Joshua Cheetham
BBC Verify journalist

When investigating plane crashes, one of the first things we do is listen back to archived recordings of air traffic control (ATC) communications from the flight for any information they can convey.

These are audio recordings of conversations between pilots and ATC controllers, who direct the flow of air traffic in and around the airport. They’re free to access in some countries on websites like LiveATC.net.

Often around the time of an incident we’ll hear a pilot reporting an issue to ATC.

However, the recordings of this particular incident is full of interference in the audio and no meaningful conversation can be heard. We checked with two aviation experts and they have told us the same.

Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

A viral video appearing to show a young Ukrainian soldier crying as he is sent to the front line appears to be AI-generated disinformation.

In the video, a man records himself saying through tears that he has just turned 23 and doesn't want to die.

Reverse image searches suggests it originated from a now-deleted TikTok account which shared AI-generated videos claiming to show Ukrainian soldiers crying.

In some videos on the account the watermark for Sora, a text-to-video AI model made by OpenAI, is clearly visible. But it is not present on this video.

The video is made up of two short clips, one of four seconds and the other of 10 seconds, edited together. The brevity of the clips is an indicator of AI-generation, as most models can only produce continuous shot of up to 10 seconds.

Another indicator it is pro-Russian disinformation is his supposed age, because conscription in Ukraine only applies to men between 25 to 60 who are fit for military service.

This deepfake has been spread widely by anti-Ukraine social media accounts, with one post gathering nearly two million views on X.

Some of the post's captions are directed at Ukraine's allies, encouraging them to end their support.

The account that originally posted it has now been removed from TikTok and we’ve asked the platform why it was deleted.

Aisha Sembhi
BBC Verify journalist

Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s mayoral race in the early hours of this morning, in an election that drew the attention of tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Yesterday, in a post on his social media platform X Musk called the election a “scam” because some candidates names appeared on the ballot paper twice.

But this is common practice in New York state elections, as part of a system called fusion voting where multiple parties can endorse a single candidate and list them on the ballot.

This was the case during last year’s presidential election, where ballots from several New York counties had frontrunners Donald Trump and Kamala Harris appearing twice.

As you can see in this sample ballot from Madison County below, Trump was listed under both the Republican and Conservative parties and Harris was endorsed by the Democratic and Working Families parties.

Image source, Madison County

Andrew Cuomo, who lost his mayoral bid to Mamdani last night, appeared on four lines in his successful 2018 run for governor of New York.

Musk also pointed out that Cuomo’s name was listed last on yesterday’s ballot as evidence of the “scam”, but this is because he ran as an independent candidate after losing the Democratic nomination to Mamdani.

Jake Horton
BBC Verify

BBC Verify has been contacting experts this morning to ask about what may have caused the UPS cargo plane to crash, which footage we’ve verified shows it coming down shortly after take-off and causing a massive fireball.

We showed the videos to Terry Tozer, a retired airline pilot, author and commentator on aviation safety, who says it looks like “the left engine fell off during take-off”.

“It should fly on two engines but the damage was probably so great that they may have lost thrust from engine three as well,” he adds.

A second aviation expert Marco Chan says the footage shows “the left engine catching fire during take-off”, followed moments later by “a burst of smoke from the upper centre engine”.

“A single engine fire can usually be managed, but losing two engines within seconds would have made the plane impossible to control or climb away,” he tells us.

We will continue to send footage of the crash and its aftermath to experts for more of their analysis on this developing story.

Emma Pengelly, Kayleen Devlin and Paul Brown
BBC Verify

Image source, Kentucky Truck Parts & Service / Reuters

Our team has been busy looking at many clips surfacing online of yesterday’s cargo plane crash in the US state of Kentucky.

At least seven people died in the devastating incident, which happened shortly after the aircraft took off from Louisville International Airport.

We’ve verified one piece of CCTV footage as being captured from a truck parts shop to the south of the runway. The video shows the plane tilted heavily, left wing dragging along the ground, leaving an enormous fireball in its wake.

Another video we have verified captures the failed take-off and subsequent crash filmed near ramp nine at the airport.

Image source, AP

In a third clip, people in a moving car scream and gasp as the plane crashes directly in front of them and throws up a wall of fire and smoke.

A fourth piece of aerial footage shows a scene of devastation at the crash site, with fire raging in an industrial area south of the runway.

The team are also showing these videos to aviation experts to try and build a clearer picture of what may have caused the crash, so we’ll bring you more information on what they have to say over the course of the day.

Adam Durbin
BBC Verify Live editor

Good morning from BBC Verify Live.

Last night and this morning, our teams here in London and in Washington DC have been verifying video of a UPS cargo plane that crashed in the US state of Kentucky. We’ve been analysing footage of the crash, which resulted in an enormous fireball at Louisville International Airport.

We’re looking into details about the aircraft and speaking to experts about what may have caused the incident, which left at least seven people dead yesterday.

The team is also looking into overnight footage from Russia, where Ukraine reportedly hit several energy facilities deep inside the country. This appears to be part of its ongoing drone strike campaign, which BBC Verify has been tracking.

Meanwhile in the UK, our fact-checkers will be watching Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions.

The Conservatives have not yet said who will deputise for Kemi Badenoch, who is set to go head-to-head with Labour’s David Lammy in the House of Commons. Stick with us for analysis of any claims they make after midday.