Summary

  • BBC Verify uses open-source intelligence, satellite imagery, fact-checking and data analysis to help report complex stories

  • We're using online tools to track the scale of the Los Angeles protests that unfolded over the weekend in response to the Trump administration's immigration raids

  • Verified footage shows cars on fire and people smashing windows at a police headquarters in downtown LA

  • On US immigration, we're fact-checking claims about the number of people who have illegally entered the country in recent years

  • You can get in touch with BBC Verify by following this link

  1. What online footage of LA protests tells us about its scalepublished at 13:30 British Summer Time

    Kayleen Devlin
    BBC Verify senior journalist

    A car is seen on fire and a person on a motorcycle drives in front of it. It is broad daylightImage source, X
    Image caption,

    BBC Verify verified footage of a burning car in Compton, south of Los Angeles, on Saturday

    There’s a lot of footage circulating online of the Los Angeles protests, and we’re working on verifying some of the earliest footage available. We’re going beyond what news agencies are filing, as we dig through videos and images uploaded by people at the scene.

    The earliest footage we have verified so far is from Saturday 7 June. In it, we can see a car on fire near a Dale’s Donut store in Compton, south of Los Angeles.

    People in the video can be seen standing near the vehicle waving Mexican flags.

    Pictures of the scene show the same car in flames with law enforcement officers standing nearby holding weapons - in one image, you can see tear gas being fired. We can tell this occurred shortly after the video was captured as the car is more severely damaged by fire.

    A person can be seen taking a skateboard to smash the windows of a building in downtown LAImage source, X
    Image caption,

    Footage verified by BBC shows a person using a skateboard to smash the windows of the LAPD headquarters in downtown LA

    In a separate video, taken on Sunday, it shows a line of Waymo self-driving taxis in flames. We reverse image searched and geolocated that footage to Los Angeles Street in downtown LA.

    According to local reports, a group of demonstrators approached the taxis at about 17:00 local time (01:00 BST).

    Elsewhere in downtown LA, we’ve verified footage of protesters smashing windows at the LAPD headquarters - one of them can be seen using a skateboard. This is most likely to have been filmed on Sunday evening as it’s nighttime footage which first appeared online on Monday morning.

    We are continuing to verify online footage of the protests to build up a picture of what happened and when.

  2. Watch: Why has Trump introduced a new travel ban?published at 13:21 British Summer Time

    Lucy Gilder
    BBC Verify journalist

    President Trump’s US travel ban comes into force today, affecting foreign nationals of 12 countries. People from seven other countries face travel restrictions.

    Last week, BBC Verify looked at the US government’s justifications for these measures.

    The rate at which people overstay their visas was given as a reason for nearly every country facing the ban.

    But what threshold of overstay rates must be met for a country to be placed on Trump’s ban list isn’t clear.

    For example, Chad - which is on the list - had an overstay rate of nearly 50% for business and tourist visas in 2023. But this equated to just 377 over stayers.

    Whereas in the same year, Columbia - which isn’t on the list - had an overstay rate of just 4% for this visa type.

    While the proportion of people who overstay is relatively small, this equates to some 40,000 Columbians staying in the US beyond their visa expiry.

  3. What powers does Trump have to deploy Marines to LA?published at 12:35 British Summer Time

    Lucy Gilder
    BBC Verify journalist

    Protesters gather along highway 101 during a demonstration in Los Angeles, California, US,Image source, Bloomberg via Getty Images
    Image caption,

    Protesters gather along the highway during a demonstration in Los Angeles over the weekend

    President Trump and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have said US Marine troops may be mobilised, if the unrest in Los Angeles continues.

    Some online have questioned the legality of this and California Governor Gavin Newsom has said, external “threatening to deploy active-duty Marines… is deranged behaviour”.

    It wouldn’t be the first time in US history that this has happened though.

    About 1,500 Marines were deployed to LA during the riots of May 1992, which followed the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of Rodney King, a black man., external

    The president at the time, George H W Bush, used a mechanism called the Insurrection Act to deploy the Marines.

    This law gives the president the power to use US military personnel domestically to assist civilian authorities, for example in law enforcement.

    “Federal military participation in civilian law enforcement like this has been rare, particularly over the past half century,” says the Brennan Center for Justice.

    The Center says that - according to US law - the Insurrection Act should be used “only in a crisis that is truly beyond the capacity of civilian authorities to manage”.

    But, it adds, because the Act doesn’t clearly define the situations in which it can be used, it gives the president “significant power” to decide when and where to deploy military personnel on American soil.

  4. What has changed with winter fuel payment?published at 12:17 British Summer Time

    Anthony Reuben
    BBC Verify senior journalist

    Chancellor Rachel Reeves has just announced that more than three quarters of pensioners - nine million people - will be eligible for winter fuel payment this coming winter in England and Wales.

    • Follow our separate live page for updates on the government's policy change on winter fuel payment

    The threshold to lose the £200 or £300 payment will be having an individual in the household having an income of £35,000 or above.

    The previous system of restricting the payment to those receiving Pension Credit was based on household income instead of individual income.

    It will now be treated similarly to child benefit, which people who are not eligible for have to repay by completing a tax return.

    But the government says the new system will not mean lots of pensioners having to fill out tax returns because the money will be automatically clawed back.

    • For context: More than 10 million pensioners lost out on the payments, worth up to £300, when they became means-tested last year
  5. Did 11 million people illegally enter the US under Biden?published at 11:40 British Summer Time

    Tom Edgington
    BBC Verify senior journalist

    The US-Mexico border is seen with a border wall that has wire on topImage source, Getty Images

    Protests in Los Angeles against immigration raids in the US are continuing for a third day. A bit earlier, we heard from former Trump adviser Sam Nunberg, who claimed to BBC News that:

    “The Biden White House admitted that - at least according to them - they had 11 million illegal immigrants enter the country.”

    There were more than 10 million border “encounters” during President Biden’s time in office, a, externalccording to US Customs and Border Protection, external.

    While that number is historically high, it doesn’t mean this many people came into the US and stayed illegally.

    Some would have attempted to cross the border multiple times and been counted more than once and others would have been apprehended and removed. The numbers also include people who tried to enter the country legally and were deemed “inadmissible”.

    Separate figures - from the the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - estimate there were 11 million unauthorised migrants living in the US in 2022, external.

    However, this number reflects the total population of unauthorised immigrants - not how many arrived under Biden.

    The DHS data show the estimated illegal migrant population has remained relatively stable:

    • 2010: 11.6 million
    • 2020: 10.5 million (*during President Trump’s first term)
    • 2022: 11 million (*under President Biden)

    BBC Verify has previously investigated illegal immigration in the US, which you can read more about here.

  6. How does BBC Verify authenticate videos and photos?published at 10:42 British Summer Time

    Matt Murphy
    BBC Verify digital lead

    One of BBC Verify’s key roles is authenticating clips and images circulating online, which our reporters may want to rely on in news stories.

    We do this by examining features in the clips which could help locate the images and verify whether it is where the poster says it is.

    Landmarks such as trees, signs and even road or footpath layouts can give clues about where a clip is. They are then cross-referenced with other images we already know are from the location, such as images online and satellite data.

    We will also run the video through a reverse image search to establish when the footage first appeared online.

    If the clip has not previously appeared in search results that it a good indication that it is new.

    We're currently poring over video footage and images shared online in recent days to piece together the scale of the Los Angeles protests - we'll bring you the result of this work a bit later on.

  7. ICYMI: Ros Atkins on... Ukraine's Operation 'Spider's Web'published at 10:11 British Summer Time

    Ukraine dubbed its operation inside Russia on 1 June "Spider's Web".

    New information continues to emerge about the daring series of drone attacks at multiple locations inside Russia.

    BBC Analysis Editor Ros Atkins and the BBC Verify team have been assessing a range of material - from satellite images to drone footage - to build up a picture of what happened and how it was done.

    Media caption,

    Ros Atkins on... how Ukraine did Operation Spider Web

  8. What BBC Verify is looking into todaypublished at 09:49 British Summer Time

    Johanna Chisholm
    BBC Verify Live editor

    Good morning and welcome back to BBC Verify's rolling live coverage, where we'll be posting updates from our team working on fact-checks, online open-source gathering, disinformation debunking and data journalism.

    We've just finished our morning meeting, and the main prospects that our team will be across today include:

    • We're geolocating and chronolocating videos to track the scale of the Los Angeles protests that unfolded over the weekend in response to the Trump administration's immigration raids
    • We're also fact-checking the White House’s claims about illegal immigration in the US
    • And using online mapping tools, we're trying to geolocate where the aid ship carrying activists - including Greta Thunberg - was intercepted by the IDF after trying to reach the Gaza Strip

    Plus, we'll be looking out for more details after the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said they found the body of a Hamas chief in a tunnel underneath the European Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis on Sunday.

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