how does a virus spread. why the repairmen and then we'll. just through the topics of the weekly radio show it's called spectrum if you would like any information on the crown of virus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us at. science. for the 1st time in more than 80 years istanbul's higher saffir opens for muslim friday prayers so president obama has got what he wants but why is this so important to him i'm phil gale in berlin and this is the day.

into the we have been longing for this since we were young we have always said break the chains and always been consciously feel 6 along there was great jubilation here today cannot be described only experienced until we experienced the making of history. the little people i can't express my feelings some feelings can't be expressed russia tears of joy. we witnessed history today today's what i had just sophia returned to its roots. it was a mosque and it's a mosque again god willing it'll continue to serve the faithful. the day germany decides to provide free coronavirus testing to travelers arriving from abroad. we have decided that if you want to reach not only doe's coming from risk areas but also from elsewhere. to pay the cost of this thing for travelers.

the 1st time in more than 80 years istanbul's highest affair has opened for muslim friday prayers it follows a controversial decree is present time to turn the form of museum back into a mosque president was one of hundreds of invited guests originally a christian cathedral the building has stood at the heart of istanbul for 1500 years. president everyone personally began friday prayers with a recitation from the koran this is the 1st time muslim friday prayers have been held in the highest sophia for 86 years. just 2 weeks ago turkey's highest administrative court canceled the building status as a museum and then ordered it to be used as a mosque despite covert 1000 thousands of believers began gathering outside the

istanbul landmark last night started for us it's a symbol of islam or rather the ioseph he is symbolizes the victory of islam over christianity say you want thanks to our revered president trichet type heir to juan and more importantly i think god we can finally pray here again. of the other fellow critics say the transformation of pius a few takes the country one step further away from a secular church. and they say heir to one is using this to score points with conservative voters and distract from domestic political problems harsh criticism also came from many church figures among them pope francis and turkey's orthodox christian neighbor greece you next go is concerned whether the world cultural heritage status of the highest sophia will be endangered. well let's take a closer look at this carol here is a turkish writer and a senior fellow at the cato institute's center for global liberty and prosperity he

joins us from washington welcome to day w. i'm with your intelligence i'd like to quote you back to yourself this is your opinion piece in the new york times this week in which you said if we muslims really want to revive something from the past let's focus on the model initiated by the prophet and implemented by. means no shrine should be converted to a reconverted old village just traditions should be respected and the magnanimity of tolerance should overcome the patternist supremacism which is a lovely sentiment so now that this has happened i wonder what you think is it an islamic to convert the highest back into a mosque. thank you for your kind words and it's a pleasure to be on the show if. just the mosque and if this converted by

a secular government you know terry terry waite into a museum and it was being reverted today i would have no problem with it nobody should have any problem with it and i'm happy that you know muslims are feeling emotionally you know enriched today by praying there but the problem is i guess over here was not to be able to as a mosque was built as a christian cathedral served as a computer or that instantiates deforming lots of christians have a history there as well and in the piece and that you quoted the article i wrote for a new york times i looked into the islamic. world today on this i mean was it right to couldn't i guess oh here in the 15th century from any stomach point because some people might think that was some scheme and converted all the churches which is not true if you go to in the history of the middle east you will see that muslim conquerors did not can we were actually in many churches that's why in jerusalem there are historic churches like there are church of holy simple prayer various

sacred purposes muslims didn't touch those end because there is nothing in the koran which justifies the can reason our churches into master synagogues and there is nothing in the practice of the prophet mohammad but then most of us started to justify conversion to some extent and i explained that this was imperial policy it did not come from the koran or the prophet but imperial all of the of the time which was normal for if you will not century everybody was doing that but it's not a value that we should revive today therefore i believe that is how this sophia was being reopened the right thing to do with be to reopen for muslim worship but also a christian as well he could share a building right unfortunately that's not the movie that is dominating turkey today ok that's that's clear let's hear from the ad turkish nobel laureate or one panel. but i'm surprised by the fact that opposition here is not challenging it why

because they are acting and thinking that this is a very popular business and unfortunately if there was a popular decision stuff akio what sense do you get of the political opposition to war indeed a support for this move it is true i mean that opposition parties didn't speak strongly against some of them actually supporting the move because it isn't there is an islamic sentiment behind it and there is a national sentiment behind it also because of some of the misuses of secularism in turkey today it's not very popular to defend the secular past and again because there were some mistakes in secularism and sometimes bending headscarves which was wrong or bending islamic institutions some excesses of secularism gave a bad name to the term and i think that's why even the main opposition party can't say much but they defected there is a majority opinion in a country shouldn't be

a reason to. disregard the minority and if that logic holds its will not be good for muslims in the west or in india or in other countries that muslims have concerns that they are trying to their temples their mosques can be traced ok so what's different about thought and what do you think this move tells us about the sort of country turkey is or is becoming. turkey is certainly all is opening a new chapter there and that's been going on for 2 decades right now this cycle or past of ataturk's legacy is being sidelined to some extent an add on is opening a new chapter and again i'm somebody that who has criticised some aspects of the secular past as well because it was secular but not very liberal or democratic but unfortunately we are seeing in reverse we are seeing ahead gen want to reverse religious conservatives which used to be the underclass in the old turkey are now

becoming the new masters out on as their your savior and that is becoming the new turkey rest people like me would like to see him work through the list of turkey where secular people can be as secular they want and conservatives can but they can share the country not instead of dominating every spates in our christian minority can also feel honored and i think have a soviet should have been revived in such a spirit unfortunately that is not the spirit today there is a lot of combination of religion and nationalism and present i don't want to surfing on that but we should not forget that present out on is now even facing a position from some religious parties not on haggis ok but on other issues or like corruption or authoritarianism and i did that's precisely one reason he wanted to use a symbol as major as i guess ok right now to rally the conservatives once again behind an interesting thank you for joining us on moustapha aqil from the cato institute

thanks for having me. meanwhile president early one says he will crack down on websites and social media channels he regards as immoral is a cave parties planning new regulations that would force platforms to remove content on request at the video streaming service netflix is also under pressure it's halted production of a turkey series which was going to include a gay character as netflix was getting ready to film it was told by turkey's media regulated to cut the gay character rather than comply flex decided to drop the whole project platforms been required to hold a license to operate in turkey since late last year. from critics say this represents a new level of censorship and intolerance into the data be reporter joel doane roy has been following it's a welcome joe so let's start with the netflix decision to they see this as them

complying with turkish authorities all resisting them well some say that they're resisting because they cancel production instead of censoring it but that's a kind of self-censorship in itself and it shows that netflix is more interested in keeping its 1500000 turkish customers than picking a fight with the government netflix is regulated in turkey by the radio and television supreme council and the head of that body a few months ago warn netflix that he would not tolerate any showers that violate what he calls turkey's national values well fast forward to the pos we can netflix was getting ready to film its new production called if only and the screenwriter said that it contained a garecht a character who is described as being gay although no physical intimacy was actually to be portrayed nevertheless the screenwriter says the regulators demanded that his character be cut or they would not give the necessary permissions to film and instead of doing that netflix canceled the production entirely so it's homosexuality illegal in turkey no it's not under sexuality is legal but the gay

rights groups there say that the situation has been deteriorating in recent years for example the istanbul pride has been cancelled or has been given permission to operate since 2015 well earlier we spoke to turkish based journalist there's that shop and he's been following turkish government censorship he says that l g b t q i groups in turkey feel that have been for betrayed by netflix but that he's not surprised we can have a listen to what he had to say. so well i think the correct thing to do would be to push back because this pressure from the turkish government and it's possible to pull out of perhaps i also don't quite expect the country don't quite expect the corporations goal is to maximize its profits to build the ethical position 1st. so what does this mean for the likes well netflix operates a very diverse catalog in most countries in fact it's even got a whole category for for gay shows for example ru paul's drag race and queer eye

and in fact some of those shows can actually be seen in turkey on netflix at the moment it's just that it seems like the regulators have drawn the line at allowing a production of a turkish show with a turkish character depicted as being gay we shouldn't really be surprised though because the netflix co-founder reed hastings has previously said that he is in the entertainment business and it's not his job to speak truth to power we've seen this happen in other countries as well netflix india has signed an agreement to not screen content that would disrespect the national flag and actually let's be balanced here even netflix germany limits its content the film night of the living dead which is a zombie horror film is not on netflix germany following a complaint from a german office for child protection so what we see here is netflix is a business and it will do what it needs to to stay in business wherever it operates doubly reported jolt all right thank you for.

your thoughts is here in germany offering free coronavirus testing to incoming travelers on the spot testing will be available for people arriving from comfort 19 hotspots people coming from a lower risk areas will also be able to test but at the bar if there's a way from the air force it's part of the country's bid to avoid a 2nd wave of infections. touched down in berlin after a summer holiday view of germans the normally yet to. broad the joy of returning home is as strong as ever but can people be sure they haven't picked up the corona virus on their travels. now their health or storage is in germany have taken the decision to offer free virus testing. the i am hard to it's because i'm tired from this a conference and phonemic in because i'm tired so health ministers of the states together i think the federal health minister have today agreed that people

returning from resort areas should be tested at airports the intent to establish testing facilities at present airports i think in plea we have decided death you want to reach not only doe's coming from risk areas but also from elsewhere so the agree to pay the costs of the testing for travelers. isn't frankfurt germany is largest airport is already offering tests for a free under the new plan people arriving from the 130 countries seen as at risk can be tested directly on arrival checks will also be beefed up at sea ports and on land borders the tests will be voluntary at 1st and people from corona affected areas will continue to be asked to quarantine his home for 14 days. germans love to travel and they're starting to get the travel bug again but with these tourists arriving from the popular spanish island of new york and be willing to take

a test. certainly for reasons of personal safety that would be the most important thing. you had to go into. that i have to go. i wouldn't really want to have responsibility for themselves and people over there are very careful about their behavior. corona infection rates in germany remain low at the moment a big part of keeping it that way after the holiday season will be persuading travelers to take advantage of testing. those for a present from signed a memorandum aimed at preventing migrants in the u.s. illegally from being counted when congressional voting districts are being drawn up and this true immediate far from census experts and lawyers and democrats would question its legality and whether it's actually enforceable if enacted the plan is

likely to benefit mr trump's republican party by giving more voting power to areas less likely to vote for democrats it's the latest in the battle for votes in november selections the president has also denounced postal voting saying it would lead to the most corrupt election in u.s. history well those comments to rebuke from facebook and twitter who labeled the post misleading and democrats are also warning that some us states deliberately make voting more difficult for certain sections of the electorate or hear from a voting rights campaign in a minute 1st this report. it's images like these which highlight the challenges faced by some people simply trying to exercise their right to vote long lines of people in georgia trying to cast their ballot in primary elections in june this year there were reports of problems across the state with predominantly black areas experiencing the worst of those problems this time the issue was voting machines

installed after widespread complaints of voter suppression in 2018 elections which saw a democrat now lose the race for governor i don't think it was. an act on accident i think it was intentional and sometimes people tried to separate suppress votes a lot of people left a lot of people had to go to work and were discouraged there was misinformation about whether or not to fill out a provisional ballot or an actual valid. information was confusing and i think that's the purpose to confuse us georgia is a key state this year it's been an uncontested republican stronghold for 2 decades but polls show it could swing in the presidential election and the state's 2 republican senators can no longer be counted as safe gloria jerry brown marshall is professor of constitutional law at john jay college of criminal justice in new york she's written numerous books and articles on civil rights

issues and the law including the voting rights war the end of lacy play in the ongoing struggle for justice and she joins us from new york city. welcome to day w. let's start with the presence of a memorandum what is wrong with only counting people who are legitimately in the country. well the united states is head illegal immigrants since the country was founded for one and those people have always been counted in the population to determine the number of people who will be represented in our congress in the u.s. house of representatives put also this issue is one that the administration is trying to get around a u.s. supreme court decision a recent decision said that this since this questions could not include whether or not someone is a citizen and so that was struck down as unconstitutional so now donald trump has

figured out another way to try to exclude people who are in the country illegally but people can be in the country illegally that doesn't mean they're going to vote but that means that they are they're being counted in the population to know how many people are in the country that's the u.s. since this is supposed to count every 10 years and how is that advantageous to the president. well i think for one he's using this as an issue is to say that these people who are here illegally are trying to vote the 2nd it gives a certain number of of the population in particular urban areas and higher number then would be in rural communities there are his strong hold and so he wants to cut the number of people in the population that cuts the number of services it counterfeit credit for number of people who are representing that district in the u.s. congress and so it will give political power to the republicans because the republican

strongholds are in places that don't have the highest populations right now and actually they're losing population as people move into the cities and so they're trying to target illegal immigrants there at the cost with this population increase in urban areas a base november's election is shaping up to be quite an ugly affair have do you think that the other going to be free and fair. no we can the president has already said it's not going to be free and fair this is a man who has used any means within his power as executive power more executive orders that come from this president than any other he's like a king in office in need of said a despot if nothing else he hasn't said that if he loses he would even leave office so he's already told people that he's going to have their pain millions of dollars to have something a little bit above

a thug who are who will be paid to watch over watch over the polls to make sure that the elections are run accurately these are regular people out in the world who are being paid to river afraid of being you know intimidating to the regular voter we already know that there has been russian influence in our election in 2016 and russian influence is continue to be a part of this election he has not announced that it all as a matter of fact he is welcomed russian influence instead it was a joke he's been in peached and that is not stopped him from continuing to act in these very corrupt ways so this is not going to be a fair election has not been fair for people of color since this we've been able to vote in this country and the concern is that this country that's tries to set a standard for democracy has fallen so low that it's we're trying to fight for democracy in our own montresor this is no longer going right on the hill at all for

democracy i want to i want to talk about various examples of people calling for the suppression in just a moment but 1st with the current the coronavirus pandemic a battle of the united states a has to be losing in quite a big way do you think the pandemic is likely to affect the way that the election is run and one. oh it's an affection affect elections here i mean around the world but is the fact elections here in 3 ways why people are afraid to go to public spaces just to go to the grocery store so to stand in line with for and wait to vote is going to be a hardship there are people who have already contracted the virus in the last election while they were in these public spaces secondly we have mail in ballots but that's been a disaster so far not a disaster the way done prospects of it is that you're because been denounced so

often by the republicans and conservatives and people have not really received information on how to use 1000000 ballots when they're supposed to be due in and in the last election the mail in ballots took so long to be counted it was beaks after the election that we finally found the winners and then even then it was contested and really thirdly there is this the sense of you know people are not going to delay elections we have primary elections because we have a federal system and we have a statewide system in a local system so elections are going on all the time and people don't know when to vote they don't know how to vote and they don't know what mechanism should be there for them to vote in a government is not helping because the federal government is not going to help people know how to exercise their rights the republican party is it which is extraordinary if a difference like this move us on a bit because i want to talk about voter suppression by which i mean the efforts to prevent eligible voters from exercising that right to vote to do believe

a voter suppression is going on in the united states. voter suppression has been going on the united states for centuries and it's particularly harsh in the african-american community because the black voters can decide the outcome of a presidential election and this is been since the $800.00 s. the voter suppression back then was murder literacy tests grandfather clauses poll tax is a mechanism you can find undermined that the black vote in america the voter suppression now is broken to voting machines not enough voting machines confusing ballots all of these things because democrats have higher population numbers than republicans but republicans have more strategies in place to mount a campaign of voter suppression they can actually have them win an election unfairly and was people are off this is almost impossible of course even if they're found to be in office illegally they're not going to be removed from office they wait for the next election to make changes so you know there's voter suppression

taking here. very interesting it's an issue that i think will return in the future for now the professor gloria j. brown marshall from john jay college of criminal justice thank you thank you. well there is almost done but the conversation continues online join us on twitter i have outstayed mutual you can follow me i feel jail have a good. food

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starts to lead to some of. the. this is the they'll be news line from tensions between washington and beijing ask that china has the closure of america's consulates in the southwest a city of chengdu that's in retaliation for washington's fullest closure of china's consulate in houston also on the program. of fear host muslim friday press for the 1st time in.