And violence in west jerusalem as thousands of protesters call on the israeli Prime Minister to resign over corruption charges and his handling of the pandemic and ethiopia says heavy rains have begun filling his controversial dam on the blue nile as the government continues to negotiate with its neighbors egypt and saddam. With the sport b. N. F. L. Agrees to scrap the 2020 preseason games as another 95. 00 players taste positive for corona virus. Thank you very much for joining as we begin with the growing tension between the United States and china the u. S. Government has ordered beijing to close its consulate in the city of houston in texas saying its a way to. Protect American Intellectual property a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign ministry has denied media reports that stuff at the consulate had been burning documents inside the building and is accuse the u. S. Of violating International Law in response china is threatening to close the american consulate in war and has warned that Chinese Students in the u. S. Should be on guard for what it calls obvious frary interrogations and in the last few minutes the u. S. Secretary of state mike on bail made these comments during a visit to denmark were not going to allow this to continue to happen where they have seen the remarks that. Visor brian gave that directory gave him that attorney general barr has given we are setting a clear expertise as for how the Chinese Communist party is going to behave and when they dont who are going to take actions that protect the American People protect our security our National Security and also protect our economy and jobs were going. Surely on july 21st the u. S. Abruptly demanded we close our consulate general this was unilaterally initiated by the u. S. Side we demand the u. S. Withdrawal this decision or we will respond while we have katrina you standing by for us in 100. 00 china with the latest reaction out of china but 1st to last state Department Correspondent was named jordan rawls a so tell us more for is about what the u. S. State department is saying is a reason for shutting down the consulate in houston. Well as we just heard from the secretary of state mike pompei o who is on a visit to copenhagen denmark the u. S. Has been extremely concerned about chinese efforts to steal law intelligence secrets still to was corporate intellectual property and otherwise undermine the rule of law here in the United States there are unsubstantiated allegations at least by the state department that the chinese consulate in houston has not been involved in this theft of intellectual property but certainly the order has now gone out that the staff in their families assigned to that facility in houston must leave the country within 72 hours its not the 1st time that the u. S. Government has closed another countrys official law presence in this country will our viewers will offer haps recall the closure of the Syrian Embassy during the 1st years of that countrys civil war and certainly after the hostage crisis erupted in tehran in 1979 the us ordered the closure of the Iranian Embassy also in washington. The secretary of state my campaign has been out front on this us fresh a campaign against china weve seen him in london yesterday in denmark today trying to build what he called a coalition and whats behind this new strategy this new u. S. Strategy on china. Well i wouldnt exactly describe it a new strategy its simply one more provocative act as certainly in beijings eyes and the relationship between the United States and china the u. S. Has been long accusing beijing of trying to undermine western values and more important undermine the stability of western countries. We have seen a number of sanctions actions aimed at chinese officials because of their treatment for example of ethnic we in western china john province we have seen the u. S. Basically say in the past week that it is officially now standing with countries such as vietnam laos and the philippines in their territorial claims and access to the South China Sea we have seen the u. S. Efforts to dissuade other countries from using hauffe way equipment and in fact the u. S. Is very much involved in its efforts to extradite the chief operating officer of walk away from vancouver British Columbia so this is simply the latest step in a growing growing animosity between the United States and china certainly in the light of the corona virus demick it is unusual for the secretary of state to actually travel overseas to try to build more support but certainly they have been engaging virtually in this effort to isolate china in the past several months thank you very much for that rising joy in my far as say in virginia and lets get the view from china and bring in katrina you whos in on for us katrina chinas response to the closure of the consummate in houston most way of calling news and political provocation tell us about what sort of response we can expect. Thats right well were in move on city and a province in the Commercial Area a very busy area and right behind me is a skyscraper and inside is the u. S. Consulate here in mohan on level 47 of that building just behind me its one of 5 u. S. Points thats located in Mainland China and one the Chinese Government is reportedly considering closing in response to the fullest closure of the chinese consulate in texas now we know about this plant hasnt been in full operation much of the u. S. Stop there had been flown back home during the height of the pandemic here in china and were yet to hear verification that the Chinese Government is going to go ahead and close this but certainly beijing is furious about this chinas Foreign Ministry spokesperson one when been spoke on wednesday afternoon calling this outrageous unjustified and said it was an unprecedented escalation and even listed a number of actions he said the u. S. Government had taken against Chinese People in the u. S. In recent months he said that chinese diplomats there had been subjected to intimidation harassment in some cases detention he also said that Chinese Students were increasingly be interrogated that personal Electronic Devices were being confiscated and searched he also said that there would incident at least what chinese diplomatic stop had extra restrictions imposed on them but diplomatic pouch as was searched without permission that chinese official items were also quote this case that both of these would be violations of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations one would be also said that the Chinese Embassy in the u. S. Had received a number of bomb threats and Death Threats and he accused the Trump Administration of fanning the flames of hatred against china only in the u. S. But overseas as well and certainly this is just the next escalation and use escalation what has to be a diplomatic 3 fold in terms of relations between the u. S. And china van. Arias front can go home National SecurityLaw Technology and trade beijing says if u. S. Does not pull back from this decision it will take what it has called legitimate and necessary Counter Measures katrina how are these tensions with the u. S. Being viewed internally being seen internally in china is there any sort of internal pressure on the beijing government to perhaps deescalate the situation with the u. S. Weve seen here in china that many it from foreign media from the statements weve heard from the u. S. Government that this is being ending re saying that on the u. S. Side to intimidate china to contain chinas rise that this is according to beijing nothing to do with actions beijing has taken in the South China Sea or hong kong that this is totally a matter of the u. S. To be intimidated by not only chinas rise in the multilateral stage but also chinas rise when it comes to Technology Artificial intelligence and being increasing power which can match up against the u. S. Site inside of beijing we havent seen any pressure certainly from the chinese to back down certain weve seen the opposite weve seen many sort of hopefully in Chinese State media come out against the u. S. Saying that beijing needs to defend its rights needs to prevent the u. S. From meddling in its internal affairs and also send a strong message to the u. S. That these actions or these accounts these measures will not be taken lightly otherwise that beijing may be seen as a country that is easily bullied and certainly here in china. Sort of people are seeing this as china being the victim and that is of course not the view shared by many people overseas and certainly in places like home home where they do believe that the beijing authorities are acting in a way that is imposing on the freedoms and rights of the people there all right thank you very much for that katrina you live for us. In a war and for more on these growing tensions between the u. S. And china lets now speak to. Her. Then col who is the former Deputy NationalIntelligence Officer for transnational threats he is joining us via skype thank you very much for being with us today mr cox what do you make of this latest development in the tensions between the u. S. Send china and the closure of the chinese consulate in holes in his sense how significant a development is this and do you think were in danger of a aspiring crisis here well we are in a spiraling crisis certainly relations between the u. S. And china have been deteriorating for some time and trump has clearly chosen to make china a bogeyman in his campaign since Everything Else going wrong you know if you blame someone else then that helps you so thats part of the story i think thats the political background now the events specifically that led to the decision to close the consulate probably actually occurred theres its not a secret. Chinese intelligence has been increasingly aggressive in the United States in the last 5 years 10 there been more than 154 arrests by the f. B. I. For chinese espionage. Episodes so these events occur but its fundamentally a political decision right when to take this kind of a step why why the houston hughson consonant you think. Well i think because a consulate is less significant than the embassy an embassy would be an otter breach of relations yet another step up in the. Tensions but the consulate. Is into in texas there is a lot of High Technology theres the Space Program theres medical research and so on and the reports that we have been reading from you and everywhere else about chinese targeting Scientific Research for the coronavirus is im sure true but also for a long time the chinese have gone after. Telephone internet related Technology Space technology and saw much of which is text so its a is a sensible step from that perspective permanence yet as we heard from our correspondent in china some internal pressure now in china for the beijing government to retaliate what you know what sort of response do you expect it to take that would hurt the u. S. In a similar way you know im sure that there is a need that this is a well orchestrated time honored dance among. Powers with regard to intelligence activities and then what a coal dispute so i would be very surprised if china did not respond i fully anticipate that they feel that they must so what they will do depends if they want to escalate or just be commensurate they will certainly expel a number of american diplomats and since we close the facility i would expect that they will do something similar now since its china its also not on imaginable that they might decide to detain a businessman or 2 but that would be an escalation so i dont think that would do. I thank you very much for sharing with us can cry a former Deputy NationalIntelligence Officer for transnational threats joining us sam via skype from boston we appreciate your time. Now the world news now a vote is expected in the coming hours that will give israels government increased powers to impose coronavirus frustrations across the country and move comes as protests grow louder against Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu as handling of the pandemic dozens of demonstrators have been arrested after chaining themselves together and blocking people from entering parliament in west jerusalem Harry Fawcett reports. Benjamin netanyahu is where the protest before so called black flag activists have waged a years Long Campaign against what they call his anti democratic rule but in the last 2 weeks the protests have changed and grown as israelis buckling under a 2nd wave of coronavirus turn their anger on the government. Netanyahu has admitted to reopening the economy too quickly allowing gatherings of too many people others point to the governments failure to expand the system of testing and tracing is the 1st wave leaving it ill equipped to stop the 2nd author and journalist Roden Bergman has investigated that Decision Making he says the Health Ministry went against expert advice you need to know as soon as possible if that person is you or not you need to theres that person immediately after he is like the 5 is suspicious so as a suspect so if if you do not been sharing of infection it goes on and on if you are not they were to cut it the government itself said it needed a 48 hour turnaround from suspected case to test results even now its taking 6. 00 to 8. 00 days the concern now is that its simply too late in terms of testing to catch up with the sheer scale of this 2nd wave israels missed opportunity on testing and tracing is now being seen as part of a wider political failure to tackle the pandemic under pressure the Prime Minister has been announcing measures only to announce them from a 1750000000. 00 package of cash handouts 1st universal now means tested to in order. To close restaurants postponed within hours to weekend closures of beaches and pools reversed within days the one constant is insistence on avoiding a 2nd full lockdown because. Ive requested each ministries plan for a safe exit from the current virus restrictions meaning that if we straighten the coven reach the goals that we see it for the determine number of cases per day that we can work with over time in the coronavirus routing. But the head spinning policy shifts have undermined belief in a Prime Minister also on trial in 3 separate Corruption Cases one survey this month put public trust in him at just 29 percent and the problem that. Theres really this back and forth that its not creating trust and trust is groucho. In order to move ahead because its a long term situation where theyre talking about trustees both ross of the public and trust of experts just weeks ago netanyahu had squashed the 1st wave of coded 19 and neutralized his most serious political rival benny gantz inside an Emergency Coalition now hes fighting to beat down a resurgent virus and restore his diminishing Political Capital are a force at aljazeera television. More ahead on the news hour including a steroids with a knife saving bullets the drug being tested in britain thats being hailed as a breakthrough treatment over 1000. 00 patients bus up and away its the end of an era for one of australias aviation long serving us and stoss from small towns green joined forces to launch a new womens Football Team in los angeles. U. S. President donald trump has warned of a corona Virus Outbreak is likely to get worse before it gets better as some mocs departure from the optimistic picture is projected so far even as cases continue to rise in many u. S. States by can every for some washington. In the past president cost him self as americas cheerleader making rosy predictions about the course of the pandemic that were often at odds with the facts but this was a more subdued president than on previous occasions it will probably unfortunately get worse before it gets better something i dont like saying about things but thats the way it is and a complete reversal on the use of mosques something that in the 1st few months of the pandemic the president often derided at one stage even expressing support for anti mosque protests in a number of states this to it seems a thing of the past i have no problem with the masks i view it this way anything that potentially can help and that certainly can potentially help is a good thing i have no problem i carry it i wear it you saw me wearing it a number of times and ill continue if there were some familiar claims that the u. S. Is leading the world in testing and that its mortality rate is lower than anywhere both assertions declared false by most