a new chinese space station. they plan to stay on the space during that time, they'll conduct a variety of experiments and act as special kraunlts for the chinese state media organization. this launch is a small step for china as it continued to rapidly develop its space program's scientific, commercial, and military capabilities. >> look at this dramatic new footage of brave floridians rescuing a man after a fiery crash. two cars collided and one toppled over a steep embankment.

luckily for the driver who was still inside, several people standing by and two police officers climbed all the way down, dragging the driver out of the wreckage, and then, amazingly, they formed a human chain to pull everyone back up to safety. the driver was taken to the hospital with only minor injuries. just ahead, north korea continues testing messels as they threaten the united states, saying they're prepared to use nuclear weapons, but right now, a weekend storm has moved out of the northwest, butll behind a gloomy forecast. bill karins has the update. >> the huge storm we were worried about was weaker than forecast. it didn't knock out too much power. that storm is now moving out with a little bit of snow and rain in areas of the central rockies. it's in the mountains that we're still seeing a little wet weather. and an anshore flow is going to leave it gloomy and unsettled. scattered showers and maybe the mountains get a little snow. the highest rainfall will be in

peaks. now here's a closer look at your day ahead. >> well, temperatures definitely are cool behind the big storm this weekend in the 50 throughout much of nevada and oregon. very chilly around missoula today. only 49 degrees with scattered showers. much of the country is locking at record heat, but the west, that's the school spot. >> thank you. just ahead, one man's been arrested in connection with a shooting death of tyson gay's 15-year-old daughter. we'll bring you those details next. in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena? rapid wrinkle repair works... ...in one week. with the... fastest retinol formula available. it's clinically proven to work on fine lines and... ...even deep wrinkles. "one week? that definitely works!" rapid wrinkle repair. and for dark spots, rapid tone repair.

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the shooting and they're questioning another. $1.5 billion. that is the staggering estimate of flooding damage in north carolina caused by hurricane matthew. with flood waters yet to reseed, officials say that number could rise. over the weekend, two more flood victims were found, bringing the death total to 26. north korea warns it is prepared to launch a pre-emptive strike on the united states if they continue to feel threatened a top north korean official tells nbc will also carry out further nuclear tests. north korea has been escalating its nuclear policeman despite a u.n. security council ban on nuclear activities. lucy cavnauv has the latest and the u.s. response. good morning. >> reporter: hey, frances. u.s. officials are taking these threats with a grain of salt with them vowing not only to keep carrying out more nuclear tests as they did on sad, but it's prepared to launch a

country. my colleague had the opportunity to travel to north korea and to interview a top official there who had some very disturbing threats to make. let's take a look at what he had to say. >> translator: if we see u.s. nuclear forces coming against our country, we will strike first. there may be a sixth, a seventh, or an eighth nuclear test, he says. >> you will ba tests? no, he says, we won't back down. >> now, there is no evidence at this point that korea can mount a nuclear warhead and missile or even reach any united states, u.s. state, but this saturday's attempt to launch intermediate ballistic missile did fail, nevertheless, these are threats u.s. officials are taking seriously and this is a country

international condemnation. >> lucy, reporting from london, thank you. coming up next, why did tesla's elon musk delay a major announcement? you're watching "early today." i'm here in bristol, virginia. and now...i'm in bristol, tennessee. on this side of the road is virginia... and on this side it's tennessee. no matter which state in the country you live in, you could save hundreds on car insurance by switching to geico. look, i'm in virginia... virginia... tennessee... and now i'm in virginessee. see how much you could save on car insurance. or am i in tennaginia? hmmm... more "sit" per roll. bounty is two times more absorbent. so one roll of bounty can last longer than those bargain brands. so you get more "life" per roll. bounty. the long-lasting quicker picker upper.

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delayed a major announcement. >> a new week on wall street and futures are pointing to a lower open this morning. the dow starting at 18,138 after rising 38 points on friday.

5214. both mark lowered last week for the second week in a row. earning season is in full swing. lots and lots of companies reporting. here's a quick round up of the ones to look for. bank of america before the bell, after the close, netflix, which could be hit by the higher cost of doing business, while united continental profits could be down by a third. meanwhile, how's this for a big letdown. elon musk promised us he would unveil a new product today. it caused a lot of however, he has put it off until wednesday now. he says he needs more time. a quick footnote. tez law did announce plans to work with panasonic on solar energy, but that's hardly got the wow factor we were expecting. it's all eyes on wednesday now. and the autumn box office is down 16%. post-summer moviegoers have

including $24 million this weekend, ben affleck and the accountant. >> landon dowdy, thank you. just ahead, why beyonce is unstoppable. even after getting hurt on stage. we'll tell you about her bloody injury. >> plus, donald trump trashed "saturday night live" just months after hosting, but that's just the start. you're watching "early today." bam! whoa, wow what did i tell ya? a slice of paradise! wow. c'mon sport, let's take a splash. oh, no thanks. besides, i didn't bring my suit. oh, that's ok, you can borrow the spare. the spare? i don't want to put anybody out. nonsense! we lend it to everybody. some people we... ...hardly know. besides, you're family now. no, i wouldn't want to impose.

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he's really flipped. >> while performing in a new york contest, beyonce showed her fans she's a true pro. she was wearing that really long braid and elaborate earrings spelled trouble for her. the braid caught on her earring and ripped her earlobe. here's a little bit of the video. you can see the moment where she realizes there's something wrong. she handled it like a champ, keeps going. you can't even tell anything happened. >> the earsnd continued. have you ever done that? >> even just a pull on a hoop earring is bad enough. i can't imagine ripping it. >> just ahead here on "early today," the state of the race. a live report from washington, including the new way trump is trying to capitalize on the jail hillary chants. that's next. you're watching "early today." ? harry's meeting clients from far away.?

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