biala gassed at frankfurt airport city managed by from. this is to give you news live from berlin there is no letup in the wave of protestors in russia's far east thousands of people rally in the city of coveralls 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. tensions and still lays 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 retaliate shutting down an american consulate in chengdu. and thousands demonstrate input of cash for the media freedom after dozens of journalists at these main news site resigned in protest at the sacking of their editors in chief. i'm michael okuda appreciate your joining us protesters in this city. in the far east of russia have taken to the streets for the 3rd weekend in a row tens of thousands of people are calling for president vladimir putin to step down and demanding the release of the regional governor he was arrested earlier this month accused of ordering the murders of 2 business men 15 years ago his

supporters say the rest is politically motivated. for the 3rd weekend in a row cries of anger and frustration echo across the city of couples. the arrest of their governor saturday for god has triggered the biggest demonstration this region has seen in years the 50 year old member of the opposition liberal democratic party was detained earlier this month he's charged with ordering the murders and attempted murders of several business men 15 years ago but many here see the arrest as politically motivated retaliation for defeating president putin's favorite in the 2018 gubernatorial election. people are trying to i think people take to the streets because their vote in the gubernatorial elections was taken away from you see if we can. put these protests are about more than the arrest of their governor it's about fighting back against what they see as

president putin's increasingly authoritarian grip on power with chants of freedom and putin as a thief the protests happen come about to cry freedom freedom from the ruler sitting more than 6000 kilometers away in moscow who they see as self-serving and out of touch. off the scent the national is sucking up all the resources from the far east and we get nothing in return to this region used to be so rich people were doing so well and the production was thriving now all the big enterprises have been bought up by muscovites people are going to be genuine sprawled on the just bits in the middle of doing that putin's appointment of his successor has not helped dots even though michelle dikshit off a member of the same party is for god was seen as an attempt by the kremlin to assuage locals anger. but the people of capital fired back

saying the 39 year old outsider lacks experience and has no connection to the region. asbos stick in their heels this standoff is likely to continue the question is how long the protesters can last president putin is in no hurry a constitutional change passed earlier this month means he could stay in power until 20360. 0 earlier i spoke to even good in khabarovsk covering that demonstration i asked him how this protest was different from others we've seen in russia it's truly one of most surprising protests we've seen in years in russia in all of its 20 years one of the main things we've seen the reason police are clearing the streets is 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 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 caught if they believe they voted for him they feel that moscow the kremlin has now 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 have dug 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 it's called a democracy it seems journalist evil and good if it's there highlighting now some other stories in the news. a heat wave in siberia has been fanning devastating wildfires pushing them north of the arctic circle the u.n. weather agency warned that temperatures in the russian region were 10 degrees celsius above average last month the heat wave has also contributed to a rapid depletion of psionics is the. gunmen have killed at least 20 people including children in sudan's darfur region a tribal chief said the victims were farmers visiting their homes in the war torn

region for the 1st time in years darfur has seen in years of ethnic conflict. the u.s. has recorded another 1000 deaths from covert 1000 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. 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 retaliated by ordering the american consulate in the south western city of shanghai due to close the spat has brought already tense relations between the 2 countries to their lowest point in decades. a hasty exit in houston. chinese officials who seen packing on friday they were

forced to evacuate the consulate within 72 hours a deadline set by the trumpet ministration. holding documents into vehicles the exit was welcomed by anti communist party protest is. this a sell or sell when you're trying to market to everyone as a bank a meeting of the raising you come here to. here 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 image of 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 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. it's a great question i think there are a couple of reasons some are diplomatic some are 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 the end haha lynching joe as 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 saying that biden 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 a great britain of course not a member of the european union anymore but basically saying you know we need to approach this is the united front so yes that the expectations 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 the use 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 kogut 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 report last year which said that china is asus 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 thank you so much right now back to europe now thousands of protesters have marched through central budapest in support of journalist and hungry as most read news site index dozens of journalists have now resigned over the sacking of its editor in chief earlier this

week his dismissal has raised concern that prime minister viktor or bond's nationalist government is intensifying its effort to muzzle critical voices. a sea of solidarity lighting up central budapest thousands of hungary and 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 retinue site next to 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 sites at 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. 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 line and i cannot let that any more. for my diplomat be done. shortly after south of protesters flooded the streets when they want to facial 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. now. 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 but i really don't like that and that's why i came i don't think there's any free press. hungry foreign secretary denies the government poses a threat to press freedom 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. and a reminder of the top story we're following for you sounds of people rally in the far eastern city of coveralls following the arrest of their governor on the murder trial they say he's only guilty of defeating the ruling party's candidate in the last lecture watching d.w. new i'll be back with more news in 45.