50 w. news live from berlin security forces say that they have freed a german woman kidnapped by militants in iraq now hello to me this works as an art cheerleader in baghdad and had been missing since tuesday her abduction house calls to long in the capital. also coming up china orders the closure of the u.s. consulate in the southwestern city of chengdu the move comes after the u.s. told the chinese to shut their consulate in houston after u.s. president donald trump cancels the republican party's convention main event in

florida the president made the surprise announcement as florida struggles to contain a spike in corona virus infections and the number of cases in the u.s. taxes $4000000.00 plus after nearly 90 years as the museum istanbul's highest sophia opens today for muslim prayers we have the latest on president barrack a long controversial decision to change the status of the world's famous monument. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program we begin with some breaking news to the spokesperson for the iraqi armed forces has said on twitter about the military has freed german art curator helen may have s. who was kidnapped by militants earlier this week the official said that she was rescued on. the outskirts of baghdad this morning 5 days after she was abducted by

gunmen outside of her office in the capital now the german national is a well known figure in baghdad where she runs an arts program for young iraqis she's also known as an outspoken critic of the government it remains unclear who was behind the kidnapping. let's get the latest on this developing story our correspondent thomas farrow is standing by for us thomas do we have confirmation that she has indeed been released. this was also confirmed by an activist who is a friend of the curator that's at least according to sources and we've been trying to get that confirmation also from the german government they are still not confirming this publicly one reaction that we did that already come from the state minister for international culture at the german foreign minister or the foreign ministry michel minta failing who spoke of great relief this news and also praised

the work of the crisis team that was created specifically to deal with this abduction of the german foreign ministry but again we're still waiting for more information from german authorities regarding this release and you're on the story for us you'll be following it as it comes in thomas sparrow thank you so much for your reporting. in the meantime let's turn to some other news now china has ordered the u.s. to close one of its consulates in a tit for tat fratelli ation the foreign ministry has given officials 72 hours to leave the consulate in the southwestern city of chengdu it comes after washington told beijing to shut its diplomatic mission in houston texas earlier this week on tuesday the u.s. accused 2 chinese nationals of attempting to steal clothes 1000 eckstein research relations between the powers are at their lowest in 40 years. and

journalist mathias bolinger is standing by for us with the view from beijing mathias what more can you tell us. that's pretty much what we know china has ordered the closure of the consulate in chengdu this is one of 5 consulates the u.s. has in the chinese mainland and this was expected 2 days ago the u.s. surprised china by ordering the closure of the consulate in houston and this is now the response that china has 2 days later for its part the united states says that that was due to concerns regarding intellectual property that a close that consulate china has promised retaliation since earlier in the week why did it choose the consulate in chengdu specifically. seems to be the most reciprocal move that they can could take chengdu is covering

a big vast region in western china it's an important populous part of china however it is not where most u.s. businesses are if so it's pretty much comparable to euston which covers of course an important region of the u.s. but is not as important as new york san francisco. the equivalents would be acquiring joe and shanghai for that letter so should do is pretty much a classical tit for tat move and as you have already said how serious is this escalation mathias for relations between beijing and washington. this is of course an escalation this this disclosure in the 1st place of the use consulate is a massive escalation one that nobody expected china seems to have been taken by surprise by this what we've seen that day is that suddenly news were emerging that

they were going burning documents in the consulate and nobody knew why and then it was china that hard to confident that it was ordered to close the consulate while the u.s. while it was night in the u.s. and nobody had communicated anything this through this move by china was widely expected it is recent reciprocal so that this is not a further escalation but it leaves the tensions between the u.s. and china where they were the relationship is at an all time low since the 2 countries have developed diplomatic relations in the and of the 1970 s. mathias bollinger in beijing thank you. the markets in asia reacted quickly to the latest escalation stocks in shanghai dropped more than 3 percent on friday while the hang seng index in hong kong is currently down by just over 2 percent

let's get more on the market action and bring in financial correspondent chelsea delaney healthy we know the european markets opening how are they reacting now. so the dax just opened here in frankfurt it's down about 1.5 per cent and we're also seeing other european markets sell off as well so stocks here are definitely following this fearful move that was predominant in asian markets we also are seeing a big increase in these so-called safe haven assets so gold which has already been rising a lot there out there coronavirus prices it's now it's getting close to an all time highs so definitely something and markets today in some sense this is a bit of a turn to the status quo for investors though if you remember for the past several years china u.s.

trade tensions have been the dominant theme and markets really took a back seat as the krona virus pandemic began to spread but this is now becoming a major concern and a major driver for markets and the trade relationship so important not only between the u.s. and china but also between european countries and its importance for the global economy given what are the economic risks of this escalation. there are certainly major economic risks china and the united states are 2 biggest economies in the world so any any impact we see on those economies does tend to ripple out and have severe consequences for the rest of the world we saw this repeatedly during the trade war of the past several years whenever there were tariffs being imposed on china the united states this impacted europe this impacted emerging markets so if there is more economic damage from the escalation in these tensions that will be felt by the rest of the world as well chosen to lenny and

frank thank you. and now let's turn to some of the latest developments in the corona virus pandemic the number of cases in the u.s. has passed the 4000000 mark the country accounts for more than a quarter of global infections the most anywhere in the world australia has reintroduced restrictions in its most populous state new south wales it comes after new clusters of infections emerged in the state's capital sydney in recent days and the red cross has warned of a new wave of mass migration caused by the pandemic the charity says that the economic effects of the crisis could force people to move once borders reopen. the us president donald trump has canceled plans for a large scale republican national convention in florida next month because of the pandemic the 4 night celebration was expected to draw some 10000 people to mark

trump's formal nomination as the party's candidate for the november election the decision to call off the events comes as the u.s. surpasses $4000000.00 coronavirus cases. a tough decision for a president who loves nothing more than a crowd donald trump canceled the republican convention in florida i made surging coronavirus cases across the state i looked at my team and i said the timing for this event is not right just not right with what's happened recently the flare up in florida to have a big convention is not the right time. it's really something that for me i have to protect the american people that's what i've always done that's what i always will do that's what i'm about says it in a significant change in rhetoric since his rally in tulsa which saw thousands pack

into an arena trump stressed the issue of safety looking forward to the virus's epi center continues to migrate across the country from l.a. hotspots like new york now hitting other densely populated states like florida hod . thursday mocked a record high for the states with more than 170 deaths and 10000 new infections some hospitals are reaching a tipping point this hospital in miami is that full capacity some of the stuff also contract with the virus. it's unpredictable so we've learned about. what it's like to be faced with something that we don't know anything about if you think about a lot of other medical illnesses we know about it we've studied how to treat it we can expand our treatment of this really came out of nowhere in our. last florida

trump 2 he's facing an uphill battle according to opinion polls. amid criticism over his handling of the pandemic in an election year it could be enough to cost him the tough job. and the standoff between protesters and federal police shows no sign of abating in the u.s. city of portland protesters supporting the black lives matter movement have objected to the presence of federal officers sent by us president donald trump police have regularly fired tear gas at protesters who have been described as agitators and anarchists by trump portland's mayor says that the officers are making the protests worse trump said that he will send federal police to other u.s. cities in an effort to crack down on crime or u.s. bureau chief u.s. poll sent us this update from one of those cities chicago. president donald trump has just announced that zeros and federal agents to the city of chicago which is

true this is one of the murder capitals of the united states but the people here do not want federal agents to take care of the problems or anything they want federal funding for their schools where here in the middle of a protest is led mainly by young people and as for now we haven't seen any federal agents and the protests turns out to be more like a 3 party no no while in this crash between the police and the protesters. and that was you know speaking with us earlier let's bring in now taylor millard correspondent at n.b.c. news from 1st some more on the story so we know that trump is calling this operation legend what's next. well it's going to be a few weeks before federal agents and in chicago and albuquerque they may end up and sit in seattle a little bit sooner one thing the f.b.i. says is the agents going to chicago and albuquerque will be focusing on gun

violence not protesters or undocumented immigrants with seattle they are supposed to be protecting federal buildings if needed a little bit similar to what's going on in portland however they are on standby per both the federal and local governments and it must be noted these are federal agents being sent to democratically run cities in the united states how much of this is a political move. it's possible after all politics is politics especially in the united states however what it really appears is the situations are supposed to be different leads and that's what all of the politicians are say with portland it involves 2 blocks of protest at the federal courthouse while chicago and albuquerque allegedly involved looking for suspects in crimes it

could be different if mass protests break out in chicago in albuquerque but it really depends on their response one thing which should be pointed out is the sheriff of the county around albuquerque sheriff manikin salis who is a democrat actually says he supports the agents coming to the area because it's good for crime fighting albuquerque police as well as the mayor appear all right with the agents coming as well due to the high crime which is going on as well as a low police staffing is politics a factor of course politics could be a factor but to right now what everybody is saying is they're just there to keep the peace and try to keep high crimes and more crime happening so so a range of views on this move tell us you know these these cities are pockets so how is the broader public and specifically trump supporters likely to view this move as we move toward the november election. well when it comes to trump

supporters they're going to be in favor of this after all this is a president who ran on law and order and this is running on law and order again if you look at his statements in the press if you look at the comments or the commercials he has put out they are definitely commercial saying that he is going to keep america safe that he is going to keep what he calls violent and arcus an agitator is from running amok on the streets i get that's the rhetoric he's using whether it's true or not depends on the people who you talk to some protesters have said they are interested in just raising awareness about issues portland actually had a discussion today where the in double a.c.p. said they want to make sure people are focused on black lives matters not other issues so trump supporters are more than likely going to be in favor of this and the more libertarian bent ones may be more concerned because again it is federal

agents without the request of local and state governments going into areas when it comes to what democrats most democrats are obviously not going to be in favor of it those skeptical of higher law enforcement and also skeptical of trump's motives are not going to support these measures regardless of political stripes tell miller in dallas texas thank you thank you. a quick check of some other stories making news around the world and us at 15 fighter jet that flew close to an iranian passenger plane was at a safe distance according to u.s. officials but iranian sources say that the mohan air flight was forced to descend quickly to avoid a collision injuring some passengers the plane landed safely but the incident is likely to increase tension between the u.s. and iran. protesters in israel have been keeping up the pressure on prime minister benjamin netanyahu for what they see as his government's in this handling of the

coronavirus crisis israel has just recorded more than 2000 new cases in one day. and if he'll be as prime minister has hailed the early filling of the massive dam in the blue nile river as historic the announcement came as he said that his country had reached a major common understanding with sudan and egypt over the controversial project. is dumbos highest sophia will host muslim friday prayers later today the 1st such service since the building was converted into a museum more than 80 years ago originally ache a cathedral it has stood at the heart of istanbul for 1500 years its recent conversion back to a mosque triggered an outcry. has this report. the highest the fear is istanbul's landmark. it symbolizes the byzantine the ottoman as

well as the turkish period. the architecture is so marvelous that the old byzantines believed that the dome was held by god himself the beauty of their cover that little mark but it also marked other this was young a score to show knows everything about the how do you feel for 20 years he's been guiding tourists to the world heritage site and when he talks about it he is still amazed every time. but right now everything is different 1st the museum closed due to the coronavirus and then the museum was suddenly no longer a museum. because president projectile bad one turned the heaviest of fear back into a mosque been a show so good as a christian citizen of this country it saddens me but i'm trying to stay calm as a mosque the highest of fear will still be open for visitors they can even enter free of charge in the future but the rules will probably change that they give you

short notice is give a shit load of all which. visitors will now only be permitted outside prayer times was a case and i can see the testify that the i.a.s. of fear was the most important church of christianity for centuries will be covered with curtains during worship. and the best and biggest decision ever made for turkey. and it's great news for the entire muslim world which we've been longing for this for more than 80 years. troops who were going to be can see these days thanks to our president for this decision that many people here are happy that they had us a few years now in moscow again but there's also a lot of criticism the european union has called the decision regrettable the u.s. a disappointment pope francis said he was very distressed and unesco wants to

review the hagia sophia status as a world heritage site. criticism does not only come from abroad like yourself that some people in istanbul consider the hagia sophia decision to be a political maneuver by out. there dr already have enough mosques in istanbul we don't need another one i think this has clearly been a political decision. to make us wonder if you just do that to distract people from the actual problems in this country economic crisis and high inflation he was and is all about i also feel misled how he is a fear is a museum because i am absolutely against making it a mosque because istanbul is home to many religious beliefs but if she hears. a tourist guide young his quarters full for example belongs to the greek orthodox minority in turkey people in his charge see themselves as descendants of the

byzantines who built the heaviest of yet in the 6th century for them it's part of their identity. but younis is reluctant to voice criticism he says his community has experienced many setbacks and yet they've always managed to move on. nationalists of course now celebrate the highest afia decision as a victory. because because because they're a very small community they don't hear us. in a country with more than 80000000 people it's not easy to make a few 1000 voices heard which means. sissy chicks be a ticket that alicia nearly $4000000.00 people visited the obvious of fear last year. and john is quote a shallow hopes that he can continue to show this monument to as many tourists as possible because for him regardless of its status it remains the most beautiful landmark he stumbled. into our correspondent you leon who you heard there also

spoke with a prominent nobel prize winning novelist orhan pamuk it's been critical of the decision to turn the highest sophia back into a mosque. or one part of the great i associate here in istanbul a museum for the past 86 years part of you know schools world heritage. is now a mosque again and will echo with muslim prayers how does that make you feel what's been going through your mind in recent days in 1030 for the founder of the public the great kemel or to convert that scene sophia or i or sophia job me to it museum why didn't you do that he wanted to say to the modern especially was the new world that this is a great use to be a great greek orthodox architecture biggest greek cathedral a whole now i want to make it that look into

a museum saying to the rest of the world that we turks are secure we want to impose french laith it to our state and be part of the big european culture and civilization that was the decision he made now they are on bullying that we have yet to feel as hugely important for muslims and christians are like as a museum as you mentioned it was a secular space so what does the decision that turkish ship president's decision to turn it. backing to a mosque means for tackling it simply means that we don't respect camelot or to secure that is him anymore we want to be purple or we want to be purple it's we want to play around with popular islam and say to the rest of the world that we are not not very happy with the way this is not

a message that i like i am critical of it but i'm soo prized by the fact that opposition here is not challenging it's why because they are acting and thinking that this is a very popular decision unfortunately it is a popular decision and braced by turkish people and the fate of st sophia is should be given by turkish people but i am also at 30 citizen and i am like many millions of people who are secular i am against this but unfortunately our voices are not heard so why are people who are unhappy with this decision not speaking up one is in they are not raising their voices because that is not free speech in turkey to challenge this they're also unfortunately afraid of saying this is jim a lot of troops are circular tradition please let's not change it this is important

in the sense that turkish nation is this thing from this is different this thing from other muslim nations and by the fact that we are sick of her and the rest of the world knows this every single toke even if they if it was if there was a thing for our capital the ruling party islamist party are secretly open the product to be different than other muslim nations saying that like europeans we are secular and this is. that origen not if you or turkey know they're taking away that pride all being bought moslem and sickened or similar to that was here my luck a kook's project and that was a nobel prize winning novelist or hong kong speaking with are you leon a short while ago a quick reminder of our top story before we go security forces have said that they have freed a german woman kidnapped by militants in iraq helen mavis works as an art curator

in baghdad and has been missing since tuesday. so fake it was the only. dot com you can also follow us on twitter and instagram at news i'm sarah kelly in berlin thank you so much for joining us.

to the point of strong opinions clear positions of international perspective such as. after 4 nights of heated negotiation the leaders reached agreement on a 750000000000 euro recovery package it's being hailed as historic in principle

will it prove so in practice i find out i took a poll. to the point. next took on a $2.00. you know globalized world. where everything is connected. all it takes is a scorched earth to set things in motion. local hero show how their ideas can change the world. global 3000. in 60 minutes on t w. i was issued when i arrived here i slept with a single people in a room. it was hard i was sure that. i even got white hair.

learning benjamin language and not a lot this keeps me and could help us to maybe to interact with the place you want to do their story in migrants are fighting and reliable information for margaret. it's being hailed as a pivotal moment for europe e.u. leaders agreement on a 750000000000 euro khurana recovery package after a marathon for a night. it's of heated negotiations the leaders struck a deal to provide $390000000000.00 euros in grounds and another $360.00 on low interest loans to member states hardest hit by the pandemic it will be financed by collective borrowing a paradigm shift for the e.u. will the deal hold the eurozone together or has.