Matt Murphy
BBC Verify senior journalist

We're bringing our live coverage to a close soon, but our verification team continues to work into the evening.

It’s been a busy and wide-ranging day here at our London newsroom. We looked at blasts in occupied Ukraine, where Russian-installed authorities have accused Kyiv of launching a drone attack on the village of Velyki Kopani.

Our verification team has been looking at the latest fighting in Burkina Faso and tracking the visit of US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to a US and Israeli-backed aid distribution site in Gaza.

And our fact-checkers have been adding context to claims that Belgium has a stronger record than France when it comes to stopping small boat crossings towards the UK.

We'll be offering more across the BBC in the coming days and hours, and Ned Davies will be on the World Tonight programme at 22:00 discussing our Online Safety Act analysis.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Mike Huckabee

Earlier today, footage appeared online claiming to show US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff arriving at an aid distribution site run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

We geolocated the footage to Secure Distribution Site 3 (SDS3) by comparing it to recent satellite imagery of the site. However, because it was taken from a distance, we could not initially identify Witkoff among the crowd of people visible.

But later more footage emerged, released after his departure, which helped prove he was there.

Witkoff was dressed in grey camo wear and a dark grey "Make America Great Again" cap during the visit, as seen in photographs shared by US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who accompanied him on the trip.

A man dressed the same way, and with the same build as Witkoff, was seen in other footage from the site. Vehicles, lighting poles and other details seen in that footage matched what we saw in the first video - which we had already confirmed as SDS3.

Kevin Nguyen
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Getty Images

Food aid entering Gaza under the supervision of the UN and other international organisations has surged this week amid mounting international pressure to alleviate the desperate shortages faced by Palestinians living there.

Aid transported by road into the territory by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) now represents about 10% of the total number of trucks, according to figures provided by GHF and Cogat, the Israeli military body responsible for coordinating aid.

Since Sunday, Cogat has reported 200-250 trucks entering Gaza each day. During this period, the GHF said it was supplying about 22-25 trucks of food each day - which is about 10% of the total. The total number of trucks carrying GHF aid has fallen from 242 last week, to 161 this week (to Thursday 31 July).

The GHF also provides data which shows their trucks on average carry fewer tonnes of aid per load than those of the UN and others.

We put this to the GHF who said: “We don’t measure our loads by weight, its not bulk… We purposely limited the 'weight' of our aid box to ensure kids and women could carry them. So using total weight goes against our box design metrics.”

Cogat has not yet updated its database for the weight of food aid delivered this week to Gaza to enable us to compare overall quantities.

Rob England and Robert Cuffe
BBC Verify

Some media reports have highlighted a record number of foreign nationals in prison for violence and sexual offences in England and Wales.

The figure is correct, there were 4,981 foreign national offenders (FNOs) in prison, either awaiting trial or serving a sentence, for violent or sexual offences as of June 2025.

This is the highest figure since current records began in 2015, according to Ministry of Justice data published yesterday, external.

But the same data also shows that the number of British offenders jailed for these crimes is also at a record high, with 42,307 people behind bars.

Just under half of FNOs in prison are there for violent or sexual offences.

As the chart below shows, this is lower than the proportion of British prisoners who are there for these crimes.

Sebastian Vandermeersch
BBC Verify

We’ve verified footage shared online by fighters from Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), one of Africa’s deadliest militant groups and affiliated with al-Qaeda, showing their assault on a Burkinabe military base near the town of Dargo in Burkina Faso’s Centre-Nord region.

The jihadist group has been involved in a long-running insurgency against the Russian-backed military junta which seized power in 2022 amid a wave of coups in the West African Sahel region.

The videos show multiple phases of the assault with large numbers of fighters seen approaching the base on motorbikes, firing their machine guns, and later moving freely in the camp once resistance has collapsed. Two dead Burkinabe soldiers are visible, though residents report, external that around 50 were killed in the attack on 28 July.

We confirmed the location by matching distinctive landmarks visible in the footage, including a telecom tower, to satellite imagery. We also carried out reverse image searches to confirm that the videos were posted this week.

Despite the military junta’s pledge to crush the Islamist insurgency when it seized power, large swathes of the country remain beyond government control, with other groups - some aligned with the Islamic State group - also active.

The Sahel is now the “epicentre of global terrorism” and accounts for over half of all terrorism-related deaths worldwide according to the Global Terrorism Index.

Image source, X

Matt Murphy
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Getty Images

As we mentioned earlier, BBC Verify has published a new investigation showing that a wide range of posts - including those covering the war in Ukraine and Gaza - have been restricted by X and Reddit to comply with the UK's new Online Safety Act.

X has now publicly criticised the law, with its Global Government Affairs account - which is responsible for communications - alleging the legislation "ostensibly intended to keep children safe is at risk of seriously infringing on the public’s right to free expression".

"While everyone agrees protecting children is a critical responsibility, it is also clear that an overly rigorous statutory framework layered with a “voluntary” code and heightened police monitoring, oversteps the intended mission," staffers wrote in a message posted to X.

The platform's owner, billionaire Elon Musk, has long expressed opposition to the legislation. "[The law's] purpose is suppression of the people," he wrote in a post on Monday, before sharing several posts by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson which also opposed the law.

Some experts have suggested that tech giants are being overly restrictive to comply with the law - which can see those found to have failed to prevent children seeing harmful material fined £18m, or 10% of global turnover.

But Prof Sonia Livingstone - an expert in children's digital rights at the London School of Economics - noted that it was "possible that the companies are over-blocking to undermine the Act".

You can read our full story on the new law here.

Sebastian Vandermeersch
BBC Verify

Image source, X

We’ve verified footage which emerged online recently showing armed men riding on top of aid trucks near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

The video shows a convoy of six trucks blaring their horns as they speed through crowds of civilians.

Men armed with machine guns, some masked and wearing high-vis vests, are seen firing into the air and pointing their weapons at bystanders, seemingly to deter them from stopping the convoy.

Some of the trucks appear to be partially emptied of their cargo as they race past the crowd, with people chasing after them and, in some cases, throwing stones.

It’s been reported that armed gangs have frequently taken control of aid vehicles in this way.

We geolocated the footage using distinctive landmarks in the area and confirmed the footage was uploaded recently using reverse image searches.

The scenes reflect the chaotic and often dangerous conditions under which aid is currently reaching civilians in Gaza.

Shruti Menon
BBC Verify senior journalist

A video circulating on social media purports to show India’s chief of defence staff, General Anil Chauhan, saying India lost seven jets and requested a ceasefire in a recent conflict with Pakistan.

The video appears to be a manipulated version of a speech given by him on 25 July, during which he made no mention of India’s jet losses or ceasefire offer and comes amid heated debate in parliament about the country’s military preparedness and capabilities.

In a previous interview, General Chauhan admitted losses, but did not provide specific details.

It is unclear whether the entire audio in the viral clip is AI-generated, or if someone is impersonating his voice. At times the words spoken in the manipulated video match those of the original speech, at others they do not. At certain points the movement of the general’s mouth clearly doesn’t match what is being said.

The video has been circulating for a few days, but went viral as debates on India’s military capacity began.

Indian fact-checkers have also debunked, external the viral video.

We’re on the look out for similar videos which may suggest wider co-ordinated activity.

Tamara Kovacevic
BBC Verify senior journalist

Last night on the BBC’s Newsnight programme, former Tory cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg compared France’s record on stopping small boat crossings with Belgium’s, claiming that Paris lagged significantly behind.

Rees-Mogg - who most recently served as business secretary in Liz Truss’ government - said: “The Belgian success rate of stopping boat crossings is very high. The French is very low.”The claim is misleading.

Belgian police told BBC Verify that cases of small boats leaving the Belgian coast are very rare due to the distance to the UK and strong currents which make the crossing very dangerous. They registered just two attempts in 2024 and none so far this year as of 8 July.

This claim is not new - other Conservatives, as well as Reform politicians, have made it before. In July, the Conservative Party press office sent us a 2023 article from the Sun to substantiate the claim.

The article says: “Across Belgium, just 944 people were detected making their way to Britain last year [2022], compared to 12,848 in 2018.”

But Belgian police told us: “It is not correct to link these numbers to small boat cases,” because the figures - published by the Belgian minister for justice in 2023 - showed for the total number of illegal migrants in the country reported to authorities, not how many of them tried to take a small boat across to the UK.

Matt Murphy
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Getty Images

The UK's new Online Safety Act came into effect last Friday, despite opposition from some major tech company leaders.

Under the legislation tech firms face fines of up to £18m, or 10% of their global turnover, if they fail to prevent children from being exposed to harmful content.

But BBC Verify has found that major social media companies X and Reddit could be overinterpreting the act in a bid to comply with the legislation and are restricting access to a broad array of posts - including those about the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

Experts warn companies are risking stifling legitimate public debate by overapplying the law.

You can read our full investigation here.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Throughout the day we'll be watching US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is expected to be visiting a US and Israeli-backed aid distribution site in Gaza.

Footage being widely shared online this morning shows a convoy of vehicles arriving at a site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Among those sharing the footage was Itay Blumental, the military correspondent of Israel's national broadcaster, who said it shows Witkoff's arrival at the site.

However, because it’s been taken from a distance, it isn’t possible for us to confirm Witkoff's presence from this footage alone.

We have identified the location as SDS3, which is located between the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis. This was done by matching certain features such as the gate, tent and astroturf to recent satellite imagery from the site.

SDS3 and the route leading to it have witnessed a series of deadly incidents since GHF operations began in May. These include the deaths of at least 20 people during a crush at the site on 16 July, as confirmed by the GHF itself.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Telegram SALDO_VGA

Russian-installed authorities say six people have been injured in a Ukrainian drone strike which targeted a parade of shops in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region.

Footage shared on Telegram showed smoke rising from a building which we geolocated to the outskirts of the village of Velyki Kopani.

The video was first posted by the Russian-installed head of Kherson Region, Vladimir Saldo, who said the fire was the result of a strike by an "enemy drone".

Most of Kherson region has been under Russian control since the launch of the full scale invasion in 2022. Ukrainian forces retook western parts of the region, including the regional capital, in November 2022.

Velyki Kopani, which lies around 40km (25 miles) southeast of Kherson city and across the Dnipro River, remains under Russian control.

Matt Murphy
BBC Verify senior journalist

Welcome to Verify Live and thanks for joining us at the end of what has been a busy week here in our London newsroom. Our fact-checkers, verification experts and data journalists are hard at work and are already looking at a wide array of stories.

We're looking at footage emerging from Ukraine's southern Kherson region, where Russian-installed authorises are blaming a blast at a trade post in an occupied part of the region on a Ukrainian drone strike.

Our verification team has been analysing a fake viral clip of an Indian general admitting to suffering losses of fighter jets in the recent conflict with Pakistan.

And we'll be highlighting our story which rolled out this morning examining restrictions imposed by social media companies under new online safety rules which have restricted posts about the Ukraine and Gaza wars.

We'll have all of that and more over the course of the day on Verify Live.