Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

Thanks for joining us today on BBC Verify Live. We started the day in Iran where chants of “death to Khamenei” and “death to the dictator” have been heard during celebrations for the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Click here to watch the videos we’ve verified as the BBC returns to Iran for first time since a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.

We’ve also been looking at satellite images that show how Iran has covered a tunnel entrance at a major nuclear site targeted by the US and Israel last summer. You can slide through the images yourself here.

And this afternoon we’ve turned to the US – debunking false AI images attempting to "unmask" the man seen on Nancy Guthrie's security camera on the day of her kidnapping and trawling through thousands more images released in the Epstein files, including this picture of Bill Clinton apparently with the convicted sex offender.

BBC Verify Live will be back here tomorrow.

Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

While examining the spread of misinformation around the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie we’ve found a number of fake news accounts on Facebook that have been posting supposed updates about the case multiple times a day over the past week.

One account, Celeb News Today, has posted a number of updates that are entirely fictitious, but have been liked and shared thousands of times.

Image source, Facebook

Fake news accounts like these try to gain likes, shares and comments by posting about trending topics with high levels of audience interest such as crime, which they can then try to monetise.

They also change their location, sometimes by listing local phone numbers on their profiles, to make themselves appear to be based in the US. But the transparency section of Celeb News Today’s Facebook page - which can’t be edited - states that the administrators are primarily based in Vietnam.

Image source, Facebook

Each post also contains a link to a fake news website called “Nóng Nhất”, which translates to “The Hottest” in Vietnamese.

We’ve contacted Celeb News Today for comment.

Tom Edgington
BBC Verify senior journalist

At BBC Verify we are continuing to trawl through thousands of images released in the Epstein files.

Among the files is a 100-page photo album. One image in the album shows former US President Bill Clinton standing next to someone who bears a strong resemblance to Jeffrey Epstein, watching a concert from the side of the stage.

Earlier photos from the same album show members of the Rolling Stones performing on stage (and the singer is pictured wearing the same vest).

Image source, US Department of Justice

None of the photos are dated. However, the man who appears to be Epstein is wearing a lanyard which says “Harbourfest”. The Hong Kong Harbour Fest took place over three weeks in 2003, with the Rolling Stones performing on 7 and 9 November. A BBC report from the time said Clinton, who was in Hong Kong for a conference, attended the 7 November performance.

The album also contains other photos of Clinton, including in a large group photo that also features Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, Kevin Spacey and others.

There is no suggestion that appearing in the document and images implies any wrongdoing. Many people who have featured in previous releases have denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

BBC Verify has contacted Clinton’s office for comment.

Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

It has been more than a week since Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of US news anchor Savannah Guthrie, was abducted from her home in Tuscon, Arizona in the middle of the night.

The FBI released videos and images on Tuesday of a person wearing a balaclava captured on Guthrie’s security camera on the night of her disappearance, who they said was armed.

BBC Verify has seen multiple attempts online to unmask the person in the black and whitesecurity camera footage by using AI, many of which have circulated widely on social media, gathering millions of views.

But there are big limitations to using AI tools this way. That’s because when AI is asked to generate an image, it can only make a predictions based on the images it has been trained on, says generative AI expert Henry Ajder.

“AI tools don’t have some privileged knowledge of the reality that lies beneath a low-quality image or video,” he told BBC Verify. “Instead, they approximate what an enhanced version of an image could look like,” Ajder said.

This AI manipulation often results in a wide range of facial features. The examples we have seen online show four very different outcomes.

Nicholas Barrett
BBC Verify researcher

The team also watches PMQs each week to keep track of claims made in the Commons. Today, while discussing illegal immigration, Sir Keir Starmer said the government has “already removed nearly 60,000 people with no right to be here”.

He was referring to last week’s Home Office figures, external that showed there have been a total of 58,539 “returns” since Labour won the general election.

The Home Office uses the term “returns” to cover anyone who leaves the UK after losing the right to live or work here. That can happen for a range of reasons, including an expired visa, a refused asylum claim, or a criminal conviction leading to deportation.

But not all of these people have been “removed”. These figures include people who leave the UK on their own, sometimes with financial support from the government - some qualify for up to £3,000 to help with resettlement costs. Some of those who leave voluntarily do so without the Home Office’s knowledge at the time.

Of the people the government claims to have removed in the latest figures, 43,000 left voluntarily after being told they were in the UK illegally. Only 15,200 were removed by force. The number of returns also fell in January, driven largely by a drop in voluntary returns.

Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify journalist

Our team has been investigating the fatal shootings in Canada, where nine people were killed and at least 25 others left injured at a school and a residence in British Columbia.

We haven’t seen many videos or photos of the shootings or the aftermath posted online, which is unusual.

Often with these kinds of public shootings there are a number of bystanders who have been recording or taking pictures of the incident. However, Tumbler Ridge is a small rural community - with a population of around 2,400 people according to a census taken in 2021.

Among what we have verified is footage of students evacuating a school holding their hands in the air, armed police at the site and a helicopter preparing to land nearby. To help verify these videos we found street images and high resolution satellite images on mapping tools like Google Earth, which we used to match the footage to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School on Southgate Street.

We’ve also geolocated a photograph of an armed police officer and police car about 1km from the school. According to a local journalist this is the location where two of the victims’ bodies were found but we haven’t been able to confirm this with official sources yet.

Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify journalist

Iran has been covering tunnel entrances at the nuclear site in Isfahan in January and the new images analysed by Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) also show further covering of two other tunnel entrances with soil.

The activity comes despite ongoing talks between the US and Iran officials amid heightened tensions between the two powers.

ISIS says: “Backfilling the tunnel entrances would help dampen any potential airstrike and also make ground access in a special forces raid to seize or destroy any highly enriched uranium that may be housed inside difficult.”

Similar preparations at nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Fordo and Natanz were observed prior to the US strikes in June last year, ISIS added.

Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify journalist

Elsewhere in Iran we have been tracking the state’s activity at nuclear sites.

New satellite images analysed by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a US based think tank, show Iran has covered a tunnel entrance at a major nuclear site in Isfahan, one of the facilities targeted by the US and Israel last summer, and used earth to further seal off others.

The satellite images, analysed by ISIS, show the northernmost tunnel entrance at the nuclear site is newly filled with soil.

An image captured on 29 January appeared to show the entrance open with vehicles present nearby, satellite imagery from 10 February shows the entrance appears sealed off with earth.

Sarah Jalali and Ghoncheh Habibiazad
BBC Monitoring and BBC Persian

People in Iran have been encouraged to shout “Allahu Akbar” ("God is greatest”) during the state-led celebrations for the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution held this week.

But footage filmed by broadcaster Fars News, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, has recorded insults being shouted as others follow the state’s request. It is a rare example of dissenting voices being heard on Iran’s tightly controlled state media, which often attempts to censor anti-establishment sentiment.

The clip, released on Tuesday, shows celebrations in Tehran. A man a can be heard repeatedly yelling “Allahu Akbar”. The voice of a woman in the background can then be heard telling the man to “shut up”, followed by an expletive.

We confirmed that video was filmed in the Ekbatan neighbourhood by matching the footage to local landmarks and road layouts.

The BBC has visited Iran for the first time since the crackdown by security forces on nationwide anti-government protests last month. Human rights activists say they have confirmed the killing of at least 6,400 protesters since December, but warned that the final death toll could be far higher.

The BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet has been reporting from Tehran during the state’s celebrations of the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. She is able to report from Iran on the condition that none of her material is used on the BBC's Persian Service. These restrictions apply to all international media organisations operating in Iran.

Ghoncheh Habibiazad and Richard Irvine-Brown
BBC Persian and BBC Verify

Chants of “death to Khamenei” and “death to the dictator” have been heard during celebrations for the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

The celebrations began on Tuesday night across Iran, the eve of the anniversary, with people cheering and waving flags in mosques while pro-establishment crowds took to the streets during the day followed by firework displays in the evening.

It followed weeks of anti-government protests and a deadly government crackdown resulting in thousands of deaths amid a weeks-long internet blackout, which has since been lifted.

The state encouraged people to shout “Allahu Akbar” during the Islamic Revolution celebrations but we have verified footage of people in Tehran shouting “death to Khamenei” and “death to the dictator” from their homes and in the street.

We’ve located the videos to neighbourhoods in the west of Tehran. Each video featured fireworks in the background, a feature of the state’s celebrations, while we identified landmarks and road layouts to confirm the location of the videos. Reverse image searches on frames from the footage show the videos first appeared online late on Tuesday.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Today the team has verified a number of videos from Tehran, where state-led celebrations have seen rallies in the streets and people waving flags for the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. It comes after a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters in the country, and in a number of videos posted overnight people can be heard shouting “death to Khamenei” and “death to the dictator”. We're also monitoring satellite imagery of Iranian nuclear sites and the build up of military assets in the region.

The team is also analysing footage from the deadly shooting in Canada. Nine people have been killed and at least 25 others injured following the shooting at a school and a residence in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia.

We’re tracking the spread of misinformation connected to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie in the US, while elsewhere the team is carrying on with our trawl through the Epstein files.