thank you for your. news line from girls land tensions escalate between washington and beijing u.s. officials and through the chinese consulate in houston texas after forcing it to close amid accusations of espionage china retaliates shutting down an american consulate in the western city of chengdu also coming up. thousands of people rally

in eastern russia following the arrest of their governor on murder charges they say he's guilty only of defeating the ruling party's candidate in the last election. and thousands demonstrate in budapest for media freedom after dozens of journalists at hungary's main news site resigned in protest at the shocking of their editor in chief. i'm michael okuda it's nice to see you with us u.s. officials have entered the chinese consulate in houston texas after diplomatic staff there complied with an order from the trumpet ministration to shut down the u.s. says the consulate was a hub for espionage and intellectual property theft china denies the accusations and has. well you did by ordering the american consulate in the southwestern city

of shang do to close this spat has brought already tense relations between the 2 countries to their lowest point in decades. ahead exit in houston. chinese officials who seemed packing on friday they were forced to evacuate the consulate within 72 hours a deadline set by the trumpet ministration. holding documents in 2 vehicles the exit was welcomed by anti communist party protest is. this a cell or cell phone your phone i usually try to monitor everyone is a bank a meeting of the razing you come here to. there celebrating the i make sure. the u.s. says the consulate was a nest of spies trying to steal intellectual property including data from medical

facilities in texas after the last diplomats departed the area was cordoned off and u.s. officials were seen forcing entry into the building. in a tit for tat move china has ordered the closure of the u.s. consulate in the southwestern city of chengdu. china's foreign ministry called the retaliation legitimate and necessary accusing u.s. stuff is of interfering in the country's internal affairs. the current situation in china u.s. relations just not what china wants and the u.s. is completely responsible for all of this. the cold war era style tension between the 2 countries has been rising for some time often sparring over trade technology and more recently the coronavirus. usually very outspoken on china the u.s. president has yet to comment on this latest escalation. joining us

now is tyson barker he's a researcher from the truman national security project here in berlin and i'm going to start with the 1st obvious question tyson barker tensions between the u.s. and china over spying accusations are new so why the closure of houston's consulate now. the great question i think there are a couple of reasons some are diplomatic some a political we did hear probably department of justice the unsealing of indictments related to chinese hackers who were aggressively probing. research into vaccines for covert 19 this has been pretty systemic so that is kind of blogged that narrative clearly we have an escalation in and haha lynchings i was well but the big reason we have to say or one of the big reasons has to be political and the trumpet ministration is trying to draw a bright line between its. approach to china and the biden ministration potential

by administration's approach to try to thing that would be a less more conciliatory more combination of chinese authoritarianism. and u.s. secretary of state might pump a you called for a joint reaction to act over what he calls the threat of a new tyranny from china does he expect support from the european union. i well he clearly expects support from the european union and that's one of the reasons he made this trip through europe this week he was very much trying to you know close ranks within the alliance the transatlantic alliance with the denmark is that there's a great britain of course not a member of the european union anymore but basically saying you know we need to approach this is a united front so yes that's the expectation but what have been the reactions here in the e.u. . well the e.u. have the reaction has been mixed and the truth is that there are

a plurality of views you have countries that are more hawkish like sweden you have a country like the u.k. that has really evolved i would say in the past 6 months from a position that was much more accommodationist much more hawkish and then you have countries like germany and france which really have a broad span of equities related to china 1st and foremost the trade relationship which has really taken a hit because of coded that they really want to maintain so they are much more ability minded i would say the european commission itself brussels itself has issued a strategy last year a report last year which said that china is was just a strategic rival of the european union so there is movement to see china with a more more skepticism than in the past but that is not a consensus within europe i think it's safe to say watch this space particularly with the united states entering its political season tyson barker's thank you so

much i. thank you. now to some other stories making news around the world at this hour the u.s. has reported another 1000 deaths from 19 for the 4th day in a row driven by a spike in infections in arizona florida and other states but a top white house health advisor on the pandemic says the states are past the worst and has urged schools to reopen. has detected its 1st locally transmitted case of corona virus in over 3 months authorities said the man had been in close contact with more than 100 people they have all been tested vietnam took drastic early action to fight the virus and has reported 0 deaths. thousands of protesters have marched through central budapest in support of journalist and hungry most read news site index dozens of journalists have now resigned over the shocking of its editor in chief earlier this week is dismissal

has raised concern that prime minister viktor or bonds nationalist government is intensifying its effort to muzzle critical voices. a sea of solidarity lighting up central budapest thousands of standing up for press freedom which many fear is disappearing under the rule of right wing prime minister viktor orban the latest victim hungary's most new site. seen as one of the country's last independent media that's made it a frequent target of the prime minister who once called it a fake news factory but its independence has come under threat after an ally bought control of the site sales. the final straw came a few days ago when the site's editor in chief was fired prompting more than 80 staff to resign on friday. that the 1st said. our editor in chief was

fired at this story and while i don't want to speak on behalf of all of us for me this was the red lines i cannot work that anymore. from the point that the. shortly after south of protesters flooded the streets when they want to frame a show real news and it's getting more and more difficult almost impossible to get that in hungry now we don't know what's happening around us because the state media isn't telling the truth. and i'm fully. and honestly regardless of the website the reason why it came to demonstrate is that another independent news portal has fallen victim to the government i really don't like and that's why i came i don't think there's any free press. hungary's foreign secretary denies the government poses a threat to press freedom she reckons the show me a concrete case one was a journalist in hungary not allowed to write what they thought. index is just the

latest of several hunger news outlets to fall under control of government allies raising fears here that it won't be the last. to the far east of russia now where protesters in the city of coveralls have flooded the streets for the 3rd weekend in a row tens of thousands of people are calling on president vladimir putin to step down and demanding the release of their governors are guy forgot the 50 year old was arrested earlier this month accused of ordering the murders of 2 businessmen 15 years ago its supporters say the arrest is politically motivated punishment for defeating a pro putin candidate in the 21000 election. for more on that i'm joined now by even good in cover also in the 4 eastern region of russia even thank you for joining us could you tell us a little bit more about this. as.

patel even can you hear me even give it so you there ok clearly we're having some technical issues there we'd love to get that report to you as soon as we do get it. even can you hear me i can hear you now oh you can hear me ok so obviously there are people out and i can hear you now yes we're back ok kate ok so there are people in the streets protesting you know as well as i do that this is not something that is sanctioned in russia even the police however stepped in to clear some of the traffic there for the protesters why is that happening it's truly one of most surprising protests we've seen in years in russia in all of 20 years one of the

main things we've seen the reason police are clearing the streets of the mass of people that are coming out the 1st protest that took place here 3 weeks ago was 40000 people a week later last saturday we saw 50000 and today estimates around as much as 90000 now to put that in perspective there's about $600000.00 people who live in the city of karbala so it's like 10 percent of the city is coming out to protest there's also the notion that the kremlin is hoping that this will simmer down but as we're seeing 3 weeks in it's only growing so time will have to tell whether the kremlin will decide to crackdown or not but so far they haven't not sure when you've been in a position to do much reporting legally down on the streets there but what are the protesters saying is compelling them to get on the streets in defiance of what's the natural order there in russia. there's a lot of different slogans that are being screamed about you know the governor specifically to anti kremlin sentiment but the main thing that the protesters have repeated day after day these rallies to no continue each day but the main ones

happen on saturday is that they feel that their choice was taken away they feel that even if the governor is guilty of these crimes he should be tried here and they believe they voted for him they feel that moscow the kremlin has taken him away for political reasons not reasons that. they believe to be fair because these murders were if these alleged murders were 15 years ago so if they did take place they believe that the kremlin would start this up a long time ago and so they believe that their choice was stolen away and so at the end of the day it's about a right to a fair choice and it's called a democracy it seems even good thank you so much for that reporting for hanging in there through those tough technical difficulties appreciate it we'll see you later sucker news now and. have the claimed the french comp after beating sent on friday but they may have paid a hefty price for the victory their star player chilean in

a was subbed off after sustaining a leg injury during the match in exchange with the french in an exchange with the french president emmanuel nath who helped out with the trophy presentation and bobby said he doesn't think his leg is broken despite having to use crutches this is p.s. g.'s record 13th french cop it was also the 1st game in the country with a limited number of fans after the league was cancelled in april due to the coronavirus. with the champions league restart only a few weeks away coach thomas to szell gave the latest on the killian bumpy injury . no he took a hit it's impossible to do sprints and we pay everyone. so. it's not good news foss. i'm very happy of course that we won. or lost it's now necessary to stay calm and be patient as there's no news you want

to know if you're watching t w news we'll have more headlines at the top of the hour and you can get more information on all of stories on our web site that's d w dot com don't forget to follow us on twitter and instagram as well. i'm michael locally in berlin and we will see you soon at the top of the hour with. more coasters from nigeria you know that's what normally would. do. authentic. and successful beyond belief.