vice president kamala harris addressed voters at her first campaign rally in the battleground state of wisconsin. speaking to thousands of supporters, she said republican challenger donald trump wanted to take the country backwards with his extreme policies. ms harris�* campaign secured a major boost ahead of the rally — with the pledged support of enough democratic delegates to become the party's nominee for president, according to an associated press survey conducted on monday. this renewed sense of enthusiasm within the democratic party has seen the harris campaign raise more than 100 million dollars— or 77 million pounds — in donations since biden�*s exit from the presidential race on sunday. the vice president says her �*people—powered campaign�* will unite the democratic party. do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion and the

rule of law? or a country of chaos, fear and hate? and here is the beauty of this moment. we each have the power to answer that question. the power is with the people. we each have the power to answer that question. and in the next 105 days, then, we have work to do, we have doors to knock on, we have phone calls to make, we have voters to register and we have an election to win. vice president harris also continues to build momentum among top democrats. senate majority leader chuck schumer and house minority leader hakeem jeffries — endorsed her candidacy

during a news conference on tuesday. a new poll released by the news agency reuters and ipsos shows the vice president ahead by a two percent lead over her republican challenger donald trump. ms harris led trump 44 percent to 42 percent, that's within the 3—percentage—point margin of error — making the bid for the white house a tight race. the poll was conducted in the days following biden�*s exit and his endorsement of harris. so voter sentiment is still developing. mr trump says he's willing to take part in at least one presidential debate with ms harris, telling reporters that he thinks �*it�*s important�* and calling harris more radical than biden. with the support of a majority of delegates — ms harris would be the first black and indian—american female presidential nominee. she was born to an indian mother and a jamaican father, both of whom immigrated to the united states to study. in ms harris�* ancestral village in india, in the state of tamil nadu, residents have offered special prayers for her success in the presidential bid. bbc tamil�*s saradha venkatasubramanian reports from the village. i am in a small village

in the southern state of tamil nadu, located 14,000 kilometres away from washington dc, this is the birthplace of kamala harris�*s maternal grandparents, and the villagers say she has no immediate family living here but prayers are being offered at the local hindu temple for her success. it is not an easyjob. the first lady of the most powerful nation in the world, so she deserves it. we are proud of her. there is a sense of pride here especially amongst women. they see her as one of their own, a symbol of what is possible for women everywhere. everybody knows her, even children. - "my sister, my mother", - that is how they address her. she is residing - in everyone's heart. we are happy she has not forgotten her roots, - even after reaching such heights and we expressl our happiness.

in 2020 the villagers celebrated her vice presidency, bursting crackers and having her picture featured on calendars and posters and there was a communal feast where hundreds enjoyed the traditional south indian dishm sambal idli, which according to one of her relatives as amongst her favourites. interestingly kamala harris�*s is on them name of people known to the village temple. they say they might be thousands of miles away from the us but they feel connected to herjourney but they hope she will visit one day. the director of the us secret service, kimberly cheatle resigned tuesday, after facing sharp criticism over agency's security failures that led up to the attempted assassinaton of donald trump. ms cheatle stepped down just 2a hours after admitting the attack onjuly 13th was her agency's worst failure in decades. 0ur north america correspondent nomia iqbal reports.

take a look at what happened... former president donald trump was close to being killed. and the secret service has been under huge pressure to answer for it. its director, kimberly cheatle, attended a hearing on capitol hill yesterday, immediately accepting blame. the secret service's solemn mission is to protect our nation's leaders. on july 13th, we failed. as the director of the united states secret service, i take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency. donald trump was on stage in pennsylvania. secret service snipers were on a roof behind him. outside the rally venue, more than 100 metres away, were these buildings. from the rooftop, the gunman had a direct line of sight to mr trump. the crucial questions for kimberly cheatle included, why weren't any agents on the rooftop beforehand, especially as it turned out the gunman was a known threat? to the frustration of the committee's lawmakers, ms cheatle was accused of stonewalling.

it is a miracle president trump wasn't killed. corey comperatore's life is over because that damn shooter made it onto the roof. it wasn't the roof that was dangerous, it was the nutjob on top of the roof. you know what else is dangerous? i believe your horrifying ineptitude and your lack of skilled leadership is a disgrace. your obfuscating today is shameful. i would have to get back to you. that is a no. you're full of today. - you're just being completely dishonest. mr chairman... crosstalk ..we have to maintain - decorum in this committee. just a day later, she announced her resignation, saying it was with a heavy heart. she went on... kimberly cheatle became head of the secret service less than two years ago.

but the democrats and republicans said she had to stand down, both united in agreement — always a rare moment in us politics. she just resigned? can you say how this i changes the oversight of the assassination attempt? well, she must have been watching our press conference. i'm glad she did the right thing. look, our reaction, the immediate reaction to her resignation, is that it is overdue. we have to rebuild the american people's faith and trust in the secret service as an agency. it has an incredibly important responsibility in protecting presidents, former presidents and other officials. presidentjoe biden, who appointed kimberly cheatle, said he was grateful to herfor her service. the head of the fbi will face questioning later this week, whilst an independent review into the shooting continues. nomia iqbal, bbc news, washington. you saw footage there from ms cheatle�*s appearance at monday's house oversight commitee hearing. earlier, i spoke to one of that committee's members: democratic representative raja krishnamoorthi

i want to start with a question of what you make with the secret service director announcement that she will resign? i think it's appropriate and she is not the right person person for thejob now and in the hearing yesterday she gave a series of evasive answers to basic questions including about the timeline and when i asked her as well about the fact there were at least three warnings to the secret service. as well as local law enforcement that a threat in had emerged before shots actually rang out and she was not able to properly explain why the secret service did not pause the rally, but suggests it is time for her to go so i am glad she has handed in her resignation today. questions remain unanswered. what do you still want to see answered from the secret service? i have questions

about the individual in question, mr crooks. we need to understand his motives and how he was able to get into that situation where he could successfully shoot at the president on stage. he came within basically one inch or less of ending donald trump's life. the second question i have is, how could it be we had a security perimeter drawn without the building in question as part of the security perimeter? it had a clear and unobstructed view of this stage and within rifle range on the stage but not part of the perimeter so that's a big problem as well. do you still have confidence in the secret service? i have confidence in the secret service but at this point we have to, as i like to say, murphy's law, every situation at this point that might be an outdoor rally, a more complicated situation than an indoor secure building

where the taxis might be delivering speeches at this point we have to assume the worst and plan accordingly. from your position on the intelligence committee, how great is the threat of further political violence as we are in the middle of an election campaign? it's high, and that's the problem and we are only weeks away from the democratic national convention which will take place in my home state of illinois, in chicago, and we have a new presidential candidate emerging who by nature of her own identity is unfortunately going to attract even more potential from potential nefarious actors so we have to be ready for anything and so what happened with donald trump was completely unacceptable and we have to recognise that political violence is on the rise and we in congress have to do everything we can to tamp down

tensions and condemn political violence of all kinds. i want to ask you about kamala harris, who held her first rally in wisconsin, a state important to the democrats if they want to win in november and there is confidence that she can energise groups like young voters and black voters and latino voters. but do you think she can appeal to working—class voters in some of these key swing states like wisconsin? yes, and i think we have to do and that's why it's important for vice president harris to talk about those kitchen table topics that are so important to people. whether it's how we educate our children in this world of new technologies and how do we access health care in an affordable manner and make sure we have jobs that equip us for the revolution we are in, in so many different ways. globalisation as well as

technological revolution. and finally how do we make sure we are in a safe community? that means not only do we dedicate more resources for law enforcement but reduce gun violence through common—sense gun control measures. those are the issues amongst other was including reproductive freedom which i think she has to drive home. and we have heard her talk a lot about. last question, are you concerned that there is very little time from now until the election for kamala harris to make that message? i think she will be able to do it and we have 100 days until the election, so, game on. this is the time we will have to muster all of our energy and forces and she was able to raise almost $100 million or more in 48 hours, which is like elon musk money,

so we are talking significant resources coming her way and i don't think there will be any shortage of that. what we need to do is make sure we address the topics people are thinking about every day and put our best foot forward and i think we will be successful. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu is in washington this week. it's his first trip since the attack by hamas on october 7th. the controversial visit comes after months of war and unsuccessful ceasefire negotiations. protests against his policies have already begun. here are pictures from the capitol on tuesday afternoon — as demonstrators staged a sit—in to protest the war in gaza. police are scaling up security measures with fencing around the capitol building ahead ahead of netanyahu's address to a joint session of congress on wednesday. it will be the prime minister's first time speaking to the house and senate

in nine years. he will then pay a visit to the white house on thursday to meet with president biden. the prime minister is also scheduled to meet separately with vice president kamala harris. following his meetings in washington, mr netanyahu will then travel to florida on friday, where he will meet with former president donald trump at mar—a—lago. our state correspondent tom bateman has the latest. as we showed up in this part of the building there was a hundred or so protesters on this part of the rotunda, some of them led away but some still here and the us capitol arrived at that point, cuffing them behind their backs and pulling people up and taking them away to be processed, being arrested one by one and moved outside of the building. one of the processors i spoke to said there were 500 americanjewish people from all over the us who came here to explicitly to protest benjamin netanyahu's visit. when he is here in thejoint

address to congress, his message will be around what he will call israel being the indispensable ally in the middle east to the us and also to thankjoe biden for his support over the war in gaza but it is that very support that has led to this deep sense of division, notjust in the democratic party but across the us as we will see protests over the visit coming to the very heart of washington. after three and a half years as vice president, 0n the gaza strip, israel's military operations to defeat hamas are moving forward. the un says more than 150 thousand residents in khan younis — a city in southern gaza — fled their homes tuesday as israeli tanks moved into the area. the israeli military ordered people to evacuate from khan younis , where the hamas—run health ministry says israeli military strikes have killed 80 palestinians since monday. for more, i spoke to laura blumenfeld — senior fellow at the johns hopkins school of advanced international studies, who was previously a senior

policy advisor on the middle east peace process at the us state department. i began by asking her what impact the protests here in dc might have on mr netanyahu, and the message he's come to washington to deliver. he has come to washington to try to rehabilitate israel's image and his own on the world stage but the problem is right now washington is descending into a three—ring political circus and one of the rings is the chaos on capitol hill and i spoke to a staffer this evening who said we are bracing for a storm, and it's like hollywood florida before a hurricane and they are concerned it could turn violent and then those meetings, he thought he was coming to meet with one president but now he has three high—stakes meeting and one is the current president who has withdrawn from the race and the other is the presidential nominee for the democrats or the presumptive one, kamala harris where he has a new relationship to establish and he is hedging everywhere and flying down to meet with donald trump in case he is president. so he has a lot on his plate

and a lot at stake and when he came to washington last time it was 2020 and he was representing an ascendant israel for greater regional integration and peace. in 2024 it's a totally different picture and much darker but the hope is he can leave with some light. what you think you are specifically trying to achieve? in the meetings with the future president of the us he is hedging everywhere to make sure he gets what he needs and first of all validation. more than anything, he wants to hear from the world and any president that you are right in your fight and he is looking for some satisfaction in that from a practical point of view which is weapons. american allies are heavily dependent on weapons and it's kind of our love language to the world and that is what it comes down to in the end for those american allies who are fighting.

it comes as there seems to be little or no progress towards a ceasefire, so why is that and why is the process still so stuck? its' stuck for the reasons i hope it might be stuck. for netanyahu it's been about his concern about alienating the right wing of the coalition but the good news is in a week that his parliament is going to a three—month recess so even if he conveys some flexibility and accedes to the demands put on him, then there is an opportunity for him to go forward with the ceasefire and listen to the hostage families demanding the release of their loved ones and not risk losing their government. and for biden, now he's dropped out of the race it frees him up and gives him room to manoeuvre and focus on this as a legacy issue including his key national security officials and for hamas, iam hopeful. the netanyahu approach has been

escalation as negotiation, shoot now, talk later — and he claims it's working and we will see that hamas is under increasing military pressure from israel and from within political pressure from his own population in gaza and they are fed up with the war so there is hope that hamas will compromise. we have about 30 seconds left, but can you tell us how close relationships are between benjamin netanyahu and donald trump who is visiting on friday? the advice i would give him is "do not grovel." they are at odds with each other and the last thing trump said regarding benjamin netanyahu was "eff netanyahu" as he was so angry he'd called to congratulate president biden. don't grovel, and what he will want is the normalisation deal that means they push it into the next administration, which would be a shame.

another round of protests in kenya is gradually causing a complete shutdown of the economy. shops and offices remained closed in the capital, nairobi, as people stayed at home to avoid the violence. more than 50 people were killed, dozens abducted, and hundreds arrested during demonstrations in recent weeks. this is not a war. it's how kenyan police do crowd control. thousands of mostly young kenyans have taken to the streets to demand for government reforms, and this is what they are met with excessive force. dozens have been killed. 29—year—old rex masai was the first victim. we met his mother a day after he was shot and killed by police. when people are fighting for their rights, why use live bullets? if he had been armed, we would understand that perhaps he was in the wrong. this video shows what is said to be the moment rex was shot. a police officer in civilian clothes is seen opening fire.

rex�*s friend ian kinuthia witnessed what happened. he had a bullet in his thigh when we took him to hospital. but all of a sudden we were told there's no bullet. how? the body mandated to investigate claims against the police says the security agency is not cooperating. we need the arms movement register. we need to know who which members were in a particular platoon. and for us to get that information is becoming a challenge, and to a certain level, some intimidation, even to our officers. we sought a response from the police chief about the allegations by investigators and the use of excessive force against unarmed protesters, but there's been no answer. what is problematic is the culture of policing. rather than de—escalating conversations or essentially

facilitating peaceful protests. what we've seen, essentially, is an attempt to try and block peaceful protest, and that's where things break down. it's given protesters more reasons to go out to the streets, and they try everything they can to make their voice heard. the strategy the protesters have used is to try and come into town from all directions, and therefore the tear gas keeps going off in different directions. if anything, this does not dampen the spirit of the protesters. it fuels them. the anger on the streets is rising. what began as protests against proposed tax hikes have now evolved into demands for reforms in government, including the security agencies. the protesters want change. they demand for justice for their fallen compatriots and an end to impunity. anne soy, bbc news, nairobi. more than 200 people are reported to have been killed by a landslide in a remote area of southern ethiopia.

officials say, the disaster took place on monday following heavy rains in the mountainous gofa zone. search operations are underway, but early images show residents in the isolated area searching for survivors using shovels and their bare hands. illinois state police have released bodycam footage showing the moments that led to the fatal shooting of a woman in her home. sonya massey had called 911 to report a suspected intruder. the officer who opened fire, sean grayson, has been sacked from the police force and charged with murder and official misconduct. he has pleaded not guilty to the charges. the french authorities have arrested a russian man they say was planning to disrupt the olympic games. the man has been charged with working for a foreign power to incite unrest in france — a crime that carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. earlier this year, president macron accused the kremlin of running a campaign to undermine the games. french president emmanuel macron has said that his outgoing government will remain in place until mid—august while france

hosts the olympic games. the move comes amid an effort by a left—wing alliance to name its candidate for prime minister. france's leftist new popular front coalition won the largest number of seats in parliament in elections earlier this month. they proposed the unknown financial crimes specialist lucie castets. stay with us here on bbc news. let's look at the latest weather prospect for africa and the middle east and it remains hot in the north—west of africa and morocco and that heat is extending into spain and portugal. temperatures widely in the 40s celsius and three showers and thunderstorms continue across central africa but on the whole things

are drier than we might normally expect and there are some big dry gaps in between the downpours. for south africa, we are between frontal systems on thursday so mainly fine in cape town and temperatures up to 17 celsius and let's take a look at the city forecast and in marrakesh, extremely hot on thursday, 1m. and temperatures dropping back a little bit but not an awful lot. in lagos we will see a bit of rain at times and johannesburg looking fine with sunshine and temperatures between 19 and 21 degrees. and we will see some rain arriving in cape town, with a bit of a cooldown. just a few showers around the shores of the caspian sea, but otherwise across the middle east it looks predominantly dry and these temperatures generally around where we should be for the time of year perhaps a touch above through the gulf but for parts of yemen and southern oman and we will see more cloud and brisk breeze but some rain there and in doha it stays hot,

dry and sunny and highs of a7.

welcome to hardtalk. i'm sarah montague.

venezuela's election this weekend could see president nicolas maduro voted out after more than a decade of his authoritarian socialist rule. at least, that's according to the polls, which put the opposition parties 20 points ahead. my guest today, maria corina machado, should have been their candidate. but as institutions loyal to the government have blocked her from standing, she backed the relatively unknown retired diplomat edmundo gonzalez to stand in her place. with the country's economy in ruins and more than a quarter of the population having fled, could the next few days change the fortunes of this oil—rich but very troubled nation?