in successful. talk. starts july 27th. this is the news live from poland the start of a new era for is the highest official. here for. the 1st time in more than 80 years the building opens for muslim friday prayers we have the latest on president other once controversial decision to change the world famous monument back into a mosque also on the program china orders the closure of america's consulates in

the southwestern city of chengdu retaliation to be ordered closure of china's consulate in houston. i'm phil gayle welcome to the program to the highest the fia has hosted muslim friday prayers for the 1st time in more than 1000 years based on both landmark was built 1500 years ago as a christian cathedral before becoming a mosque and then a museum that 2 weeks ago president urged one issued a controversial decree returning it to use as a mascot of the court after a court a no that's museum status. prayers led by a president on a friday that will become unforgettable in turkey thousands of muslims gathered in

worship for the 1st time in 86 years. oh the iconic buildings journey through time from orthodox christian cathedral to muslim mosque to museum for many here and historic wrong has been righted. but no one is young and don't know i'm not a town. we have been waiting for higher sophia to open as a mosque for decades for decades we said that the chains will break and highest of here will reopen the young men that must find it remain to museum this kind of atmosphere would not have been possible it doesn't mean much for the people abroad and i think the important thing is what the people of turkey want were happy. but everyone should critics in turkey see the conversion as a political ploy to score points with his conservative base. and the move has

sparked dismay among christian leaders and some western countries that this one time symbol of christian and muslim unity may become a source of religious divide joe let's go. 'd straight to istanbul then where we joined correspondent dorian jones welcome dorian we know this is a decision close to the president's heart but what do you think is it more likely to have been motivated by religion or politics. well both of the president recently made clear that this was a lifelong dream to convert the ira so fear back to a mosque but given the fact that it's taken him nearly 20 years in power to to actually do this it does smell politics this comes at a time when he's ruling a k parties at record lows in the opinion polls here by the economic woes a country suffering because of covert 19 and the choreography of today's event all pointed to galvanizing his religious and nationalist voting base. before the friday

prayers recited to a koran wearing an islamic skullcap images broadcast all across the country and that he the friday prayers some cells were given by the head of turkey's religious authority and the man was carrying a sword now that's a symbol of the conquest of stamboul by thought he met a conqueror he's an iconic figure not only for the religious but also for turkish nationalists and for all the ceremonies today useful repeated references to maybe the conqueror seen as an icon for the nationalists and thousands and thousands of supporters of the one came from all across the country a rallying point to take part in these ceremonies today so it's very much i heard one seeking to galvanize he's base and prevent a further hemorrhaging of support of his party and so when what does this tell us then about the current religious and political climate. well i think for support of the secular state this will be a very dark day the ira software in many ways is the most important symbol of

turkey's conversion to a secular state by the founder of secularism in turkey mr for kemal ataturk been seen as so symbolically important and the fact that it has gone well critics say it's part of a wider trend of undermining secularism within the country now that's a charge denied by the government but if you look at wider society the change there's a different story the government is increasingly struggling to fill these religious schools which it is massively expanded in recent years and recent studies do indicate that the young are increasingly moving away from religion and that is hank i think a fact why there were the main opposition the secular party didn't choose to pick a fight over the conversion of the ice off here they are focusing on the economy there they see old one is weak and they see a chance of finally removing him from power big question is now what desire to want to next if he cannot move the gender away from the economy and the fear is that there will be more controversial and unpredictable steps taken by one in the coming years. corresponded to door in jersey in istanbul thank you.

china has given the united states 72 hours to leave its consulates in the southwestern city of chengdu the move comes after washington ordered beijing to close its diplomatic mission in houston texas early this week relations between the 2 countries are at the lowest point for 40 is. it was less a question of if china would retaliate but rather how and the answer is the u.s. has been told to close its conscience unchaining to raising the stakes yet further and this diplomatic standoff. to me the current situation in china u.s. relations is not what china wants and the u.s. is completely responsible for all of this. all of this includes the u.s. imposing sanctions on communist party officials and companies linked to the mass detention of weaker and ordering china to shut its mission in houston citing concerns about. the clear out is under way the president even floated the potential

to cut diplomatic ties completely. as far as closing additional embassies it's always possible that marks the biggest fall out since richard nixon renewed relations in the seventy's when he extended the 100 friendship. all the more significant then that the u.s. secretary of state would head to the former republican president library to all but declare a new cold war with the c.c.p. the kind of engagement we've been pursuing the kind of change inside of china the president nixon had hoped to induce. the truth is that our policies and those of other free nations resurrected china's failing economy only to see beijing bite the international hands that were feeding it. we open our arms to chinese citizens only to see the chinese communist party support our free and open society. back in 2017

. when donald trump and she. occasionally sparred over trade no they're even farther apart it may be a long time before they're ruling out the red carpet for each other again. debut correspondent stephanie saban's in washington d.c. has more welcome stephanie how's washington reacting to this chinese retaliation you know washington is kind of not impressed they expected this to happen of course tit for tat from the chinese after giving the chinese 72 hours and a deadline to close their use and consulate and just one thing the president of course misspoke there's not many embassies chinese embassies or any embassies in the united states is just one embassy but many consulates and i think the administration is absolutely prepared to actually go a step further that just arrested actually a chinese researcher which who is hiding a female researcher who is hiding in the san francisco consulates of china and she

will have her 1st court dates today so not impressed by the chinese and the ultimatum to close the u.s. consulate in china dong and let's see where this all will end up but is there a strategy behind the white house a sudden escalation of tensions in this already fractious relationship. i am not sure what the strategy is here when it comes to the timing i can tell you that there is of course suspicion that this is politically motivated by the trump administration because of course the president portrays himself and now recently as the law 'd and order 'd president and as a strongman inside the united states as well as outside the united states but the secretary of state tom peo was just in europe trying to push even allies to stake a harder stance against china this is also geopolitical and used to teach of

reasons of course with what is going on in the south china sea and traits not to forget i think. as you said correctly in the piece relations are really in the basements or on more or less really worst point and it's a potentially can only get better from here strategy long term by the white house i'm not aware of any. concerns and washington thank you. we'll take a look at some of the other stories making news around the world starting in germany which is offering all travelers returning from abroad free coronavirus testing to guard against a 2nd wave of infections on the spot testing will be available at ports and airports for people be turning from high risk areas. to better chicago has ordered the removal of 2 statues of christopher columbus' until further notice the overnight move came a week after protesters tried to talk to one of the figures that lori life it said

there would be a review of the appropriateness of all of the city's monuments. goldman sachs has agreed to nearly $4000000000.00 settlement with malaysia over a corruption scandal prosecutors allege the bank arranged the sales for the one m. de be softened well found that a large malaysia's former leader in the g brazil to steal billions the verdict in his 1st trial of the affair is expected in the coming days. does the staff walked out of hungary's top independent news site in protest of the removal of its editor in chief 3 editors and about 70 other journalists to index down h.q. and in their resignations in a statement they condemned wednesday's dismissal of south bokes duel as a vert attempt to put political pressure on the portal. the united nations is warning that are breasting oil tanker in the red seas threaten to

become an environmental disaster the 45 year old vastly stocked with more than a 1000000 barrels of crude oil and is floating off the coast of yemen the ships deteriorating and experts are warning of a potentially catastrophic oil spill yemen's ongoing civil war is complicating efforts to extract the oil from the ship. a cruellest ship with explosive cargo is docked off the coast of yemen this is the only current image of the ailing tanker at any moment it could fall apart potentially spilling $1200000.00 barrels of oil into the red sea. that would cause a natural disaster according to u.n. coordinator lisa grande. fishing capacity in the fishing villages. and. environment of the roads. many years. f. as it was safer has not been properly maintained since the beginning of the war in

yemen 5 years ago the cables and valves are rusted and the tanker is leaking for the past 2 years the united nations has asked for a team of experts to be allowed to go on board but permission from the warring parties is pending they are arguing over who gets the profits after the oil on board is sold the north of yemen is controlled by the who the rebels and this tanker lies within the region they control the oil minister blames an alliance led by saudi arabia for the blockade of the mouth of the how do you know if our maintenance teams attempt to reach the tanker fighter jets will fly over them and attack that's a big problem. an oil spill would also wash up on the shores of who died in a port which is the lifeline for millions of people in northern yemen who are suffering hardship and hunger and are in urgent need of aid not to russia the discovery of some big bones a group of reindeer herd s.s.

uncover the remains of an ancient woolly mammoth at a lake in siberia russian scientists and i working to retrieve the rest of the skeleton which appears remarkably well preserved. constantine to d.b. hadn't expected this he set out to catch fish but instead the fisherman on the peninsula in syberia put something quite different out. till i was talking on a skull the whole day from morning till evening then i started poking around in the ground with the stick and i saw more bones. these bones turned out to be quite a sensation they were the remains of a woolly mammoth this species has been largely extinct for over 10000 years the mammoths were larger than today's elephants and weighed up to 5 tons researchers were quickly called in and recovered several more bones pieces of a prehistoric puzzle for more than a decade no one in this region has discovered such a well preserved mammoth on the points of it we don't even know yet what else is in

the water there are definitely more remains but we're not yet sure whether it's an entire or partial skeleton by now in the next few days scientists plan to bring special tools to this remote region in the north of russia they hope that in the mud at the bottom of the lake they will find more mammoth remains. this is the news of life from birth in our dr phil series is up but next week that business i'll be about at the top of the. combating the corona pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning. background information and news. hour corona. 19 special next on d w. klosters from nigeria you know that's what money would stuns.

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