Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

We’re going to close this live page shortly, but BBC Verify teams in the US and UK are continuing their work through the rest of the day.

Here in London, our data team is preparing for the UK’s latest immigration statistics which come out tomorrow morning. We’ll carry their analysis on BBC Verify Live.

Today we’ve looked into the data around support for asylum seekers in the UK and the most common ways people enter the country illegally.

Our verification team have geolocated footage which appears to show strikes in Gaza and verified videos showing al-Qaeda affiliated fighters burning homes in Mali.

Plus we’ve used satellite imagery to show how camps for displaced people in Gaza City have cleared and Israeli military vehicles moving near to the city.

BBC Verify Live will be back in the morning.

Tamara Kovacevic
BBC Verify senior journalist

In 2024, 108,000 people applied for asylum in the UK.

One third of them – 35,000, external - arrived by small boats.

But how did the other two-thirds reach the UK?

More than a third - 37% or 40,000 people - entered the UK legally, with a visa, according to Home Office analysis, external.

They initially came as students, workers or visitors but then claimed asylum later.

Other ways people enter the UK illegally include in lorries or shipping containers or by using fraudulent documents.

Rob England
BBC Verify senior data journalist

The UK government’s use of hotels to house asylum seekers has been one of our main stories today after the High Court granted a district council a temporary injunction to block the Home Office from using the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex.

But only about a third of the 106,000 asylum seekers in the UK in March 2025 were housed in this way.

The government’s usual procedure is to house asylum seekers in hotels or other full-board hostel-style residences initially, then move them into “dispersal accommodation” for longer term stays as it becomes available.

About 62% were in this type of accommodation, which is self-catered housing that is supposed to be distributed evenly across the country.

There are also other types of large sites in use to house a small number of asylum seekers such as former military bases like Wethersfield in Essex.

About 3,000 people did not live in any form of asylum accommodation in the latest figures, but instead received £49.18 per week in financial support.

Image source, PA Media

Emma Pengelly and Richard Irvine-Brown
BBC Verify journalists

Image source, Instagram

Ahead of an expected Israeli operation to occupy Gaza City, we’ve verified video from this morning showing large plumes of smoke over the south side of the city.

The video was filmed from a tall building looking south toward the Zaytoun Quarter.

Clouds of smoke billow hundreds of feet into the air along with what appear to be the sound of explosions.

There is an edit in the video and the two plumes appear to have merged.

BBC Arabic Forensics translated the words Imam Al-Shafi'i Elementary School for Boys seen on a wall in the video.

We checked our log of Gazan school locations along with the two large buildings in the background, the building across the road, a tree and a white minaret in the foreground which gave us the direction and location of filming.

The camera is facing south so we can work out it’s morning because the sun is low and in the east.

Weather forecasts confirm northern Gaza has been hot and clear since dawn.

Frames from the video were reverse-searched and the oldest copies we have found are from around 11:00 local time (09:00 BST).

The Instagram account watermarked on the video has posted other videos of explosions in Gaza City, filmed from the same location, over the past four days.

Tamara Kovacevic
BBC Verify senior journalist

The UK government does not currently return Afghan asylum-seekers to their home country, external after they’ve had their claim rejected.

But Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK, has said that Germany does.

Speaking on Times Radio this morning he said: “Germany is deporting people who arrived illegally in Germany back to places like Afghanistan.”

We asked the German interior ministry whether Afghan nationals who entered Germany illegally are being deported to Afghanistan.

They told us:

• Germany deported 81 Afghan men in July 2025. They all had a criminal conviction as well as a rejected asylum claim
• This was the second deportation flight to Afghanistan since 2021 - when the Taliban took power there
• The first flight, carrying 28 Afghan men, who also committed offences and whose asylum claim was rejected, took place in August 2024

Germany, like the UK, does not recognise the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Both flights were organised through mediation by Qatar.

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.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

The aftermath of a Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian train in an occupied area of Zaporizhzhia region has been captured in a new satellite image.

The image from Planet Labs shows several plumes of thick black smoke rising from the train just east of the town of Tokmak.

The Ukrainian unit that carried out the strike also released videos showing several fuel tanks being pulled behind the locomotive being hit and celebrations among the drone pilots.

Yesterday we reported that footage released by the same unit of an attack may have shown the same train at a different location.

However, the new footage proves they were separate incidents - meaning the Ukrainians targeted two trains in the region.

What happened to the other train is unclear.

Image source, Planet Labs PBC

Sebastian Vandermeersch
BBC Verify

We’ve verified newly emerged footage filmed by fighters of the al-Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) showing an attack which reportedly took place yesterday at Farabougou in central Mali.

Videos filmed inside a military base show large numbers of armed men along with a captured armoured personnel carrier (APC).

Image source, X

In a separate video they can be seen shooting the tyres of another APC to disable it, while other fighters are seen driving a captured pickup truck mounted with a heavy machine gun.

Smoke plumes can be seen rising in the background of the footage and other clips show burnt-out army vehicles.

Google Earth imagery from February 2024 confirms multiple APCs and pickups were present at the base, which is consistent with what appears in the videos.

It is not clear from this footage whether any Malian soldiers were killed in the attack.

Image source, X

In another video filmed in the centre of Farabougou, we can see a large number of militants entering houses and burning down buildings.

Several blindfolded men in civilian clothes are seen being taken away by the insurgents while women and young children appear to have been gathered together in the town centre.

We confirmed the authenticity of the videos by matching the layouts of the base and village with satellite imagery. Reverse image searches indicate the videos had not been uploaded previously.

This attack comes just days after JNIM fighters overran the town of Tanwalbougou in neighbouring Burkina Faso.

JNIM has been described as one of Africa’s deadliest militant groups.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Earlier we reported that satellite imagery has captured the presence of Israeli armoured vehicles in eastern areas of Gaza City.

Another part of the same image also shows that camps for displaced people in the vicinity are being dismantled.

Comparing this recent image from 17 August with an earlier one from 8 August, we can see tented areas that have been almost completely cleared in less than two weeks. Similar removals are evident at other camps nearby. There are also signs of that buildings have been recently demolished.

Such camps are a common feature in and around Gaza City, particularly in western areas where there is a high concentration of internally displaced people who have fled fighting elsewhere in the Strip since Israel launched its ground operation after the 7 October 2023 attacks by Hamas.

Many of those seeking shelter near Gaza City will have come from areas to the north which were flattened during Israeli operations.

Estimates suggest hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are being told to leave Gaza City by the Israeli military and move to the south of the Strip.

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, PA Media

Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice has said a “major, major legal precedent that has been set” by a legal ruling which temporarily stops asylum seekers being housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex.

The judge in the case ruled in favour of Epping Forest District Council after it argued that using the hotel to accommodate asylum seekers was a breach of planning law and that there was a public safety risk.

It found the hotel’s owner had not applied for planning permission for a “material change” in the use of the hotel, which went from hosting weddings and conferences to accommodating about 140 asylum seekers.

The ruling may be appealed against by the Home Office.

But the Epping ruling is not the first time a council has won a legal case against asylum-seeker hotels on planning grounds.

In a legal challenge brought by Great Yarmouth Borough Council in December 2022 a judge noted that using hotels for asylum accommodation in the area would constitute a "material change of use", external.

Great Yarmouth’s case was helped by a specific planning policy known as "GY6" which protected its seafront area.

Lawyers also noted that one of these hotels was already subject to a special notice which prohibited its change from a hotel to a hostel.

Peter Mwai
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

We have verified video footage showing the aftermath of a reported Russian drone attack on a fuel and energy facility in the Odesa region, south-west Ukraine.

The video clip, taken during the night, shows a huge fire burning. Reports suggest a chemical tanker was among the targets attacked.

By matching the road, buildings and the trees to satellite imagery we have established that the video was filmed along Nakhimova Street in Izmail, a port city on the River Danube on the border with Romania.

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine says a drone attack caused “a large-scale fire“, external at a fuel and energy infrastructure facility in Odesa. One person was injured.

The service also shared images of firefighters battling the fire.

Nasa’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (Firms), which detects active hot spots from space, has picked up heat signatures in the area.

Both Russia and Ukraine have been focusing attacks on each other’s fuel and energy facilities and infrastructure in recent weeks.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

I’ve been looking at satellite images from Gaza, captured on 17 August, which shows at least two gatherings of Israeli armoured vehicles near the Sabra neighbourhood to the east of Gaza City.

Experts from the intelligence analysis firm Maiar have confirmed that the images show at least 11 armoured vehicles which they say are likely to be personnel carriers.

The vehicles were not visible at that location in satellite imagery captured the previous day which suggests this is a recent deployment.

The location is within an area designated a "dangerous combat zone" by the Israel Defense Forces.

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz has approved plans to occupy the Strip's largest city in an operation codenamed "Gideon's Chariot II".

Up to 60,000 reservists are expected to receive call-up papers in the coming days ahead of the offensive being launched.

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

This morning we’re looking at where asylum seekers are supported in the UK, following Tuesday’s High Court decision which will temporarily stop people being accommodated in a hotel in Epping, Essex.

After they arrive in the UK, asylum seekers who need it can receive support in the form of food, shelter and financial aid.

There were 106,771 people receiving asylum support at the end of March this year, according to the latest Home Office figures, external.

The vast majority were receiving accommodation support - including 30% who were living in hotels.

The North East and North West of England supported the largest number of asylum seekers as a proportion of their overall population.

The North East supported 2,758 people per million residents and the North West 2,686 people.

The top five local authorities supporting the highest number of asylum seekers at the end of March:

• Glasgow (4,152)
• Hillingdon (2,946)
• Birmingham (2,504)
• Liverpool (2,385)
• Hounslow (2,097)

The highest number of asylum seekers in “contingency accommodation” - which includes hotels and other temporary accommodation - were in the London boroughs of Hillingdon, Hounslow and Barnet.

Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify journalist

We’re monitoring social media and messaging apps used by people in Ukraine and Russia following a further night of attacks by both sides.

Ukraine’s emergency services say 14 people including three children were injured in a drone attack on the city of Okhtyrka in the eastern Sumy region.

It also reported attacks in the Donetsk region where one person was killed, and in the Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Poltava regions.

One person was injured after a Russian attack caused a fire at fuel and energy facility in the Odesa region in the far south-west of Ukraine.

We’re working to verify a video of a large fire said to show the aftermath.

Russia has reported drone attacks overnight in nine locations with the majority being detected over Voronezh region in the south-west.

We’ll bring you further updates and verified video as we get it.

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

Good morning from BBC Verify's live page team.

We’ve received new satellite imagery that appears to show initial Israeli preparations for a potential military offensive against Gaza City. We’re able to compare the latest pictures with previous imagery to see what has changed and what this might tell us about the build-up. We’ll also monitor social media being posted from inside Gaza to get a picture of the situation on the ground.

Elsewhere, we’re seeing footage online following further overnight attacks in Ukraine - with reports that a fuel and energy site is on fire in the southern port city of Odesa. Our team is also verifying reports of a Ukrainian drone attack on Voronezh in south-west Russia.

After the High Court temporarily blocked the UK government yesterday from using a hotel in Essex to house asylum seekers, our data and fact-check teams are digging into the data on where in the country people are being accommodated.

More on those stories to come - but if you want to check out previous editions of BBC Verify Live - head to our pages on the BBC website.