post. business d.w. news a live from berlin escalating tension between washington and beijing a flurry of activity outside the chinese consulate in houston texas as the u.s. government's order to close takes the fact china is retaliating shutting down an american consulate in the western city of chengdu we'll get the latest from washington also coming up on the show. the idea sophia hosts muslim friday prayers for the 1st time in more than 80 years we have

the latest on president heir to once controversial decision to change the world famous monument to back into a modest. bag . i'm clay richards and welcome to the show we begin in the u.s. where a government order forcing the closure of the chinese consulate in houston texas has taken effect a convoy of vehicles was seen outside the building and there have been reports that a group of men who appeared to be u.s. officials were forcing open the back door of the u.s. alleges that chinese agents tried to steal data from medical facilities in texas. china calls the claims a malicious slander it's responded by ordering the u.s. to close its consulate in the southwestern city of chengdu the escalating diplomatic spat comes as relations between the 2 countries are at their lowest point in decades. 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. drew majority of the current situation in china u.s. relations is not what china wants and the us 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 is under way the president even full to 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 presidents 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 rolling out the red carpet for each other again.

well i'm joined now by g.w. stephan simons in washington d.c. good to see you stephan how has the united states reacted to china's. almost a lot of all very very complacent like is really was expected that the chinese will answer what happened here with their consulate and used in for a tit for tat and announce closing over consular u.s. consulate in china that happened now so there was not really a big surprise here in washington everybody had that on the on the radar and it was as you pointed out in this piece which we just saw a question what are they going to do not when are they going to do it or when are they going to do that and how they're going to do this but that it's going to happen you know that's fine and nobody that doesn't relevant in the united states or in in washington for that matter what is there a strategy behind the white house his decision to close the chinese consulate in houston as relations with china hit a low point. well it is if there is

a strategy then it's not to make things better with china at the moment is to say that is nowhere on the rise and at least not for me to see are for many many experts who are commented on what just happened here but of course it comes politically speaking an interesting timing as the president is trying to portray himself as the lore in order man and the sheriff in town towards the inside of the united states as well as for everywhere else in the world so strong and trump now out of patience with china and that is maybe if you want to a political strategy which might benefit him at the end when it comes to november in the presidential elections and that will of course be watched when scrutiny from around the world as stephens iman's in washington d.c. thank you. turkey's eye has sophia has hosted muslim friday prayers for the 1st time in more than 80 years the assemble landmark was built 1500 years ago as

a christian cathedral before becoming a mosque and then a museum 2 weeks ago president carter one issued a controversial decree returning it to use as a mosque after a court an old its museum status. or. 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 young and no no i'm not on my own we have been waiting for

higher sophia to open as a mosque for decades for decades we said that the chains will break and higher so here will reopen the young women that was my remained a 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 critics in turkey can 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 but. straight to istanbul where we joined correspondent and dorian jones a georgian what more can you tell us about president everyone's motivation in issuing this decree to turn the ira so fia back into a mosque. the prison speaking after

the friday prayers said that this have been an ambition of his since his youth to convert the software back to a mosque. one is a very religious and pious man there's a lot of politics behind this move has been in power for nearly 20 years but why now he's taken such a dramatic move it is because his ruling party is suffering very low poll ratings the lowest since the party has been in office and been hit very hard by the economic woes of the country because the covert 19 epidemic now throughout this ceremony used for very powerful in images aimed at rallying not of the religious but the nationalist base burdwan recited the koran before the friday prayers commence and then the prayers and cells carried out by the head of turkey's religious authority who carried the assault which is a symbolism all the conquering of istanbul by 14 men made and this is a very important symbol for turkish nationalists who see him as the man that made

turkey a great country founding the ultimate empire now on top of that useful as a rallying point for both nationalists and religious people thousands of people came from all across the country to mark this moment a very important rallying point and i think will be looking at this as a point of stopping the further hemorrhaging of support of his party. by the highest sophia is of course a world heritage site could this move have implications for its unesco status. well you know sco has voice could deep concern over this move they said that any major change to the site we needed to be notified and unesco had to sign off on this that didn't happen now that does raise the question of turkey could lose the i saw fish unesco world heritage site something that seems very keen to avoid it is a very important tourist location it is the most popular site visited by tourists in turkey and it is going to be remaining open to tourists as well as serving as

a mosque is unclear whether unesco will go as far to remove its status because i think unesco looking forward will still want to retain some influence over the way it is maintained and use and it would realize if it gave up that status it would have little influence so i think the expectation is that some kind of compromise will be reached but there was indeed concern from unesco as is there are the wider international community thank you very much indeed of your correspondent. around 3000 protesters have marched through central budapest in support of journalists at hungary's most read news sites index dot h.-u. dozens of journalists have now resigned in protest over the sacking of its editor in chief earlier this week his dismissal has raised concern that prime minister viktor orban is nationalist government is intensifying its effort to muzzle critical voices. the new site trusted by millions of hungary and is no more so thousands marched to the prime minister's office with this message

was we are together we believe in free press. that's a we've reached a point now where getting access to real information is in real danger as well as its very existence. in court about the over the value passion of. honestly regardless of the website the reason why i came to demonstrate is that another independent news portal has fallen victim to the government but i really don't like that and that's why i came i don't think there's any free press left. the protests followed an early a walkout on friday when more than 80 journalists the vast majority of the newsroom quit index. to tackle 1st it's just. our editor in chief was fired this week and while i don't want to speak on behalf of all of us for me this was the red line i cannot work there anymore.

one point about the phone. before he got sacked editor in chief several have warned the site was in grave danger after a pro businessman purchase control of the site's ad sales hungary's foreign sex trade denies the government poses a threat to press freedom free market will tell me a concrete case when couldn't. liston hungary will not write what they thought. index is just the latest of several hunger area news outlets to full under control of government allies raising fears here that it won't be the last. 3 try 3. well it's going out to some other stories making news around the world the mayor of chicago has ordered the removal of 2 statues of christopher columbus until further notice the overnight move came

a week after protesters tried to topple one of the figures mayor laurie lightfoot he said there would be a review of the appropriateness of all the city's monuments. wildfires are continuing to spread north of the arctic circle the u.n. weather agency has warned that temperatures in the russian region of siberia were 10 degrees celsius above average last month the heat wave has a not only fans devastating fires it has also contributed to our rapid depletion of sea ice. and staying in siberia a fascinating find for a group of reindeer herders who discovered the remains of an ancient woolly mammoth russian scientists are now working to retrieve the rest of the skeleton which appears to be remarkably well preserved. constantine to d.b.a. hadn't expected this he set out to catch fish but instead the fisherman on the peninsula in syberia put something quite different out there till i was tugging on

a skull of a whole day from morning till evening then i started poking around in the ground with a stick and i saw more bones in 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 tonnes 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 all of which the idea 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.

well that's your news update at this hour but of course the news it doesn't stop when we do. you can get all the latest information around the off on our website at g.w. dot com you can also follow us on twitter and instagram at state of the union is i'm sorry richardson in berlin thanks so much for watching. combating the corona pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning. background information and news. hour corona. coded 19 special next on d w. every journey begins with the 1st step and every language the 1st word to conclude the code.