Anthony Reuben
BBC Verify senior journalist

We’ll be closing this live page shortly.

The team has been examining the challenges facing UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves following analysis from a think tank which predicted taxes will have to rise in the autumn.

We’ve also examined footage of deaths and injuries after four aid trucks overturned in Gaza.

And we’ve verified footage of an attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said killed two people and injured 12.

Still to come this evening, we’ll be monitoring footage from the wild fires that have broken out in southern France as well as Spain and Portugal. You can find the latest on that here.

BBC Verify Live will be back on Thursday.

Ned Davies
BBC Verify analyst

Image source, Getty Images

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed shock at Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, at one point directly appealing to his Russian counterpart saying “Vladimir, stop!”.

We wanted to find out whether Trump’s words and actions have been followed by a reduction in the number of missiles and drones being launched by Moscow.

Petro Ivaniuk, an independent researcher, has been building a database detailing the type, timing and number of missiles launched based on information from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Analysing his data, we found Russia launched twice as many missiles after Trump took office in January compared with the previous six months. There was a brief slowdown in the number being fired when Trump said he wanted a peace deal early in his term.

Since May, the president has become more vocal in his criticism of Putin, but with June and July 2025 seeing the heaviest attacks on record, the president’s words don’t seem to be having an effect.

So what is driving it? Experts we spoke to said the increase is due to Russia’s growing production capacity. We dug into the data and found Shahed drones are now playing a dominant role. Satellite images showing a significant expansion of Shahed production facilities since mid-2024 support this.

Shruti Menon
BBC Verify senior journalist

President Donald Trump has announced additional tariffs - taxes on imports - of 25% on Indian goods coming into the US because of India's continued use of Russian oil.

India has bought oil from Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 despite countries including the UK and EU members sanctioning Moscow’s energy sector and ending supply deals.

In 2023, Russia became India’s top oil supplier, according to data from Kpler, a data and analytics firm.

Iraq and Saudi Arabia have continued to supply oil to India - but at a declining rate.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Earlier we explained how the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have designated "dangerous conflict zones" and evacuation orders to impose military control over most of Gaza.

Another key component is the establishment of “security corridors” which separates the strip from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean coast, effectively isolating major population centres.

The IDF has already built three such corridors:

• Philadelphi - along Gaza's southern border with Egypt
• Morag - between the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis
• Netzarim - south of Gaza city

Last month the IDF announced plans for a fourth corridor - Magin Oz - which effectively encircles the southern Gaza area of Khan Younis, joining Morag at the city’s south-western corner.

Satellite imagery provided by Planet Labs shows the early stages of this new corridor being dug. The images below compare 21 May with 5 August.

For more on how the IDF has cleared large areas of land as part of its efforts to impose military control on Gaza, see our investigation here.

Sherie Ryder
BBC Verify journalist

We’ve been monitoring social media posts showing the extent of the wildfires spreading in south-west France. Firefighters have been battling an outbreak near Ribaute in the Aude department since yesterday.

To gauge the spread of the fires, we looked at Nasa’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (Firms).

We use this service as it has specialist satellites which can pick up active fire hotspots at any given date. By adding the co-ordinates of the area affected, we could match the reports and footage we’ve seen with the data gathered by Nasa.

Image source, Nasa Firms

Above is the Nasa Firms heat map showing an area below the A61 motorway and to the west of the main A9, near Port la Nouvelle.

Google Maps is also showing wildfires in the same general area - but the data from Firms shows how many sources of heat its satellites are picking up which gives us a better idea of where the fires are actually burning.

Joshua Cheetham
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, X/SpurOn

We’re continuing to gather more information about why a light plane has this afternoon made an emergency landing at Birmingham which has led to the closure of the runway.

Inbound passenger jets have had to divert to other airports and departing flights are being delayed.

Tracking data on Flightradar24 shows that, soon after take-off, the King Air involved transmitted a “7700” squawk code.

These are broadcast to tell air traffic control that there is an emergency and the aircraft needs priority handling by air traffic control.

It’s still unclear what the emergency was and why it had to make an emergency landing.

Jake Horton
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Audrey Richardson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers in Texas have fled the state in an attempt to block a plan to redraw electoral boundaries.

The plan would create five more Republican-leaning seats in the US House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a slim majority.

President Donald Trump said the FBI “may have to” help track down and arrest the lawmakers when asked about the story yesterday.

They have fled to Illinois - a state controlled by the Democrats - so can the president legally send the FBI there to intervene?

The FBI is yet to comment - but according to the agency’s website, external: “State and local law enforcement agencies are not subordinate to the FBI, and the FBI does not supervise or take over their investigations.”

The site also says the, external FBI “may obtain a federal arrest warrant and attempt to locate an individual who flees prosecution or confinement if there is reason to believe the person has travelled across a state line”.

This is typically done in co-ordination with local law enforcement though - and the authorities in Illinois have not requested such assistance.

Joshua Cheetham
BBC Verify journalist

We’re looking at the closure of the runway at Birmingham Airport as a result of what it says is an "aircraft incident".

We have just seen some images, posted on X, that show a small plane on the runway surrounded by emergency vehicles. Its tail is sitting on the tarmac.

The plane is a Beech B200 Super King Air belonging to Woodgate Aviation, a charter firm based at Belfast International Airport.

Records on flight-tracking site FlightRadar 24 show a similar plane departed from Birmingham at 12:17 BST.It was due to fly to Belfast but turned around minutes after departure and headed back towards the airport.

After circling, it landed at around 12:57. The reason for this is still unclear but we’re looking for updates.

Ben Chu
BBC Verify policy and analysis correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) think tank has predicted today that UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves could be set to miss her chosen fiscal rules - to balance the day-to-day budget in 2029-30 - by £41bn in the autumn.

That figure suggests that if she wants to restore her roughly £10bn of headroom against those fiscal rules Reeves will have to raise taxes by around £50bn a year in the autumn Budget., external

But others have suggested the chancellor might need to raise taxes by less.

An estimate from the Capital Economics consultancy suggests Reeves might need only £15-£25bn of tax rises to restore £10bn of headroom, external.

Analysts agree that the cost of the government’s recent policy reversals on welfare cuts and Winter Fuel Payments will add up to around £5bn a year by 2029-30.

The bulk of the discrepancy is likely down to differing assumptions about GDP growth over the coming years.

Niesr is forecasting average UK GDP growth of only 1.1% in the four years to 2029, but Capital Economics estimates it will be somewhat higher, at around 1.4% a year, external.

Higher growth means more tax revenues and a smaller deficit than otherwise.

Ultimately the key UK growth forecast will be that of the official forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, and we won't get that until the Budget.

Simran Sohal
BBC Verify

This morning the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) warned that the UK government was on track to miss its self-imposed borrowing rules.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves set those rules at the Budget last autumn. They are:

• Borrowing should only fund investment - not day-to-day spending
• Debt must be on track to fall as a share of the economy in five years

Niesr said that Reeves would need to raise taxes to meet the targets, but another option is to change her fiscal rules again.

Reeves though has described her self-imposed fiscal rules as “non-negotiable”. But previous chancellors have changed theirs regularly.

Fiscal rules were introduced by Labour in 1997 and stayed the same until 2009 when then-Chancellor Alistair Darling made some changes.

Successive Conservative chancellors updated their fiscal rules whilst in office from 2010 until 2024.

When Reeves announced her rules last autumn, it was the ninth change, external since 2009.

Sherie Ryder and Peter Mwai
BBC Verify

We have authenticated a video showing an explosion near a clinic run by the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa) in northern Gaza following a reported Israeli airstrike overnight.

In the video, a loud explosion is heard and a fireball lights up the area behind a building with a communications mast on the roof.

We have matched the distinctive building in the footage, which has a slightly curved front facade, to images available online of the Sheikh Radwan Clinic in the al-Maqousi area west of Gaza City.

Pictures uploaded online show the building before it suffered any damage and the name Sheikh Redwan Health Center can be seen on the wall in English and Arabic along with the UN crest.

We have done a reverse image search of key frames from the video to be sure it is recent.

The Reuters news agency has since been to the scene and taken photographs of the aftermath of the strike.

Image source, Reuters

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

A senior United Nations official has expressed serious concerns about Israel potentially expanding its military operations in Gaza, following reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing to resume occupation of the entire territory.

"This would risk catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians and could further endanger the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza," said assistant secretary general Miroslav Jenča at a meeting of the UN Security Council yesterday.

Israel already asserts military control over the vast majority of the Strip, with the UN estimating that 87% of Gaza is either a designated military zone, or subject to evacuation notices.

After the breakdown of the ceasefire in March, Israel declared all border areas to be "dangerous combat zones" which have gradually expanded over the months that followed.

Periodically, the IDF also issues evacuation notices for certain areas, although it is not always made clear when these are rescinded.

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.

Anthony Reuben
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Reuters

UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves will have to raise taxes in the autumn if she is to meet her self-imposed rules on borrowing, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) think tank has warned.

It’s not the first time this has come up. The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank said at the time of the Spring Statement, external in March there was “a good chance” Reeves would have to raise more money at the Budget in the autumn, “which will likely mean raising taxes even further”.

BBC Verify’s Ben Chu talked about the potential for tax rises at the time when he set out how the chancellor had met her rules then.

Niesr points out that since the Budget there has been disappointing growth and the government has watered down some of its planned welfare cuts.

Reeves has repeatedly described her rules to only borrow for investment and for debt to be on track to be falling as a share of the economy in five years as "non-negotiable".

Joshua Cheetham
BBC Verify journalist

We’ve been tasked with looking into reports from the Hamas-run civil defence agency in Gaza that 20 people were killed and dozens injured when an aid lorry overturned. An agency spokesman told the AFP news agency the incident happened near the Nuseirat refugee camp.

We’re currently analysing a video that purportedly shows the aftermath of this incident, which is said to have happened around midnight local time (22:00 BST).

The footage is too graphic to share here but several bodies are visible in the video and at least one large vehicle. At two different points we can see bodies apparently under the wheels.

There isn't a moment in the video that clearly shows an overturned vehicle. The video appears to have been filmed at night, but the exact location is unclear.

The earliest version we’ve been able to find online was published by the Palestinian-run Quds News Network.

Latest figures from the UN indicate more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed seeking food since late May.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, State Emergency Service of Ukraine

Two people have died and 12 were injured in an attack on Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region earlier this morning, according to the country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky says an "an ordinary recreation centre" was hit and the strike made zero "military sense".

Footage released by the Ukrainian emergency services shows damage to buildings and firefighters at work. Two people can be seen lying on the ground - one body has been covered up.

The footage includes clues about where the strike happened such as a large body of water, a rotunda and a water tower.

Using these details, we have geolocated the footage to an area on the western bank of the Dnipro River, less than 20km (12 miles) from Zaporizhzhia city.

Southern areas of the Zaporizhzhia region have been occupied by Russia since the launch of the full-scale invasion in 2022.

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

Hello from the live page team - we'll be bringing you the latest updates on the work of BBC News' fact-checkers, verification specialists and data journalists.

Following our editors' meeting we're looking at:

• Authenticating material from Ukraine following a reported attack near the city of Zaporizhzhia which according to the country's President Volodymyr Zelensky has killed two and injured 12
• Verifying reports from Gaza's Hamas-run civil defence organisation via the AFP news agency that 20 people were killed when a lorry carrying aid overturned in the strip - we've seen video and are checking its authenticity
• Analysing a think tank's conclusion that UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves will need to raise taxes at the Budget if she is to meet her self-imposed borrowing rules

We've also carried out an analysis of the number of drones and missiles launched by Russia against Ukraine since US President Donald Trump returned to office. We've found that they have reached their highest levels since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

You can read the full analysis by BBC Verify's Matt Murphy and Ned Davies here.