False: The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive

In this fact check we looked at one of many highly controversial Tweets about climate change posted by US president Donald J. Trump. In November of 2012 he stated that “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive”. We have found this claim to…

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Mostly false: Pope Francis endorses same-sex civil unions in documentary “Francesco”

In October, several newspapers published articles with headlines like “Pope Francis backs same-sex civil unions“. The claim is based on previously undisclosed footage from an interview with Pope Francis in the new documentary “Francesco” which we have watched for our fact check. After extensive research we assess the claim as mostly false. “Francesco” is a…

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fact checking

MOSTLY FALSE: Russia has imposed retaliatory sanctions against German and French leadership representatives because of “Navalny case”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russian Federation, represented by Sergey Lavrov, the Head of the Ministry, imposed sanctions against Germany and France on the case of Alexey Navalny. This information was reported by the Russian News Agency (TASS) on November 12, 2020. On November 12, 2020, Sergey Lavrov, head of the Ministry of Foreign…

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Mostly true: “Russian universities fail to offer world class education”

“Generation 0-100: Russian Universities Fail to Offer World Class Education” – our team found an article with this headline on the website of “The National Interest” magazine dated October 29, 2020. Indeed, Russian universities did not manage to get into the top 100 best universities in the world. However, higher educational institutions raised their positions…

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True: “Scientists: leftovers of contraceptive pills go to water and poison the environment”

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…

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Mostly true: COVID-19 may cause more severe symptoms to people with blood type A

In a headline on Friday 19 June 2020 Belgian public broadcaster VRT NWS wrote that COVID-19 may cause more severe symptoms to people with blood type A. According to the article, people with this blood group therefore run a higher risk of serious symptoms when infected with the coronavirus. This conclusion came from an international…

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False: “There are about 400 employees working at Slovenian Ministry of Culture.”

The leader of the Slovenian National Party (SNS), Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti, stated that there are 400 employees at the Ministry of Culture and that almost 30 years ago there were only around 40. The number of employees claimed during the special session of the Slovenian Parliament Jelinčič’s, is almost two times bigger than the actual…

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True: international studies show that men get higher profits from a scientific paper than women

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…

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False: Pfizer waited on purpose to announce the news about the vaccine after U.S. elections

Did Pfizer wait on purpose? After the US elections, a prominent Croatian RTL TV news anchor Zoran Šprajc, made a comment in  one of the most watched news shows in Croatia called RTL Direkt, assuming that the bio-pharmaceutical company Pfizer waited on purpose for the end of the elections to publish news about the vaccine…

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Mostly true: “Solar energy is now cheapest source of energy in history”

Greenpeace Slovenia tweeted via their account on 27 October 2020, claiming that “It’s official now – the solar energy is the cheapest source of energy in history!”. This is mostly true. Slovenian Greenpeace organization posted on their Twitter account stating that solar energy is from now on officially the cheapest source of energy in history.…

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