Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

Our live feed will be ending soon but our late shift colleagues will continue monitoring the latest developments in Gaza, Ukraine and Syria.

Here are three of many stories the team worked on today:

• We looked into how much aid is actually being distributed to Palestinians by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and spoke to aid experts about the nutritional content of the meals
• We addressed some of the misinformation being spread about major protests held in Ukraine overnight, including a misleading claim from US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene
• We dug into the data on illegal working raids and penalties after the UK government announced new plans to crack down on migrants working for food delivery companies without authorisation.

Jake Horton
BBC Verify

A falsified letter has been widely shared on social media purporting to show the head of the US central bank, Jerome Powell, stepping down from his role.

The letter says “I have decided to resign from my position” because new leadership is needed to “reinforce public confidence” in the Federal Reserve.

But it isn’t genuine. The seal in the bottom corner purporting to be from the Federal Reserve has significant spelling errors, which is widely considered a tell-tale sign of AI generation.

Image source, X

It seemed to have duped Republican Senator Mike Lee - who shared the letter on X saying “Powell’s out!” - before deleting it. It was also shared by Trump supporting influencer and podcast host Benny Johnson.

BBC senior reporter Bernd Debusmann says there was momentary panic among White House reporters after it was shared - sending several of them sprinting to their laptops and cubicles to make calls to editors before it became clear that it was fake.

President Trump has repeatedly called on Powell to lower US interest rates in a series of critical outbursts, recently calling him a "knucklehead" and claimed he was "doing a lousy job".

Alex Murray
BBC Verify journalist

We've spent the day analysing Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) statements to establish just how much aid has been handed out at its Secure Distribution Sites (SDS) in Gaza since 1 June, from when consistent data is available.

Distribution peaked on 16 June, when over 50,000 boxes were handed out. That was also the final day that one of the sites - SDS 1 - was open and operational.

Over the following weeks the amount of aid distributed at the other sites decreased, plummeting to less that 10,000 boxes handed out on 17 July.

Peter Mwai
BBC Verify senior journalist

We have verified video showing damage in and around a house where World Health Organization (WHO) staff were staying in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza when Israeli forces attacked earlier this week.

By matching the roof, surrounding buildings and structures in the video to satellite images, we've confirmed the location of the house is not far from a warehouse operated by WHO, which was also attacked. A photo of the warehouse posted yesterday shows its roof caved in with smoke rising from the site.

In the video of the house, we can see WHO stickers on the wall and there is also a WHO-branded bag.

Personal belongings are scattered inside the house, cushions strewn all over, and a damaged couch is seen covered in dust and debris.

There is a big hole in the ground floor wall, which appears consistent with eyewitness testimony, published by WHO, about a tank "destroying the wall of the house".

Around the house, the ground has been cleared, with heavy machinery tracks visible.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Satellite images captured on 21 July shows a growing trench being dug close to the National Hospital in the Syrian city of Suweida - just days after dozens were killed at the building.

Verified footage from 18 July showed numerous bodies in various parts of the building amid fierce sectarian clashes in the city.

Yesterday our BBC colleague, Jon Donnison, saw numerous corpses lined up outside the hospital's main entrance - the result of what one doctor called "a massacre".

The new earthworks - which may be a mass grave - are situated in a green space around 170m from the hospital's main entrance.

Low resolution imagery shows that the earthworks have expanded in recent days.

It remains unclear who was responsible for the killings. Syrian officials have told the BBC that it will investigate alleged atrocities committed by all sides.

Alex Murray
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, Reuters

In its most recent update issued on 22 July, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said it had distributed nearly 87 million meals to Palestinians, adding that it had supplied two million meals that day alone. The terminology the foundation uses can be confusing, as it refers to both aid boxes and meals. Simply put, the GHF calculates that one aid box feeds between five and six people for three and a half days.

Assuming the provisions are shared equally over three meals per day, each box comes to approximately 57 meals.

Other issues have been raised with GHF.

Israel said the new system had been designed to prevent aid being diverted to Hamas. But the GHF does not keep a record of who is being handed boxes at its distribution centres.

Aid experts have also criticised the nutritional content of the boxes and analysts have previously told BBC Verify that power cuts and fuel shortages means there is no guarantee Gazans can cook the aid that has been handed out. In addition, experts also say the GHF does not provide Gazans with medical support, sanitary products and water purification kits, which experts say is essential for a humanitarian mission to be effective.

BBC Verify approached GHF for comment on the concerns.

Rob England
BBC Verify senior data journalist

The number of refugee households recorded as homeless by councils in England has risen to 4,000, according to recent figures, external by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

These are people who became homeless between January and March 2025 after being granted asylum, and were no longer entitled to stay in Home Office-provided accommodation, including hotels.

It’s the second quarter in a row that councils have reported a rise in refugees recorded as homeless or at risk of homelessness.

The homeless figures peaked at more than 5,000 in December 2023, which BBC Verify looked into at the time.

Refugee charities urged the then Conservative government to extend the “move-on period” - the time between a person being granted asylum and having to leave government accommodation. It was 28 days.

Labour later announced this period would be increased to 56 days, starting from 9 December.

The Home Office and Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government have all been approached for comment.

Alex Murray
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, Reuters

Since May, aid operations in Gaza have been run by a controversial US-Israeli backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The foundation has established four aid distribution centres in Gaza - just a fraction of the 400 aid points run under the old UN-controlled system. Three are based in south Gaza and one in the centre of the Strip. But since the GHF aid system began at the end of May there have been almost daily reports of people being killed while trying to get aid from GHF sites.

On 15 July, the UN human rights office said it had so far recorded 674 killings in the vicinity of the GHF's four sites in southern and central Gaza over the past six weeks.

Meanwhile, the four sites have never been open simultaneously, according to data provided by GHF. Over the past two weeks just two locations - SDS 2 in Rafah City’s Saudi neighbourhood and SDS 3 in Khan Younis - have been open at all.

It is unclear why the other sites have been closed. SDS 4 south of Gaza City has been closed since 4 July, while SDS 1 near the coast hasn’t opened since 16 June, according to GHF data which breaks down aid handed out per site for almost every day since operations began.

Anthony Reuben
BBC Verify senior journalist

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and the new shadow housing and communities secretary, Sir James Cleverly, have been visiting a housing project.

Badenoch told reporters there had been “a collapse in housebuilding“ under Labour.

We don’t yet have the first set of annual figures since Labour came to office and therefore can’t say whether numbers have dropped as Badenoch suggests.

But it has already been suggested that the government could fall well short of its long-term target.

The previous Conservative government had two housing targets for England: the first was to build a million new homes over the course of the Parliament, which they met, external.

The other was to build 300,000 a year by the mid-2020s, which has not been achieved so far. The latest figure for 2023-24, external - the final year the Conservatives were in power - shows there were 221,070 net additional dwellings that year.

While the Labour government does not have an annual target, it has pledged to deliver 1.5 million homes over the whole Parliament. This would requires an average of 300,000 homes each year, a large number by recent standards.

You can see how it is getting on with the BBC’s housing tracker.

The recent floods in Texas killed 135 people, including many young children.

At least 27 children and staff from a girls’ Christian summer camp called Camp Mystic died.

Our reporter Jake Horton has visited Kerr County in Texas to find out what happened there and why it was so badly hit.

You can watch his report in the video below.

Phil Leake
Data journalist

The number of neighbourhood police officers and community support officers in England and Wales increased by just 214 in the year to March 2025, according to Home Office figures, external published this morning.

There are 17,175 officers in neighbourhood roles, up from 16,961 last year.

The government has pledged to increase the neighbourhood police force by 13,000 officers by the end of the Parliament in 2029.

Funding for this began in April, with the prime minister announcing a target of recruiting 3,000 officers in the first year, by March 2026.

Today’s data confirms the size of the neighbourhood police force was smaller than previously thought.

The number was originally estimated to be 19,634 last July, before a data validation exercise uncovered errors.

The exercise required all police forces to verify their previously published workforce data and 33 out of 43 revised down their figures.

As a result, the neighbourhood police force across England and Wales shrank by 14% to 16,961 in 2024.

Some forces had overestimated their neighbourhood officers by a significant amount, with numbers in Gloucestershire and the West Midlands dropping by more than half.

Forces attributed errors to outdated HR systems, operational differences and the misclassification of classroom-based student officers.

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, Getty Images

As part of its efforts to clamp down on illegal working, the government says it will provide the locations of hotels where asylum seekers stay to food delivery companies.

While we don’t know the total number of people who have been caught working illegally in the UK - whether for food delivery services or other companies - data does exist on the numbers of raids carried out on businesses, external suspected of hiring unauthorised workers.

There were 10,031 visits and 7,130 arrests in the year since the July election, up from 6,797 visits and 4,734 arrests in the same period last year.

The volume and value of fines issued, external has also increased.

In the year to March 2025, 2,171 fines were issued to employers worth a total of £111m. In the same period last year, there were 1,676 fines worth £31m.

There is no breakdown for the type of businesses targeted but recent Home Office press releases, external have mentioned restaurants, nail bars and construction sites.

You can read more about migrants and illegal working in this article.

Matt Murphy
BBC Verify senior journalist

Since Israel began its military campaign in Gaza after the 7 October attacks, significant public attention has focused on the issue of arms sales from the UK.

Much of the weaponry used by the Israel Defense Forces has been built or sold by Western nations.

But information around the extent of the UK's military support to Israel often remains unclear or classified, and some MPs have called for a public inquiry into the extent of the assistance.

One area subject to scrutiny is the UK’s role in supplying components for the F-35 fighter. A state of the art jet, it has been used extensively by Israel in strikes on Gaza. About 15% of the jet is made up of parts constructed in the UK.

But the UK government says it cannot stop parts made in Britain from ending up in F-35 jets operated by Israel as they are sent to manufacturing centres abroad as part of a global programme - not directly to Israel.

We’ve had a look at what we know about arms sales.

Olga Robinson
BBC Verify assistant editor

Image source, Reuters

False online claims have been going viral after Ukraine saw its biggest wartime protests last night.

Among those promoting misleading claims was US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who’s long opposed sending aid to Ukraine.

In a post that has now been viewed over 1m views on X, she claimed it was President Volodymyr Zelensky’s refusal to “to make a peace deal and end the war” that sparked the protests.

In fact, the protests have nothing to do with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. People in several major cities took to the streets last night to protest against a new law curtailing the powers of anti-corruption bodies.

The legislation, which has drawn international criticism, grants the prosecutor general control of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (Nabu) and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (Sapo).

Critics say it weakens the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption bodies. The Ukrainian government has cited Russian influence for curtailing Nabu's powers.

Tom Edgington
BBC Verify live editor

Good morning and welcome to today’s BBC Verify Live page. It’s shaping up to be a busy day.

As new footage and eye witness accounts of the Israeli attacks on World Health Organization aid facilities emerge from Deir al-Balah in Gaza, our verification experts are continuing to piece together what happened.

Illegal working in the UK is under scrutiny as the government says it plans to share the locations of hotels housing migrants with food delivery firms. We're examining how many raids into illegal working are currently carried out

We’re also monitoring false claims that have been going viral after Ukraine saw its biggest wartime protests last night - including one being promoted by a US congresswoman

Remember, if there's anything you want BBC Verify to look into you can get in touch using this form.