Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

We’ll be closing this page soon but here’s a quick recap of some of the stories we’ve been covering today.

We’ve been tracking a series of US military aircraft detected off the coast of Venezuela and we’ve zoomed out to update you on the huge military build up across the Caribbean as tensions between the US and Venezuela continue to escalate.

Our video verification team have been covering the latest in Ukraine today. They’ve verified footage and tracked the death toll after a series of overnight Russian strikes and they’ve analysed footage of Russian soldiers advancing into the city of Pokrovsk.

BBC Verify’s teams in London and Washington will be working through Saturday and Sunday adding their expertise in verification and fact-checking to reporting across the newsroom.

That’s all from BBC Verify for this week. We’ll see you again on Monday morning.

Robert Cuffe
BBC Verify head of statistics

Image source, EPA

One of the key findings of the UK Covid inquiry was “there would have been approximately 23,000 fewer deaths in the first wave” in England had lockdown started a week earlier.

Is the 23,000 number - from this research, external - a reasonable figure?

Locking down on 16 instead of 23 March 2020 would have cut the growth of the first wave of the virus by one week.

At that time infections were roughly quadrupling every week and the typical time between infection and death was about four weeks. So an earlier lockdown would have cut infections by 75%.

About 31,000 people died of Covid in England more than four weeks after 16 March during the first wave. Cutting that number by 75% would be a reduction of around 23,000 deaths.

So in isolation, this is a reasonable ballpark estimate of the effect that locking down a week earlier might have had.

But, it is not a good estimate of how many lives would have ultimately been saved.

As we all remember, more waves of the virus came later so deaths prevented initially could have happened in later waves.

And, it is also not a measure of the value of lockdowns - the inquiry report highlights it may have been lowerif we had managed to slow the virus earlier with other measures like voluntary distancing or test-and-trace.

Richard Irvine-Brown and Sherie Ryder
BBC Verify journalists

Earlier we posted a BBC Verify video that included footage from the Russian Ministry of Defence of troops walking through part of the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk.

Russia has been trying to capture the key city in Ukraine’s Donetsk region for more than a year and reports suggest it has been making advances in recent weeks.

To verify that the Russian MoD’s video was both new and from Pokrovsk we carried out our usual checks, starting with locating features in the footage with what can be seen in online mapping.

Several key features in the video’s opening shots looked like they could be geolocated - a tiled footpath leading to a wide road and two apartment blocks. There’s an edit and the next shot is looking down another wide street flanked by apartment blocks including one with a staggered facade.

We found these details in the Russian video matched only one part of Pokrovsk, the southern edge of the Shakhtarskyi district.

Similarly, the final shot of the video shows a tall and squared-off building with a single-storey annex. There’s a ruined billboard in the foreground, so we can reason we’re near a main road. Again, only one site in Pokrovsk, this time on the eastern side of Shakhtarskyi, is a match.

So, far from being in the centre of the city, the soldiers we saw were still on its outskirts.

Shayan Sardarizadeh
BBC Verify senior journalist

A viral image of senior US tech executives created with generative-AI has led to a debate about the technology’s rapid advance.

The image features Tesla’s Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook of Apple, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Google’s Sunder Pichai, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella gathered in a small room.

It was posted by a user on X this morning and has since racked up more than three million views. The user went on to confirm later, external that the image was created with Gemini, Google’s AI model.

BBC Verify also ran the image through Synth ID, Google’s own AI detector tool, which confirmed with high confidence that it was made with Google AI.

Many users who commented on the image said that they had initially struggled to recognise that it was fake and were impressed by how realistic it looks.

Zooming into the full size image, shows a few signs of AI generation, including illegible letters on the TV screen, Musk’s odd reflection in the mirror, and Huang’s folded hands.

However, those minor errors are not easy to spot on smaller screens, and generative-AI is getting better at correcting obvious inconsistencies that were prevalent in images created one or two years ago.

Jake Horton
BBC Verify journalist

As we reported earlier, BBC Verify has tracked four US military aircraft which flew near Venezuela last night.

The US has already deployed thousands of troops and significant military assets to within striking distance of the country.

BBC Verify has confirmed the locations of six US military vessels in the region this month by cross referencing ship-tracking data and satellite imagery. This includes the world's largest warship, the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford.

We’ve identified several other vessels in the Caribbean Sea - including a guided missile destroyer, an amphibious transport dock, a guided missile cruiser, an amphibious assault ship, and the US Special Operations Command mothership.

This represents the largest US presence in Latin America in decades and has sparked speculation about the potential for some kind of military action against Venezuela.

You can read our full piece about the military build-up so far here.

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

We’re keen to hear what you think the BBC Verify team should be looking into.

We're interested in investigating claims you may've seen online in your social feeds. We're also keen to know if you've think an image may have been made using artificial intelligence to spread disinformation.

You can also get in touch with BBC Verify if you've got a question about how we verify video posted online or work with satellite imagery.

You can send your suggestions to the team here.

Jake Horton and Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify journalists

BBC Verify has used flight tracking data to identify four US military aircraft flying near Venezuela last night. These include a long-range bomber, a surveillance aircraft, a fighter jet, and a refuelling tanker.

A US Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft - call sign ALBUS39 - appeared on flight-tracking website Flightradar24 just after 22:00 GMT (18:00 local time). The data shows it flying for about two hours near the eastern coast of Venezuela.

Around a similar time a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet - call sign FELIX11 - can be seen circling off the western coast.

We also saw a US B-52 long-range bomber briefly appear on flight tracking off Guyana - Venezuela’s eastern neighbour - at around 23:45 GMT (19:45 local time). Data shows the bomber - call sign TIMEX11 - departed from the US state of North Dakota yesterday afternoon and landed back there this morning.

A couple of hours later data shows a US Air Force KC-135 aerial refuelling tanker - call sign PYRO33 - was over the southern Caribbean. It then stopped broadcasting its location until 03:20 GMT (23:20 local time) when it was seen over Puerto Rico heading north-west.

Graphic by Jacqueline Galvin

Richard Irvine-Brown and Paul Brown
BBC Verify

The Ukrainian port city of Odesa has been under a sustained drone attack this morning, with footage showing impacts and interceptions in areas close to the coast.

The Ukrainian Air Force issued 10 alerts for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) launched from the Black Sea toward Odesa.

So far, we have verified six clips and in each case matched the details visible in the footage to satellite and street level imagery from the city.

We have also run checks on the weather to ensure the clips are from today.

The wing shapes of at least two of the UAVs seen in the clips resemble the delta-wings of Shaheed drones.

Lighting conditions vary across the different clips, suggesting a sustained attack over a number of hours.

One clip shows a drone crashing into a building which appears to be under construction in the Kyivski district. The footage is filmed from a neighbouring high-rise block.

Three miles (5km) north, we have seen a drone being intercepted over a housing development, with debris landing among residences and gardens in the Arcadia area. Gunfire can be heard in the clip suggesting an interception by air defences.

We've also seen footage of a drone falling into the sea before exploding on impact. It’s not clear what brought it down.

Anthony Reuben
BBC Verify senior journalist

With British energy bills due to rise slightly from January, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall was asked on BBC Breakfast whether the government still stood by its pledge to reduce energy bills.

“Absolutely, we will bring the cost of those bills down,” she said.

Labour’s election manifesto pledged, external: “We will save families hundreds of pounds on their bills, not just in the short term, but for good.”

Before the election, Labour leader Keir Starmer said, external his party would “help families save up to £300 off their energy bills” through its push for green energy, and this would happen by 2030.

But bills are currently higher than they were at the time of the 2024 general election.

When Labour came to office, a typical household on a price-capped, dual fuel tariff paid by direct debit was paying £1,568 a year, external. From January 2026, they will be paying £1,758, external, an increase of £190.

We’ve verified footage showing Russian soldiers pushing forward into the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region.

It comes as reports suggests Washington and Moscow have prepared a plan to end the war which may require major concessions from the government in Kyiv.

BBC Verify’s Reha Kansara has been looking into the latest developments in the war.

Anthony Reuben
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, EPA

Following the news of a small increase in energy bills from January, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall was asked on BBC Breakfast about the cost of energy.

She highlighted the Warm Homes Discount, external, which gives low income households in England, Wales and Scotland £150 a year off their electricity bills.

“We are taking immediate action, this winter, 6 million… households on universal credit will have access to the Warm Homes Discount scheme,” she said.

The government has doubled the number of households that are eligible to receive it. But the cost is not covered by the government, instead it is covered by energy suppliers, who are allowed to pass it on to their customers through bills.

Energy regulator Ofgem estimated that, external extending the scheme to an additional 2.7 million households would cost every customer an average of £17 a year.

Richard Irvine-Brown and Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify

We’ve been looking into reports that at least six people have been killed across Ukraine in Russian strikes since yesterday evening.

In the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia, the regional administration said five people were killed in a strike and shared a video that showed buildings on fire and a crater in a road east of the city centre.

We could match the pavements, shops and street furniture seen in the footage with Google photos and a 2016 street view of the location on the Russian search engine Yandex.

Local officials posted an update this morning, claiming there had been 387 strikes on 16 locations within the Zaporizhzhia region in the previous 24 hours. They later added five people were in hospital including a 17 year old child.

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine has also posted images claiming to show the aftermath of overnight attacks in Odesa which have injured five and in the Chernihiv region where a woman was killed.

Image source, Telegram

Jake Horton
BBC Verify journalist

BBC Verify is using flight tracking data to investigate reports that US military jets flew near to the coast of Venezuela last night, as tensions continue to rise in the region.

We know from people posting FlightRadar24 tracking data on social media that aircraft including fighter jets and surveillance aircraft like the RC-135 Rivet Joint were apparently active in the southern Caribbean Sea.

I’m currently investigating which aircraft were operating off Venezuela based on publicly available tracking.

The US has deployed warships to the southern Caribbean in recent weeks as the Trump administration continues to put pressure on the Venezuelan government.

Image source, Getty Images

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

Good morning and welcome to BBC Verify Live.

Our late shift came across reports last night that US military jets had been picked up by a public flight-tracking website flying off the coast of Venezuela. We’re getting data from FlightRadar24 to see which aircraft it tracked in recent hours.

Last night there were more deadly Russian attacks across Ukraine - with officials saying five people were killed and three injured in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia. We’re verifying footage being shared online showing the impact of those strikes.

Elsewhere we’re looking into flooding in central Vietnam, where at least 41 people have died after days of heavy rain. We’re checking material from social platforms to show you the worst affected areas.

And our fact-check team is looking into today’s announcement that the energy price cap for Great Britain is increasing by 0.2% in January. Labour has pledged to cut prices by £300 by 2030 - we’ll see how this latest change affects that.