Anthony Reuben
BBC Verify senior journalist

We’re about to close this live page but members of the team will be verifying images into the evening and over the weekend.

Today we have been examining footage from Lebanon, where there have been large demonstrations by those who oppose attempts to disarm the Shia political and militant group Hezbollah,

We’ve looked into the quantity of weapons that Germany exports to Israel after Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced a suspension of arms sales that could be used in Gaza.

And we have been looking at satellite pictures from India, which show the aftermath of the flooding in Dharali village in the hilly northern state of Uttarakhand.

This evening, colleagues will be trying to find footage of the forest fires in north-western Turkey that have led to the temporary closure of the Dardanelles Strait.

BBC Verify Live will return on Monday. In the meantime, we will have a digital video in the coming hours looking at plans for a Gaza City takeover approved by the Israeli security cabinet.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Satellite imagery taken yesterday has revealed the aftermath of recent wildfires in southern France, which have killed one person and injured 18 more - including 16 firefighters.

The blazes, the largest recorded for 75 years, tore through an area larger than Paris and are expected to smoulder for several more days.

The images showed the landscape covered in dust and ash after the fires receded from a forested area of the Aude department, which bore the brunt of the recent fires.

The image we can see in the images only covers only a fraction of the area, but the dust is seen across a stretch measuring 14km (8.69 miles).

Image source, Planet Labs

Jake Horton
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, Reuters

Videos falsely claiming that President Trump has announced plans to cut the US school year to six months are being widely shared on TikTok.

The school year in the US varies from state-to-state but most run over the course of around 10 months.

Some of the videos have gained millions of views. One which is headlined “Donald Trump announced kids only attend school 6 months out of a year” has been viewed 4.3 million times.

The video shows Trump holding up a signed order and a voiceover - in the style of a newsreader - says: “In a shocking and highly controversial statement, President Donald Trump proposed a dramatic cut to the length of the academic year allowing children to stay in school for only six months annually.”

It goes onto claim he made the move “citing the post-Covid reality of disrupted education”.

But he has not made this announcement. The president has proposed some major changes to education - including plans to close the US Department of Education - but he has not proposed cutting the school year to six months.

Joshua Cheetham and Paul Brown
BBC Verify

Image source, Planet Labs

The IDF-built Netzarim Corridor is expected to play a key role in Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City, as approved by the Israeli security cabinet overnight.

The militarised zone is located south of Gaza City, and stretches around four kilometres from the coast to the Israeli border.

It effectively divides the Strip into two and is one of at least four so-called security corridors established by the IDF since the start of the war.

Construction began in November 2023. After a ceasefire with Hamas in January 2025, Israeli forces withdrew from the corridor but returned in March after the ceasefire broke down. According to the IDF’s own combat zone map, the military currently controls around two-thirds of it.

The corridor is expected to serve as a key operational route for Israeli forces as they seek to enter Gaza City. If people evacuate south under the new Israeli plan, they may need to cross the corridor - though it’s unclear how that will be facilitated just yet.

Tamara Kovacevic
BBC Verify senior journalist

Yesterday, Rushanara Ali resigned as homelessness minister after she was accused of hypocrisy over rent increases on a house she owns in London.

Some are now calling into question whether MPs should be allowed to be landlords at all. We looked through the , externalpublicly available Register of MPs, external’, external financial interests, external to find out how many of them have properties that they rent out.

MPs must declare any land and property with a value of over £100,000 if it provides a rental income of over £10,000 a year.

We found that 78 MPs have declared receiving rent on residential properties which fall into this category.

Some of them rent out more than one property and, in some cases, they own properties with a partner or another member of their family and share the income with them.

Matt Murphy
BBC Verify senior journalist

Turning back to Lebanon now, where supporters of Hezbollah have been demonstrating against moves to disarm the Shia political and militant group, which is proscribed in its entirety as a terrorist organisation in the UK and the US.

Videos circulating on social media from overnight have shown tyre fires raging in parts of the capital, Beirut. In one clip authenticated by BBC Verify, smoke can be seen billowing from a blaze at an intersection near St Michael's Church - a Maronite Catholic place of worship.

In the background of the footage, several men can be seen riding on motorcycles, while another person waves a Hezbollah flag. We know the footage is new because we ran it through a Google search and it doesn’t return any earlier matches.

The demonstrations happened after the Lebanese government asked the military to present a plan that would see all arms brought under state control by the end of the year. While Hezbollah was seriously weakened after its conflict with Israel last year, it is still believed to control large quantities of weapons.

Image source, Telegram

Anthony Reuben
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Getty Images

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has announced the country will stop exporting weapons to Israel that could be used in Gaza. Merz said it was "increasingly difficult to understand" how the Israeli military plan would help achieve legitimate aims.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, external , external(Sipri), external, Germany is the second biggest exporter of arms to Israel. Between 2020 and 2024, two thirds of Israel’s arms exports come from the US and one third from Germany.

But Sipri also said that Israel’s main imports from Germany were largely focussed around the navy. Purchases mostly consisted of frigates and torpedoes.

Between Hamas' attack on 7 October 2023 and mid-May 2025, Germany approved military equipment exports to Israel worth €485m (£420m), according to a parliamentary answer in June, external.

Shruti Menon
BBC Verify senior journalist

India's space agency Isro has released satellite images that show the aftermath of the flooding in Dharali village in the hilly northern state of Uttarakhand.

A comparison of the before and after images from 13 June last year and 7 August this year shows a portion of the village covered in a “fan-shaped” deposit of debris and sediment after the flooding on 5th August.

A number of buildings, a patch of green vegetation and a road along with a small connecting bridge have disappeared and are likely “submerged or swept away by the intense mud flow and debris”, Isro’s analysis said.

Our BBC colleagues who have been reporting on the story from the location told us that the affected area has been inaccessible because of the damage to roads.

The flooding that happened due to a cloudburst has left more than 100 missing. The Indian army has continued rescue operations and is providing medical aid to those affected.

Image source, Isro

Matt Murphy
BBC Verify senior journalist

The Israeli security cabinet has approved plans to take control of Gaza City, just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News his forces intend to take control of the whole Strip but does, external “not, external want to keep it”, external.

According to the UN, about 87% of Gaza is under an Israeli evacuation order or sits within a militarised zone declared by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

However, Israel does not maintain a presence in areas in central Gaza and along the Mediterranean coast, which includes refugee camps where the majority of the population has been displaced.

Note: Israel doesn't allow the BBC and other international journalists into the Strip.

Tamara Kovacevic
BBC Verify senior journalist

Rupert Lowe, the independent MP who has been in the news today for mistaking charity rowers for illegal migrants, posted on X, external on Wednesday: “The vast majority of small boat arrivals have their claims approved. Just 3.6% have actually been deported.”

Here’s what the data shows:

A total of 154,354 people arrived on small boats between January 2018 and March 2025 and the vast majority - 94% - applied for asylum.

So far, the Home Office has made initial decisions in 86,646 of those cases, with 56,605 people granted asylum or another form of protection. That’s 65% of all cases considered so far.

But 19,696 people who arrived by small boat during that time had their application withdrawn, either by themselves or the Home Office, external. Factoring those in brings the approved rate to 53% - just over half.

By March 2025, 5,563 people - or 3.5% of those who have arrived on small boats since 2018 - had been returned. That figure includes both forced and voluntary returns.

Image source, Getty Images

Steven in London, Mike in Southampton, Robert in Nottingham, Sandy in Glasgow and Steve in Southend have all got in touch with BBC Verify because they were surprised to hear the estimated cost of the damage caused by a paint attack on two aircraft at RAF Brize Norton in June was £7m.

Four people are due to go on trial in January 2027, charged with breaking into the Oxfordshire base and damaging two Voyager aircraft by spraying them with red paint. A group called Palestine Action, which has since been proscribed as a terrorist organisation, has claimed responsibility.

Thames Valley Police has put the cost of the damage to the aircraft at £7m, although the UK Ministry of Defence has told BBC Verify it was unable to provide an official figure due to the current legal proceedings.

Footage posted online by Palestine Action showed paint being sprayed into the jet engines - and aerospace experts have told us that they would need to be removed from the Voyagers and sent to a workshop for inspection and to have any paint removed.

They told us that without a proper assessment of the damage it was not possible to be precise about the total amounts involved, but one said “£7m could be a conservative figure” given the significant costs involved in stripping, cleaning, and reassembling the engines.

If you have a question you would like us to investigate you can get in touch via this page.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Getty Images

We've been reviewing footage of protests in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon, where demonstrators have taken to the streets in opposition to the government’s decision to adopt a series of US proposals, which include the disarmament of Hezbollah.

Earlier this week, the Lebanese government set a deadline of the end of the year for the full disarmament of the group. The Shia Muslim political and military group is backed by Iran and has been involved in a series of clashes with Israel.

So far, we've geolocated a convoy of motorcycles - many flying the yellow flag of Hezbollah - in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a known stronghold of the group.

One clip shows a large group of people outside the burial site of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who was killed in an Israeli air strike on 27 September. Prior to his death, Nasrallah had not been seen in public for years because of fears of being assassinated by Israel.

Lebanese media have also reported similar gatherings in the Bekaa Valley in north-eastern Lebanon, and parts of the south. We are reviewing the footage.

Hezbollah was severely depleted during last year's conflict with Israel, but remains a significant political and military force within Lebanon.

Matt Murphy
BBC Verify senior journalist

Good morning,

It's almost 10:00 and our team of verification experts, fact-checkers and data journalists are working away on what looks set to be a busy Friday.

We're looking at fresh footage from Lebanon, where supporters of the militant group Hezbollah took to the streets of the capital, Beirut, overnight to protest against moves to disarm its fighters.

We will be looking at the proportion of Gaza already under Israeli military control, after the Israeli security cabinet approved plans to take over Gaza City, sparking anger from the UK government and humanitarian groups.

And our fact-check team is digging into claims by the MP Rupert Lowe on the number of people being granted asylum after arriving in the UK on small boats.

As always, if there's something you want BBC Verify to look into you can get in touch with us here.