Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​.Daily DebunkClaim: “More cops have died from COVID this year than have been killed on patrol.” Former U.S. vice president and Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden, August 31.Verdict: Mostly TrueRead the full story at: PolitiFact Social Media DisinfoScreenshot Circulating on social media: Claim that a video shows a rally against coronavirus restrictions in the British capital of London.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: Agence France-Presse
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The U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday that 881,000 workers filed for unemployment compensation last week, only the second time the weekly figure has dropped below a million claims since the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the American economy starting in March.Millions of workers remain unemployed in the United States, although economists are predicting that the jobless rate for August could dip slightly below 10% when it is announced Friday, a steady improvement from the April unemployment rate of 14.7%, but still well above the country’s five-decade low of 3.5% recorded in February.U.S. employers have called back millions of workers who were laid off during mandatory business shutdowns earlier this year, yet some hard-hit businesses have been slow to ramp up their operations again or have closed permanently, leaving workers idled or searching for new employment.Until the end of July, the national government sent an extra $600 a week to unemployed workers on top of less generous state jobless benefits. With Trump administration negotiators and opposition Democratic lawmakers unable to reach an agreement on how long to extend the federal benefit and for how much, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for $400 a week in extra payments for a few weeks.But only a handful of state governments have started delivering the reduced payments to jobless workers, although 41 of the 50 states have said they will do so in the coming weeks.Congress and the White House remain at odds on how much to spend on a new coronavirus relief package for unemployed workers, hard-hit businesses and financially burdened state and local governments. The Trump administration is calling for a $1.3 trillion package, while the Democrats want $2.2 trillion.The unchecked coronavirus pandemic has now killed more than 185,000 people in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University figures, and caused the economy to plummet.On Wednesday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported that the amount of debt held by the U.S. government by the end of 2020 will roughly equal the size of the American economy and will surpass it in 2021.The CBO said the fiscal imbalance has not been seen in the United States since the end of World War II.By the end of this year, the congressional analysts said the amount of debt owed by the U.S. will amount to 98% of the nation’s gross domestic product of about $19 trillion and surpass the U.S. economy’s size next year.The reason is simple: vast government aid to businesses, most U.S. households and unemployed workers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic has ballooned the government’s spending deficit.The U.S added 1.8 million jobs in July, fewer than the job gains in May and June, an indication that hiring had slowed as a second wave of coronavirus infections in the U.S. surged in June and more than doubled by mid-July, forcing employers to close their businesses again.Economists say that the U.S. possibly added about 1.3 million new jobs in August, but it was a figure that was inflated temporarily by the Census Bureau’s hiring of about 240,000 workers to help conduct the once-a-decade count of the U.S. population.
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The U.S. space agency, NASA and aerospace firm Northrop Grumman Wednesday conducted a full-scale test of a rocket motor, known as a “Flight Support Booster” or “FSB-1,” that will power the first Artemis mission to the moon.During the test at Northrop Grumman’s facility in Promontory, Utah, the 47-meter booster motor was anchored to the ground horizontally, and fired for just over two minutes, producing 1.6 million kilograms of thrust.NASA and Northrop Grumman will use data from the test to evaluate the motor’s performance using potential new materials and processes that can be incorporated into future boosters. NASA has contracted Northrop Grumman to build boosters for future rocket flights.Researchers Discover First Intermediate-size Black HoleAstronomers say they have discovered evidence of the first intermediate-size black hole, created by merger of two smaller black holesTwo similar boosters will be used on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket the space agency has ever built. They will provide 75 percent of the power needed to send the rocket into space. NASA says the SLS is the only rocket that can send the space craft, Orion, astronauts and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.NASA plans to send the first woman and next man to the lunar surface by 2024, with a goal of exploring Mars targeted for the mid-2030s.The successful test sets the stage for a planned launch, without crew, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida next year, before a crewed launch in 2023.In Greek mythology, Artemis is both the goddess of the moon and the twin sister of Apollo.
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Asian markets were trading mixed Thursday.Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index finished 0.9% higher. The S&P/ASX index in Australia was up 0.8%. South Korea’s KOSPI index gained 1.3%, and the TSEC index in Taiwan finished 0.4%.In late afternoon trading, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is down 0.9%. Shanghai’s Composite index is 0.6% lower, and the Sensex in Mumbai is down 0.2%.In commodities trading, gold is selling at $1,935.20 an ounce, down 0.4%. U.S. crude oil is trading at $41.40 an ounce, down 0.2%, and the global benchmark Brent crude is trading at $44.25 an ounce, down 0.4%.The Dow Jones, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are all trending negatively in futures trading. 
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An Iranian wrestler sentenced to death for allegedly killing a security guard during an antigovernment protest in 2018 has had his sentence upheld by Iran’s top court — despite retracting a confession he said was made under torture, according to a knowledgeable source.In a Monday interview with VOA Persian, the source, who is close to the family of Navid Afkari Sangari, said the Iranian Supreme Court upheld Afkari’s death sentence in an August 15 ruling, bringing him a step closer to potential execution. The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency confirmed the Supreme Court’s decision in a Monday tweet without specifying the ruling’s date.   #رشتوقتل فجیع کارمند سازمان آب منطقه ای شیراز بدست نوید افکاری، ثبت تصویر جنایت نوید افکاری در زمان قتل توسط دوربین‌های مداربسته، نقشه ترور دیگری توسط نوید افکاری که ناکام ماند، دروغ شکنجه چطور برملا شد؟ /— خبرگزاری میزان (@MizanNewsAgency) August 31, 2020Afkari is a 27-year-old Iranian freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestler from the south-central city of Shiraz who has won medals in domestic and international competitions.A criminal court in Fars province, of which Shiraz is the capital, had handed Afkari the death penalty for murder in the killing of a local security guard of a government water facility on August 2, 2018. The killing of Hassan Torkaman happened on the sidelines of antigovernment protests in Shiraz and other cities against Iran’s worsening economic conditions, including a sharp loss in the value of the national currency.Authorities in Shiraz had arrested Afkari and his brother, Vahid, in connection with the killing on September 17, 2018, and detained a third brother, Habib, later that year. All three have remained in detention and separated from each other in Shiraz’s Adel Abad prison.The Fars criminal court that sentenced Navid to death also handed Vahid a 27-year prison term for allegedly being an accessory to murder.All three brothers also have been convicted by a separate Revolutionary Court in Shiraz of multiple national security offenses for alleged involvement in the killing of Torkaman and the antigovernment protests that coincided with it. That court imposed a second death sentence on Navid for “moharebeh” or “enmity against God” and 27-year prison terms on Vahid and Habib for allegedly colluding with him.The Revolutionary Court sentences for the three brothers remain in an appeal process.The Supreme Court’s upholding of the criminal court’s death sentence against Navid  places his fate in the hands of Iranian judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi. Navid’s lawyer, Hassan Younesi, can ask Raisi to consider suspending the death sentence under Article 477 of Iran’s Code of Criminal Procedure, under which Raisi can order the Supreme Court to overturn a verdict that he deems to be “in contravention of Sharia [Islamic law]” and issue a new one.It is not clear if Younesi has asked or will ask Raisi to consider overturning the death sentence. There is no time limit for such a request and there has been no word on what Raisi will do.The source who spoke to VOA said the three brothers’ convictions primarily were based on confessions extracted under torture during interrogations. The source said both Navid and Vahid told court officials they had been tortured into confessing, but their statements were ignored.مادر نوید و وحید افکاری، از بازداشت‌شدگان اعتراض‌های مرداد۹۷، در ویدیویی اعلام کرد: «از هر کسی صدای من را می‌شنود تقاضای کمک دارم برای احکام ناحق و ناعادلانه‌ای که به پسرانم داده‌اند.» به گزارش هرانا، نوید افکاری به ۲ بار اعدام و وحید به حبس سنگین محکوم شده‌ است./۱ pic.twitter.com/JjDovVXDVS— مهدیه گلرو (@mahdieh_golroo) August 30, 2020In a video message recorded by the Afkari brothers’ mother, Behieh Namjoo, and posted to social media on August 30, she lamented what she said was the torture of her three sons. She said Vahid had attempted suicide twice in response to pressure to incriminate his two brothers.Navid and Vahid shared their own accounts of being tortured in audio messages recorded in prison and posted to Twitter by Iranian rights activist Alireza Roshan on August 30 and 31.صدای #نویدافکاری#نویدرانکشیدhttps://t.co/XBtkXIe9yZpic.twitter.com/RUkADWs5YU— علیرضا روشن (@alirezaroashan) August 30, 2020In Navid’s recording, he said a Shiraz medical examiner had looked at injuries that he sustained in prison including a broken right hand and concluded that they were caused by torture.صدای وحید افکاری، زندانی و برادر #نویدافکاری. درباره جلسه دادگاه به ریاست قاضی تهمتن می‌گوید.#نویدرانکشیدhttps://t.co/WBDTG6vFjdpic.twitter.com/flKJrU9QUx— علیرضا روشن (@alirezaroashan) August 31, 2020Vahid said interrogators had placed a plastic bag over his head, beat him with chains for hours and struck the bottom of his feet with a club.In addition to forced confessions, VOA’s source said the lack of proper legal representation for the Afkari brothers also made their verdicts unfair. The source said Iranian authorities have denied Navid and Vahid the lawyers of their choice, forcing them to be represented by a government appointee, while Habib has had no lawyer to represent him.While Younesi, the government-appointed lawyer, was not whom the Afkari brothers originally wanted to represent them, he has publicly rejected one of the prosecution’s main pieces of evidence beyond the retracted confessions.هیچ تصویری از لحظه ارتکاب جرم ( قتل مرحوم حسن ترکمان کارمند حراست اداره آبفا) وجود ندارد. فیلم مورد ادعا مربوط به یک ساعت قبل از زمان قتل است . توضیحات به زودی منتشر خواهد شد #نوید_افکاریhttps://t.co/9CEBTp6myV— hassan younesi (@hassan_younesi) August 31, 2020In a Monday tweet, Younesi said the evidence that had been presented at trial, namely security camera footage of the street where Torkaman had been killed, had been recorded an hour before the time of the incident rather than during or after it.“There is not one shred of evidence in this damned case that shows I’m guilty,” Navid said in his audio recording. “But they don’t want to listen to us. I realized they are looking for a neck for their rope,” he added.The source said the Afkari family has lost hope that the Iranian judiciary will act to absolve the three brothers of wrongdoing. “They are asking for help from the international community to prove their innocence,” the source said.Many Iranian social media users have responded to the brothers’ plight in recent days by tweeting messages of opposition to the harsh sentences imposed on them.This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Click here for the original Persian version of the story. 
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Mexican authorities say three people are under arrest after the navy intercepted a speedboat allegedly carrying 2.9 tons of cocaine east of Mahahual, Quintana Roo.The Mexican navy released video of Tuesday’s dramatic high-speed drug bust, during which Mexican Marines were lowered from helicopter onto the speedboat.The navy said, the boat was stopped because it was being driven in an erratic manner at a high speed.Authorities say the drugs were concealed in 74 packages.The military did not reveal details about the origin of the drugs or its expected destination.  
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Amid an escalation of tensions between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas government, Palestinians have launched hundreds of incendiary devices carried by balloons over the border into Israel. Now, Israel has developed a laser defense system – the first of its kind in the world – to shoot them down. Linda Gradstein reports from Kibbutz Kisufim near Israel’s border with Gaza.
Camera: Ricki Rosen, Agencies, Courtesy
Produced by: Barry Unger
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A Slovak court is expected to rule Thursday on whether an influential businessman ordered the murder of an investigative journalist, in a case that prompted mass street protests and led to the reshaping of the country’s political landscape.The killing of Jan Kuciak, 27, and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova forced then prime minister and longtime leader Robert Fico to step down, and ushered in a new government in March this year whose main election promise was to clean up sleaze.FILE – Demonstrators light up their mobile phones as they attend an anti-government protest rally in reaction to last year’s killing of the investigative reporter Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova in Bratislava, Slovakia, Sept. 20, 2019.The couple were gunned down in their home outside Bratislava in February 2018, in a killing that mirrored the murder in Malta four months earlier of another journalist investigating corruption, Daphne Caruana Galizia.Bringing Kuciak’s killers to justice has been a test of Slovakia’s judicial and political system, long seen as susceptible to corruption.The verdict has been postponed from August, and it is still possible that it may be postponed again after the prosecution asked to present additional evidence.Prosecutors say Slovak entrepreneur Marian Kocner, the subject of Kuciak’s reporting on corruption involving politically connected business people, had ordered the killing of the reporter. Kocner denies the charge.The investigation has forced the resignation of several senior politicians and judicial officials on account of their previous links to Kocner.Prosecutors are seeking a 25-year jail sentence for Kocner and for each of his two co-defendants.FILE- People celebrate the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Fico as a way out of the political crisis triggered by the slayings of journalist Jan Kuciak, during a rally in Bratislava, Slovakia, March 16, 2018.Two others have already been convicted in the case after admitting guilt. One of them, a former soldier, received 23 years in prison for killing Kuciak and his girlfriend, while a fifth suspect admitted to facilitating the murder and was given a 15-year sentence.Kocner, who is well-known in Slovak business and political circles, has already received a 19-year sentence in a separate case after being convicted of forging 69 million euros in promissory notes.Slovaks’ anger over the killing of Kuciak and his fiancee and perceptions of persistent graft helped to usher in activist lawyer Zuzana Caputova as the country’s president last year. It also opened the way for Igor Matovic’s outsider Ordinary People party to win a February parliamentary election this year, allowing him to become prime minister. 
 
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Opposition politician Jacob Ngarivhume and award-winning journalist Hopewell Chin’ono were granted bail on Wednesday at their fourth attempt after being detained in July for calling for protests.In separate rulings, the High Court granted their appeals against the ruling of a lower court that had denied them bail, saying its judges had erred.”I remain strong,” Chin’ono told reporters after his release.”(In prison) we have seen what we only used to hear about,” he added. “Now we know and we can write authoritatively about those things.”Zimbabwe opposition politician Jacob Ngarivhume, the leader of Transform Zimbabwe, speaks to the press after his release on bail from Chikurubi Maximum Prison in Harare, Sept. 2, 2020.Ngarivhume was ordered to pay a bond of 50,000 Zimbabwe dollars ($602) and Chin’ono ZW$10,000 ($120), and both must surrender their passports and report to the police three times a week. They have also been barred from tweeting.”His bail conditions are extremely strict,” said Chin’ono’s lawyer Doug Coltart, denouncing the lengthy incarceration as a “huge injustice”.Charged with inciting violence, the high-profile pair head the list of government critics and opposition activists who have been arrested in recent months for voicing concern about Zimbabwe’s deepening crisis.Ngarivhume, the leader of a party called Transform Zimbabwe, called for protests against corruption and the country’s catastrophic economic state, while Chin’ono sent out a tweet supporting that call.The protests were scheduled for July 31 — the second anniversary of a general election controversially won by President Emmerson Mnangagwa — but were then banned on the grounds of coronavirus restrictions.Handing down judgement in Chin’ono’s case, High Court Judge Tawanda Chitapi said the “reasons given by the magistrate in denying him bail are hereby set aside.”He said “the magistrate misdirected in failing to find that the passing of July 31 was a changed circumstance”.Lawyers stage a protest outside the High Court while awaiting a bail hearing for jailed journalist Hopwell Chin’ono, in Harare, Zimbabwe, Sept. 2, 2020.South African missionOutside prison, Ngarivhume said the government had “denied us our freedom” without reason.”Which investor would come to a country where a state, a government goes against you,” he said. “… 45 days to get bail, it’s unbelievable!”More than two dozen people including opposition activists who held flash demonstrations in their neighborhoods were also arrested and freed on bail a day after the banned protests.Those arrested included top writer and Booker Prize nominee Tsitsi Dangarembga.In neighboring South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday he would be sending a second batch of envoys to Zimbabwe within “days” in a fresh attempt to resolve the crisis.A first delegation last month did not meet opposition parties and was widely criticized for failing to confront President Emmerson Mnangagwa about the crackdown on dissent.Western diplomats in Harare last week warned Zimbabwe against using the coronavirus pandemic to crush dissent.Mnangagwa has grown increasingly hostile towards critics since he took over from his longtime despotic predecessor Robert Mugabe, ousted by a coup in 2017.He went on win disputed elections held in July 2018, eight months after Mugabe was tossed out of office.The southern African country has been crippled by decades of mismanagement, and many Zimbabweans complain that the situation has grown worse under Mnangagwa.Inflation has shot to more than 800% and the United Nations says more than two-thirds of the population are food insecure.In July he vowed to “flush out” the “bad apples” attempting to “divide our people” — stoking concern among social activists and opposition figures already targeted by the government.Mnangagwa’s harsh rhetoric and a recent spate of high-profile arrests have sparked outrage on social media.Meantime some 30 lawyers staged a protest and laid fresh white flowers at the entrance of the High Court in Harare, calling for the respect of the constitution and human rights.
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