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Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​.Daily DebunkClaim: Asymptomatic spread of coronavirus is “very rare.”Verdict: MisleadingRead the full story at: Health FeedbackSocial Media DisinfoScreenshotCirculating on social media: Claim that Samsung is running a giveaway to help students who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: PesaCheck​Factual Reads on CoronavirusThe ever-expanding list of COVID-19 symptoms
We last wrote about COVID-19 symptoms at the end of April. Since then, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has added several new symptoms of possible infection: congestion, runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea.
— MITMedical, August 11
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US President Donald Trump announced a deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations between the two countries.  “This is a truly historic moment,” Trump said, during a White House ceremony, Aug. 13, 2020.
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Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai, who has been released on bail after his arrest Monday, said Thursday he has accepted imprisonment as his “destiny” and that the widespread support he has received proves his struggle for democracy is a worthy cause.Lai, 71, was one of 10 people arrested Monday for violating the national security law imposed by China on July 1. Among them, two were his sons, four were senior executives at Lai’s Next Digital company, and three were activists, including 23-year-old Agnes Chow. Local news reports say he was released on bail and that $6.5 million of his assets have been frozen.The arrest of Lai, a high-profile supporter of the pro-democracy movement, and the police raid on the Apple Daily newspaper owned by Next Digital this week have stoked widespread fears of the end of Hong Kong as a city where information and opinions are freely aired.Speaking in public for the first time since his release, Lai said in an Apple Daily live link Thursday morning that he had his moments of doubt when he was handcuffed and struggled to sleep on the floor in custody.“If I knew I would end up here, or eventually in prison, would I have changed myself?” he said has asked himself.“[But] my character is my destiny. Once I accepted my destiny, all of a sudden, I felt the grace of God, the blessing of God, and I was totally relieved. And I left myself to my destiny and accepted it,” said Lai, a Catholic.“It was such a wonderful feeling … culminating in such a situation. It was like God telling me, ‘Don’t fear, just do what you have to do, I’m with you,’” he said.He said he was overwhelmed by the public support for him and his paper.After Apple Daily’s office was raided by around 200 police officers, Next Digital’s share price more than doubled on Monday and rocketed five times again the next day to reach a six-year high.The paper said it printed 550,000 copies of Tuesday’s paper, compared with the usual run of around 70,000. People lined up in the early hours of Tuesday to buy the paper, which sold out across Hong Kong. Some bought multiple copies to leave on the streets for others.Lai said he was filled with emotion when he was released, to be greeted by supporters, who were shouting for joy. He said the images of 200 police officers raiding the newsroom have angered many as it was “a violation of the people’s belief in the freedom of the speech.”“It shows that people really support us, they give us so much comfort to be part of this community,” he said. “I was so touched. This has reaffirmed that whatever I’ve done wrong in the past, what I’m doing now is right. The message is: ‘Let’s go on!’”Likening freedom to oxygen, he said, “The oxygen is getting thin, we’re all choking, [but] we’re still taking care of each other and we keep resisting and fighting for the rule of law and freedoms.”Lai said he was relieved that he had not been taken to mainland China and the police who dealt with his case were Hong Kongers.However, as Lai’s charges included subversion and collusion with a foreign country, which are new offenses under the new national security law, analysts have warned that under the law’s Clause 55 and 56, he risks being sent to China for trial, and could be given the maximum, life imprisonment.After Lai’s arrest, the Chinese government’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office accused him and his paper of being a mastermind behind protests in Hong Kong, using his media platforms to “fabricate and spread rumors and to incite and support violence,” and of providing financial support for anti-China and pro-independence forces.It called for “severe punishment” of those who “collude with foreign forces” and “act as their agents” to harm national security by “secession, subversion and infiltration.”Lai said China does not understand that Hong Kong’s best assets are the rule of law and its civil liberties, and that they are the foundation of its success as an international financial center. He conceded, though, that Hong Kongers are helpless against such a powerful country.“It’s a long fight, I agree. We cannot be radical, we cannot confront them face to face,” he said.  “We are just eggs and they’re the wall. We have to be flexible and innovative, and patient but to achieve [our goal], that’s the way.”Wiping away tears from time to time during the livestream, Lai said the international support meant “what we are doing is right.”“I am in my 70s and there was never a time when I felt so moved and so happy, knowing that I’ve been doing the right thing. I’m near the end of my life, it’s a very precious feeling,” he said.
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Police in the northwestern U.S. city of Portland, Oregon, used tear gas Wednesday night to disperse protesters at a building that houses a police precinct and jail.Authorities declared the latest in what have been several months of nightly protests a riot and said some demonstrators engaged in criminal activity that included setting fires and lighting fireworks outside a federal courthouse.The protests began after the death in police custody of George Floyd in the state of Minnesota, with those in Portland and many other places across the country calling for police reforms and steps to address racial inequality.Portland gained prominence when federal agents deployed there in July over the objections of local officials.They have since withdrawn. 
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One of Iran’s most prominent jailed dissidents, human rights defenders and lawyers, Nasrin Sotoudeh, has begun a second hunger strike to protest the refusal of the country’s Islamist rulers to free political prisoners endangered by coronavirus outbreaks in notorious Iranian jails.Speaking to VOA Persian in a Tuesday interview from Tehran, Sotoudeh’s husband, Reza Khandan, said his wife started her latest hunger strike earlier in the day at the city’s Evin prison, where she has been detained since June 2018. He said Sotoudeh made the hunger strike open-ended but could halt the protest if at least some of her demands are met.Khandan also shared with VOA an August 11 letter written by his wife and addressed to human rights defenders, explaining why she was demanding the release of political prisoners such as herself from overcrowded and unsanitary Iranian jails infested with the coronavirus.“The conditions of political prisoners [in Iran] have become so difficult that it is impossible to continue their detention under these oppressive conditions,” Sotoudeh wrote.Iran temporarily released tens of thousands of prisoners from its prisons in March as the nation’s coronavirus outbreak intensified but refused to release dissidents sentenced to more than five years in prison for peaceful activities designated as national security offenses.Sotoudeh said many such dissidents were now eligible for conditional parole under recent reforms to Iranian law, but authorities were denying them their rights to seek judicial relief.Khandan said his wife had written to prison and judiciary officials several times in recent months to raise concerns about living conditions in jails, the ability of inmates to meet visitors face to face, denials of prisoners’ leave requests and lengthy prison sentences handed to dissidents. He said she received no response to her letters.“As all correspondences remain unanswered, I am going on a hunger strike,” Sotoudeh wrote in concluding her August 11 letter.In a separate VOA Persian interview on Wednesday, Sotoudeh’s lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, expressed concern that she could suffer severe mental and physical distress by refusing food because of her history of underlying health problems.“On the other hand, we have to give the hunger-striker the right to decide for herself what to do,” he said.My client Nasrin Sotoudeh announced today, August 12, in a letter; She has gone on a hunger strike to protest the unjust and illegal situation of political prisoners, which has been exacerbated by the outbreak of Corona. pic.twitter.com/OIANs7mJwV— Mohammad Moghimi (@DUSrp0Boo1KdJmr) August 10, 2020Moghimi said Sotoudeh was not protesting for personal benefit but to help Iranian society as a whole.“Her demands are legitimate, and Iran’s leaders must address them,” he said.Sotoudeh last began a hunger strike on March 16 and continued it for several weeks as she made similar demands of Iranian authorities.Khandan told the U.N. Human Rights Office in a video message in May that Iran responded to Sotoudeh’s most recent hunger strike by granting temporary releases to several prisoners, including women held in Evin. However, he said authorities refused to furlough dissidents charged with serious offenses and sentenced to long prison terms.Khandan previously has said his wife is serving a more than 30-year sentence for alleged national security offenses related to her work. Prior to Sotoudeh’s 2018 arrest, she defended Iranian women detained for removing their compulsory hijabs or headscarves in acts of public protest against Iran’s ruling clerics. Rights activists have said she must serve 12 years before being eligible for parole.Khandan, who is himself a rights activist, was detained in September 2018 and charged with subversion for publicly campaigning for the release of his wife. He was released in December 2018 and sentenced the following month to six years in prison but has remained free pending an appeal.دادستان تهران حساب‌های بانکی نسرین را مسدود کرده است. به نظر می‌رسد این اقدام، سرآغاز توقیف اموال خانواده است.
مراجعات…Posted by Reza Khandan on Monday, July 27, 2020In a July 27 Facebook post, Khandan said he learned that a Tehran prosecutor had frozen his wife’s accounts at Pasargad Bank in an apparent effort to pressure the couple financially. He vowed not to remain silent in the face of what he called an “inhumane act.”In his VOA interview, Khandan said he was concerned that Iranian authorities may seize the assets and property of other activists as well.“This is a serious danger to all political prisoners and rights activists in Iran,” he said.There was no comment in Iranian state media about Sotoudeh’s new hunger strike or the latest remarks made by her husband.This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Click here and here for the original Persian versions of the story.
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Peru is reimposing Sunday curfews and banning family gatherings in response to a new surge in coronavirus infections.In announcing the return of a curfew first introduced in April, President Martin Vizcarra blamed the spike in COVID-19 cases on large social gatherings.The curfew prohibits people from leaving home on Sundays unless they have special passes given to essential professionals such as medical workers.The president said his administration believes it is better to go back one step so that citizens are all responsible again for “recovering the conditions that we would all like to have.”Vizcarra also said a COVID-19 vaccine is expected to be available in the first months of next year.Peru, which trails only Brazil and Mexico in coronavirus cases in Latin America, has confirmed more than 590,000 cases and more than 21,700 deaths.
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The World Health Organization is making a worldwide appeal for $76 million in aid to Lebanon a week after a massive explosion in Beirut devastated the port and destroyed hospitals, clinics and stores of medical supplies.“In particular, we are concerned about the return of COVID-19 in Lebanon. We have launched an appeal for $76 million and ask the international community to support the Lebanese people and show solidarity with them in every way possible,” WHO regional program director Rana Hajjeh said.She added that the WHO is also concerned about the psychological suffering of those who were wounded, lost loved ones or are homeless after the blast.WHO officials said the explosion put three hospitals totally out of commission and left three others only partially open. It cut the number of hospital beds by as many as 600.  Half of Beirut’s 55 primary health care clinics cannot function.WHO emergencies director Rick Brennan said there were 309 new coronavirus cases in Lebanon on Tuesday and that people, including those at hospitals, have relaxed protective measures.The WHO has already brought in tons of medical and surgical supplies, including protective gear, and reported that 11 emergency medical teams from around the world are in Beirut.Ammonium nitrate that had likely been improperly stored at the port for years is the widely suspected cause of the August 4 explosion in Beirut that killed at least 170 people and injured 6,000.The blast also destroyed or heavily damaged buildings across the Lebanese capital.  
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