Questions tagged [europe]
For questions about claims based in Europe, or limited to Europe.
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Did no genocide occur in Kosovo? [closed]
British Member of Parliament Llew Smith filed a motion in 2004 which is being talked about today because one of the MPs who signed in support of it was Jeremy Corbyn, now leader of the opposition of ...
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Has the George Soros's Open Society Foundation been banned from Austria by Sebastian Kurz?
This October 2017 article from Extraordinary News, "Youngest World Leader Bans George Soros’s Foundations From Austria" makes the claim about the Chancellor-designate of Austria, Sebastian ...
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Was EU flag's design inspired by the statue of Virgin Mary?
In this video it is claimed that the person who designed it was passing the statue of Virgin Mary with 12 stars and applied it to the design of the flag. How much of this claim is true?
Footnote: ...
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Is this map of terrorist attacks in Europe accurate?
Recently this map of terrorist attacks in Europe went viral and was reposted many times in social media. Does it present actual data about terrorist attacks?
Background: The map gained popularity ...
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Does Germany contribute 1/3 of the EU budget?
This morning I heard an interview with a german politician in the DLF (Deutschlandfunk) and he said something like
Germany is already contributing 1/3 of the whole EU budget.
when asked, why he ...
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Is this "fall of industrial production" graph accurate?
A candidate to the French presidency tweeted
The fall in industrial production in Spain, Italy and France of course has a link with the euro.
However I have a couple of doubts on its accuracy ...
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Did an Austrian court require a child to prove that they did not consent to rape?
The Sun's headline says:
SHOCK RULING Outrage as Iraqi migrant who raped boy, 10, in ‘sexual emergency’ at swimming pool has conviction OVERTURNED because court couldn’t prove the child said ‘no’
...
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Are there any women in the top one hundred chess players?
According to this video, a Polish politician named Janusz Korwin-Mikke claimed:
Do you know how many women are in the first hundred of chess players? I tell you – no one.
Is he correct that zero ...
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Is the level of support for evolution decreasing in Europe?
The following three articles claim (or suggest) that the level of support for evolution (among the big public) (see wiki > level of support for evolution for definition) is decreasing in Europe.
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Does Germany use the Euro to exploit the US and the EU? [closed]
Trump's advisor Peter Navarro claims that Germany exploits the US and the EU by maintaining the Euro at an all time low.
The Guardian for example says:
Germany “continues to exploit other ...
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Did 20 million people die because of Nationalism in Europe before the formation of the EU?
Former Belgian PM, Guy Verhofstadt says:
Reference
Did 20 million people die because of Nationalism in Europe before the formation of the EU?
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Did European Muslim protestors carry signs "Shariah for the Netherlands", "Islam Will Dominate the World, Freedom Can Go to Hell"
Does the following alleged photograph represent an actual demonstration by real self-identified Muslims, in Europe?
I found at: http://www.billionbibles.org/sharia/sharia-europe.html
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Has the Council of Europe called for the banning of British newspapers mentioning when a terrorist is Muslim?
From the Daily Mail: European human rights chiefs order the British press NOT to reveal when terrorists are Muslims in crackdown on freedom of speech
European human rights chiefs have told the ...
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Are three quarters of immigrants "flooding Europe today" from central Africa?
In a November 16, 2016 op-ed in the New York Times titled Donald Trump, Help Heal the Planet’s Climate Change Problem, Thomas L. Friedman claims:
When you visit the Pentagon, ask the generals about ...
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Was there a spike in hate crimes after the Brexit referendum?
Was there a spike in hate crimes after the Brexit referendum?
Example claim: 'Horrible spike' in hate crime linked to Brexit vote, Met police say
A “horrible spike” in hate crime after Britain’s ...
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Are one in five children in Europe victims of sexual violence?
I was recently asked to sign a petition for a campaign against sexual violence against children.
The petition claimed that one in five children are victims of some form of sexual violence in Europe. ...
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Is the UK's trade with the EU artifically inflated by having to ship its exports via Europe?
I was talking to a pro-Brexit UK woman who made some... interesting claims about UK-EU trade that I hadn't heard before and couldn't immediately counter.
She claimed the UK's apparently very large ...
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Are German families migrating in some noticeable number to theoretically non-Muslim-friendly countries because of fear of Muslims? [closed]
I've read that in some online newspapers that are pretty politically far right, so they may not be exactly objective, but I've found some other web pages that make the claim so it looks a bit more ...
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Why do Syrian refugees try to reach the UK instead of settling for another EU country? [closed]
In the newest BBC documentary Exodus: Our Journey to Europe, we see journeys of several Syrian refugees across Europe. The one that I followed closely was that of Ahmad's, who is desperate to reach ...
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Has freedom of movement of people lead to a reduction in wages and worsening of working conditions in the UK?
Has freedom of movement of people lead to a reduction of wages, and a worsening of working conditions, in the UK?
From 'If you've got money, you vote in ... if you haven't got money, you vote out'
...
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Did Martin Schulz say that it is not the EU philosophy that the crowd can decide its fate?
In the last few days, some people are attributing to European Parliament President Martin Schulz the following statement:
The British have violated the rules. It is not the EU philosophy that the ...
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Did people blaspheme deliberately to be tried in the Medieval European Inquisition courts instead of other secular courts?
On the Wikipedia page about "Criticism of the Catholic Church", there was recently (though removed by an editor since this question was asked) a little paragraph about the Medieval European ...
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Does Migaloo Submarines sell private submersible yachts?
The Migaloo Submarines web-site claims the company works in the
DESIGN, ENGINEERING AND BUILDING OF EXCLUSIVE PRIVATE SUBMERSIBLE SUPERYACHTS AND FLOATING ISLANDS
Despite providing a number of ...
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Is there an EU regulation which says flags must be from non-flamable material?
There is currently a viral video spreading around on social networks of an (alleged) anti-eu protester trying to burn an EU flag but has difficulty setting it on fire because, as the post claims,
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Are five million Muslims marching on to Europe?
This article claims that five million Muslims are attempting to move to European countries.
Apparently the numbers that they’ve been selling to their unsuspecting populations are wrong by at least ...
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Are these human rights in the UK derived from the ECHR?
In Patrick Stewart's sketch "What has the ECHR ever done for us?" concerning the Brexit, he plays the Prime Minister of the UK and asks (satirically):
[..] and what has the European Convention for ...
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Will Europe soon have more Muslims than Christians?
This story, which appeared in the UK tabloid The Sun (and widely repeated elsewhere), has also been doing the rounds on social media.
The original story has the strapline:
Muslims will soon ...
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Is Spain ”the second most mountainous country in Europe”?
One hiking book my family owns described Spain as the second most mountainous country in Europe. Several online sources claim the same:
Spain then and now:
After Switzerland, Spain is the most ...
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Are there sections across Europe that are so radicalized by Islamic Jihadists that police refuse to go there? [duplicate]
In a recent MSNBC interview, Donald trump said this:
"Paris is no longer the same city it was. They have sections in Paris that are radicalized and the police refuse to go there. They're petrified. ...
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Does Hungary still allow refugees to enter if they accept registration? [closed]
The news of Hungary sealing its borders with Serbia sparked a lot of debate. I've seen claims they still let refugees through if they go to the official border crossings and fill out paperwork, and ...
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Is it legal to hire only beautiful people?
Josephine Fairley wrote a column in the Telegraph claims that it is perfectly legal to hire only beautiful people.
But while it's illegal to discriminate on the grounds of gender, sex, race, religion,...
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Did switching to a common currency cause prices to go up in European countries?
Many consumers in the European Union are afraid of switching to Euros since it (reportedly) means increased prices on most products. For example:
In order to address consumers' concerns about price ...
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Did NATO promise not to expand into Eastern and Central Europe?
In its own fact sheet NATO denies Russia's claims that NATO promised not to expand:
Russian officials claim that US and German officials promised in 1990 that NATO would not expand into Eastern and ...
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Is immigration causing unemployment among low-skill workers in the UK?
Immigration policy is a hot topic in UK politics, but is it actually costing British jobs?
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Do European countries maintain Air Force on high alert? [closed]
A question asked here recently "Is Switzerland vulnerable to aerial threats outside office hours?" kind of implies that this is something unusual. But is it really something unusual in Europe?
Do ...
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How responsible was Christianity for the Dark Ages of Western Europe? [closed]
I am well aware that during this period there were many scientific and technological achievements in many parts of the world, including the Islamic World, the Late Roman/Byzantium Empire, and the East ...
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Are the majority of EU member-states' local laws made in Brussels?
With the upcoming elections for the European Union, there are claims that most local laws are dictated by the European union these days.
Image source: Buzzfeed
It has always been my understanding ...
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Is tax wedge 80%-90% in most of western Europe vs 50% in US?
Wikipedia definition of tax wedge references a document, which makes following claim:
Europe's comparatively high tax burden has created big marginal
effects and tax wedges. For example a 2007 ...
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Is there such a thing as the "Babushka Bomb" (i.e. Eastern European women age quickly in appearance)?
On the internet, there are a lot of references to the so-called "Babushka bomb",
which is defined at Urban Dictionary as
Eastern European women are pretty when they're young, but age quickly and ...
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Did the EU threaten to sue in connection with "Comic Sans" having an eye on the Euro symbol?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Sans_MS#cite_note-2
Earlier versions of Comic Sans had an eye in the Euro sign. This was
later removed because 'The EU was going to sue us over that.'[2]
The ...
user4951
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Is US ahead or behind of EU in terms of broadband Internet access?
Today New America Foundation has published a report "The Cost of Connectivity 2013:
A comparison of high-speed Internet prices in 24 cities around the world"
It has been covered by media, mostly in ...
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Did Nobel Peace Prize winner, Martti Ahtisaari, threaten to bomb Belgrade and kill half a million people?
In this article "Does Putin really need Nobel Peace Prize", it is claimed that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari had the following conversation with Serbian president Miloshevich during ...
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Do Europeans have a greater chance of making it into the top 1% of income earners than Americans?
In a 2011 Vanity Fair article, Nobel-Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote:
America has long prided itself on being a fair society, where everyone has an equal chance of getting ahead, but ...
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Is the recent surge in bitcoin prices driven by Cypriot investors?
There are numerous stories out there linking the rise in bitcoin prices seen in the last few weeks with events in Cyprus.
Some stories go as far as claiming that Cypriots are buying the things ...
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Is Nazi a diminutive of Ignatius?
The German Wikipedia page for Nazi claims that the word Nazi is a diminutive form of Ignatius (Ignatz). The cited source is etymonline.com:
The 24th edition of Etymologisches Wörterbuch der ...
user7920
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Do countries deliberately avoid winning Eurovision?
Spanish singer told to lose Eurovision? claims that countries deliberately avoid winning the Eurovision Song Contest because of the expense of hosting it. It claims that:
Montenegro, Andora and ...
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Has immigration from Eastern Europe impacted UK youth unemployment?
MigrationWatch UK is a think-tank that argues for lower immigration levels into the UK.
In a 2012 Briefing Paper they claimed:
Youth unemployment in the UK increased by almost 450,000 in the
...
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