Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

Today’s BBC Verify Live page will be closing soon, but our team in Washington DC are continuing to monitor developments after a deadly shooting at an ICE detention centre in Dallas, Texas. You can follow their analysis on the BBC’s main live page.

It’s been a busy day for our video verification team.

We’ve geolocated footage of a storm surge smashing through the doors of a hotel in Hong Kong, authenticated videos from the aftermath of a strike near a former market in Gaza City and cross-referenced clips of an oil refinery fire in Bashkortostan, Russia.

Plus, our fact-check team have looked into the latest figures on UK youth unemployment and examined Nigel Farage’s comments about Tylenol after US President Donald Trump linked the drug to autism in children.

Thanks for joining BBC Verify Live today, we’ll be back in the morning.

Sebastian Vandermeersch
BBC Verify

Image source, X

We’ve verified two videos showing a large drone striking the city of Eilat in southern Israel. In the clips, the fixed-wing explosive drone can be seen flying at low altitude before detonating.

Local reports say around 20 people have been injured.

The reports also attribute the attack to the Houthis, an armed group based in Yemen which has repeatedly launched strikes against Israel since the war in Gaza began.

We confirmed the location by matching buildings visible in the footage – including the Queen of Sheba Hotel – to open-source imagery. A reverse image search confirmed the video is new.

Rob England
BBC Verify senior data journalist

The total number of small boat crossings in the English Channel, external this year has dipped below record levels for the first time since 3 March, new figures suggest.

In the year to 23 September, 32,188 people arrived in the UK by small boat, 148 fewer than at the same point in 2022.

That year the totals included 12,301 Albanian nationals, who arrived mostly between May and October. The annual total peaked at about 45,000.

The UK has begun returning some arrivals to France under a “one, external in, one out”, external scheme, with one asylum seeker accepted from France for each return.

The government says it is targeting gangs organising crossings and has reported 350 “disruptions” against people smugglers so far this year, which it says is up 40% on last year.

Despite crossings falling slightly below 2022 levels so far this year, 2025 has still seen more crossings than most previous years, particularly in spring and summer.

French authorities say they have prevented more than 17,600 attempted crossings this year. But under maritime law, French officers say they cannot intervene once boats are in the water unless there is a threat to life.

Peter Mwai and Sebastian Vandermeersch
BBC Verify

Image source, X

We’ve verified footage showing gunfire breaking out as former Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and other opposition leaders gathered outside a police station in Mogadishu.

In the footage, Ahmed and others are surrounded by armed men who appear to be acting as bodyguards. After a singificant amount of gunfire can be heard, the group scatter for the cover of nearby buildings and parked vehicles.

It is not clear from the video who was carrying out the shooting.

We confirmed the location by identifying the police station in the Somali capital’s Warta Nabada district on Google Maps and matching surrounding buildings and distinctive electricity poles to the video. A reverse image search indicates the video is recent.

Before the incident, Ahmed - who served as president between 2009 and 2012 - had posted on X condemning forced evictions by authorities in the nearby Sinai Market area. He wrote that “the targeting of the elderly who spoke out for their rights, especially the violence resulting from the displacement of the poor, is a criminal act”.

The Somali government has issued a statement accusing the group of trying to seize the Warta Nabadda police station, describing the actions as a direct threat to national security and public order, according to state media.

Somalia has experienced internal conflict for decades, with rival factions and the militant al-Shabab group vying for influence in recent years. Al-Shabab launched a new offensive earlier this year - and attacks in Mogadishu have become increasingly common.

Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

A fake picture seeming to show that the drug brand Tylenol calling for the release of the Epstein files has gathered more than eight million views on X.

The image was purportedly a response from the company to unproven claims by US President Donald Trump that there is a link between the painkiller, more commonly known as paracetamol, by pregnant women and an increased risk of autism in children.

“The only messages from the brand would be directly on Tylenol.com or on the brand’s official social media handles,” Tylenol told BBC Verify.

The fake image appears to be based on a real pop-up on the company’s website detailing its response to Trump’s claims, but the quality of the logo in the fake image is lower and the font is clearly different.

• Click here to read BBC Verify’s full fact-check of Trump’s autism claims

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

In a post on X, external, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in response to the shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas that: “Our ICE law enforcement is facing unprecedented violence against them”.

Vice-President JD Vance has posted: “The obsessive attack on law enforcement, particularly ICE, must stop”.

It hasn’t yet been confirmed exactly who was targeted in the shooting but Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Tricia McLaughlin has told Fox News that no ICE agents were injured.

Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) is the main US government agency responsible for carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

Noem and other White House officials have repeatedly talked about an uptick in violence against ICE agents, citing big percentage increases. The current figure put out by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a 1000% rise in assaults. It says these assaults have included, external “vehicles being used as weapons towards them, and doxing campaigns targeting federal officers and their families.”

When I asked the agency for the actual numbers behind this rise, it responded: “Our brave ICE law enforcement are now facing a 1000% increase in assaults against them as they risk their lives to arrest the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens. These acts of violence are fueled by sanctuary politicians' rhetoric vilifying our law enforcement”.

Earlier this year, ICE said assaults were up 700%, but according to a Fox News report from July, external the actual numbers behind this rise were relatively small.

“DHS recorded 10 assault events from Jan. 21, 2024, to June 30, 2024. From the day after President Donald Trump took office earlier this year [January 2025] until Monday, the department recorded 79 assault events, representing a 690% increase year over year,“ it said.

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he has “no idea” whether paracetamol use is linked to autism and suggested that the science on drug safety is “never settled”.

His remarks came after US President Donald Trump claimed that the use of the painkiller Tylenol - a US brand name for paracetamol - by pregnant women was linked with an increased risk of autism in some children.

However, there is no evidence that Tylenol causes autism. The UK government points to several studies dating back to 2019 which have failed to find any link with the condition and doctors still insist it’s the best treatment for pain and fever during pregnancy.

When asked about Trump’s comments on LBC this morning, external Farage also said: “We were told thalidomide was a very safe drug and it isn’t, who knows.”

Thalidomide was a drug widely used to treat nausea in pregnant women in the 1950s and early 1960s, before doctors realised it caused severe birth defects in thousands of children.

The scandal prompted many countries to introduce tougher drug regulations. In the UK, this included passing the Medicines Act in 1968, which set up new organisations tasked with overseeing drug safety.

One of these public bodies was the Committee on Safety of Medicines, which was replaced by the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) in 2005.

The CHM reviewed the use of non-prescription pain medicines during pregnancy in 2022 and concluded there was no need to change the advice on paracetamol, external.

Farage mentioned thalidomide but it was this very scandal that catalysed the development of the modern-day regulatory system in the UK.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Earlier we reported on graphic footage showing the aftermath of a deadly overnight strike near a former market in Gaza City.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has since responded to our questions about the incident, which reportedly killed at least 20 people, according to the AFP and Reuters news agencies.

The IDF told BBC Verify it targeted "two Hamas terrorists" and that "steps were taken in order to mitigate harm to civilians as much as possible".

It went on to say that the number of reported casualties "does not align with the information held by the IDF".

We asked for their own casualty figures, but the IDF refused to provide them.

Meanwhile, military operations in that area of central Gaza City continue. We have just verified footage showing an apparent strike on a Bank of Palestine branch less than 500m (1,600ft) from the former market.

Ghoncheh Habibiazad and Paul Brown
BBC Verify

Image source, Telegram

We have verified four videos, all from the same area, of an attack on the Russian Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk.

One of the videos shows smoke coming from a hotel building and also a nearby residential block. It is unclear from the footage if those buildings were directly targeted or were hit by falling debris.

Veniamin Kondratyev, governor of Krasnodar Krai region where the city of Novorossiysk is located, has said on his Telegram channel that at least two people were killed and three were injured in the attacks.

Kondratyev accused Ukraine of attacking the city and said five residential buildings were damaged in the attacks. There have also been reports of naval drones being seen in Novorossiysk docks. Footage we’ve verified shows a submersible approaching the port before being fired upon and exploding.

Russia moved much of its navy’s Black Sea Fleet from Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea to Novorossiysk following a series of Ukrainian attacks.

Ukraine appears to have stepped up its attacks on Novorossiysk in recent weeks with its military intelligence service saying it struck a vessel of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on 11 September using a domestically produced drone.

We’ve verified a video showing the storm surge from Super Typhoon Ragasa smashing through the glass doors of a hotel in Hong Kong.

People inside the hotel can be seen being swept off their feet by the force of the water, as it pours in through the entrance which they had attempted to reinforce with metal bars.

We managed to geolocate the video to the Fullerton Ocean Park Hotel in the south of the city by matching the chandelier in the video to pictures from inside the hotel posted online.

Reverse image searching shows the footage has not appeared on the internet before, indicating it was taken during the storm.

Peter Mwai
BBC Verify senior journalist

New satellite imagery shows the devastation caused by a drone strike on worshippers at a mosque in the besieged Sudanese city of El-Fasher in North Darfur.

Reports say at least 75 people were killed in the attack on 19 September, although this figure hasn’t been idependently verified.

The latest satellite image by Maxar was captured on Monday - and comparing it with one from 18 September the full extent of the destruction is laid bare.

The attack appears to have hit directly in the centre of the mosque, levelling most of the main structure. The image also shows the debris, seen as white spots, scattered across the mosque’s grounds and the surrounding area.

Researchers from Yale University say the destruction is consistent “with an air-delivered munition” and the fact that most of the debris spray was towards the north-west indicates the explosive was fired at the building from the south.

The Sudanese army has accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of being behind the attack. The RSF, which has laid siege to the city for the past 15 months, is yet to respond to the accusation.

Yi Ma and Adam Durbin
BBC Verify

Image source, Thomas Li

Super Typhoon Ragasa has reached Hong Kong, Macau, and southern China after taking at least 15 lives in Taiwan yesterday. The Hong Kong Observatory issued its highest level storm warning in the early hours of the morning local time.

People in Hong Kong have been recording the impact of the strongest typhoon of the year so far and sharing their footage online. We’re working to check they are not from previous tropical storms as we do see old footage being passed off as new during breaking news stories.

Several verified clips filmed from a residential highrise in the Heng Fa Chuen area of the city show high waves crashing onto the footpath. We were able to geolocate it by matching the building structures and footpath track seen in the video with Google Maps’ Street View ground-level coverage.

Another CCTV video from inside a restaurant shows water smashing in a door before it surges inside, tossing furniture around the room and dragging some outside as the flood recedes. The video matches customer photos posted online of the furniture and decor of the restaurant.

We’ve also seen footage of people in Macau using buckets and their hands to try and catch fish swept into flooded streets.

As Super Typhoon Ragasa continues to head westward towards Jiangyang City in mainland China intense wind and heavy rainfall is still forecast for Hong Kong until 20:00 local time (13:00 BST).

We are continuing to monitor and verify footage of the storm - and will bring you any updates of what we see.

Tom Edgington
BBC Verify senior journalist

The new Work and Pensions Secretary, Pat McFadden, has been speaking to broadcasters this morning where he outlined plans to double the number of youth hubs, external which are aimed at getting more young people into work or training. During an interview with Sky News McFadden acknowledged that UK youth unemployment was “too high”.

According to the latest official figures, external, 621,000 young people aged 16-to-24 were unemployed in May to July. This was 3,000 more than the previous year.

Although the absolute number has increased, the youth unemployment rate has fallen slightly: it’s currently at 13.8% which is down from 14.3% the year before. However, this is still much higher than the unemployment rate for everyone over 16, external, which stands at 4.7%.

Youth unemployment peaked at 22.5% in 2011 following the 2008 financial crisis, according to the House of Commons Library, external.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, INSTAGRAM

We’re looking into footage said to show the aftermath of a strike on a building near a former market in the centre of Gaza City.

In the graphic video, people can be seen digging through rubble with their hands to recover a body and body parts. The footage, posted on Instagram this morning, includes shots of some buildings which are identifiable on satellite imagery to confirm the location.

Palestinian social media channels, citing hospital officials, report a death toll of 17 from the attack. The market, one of the oldest in Gaza City, was largely dismantled shortly after the war began. It is now little more than a large rubbish dump, with some encampments for displaced people nearby.

Last month, press photographers captured Palestinians sifting through the rubbish in search of food. In one of these pictures a minaret of a nearby mosque can be seen, which is also visible in this morning’s footage.

The Israeli military has been approached for comment.

Image source, GETTY IMAGES/INSTAGRAM

Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

The BBC Verify team in Washington DC were listening to President Donald Trump’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly yesterday.

It was a wide-ranging address - here’s three things he said, fact-checked.

Has Trump really ‘ended seven unendable wars’?

The president listed “wars” he claims to have ended as being between: Israel and Iran, Pakistan and India, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Thailand and Cambodia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Egypt and Ethiopia and Serbia and Kosovo.

A number of these “wars” lasted just days and it is unclear whether some of the peace deals will hold.

While Trump claimed “talks mediated by the United States” ended a four-day conflict between India and Pakistan, the government in New Delhi has played down the role of the US.

In June, the US hit nuclear sites in Iran - a move seen as ending 12 days of hostilities with Israel, but experts say there has been no permanent peace agreement.

• Read our full story about this claim here

Image source, EPA

'Sharia law' in London

The Mayor of London featured in the speech with Trump calling Sadiq Khan “a terrible mayor – terrible, terrible mayor. Now they want to go to Sharia law."

False claims like this one have circulated for years on social media and a spokesperson for Khan told the BBC: "We are not going to dignify his appalling and bigoted comments with a response."

Sharia law is an Islamic legal system and Sharia councils do exist in the UK – there were an estimated 85 across the UK in 2009, according to one think tank. Most of their work deals with marriage and financial arbitration between Muslims but the UK government has been clear, external that their rulings are "not legally binding".

Has illegal immigration into the US ‘totally stopped’?

“In fact they’re not even coming anymore because they know they can’t get through,” Trump went on to say about illegal immigrants.

Since he took office, figures from US Customs and Border Protection do show a significant fall in apprehensions of illegal migrants - but not to zero. Total monthly apprehensions dropped from 28,728 in January 2025 to 5,456 in August, external.

Trump also claimed that under the previous Biden administration “millions of people were pouring in. Twenty-five million altogether”. Border crossings did reach record levels under President Joe Biden but Trump’s figures are exaggerated.

The Department of Homeland Security estimates there were 11 million “border encounters” during Biden’s time in office.

Sherie Ryder and Paul Brown
BBC Verify

Image source, Telegram

This morning we’ve been assessing newly emerged footage showing a fire at an oil refinery in the city of Salavat in Bashkortostan, Russia - about 1,200km (750 miles) south-east of Moscow.

In one clip we see a huge thick billowing cloud of black smoke in the distance. By looking at the surrounding buildings in the footage we can see where they are on publicly available satellite mapping from Google and its Russian equivalent Yandex to confirm the location.

Another clip, showing smoke rising in the distance, was filmed from a building near a main roundabout off Ulitsa Pervomayskaya Street. We carried out reverse image searches of several screengrabs to ensure the footage we are seeing isn’t old.

Bashkortostan regional governor Radiy Khabirov posted on Telegram this morning that the Gazprom Neftekhim refinery had been hit by Ukrainian drones.

It’s not the first time the site has been targeted as less than a week ago, on 18 September, there was a massive explosion there following two drone strikes. No casualties were reported.

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

Hello - welcome to today’s live page where we show how the team works to verify video and check facts on the day’s news stories.

This morning we’re working on verifying footage apparently showing a major fire at a petrochemical facility in Salavat in Russia. The governor for the Bashkortostan region has posted on Telegram that the site was attacked by Ukrainian drones. So far we’ve checked and geolocated two videos that show a huge plume of thick, black smoke coming from the facility.

As the Israeli military continues its offensive in Gaza City, we’re seeing footage apparently showing the aftermath of a strike near a former market. Unverified reports say at least 17 people were killed at the site which is now a rubbish dump. We’ll bring you more about what we’ve found and have asked the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

Away from conflict coverage, Super Typhoon Ragasa has hit Hong Kong and the southern coast of mainland China after sweeping across Taiwan, where 14 people were killed - we’re gathering and checking videos showing the immense force of the storm.

And if you missed it last night - BBC Verify’s US team listened to President Donald Trump’s speech to the UN General Assembly. We’ll bring you three things he said that they fact-checked.