Richard Irvine-Brown
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, Reuters

Images overnight have shown explosions in Kyiv, reported in local media to be the result of Russian drones being shot down.

The picture above, from Reuters, shows an explosion in the area of the Shuliavska Metro station and the Press of Ukraine printworks to the west of the city centre.

Colleagues at the BBC’s Kyiv bureau saw the attack and told us they witnessed at least two drones being shot out of the sky.

The Ukrainian air force claimed Russia fired 86 drones overnight, including more than 50 Shahed attack drones, 71 of which were shot down.

Fifteen strikes were recorded at six locations across Ukraine.

Separately, Ukraine’s President Vololdymyr Zelensky reported two people were injured in the city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipro region.

Matt Murphy
BBC Verify senior journalist

As we've been reporting, a new parliamentary report has urged the UK to take the defence of its network of undersea cables more seriously.

The vast majority of international data transmissions occur through the network - and the report noted that the UK's main back-up system relies on satellites, which can only handle about "5% of subsea cable capacity".

There is no indication that Russia has directed an attack against the UK’s cable network.

But Alessio Patalano - professor of war and strategy at Kings College London - said it would be “naive” to think that some hostile powers haven’t sought to map the network of cables around the UK.

In January, a Royal Navy submarine was authorised to surface next to a Russian research vessel - the Yantar - after it was spotted loitering around subsea cables for the second time in several months. Western countries have long suspected the ship is actually a spy vessel.

And last month Finnish authorities charged the crew members of a the Eagle S, a ship accused of damaging five cables running between Finland and Estonia in the Baltic Sea.

Patalano told BBC Verify that cases like the Eagle S “suggest that foreign hostile powers”, particularly Russia, are aware of and actively seeking to map different types of cables. He added that this was in order to be “in a position to create pressure or indeed hold countries like the UK at ransom”.

Patalano also noted that any sabotage of the UK's network could have "dramatic consequences" for the UK's financial services industry or the NHS' capacity to run medical operations.

Peter Mwai
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Facebook

We have verified video showing fighters from the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) inside the former UN peacekeeping base in el-Fasher on Thursday, as they continue their campaign to take control of the Sudanese Army’s last stronghold in Darfur.

The base has been serving as the operational headquarters for the Joint Force of Armed Struggle Movements, a coalition of armed groups who have been fighting alongside the military.

They have been central to the city's defence against the RSF, who have laid siege to el-Fasher for 15 months now.

In the footage, the RSF fighters - identifiable from their camouflage - are seen moving along the roads inside the base. Some of them on foot and others are using vehicles, while smoke can be seen rising in the background and gunfire is audible in some of the clips.

We verified the footage by matching visible roads, trees and buildings to satellite imagery.

It is not clear yet whether they managed to gain full control of the base, which is expansive. But a video posted on X on Thursday appeared to show some Joint Force fighters still inside the base.

We have established that the clip was filmed in one of the small compounds inside it by matching buildings with satellite imagery, but it isn’t possible to confirm when it was filmed.

The Sudanese military and the Joint Force are yet to comment.

Paul Brown and Adam Durbin
BBC Verify senior journalists

The Israel military (IDF) has closed a temporary alternative route out of Gaza City for civilians after it issued evacuation orders for the area.

Spokesman Avichay Adraee issued an update on X saying Salah al-Din Street, which was opened on Wedneday, is no longer available for people to leave Gaza City.

He added that al-Rashid Street, which runs along the Mediterranean coast, was now the only “permitted” route for people evacuating Gaza City - where Israel has intensified a ground operation in recent weeks.

Salah al-Din is Gaza’s main road running north to south - it passes through a recently remilitarised zone known as the Netzarim Corridor which was established by the IDF in 2024 and divides the territory in two.

The temporary evacuation route made a significant detour from Salah al-Din as it passed through Netzarim. Israel left the corridor, which divides Gaza in two, earlier this year as part of a ceasefire deal. But satellite imagery shows military vehicles had returned to the zone on Monday as Israeli forces ramp up their assault on Gaza’s largest city.

In his post, Adraee also said the IDF will “continue to operate with unprecedented and extreme force against Hamas and other terrorist organizations”.

Matt Murphy
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Royal Navy via PA Media

The UK has been “too timid” when defending the crucial array of undersea cables transmitting civilian and military data, a new parliamentary report has warned.

A growing threat presented by Russia, China and some non-state actors means the cables are a “strategic vulnerability” for the UK, MPs and Peers on the Joint Committee on National Security wrote.

Around 60 subsea cables connect the UK to the EU and the US. The vast majority of international data transmissions occur through this network.

The report noted that the cables were laid in an era of “geopolitical stability” but that the government must take “greater account of the worsening security environment over the next 5–10 years”.

In its report, the committee made a series of recommendations, including:

• Major fines and criminal liability for malicious cable damage
• Increased “direct physical interdiction and prosecution” of suspicious vessels and crew
• That the UK should obtain a cable repair ship by 2030, as the government currently lacks access to such vessels

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

On his way back to the US on Air Force One yesterday, President Donald Trump criticised Sadiq Khan’s record as London mayor.

He told reporters on the plane that Khan is “among the worst mayors in the world” and that “crime in London is through the roof”.

Trump and the London mayor have been feuding for a decade. Khan spoke out about Trump’s Muslim travel ban proposal during his first presidential campaign, while Trump described Khan as a “nasty person” during his last UK visit in July.

But does Trump’s latest criticism of Khan hold any water?

In the year to March 2025 police recorded crime was up 1% in the Metropolitan Police force area - which the London mayor oversees - compared to the year before. In England and Wales it is down 2%, the latest figures show., external

Although overall crime is up slightly in London, several violent crimes, such as homicide and violence with injury, have fallen in the last year.

Current figures show that the rate of crime per 1,000 people in the capital was among the highest in England and Wales (105.5), but the rate in Greater Manchester was even higher (108.2).

Compared to when Khan first entered office in 2016, crime in the Metropolitan Police force area has shot up by about a quarter. But in England and Wales it increased by a third over the same period.

Police recorded data is generally not considered the best measure of longer-term crime trends, because changes to police recording practices can impact the number of crimes it reports. But to assess Khan’s record we need to look at crime by police force area, which is only possible using police recorded figures.

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

TV host Jimmy Kimmel has been pulled off air indefinitely after comments he made about the shooting of Charlie Kirk, ABC has said.

The decision came hours after Brendan Carr, chair of broadcast regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), said Kimmel was "appearing to directly mislead the American public".

Leading Democrats call Kimmel's suspension an attack on free speech and "an abuse of power", while US President Donald Trump welcomed it as "great news for America".

The BBC's analysis editor Ros Atkins examines the role of the FCC and Trump in the decision to suspend the show.

Video produced by Michael Cox

• Read more about this story here

Fridon Kiria
BBC Monitoring

Image source, Ukrainian Special Operations Forces

We’ve authenticated footage released by Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces earlier this morning which it says shows an attack it’s carried out on Russian army logistics hub in the Kursk Region on Thursday.

In a statement, the Ukrainian military said it had destroyed a storage base for material resources, ammunition warehouses, and stores for weapons and military equipment of Russia’s 810th Separate Marine Brigade.

In the two-minute video - which appears to have been recorded using an infra-red camera - we can see multiple explosions and smoke plumes at various locations across the site.

We were able to geolocate where the strikes were carried out by matching the road layout, buildings and other features seen in the footage with satellite mapping of village of Giri in Kursk Region.

We also reverse image searched some frames from the footage and established that it is new.

According to Ukrainian special forces, the 810th Marine Brigade is actively engaged in offensive operations in Ukraine and accuse its troops of committing war crimes.

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

Hello from the live page team.

We’re carrying out verification and fact-check work on several stories this morning, including:

• A claimed Ukrainian strike that appears to have caused multiple explosions at a Russian army logistics hub
• Reports of multiple drone attacks across Ukraine with online posts showing damage in the capital, Kyiv
• Footage that appears to show the aftermath of Israeli strikes as its military continues a ground offensive in Gaza City

We’ve also got a new report from UK parliamentarians which says Britain has been “too timid” about defending undersea cables that are a crucial part of the country’s information infrastructure.

And following the suspension of late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel over comments he made about right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, our analysis editor Ros Atkins has been looking at the key players in the row - including President Donald Trump.