Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

We’re closing this live page shortly, but our team is continuing to verify new footage as it emerges following an Israeli air strike which its military says targeted senior Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital, Doha.

Within the last few hours we have confirmed where a building was damaged in an explosion and verified videos from multiple angles showing a plume of smoke and heavy damage to a walled complex in the north of the city.

You can find more of our coverage of this story on the BBC’s main live page.

Read back to see how we verified a series of videos showing how violent unrest has escalated in Nepal including footage of the National Assembly and Office of the President on fire and riot police being deployed on the streets of the capital Kathmandu.

In the Middle East, we’ve tracked how evacuation orders have made nearly 80% of of Gaza a “dangerous combat zone”.

Plus, read about why Elon Musk is wading into the Irish presidential election in support of controversial mixed martial artist Conor McGregor and the Russian disinformation video threatening the destruction of Notre-Dame Cathedral that has resurfaced online.

BBC Verify Live will be back tomorrow.

Matt Murphy
BBC Verify senior journalist

Tesla billionaire Elon Musk has waded into the upcoming Irish presidential election, throwing his weight behind ex-UFC mixed martial arts star Conor McGregor, and accusing the country's deputy prime minister of blocking his candidacy.

To get on October's ballot a candidate must be nominated by at least 20 members of the Oireachtas - Ireland's parliament - or four separate county councils.

Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Simon Harris has made clear that his Fine Gael party will not lend McGregor the votes he needs to clinch a nomination. Instead, members of his centre-right party will be expected to back ex-minister Helen Humphries who is its candidate.

Image source, X

In response to the announcement, Musk accused Harris of "tyrannically blocking the will of the people of Ireland". But Fine Gael hold just 246 of 949 council seats across the country and 55 of the 234 places in the Oireachtas, meaning that the party cannot block McGregor's efforts by itself.

Members of other parties - ranging from the left-wing Labour Party to the centre-right Fianna Fáil - have also made clear that they will not back the UFC fighter. In a recent Sky News survey of 104 TDs and 30 senators, not one said they intended to back McGregor.

The UFC fighter's popularity has been heavily dented in recent years and last year he was found liable in a civil trial for sexual assault.

The most recent polling released by the Sunday Independent newspaper suggested that McGregor has around 2% support - far behind front-runners Jim Gavin, Helen Humphries and Catherine Connolly.

Olga Robinson
BBC Verify assistant editor

A resurfaced video from January showing masked men burning a model of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris has gathered almost six million views on X overnight. However, BBC Verify has confirmed this is the same video a French government report said was the product of a Russian influence operation.

In the video, the man in the centre issues a threat in Arabic where he demands that the French government release someone called Brahim Aouissaoui.

Aouissaoui fatally stabbed three people during a deadly attack in the Nice basilica in October 2020. This video was first posted online in January 2025, just before Aouissaoui’s trial began.

At the time, it was presented as a message from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which was one of the Syrian rebel factions that ousted President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

The video did not appear in any official HTS channels, however, and experts from BBC Monitoring that cover jihadist media and Syria told us the video bore little resemblance to other content that they monitor.

In fact, a report released by French government in May 2025, external found the video was created by a specialist Russian disinformation unit known among researchers as Storm-1516.

The report says Storm-1516’s activities in Europe are focused on spreading ”divisive or anxiogenic themes related to immigration and terrorism”.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, X

As violent protests in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu continue, we've verified several clips showing the buildings of the National Assembly and the Office of the President on fire.

One clip, filmed from an elevated position across the road from the National Assembly, shows thick smoke engulfing almost the entire building, with only its distinctive terracotta roofs visible at times.

Another clip - filmed from ground level - shows jubilant protesters waving, taking videos and posing for selfies as smoke pours from the building.

And we've seen similar scenes outside the Office of the President around 6.5km (4 miles) away, where demonstrators can be seen gathered on the eastern lawn while the building burns in front of them.

When verifying such footage, we must be alert to the possibility of AI-generated content, as burning buildings are often seen in such material.

In this case, the footage we've seen does not bear any obvious signs of AI-manipulation or generation.

Events have also been captured from multiple angles which lends credibility to the footage being posted.

Additional verification by Sherie Ryder and Kuma Malhotra.

Joshua Cheetham
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, X

We’ve been speaking to more experts about an alleged drone attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla off the coast of Tunisia.

We’ve already seen video which appears to show a firey projectile hit one of the ships in the flotilla called Family.

In another video a humming noise can be heard that sounds similar to rotor blades or an engine.

We shared the images with the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey team at the intelligence firm Sibylline.

They said it was “very difficult to say anything definitive” from these images. “It is entirely possible that this was a round from a flare gun hitting the vessel. This would explain why it appears to fall onto the ship at a very slight angle… and the source of the light that it is emitting,” Sibylline told BBC Verify.

They say that the noise in the video could come from the Family or a nearby vessel. It may well be some kind of drone but “it could have been… capturing footage for social media”.

Sibylline say the scale of the damage also throws the drone allegation into question.

“It appears to have been a small fire causing relatively localised damage. A kamikaze drone or a grenade dropped from a drone would likely have done more damage,” the firm said.

Thomas Copeland and Benedict Garman
BBC Verify

Image source, X

BBC Verify has geolocated the site of an explosion in the Qatari capital Doha after an Israeli strike targeting the senior leadership of Hamas.

Using satellite imagery and Google Street View pictures we have verified footage showing smoke rising from a heavily damaged section of a complex next to Woqod petrol station on Wadi Rawdan Street, close to the West Bay Lagoon district north of central Doha.

Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

BBC Verify is carrying out authentication checks on footage being posted online claiming to show the aftermath of an Israeli strike targeting senior Hamas leaders in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

Video being uploaded on social media site X and messaging app Telegram is being geolocated, including footage filmed at a distance showing smoke rising from the north of the city. We have also seen ground-level video of what appears to be fire damage to the side of a building.

A spokesperson for the Qatari government confirmed the attack “targeted residential buildings housing several members of the political office of the Hamas movement”.

The statement condemned the strike as “cowardly” and “a blatant violation of all international laws” and says that Qatar “will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behavior.”

Sherie Ryder and Kumar Malhotra
BBC Verify

We’ve been verifying footage posted online during a second day of unrest in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu. Protesters who turned out yesterday to demonstrate against a now-lifted social media ban have returned to voice their anger over claims of corruption in the country.

In one video, from Kathmandu, riot police are seen on a street full of protesters. Using Google Maps and Street View, we could match shop fronts and business signs in the footage to find the exact location of where it was taken - in this case close to the parliament offices.

Image source, X

Several posts showed people gathering in the grounds of Singhadurbar, the government complex in Kathmandu, where we can see fires have been set.

We can use reference images on the internet to confirm the features of the building seen in the footage.

Putting frames from the video through a Google reverse image search confirmed none had appeared before today and therefore the footage is new.

In a third video we saw people in the grounds of the Supreme Court of Nepal where fires had been lit and rubbish strewn across the front of the building.

The video shows the court’s entrance and gate posts as well as the main building which can be seen on Google Street View.

Image source, Facebook

Fridon Kiria
BBC Monitoring

Image source, National Police of Ukraine

We’ve confirmed that footage showing the aftermath of a reported Russian air strike on the Ukrainian village of Yarova, which officials say has killed at least 20 people, is genuine.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on Telegram that local residents were receiving their pension payments when the attack happened.

A video attached to his post shows around six motionless bodies lying on the ground alongside a heavily damaged van.

In the video we can see a statue and a series of graves in what looks like a war memorial.

I ran the words “graveyard” “Yarova” and “soldiers” in Russian through a search engine which led to the co-ordinates for a World War Two monument and graveyard in the village.

The position of the statue and the graves were an exact match and a reverse image search showed this footage has not appeared on the internet before which suggests the video is newly uploaded.

Tamara Kovacevic
BBC Verify senior journalist

UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting was on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning where he said that by expanding the number of pupils in England who can get free school meals “we've lifted 100,000 children out of poverty”.

The government announced in June that from September 2026 every child in England whose household is on Universal Credit will be entitled to a free school meal, regardless of how much the household earns.

Until then only children from households with an income of less than £7,400 per year, external are eligible.

As the expansion of free school meals doesn’t kick in for another 12 months it is yet to have any impact on child poverty.

The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) told us in June the measure would lift 100,000 children out of poverty “by around the end of the parliament” - by 2029 at the latest.

Joshua Cheetham
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, X

This morning we’ve been looking at several videos following claims that a ship which is part of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla was hit by a projectile off the coast of Tunisia.

Tunisian authorities maintain a fire broke out in “one of the ship's life jackets, as a result of a lighter or cigarette butt”.

But video we’ve verified shows something that looks like it’s on fire streak through the night sky towards the vessel - called Family - before hitting its deck at the bow.

As part of our analysis we’ve been in touch with several experts including David Heathcote, head of intelligence at McKenzie Intelligence Services.

“It looks like something that is already combusting is falling straight down on to the front of the ship,” he told BBC Verify.

“It could be that a drone was used to manoeuvre over the ship before the package was released on to it.”

“Regardless of the method of delivery, the impact video casts serious doubt on the Tunisian authorities’ version of events," he adds.

Anthony Reuben
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Dave Benett/Getty Images

In the UK, one of the MPs who has said she wants to be the next deputy leader of the governing Labour Party - Bell Ribeiro-Addy - has criticised the fact that she only has three days to seek the 80 nominations she needs from other MPs.

She told Today on BBC Radio 4 that it was “not in the strong tradition of Labour Party democracy”.

The party has held three elections under the current rules, external, two of which were for leader and deputy leader and one just for the leader. In 2015, nominations from MPs were open for eight days for leader and nine days for deputy leader. In 2020, it was seven days for both.

But in 2016, when Jeremy Corbyn defeated a challenge to his position as party leader, nominations were open for three days, which was the same as the current process.

Benedict Garman
BBC Verify senior journalist

People in Gaza have been publishing videos and photos which show the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been dropping leaflets on Gaza City instructing people to leave ahead of an expansion of its military activity there.

The photo below shows a man holding a leaflet showing the evacuation notice map - the same one published to social media this morning.

Image source, REUTERS

By matching the buildings and the palm tree in the middle of the road to satellite imagery, we’ve determined it was captured on Omar al-Mukhtar street in the centre of Gaza City.

More images taken in the immediate vicinity - including by a photographer for the Reuters news agency - show clouds of leaflets falling from the sky.

The scene is just metres away from the rubble of a fifth high rise building which was destroyed by the IDF last night - the al-Salam Tower.

Image source, Instagram

Benedict Garman and Merlyn Thomas
BBC Verify

We’re monitoring social media to see how the Gaza City evacuation will unfold.

The Israeli military issued an evacuation order this morning for the entire city apart from a section of the coastal road - al-Rashid - which it has said people should use to leave.

The order means the “dangerous combat zone” declared by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) now encompasses nearly 80% of the entirety of the Gaza Strip - an area spanning 281 sq km (108 sq miles).

It comes just three days after it announced a new so-called “Humanitarian Area” in al-Mawasi near Khan Younis in southern Gaza - the first time a zone like this has been designated since attacks resumed in March following a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.

International humanitarian organisations have condemned both the forced evacuation and the unilaterally designated “humanitarian area”.

An Oxfam spokesperson told us: “Israel’s plan to force the population of Gaza City - one million people - into overcrowded, ill-equipped, so called ‘humanitarian areas’ in southern Gaza, across just 42.8 sq km is both inhumane and physically impossible.”

Joshua Cheetham
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, EPA

This morning we’re investigating reports that a Gaza-bound vessel has been hit in an apparent drone attack off the coast of Tunisia.

The Portuguese-flagged boat, called Family, is part of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) which says it wants to deliver aid to Gaza.

Among the activists onboard is the Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg. GSF said the ship was struck by a drone while anchored outside the port of Sidi Bou Said in Tunisia.

All six passengers and crew are safe, it added.

Tunisia's National Guard spokesman told local radio that reports of a drone attack on the flotilla "have no basis in truth", Reuters reported.

He added that an initial inspection indicated the explosion originated inside the vessel. But we’ve seen several videos which appear to show a projectile landing on the deck of the Family.

We’re analysing them further to see whether the footage is authentic and will also speak to experts to understand what this projectile might be.

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

Hello. We’re beginning the day by verifying reports that a flotilla attempting to take aid to Gaza has been hit by a drone off the Tunisian coast. Our team has seen footage on social media, filmed at night, which appears to show a projectile striking a boat. We’re working to authenticate that and other video to get a better idea of what may have happened.

With the Israeli military saying the people of Gaza City should evacuate immediately we are updating what we know about potential routes out of the area. We’re checking on which areas have been designated combat zones by the Israel Defense Forces as well as what it calls “humanitarian zones”. You can follow full live coverage from BBC News here.

BBC Verify is also getting expert opinions following claims that Ukraine has deployed a new mini cruise missile in its war with Russia. We’ve seen footage purportedly showing a weapon flying low over the Donetsk region which it has been claimed is the new Peklo munition.

We’re continuing to monitor protests in Nepal that were triggered by the government blocking social media sites. While the ban has now been lifted demonstrations have escalated. In the last few minutes Nepal’s prime minister has resigned - you can get the latest updates on this BBC News live page.