Close its mission in houston also this hour a scare in the skies over syria passengers i heard on many rainy and plain as its tailed by a u. S. Fighter jet and running out of oxygen in bolivia how relatives of corn a virus patients are having to get their own supply. Amounts on how much not have all the sport a Major League Baseball season in north america is finally on the way after a 4 month delay caused by the pandemic. Its a world famous landmark thats reversed by both muslims and christians now turkeys iconic fia is back in the religious spotlight. Thousands gathered in istanbul. Early a friday full pray is which took place inside the building for the 1st time in nearly 8060 is to present russia typer to one was among those who attended and he declared last week that the structure which was originally built as an Orthodox Christian get the jewel well once again be converted into a mosque following a court warning heres what he had to say after the friday prayers today. And we got to make a great people get to pray here thousands participated in the praise we came here to give it to pray the government and the authorities concerned to do the necessary renovations the new hug is a few most will be something great that makes us very proud and will always be open for all citizens visit is and the tourists as well. Well the hagia sophia has changed several times since it was built 1500 years ago it was originally the Largest Church in the eastern roman empire in the christian city of constantinople which is now called istanbul in 1453 the city fell to the ottomans after a 55 day siege i guess sophia was converted into a mosque almost 500 years later in 1935 it became a Secular Museum reflecting the inclusive vision obvious tumble after the fall of the Ottoman Empire turkeys highest Court Ordered the conversion of the unesco World Heritage site back to a mosque earlier this month president carter one supported the switch which angered christian religious leaders and politicians around the world lets bring in our. Law whos outside how i guess sophia sinema it was a very big day in istanbul early an important dale saw for president on. Exactly for the especially for such a big city with a population of 18000000 it was a very Critical Organization event to be able to organize such big event as thousands of people also came from other cities of turkey just for the prayer today even there are some people that i have spoken to they came from france and germany just to be able to join for the join in the 1st prayer. Sophia and they were tight security measures during the day fully as president don was the primary guest of sophia today he had around 1000 in white tees some of them were even foreign politicians from other muslim countries there was a high level delegation among the turkish politics but thousands gathered here just to be able to attend in the 1st year to witness this historical moment in their terms and they were some of the evil who were even crying just because they were able to share this moment. Don i have to say one thing for lee since the. Sophia was turned to a museum during 86 years there were just some. Some minor prayers inside and people feel like they are taking a stumble back from a Foreign Force or something because some of the people that i have spoken to they compare prisons are downwards if i met the khan curator of istanbul and ultimate pair theyre saying that reject a fire down to a gear sophia back when you ask from whom they say it was supposed to be a mosque yes but as you know theres been a lot of criticism of her to want to and turkey from countries like the u. S. The European Union greece the vatican what do people say about this criticism in turkey and do most turks support this move to convert high gas of fear back to a mosque. Well. Sophia is a unesco World Heritage so this is very important that the historical structure everything is preserved as it is while switching its al touring sophias status from a museum to a mosque this is a very primary and delicate issue and to turkish officials have promised that everything will be preserved and. The work that is going to be handled inside i guess sophia will be in line with the procedures but the Orthodox Church i guess sophia means a lot because i guess sophia is the symbol of Orthodox Church the patriarch told a couple of weeks ago that opening a 5 year sophia as a mosque a gang will be disappointing for millions of christians on the other hand there are some other criticisms from European Countries a United States secretary of state he also said that they would they would like to see i guess sophia as a museum as a nonpartial. As an you know nonpartial status but of course at the end of the day this is seen as a National Sovereignty issue turkeys an independent country and its turkish territory but greek has been the most vocal about its criticism against the decision when you come to turkey at the domestic reactions fully most of the turkish people the majority supported the decision some of them believe that this is sophia is a very important religious place some of them so it is an independence sovereignty issue and a majority of the turkish electorate is conservative and religious and nationalist thats why the majority gave support but of course there are critics especially from the main Opposition Forces main Opposition Leader was invited to the prayer here but he didnt attend in the prayer on the other hand some see that party the ruling party is losing ground and this is a way of president don trying to console date its conservative religious electorate you very much for that seen him go see real life or is there in istanbul. In other world news relations between 2 of the worlds superpowers are deteriorating even further in the latest diplomatic twist china has ordered the u. S. To shut down its consulate in the southwestern city of chengdu as in retaliation for what Chinas Foreign Ministry calls an unjustified act on tuesday. When chinas measures a legitimate and necessary response to unjust acts of the us it conforms with International Law basic norms and International Relations and customary diplomatic practices the Current Situation in bilateral relations is not what china wants to see and the u. S. Is responsible for all of us earlier this week washington gave beijing 72 hours to leave its consulate in the texan city of houston china says that move violated International Law the u. S. Insists its necessary to protect American Intellectual property the u. S. Secretary of state might bump ale has doubled down on the allegations describing chinas houston consulate as a hobby of spying his katrina you now with more on chinas reaction from han. When bin who is a Foreign Ministry spokesperson in beijing he fronted the press to basically reiterated the the message that was released by the former Foreign Ministry earlier today on friday but he also then said that some officials working in the time do consulate have been engaging in activities which do not accord with their identities and that china has raised this several times with the u. S. And the u. S. Is aware of this when he was pushed further on exactly what he meant he didnt give any of the details but quite a vague statement there we dont know that accusation is leveled at the chinese stop all 50 all the of the 50 american u. S. Officials who work in the time do office but it does give some insight as to why theyve targeted that particular consulate at the moment we do know there are about 200 staff working there and that is have quite a colorful history as well in 2012 the Party Secretary of of the chain which is a big region that both she lived his right hand man one legion actually fled to that consulate in time do to try to seek asylum after he levels accusations against bushie like it was later found guilty in china that could be one reason now that wasnt mentioned by Chinas Foreign Ministry but that is what many people think of when they think of the list also because of its location in the southwest of china its also considered to be quite listening post for the u. S. When it comes to any happening is the issues around tibet ocean junk so thats also possibly why it was targeted. Now the consulate closures are the latest in a series of disputes between the u. S. And china they include donald trump blaming china for the worldwide coronavirus pandemic china accuses the us president of trying to deflect attention from his own mishandling of the crisis chinas president xi jinping imposed tariffs in our series of tift for tat measures in their trade war theyve since managed to move ahead with a socalled phase one trade deal but further negotiations as told and then there is while wait china denies the Telecoms Company is a Security Threat but the u. S. Has banned huawei and convinced allies such as britain to do the same when i speak to joel rubin about this hes a former Deputy Assistant secretary of state under u. S. President obama and he now heads up a strategic consultancy and joins us live from washington d. C. Thank you very much for being with us mr rubin i understand that you once served in the chandu consulates this is quite a significant consulate that beijing decided to close in retaliation to the closure of its mission in houston 1st of all what do you make of the response from china and is it a proportionate one. Well we are slipping it appears into a new cold war and its this strange combination that we have right now in our american politics which is that domestic political pressure combined with longstanding grievances and concerns between the United States and china and its really dynamic doesnt seem to have any brakes on it are there no guardrails no travel to chengdu as a private tourist last year and traveling the country in china and its a beautiful country that people once he gets in know americans that want to engage and unfortunately right now the governments of particular are engaged in these kinds of tit for tat dynamics that you described that are putting the people in a vise and separating the people and potentially leading to more serious issues on our economic relationship and certainly our security relationships are its a very tense moment secretary of state michael has been out front on this fresh a campaign against china traveling to various capital in recent days as weve seen to london copenhagen as well and calling on washington and its allies to use what he called more creative in a sense his way a set of ways to press the Chinese Communist party to change its ways how far and as a Trump Administration winning to go with this strategy and what is ultimately is it trying to achieve what is it trying to achieve ultimately. Well what the administration is doing is clearly a coordinated campaign right now from inside the Trump Administration to attack china on multiple fronts but the goal is not clear and theres a broad critique that essentially boils down to we the United States have failed china is getting away with things that they shouldnt be and we have to stop it and thats about where it ends secretary pumpin has not called for regime change in china but he is constantly attacking the Chinese Communist party in language that is very reminiscent of that kind of objective and where does that take us its not clear and with President Trump getting more desperate in this election season its very concerning that his rhetoric will continue to be very hostile to china and try to paint joe biden as a pacifist or somehow. Soft on china but that in the real world can lead to very dangerous policy dynamics like were seeing now conflicts closing are important and dangerous for relations and we cant understate d how impactful this will be on our businesses and on our private citizens do you think relations have reached a point of no return whole can thing still be very very soft in the november election. Well you hit it in this is the key the key challenge is that clearly they could always be reversed but if President Trump is now i think on the path and he appears to be heading on it hes going to be very concerned about politically looking like hes giving to china so he may be asking china like he he did ask apparently according to john boltons book that china help him get reelected and maybe hell come up with a breakthrough but thats a very thats very much guesswork which means that we could see this kind of rhetoric all the way through the election and then a lot of repair work to be done regardless of whos in the white house after november thank you so much for talking to us joel rubin former u. S. Department official joining us live from washington. Less notes more ahead on this news hour including. To have a Big Convention is not the right. Donald trump scrubs the main Republican Convention in florida as a state with or sister launch a single day death toll from coronavirus blast a chemical leak in washington that has led to launch scale environmental damage and his former heavyweight World Champion mike tyson is climbing back into the ring for an exhibition about against another all time great box. Irans foreign minister says the interception of any rainy and passenger jet by u. S. Warplane over syria risked disaster. Tweeted that the u. S. Illegally occupies territory of another state and then harasses a scheduled civil and liner endangering innocent civilian passenger is ostensibly to protect his Occupation Forces he says as the audacity to compound lawlessness upon lawlessness is outlaws must be stopped before the disaster or the pentagon has confirmed them f. 15 inspected the airplane at a safe distance to ensure it wasnt a hostile craft a number of passengers were injured when the mahaan air pilot abruptly change altitude as in a honda reports. A state of panic among passengers on board flight 1152 the air bus was flying from irans capital to run to beirut in lebanon on thursday night when the iranian city it was harassed by fighter jets data recorded show the airliner climb from 34000 feet to 34600 feet in less than 2 minutes before descending to 34000 feet a minute later irans state t. V. Says several passengers were injured due to the sudden changes in altitude the jet landed. Safely in the lebanese capital. They also want to diminish the when we reach the airspace of syria a fighter jet approached a monoplane in order to avoid colliding with that jet the pilot rapidly decreased altitude and it caused injury for some passengers hours later the u. S. Central command confirmed a u. S. F. 15 was involved in the incident and not israeli warplanes as 1st suspected the u. S. Said the f. 15 was on a routine air mission near the town of coalition base in syria the war plane conducted a standard visual inspection of the airliner at a safe distance says the u. S. And once identified the f. 15 opened distance from the aircraft in line with international standards. Privately owned air has been under u. S. Sanctions for years accused by washington of providing financial material and technological support to irans couldst force which includes the Lebanese Group hezbollah. Accusations that. It brought from that. Very Logistics Support for running back forces in the region so that may well have been one of the reasons why the u. S. Started taking a close look. At u. S. Troops are in the l town of area near syrias borders with iraq in jordan the base was 1st established to fight eisel in 2016 it has since become an outpost to counter irans expansion in the region as its on a supply route linking to iran to be a route that passes through syria the researchers say that this order as basically a no go zone for the. Weather also the weather any other persons reach the incident could have been an unfortunate encounter but many believe it was a method the fact that it came at a time of heightened tensions between iran and the United States in the region caused concern that there have been numerous locations that risk an all out conflict so far to iran and washington have avoided all out confrontation this latest incident in the skies a reminder that the potential for an escalation is real. Beirut. Present donald trump has called off the Republican Party convention in florida where a Record Number of coronavirus thats been reported infections are also soaring in dozens of other u. S. States castro reports from washington. The worlds richest nation has now surpassed its 4000000 known case of coping 19 and its feared the number will only soar whats important about that is the steamroller that it is. The acceleration that this has the rate of new cases is trending upward in 39 states with a Record Number of deaths reported in florida thats where President Trump had planned to speak before a massive crowd at the Republican National convention in august an important moment for his