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Democrats Embrace Kamala Harris as Presidential Nominee to Beat Donald Trump; China Brokers Agreement Between Hamas and Fatah to End Division; Dozens Killed and Thousands Flee Amid IDF Operations; Secret Service Director Resigns Amid Security Lapse Scrutiny. Examining Stark Policy Differences Between Harris, Trump; Police Fire Tear Gas at Protestors in Kenya; Paris Battles Air Pollution to Keep Olympic Athletes Healthy. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired July 24, 2024 - 00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[00:00:34]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've got some work to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Reenergized with new enthusiasm, Democrats embrace Kamala Harris as she takes on Republican Donald Trump in the race for the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT MILLER, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: There can't be a role for a terrorist organization. Hamas has long been a terrorist organization.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Governing Gaza after the war. The U.S. says no to Hamas despite a Beijing brokered unity deal among all Palestinian factions.

After weeks of deadly turmoil in Kenya, the military is being deployed as antigovernment protesters clashed with pro-government groups in the capital Nairobi.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.

VAUSE: American voters will soon hear directly from the U.S. president on why he decided to end his bid for a second term. In a primetime national address from the Oval Office, Joe Biden is also expected to lay out his plans for his final months in office.

His decision to drop out of the 2024 race appears to have brought renewed energy and enthusiasm to Democrats with Kamala Harris now the party's presumptive presidential nominee holding her first campaign rally in the battleground state of Wisconsin. The vice president made clear she's ready to take on Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law? Or a country of chaos, fear and hate?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Harris began that speech by recognizing President Biden, who is now back at the White House, and what she called his legacy of accomplishment. Meantime, the Trump campaign has pivoted now focusing their attacks on Harris. In a call with reporters, the Republican presidential nominee criticized her record on immigration and crime, even her previous bid for the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She never even made it to Iowa. She started off, she had a little name value and came from a large place, as you know, from California and she had a little name value, and the name value didn't last long because she ended up dropping like a rock as soon as people got to know her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And the first opinion polls taken since Biden ended his election campaign shows no clear leader if a vote between Trump and Harris was held today.

The Democrats now appear to be falling in line behind Kamala Harris, who says she wants to continue uniting the party in the weeks ahead.

CNN's Kayla Tausche has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Good afternoon, Wisconsin.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vice President Kamala Harris, taking the reins of President Biden's campaign.

HARRIS: The baton is in our hands.

TAUSCHE: Her first rally as the presumptive Democratic nominee in battleground Wisconsin.

HARRIS: The path to the White House goes through Wisconsin.

TAUSCHE: Where she put a new twist on a familiar message.

HARRIS: This campaign is also about two different visions for our nation. One where we are focused on the future. The other focused on the past.

TAUSCHE: And a familiar foe.

HARRIS: We'll stop Donald Trump's extreme abortion bans.

TAUSCHE: In just two days since President Biden tapped Harris to replace him on the ticket, Harris has rallied the party at breakneck speed, raking in more than $100 million from mostly new donors, recruiting 58,000 new volunteers across the country, and racking up critical endorsements from her former staff, foreign policy experts, and prominent leaders of the party.

GOV. ROY COOPER (D), NORTH CAROLINA: I endorse Kamala Harris 100 percent for this job as president.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Vice President Harris has done a truly impressive job securing the majority of delegates needed to win the Democratic Party's nomination to be our next president of the United States.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Kamala Harris is a commonsense leader, who knows how to deliver real results.

TAUSCHE: With the delegates on board, too, the Democratic Party moving forward to make her official in a process that pledges will be open and fair and conclude by August 7th. In Wilmington, Harris helming a rebranding of Biden headquarters as Biden tells staff she's suited to finish the job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAUSCHE (on-camera): President Biden now back at the White House where he is continuing to work with advisers to craft a Wednesday primetime address where he'll talk about his decision to end a decades long political career and the work that's left to do.

[00:05:09]

Kayla Tausche, CNN, the White House.

VAUSE: To Los Angeles now and Michael Genovese, political analyst and president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University. His latest book is "The Modern Presidency: Six Debates That Define the Institution."

It's good to see you, Michael. It's been a while.

MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you so much for having me.

VAUSE: OK. Now, here's a little more from the first campaign stop for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: So, friends, we have 105 days until election day. And in that time we've got some work to do, but we're not afraid of hard work. We like hard work, don't we? (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

HARRIS: And we will win this election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: You know, the energy, the enthusiasm at that rally was in stark contrast to a campaign stop there by President Biden earlier this month, and it has been a dream start for Kamala Harris. But it doesn't change the electoral map. It doesn't change the challenges facing Democrats.

So is Harris now the top of the ticket a net positive compared to Biden?

GENOVESE: I think clearly she is -- the Democrats were demoralized with Biden and they were just treading water at best and trying to dig out of a hole. Now they are energized. They have hope. In fact, they have energy, hope, and the big deal is money. They've got a ton of money. She's been a great fundraiser in a short time. She's been and the presumptive nominee.

But I think this is her gravitas transition. She has to look presidential, sound presidential, and be presidential, and thus far she's made all the right moves. To the extent that she can continue that, it's going to be a tight race and she does change the math.

VAUSE: Yes. There's just over 100 days until the election. It's a much shorter campaign period. Does that help Harris?

GENOVESE: You know, it probably doesn't help her much because she needs to rebuild the coalition that has been split apart. The old Obama coalition -- young people, black people, women. She has to put some glue together to bind them together. Thus far, the young voters who were absolutely turned off by both candidates prior to this shake- up, if you look on social media, which is not my forte, but these things called influencers are going hog wild on social media in favor of Harris in a way that is energizing young people.

I went into class the day after she was announced and the kids were noticeably different about the race.

VAUSE: Well, former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton had this warning about what Harris can expect in the next 15 weeks. In an opinion piece for "The New York Times," she writes, in part, "Miss Harris' record and character will be distorted and disparage by a flood of disinformation and the kind of ugly prejudice we're already hearing from MAGA mouthpieces."

Another opinion piece, this one by CNN's Stephen Collinson for CNN.com, "Harris will come up against the most feral campaign machine in years. Trump is known for misogynistic and racially charged rhetoric that could turn the next few months into the most searing general election in modern memory."

If this campaign does turn into a knife fight in the gutter, what sort of impact will that have on an already divided country after the election?

GENOVESE: You know, it took Donald Trump just a few minutes to switch from being the unity candidate to being divisive candidate. And you see the Republican Party now almost in unisons using the dog whistles on race. It used to be when Obama was president Donald Trump gets to use the birther dog whistle. We knew what that meant and so did his followers. Now we're using DEI, diversity as the new dog was on race.

And it's gotten so ugly already. Today a member of the Republican House, a guy named Ogles announced that he's going to start impeachment proceedings, wants to start impeachment proceedings against Harris. So it started already. It will get uglier and uglier. The Republican insult machine led by Donald Trump will go into full force and it will be more and more divisive clearly.

VAUSE: Well, the Harris campaign is out vetting potential running mates, while over at team Trump maybe a little bit of buyer's remorse after choosing what essentially a political lightweight J.D. Vance as the vice president nominee. But from the former president Donald Trump, a robust and full throated defense of his choice for VP. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'd do the same pick. He's doing really well. He's really caught on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Well, maybe mildly enthusiastic perhaps. VP picks don't actually win elections usually, but they can lose them. Right?

GENOVESE: Well, I don't know if they can lose them, but they can certainly hurt in some key states. And J.D Vance, despite all the great fanfare, gave a pretty lackluster convention speech.

[00:10:01]

And his speech just today was bland and couldn't get the crowd roaring, couldn't get them enthusiastic. So he has been underwhelming so far. But again, he's a novice, he's a newcomer to politics.

VAUSE: Yes. And I guess he will be up against what looks to be an experienced governor perhaps, who's had, you know, years of executive experience so that matchup will be interesting to watch.

Michael Genovese, thanks for being with us.

GENOVESE: Always nice to be with you, John.

VAUSE: Thank you.

Israel's prime minister will address a joint meeting of U.S. Congress during his first visit to Washington in four years. At home, though, he is under growing pressure to strike a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza. Families of the hostages being held by Hamas are demanding he signed a deal which is on offer.

Netanyahu met with the families of hostages in Washington with the father of one hostage saying he was disappointed the meeting, quote, "was not a dialogue." The prime minister, though, says he is determined to bring all the hostages home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): This is an important visit that will give us an opportunity to bring to the representatives of the American people, as well as the American people, the importance of their support in the efforts we are making together with them to bring about the release of all the hostages both the living and the dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Israel's response to negotiations expected Friday, but may include 11th hour demands from Netanyahu, touching on some key sticking points.

Netanyahu will meet with U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday and Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump on Friday. Dozens of Democrats are expected to boycott the prime minister's speech to Congress as Democrats remain angry, some at least, over his handling of the war in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Hamas and rival group Fatah and more than a dozen other Palestinian factions have signed an agreement on a post-Gaza war governance plan for the region. At talks hosted by Beijing, the factions agreed the Palestine Liberation Organization is the sole representative of the Palestinian people. But China did not say what role Hamas would play as it's not part of the PLO.

There is a long history of bitter enmity between Hamas and Fatah, which dominates both the PLO and the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The two sides have tried and failed multiple times to reach an agreement to unite the two separate Palestinian territories under one government structure.

David Sanger is a CNN political and national security analyst, as well as a national security and White House correspondent for "The New York Times." His latest book is "New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West."

It's good to see you, David. Thanks for being with us.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Great to be with you.

VAUSE: OK. So I want you to listen to China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, on why this agreement, it's called the Beijing Declaration, is so significant. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) WANG YI, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): The most important consensus reached during the talks of Palestinian factions in Beijing is to achieve a grand of reconciliation and unity among the 14 factions. The core outcome is to make clear that the Palestine Liberation Organization is the sole legitimate representative of all Palestinian people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So among those 14 factions is Hamas, the militant group which controls Gaza and that's seen as, you know, a breakthrough of sorts. But this agreement does not say how or when the unity government will be formed. It's described as an initial step. There seems to be a lot of missing detail, if you like. So as is often the case with many things made in China, is this agreement not quite as good as it first appears?

SANGER: Well, as many things made in China turned out to be, it could be original life TikTok, or it could be a cheap copy like we used to see in years past. The most remarkable thing about this agreement is that the Chinese are doing it at all. They have not traditionally been peacekeepers, negotiators, or even particularly involved in these politics, much less with the Palestinians, except on the margins.

So now why are they doing this? Because they see this as a role that enables them to take over from something that the United States used to do, and by unifying the Palestinians come up with a common voice that would represent the Palestinian people.

VAUSE: Well, the secretary general from one of those 14 factions, Mustafa Barghoutti, was very optimistic about this agreement and seems to be the fact that it was brokered by Beijing is why. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI, PRESIDENT, PALESTINIAN NATIONAL INITIATIVE: We achieved a much better agreement than any agreement before because it's very practical, very detailed. It speaks about the creation of a unified leadership practically, but also because it's signed in China. And China has a very important role to play. Today is a new starting point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Yes, over the years, unity agreements between Hamas and Gaza and the ruling Fatah Party in the West Bank have come and gone.

[00:15:03]

I guess, you know, is this one likely be any different because it was actually signed in the Chinese capital?

SANGER: I don't think so necessarily, but, you know, this gets to the central question, which the Chinese didn't address, which is, are you comfortable with Hamas playing any kind of governing role here? And that's simply not in what we see. It's one thing to recognize the PLO as the one spokesperson -- one representative group of the Palestinian people.

It's another thing to say who's going to govern the space? Remember Gaza, in Gaza more than -- nearly 20 years ago we basically saw Hamas take over in an election and then turned into what it has become since. So this doesn't really tell you very much about who will govern.

VAUSE: Well, the Israeli prime minister, he's also scheduled to address Congress in the coming hours. On Tuesday, protesters staged a sit-in at the Capitol demanding Netanyahu end the war in Gaza. He'll meet Thursday with U.S. president and vice president. Notably, come Friday comes a meeting with the former president Donald Trump.

But why that meeting and how much pressure is Netanyahu under to sign a ceasefire deal and free about 100 Israeli and American hostages being held by Hamas?

SANGER: John, he was under huge pressure to get the ceasefire deal together before he gave the speech. Clearly that hasn't happened and isn't happening. And the primary reason I suspect is Hamas, but the prime minister himself has gone back and forth about whether he really supports a ceasefire, suggesting that he's still got to go after the leadership of Hamas after this is signed.

Now he hasn't said how, so we don't know how much he's invested in this deal. We don't know how quickly the deal could come together, and it's entirely possible, depending on what he says, that the deal could get scuttled. I think the White House has been working pretty closely with the Israelis to try to tone down what they fear would be the sharpest edges of that speech. But then he'll go on to see President Biden and obviously congratulate him on his time.

The fact that Biden is leaving might ease some of that tension between the two men. It'll be interesting to see what happens with vice president -- with the vice president as she is now the leading candidate. As you know, she's not had extensive experience in the Mideast, but she has been involved in some of the conversations with Netanyahu. And then he'll go to Mar-a-Lago. And of course, President Trump is his true comfort zone.

VAUSE: Good way of putting it, David. Thank you for being with us. David Sanger there, CNN political and national security analyst.

SANGER: Thank you.

VAUSE: Thank you, sir.

In southern Gaza, an Israeli ground offensive has targeted the city of Khan Younis, killing dozens of Palestinians. The IDF issued an evacuation order for parts of the city forcing thousands of war weary Palestinians to flee once again.

CNN's Nada Bashir has more, and a warning, her story contains some disturbing images.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Forced to flee once again to yet more uncertainty. Whole families carrying whatever belongings they still have. Ordered to evacuate Eastern Khan Younis by the Israeli military.

The sound of gunfire sending women and children running for safety, but there is nowhere left to take refuge.

It all happened suddenly, Mohammad Abdul-Jawad says. They told us to go to the safe area, but there is nowhere safe left in Gaza. We have to leave all our belongings in our tents. Where do we go now?

The Israeli military says it is targeting Hamas infrastructure in Khan Younis. Claiming its forces have targeted weapons storage facilities, observation posts, and underground tunnel routes in the area. As a result, civilians have been warned to move to a readjusted and more restricted humanitarian zone in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi.

But such humanitarian zones have themselves become targets in the past. And Israel's promise of safety means little to those who have already suffered so much.

I didn't want to leave, but when the warplanes and tanks started striking us, I was scared for my four children, Um Hazem says. Where should I take them now?

For some here in Gaza, there is also growing frustration with Hamas.

We've had enough. We're exhausted, Riham says. Look at what they're doing to us.

[00:20:01]

We're being destroyed. They're all hiding underground and have left us to be destroyed.

In Central Gaza, meanwhile, there is only more devastation. Wounded civilians were rushed to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital on Tuesday following a deadly strike. A familiar scene of panic and chaos in the overrun hospital, as the injured are treated on the ground and the dead are covered in makeshift shrouds.

Since Monday, Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire. A gut- wrenching figure, but only a fraction of the more than 39,000 people killed in just under 10 months of unending horror in Gaza.

Nada Bashir, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN, defiant for a day. The head of the U.S. Secret Service steps down a day after lawmakers demanded her resignation for failing to prevent the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

Also, Typhoon Gaemi growing to a monster storm in the past 24 hours, now bearing down on Taiwan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Well, the outer bands of Typhoon Gaemi are being felt by Taiwan with wind speeds up to 220 kilometers per hour. The equivalent of a category four hurricane. Gaemi could intensify further before making landfall in northern Taiwan in the hours ahead.

Businesses and schools are closed across Taiwan, as well as in the Philippines, which has also recorded heavy rain and winds. Government offices are shut down in Manila. The stock exchange is also closed. After Taiwan, Gaemi is expected to hit China's Fujian Province on Thursday before moving into other parts of Southern China.

The head of the U.S. Secret Service has resigned one day after admitting to security lapses in the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. The announcement by Kimberly Cheatle comes after a combative hearing before the House Oversight Committee, where she angered lawmakers by refusing to answer questions about the shooting.

CNN's Manu Raju has more now reporting in from Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A rare moment of bipartisan unity in the capital in the aftermath of Kimberly Cheatle, the U.S. Secret Service director, deciding to resign after encountering more than a week of really unwithering criticism over her handling of the security lapses that occurred in the assassination attempt of former president Donald Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

When she came before the House Oversight Committee just on Monday, she struggled to answer questions, refused to answer a number of questions, and that just caused --made things even worse for her politically. Democrats and joining Republican calls for her to step aside and some Republicans even pushing for her impeachment. That was what Nancy Mace, a congresswoman from South Carolina, had offered a measure to actually force an impeachment vote on the floor of the United States House by Wednesday of this week but she decided to step aside before that were to happen.

[00:25:07]

It was clear that her support was pretty much gone on Capitol Hill and within different aspects of the Biden administration as well. But I caught up with some Democrats and Republicans in the aftermath of that decision, including one congressman, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who told me that Cheatle gave him the wrong impression and probably a misleading impression about why she wasn't able to provide him with more details.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARK GREEN (R-TN): She said that the FBI had constrained her from, you know, talking to our own people because there's an active investigation. I talked to the deputy director at the FBI and he said that wasn't true.

RAJU: She was lying to you?

GREEN: Well, that was a false statement according to the FBI. You know, I don't know but according to the FBI director they do not do that. And so it's really disappointing. I mean, that's when you find out the after-action stuff. You know. You get in there and find that out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So where do they go from here? They still plan to investigate in the House. There's some talks of investigation ongoing in the Senate. There's going to be a bipartisan taskforce created with the support of the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and the Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries to investigate the security lapses. That will play out through the course of this fall. We'll see if it devolves into any sort of partisan acrimony, which is typical on Capitol Hill.

But at the moment this is a bipartisan investigation, as they say they're trying to figure out what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, and to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, convicted on 16 counts, including bribery, extortion, and wire fraud will soon be resigning from the Senate. A copy of his resignation letter obtained by CNN says he will step down August 20th. This comes a day after the Senate Ethics Committee initiated a review of the lawmaker's alleged rules violations. Menendez was convicted earlier this month on all counts in a federal corruption trial and has faced growing pressure to resign. He insists, though, he never violated his public oath of office.

When we come back, a look at Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, where the differences are and where they are not. Also ahead, CNN is on the ground in Nairobi, where hundreds of anti-government protesters tried to occupy the main airport. Police responded with tear gas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back to our viewers all around the world. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Well, it's a whole new election campaign for the White House, and that means the Trump campaign needs a new strategy. Donald Trump says he wants to debate U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris more than once but is yet to agree to any specific dates. The second debate between Trump and Joe Biden was scheduled for September on ABC. That clearly will not happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I haven't agreed to anything. I agreed to a debate with Joe Biden . But I want to debate her, and she'll be no different, because they have the same policies. I think debating is important for a presidential race. I really do. I think that you have to get -- you sort of have an obligation to debate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Meanwhile, Vice President Harris says she's not the least bit intimidated by squaring off against Trump, telling her first presidential campaign rally, she knows his type, because she's dealt with predators, fraudsters, cheaters as a former prosecutor and California state attorney general.

Well, Harris is contrasting herself in very stark terms against Donald Trump, and CNN's Tom Foreman lays out all the ways the two rivals are extremely different.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right from the get-go, it's easy to see big differences between what Kamala Harris would propose and what Donald Trump would propose.

On the economy, back in 2019, she proposed estate -- an estate tax to pay for an increase in teacher salaries, about $13,000 more per average teacher in this country, coast to coast.

And she wanted a higher corporate tax rate. Currently, it's at 21 percent. She wanted to push it up even higher than Joe Biden proposed.

All of that, leaning on the rich to pay more to make the economy work.

Donald Trump points to his track record of wages rising faster than inflation in his administration. And once again, he's promising tax cuts and raising tariffs on imported goods, which some economists say actually could cost consumers but nonetheless, many Republicans think will actually work in a positive way.

On abortion, she supports legislation to protect abortion rights nationally. She's the first sitting vice president to visit an abortion clinic.

Donald Trump promised to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2016. And once he got the right players into the Supreme Court, that's exactly what they did.

However, he opposes a national abortion ban, perhaps mindful of the fact that most Americans think it should be legal. And he favors leaving it to states to decide.

And on the border, Kamala Harris backed the bipartisan border security deal endorsed by Biden back in the winter. She's worked with countries in Central America to deter illegal immigration and oppose family separation when people are caught the border.

Trump blocked that bipartisan border security deal endorsed by Biden. Remember, the Republicans rose up against it in February and wiped it out.

And he wants to resume building the wall, which he did not complete in his first term, and closing the border and promising mass deportations.

So just a few areas, but areas in which they are substantially different from each other.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Thanks to Tom Foreman.

Now, in Kenya, six weeks of protests over plans to raise taxes have evolved into growing demands for President William Ruto to resign.

On Tuesday, police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators trying to occupy the airport.

CNN's Larry Madowo reports from the midst of these protests.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY MADOWO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We were just -- we were just interviewing people, and they're teargassing one more time. Fabs (ph), if you look here, there's an entire row of police officers coming. And they (ph) were just teargassing people in a residential neighborhood, essentially.

And they got dispersed.

(EXPLOSIONS)

MADOWO: This is a lot of explosions for a residential neighborhood. Flash bangs, tear gas, and what sound like either rubber bullets or empty rounds.

HARRISON MWANZIA, NAIROBI RESIDENT: This is a residential area, whereby you can't fire a bullet like this one. And we have kids around.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People should have humanity. A lot of people should have common sense.

MADOWO: These people are already in their homes. They're in the balconies. They can't go any further. They're off the streets and in this cul-de-sac, and police are still here.

So, I'm not sure how much further they could possibly go.

(CHANTING)

MADOWO (voice-over): These began six weeks ago as protests against the finance bill. When President Ruto did drop that, he was forced to fire his entire cabinet. Now, escalated into protests about President Ruto's own legitimacy, about corruption in his own government, about the high cost of living -- MADOWO: -- and especially more recently, about the more than 50 people that have been killed in protests since they began.

You support the young people who are protesting?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I support them, because they're helping us. Those people can talk like us. We cannot speak.

MADOWO (voice-over): The protesters didn't achieve the total shutdown they planned on. They didn't occupy the airport either, but they did keep parts of the city to a standstill.

President William Ruto has expressed frustration with how long these protests have gone on. He has declared enough is enough. But the response from the protesters appears to be --

MADOWO: -- they will determine when they call it quits.

Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[00:35:00]

VAUSE: At least 200 people are reported dead after two landslides in Southern Ethiopia. And authorities say that number could still rise.

Most were buried in the first landslide, which was caused by heavy rain. Then a second landslide on Monday killed rescuers who were there to help, digging with shovels and bare hands.

Ethiopia is in the middle of its rainy season, when landslides are common. The prime minister says federal officials have been sent to assist.

When we come back, Paris has a serious pollution problem, but it's finding ways for athletes to breathe cleaner air at the Olympics. Breathe easy, matey. We'll have the details in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Water supplies on many islands in Greece are dangerously low, just as millions of tourists are expected to arrive in the coming weeks.

The mayor of one island says hot, dry weather, driven by climate change, is drying up reservoirs, all made worse by increased demand from tourists.

For now, authorities are looking for temporary solutions like desalination. Long-term, though, recycling wastewater or tapping into underground water sources also being considered.

The Olympics opening ceremony in Paris is now in jeopardy, due to a possible strike by more than 200 dancers who are expected to perform in the opening ceremony. We're just two days away from the start of the Summer Games. And the

commencement (ph) will see hundreds of thousands of spectators gathered along the banks of the River Seine. That's where the dancers were on Monday when they stopped rehearsals to protest inequality in pay and housing conditions.

The dancers' union says negotiations are underway with event organizers, but a strike notice is still in place for Friday.

As Paris prepares for its moment in the spotlight, Olympic organizers are trying to keep athletes safe from air pollution. CNN's Derek van Dam shows us how.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): Here in the Olympic village, these air purifiers are here to help athletes breathe easier, and their inspiration comes from an often-overlooked feature of the city's skyline.

You see, athletes' performance could be in danger, because the Paris region has a serious pollution problem with over 8,000 deaths a year. with a nearby highway spewing fumes into the Olympic village, air quality experts are concerned.

JEAN-BAPTISTE RENARD, RESEARCH DIRECTOR, CNRS: It's crazy. It's totally crazy. It's not a good place to put an Olympic village. It's clear.

VAN DAM (voice-over): The engineer behind these giant vacuum cleaners says his air filters suck in polluted air and filtered out harmful particles.

JEROME GIACOMONI, CO-FOUNDER, AEROPHILE: Please, start the device, the Aero Filter, one by one.

VAN DAM: Oh, you can hear.

GIACOMONI: You breathe the same air if you were at the top of the Alps. Breathe. This is good air. You can breathe. You feel it.

VAN DAM: I feel it.

GIACOMONI: You feel it.

VAN DAM: These air filters have the ability to clean the air of the equivalent of 40 Olympic-sized swimming pools volume per hour, acting as a barrier from the adjacent highway, providing the cleanest possible air for the athletes.

VAN DAM (voice-over): The concept of purifying the air on a large scale came from a different hobby of Jerome's: hot-air ballooning.

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GIACOMONI: Let's have a flight, now. VAN DAM: A thunderstorm's coming.

GIACOMONI: Yes.

VAN DAM: Is this thing safe? Get a little wobbly.

GIACOMONI: Yes, a little bit.

VAN DAM: This is like a real-life climate lab. But on a balloon.

Now, not only is there carbon dioxide being measured by this very box right here, but we are also measuring methane, ozone, and even pollen counts.

VAN DAM (voice-over): Jerome noticed that, while his balloon was flying, it was extracting pollutants from the surrounding air.

GIACOMONI: And so all particulate matter were positively charged. Come and go straight to the balloon.

VAN DAM (voice-over): And with the balloon's visibility to over 400,000 people across the city, he could turn this into a useful tool for all Parisians.

VAN DAM: If the balloon is green, no action is required. If the balloon is orange, it's a warning to Parisians that they need to take extra precautions.

But if this balloon turns red or violet, that's when they need to take action.

VAN DAM (voice-over): Back at the Olympic village, these five filters remove at least 50 percent of air pollution, but their reach is limited to a few dozen meters. And even after the 14,000 athletes leave, they're expected to live on.

Derek van Dam, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: The Olympic torch set to be carried by someone who's no stranger to lighting one up.

U.S. rapper Snoop Dogg is set to be one of the last flame bearers before the torch reaches its final destination at the Eiffel Tower. The hip-hop legend will carry it through the Paris suburb of Saint Denis.

After that, he'll puff, puff, pass it to someone else.

The rapper says he grew up watching the Olympics and is already in France ahead of the momentous occasion. He tweeted a picture of himself with the caption, "You ready?"

So, what have the sharks off the coast of Brazil been doing? Researchers say some have tested positive for cocaine. Scientists tested 13 Brazilian Sharp-nosed Sharks in waters off Rio and found cocaine present in their tissue. Researchers chose the species, because they're small and live in water exposed to significant contaminant from human sewage.

It's unclear if cocaine is harmful to the sharks' health. Researchers plan to study other shark species in the area.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause, back with more news at the top of the hour. In the meantime, stay with us. WORLD SPORT is up after a short break. See you soon.

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