this is t w news live from berlin and a start of a new era for is tom bowles highest sophia. proved wrong for the 1st time in nearly 90 years the building opens for muslim prayers we have the latest on president aaron was controversial decision to change the status of the world in this monument also coming up security forces say that they have freed a german woman kidnapped by militants in iraq elevate this works as an art curator

in baghdad and has been missing since monday production has caused alarm in the capital and 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 down their consulate in houston texas. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program is someone's highest sophia has opened for muslim friday prayers for the 1st time in more than 80 years thousands of worshippers are gathering outside of the mosque to take part in these prayers it follows a controversial decree from turkish president wretched era to want to turn the former museum back into a mosque no heir to want is scheduled to attend along with several 100 invitees originally a cathedral. the building has stood at the heart of istanbul for 1500 years.

and let's get more now we're joined by d.w. correspondent yulia han who has the view from istanbul yulia what is going on there right now at the highest sophia. well the is the friday prayer is yet to start but you can already hear some recitals from the koran he is so the general ceremony of the most scope and in ceremony has started and we are here in the area for pressmen bez but we've actually been very close to the iowa safina a little early and the whole area is stumbles historic old town is crowded with people there are thousands of people not only from istanbul but from other parts of turkey as well who came here today to be here many brought their prayer rocks

placed it on the ground and they're now waiting to participate in these 1st pray as in the highest sophia in front of it inside the iowa sophia now that it's a mosque many people here all wearing masks but many are also ignoring a social distance distancing a measure is that something i observed there's been a lot of pushing and squeezing some people of dry trying to break through security barricades here this really is a massive event the turkish government during the coronavirus pandemic as has actually avoided write such events now this is somewhat worrying from a house perspective but they do want to make sure their camera teams all over the place that this opening ceremony gets a lot of attention and you can just feel the energy there behind you many have visited the highest sophia as a museum it is a renowned unesco heritage site just walk us through what is different inside of

this highly symbolic building now that the turkish government has decided to convert the museum into a mosque. whom well there hasn't been that much time actually just 2 weeks to change the highest afia from and you see. i'm a sectarian secular space into a most a huge copper to 2 class collets cop that has been rolled out inside the us to feel as far as we know we haven't been allowed inside ourselves but a probably the biggest event was about what's going to happen to the question i can's and was a exist inside the ideas of fia islam forbids the death picture and all of animals and people and so only images of a mary jesus and christian sayings actually have to be made invisible during prayer times or ridgeley some people had suggested using laser technology to do that but that had raised concerns about whether that would be a risk to the historic structure and now they have covered these christian symbols

with a crouton but in general they're all still huge concerns about whether this change to the secular structure turning it into a religious one is actually a risk to the i.s.o. if you're a world heritage site you'll be a why this move now from president era to want to convert the highest sophia into a mosque. why now what's behind the timing well if you ask the opposition here and the critics if you ask a position here in the morning they'll probably tell you that prison edwin is instrumental law is in for political purposes popularity ratings do not look very good right now turkey has suffered the economy years suffered from the coronavirus a pandemic so the opposition here criticizes him for using this iconic building to rally support behind him to mobilize his conservative and nationalist voter base

because he knows there's just so much symbolism involved here the idea is so here for many turkish people is that the old image symbol of the muslim all too an ultimate conquest of christian constantinople and this is a this is the symbolism of the. it's using here by turning this form a museum into a monster and when just to tell our viewers you've been looking actually a live picture is streaming in there on this day the 1st day where we are seeing friday prayers taking place in the highest as it has been converted into a mosque that appears as if turkish president recha type is indeed entering at the moment you're looking at him there in the middle in your feed. the han has been live for us reporting on this historic day in turkey. thank you very much.

in the meantime let's turn to some other news today iraqi security forces say that they have freed german art curator hello mavis who was kidnapped by militants earlier this week that's according to the spokesperson for the iraqi armed forces who made the announcement on twitter a security official says that mavis was rescued on the outskirts of baghdad this morning 5 days after she was abducted by gunmen outside of her office in the capital the german national is well known 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 what is behind the kidnapping iraqi authorities say that they are investigating. as for going correspondent thomas sparrow who's on the story for us so thomas tell us a little bit more about her release and whether or not it is indeed fully confirmed . from the german perspective here in germany this hasn't been confirmed by german

officials we're still waiting to hear for example from the german foreign ministry maybe they are waiting to actually talk to her 1st before releasing any kind of information the only source that we have here in germany comes from michele moon to failing to the minister of state for international culture the german foreign ministry on social media she greeted the release and also stressed the important work of the crisis team of the german foreign ministry that actually helped to carry about this this release or at least that was working hand in hand with iraqi authorities to try and bring this about what do we know about the diplomatic efforts tell us a lot of more about those thomas because they've been under way since this abduction took place there were efforts on the on the one hand by some of her friends in fact she's seen as an important figure in the in the local arts scene but at the same time obviously this was not only a private matter it was also something that was dealt by the iraqi interior minister for example or by the german foreign ministry with this crisis team so you

can see that there was on the one hand those personal efforts by friends in fact one of our friends confirmed their release and on the other hand you have the official instances the official efforts and that's why it's important to wait and see what exactly the german foreign ministry has to say on their release thomas terrell in berlin thank you thomas. well china has ordered the united states to close one of its consulates in a tit for tat move the foreign ministry has given u.s. 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 covert 19 vaccine research relations between the powers are at their lowest in 40 years a ts bolinger is standing by for us with a view from beijing that is what war 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 to 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 us but is not as important as new york san francisco. the equivalents would be quoting joe and shanghai for the latter so should do is pretty much a classical tit for tat move 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 in 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 born burning documents in the consulate and nobody knew why and then it was china that had 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 had developed diplomatic relations in the and of the 1970 s. 90 s. bollinger in beijing thank you. u.s. president donald trump has canceled plans for a large scale republican national convention in florida next while because of the pandemic a fortnight 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 amid 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 it's 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. 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 mark right across the country from l.a.

hot spots like new york now hitting other densely populated states like florida haad. thursday mopped a record high for the state with more than 170 deaths and 10000 new infections some hospitals are reaching a tipping point and this hospital in miami is it full capacity some of the stuff also contract with the virus. it's unpredictable so we learned about. what it's like to be faced with something that we don't know anything about it if you think about a lot of other medical illnesses we know about it we've studied the know how to treat it we can expand our treatment it is this really came out of nowhere in our. black florida trump who is facing an uphill battle according to opinion polls. a

major criticism ivy's handling of the pandemic in an election year could be enough to cost him the tough job. you're watching news live from berlin don't forget there's always more on our website to have you dot com you can also follow us on social media i'm sarah kelly in berlin thanks for watching take care it's basically. a middle and i'm good welcome to the 2nd season home of. the planet on the brink of disaster we did a long interview with experts about one question if you change your book.