Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

We're closing this live page soon but our team is continuing to provide verification and fact-checks for BBC News throughout the evening.

As the UN-backed body the IPC confirms a famine in Gaza, BBC Verify has tracked how much food has entered Gaza and analysed the Israeli government's response to the report.

We've verified more footage of a Ukrainian attack on a major Russian oil facility and gone into futher detail on the significance of the Druzhba pipeline.

And we've used satellite imagery to monitor the construction of the “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention centre in Florida.

BBC Verify Live will be back next week.

Sherie Ryder and Daniele Palumbo
BBC Verify

Earlier we were looking into reports that there had been several strikes in Konstantinovka, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.

Several photos had been posted by Serhiy Gorbunov, head of the City Military Administration on his Facebook account.

Looking at one building which was still smouldering, external, we checked out similar looking rural areas via Google Maps and Yandex.

Eventually, we spotted a block with several storeys and an electricity post which appeared to match up with the photo.

And, on closer inspection, we saw a satellite dish on the exact same level, thanks to an image on Yandex.

Moving around on the map, we could work out where the person had taken the shot too.

Merlyn Thomas
BBC Verify senior reporter

I’ve just filed a report from the BBC Verify set for the news channel, looking at how famine is defined.

Since 2011, four famines have been confirmed by the IPC.

This latest report makes Gaza City the fifth - and the first in the Middle East.

Watch below:

Tamara Kovacevic
BBC Verify senior journalist

Yesterday, we spent much of the day analysing the new figures on people seeking asylum in the UK.

Neil from Carlisle has emailed to ask us about Brexit and its impact on migration to the UK.

He wrote: “What has been the effect of Brexit on migration to the UK? Has there been any significant change in the countries of origin of migrants, their modes of arrival in the UK and their reasons for coming to the UK?”

To answer this, we used Office of National Statistics (ONS) data, external on the number of people entering and leaving the UK for at least 12 months.

Here are what the figures show:

EU net migration – the number of people coming from the European Union minus the number leaving – started falling following the referendum in 2016 and accelerated after 2020 when the UK ended EU freedom of movement and implemented a new points-based immigration system.

At the same time, there have been large increases in net migration from the rest of the world.

The non-EU net migration numbers peaked in 2023 but fell in 2024.

The most common nationalities coming to the UK in 2024 from non-EU countries were Indian, Pakistani, Chinese and Nigerian, external.

The top two reasons for wanting to live in the UK was for work or study, external.

In 2015, the year before the Brexit referendum, the top nationalities coming to work were Romanian, Polish, Italian and Spanish, external.

Peter Mwai and Sebastian Vandermeersch
BBC Verify

Image source, X

We’ve verified footage showing several lorries which were part of a larger humanitarian convoy belonging to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) engulfed in flames in the city of Mellit in Sudan’s famine-hit Darfur region.

Three men from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighting Sudan’s army can be seen in the video claiming that Sudanese military jets carried out the strike.

The Sudanese armed forces have denied the claim and accused the RSF - which controls Mellit and much of Darfur - of attempting to cover up their own involvement in the attack. The UN said staff travelling with the convoy were unharmed.

We verified the location of the footage by matching government buildings and surrounding mountain ranges to Google Earth and Peakvisor.

Satellite imagery from Planet shows the lorries were present on 17 and 19 August.

By 21 August the undamaged vehicles were gone but a burn mark is visible in the location of the destroyed lorries.

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, Getty Images

The Trump administration is to review US visas held by 55 million people, according to the Associated Press news agency, external.

The announcement has led to some confusion online about whether all of them are currently living in the US.

One post on X claims “55 million people are here on visas”, external, while another states: “I just learned that there are 55,000,000 people in the United States of America on visas.”, external

Together these posts have been viewed about seven million times.

There is no publicly available data on the total number of people holding a valid US visa - the 55 million figure likely refers to the number of holders worldwide.

It is unlikely that they will all be in the US (total population around 342 million) and a significant number of visas issued annually by the US government are short-term.

Last year nearly 11 million temporary visas, external were granted for purposes such as tourism, business and study.

The data does not tell us when these visa holders entered or left the US.

In the same year 600,000 visas were issued to people intending to live in the US permanently, including relatives of American citizens.

The Trump administration says it’s vetting visa holders for deportable offences such as overstaying their visa and criminal activity.

The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has confirmed a famine in Gaza City and the surrounding area and projected "catastrophic conditions" will expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis by the end of September.

BBC Verify’s Merlyn Thomas was recently on the BBC News Channel talking about Israel’s reaction to the report.

Phil Leake
BBC Verify data journalist

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has today published a report on the food situation in the Gaza Strip.

As part of its report the IPC says the minimum food requirements for Gaza’s population of 62,000 tonnes per month have not been reached for several months.

Cogat - the part of Israel’s government responsible for the co-ordination and facilitation of humanitarian efforts in Gaza - publishes figures on the amount of food aid delivered each day in the territory.

The latest data up to 17 August shows that just under 61,500 tonnes has been delivered so far this month.

This is the highest monthly figure since February when a record 216,000 tonnes was delivered during the final month of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

There were no food deliveries between 1 March and 18 May, according to Cogat, although monthly aid volumes have increased each month since then.

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

A US federal judge has ordered the effective closure of “Alligator Alcatraz”, a migrant detention centre in the Florida Everglades. Its name reflects the local wildlife of alligators, crocodiles and pythons that live in the surrounding wetlands.

During a tour of the facility on 1 July President Donald Trump said that anyone who attempted to escape would be met by "a lot of cops in the form of alligators".

The judge ruled that the facility was damaging the wetlands on which it was built and ordered the Trump administration to wind down its operations on the site within 60 days.

Satellite images from Earth surveillance specialists Planet Labs shows that construction on the site began around 25 June.

Trump toured the completed buildings on 1 July and the first detainees reportedly arrived a few days later. Because satellites depend on cloudless conditions to get good images the first clear pictures we have after the facility formally opened in early July come from the middle of that month, showing more buildings erected on the site.

The bottom image shows the site on the day of the judge’s ruling on Thursday.

We’ll continue to monitor satellite imagery of Alligator Alcatraz to see whether there are signs of it being dismantled.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Last night’s attack on the Unecha oil pumping facility in Bryansk, Russia, was the second time the facility has been hit since 11 August. It was also the third strike since this month on the Druzhba oil pipeline which transports Russian oil to Europe.

Satellite imagery we’ve reviewed shows damage to the Unecha facility after a Ukrainian drone strike on 11 August. Nasa satellites also detected fire at the site around the same time.

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto described that strike as "outrageous" and called on Ukraine to "stop attacks on energy supply routes leading to Hungary in a war we Hungarians have nothing to do with!"

On 17 August Ukraine struck the pipeline again, this time at the Nikolskoye pumping station further east in Tambov region. Damage from this strike is visible on imagery provided by Maxar below.

Image source, Maxar

The targeting of Russian oil infrastructure has been a key feature of Ukraine's war effort and such attacks have been stepped up recently.

But it is less common to see such sustained attacks on export facilities.

While most of the European Union has reduced its dependence on Russian oil since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Hungary and Slovakia have continued to import most of their crude through the Druzhba pipeline.

Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

We’ve verified three Ukrainian strikes on the Druzhba oil pipeline since the beginning of August including a second attack on a pumping station near Unecha last night.

This follows a strike on a site near Nikolskyoye earlier this month.

Ukraine and Russia have stepped up attacks on each other's energy infrastructure over the past few weeks and the Druzhba pipeline has become a key Ukrainian target.

The 4,000km (2,500 mile) Soviet-era pipeline has long been the major transit route for oil supplies from Russia into Europe.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, however, the European Union has reduced its imports with the aim of phasing out Russian oil and gas entirely by the end of 2027.

Member states Slovakia and Hungary are the only EU countries still importing Russian crude oil and they oppose this phasing out, arguing their economies rely on energy imports from Russia.

Hungary imported €200m (£173m; $232m) of Russian crude oil in July via the Druzhba pipeline.

Slovakia was just behind at €169m (£146m; $200m), according to Petras Katinas of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

About 5% of Russian crude oil exports have flowed through the Druzhba pipeline so far this year, Katinas told BBC Verify.

Merlyn Thomas
BBC Verify senior reporter

Image source, EPA

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has claimed that the methodology used by the UN-backed IPC, which has confirmed a famine in Gaza City, has changed.

In its statement it said: “Unbelievably, the IPC twisted its own rules and ignored its own criteria just to produce false accusations against Israel.”

But an expert on famine, Prof Alex de Waal, told me this is false. The executive director of the World Peace Foundation said: “The process and thresholds have NOT changed.

“The IPC has been calling out for better data since December 2023, asking Israel to allow better surveys.

“Israel won’t permit humanitarian data collection and then complains about the quality of the data.”

• You can follow the BBC's main coverage of this story here

Sebastian Vandermeersch
BBC Verify

Image source, X

Verified footage shared on social media shows the aftermath of a bombing on a busy street outside of an air force base in the Colombian city of Cali.

The blast, which the government has blamed on dissident factions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) group, occurred just over 100m (330ft) from the base entrance. Videos filmed in the immediate aftermath show bodies on the ground, burning vehicles, and damage to nearby shops.

Local reports say the blast was caused by a vehicle bomb and a destroyed lorry can be seen at the centre of the scene.

Another vehicle was also filmed abandoned with several barrels visible in the back, which has prompted speculation a second truck-bomb failed to detonate.

At least six people were reportedly killed and more than 60 injured in the attack - making it one of the deadliest urban attacks by FARC-related dissident groups in recent years.

Although the FARC formally demobilised following a 2016 peace agreement, dissident factions rejected the deal and remain active.

To geolocate the footage, we matched a badly damaged Dollarcity shop which is seen in several videos to Google Maps imagery and confirmed the location further by identifying the air base entrance on Google Street View. We also carried out reverse image searches to confirm the material was newly posted.

Paul Brown and Richard Irvine-Brown
BBC Verify

We’ve verified video this morning which shows the aftermath of a reported Israeli strike on the site of a school near Gaza City.

Reports say Amr bin al-Ass school near Jabalia was struck. A video we’ve verified shows people carrying bodies on a road beside it. Two bloodied children are seen being taken to an ambulance while an adult on a stretcher is placed inside.

Others move more slowly as they carry away wrapped and motionless bodies. The footage also shows shows other bodies lying on the floor. The video then cuts to arrivals at a hospital.

We’ve located the first part of the video to the road immediately north-east of the school. A large, purple-blossom plant and a palm tree match those seen in the background of video verified in September 2024, again in the aftermath of a reported strike on the site.

A blue tarpaulin cover on one side of the street matches satellite imagery of the area in 2022 and 2023. The heights of nearby buildings, and their order, as well as the T-junction seen at the far end of the street confirmed the location. This also places the sun coming from the east, meaning it was filmed in the morning.

Reverse searching shows no copies cached online before the one we worked from which was posted on Telegram by a journalist known to be in Gaza. The weather - light, patchy cloud - is a match for northern Gaza this morning.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Ukraine has targeted a pumping station on the Druzhba oil pipeline linking Russia and Europe for the second time in less than two weeks.

Last night, the head of Ukraine's unmanned systems forces reported a successful strike on a pumping site near Unecha in Russia's Bryansk region.

The post included footage of an explosion and fire which we have matched to satellite imagery of the facility. Nasa satellites detected heat signatures at the site overnight.

It is the second Ukrainian strike on this facility, and the third on the pipeline since 11 August.

The Druzhba pipeline began operating in 1964 and is a major transit route for Russian oil supplies to parts of eastern Europe.

Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has confirmed that oil supplies to his country have been halted.

Hungary and Slovakia have continued to buy oil and gas from Russia while most European Union members have turned to alternative suppliers since the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Image source, Google

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

Welcome to BBC Verify Live where we bring you updates on the team’s verification and fact-checking work.

Today we’re looking into a Ukrainian attack on a key Russian oil pipeline that supplies eastern Europe. A senior commander in Ukraine’s military has posted a video showing a large fire at a facility which we have confirmed is at Unecha in Russia’s Bryansk region.

It’s the third time the pipeline has been hit in the past two weeks as both Ukraine and Russia target each other’s energy infrastructure.

BBC Verify is also investigating a reported strike on a school building in the Sheikh Radwan area north of Gaza City. It comes as Palestinian media say Israeli forces have continued their bombardment of Gaza City overnight ahead of a planned operation to seize and occupy the area.

We’re also verifying material after a deadly attack in the Colombian city of Cali which the government has blamed on a dissident rebel group.

We’ll bring you more on these stories throughout the day.