Years on the turkish president says it remains open for all. And in the skies over syria passengers injured on a new rainy in plane as its tailed by a u. S. Fighter jet. 60 fears over the worlds top selling passenger plane thats concerned about engine failure on boeing 737 surrounded by the coronavirus former and his former Major League Baseball is back in north america after a 4 month delay caused by coronavirus the leak starts with no fans in attendance. Welcome to the news our relations between 2 of the worlds superpowers are deteriorating even further chinese staff and are moving out of their consulate in the u. S. City of houston after washington told beijing to shut the office the u. S. Says its to protect American Intellectual property well Chinas Foreign Ministry called it an unjustified act and in retaliation beijing has ordered the american consulate in the southwestern city of chengdu to close the book with you for. Chinas measures a legitimate and necessary response to unjust acts of the u. S. 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 this the u. S. Secretary of state has doubled down on the allegations describing chinas houston Consular Office as a hub of spying well chinas most senior diplomat has blamed the u. S. For all of the current tensions or wine use commons and to the Foreign Ministrys condemnation katrina you has more from chengdu. Were here in downtown chengdu and this is the new as consulate and there are a lot of policemen here that doesnt Police Officers also are monitoring the crowds this entire street has been blocked off the cars since the chinese Foreign Ministry made the announcement that the u. S. Consulate here would have to close but the best rooms are allowed to walk behind are quite a few of them passing by taking photos taking selfies its become quite a Tourist Destination now china hasnt said exactly why its targeting this consulate all it said though is that there are some u. S. Officials who work here with they say have been engaged in activities that are not consistent with their capacity we also know that its quite a significant operation to the southwest of china deals with us this is nearby acts as an active listening post for events taking place in and tibet now the chinese Foreign Ministry has said that they do not want to do this they did not want to have to close the consulate here but they were false by the u. S. One you chinas top diplomat has laid the blame for the worsening ties between time and us completely at the foot of washington and he says that its up to washington now to mend and rebuild those ties and china says if the u. S. Does not pull back from decision to close the embassy in texas china will have no choice but to hit back measure for measure. Joins us now shes a White House Correspondent joins me from washington d. C. Kimberly i mean this is quite a significant u. S. Consulate thats been closed on the borders of beijing i mean what sort of response are we expecting from the white house. Well the white house maintains that its due to cope with 19 there havent been a lot of activity so the impact will be minimal but theres no question that the broader concerns is this was a major commercial how where the United States was operating now the statement coming from the National Security council in just the last hour or so with regard to all of this particularly also with regard to the decision to close the consulate in Houston Texas where china was operating they say and accuse china of using that consulate in houston as a hub for illegal spying and influence operations and so they say that this closure was taken to protect American Intellectual property and americans private information and then theyre now calling on china to see some malign actions rather to then to engage in tit for tat retaliation pointing to the order of the closure of the american consulate general in chengdu now in the midst of all of this we should also tell you about some developing story that is coming out of california San Francisco to be specific what we know is that there was a chinese scientists that the United States says was taking safe harbor inside the consulate general in that city now according to u. S. Authorities in the last hour or so or at least according to reports from u. S. Authorities that scientist has now been arrested on visa fraud charges and will be appearing in court in california we understand friday morning now just to give you a quick background on that case and this all underscores the tensions between the 2 countries that are continuing to heighten the United States alleges that this scientist was here not to do research in biology at the university of california davis but instead was working for chinas military so that is the developing story. Out of california in just the last few moments can be do see that the endgame is very unclear here at the moment because these 2 countries still need to talk to each other on various levels on which they agree and sometimes disagree but they also need to talk to each of their own trade so there are huge issues ahead for both beijing and washington in the coming days and weeks. The United States feels that the endgame is very clear and theyre making it clear after 40 years of what they say has been a relationship of strategic competition you know the United States has held a Conference Call with reporters in just the last hour top of a Security Officials seeking to reporters making the argument that there comes a time when enough is enough what theyre feeling is that they have repeatedly extended an arm to china they cite meetings in new york city at last month even in hawaii before that requesting that what they call criminal behavior on the part of china inside the United States whether it was intellectual property theft with there it was back to or espionage the repeated requests for Mutual Respect to add a cease of what they call the line activities and that these requests were not written were not acknowledged were not rescinded in any way and as a result the diplomatic niceties had to stop and so the issue coming from the United States as they say there was not reciprocal respect when it came to diplomats in the United States that there were these other activities are being conducted and the United States decided that they had to take a stand and thats what theyve done for the committee how could all White House Correspondent thank you. The consular closures are the latest in a series of disputes they include donald trump blaming china for the worldwide coronavirus pandemic skimpily just mentioned china accuses the u. S. President of trying to deflect attention from his own mishandling of the crisis trump and chinas president xi jinping impose steep tariffs in a series of reciprocal moves in their trade war that is managed to move ahead with a socalled phase one trade deal but further negotiations have stalled then theres one way china denies the Telecoms Company is a Security Threat but the u. S. Has ban war way and convince allies such as the United Kingdom to do the same and it tangan advises the Chinese Government on political and Economic Affairs he says trump is manufacturing a crisis to boost his chances of reelection. At this point there is a scowl is going on in peoples mind that donald trump has about 3 more months as an act president and then 3 months when hopefully he will step down from the presidency no ones really sure about that from the chinese perspective they understand that this is all about reelection and that donald trump is trying to push their buttons trying to manufacture an incident so that he can then claim that if you dont vote for him youre not patriotic this would require him to get some sort of you know if a boat rams into an american boat or Something Like that but it seems like hes really pushing that in addition to all of these things between what pompei i was saying between the actions which blindsided everybody i dont think anybody would accept that they were about to close the houston consulate there is this issue of more boats sailing into disputed waters of the south china seas more navigation at the scene calculate in order to create an incident which donald trump thinks would be to key to his reelection its clear that donald trump will continue with these types of actions he wants surprise he wants to get a reaction its also a very good way of taking attention away from the coast that 19 deaths and infections and his heart in it the president all from polls called off the Republican Party convention in florida where a Record Number of credit or thefts are being reported infections are also soaring in dozens of other u. S. States had to cancer reports now from washington d. C. 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 Reelection Campaign but now those events are canceled i care deeply about the people of florida and everywhere else frankly in this country and even in the world who would be coming into the state and i dont want to do anything to upset it 143000 people have died of the corona virus in the United States and medical experts warn many more deaths are to come those numbers tend to rise about a month after an uptick in cases but President Trump trying to downplay the threat saying that problems and hot spots will all work out your sissie a lot of the country is has has no problem whatsoever trump also claims states have all the emergency supplies they could possibly need despite pleas from some doctors that life saving equipment is running out we have no. Gods we are not anybody to do got a season of who should lead or who should die however when you have well hes called a mass casualty situation there are a guy that used to be fired all of that makes you war you know a more efficient manner and then mock not a bit of people meanwhile the u. S. Economy nears another precipice with expanded Unemployment Benefits expiring at the end of the month and he vixens resuming at the end of the Week Congress will debate yet another rescue measure in coming days castro aljazeera washington. Plenty more ahead here on the aljazeera news hour including consistent process against israels Prime Minister will be asking if the young can support. The growing standoff over space rusher is accused of launching a until satellite and was once 4 former heavyweight champion my talents is returning to the boxing ring and it will be here with that story. Its a world famous landmark revered by both muslims and christians now turkeys haggis of fear has gone from museum to mosque. Thousands gathered in istanbul for the 1st friday prayers in nearly 86 years turkeys president reza urban also attended he declared last week the structure of originally would once again be converted into a mosque after a court ruling it was an Orthodox Christian cathedral. We go to please to make great people were eager to pray here thousands participate in the prison we came together to pray the government and the authorities concerned to do the necessary renovations the new 100 years of fear mosque will be something great that makes us very proud to always be open for our citizens visitors and the tourists as well the hagia sophia has changed several times as 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 known as stumble in 1453. 00 the city fell to the ottomans after a 55. 00 day siege i. Q. Severe was converted into a mosque almost 500 years later in 1935 it became a Secular Museum reflecting the inclusive vision of istanbul after the fall of the Ottoman Empire turkeys highest Court Ordered the conversion of the u. S. To World Heritage site back to a mosque earlier this month as a supporter of the switch which angered christian religious leaders and politicians from around the world lets join our correspondents in pursuit of his life for us here in istanbul and of course a big day for the city an important political day for the president. Exactly so her for the president especially who has been actually against to turn her years of fear from a museum to a mosque it was a very big day because 2 years ago again. Transforming i guess sophia mosca again was on the agenda and at that time president don refuted the. Idea by saying that even the blue mosque doesnt have enough. Piers during the day so there is no need to. Turn our gear sophia to a mosque but in the last couple of months in the last one year actually he has been very wachler about it and its a day he was very happy because he felt like he did what the history gave to turkey for conservative societies electorate of turkey and nationalist ones as well along with some pro islamist electorate in turkey keeping the hagia sophia as a museum was actually heartbreaking for them they felt like they were cut off their roots were cut off from their history however the reason why how your sophia was turned into a museum was more than related to the then a geo political realities of the country that was built in 1923 to keep it short it was a very big day for president darfur for the turks as well because what our john said after the prayer was 350000 joined prayers in istanbul today around i guess sophia and we know that thousands of people from across other cities in turkey and they they came with buses just to be able to pray today in high gear sophia of course everything was under tight security measures and this Big Organization to place met with 900 crisis turkey has been controlling the core of it called it crisis carefully however the number of the. The cases are still pretty high according to Health Minister and the Governors Office during the whole day was making announcements to maintain social this is to be a 2 way or medical mass on the faces and to use senate sizes during the day but it was a big day for everyone especially for those who were craving to be able to pray and i guess a fear for years. In istanbul thank you for all the foreign minister has warned that the interception of an iranian passenger jet by a u. S. Warplane over syria risks disaster Iranian State television says several passengers were injured as the pilots took evasive action. Is on the u. S. Sanctions list for supporting irans revolutionary guard and hezbollah fighters in lebanon cynical reports from the lebanese capital beirut. A state of panic among passengers on board flight 1152 the airbus was flying from irans capital tehran to beirut in lebanon on thursday night when the iranians say 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. Want to diminish when we reached 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 want identified the f. 15 opened distance from the aircraft in line with International Standards a 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. Graph from that airliner used to carry the juicy support for running back forces in the region so that may well have been one of the reasons why the u. S. Side are taking a cl