al-jazeera. china hits back at the united states shutting down the u.s. consulate in chengdu days after beijing was ordered to close its mission in houston . i'm about this and this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up drama in the skies over syria passengers are heard on a rainy and plain as it's tailed by a u.s. fighter jet. the 1st friday prayers in istanbul is iconic highest sophia after 85 years as a museum. former

heavyweight boxing champion mike tyson is coming out of retirement for an exhibition bout against another all time great boxer. ok let's begin with the escalating tension between the united states and china beijing has ordered the u.s. to shut down its consulate in the southwestern chinese city of saying do the chinese foreign ministry says it's had to hit back at what it's calling an unjustified act look what you've. china's measure is a legitimate and necessary response to unjust acts of the u.s. it conforms with international law basic norms and international relations and customary diplomatic practices the current situation in bilateral relations is not what china wants to see and the u.s. is responsible for all of this. well on tuesday washington gave beijing 72 hours to

leave its consulate in houston texas china's called the move a violation of international law but the u.s. says it's necessary to protect american intellectual property and u.s. secretary of state mike pump aoe has now doubled down and allegations describing china's houston consulate as a hub of spying well a number of recent developments have put a strain on relations between china and the u.s. the white house has blamed china for the global coronavirus pandemic of beijing says president trump is simply trying to deflect attention from his own mishandling of the crisis trump and chinese president xi jinping have imposed steep tariffs in a series of tit for tat measures the 2 have since managed to move ahead with a so-called phase one trade deal but negotiations are now stalled and then those highway the chinese tech giants been severely restricted in the key u.s. market and the u.s. is convinced other countries dubonnet to the united states also wants to extradite

one of hallways top executives from canada. well i know it's high and advises the chinese government on political and economic affairs and he says trump is manufacturing a crisis to boost his chances of re-election. at this point there is a scowl chillis going on in people's mind that donald trump has about 3 more months as an act president and then 3 months when hopefully he will step down from the presidency no one's really sure about that from the chinese perspective they understand that this is all about reelection and that donald trump is trying to push their buttons trying to manufacture an incident so that he can then claim that if you don't vote for him you're not patriotic this would require him to get some sort of you know boat rams into an american voter something like that but it seems like he's really pushing that in addition to all of these things between what pompei i was saying between the actions which blindsided everybody i don't think

anybody would accept that they were about to close the houston consulate there is this issue of more boats sailing into disputed waters of the south china seas more navigation at the scene calculated in order to create an incident which donald trump thinks would be to key to his reelection it's clear that donald trump will continue with these types of actions he wants surprise he wants to get a reaction it's also very good way of taking attention away from the covert 19 deaths and infections and his part in it attorney is joining us live now from katrina this wasn't really unexpected was a because we are in this kind of tit for tat situation is where we were talking about but has such china give any indication as to why it decided to choose the chengdu u.s. consulate. it has so we've just heard from one when

bin who's a foreign ministry spokesperson in beijing he front of the press he basically reiterated the the message that was released by the form or not history earlier today on friday but he also then said that some officials working in the chung do consulate have been engaging in activities which do not accord with their identities and that china has raised this several times to the u.s. and the u.s. is aware of this when he was pushed further on exactly what he meant he didn't give any further details but quite a vague statement that we don't know if that accusation is leveled at chinese stoffel 50 or the 50 american u.s. officials who work in the tongue do office but it does give some insight as to why they've targeted that particular consulate at the moment we do know there are about 200 stopped working there and that is have quite a colorful history as well in 2012 the party secretary of of the chanting which is a big reason that both. his right hand man one legion actually fled to that

consulate in chengdu to try to seek asylum after he levels accusations against was later found guilty in china that could be one reason that wasn't mentioned by china's foreign ministry but that is what many people think of when they think of the chengdu consulate also because of its location in the southwest of china it's also considered to be quite listening post for the u.s. when it comes to any happening is the issues around tibet ocean junk so that's also possibly why it was target it's quite a significant consulate it's quite a it's one of $5.00 that's based here on them in the mainland and much larger than the other consequence of it here in ohio on for example you know it was interesting as you were mentioning there that the fact that the foreign ministry spokesman had to use the phrase that some people in the the consulate conducted activities not in line with their identities normally that's translated from diplomatic speak as basically spying and of course that brings us back to the comments that were made

by the secretary of state might pompeo who had suggested that the chinese consulate in houston had been quote a hub for spying and intellectual property theft. that's right and beijing foreign ministry have continuously denied these charges saying that they're trumped up by the truck that mislead station vi mike peo and also the chinese foreign ministry has said that this is a position that they did not want to find themselves and that there has been twisted they have been forced into taking this tit for tat action responding otherwise they might appear weak and there has been some commentary from the global times the chinese state media newspaper saying that if the u.s. response to this move by closing another chinese consulate in the u.s. china also respond in kind what union has made various comments actually as the foreign ministry spokesperson about like pompei of speech she's bigger gotten more assertive in her language responding to the us and she says that there's been

increasingly this cold war mentality that has been spread by the trunk that ministration but she says in her words that this will be as futile as an ant shaking a tree and she's also herself cold on the international community she's what she's called the peace loving people of the international community to step forward and prevent like pompei of from doing any more damage to world affairs that's good for you bring us up to date from. the pentagon has confirmed one of its fighter jets intercepted on a rainy and possibly a plane over syria it says the 15 conducted a visual inspection of the mom airplane from a safe distance to ensure it wasn't a hostile aircraft several passengers were injured in the commercial plane pilots abruptly changed all to shoot the air bus and landed safely in beirut well just on one is a research fellow at the lower institute for international policy he says this incident could worsen already strained ties between washington and tehran. yess

accusations that. are from that airline i used to ferry the just 6 support for running back forces in the region so that may well have been one of the reasons why the us side to take a close look at the aircraft to check out where there were passengers on board well it's interesting we have to see what the pentagon has and said why they sent up near craft. to look at this passenger plane where as our letter below the other passenger planes fly this route and have obtained intercept live in the past but there is a kind of heightened. tension in a relationship that is always a bit fraught and explosion at natanz nuclear facility or a range of fires at industrial plants some of which are explained by accidents others of which appear to be a bit more mysterious so there's

a sense that that something is perhaps in play that hasn't been implied before that additional pressure is being put on iran i'm not sure that those 2 are linked but the problem always is when there's a heightened. series of tensions and actions that something like this gets just adds to the a somewhat volatile mix. friday prayers are set to take place in turkey's highest fear for the 1st time in nearly 86 years dozens of people are already lining up to join the occasion president's vision heard of uncontroversially declared the highest afia a mosque after a court ruled that its conversion into a museum in the 1930 s. was illegal it was built 1500 years ago as an orthodox christian cathedral and then converted to a mosque and then into a museum and of course you will lose joining us live now from istanbul just give us

some idea of what's been happening this morning. rob actually here the crowd is more than expected in istanbul governor just announced on twitter that's the area that catered for today's mass prayer every round yes sophia is over it to full and all enter points are locked down right now and no one is going to be allowed inside so the prayer area outside the mosque or a guest of reality must say is already full hundreds of thousands were expected actually what the governor's office told us a week ago was they were expecting 500000 people just to be praying outside and we know that there are bus the stores carrying people from other cities so you stumble just for this day and today inside our guest sophia at this 1000 people who are invited by the president to will be praying with the president are gone inside for the 1st time since 1934 when they are here sophia was converted by

a cabinet decision and that we know that among the invitees by the presidency there are lots of politicians foreign politicians from abroad and many leading n.g.o.s present it is again from the most the worst war here today to join this prayer of course there are some reactions like against this must pray or as the call that 19 pandemic us is still very. very critical across the world including turkey and from the minarets of sophia there are announcements to the citizens that they should maintain at the social distance they should be wearing saw the face masks and they should have the senate ties as with them but people who have been waiting to pray inside i guess sophia for many years they are very eager and they are

very excited and since the morning from the minute. it's we are hearing clear on her citations it is live and you can also probably a hear that while i'm speaking now everybody's waiting for the noon prayers it's the time when presidents are gone is going to right here and go inside to get sophia for the 1st prayer after 75 years but of course turks are very happy about this decision mainly the conservative and nationalist and the pro islamist segments of the electorate are very happy but there are reactions from the world especially the from the west mainly from greece that we will hear their reactions to day around the same times as well but for turkey it is. al to ring how to get sophia status from museum to a mosque is the has actually become a national sovereignty issue prisons are done stated before that it's our country

it's our territory and it was a most before and we are not converted from home or to get from church to our most but from a museum to a most back again rob said i know we're going to be checking in with you in the next few hours but for norm for an arson in case you want to live from istanbul thank you very much indeed still ahead and al-jazeera. to have a big convention is not the right time donald trump scraps the main republican convention in florida as the state reports its largest single day death toll from the coronavirus. from promising drugs it to landing in intensive care we'll look at a britain's bonus johnson's 1st year in power.

sunshine 3 more southern areas of europe but plenty of plants sweeping across areas to the north we have also seen and will continue to see want to 2 will thunderstorms across the areas of actually but even so sunny skies a sigh across much of southern france people enjoying the warm sunny weather and also just off the southern shores of crete people out enjoying the warm waters meanwhile in rome and the very woman days of people doing what they can to cool down using about fountain now as we go through friday there's actually a fair amount of rain working its way through all northern and central areas over today beginning to push across towards the balkans fairly cloudy elsewhere as you can see another system is waiting in the wings this is going to sweep across the u.k. and northern areas of france the low countries as we go through the 1st part of the weekend some pretty strong winds as well at the same time keeping this time which is a little bit lower not seep out across the bulk of europe clearing last across italy and more of that rain quite heavy at times pushing towards the southeast is still fine and dry sunny across much of the southwest damage wise in london we've got

want to showers like you with a system on saturday damages not too bad but it's a fairly cloudy few days ahead but where it is very warm of course is again across into rome sunny skies for the next few days and maybe my monday feeling better with a high of 29. jump into the street and julian on global community this generation will have to create its own democracy with social media on and will online be part of the debate . coming when no topic is off the table is taking on all the systemic problems that people of color have suffered not only now but for decades we are going to need to transform lives the way to see which way we do business if we're going to adapt to climate break down this street on out is the. root.

what about is it a reminder of our top stories this hour china's foreign minister has ordered the closure of the u.s. consulate in the southwestern city of chengdu that's a response to washington's order to shut the chinese consulate in houston. the pentagon has confirmed one of its fighter jets intercepted an iranian passenger plane over syria to make sure it wasn't a hostile aircraft several passengers were injured when the commercial plane changed altitude cheering the incident. friday prayers are set to take place in turkey is the u.s. fear for the 1st time in nearly 86 years last week president out of one controversially declared the harness of the last after a court ruled that its conversion into a museum had been illegal. the staggering impact of covert 1000 on the united

states shows no sign of easing the number of infections across the country has crossed 4000000 president trunks called off the main republican convention events in florida because of coronavirus fears i did jocasta reports the world's richest nation has now surpassed its 4000000 known case of coping 19 and it's feared the number will only soar what's important about that is the steamroller that it is. the acceleration that this had the rate of new cases is trending upward in 39 states with a record number of deaths reported in florida that's where president trump had planned to speak before a massive crowd at the republican national convention in august an important moment for his reelection campaign but now those events are canceled i care deeply about the people of florida and everywhere else frankly in this country and even in the

world. would be coming into the state and i don't want to do anything to upset it 143000 people have died of a corona virus in the united states and medical experts warn many more deaths are to come those numbers tend to rise about a month after an uptick in cases but president trump tried to downplay the threat saying that problems and hot spots will all work out 'd. see a lot of the country is as has no problem whatsoever trump also claims states have all the emergency supplies they could possibly need despite pleas from some doctors that life saving equipment is running out we have. because we are not anybody to think that a season of pool should live or die however when you have well he's call a mass casualty situation there are a guy who we fire one of the mates you wore in

a more efficient manner and save them last not a bit of people meanwhile the u.s. economy nears another precipice with expanded unemployment benefits expiring at the end of the month and he vixens resuming at the end of the week congress will debate yet another rescue measure in coming days castro al-jazeera washington. brazil already has the 2nd highest rate of covert $1000.00 infections in the world now people living in a slum in rio de janeiro say their health is being put at risk because of a water shortage residents of arcee high say they've had little access to water for the past 10 days 70000 people live in close quarters and the neighborhood lacks a proper sewage system and that's increasing the risk of disease the brazilian red cross and a local utility have stepped in to desist distribute supplies brazil's president had also not know who himself contracted the coronavirus says there's no way to

stop it spreading conservative in the course of the either anyone living in society exuma related or will get infected by covert 19 there's no way to avoid the death related to that in brazil from what i know nobody died from not having medical attention. the coronavirus pandemics dealt a fresh blow to bolivia's plans to restore political stability general elections have been postponed for the 2nd time this year while the virus continues to spread hospitals are being overwhelmed there is about reports. one by one vehicle then to the central cemetery lab ass the cars and vans are carrying victims of covert 19 relatives are not allowed inside the cemetery. in the sandia nation coronavirus cases have soared in recent days collapse in many hospitals and funeral services in bolivia's capital of the most remote of all the folks in the last few weeks things have collapsed we don't have coffins and the only help we're getting is with cremations families don't want to deal with the

fact this has exploded we're doing what we can. outside this hospital relatives of the victims have been forced to bring their own oxygen for family members or 40 say they have no oxygen or supplies sylvana brought her father in law to the hospital in a van the 56 year old man died in the vehicle while awaiting treatment. we were at another hospital and he turned blue and started throwing up we asked a nurse to take him out and pay attention to us then we came here with him in the car nobody is allowing us inside he just died he died in the car he was a half human he was sporty and now he is dead. a similar situation is ongoing in other cities like. bolivia was expected to hold presidential elections in september. last year the country's 1st indigenous

president it will model is resigned from office after weeks of protests over an election that international observers said was marred by irregularities since then interim president any 9 years has been leading the country 2 weeks ago she tested positive took over 19 on thursday election officials postponed the election until oct 18th the pick of the pandemic is expected to happen later this month. this electoral tribunal is asking citizens state powers political forces civil society and the media to accompany this decision to show their respect for institutions and their commitment to democracy and the sense of common good former president evo morales said on twitter postponing the elections is a mistake and then excused by the interim administration to hold on to power elections are crucial in bolivia to bring down the political tension that exists in the country since moralist up down from office but the dramatic situation caused by

the pandemic has changed priorities at least for now. i'll just see australia sending army officers to question some of the people who tested positive recovered 19 in the southern state of victoria soldiers have been ordered to go to the homes of infected people who haven't answered phone calls from authorities a lack of contact tracing slowing down efforts to contain the outbreak in the capital melbourne the state governments imposed a partial lockdown and it's not mandatory to wear a mask. it's been one year since boris johnson became prime british prime minister he took office on the promise to deliver brags that but he found himself battling the covert 19 pandemic both from within parliament and intensive care jonjo regan looks back at what's been achieved much of his 12 months. boris johnson always wanted to be prime minister and this mantra made it possible we can get breaks it done not his arrival in downing street came with ruthless

sackings all of the top jobs went to his pro bricks its supporters and bricks it was done it had split the country and the conservative party. but then within a month came the biggest crisis facing any prime minister in post-war u.k. history coded 19 toweled did johnson handle it certainly has a lot of question marks around it there's a widespread acceptance and probably thinking government that the u.k. maybe looks down too late and he's been slow to come out of that before the virus struck johnson was absent from 5 crises briefings i'm shaking hands can decide that i was at a hospital the other night i think the review the record if you create a virus a patient's life you can deliver a body temperature. yet the prime minister himself became a coded victim narrowly escaping death polls show how much of the public sympathy for his plight waned rapidly it was reaction to blunders costing thousands of lives

such as frontline health workers without protective gear and no attempts to protect the elderly in nursing homes. add to that johnson's refusal to sack chief advisor dominic cummings have broken lock down rules. talks over a trade deal with the you a stalled and johnson refuses to break his promise not to extend talks into the new year is certainly a very few ultras if you like to believe in what they say is a clean break has been best for the british colony in the long term there's also the brics that referendum in 2016 taking center stage in another major issue facing johnson and his government johnson's government is accused of refusing to investigate what the report called successful russian interference in u.k. democracy like to watch out for this man here starmer took pile on the pressure is

the new leader of the labor opposition party he's leading in the polls and many in his party see him as a serious threat john jay regan al-jazeera russian prosecutors are inspecting a facility they're supposed to be treating a toxic chemical leak from one abandoned mine in the ural mountains images of large scale environmental damage were viral on social media last week. reports and it's more like the landscape of another planet they sticks you see in the ground who wants trees in a forest and rushes mountains and so nastily from the couple sulfide mind destroyed everything in its path. the mind has been close to 16 years but the environmental threats from it has never stopped and last week there was an outrage across russia when a bogus images of the polluted waters named by went viral forcing russian prosecutors to investigate. this lake is near the mine

a mixture of water and acid flow from the old mine and right into here that's why it's this color and accident in 1997 caused the mind to floods and it hasn't stopped leaking a toxic mix of a since. a so furious reaction is taking place here the acid is continuing to burn everything in the area the soil the trees the grass and fish to all these heavy metals are soluble and shouldn't be in the water. and this was announced 10 years ago the local prosecutor's office revealed a high concentration of pollutants in the water a special reservoir was built to contain and filter the water leaking from the mine but those living nearby say is has had little effect because he previously there was a variety of fish in this like but no this is all we have for. sure how can this not be poison all these acids going into the river there's no fish left there's nothing there. or were all the way to the reservoir the entire bosom is

covered clearly not a single plant grew there. it was a she said the anger over the mine comes after a major oil spill in the arctic circle forced russian president vladimir putin to declare a state of emergency so. he accused local authorities of not informing moscow of the disaster in may when 20000 tonnes of diesel leaked from a power plant in order it's. already one of the most polluted cities in the world its mayor resigned on monday the design also has renewed public debate over the lack of government action against those responsible it says that goes on it's the environment that continues to suffer sort of. al-jazeera. when the heavyweight boxing champion mike tyson is coming out of retirement. the 54 year old's been interim inquiry since teased for his with clips on social

media has agreed to fight lloyd jones jr in an 8 run exhibition bout in september tyson hasn't fought since 2005. human being than i meant to be. doing and i'm going to be the one behind. anyway no. one. walks in the pool for. the dominate. this leaves this battle. on for you make it he. saw try to be a risky yes. this is a disease with these are the top stories china's foreign minister has ordered the closure of the u.s. consulate in the southwestern city of chengdu it's

a response to washington's order to shut the chinese consulate in houston but what you look what you want china's measure is a legitimate and necessary response to unjust acts of the us it conforms with international law basic norms and international relations and customary diplomatic practices the current situation in bilateral relations is not what china wants to see and the u.s. is responsible for all of this between e.u. has more from more han. we've just heard from one when bin who is a foreign ministry spokesperson in beijing he fronted the press he basically reiterated the the message that was released by the foreign foreign ministry earlier today on friday but he also then said that some officials working in the chengdu consulate had been engaging in activities which do not call the identities and that china has raised this several times with the u.s. and the u.s. is aware of this when he was pushed further on exactly what he meant he didn't give

anything to the details the pentagon has confirmed one of its fighter jets into septa on the arabian passenger plane over syria it says the f. 15 conducted a visual inspection of the mahaan airplane from a safe distance to ensure it wasn't a hostile aircraft landed safely in beirut. friday prayers had to take place in turkey's highest sophia for the 1st time in nearly 86 years last week president out of one declared the highest afia a mosque after a court ruled its conversion into a museum had been illegal. and u.s. president donald trump has canceled the main the public in particular venture in june to be held in florida next month because of the corona virus that the state has been one of the worst affected by the pandemic those are the headlines coming next it's the street reporting in the field means i often get to witness not just news is breaking but also history as it's unfolding crossing the hungry to read

what they might be covering politics and laxer on my covering protests. but what's most important to me is talking to people understanding what they are going through so that i can convey the headlines in the most human way possible. we believe everyone has a story worth hearing. hey they're welcome to the stream home edition i'm josh rushing sitting in for the irreplaceable to me ok and i'm coming to you from my home today in fairfax virginia and i have a question for you well 1st let's talk about you're watching this on you tube look over here heat up box right there that's actually a live you tube chat and we have a stream producer there now waiting for your comments in your questions to get them to me and i can get into the panelist during the show so i hope that you engage here in the.