Kumar Malhotra
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, US Department of Defense

We’ve been looking into an oil tanker the US says it hasintercepted in the Indian Ocean, accusing it of breaching a blockade of Venezuela’s oil exports in January.

The US Department of Defense released pictures of a tanker, which it named as Bertha, in open seas with a naval vessel nearby and helicopters hovering overhead.

Key features of the tanker match images of Bertha on ship-tracking website MarineTraffic.

Looking at its tracking data, Bertha hadn’t been transmitting its position in recent days. Some vessels use this technique to hide their locations from public tracking systems. But it became visible at 11:59 GMT today around 2,600km (1,600 miles) south of Sri Lanka.

It’s not clear at what point the US intercepted it, or what the vessel’s current destination is.

The US said Bertha was “operating in defiance” of its attempts to block the export of Venezuelan oil in the Caribbean.

The US military has already seized two other tankers accused of evading its blockade, Veronica III and Aquia II, in the Indian Ocean.

According to TankerTrackers, which monitors sanctioned vessels, Bertha is the last of 16 tankers accused of escaping the US naval blockade on Venezuelan oil in early January.

Thomas Copeland and Joshua Cheetham
BBC Verify

Elsewhere the team has been tracking the build-up of US military assets in the Middle East, where the world’s warship, USS Gerald R Ford, appears to be headed.

The aircraft carrier, which docked at a US naval base in Souda Bay in Crete on Monday, has been continually deployed for the past eight months. A deployment of six to nine months is normal, says naval analyst Mike Plunkett at defense think-tank Janes, but “what is unusual is that it has been extended twice and crossed the Atlantic three times”.

Image source, David Parody

“The carrier was originally deployed to the Mediterranean before being sent to the Caribbean to support operations off Venezuela, and now back to the Mediterranean again to cover off any potential operations against Iran,” Plunkett told us.

The warship left Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia on 24 June last year, a total of 244 days ago, and its recent deployment to the Middle East means it could be gone for more than 300 days before it returns home, Plunkett said.

There have been reports of issues arising with the ship’s plumbing system recently. Plunkett said among the issues that do arise during a long deployment is crew morale, however. “The crew will be suffering stress and fatigue,” Plunkett said.

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said in recent weeks that crime and murder in the US are at a 125-year low. He says this is down to his own policies, and may well repeat this claim during his State of the Union address later this evening.

Before Trump started his second term, the violent crime rate in the US in 2024 was 348.6 per 100,000 people.This is the lowest since 1969, according to analysis of the latest FBI data by US crime expert Jeff Asher.

But because the FBI started publishing statistics in 1930, and only consistently from 1960, it isn’t possible to use official FBI figures to assess the 125-year low claim.

The White House pointed us towards a study by the Council on Criminal Justice think tank, external which has estimated the homicide rates for 2025 and forecasts that they will show a fall to their lowest level since 1900 when they are published.

The FBI is yet to publish nationwide crime rates for 2025, which means there is still some uncertainty about whether the historic drop in homicides has actually happened.

You can read BBC Verify’s article analysing Trump’s claims on crime here.

Emma Pengelly and Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify

The team is still tracking violence across Mexico following the death of drug cartel leader “El Mencho”. We’ve verified 23 videos of incidents since Sunday.

More than 10 have been from areas in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, in Jalisco state. We’ve seen a military helicopter flying low over hotels while people stand in pools, vehicles on fire and thick plumes of smoke rising from a fire near a prison.

Across the state of Jalisco, we’ve seen roadblocks and burning vehicles in Guadalajara city and Zapopan. In San Isidro, north of Guadalajara, one video showed a cartel member shooting at Mexican National Guard troops.

Away from Jalisco we’ve also verified footage of armed clashes in the city of Zacapu and shooting in the centre of Jiquilpan, both in the state of Michoacán. Overall, cartel-related violence has been reported in 20 of Mexico’s states.

Ghoncheh Habibiazad and Sarah Jalali
BBC Persian and BBC Monitoring

Our team has been working with BBC Monitoring and BBC Persian to stay across developments in Iran, where anti-government protests have entered a fourth day.

Demonstrations have been reported at several major universities across multiple cities today. We have used satellite imagery and eyewitness accounts to verify protests at 10 different locations since Saturday, including the capital, Tehran, as well as the major cities of Mashhad and Isfahan.

Image source, X

We have also confirmed clips of members of the paramilitary pro-government volunteer Basij force clashing with protesters at Iran's University of Science and Technology in Tehran, in which a group of students are seen chased.

Universities were closed from 4 January until last Saturday due to what authorities described as “severely cold conditions”. Critics say the closures were instead intended to prevent protests. Students returned to universities on Saturday when the latest wave of protests started.

Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify journalist

Satellite images captured on Sunday showed the spread of dark smoke from cars set ablaze and burning roadblocks in the Mexican state of Jalisco following the death of “El Mencho”, one of the world’s most wanted drug lords.

El Mencho, whose real name was Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, was injured and killed during a military operation to capture him on Sunday. He was the head of the influential Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and retaliatory violence has since erupted in 20 of Mexico’s 31 states.

The satellite photos taken by intelligence company Vantor show the scale of the unrest in the resort town of Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco state on Sunday. The area is located on Mexico’s Pacific coast and is around 170km (105 miles) from where “El Mencho” was captured and died in custory.

Vehicles are seen burning in the car parks of a shopping centre and a Costco store. A another fire is seen at a car parts shop in the city while vehicle roadblocks are visible at a junction nearby. Another image shows vehicles that had been set alight had blocked a coastal route in the city.

Richard Irvine-Brown, Ghoncheh Habibiazad and Shayan Sardarizadeh
BBC Verify

Anti-government protests have spread to eight universities in Iran's capital Tehran since campuses reopened over the weekend, BBC Verify and BBC Persian can confirm.

They mark the first large-scale demonstrations in the country since the nationwide protests in December and January which led to thousands of people killed in a brutal crackdown by the authorities.

All in-person classes at Iranian universities were suspended on 4 January for what the authorities described as "severely cold conditions", although critics say the closure was announced to stop potential student demonstrations taking place.

The reopening of universities on Saturday resulted in protests breaking out across multiple campuses. Read our full investigation here.

Adam Durbin
BBC Verify Live senior journalist

We’re reporting on the recent spread of violence in Mexico following the death of Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) leader "El Mencho" in army custody on Sunday.

Following a wave of CJNG attacks, leading to the killing of at least 25 members of National Guard in Jalisco state, the Mexican military deployed an extra 2,500 soldiers in western Mexico, where much of the violence was concentrated.

The overall number of troops detailed to quell cartel violence now stands at over 9,500. El Mencho died during an operation to capture him in Jalisco but violence has been reported in at least 20 states where CJNG are active.

Since Sunday, we have verified videos showing businesses being set on fire, roadblocks set up by the cartel using burning vehicles and CJNG members engaged in gun battles with soldiers.

Our latest report on the situation in Mexico is available here.

Adam Durbin
BBC Verify Live senior journalist

New satellite imagery shows dozens of fires burning in a popular tourist area of Mexico on Sunday when a powerful cartel leader was captured and killed by the military.

We’ve verified the images and footage of violence in the resort town of Puerto Vallarta, just one area among dozens where violence has broken out since Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho” died in custody. The Mexican military has deployed nearly 10,000 soldiers to suppress the violence, which has seen shops torched, roadblocks enacted and at least 25 members of the National Guard killed.

We’re also looking into the arrival of the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier in Greece as part of the build up of US military assets in the Middle East and Mediterranean. There are reports the world’s largest warship is experiencing plumbing issues again, though social media accounts have been spreading old videos of flooded toilets.

Plus, our fact-checking team are examining recent claims on the UK’s student finance system and youth unemployment rates. The rest of the team is getting ready to fact check Donald Trump’s State of the Union address later tonight.