Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

We’ll shortly be bringing our Live Page coverage to a close, but the work of BBC Verify continues.

From the Middle East, we verified footage of the deadly fire in Kut, Iraq, which is now known to have killed at least 61 people, and the aftermath of recent clashes in Syria which also appear to have claimed many lives.

We examined the British government's pledge to "smash the gangs" following the UK-Germany agreement which includes plans to clamp down on illegal migration.

After President Trump's claim that Coca-Cola has agreed to change its recipe in the US, our fact-checkers looked into the health impacts of the drink made with corn syrup or cane sugar.

Our late team will continue to examine images of the Iraq fire, including videos from inside the building, to establish the sequence of events.

You can keep up to date with all our work at our dedicated corner of the BBC News website.

Rob England
BBC Verify senior data journalist

Germany has committed to introducing new laws that would allow its authorities to seize equipment used to facilitate small boat crossings, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said.

The PM made the announcement after signing a “friendship treaty” in Hertfordshire with German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz.

Starmer said the legislation should be in place by the end of the year, and that the two governments were “determined to intervene at every stage” of the process of organising Channel crossings.

“Smashing the criminal boat gangs” was one of Labour’s key pledges during the 2024 general election and featured in its post-election Plan for Change.

As we’ve already reported, it remains unclear how the government intends to measure progress or when it expects to meet that goal.

The Home Office has previously told BBC Verify that data on actions taken by officials to disrupt criminal gangs was "being collected and may be published in the future".

Peter Walsh from Oxford university’s Migration Observatory says that while dismantling gangs is important for long-term disruption, success is difficult to measure. Breaking them up takes a lot of resources, he adds, as smugglers can be replaced very quickly.

So far this year, 22,504 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats, 52% more than during the same period in 2024.

Peter Mwai and Richard Irvine-Brown
BBC Verify

Following on from our earlier work verifying images from the overnight fire at the Corniche Hypermarket in Kut, Iraq, further videos we have verified provide additional insight into what happened.

One video shows people leaving the building through the main entrance of the ground floor. This is on the southwest face of the building, and a blaze can be seen on the first floor, toward the southern corner. Traffic is still freely moving nearby and the rest of the building looks undamaged.

Another video shows a fire engine outside the building, with a jet of water trained on the flames. The fire is on the second floor, and toward the north.

Other videos we’ve verified show people trapped on the upper floors and roof of the building, in a fire in which local officials say at least 60 people died.

Emma Pengelly and Richard Irvine-Brown
BBC Verify journalists

We’ve verified a video shared widely across social media showing piles of bodies at the National Hospital of Suweida in southern Syria.

Violence erupted on Sunday in the Suweida province after clashes between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes.

We won’t show you the video as it’s too graphic but in it, armed men are walking through corridors of the hospital. The person filming quietly repeats the Arabic words “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest). As he continues further into the premises he enters a blood-stained corridor and films dozens of bodies on the floor - some of them covered and others not - in a hallway, side rooms and a small courtyard.

We confirmed this was filmed at the National Hospital by matching the interior - including wall panelling and black and white floor tiles - to a Syria TV report filmed at the hospital earlier this year. By reverse searching the footage we’ve found many previous versions, but none posted earlier than yesterday.

It’s not possible to say what exactly happened from this video alone.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said yesterday the hospital had been “besieged”. Also yesterday, the Syrian Ministry of Health said the bodies were of “security forces and civilians inside the hospital”. We have not been able to verify these accounts.

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, Shutterstock

US President Donald Trump says that Coca-Cola has agreed to use cane sugar in drinks sold in the US.

Writing on Truth Social,, external he said: "I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so."

The president’s announcement follows concerns raised by his Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr about the health impacts of corn syrup, a liquid sweetener made from corn which is cheaper than sugar.

Coke sold in the US is typically sweetened with this syrup whereas in other countries, including Mexico and the UK, it tends to use cane sugar.

I’ve contacted six nutritional experts to ask whether cane sugar is any healthier than corn syrup.

One of them, Nichola Ludlam-Raine of the British Dietetic Association, told me that: “From a nutritional standpoint, cane sugar and high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) are very similar. Both are sources of free sugars that contribute to excess calorie intake and, when consumed in large amounts over time, can increase the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and tooth decay.

“High-fructose corn syrup, commonly used in US soft drinks, typically contains around 55% fructose and 45% glucose, whereas cane sugar (sucrose) is a 50/50 mix of glucose and fructose. While there are slight chemical differences, the body breaks both down into glucose and fructose, and processes them in largely the same way,” she said.

Ms Ludlam-Raine added that: “There is no strong evidence to suggest that cane sugar is significantly ‘healthier’ than corn syrup - both should be consumed in moderation”.

Shruti Menon
BBC Verify senior journalist

We’ve been looking at new satellite images of the bulk carrier, Galaxy Leader, which has been docked at the Ras Isa port in Yemen since it was hijacked by Houthi fighters in November 2023.

Israel carried out a strike on the ship on 6 July, claiming that it was being used to monitor international shipping. It also struck other targets in Houthi-controlled ports in Yemen.

This latest Planet Labs satellite image from 13 July, shows extensive damage to the ship, but it is appears to be still afloat.

We’ve compared the latest image to an earlier one from 11 May, where the shape of the white deck can be seen clearly with sharp edges and its features visible. In the latest imagery, those parts look blackened and a part of the ship’s stern looks damaged.

Peter Mwai
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Reuters

We have managed to establish the location of the shopping centre that caught fire in Kut, Iraq, killing at least 60 people. In the verification world, this is called “geolocating”.

To do this, we gathered as many clues as possible from the videos, images and text posts that were being shared online. A key element to the puzzle was the information that the injured were rushed to the al-Zahraa teaching hospital in Kut which was well labelled on Google Maps.

The assumption was that the mall had to be near the hospital, so we went looking at the buildings that matched the one we could see in the videos in the vicinity of the hospital.

There was also a chart with a grab from satellite imagery of the location shared by Turkish news agency Anadolu which offered more clues.

We found a match at a location slightly more than a kilometre away from the hospital, and also matched the nearby buildings and structures to satellite imagery available on Google Earth.

There were other clues, for example the name of the mall, “Corniche”, which would indicate a road cutting into the edge of a cliff or along a coast. The mall is located on a road running next to the River Tigris.

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, Reuters

Later today Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to sign an agreement with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, including measures to clamp down on illegal migration.

The two leaders are also due host a press conference, which our fact-check team will be monitoring.

In December, Germany agreed to make facilitating people-smuggling into the UK a criminal offence.

A government press release , externalat the time said: “Germany confirmed its intention to clarify their law to strengthen the ability of law enforcement to tackle people smuggling gangs”.

The key word here is “intention” because that law hasn’t actually been introduced yet. Downing Street had said ahead of today’s conference that it will come into effect by December - about a year after it was initially agreed.

Facilitating people-smuggling is not technically illegal under German law if it’s to a country outside the European Union, which includes the UK after Brexit.

You can read our government asylum pledge tracker - including the commitment to “smash the gangs” - in this article here

Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, X

Yesterday we verified several videos capturing the moment Israel struck the Syrian Ministry of Defense in Damascus and an area near the city’s presidential palace.

Early this morning, in his first televised statement since Israel’s attack, the interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa said Syrians were not afraid of war. You can read more on that here.

Meanwhile, Syrian state media has reported the military is withdrawing from Suweida in south-west Syria under a ceasefire agreement with Druze leaders. The Druze are a religious minority, living mainly between Syria, Lebanon, and Israel.

We’ll be monitoring to see if the truce holds by looking at local media and social media where videos first appeared this week.

In the last few minutes we’ve seen new footage purporting to be filmed in Suweida showing bloodied bodies lying on the ground - claiming to be people killed in the recent violent clashes. We’re analysing the clips and will bring you more if they can be confirmed.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

We’re currently reviewing numerous videos and photos of a major fire at a shopping centre in Kut, Iraq, which left dozens dead.

It is common at times of major disasters like this for false or misleading videos to be shared online as people seek to farm engagement from such a dramatic event.

That’s why we subject each piece of footage to a rigorous verification process and will only share images with you that we know to be legitimate.

We’ll bring updates as we get them.

Tom Edgington
BBC Verify live editor

Hello and welcome to Thursday’s BBC Verify Live page.

Our fact-checkers, data journalists and verification specialists are working on a number of stories today:

• Following the Israeli strikes on Syria's capital, Damascus, our verification specialists are assessing the damage
• A fire that tore through a shopping centre in the Iraqi city of Kut has left dozens dead, according to state media. Our team is investigating what happened
• Germany is set to tighten its laws to crack down on gangs smuggling migrants to the UK, according to Downing Street. We’ll be examining the government’s existing “smash the gangs” pledge
• Donald Trump says he’s persuaded Coca Cola to change its recipe in the US and use cane sugar instead of corn syrup instead. Our fact-checkers are delving into it

Remember, you can get in touch with the BBC Verify team by following this link