Journalist Kasper Goethals wrote an article for Flemish newspaper De Standaard on 6 February about the border agency Frontex. In it, Mark Akkerman of NGO ‘Stop Arms Trade’ claimed that companies like Airbus and Leonardo, who are supplying weapons to the Middle East, work with Frontex to stop refugees at the European borders. Akkerman’s research…
The leader of Podemos party, Pablo Iglesias, stated during a televised electoral debate on 21 April that, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the community of “Madrid is among the European cities with the highest number of deaths per million inhabitants (2,207) more than London, Paris, Rome or Berlin”. The claim turns out to be true.…
“Only four per cent of Dutch nature reserves are in good condition. The number of wild animals has halved since 1990,” states Dutch political party D66 in its election programme for 2021. With these statements, D66 tries to convince Dutch citizens to support the party in the upcoming national elections. D66 promises to create more…
Daniel David, professor of clinical cognitive sciences and the rector of Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, talked to the publisher of Clujul Cultural about the state of education in Romania. “[…] 42% of 15-year-olds are functionally illiterate. It is sad, because in three years those who are now 15 years old shall be the ones who…
On the November 23 2020 Focus Association for Sustainable Development tweeted that: “Tests made by the Transport and Environment campaign group show that emissions of the three bestselling plug-in hybrid cars are 28–89% higher than advertised.” We rate it as true. In the tweet from the official account of Focus Association for Sustainable Development, the…
Amnesty International Slovenia tweeted via their account on 23 October 2020, claiming that “Abortion restriction does not prevent abortion, it just makes them less safe”. This was found to be true. Amnesty International Slovenia organization posted on their Twitter account an image with text stating that abortion restriction does not prevent abortion, it just makes…
During a TV interview, aired on December 3rd, 2020, on Digi24, the former Prime Minister of Romania, Ludovic Orban, stated that during the month of November, there have been more COVID-19 tests done than in previous months. This statement is true, according to official statistics. Context Ludovic Orban, leader of the National Liberal Party, was…
On the website of TVP Info, the Polish public television news channel has been published an article entitled “Scientists: leftovers of contraceptive pills go to water and poison the environment”. Due to the very complex nature of this topic our team decided to focus on two key statements from this article. First of all: “Research…
In an interview with Stern.de, German economist Claudia Kemfert claims that international studies show that, for example, a male author benefits more from a scientific paper than a female author. This claim can be classified as “True”. The interview with Ms. Kemfert was published as part of a campaign by the German medium Stern under…
The Belgian news service “De Morgen” claimed that there’s at least 30 times more plastic on the bottom of the ocean than on the surface. The news service is referring to a study that took place at the Australian coast. Research if the claim can be applied to our European sea waters however, found proof…