Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

We’re going to be closing up this live page shortly, but keep an eye out for more coverage from BBC Verify teams in London and Washington DC this evening.

In the meantime, take a moment now to read over what we’ve been working on. It’s been a busy day for our verification team, who have authenticated:

• Dramatic footage of a Russian drone strike on a petrol station in the Ukrainian city of Sumy
• Videos showing the start of a massive fire branded a terror attack outside the Serbian parliament in Belgrade
• Images from the aftermath of a deadly bus crash in Uganda

Plus, we showed how a fake news report generated by artificial intelligence has spread misinformation ahead of Ireland’s presidential election.

Have you seen AI videos or pictures on your social media spreading other false claims? Send them to us here.

Thanks for being with us today, we’ll be back tomorrow morning.

At least seven people have been killed during the latest Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's military said it had attacked a Russian chemical plant in the Bryansk border region late on Tuesday with UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.

BBC Verify’s Olga Robinson has been analysing the latest footage:

Peter Mwai and Richard Irvine-Brown
BBC Verify

Image source, X

A short while ago we reported that the first flight carrying civilian passengers had landed today in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.

The air route to Khartoum provides a practical route for civilians to return to the city and for humanitarian supplies to be flown in from Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast 660km (410 miles) away.

In March this year, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) regained control of the airport from paramilitary forces of the RSF, but it wasn’t until Monday this week that the Sudanese Civil Aviation Authority announced the imminent resumption of commercial flights following repairs to the runway and infrastructure.

The airport has been the centre of intense fighting during the conflict. In April 2023, we verified footage of RSF troops on the tarmac, firing at planes with people cowering in the terminal.

The arrival of the first commercial flight today, reported to have been carrying 180 passengers, is a demonstration of the army’s increased control over the capital and its transport links, but a strike on the airport by the RSF yesterday has shown this is not guaranteed.

Sherie Ryder
BBC Verify journalist

We’ve just been reviewing footage spreading on social media from Serbia’s capital Belgrade, where this morning a man reportedly fired shots outside the Serbian parliament and set alight a tent belonging to supporters of President Aleksander Vucic.

The tents were set up earlier this year by his supporters during anti-government protests and have remained in place since then.

Vucic has described the incident as a terrorist attack. One person has been reported injured, Serbian authorities say.

We’ve verified a video filmed from inside the parliament building by Serbian MPs showing armed security staff running towards the tents and checking around the canvas just as a fire breaks out and begins to spread.

We were able to geolocate the footage because significant landmarks visible outside the parliament building on satellite imagery matched what we can see in the footage. Reverse images searches indicate it has not appeared online before today.

Peter Mwai
BBC Verify senior journalist

We have verified footage showing the first civilian flight landing at Khartoum International Airport in over two years. Operations were suspended at the Sudanese capital’s airport following the outbreak of the civil war.

Sudan’s civil aviation authority had earlier this week announced that domestic flights would resume today.

But drone attacks targeting the airport yesterday and earlier today, blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) which has been fighting the Sudanese government since April 2023, had put that into doubt.

One of the videos we have verified - filmed from inside the plane - shows the aircraft flying in a southerly direction crossing the Blue Nile river and approaching the airport.

In another clip, we can hear an inflight announcement as the plane is moving along the runway and buildings from the airport can be seen through a window.

In a third video, we see a plane picking up speed on a runway but the recording ends just before take-off as it leaves Khartoum. The person filming mentions Sudan’s Badr Airlines and the date of filming in Arabic.

The buildings we see also match Khartoum International Airport.

A logo on the tail of the plane appears to match that of Badr, whose logo we also see on the wings in the video clips filmed from inside the plane.

In a statement on Facebook, the airport authorities have confirmed Badr operated a flight today marking the reopening of the airport.

Image source, X

Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

AI-generated videos spreading misinformation about the Irish presidential race have been circulating ahead of Friday’s election.

One fake video, purporting to be a segment by RTÉ News, falsely claims that presidential candidate Catherine Connolly has withdrawn. The AI report also claims the only other contender still actively in the race, Heather Humphreys, has been declared the victor by default.

This video is one of multiple similar fakes first posted by a Facebook account called RTÉ News AI which have quickly spread to thousands across the platform, without anything clearly indicating it was made with AI. The account was deleted by Meta yesterday.

Hyper-realistic AI videos that are almost indistinguishable from real ones are increasingly easy to generate, says Professor Alan Smeaton of Dublin City University.

But Smeaton, a member of the Irish government's AI advisory council, says there are still a few red flags in this video like the “slight over-pronunciations in the lips and mouths” and a “slight aura” around a news reporter in a shot filmed outside.

“However, all of the above are minuscule clues and the average Joe watching this on a phone won't be able to see these,” he warns.

The best way to spot AI may just be old-school critical thinking, Smeaton suggests. Even if a candidate pulls out of the race in Ireland their name remains on the ballot, so many Irish people would know Humphreys cannot win by default even if Connolly were to withdraw.

This has happened in this race already as a third candidate, Jim Gavin, will still be appearing on the ballot despite ending his campaign.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Telegram/State Emergency Service of Ukraine

Footage shared by Ukrainian authorities from the city of Kharkiv shows children being evacuated from a nursery that was reportedly hit by a drone.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed Russia for the attack and said all children had been safely moved to shelters beforehand, but he also confirmed one person had been killed. Local authorities from the city in northern Ukraine have reported this victim was an adult man.

The footage shows children in winter coats, some clutching toys, being carried away from a two-storey building by emergency services workers and other members of the public. Fire can be seen burning in the background and one woman is seen nursing a head injury as she flees.

Firefighters can also be seen working at the same building, which has been heavily damaged.

We have geolocated the footage shared by officials to a building in Kharkiv’s Shevchenkivskyi District.

Image source, Telegram/State Emergency Service of Ukraine

Thomas Copeland and Paul Brown
BBC Verify

We’ve been monitoring reports overnight and into this morning of a series of Russian drone and missile strikes in Kyiv.

Two people were killed and 25 injured, according officials in Ukraine’s capital. At least five others have been killed in attacks elsewhere in the country.

We’ve geolocated this image showing fire damage to the front of a residential building in the northeastern Troieshchyna neighbourhood of Kyiv.

Image source, Telegram

The team has also been able to authenticate footage showing a power plant in Kyiv burning after a reported attack.

As winter approaches, a clear Russian strategy of targeting energy facilities causing blackouts in parts of Ukraine is emerging, a tactic Moscow has employed since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022.

DTEK, Ukraine's biggest private energy firm, has said emergency power outages are in place in Kyiv after the strikes.

Image source, Telegram

Peter Mwai
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Joseph Muyingo

I have been looking at more footage from the scene of a devastating bus crash in northern Uganda, where police say 46 people were killed and many others injured.

A photographer in Uganda sent us more images and video from the scene, which we have verified are authentic.

Working with this footage and other material posted on social media recorded in daylight, I have managed to confirm the crash happened in Kiryandongo, just north of the town of Kigumba and close to where the Kampala-Gulu highway crosses a river.

This was possible by comparing lines of trees on either side of the road to satellite imagery of the area. The daytime footage also reveals the scale of damage to the buses, with windows blown out and entire sections ripped off.

The images also show the two other smaller vehicles involved - a truck and a car - which also suffered extensive damage.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has sent condolences to families of the victims and urged “all road users to exercise utmost caution to prevent such tragedies”.

Earlier this morning, we verified dramatic footage from yesterday showing a Russian drone strike on a petrol station in the Ukrainian city of Sumy.

Here is the video in full, showing how the Shahed drone flew low overhead before crashing to the ground and causing a large explosion:

Gerry Georgieva
BBC Verify

Commenting on this morning’s inflation figures, Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride told Sky News seemed to suggest that Labour’s spending choices were responsible for government debt interest payments “now running at £100bn a year".

The latest figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), external have forecast the government spending £104.9bn on debt payments in the 2024-25 financial year, covering most of Labour’s first in office.

But it was was even higher in the final years of the previous Conservative government, after borrowing spiked during the Covid-19 pandemic.

During the peak of the 2022-23 financial year, the government paid £111.6bn in debt interest, according to the OBR. This fell to £106.7bn in 2023-24, the Conservatives’ final year in power.

So these high interest payments are not a recent phenomenon and claiming that they’re now at £100bn due to the new Labour government’s spending is not correct.

However, the OBR did also forecast in March that the costs in 2026-27 would be £105.7bn and would rise to above the peak by 2027-28, staying there for the following two years.

Fridon Kiria, Shayan Sardarizadeh and Sherie Ryder
BBC Verify

We’ve verified dramatic footage from yesterday of a drone strike on a petrol station in front of a block of flats in Sumy, a city in north-eastern Ukraine near the border with Russia.

An engine and gunfire is initially heard in the distance, before the attack drone suddenly comes into view. It then flies low overhead and crashes around Heroiv Krut Street, causing a large explosion.

The person filming is in a car park and pans across to a petrol station, which we’ve been able to match to street view images from Google Maps.

Twelve people were injured and civilian infrastructure was damaged in the attack, the head of Sumy region Oleh Hyrhorov has confirmed on Telegram.

The Trump administration has defended the demolition work which has begun on part of the White House, to build a new $250m (£149m) ballroom at the White House.

So how big will Trump's ballroom be and does he actually have the authority to build it?

BBC Verify’s Jake Horton has taken a closer look.

Peter Mwai
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, X

I’ve been looking at the latest footage posted on social media from Uganda showing the aftermath of a deadly road accident in a remote area of the country in which police say 46 people died, with many more injured.

Four vehicles, two of them passenger buses, collided along the main road from the capital city Kampala to Gulu.

The videos were filmed at night, so we can’t see much of the surroundings, but we can still pick out key details which helped verify the footage when checked against information provided by the police.

We can clearly read the names of the companies operating the buses involved - Nile Star Coaches and Planet Company.

The position of the buses after the crash is consistent with the initial police reporting that the buses collided head-on during overtaking manoeuvres.

In two of the clips, we see the licence plate of the Nile Star bus, which we confirmed with Ugandan police is accurate.

I also conducted reverse image searches on the images and on multiple frames from the footage which indicate that none of them have ever appeared on the internet before.

I’m now monitoring social media for daytime footage which will enable us to establish with more certainty the precise location of the collision, and we’ll bring you more on that as soon as we can.

Adam Durbin
BBC Verify Live editor

Good morning from BBC Verify Live.

We’re verified images showing the aftermath of a devastating bus crash in Uganda, which police say left at least 46 people dead in a remote area. Pictures from the scene shows the wreckage after two buses collided on a road north of the capital Kampala.

The team has also authenticated footage of a drone strike in a civilian area of the Ukrainian city Sumy. The video, filmed from extremely close range yesterday captures the one-way attack drone flying just overhead and impacting the ground metres away - we’ll share the video of the large explosion with you shortly.

No one was killed, although Sumy’s regional head has confirmed a dozen people were injured the city near the border with Russia.

We’re also looking into footage from overnight which shows strikes across both Ukraine and Russia.

Plus, it’s Wednesday so Prime Minister’s Questions is taking place in the UK Parliament at midday - our fact checkers will be examining any major claims made by Keir Starmer or opposition party politicians in the House of Commons.