Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify journalist

We’ll be closing this page soon after sharing our verification work following recent attacks in Ukraine and Russia - as well as setting out why social media is so important in our reporting of the war.

We’ve also looked into inconsistencies we spotted in Israel Defense Forces' evacuation notices for Gaza and brought you their response.

Elsewhere, we’ve been fact-checking key claims surrounding US President Donald Trump’s mega-bill. If you haven’t already, you can read our full analysis here and follow live updates here.

Our BBC Verify reporter in Washington Jake Horton will be watching as the “big beautiful bill” heads for a final vote tonight.

Keep an eye out for him as he’s on hand to provide fact-checks for BBC News.

Sebastian Vandermeersch
BBC Verify journalist

We’ve been analysing satellite data following reports that Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU, carried out a drone strike on Kirovske military airfield in Russian-occupied Crimea during the night of 27–28 June.

Thermal data from Nasa’s FIRMS satellite system – which detects heat anomalies – shows multiple fires at the airfield around 04:00 local time (02:00 BST) suggesting the strike occurred around then.

High-resolution satellite imagery from Planet Labs shows clear changes when comparing images from 17 June and 1 July. In the later image, burn marks can be seen in fields surrounding the airfield apron, along with clearly identifiable damage to at least two Russian helicopters.

The SBU claims it destroyed three helicopters and a Pantsir air defence system in the attack.

Ukraine has frequently attacked Russian military infrastructure in Crimea. Moscow illegally annexed the Ukrainian peninsula in the Black Sea in 2014.

US President Donald Trump’s tax and spending legislation - the “One Big Beautiful Bill” - is heading to a vote in the House of Representatives - with Republican majority leader Mike Johnson saying he has the numbers to get the bill passed.

You can follow developments here.

BBC Verify’s policy and analysis correspondent Ben Chu has been looking at what the bill could do to the US government’s national borrowing and debt levels.

Benedict Garman
BBC Verify senior journalist

Following our earlier post about inconsistencies in the most recent Israeli evacuation notice, external issued to people in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has provided an update.

It has told us the map which is linked to in the QR code on their evacuation notices "may be accessed in real time to verify which areas are designated as combat zones requiring evacuation and which are not”.

The IDF said: "The map is continuously updated in accordance with ongoing assessments of the situation on the ground.

"In cases where specific inconsistencies were identified, the IDF took appropriate action and corrected them promptly."

The IDF provided us with a link to the latest version of the map, external but we weren't able to identify any updates since our earlier report.

Olga Robinson
BBC Verify assistant editor

This week we have been analysing footage of reported drone and missiles strikes in Russia and Ukraine as both sides have traded air attacks.

It’s really important for us to keep track of these strikes as they help us tell the story of a war which is now in its fourth year. This conflict can be really difficult for journalists to cover.

Strikes happen largely at night and sometimes in places where international journalists cannot report from like Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.

This is why we regularly source and verify social media videos – often filmed on mobile phones and laced with expletives - to report what is happening.

It’s not always possible to get to the bottom of a strike just by using footage we have spotted online, but these videos still play an important part in getting a better idea of the war’s progress.

Fridon Kiria and Richard Irvine-Brown
BBC Monitoring Russia Team and BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Telegram

As well as the strikes on Poltava, Ukraine, we’ve been looking at a video which shows an apparent drone strike early in the morning at Yelets, a city in Lipetsk region, Russia, which is about 250km (150 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation posted on the messaging app Telegram that the target was the Energiya plant in Yelets, which he said produces missile components.

The video is filmed in the south of the city, looking north-east past nearby industrial buildings.

A drone can be heard and seen, and descends beyond these buildings before we see a fireball and hear an explosion which is close enough to mean the strike was in the industrial area south-west of the Bystraya Sosna River.

The earliest copy of the footage we’ve seen so far was published at 05:33 local time on Telegram and the video’s metadata shows it was created shortly before at 05:25.

As with the clips from Poltava, we’ve checked this matches the reported weather in Lipetsk region this morning which was heavy cloud and searched for frames from the video to be certain they’re new on the internet.

Fridon Kiria and Richard Irvine-Brown
BBC Monitoring Russia Team and BBC Verify senior journalist

Three clips we’ve reviewed this morning show at least two strikes on a military enlistment complex in the city of Poltava, in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian Ground Forces has said civilians have been killed and injured but have yet to provide further details.

One video is filmed from a high angle and shows the rough area of the explosion is to the west of the city centre close to where the Poltava enlistment office is located.

The other two clips we’ve seen were filmed at street level - closer to the junction of Shevchenka St and Sinna St - and provide more detail.

One, from a car dashcam, shows smoke and an explosion at a building listed as the regional enlistment office. A delta-winged drone, possibly a Shahed, then flies into this building causing a second explosion.

We can see that the weather in all three videos is the same and the position of the shadows of other cars confirm the strike recorded by the dashcam was at a little before 09:00 local time.

This is the same time that the Ukrainian Ground Forces said the attack happened.

One note of caution, the date and time stamp on the dashcam video doesn’t match this, but may have been set incorrectly.

Jake Horton
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, EPA

As US President Donald Trump's mega-bill heads to a final vote, we've published a fact-check looking at claims made about the bill's possible impact in three key areas - US public finances, medical cover and taxes.

We posted on this live page earlier about how BBC Verify examined various independent analyses and interviewed six tax experts who all agree the bill will increase the national deficit - despite the White House saying otherwise.

President Trump has also said Medicaid - a US government-run healthcare scheme - would be "left alone" in the bill and if it didn't pass taxes "will go up by 68%".

However, various analyses show there will be significant reductions to Medicaid under the bill.

And although it's true some US taxes would go up this year if Trump's bill wasn't passed, the rise is nowhere near 68%.

You can read our full piece here.

Peter Mwai
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, X

We have verified video footage showing armed men setting government buildings on fire during a large- scale jihadist attack in western Mali on Tuesday.

The video shows four men outside a building, as smoke rises from nearby buildings that are already on fire.

Some enter the building and leave with items and another lights a fire, then we see the men leaving.

We hear sounds of gunfire and shouts of “Allahu Akbar", an Arabic phrase meaning God is greatest.

By comparing the buildings we see in the clip, and other clips said to show the aftermath of the same attack, we have established that the videos were filmed at Diboli a town along the border between Mali and Senegal.

We can also see a structure painted in the colours of the Malian flag - which also helps confirm the location.

The details match with reports about the Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda-linked group, having attacked a police and customs office in the town as part of an attack across at least seven towns.

Mali's army said it repelled the attacks and killed more than 80 militants.

Benedict Garman
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, IDF

A new notice was published by the Israeli military last night, warning people to evacuate additional areas of Gaza City.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has divided Gaza into numbered blocks and when it issues warnings for certain areas they are shaded red - it often says it will operate with "extreme force" in these zones.

The notices advise people to leave for their "safety" and to "refrain from returning". They usually precede air strikes or other military action.

We've been logging and mapping each of them, and we sometimes identify inconsistencies or a lack of clarity that could lead to confusion for those relying on them.

The latest, external is a good example of this. The text specifies five blocks in Gaza City. Two of them - 602 and 699 - have not been subject to notices before.

They are coloured red in the map that goes with the notice. But the IDF has an official online map which does not have them shaded - this is where people are directed to via QR codes on leaflets dropped from the air.

Conversely, blocks 603 and 611 are not pictured as red zones in the latest notice, but both were warned to evacuate at the end of June, and remain red on the map on the IDF's website.

This suggests they continue to be "dangerous combat zones". Anyone relying on the latest notice wouldn't necessarily know that.

We've put these points to the IDF and will update if we hear back.

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

BBC Verify is dedicated to examining the facts and claims behind a story to try to determine whether or not it is true - whether that’s a political statement, a video shared on social media, or images from a war zone.

And we’re also keen to hear from you - is there something you think we should investigate?

We're particularly interested in claims you have heard or seen that maybe don’t seem right.

Or perhaps you’ve come across something online and want to know if it was created using AI or whether it's a deepfake.

You can send your suggestions to the team here.

Jake Horton
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, EPA

US President Donald Trump’s flagship “big beautiful bill” is edging closer to becoming law, but tense negotiations are set to continue in Congress later.

The bill has faced strong opposition from Democrats as well as from some in Trump’s Republican Party over how much it will cost and the cuts it will make to health and welfare benefits.

I’m currently working for BBC Verify in Washington and have been looking at claims made about the bill’s impact on three key areas - the US national finances, medical cover, and taxes.

On the first, the White House says the bill “reduces deficits by over $2tn (£1.5tn)” - but several senior Democrats have insisted it would add trillions.

The deficit is the difference between what the US government spends and the money it collects in taxes and other revenue.

We’ve looked at various independent studies and interviewed six tax experts who all agree the “big beautiful bill” will increase the deficit.

I’ve written up our full fact-check which will be available on the BBC News website later.

Sebastian Vandermeersch and Fridon Kiria
BBC Verify and BBC Monitoring

Image source, Telegram

We’ve verified footage showing a large explosion near the town of Khartsyzsk, in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine.

Due to the size and intensity of the blast the location is likely to be a Russian ammunition depot. We have not yet had confirmation of what caused the explosion.

We geolocated the video by identifying a distinctive school building in the foreground and matching it to satellite imagery of the area. Reverse image searches of screen grabs from the footage indicate it had not appeared online before yesterday.

If this is confirmed as a Ukrainian strike, it would be the latest in a series targeting Russian ammunition storage sites – part of a broader strategy to disrupt supply lines and weaken Moscow’s military capabilities.

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

Good morning from BBC Verify.

We’re here throughout the day with updates on the stories we’re verifying, the facts being checked and any disinformation that is being debunked.

I’ve just come from the morning editors’ meeting and here’s how things are looking today:

• We’ve verified footage posted on social media showing a big explosion at a reported Russian ammunition depot in occupied Ukraine - we’ll tell you what it shows and how we know its genuine

• Our reporter in Washington DC, Jake Horton, has fact-checked three of the claims US President Donald Trump has made about his flagship “big beautiful bill”

• We’ll be on hand to check any claims made by the government when it announces it’s 10-year plan for the National Health Service in England

And we’ll to continue to monitor social media and messaging apps for news coming out of Gaza.