this is the w. news live from berlin and the start of a new era for istanbul's high yes sophia. for the 1st time in more than 80 years the building opens for muslim friday prayers we have the latest on president are the ones controversial decision to change the status of the world famous money. also coming up china orders the closure of the u.s. consulate in the southwestern city of chengdu the move comes after the u.s. told the chinese to shut their consulate in houston. and back from vacation yet

there is no vacation from the pandemic germany is offering the incoming travelers a free coronavirus tempting to guard against a 2nd wave of coping thank you. i'm sumi so much kind of good to have you with us the highest sophia has hosted a muslim friday prayers for the 1st time in nearly 90 years the istanbul landmark served as one of christianity's most significant cathedrals a mosque and a museum before it was recently converted back into a muslim place of worship a controversial to create by president rajapaksa to one change the building status . more. 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 was. oh i see iconic buildings journey through time from orthodox christian cathedral to muslim mosque to museum for many here and historic wrong has been righted. but only young and old i'm not a gun. we have been waiting for higher sophia to open as a mosque for decades for decades we said that the chains will break and hyacinth here will reopen the young women that was my this remains 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 these were happy. but everyone 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 but. for more on the story let's bring in our correspondent dorian jones who's standing by for us in istanbul hi dorian how do you see this is this a religious or a political decision from president are to one. well the president one who is very religious openly acknowledged that this had been a lifelong dream of his to turn guy a sufi a back to a mosque but why now he's chosen to do this after nearly 20 years in power it all smells of politics he's ruling a k party is in deep political trouble polling at record lows albeit still the number one party the trajectory is in one direction down because of the country's economic woes and the congress he today was all about reaching out to one's

religious and nationalist base but one before the start of friday pair prayers recited the koran images that were broadcast all over turkey while the head of turkey's religious affairs who led the friday prayers carried all sorts a symbol of conquest of the stamboul while inside the i saw fear there were ottoman banners with symbolic meanings of conquering stamboul and also there was a huge disk with islamic or graffiti and 3 sources again a symbol of conquest and references again again to 40 sultan mehmet to conquer the man who converted the i saw fear into a mosque off the concrete and then constantinople references to him a powerful man not only for turkey's religious can see to it but also nationalists who see him as the man who made turkey the great country the center of a not an empire dominated europe and much else so again very powerful symbols and his supporters came in the 10s of thousands all across the country to attend the ceremony another powerful symbol for one although there will be concerns about the

consequences of the covert epidemic given that there was little social distancing but we'll find out that in a couple of weeks but for now we'll be looking for this for him to draw a line in the ground to prevent any further hemorrhaging of support during what i think all of this says about the current climate. i think is widely seen as a weakness on the part of bird one main people see this is the key trump card that he hasn't played a possibly an act of even desperation but i heard one supporters will be disappointed that there has been little pushback in the country the main opposition that was founded by ataturk a secular party has said little they didn't want to get into a battle not a culture war between the religious and secular a battle the urge one has repeatedly won in the past is called major election victories where they are remaining silent they are wanting this to pass off this controversy to pass quickly so they can again focus on turkey's economic woes which they see is that once the killings heal. reporting from istanbul thank you so much

. china has ordered the united states to close one of its consulates the foreign minister has given us officials 72 hours to leave the consulate in the southwestern city of chengdu that comes after washington told beijing to shut its diplomatic mission and houston texas earlier this week relations between the 2 countries are at their lowest point in 40 years. it was less a question of if china would retaliate but rather how and the answer is here the u.s. has been told to close its conscience inching 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 weak and ordering china to shut its mission in houston citing concerns about espionage the clear out is under way the president even floated the potential to cut diplomatic ties completely. as far as closing 'd 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 is not brought 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 export our free and. in 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. more on this story now with stefan in washington hi stefan good to see you how is washington reacting to this closure of the u.s. consulate in chengdu. to say last year on impressed because it was of course expected that the chinese will go into tit for tat move here and retaliate against the u.s. as we have seen in the reports 'd there's a deadline pending and it's getting close now for the beijing consulate in euston to close up shop to shutter everything so they're on the clock of the u.s. the administration here as well as department of justice officials as well as from

the state department are taking again the action by the chinese government taking on the closure of the trying to consulate u.s. consulate in shanghai to. fairly relaxed again that was expected. to the country that doubling down actually they have made an arrest now of a chinese researcher her name is tang john and she was hiding allegedly in the consulate in san francisco she was arrested today and she will see and have her day in court later today so washington is doubling down you're saying stuff i mean what is the strategy here from the trumpet ministration in ask elating tensions between the u.s. the u.s. and china right now. you're the secretary of state pompei it was saying not for the 1st time that the patients of the administration is over it's at its end apparently there were high level fairly high level conversations between the chinese and the

us administration and meetings within the us where the us said look you guys really have to change your behavior you're trying to steal intellectual property and research incidentally in terms of coronavirus vaccines and the research there this is not going to fly anymore with us we're going to take action now you're trying to. hinder our our our investigation in many other ways this is unacceptable so i think the chairman ministration is trying to take a hard line here and of course this comes in politically speaking handy for the president because he's pushing a law and order a strong man narrative at the moment anyway for the upcoming presidential elections in november did he step on 3 months reporting from washington thank you. let's check in now on some other stories making news around the world goldman sachs has agreed to a nearly $4000000000.00 settlement with malaysia over

a corruption scandal prosecutors allege the bank arranged bond sales for the one m. d. b. sovereign wealth fund that allowed former malaysian leader to steal billions the verdict in the 1st trial of the affair is expected in the coming days. 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 had tried to topple one of the figures mayor laurie lightfoot said there would be a review of the appropriateness of all the city's monuments. dozens of staff walked out of hungary's top independent news site in protest at the removal of its editor in chief 3 editors and some 70 other journalists at index dot h.q. handed in the resignation in a statement they condemned wednesday's dismissal of savile stool as an overt attempt to put political pressure on the portal. and face coverings have now become mandatory in shops and take out food stores in england it also applies to other

enclosed spaces like transport hubs and shopping centers masts are already compulsory an enclosed public places in many other european countries including germany. well german authorities are offering incoming travelers free coronavirus testing and media testing will be available for those coming from covert $1000.00 hotspots people traveling from lower risk areas will also be offered tests but at laboratories away from airports it's part of a bid to avoid unleashing a 2nd wave of infections. touched down in berlin and all through a summer holiday fewer germans the normal yet taking. the joy of returning home is a strong but can people be sure they haven't picked up the coronavirus on their travels. now the torah jews in germany have taken the decision to offer up. free virus testing. the i am hard to it's because i'm tired from the 2nd floor lantern 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 recent eeriest should be tested at airports the intent to establish testing facility instead of an airport secondly we have decided that few want to reach not only doe's coming from risk areas but also from elsewhere so we agreed to pay the cost of the testing for travelers. who deify isn't in 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 arsed to quarantine at home for 14 days germans love to travel and those starting to get the travel bug again but with these tourists

arriving from the popular spanish island of new york or be willing to take a test your sister yes certainly for reasons of personal safety that would be the most important thing you can go to rethink sure i'd like to so. if you had to go into quarantine. then i have to go. there again i wouldn't really want to people 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. let's get a reminder now of our top stories on day 8 of you istanbul's hell yes of here has opened for muslim friday prayers for the 1st time in more than 80 years that follows a controversial. to create from turkish president roger tie affair to want to turn the former museum back into a box and china orders the closure of the u.s.

consulate in the southwestern city of chengdu the move comes after the u.s. told the chinese to shut their consulate in houston. thank you for watching d.w. news phil gale we'll have your latest news update at the top of the next hour good to have you with us. on a middle. school complaint the 2nd season of only. the planet on the brink of disaster we. ducked under such words about one question how to change.