Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

We’ll be closing this live page shortly, but BBC Verify’s teams in London and Washington DC will be working through the evening. Keep an eye out for a video from us on the new White House ballroom and how US President Donald Trump is transforming one of the world’s most iconic buildings.

If you want to see what we’ve been working on today scroll back through BBC Verify Live for posts on:

• Using newly released satellite imagery to assess “catastrophic destruction” in one remote Alaska native village after a storm hit the state forcing hundreds of people to evacuate
• Verifying footage showing the aftermath of a Russian drone strike in Ukraine’s Kherson region
• Authenticating images of a reported attack on an airport in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum
• Geolocating a viral video of a tornado in Paris.

And, after former Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared at the UK Covid inquiry, we checked his claim about the government’s contingency planning for school closures during the pandemic.

BBC Verify Live will be back tomorrow morning - do join us then.

Richard Irvine-Brown
BBC Verify journalist

We have been working with other BBC News colleagues to piece together what we know about the theft of France’s crown jewels which were taken in under eight minutes from the Louvre Museum in Paris on Sunday.

BBC Verify analysed video obtained by France’s BFMTV which appeared to show the robbery in progress. There are many public images from inside the museum posted online by people who’ve been there. We can use these to verify the video and also work out where in the gallery the thieves were.

We can be sure the footage was recorded inside the Galerie d’Apollon given we have reference photos available that match those seen in the footage. It is also possible to work out where the person was filming from given there are only windows on the east side of the gallery so we know which way they were recording.

We can also see three modern display cabinets in the centre of the room and an antique table with a transparent case (labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the graphic above) in front of the person filming. This tells us they were on the west side and towards the south end of the gallery.

Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

We’ve been looking at new satellite imagery revealing the devastation caused by the remnants of a typhoon that has ravaged the western coast of Alaska.

The Alaska native village of Kipnuk, which is not connected to the US state’s road system and had to be evacuated by air, has been left with “catastrophic destruction”, state officials say, external.

Around 90% of Kipnuk’s structures have been destroyed and the water supply is suspected to be contaminated with fuel and sewage.

You might have noticed a difference in the colour of the water in the before and after satellite images we’ve shown you today.

Part of this will be down to heavy rainfall causing sediment and mud flow into the lakes around the village.

But the colour difference is mainly caused by satellite sensors capturing electromagnetic data that goes beyond what the human eye can see, like infrared light.

This means when the data is processed and converted into a standard image then natural colour differences can become exaggerated.

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 even a deepfake.

You can send your suggestions to the team here.

Alex Akhurst
BBC Verify eyewitness journalist

We’ve verified video posted online showing yesterday’s tornado in the French capital, Paris.

This footage, taken from a vehicle, was posted at 21:41 local time (20:41 BST) but recorded earlier in the day, shows heavy winds carrying debris, vehicles stopping, and the immediate aftermath of what appears to be a motorcycle collision in the left lane.

We geolocated the video to northbound carriageway of the A115 motorway using visual clues including road signs and a boundary fence on the side of the road. The vehicle registration plates shown in the video are also consistent with the French format.

Using this location as a guide, we went looking for the location shown i, externaln a TikTok video, external which was posted around the same time and shows the aftermath at a nearby residential apartment complex.

Reverse image searches showed us this was not old footage and the buildings and roads match a location directly west of the vehicle video we shared above.

Several vehicle windscreens are severely damaged by fallen trees. Speaking in French, the person recording can be heard exclaiming “it’s crazy” and then pointing the camera at several vehicles and apartment windows and repeatedly saying “broken”.

Peter Mwai and Richard Irvine-Brown
BBC Verify

Image source, X

We’ve been looking at several images from the Sudanese capital Khartoum where the international airport has been reportedly attacked by drones.

Photos taken at dawn along Africa Street, the main north-south route through the city, show a large plume of dark smoke rising on the western side of the airport.

The facility is in the heart of the city and was at the centre of violence when Sudan’s civil war broke out in April 2023. The attack comes seven months after the Sudan Armed Forces retook control of Khartoum, and a day before the airport was set to resume flights for the first time in two and a half years.

Another image, taken from a video, was used by local media this morning. While the silhouette has yet to be located it shows a partially constructed building.

There is a roughly six-second delay between seeing the explosion in the footage and hearing the blast. This tells us it was filmed about 2km (1.2 miles) away and we know there are several construction sites in that radius around the airport.

Image source, X

Shayan Sardarizadeh
BBC Verify senior journalist

I’ve been looking at the latest satellite pictures showing the scale of destruction left behind by a major storm that battered parts of the US state of Alaska earlier this month.

A comparison of pictures taken before and after the storm offers a sobering view of the devastation caused in Kipnuk, an Alaska native village of about 700 people. Many of them had to airlifted to safety elsewhere.

One image of an area in south Kipnuk shows how the storm destroyed some buildings - as you can see in the comparison below - and even moved one through 90 degrees.

According to state officials, external, almost 90% of structures in the village have been destroyed by the remnants of tropical typhoon Halong.

Another picture shows how the storm struck the centre of the village leaving a trail of damaged properties in its wake.

Shayan Sardarizadeh
BBC Verify senior journalist

An old image of a boat seized for carrying drugs in the Canary Islands last year has been used to spread false claims that it was targeted by the US military in Colombian territorial waters.

The image was shared on X by an account calling itself “US Homeland Security News” in a post which was viewed more than a million times and has since been deleted. The account has nearly half a million followers, but no known links to the US Department of Homeland Security.

The photo shows multiple white bags in the back of a boat floating in the sea. “Does this look like a poor fishing boat?” the caption reads.

We ran a reverse image search to determine the source of the photo and found it first surfaced online in early 2024, when a boat carrying drugs was seized near the Canary Islands. According to a report by the Spanish newspaper El Pais, external, the boat, which was carrying 4,350kg of cocaine, was confiscated nearly 1,000km (620 miles) south of the Spanish territory in the Atlantic Ocean.

In the actual strike from September, the US has said the vessel hit Colombian territorial waters was carrying drugs destined for its own territory.

The attack angered Colombia's President Gustavo Petro, who accused Washington of “murdering” a Colombian fisherman. In response, US President Donald Trump labelled Petro "an illegal drug leader" and said the US would no longer offer subsidies to Colombia.

Sherie Ryder, Paul Brown and Fridon Kiria
BBC Verify and BBC Monitoring

Having brought you what we’ve learned about last night’s attack on Ukraine’s Kherson we’ve also been able to verify footage showing the aftermath of what appears to be a Ukrainian strike on the Rostov region in southern Russia.

We’ve been looking at Bataysk where footage has emerged of a drone flying over a high-rise building as well as images of the aftermath of last night’s attack. Rostov regional governor Yury Slyusar said a section of a high-rise building in Bataysk had collapsed and 20 residents were evacuated.

We’ve verified a photo of a damaged building which we were able to match with a reference picture on Google Maps - as you can see here:

Image source, Telegram/Google

A separate image, also shared on the Telegram messenger, shows damage to a building with a distinctive curved entrance canopy giving us a useful reference to locate it on Google Street View.

The video of the drone would normally be harder to verify, as it was filmed from a high-rise building at night, but we could match surrounding other apartment blocks seen in the footage with online mapping. It’s not clear from the clip exactly where the drone landed and what damage it caused.

Image source, Telegram

Ben Chu
BBC Verify policy and analysis correspondent

At the UK Covid inquiry former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was challenged earlier ​over whether sufficient official planning for the closure of schools in March 2020 had taken place.

Johnson pushed back, saying: “I'm not sure I agree with the idea that there was no planning for school closures, because if you look at the sequence from February onwards, it's clear that Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) is talking about the possibility, the Cabinet is discussing it in March. Certainly I remember the subject coming up repeatedly.”

It’s correct that the prospect of school closures was discussed at Sage. On 19 February 2020, the group of experts spoke about “the impact of mass school closures”, external.

However, the top civil servant at the Department for Education (DfE) at the time, Jonathan Slater, wrote in his evidence submitted to the inquiry, external that “DfE's contingency plans were premised on the assumption that schools (and other education settings) would remain open”.

And former Education Secretary Sir Gavin Williamson told the inquiry last week that his ability to plan for closures was impeded by Downing Street.

He said: "Something like Covid is being directed from the centre in terms of different departments' responses. You don't have quite the freedom just to go and start going out and consulting with lots of people."

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Three people have been injured in a reported Russian drone strike in Ukraine’s Kherson region, according to local authorities.

We've geolocated footage posted by the Kherson Regional Administration to an area surrounding a school building on the outskirts of Kherson city.

The footage shows one part of the complex has partially collapsed along with other damage to the school and surrounding buildings. The attack also caused a sizeable fire which was detected by Nasa satellites shortly after midnight local time, according to the Firms heat-source monitoring system.

Witnesses featured in the footage say a woman and security guard were among the victims - the latter was injured when a wall fell on him.

Kherson city was occupied by Russian troops in the early stages of the full-scale invasion, but was retaken by Ukraine in November 2022.

It remains a frequent target for Russian strikes given its proximity to the front line which runs along the nearby Dnieper River.

Adam Durbin
BBC Verify Live senior journalist

Good morning.

We’ve verified footage showing the destructive aftermath of reported Russian drone strikes in Kherson, a city near the front line in southern Ukraine. Three people are being treated in hospital for injuries after the attacks, Kherson region officials have confirmed.

Separately, the team have also authenticated images showing significant damage to a residential building in Russia’s southern Rostov region, where local authorities have blamed overnight attacks by Ukrainian drones. Rostov’s governor has said 20 residents were evacuated but no injuries were reported after the building’s wall partially collapsed.

And our UK fact-check team is listening to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson who is giving evidence to the Covid inquiry about the impact of the pandemic on schools and education.

More on those stories to come throughout the day.