Children who are born today will grow up in a different world than ours. Climate change is no longer something far away; it is a reality that shapes their future. But that future is not only negative, it mainly depends on the choices we make today. A warmer planet Scientists, such as the IPCC, agree:…
“Europe is warming faster than the rest of the world, even up to twice as fast.” This is often said in the media and in international reports. The statement is not made up; it is supported by organizations such as the Copernicus climate program and reports from the UN climate panel. But the reality is…
“Our rivers are the dirtiest in Europe.” That is what Mieke Schauvliege (Groen) claimed in a TikTok video that circulated this January. During our fact check, experts and other sources made it clear to us that the statement was untrue. Yet that conclusion didn’t feel entirely fair. The inaccuracy of the claim lays mainly in…
On Wednesday 28 January 2026, during the plenary session of the Flemish Parliament, MP Mieke Schauvliege (Groen) stated that Flemish rivers are the dirtiest rivers in Europe. According to Schauvliege, Flanders is facing a “gigantic PFAS problem that is making drinking water way too expensive.” Speaking on behalf of the Flemish green party Groen, she…
As part of the Dutch Formal Budget Presentation in September 2025, the Finance Minister of the Netherlands, Eelco Heinen, said that poverty in the Netherlands has gone down. Though still many people are at risk to slide into poverty and the severity of poverty increases, the claim turns out to be true. Behind this statement…
On the 22nd of February 2025, Flemish right-wing satirical news outlet ‘tScheldt published an article in which they claimed that the Flemish weekly magazine Knack had been receiving US taxpayer money for years. ‘tScheldt claimed this money was being used to spread woke ideologies abroad. The claim turns out to be mostly false. ‘tScheldt is a…
On September 7, 2022, Joachim Kuhs, Member of the European Parliament for Germany, declared on Twitter: “Herd immunity (in Germany) has already been reached: The infection control law is not necessary”. This claim turns out to be mostly false. Kuhs is part of Germany’s far-right opposition party AfD, which works against the government’s infection control…
On the 31st of March 2022, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, called via Twitter for the old spelling of Ukrainian cities to be abandoned. At the end of his tweet, the hashtag #KyivnotKiev followed. Many media outlets, including the Dutch De Volkskrant and The Washington Post, fulfilled his request, but the Belgian media didn’t take action.…
For our factcheck we did research about the Climate Change Performance Index, an index which show how well countries perform when it comes to climate change. More specifically we took a look at how Belgium performs. To say I was shocked about Belgium’s results might be a bit exaggerated, but still there was a part…
On November 9, 2021, Flemish newspaper “De Morgen” published an article titled “Belgium loses more terrain on climate index: 49th place between Belarus and Slovenia.” Does Belgium really perform that bad in the Climate Change Performance Index compared to other European countries? Yes, it does. What is the CCPI? The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI)…