Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

The major build-up of US air and naval forces close to Iran has been the main focus of BBC Verify Live today. Here are just a few of the stories we've looked at:

• Flight tracking data showing refuelling tankers deployed at bases in Spain and Greece
• The movements of key US aircraft and why they matter
• Iranian state TV broadcasting footage of naval drills conducted with Russia
• Satellite images showing new fortifications at a key Iranian military site

We’ll be updating our main story about what we know about the US deployments in Europe and the Middle East, so keep an eye on the BBC News website and app for that later.

Away from the Gulf, we’ve also examined the data on avalanche deaths this winter and debunked AI-manipulated images being used to falsely claim Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell is not actually in prison.

BBC Verify Live's coverage will be back tomorrow.

Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

A picture which claims to show convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell in prison and has gathered tens of millions of views, is actually an edited still that was likely manipulated using AI, experts have told BBC Verify.

Video from Maxwell’s closed-door deposition in front of a US Congressional committee, during which she refused to answer questions about her associate Jeffrey Epstein, was released last week.

An edited still from this footage began to circulate widely across social media platforms in the days after its release.

This led to comparisons between Maxwell’s appearance in the edited still and photographs taken years before she went to prison. Some social media users highlighted what they thought were differences in the dimensions of Maxwell’s face.

These purported differences have led to spurious viral claims that a body double has taken Maxwell’s place in prison, building on a host of long-running conspiracy theories about the Epstein case.

But digital forensics expert Hany Farid and generative AI expert Henry Adjer told BBC Verify the distortions to Maxwell’s face in the edited picture are “likely” to be the result of using an AI-enhancement tool.

That’s because when AI is asked to enhance an image, it can only make predictions based on the images it has been trained on, says Ajder.

“It appears that while some features and proportions have been retained, others, such as nose shape and eye region, have likely been inaccurately ‘approximated',” Ajder added.

We’ve reported before on how AI-enhancement has distorted footage of US President Donald Trump’s face.

Alex Murray and Ghoncheh Habibiazad
BBC Verify and BBC Persian

Iranian state TV has broadcast footage of naval drills conducted with Russia which involved a simulated ship rescue operation.

The Fars news agency - which is affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) - said “operational units from both Iran's regular army's navy and the IRGC navy” took part.

Satellite imagery shows the Russian Navy warship Stoykiy, which was reported to have been part of the exercise, docked at Bandar Abbas Military port in southern Iran.

Image source, Planet Labs PBC

Prof Sina Azodi, director of Middle East studies at George Washington University, told us the Iran-Russia exercises were likely to have been scheduled in advance. “It has nothing to do with the current tensions,” he said.

Azodi is sceptical that this exercise is a show of the sort of force Iran might use in the event of American attacks.

“The ideal scenario for the Iranians is to use swarm tactics to attack an American ship - symbols of American power in the world - which is the aircraft carriers. That is the best Iran can hope for.”

Shayan Sardarizadeh and Ghoncheh Habibiazad
BBC Verify and BBC Persian

We have been looking at videos of Iranians holding commemoration ceremonies to mark 40 days since people were killed during mass anti-government protests.

The protests broke out across the country in late December and reached their climax on 8 and 9 January, after a call for demonstrations by Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the former Shah.

At this peak in the unrest, the government almost entirely cut off internet access to 92 million Iranians for nearly three weeks, which made verifying information about the brutal crackdown by the authorities extremely difficult.

According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), at least 7,000 people were killed.

Among the most widely shared videos from commemorations over the last few days were at a cemetery in the city of Abdanan in western Iran, where verified footage showed security forces firing shots towards a crowd from an armoured vehicle.

Using satellite imagery and notable landmarks like the distinctive main gate, we confirmed the videos were recorded in the Martyrs of Abdanan cemetery.

Reverse-image searches of screen grabs from multiple videos from the event found no earlier copies shared publicly online before 17 February.

We were also able to verify a poster appearing in videos which bore the identity of Alireza Seyedi, a teenage protester from Abdanan who was killed on 8 January.

Jake Horton
BBC Verify

BBC Verify has pieced together videos from a cemetery in Iran where a security official appears to fire at a crowd of mourners.

It happened in Abdanan, in the west of Iran, on Tuesday as people gathered to commemorate those killed during the government's brutal crackdown on protesters last month.

Video produced by Jemimah Herd

Alex Murray
BBC Verify journalist

At least six US military aircraft could be seen on popular flight-tracking site Flightradar24 late this morning - including two E-3 surveillance jets, two C-17 transport planes, a KC-135 aerial refuelling tanker and a pair of HC-130 Combat King IIs.

Image source, Flightradar24

The E-3s, which monitor and control fighter jets and look for enemy threats, are making their way from Europe to the Middle East.

The transport jets have left various bases in Europe and appear to be heading towards the eastern Mediterranean.

Flightradar24’s data suggests two HC-130Js - specially modified versions of the original C-130 transport plane - are flying from Naples in Italy to al-Udeid air base in Qatar using callsigns KING 71 and KING 72.

According to the US Air Force, external, they are used to fly troops out from temporary landing strips.

Tom Edgington
BBC Verify senior journalist

US President Donald Trump has again criticised the UK's plan to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and lease back the US-UK military base located on the largest island, Diego Garcia.

His comments came one day after the US State Department said America supported the UK’s decision to go ahead with the deal, external.

Trump has repeatedly offered and then withdrawn support for the Chagos agreement over the past year:

• On 27 February 2025, Trump indicated he was inclined to back the deal. Speaking alongside Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the White House, the president said “I have a feeling it's going to work out very well"
• However on 20 January 2026Trump called the deal an “act of stupidity”
• Trump appeared to change his position less than two weeks later. On 5 February 2026, he said: "I understand that the deal Prime Minister Starmer has made, according to many, the best he could make”
• Last night, Trump appeared to change his position for a third time, urging Starmer “do not give away Diego Garcia”

Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify journalist

Iran has built new fortifications at a military site near the capital Tehran in recent weeks, satellite imagery shows.

Images analysed by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a US-based think tank, show that a concrete shell over a recently built facility at the Parchin military site has been sealed with earth.

The purpose of the facility is not clear, but ISIS assess that the main arch-roofed building “houses a cylindrical chamber resembling a high explosive test chamber” and that construction to protect it indicates strategic significance.

In January the main building of the facility and its two entrances were covered with concrete. An image captured on Monday shows earth has been laid on top to further seal it off.

Earth piles nearby may be used to bury the facility further, transforming it into “a fully unrecognisable bunker”, ISIS says.

According to the US-based Institute for the Study of War, Iran has used Parchin to manufacture explosive materials, rockets and other munitions.

ISIS also says the site was used for “nuclear weapons component testing and development” until at least 2004 - and “nuclear weapons component production more recently”.

Read BBC Verify’s previous reporting on Iran fortifying several major nuclear sites here.

Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

A major Russian disinformation operation is using the Winter Olympics to make Ukrainian athletes and fans appear aggressive, corrupt and unlikeable, experts have told BBC Verify.

The operation is often dubbed Matryoshka, a reference to a Russian nesting doll because of the impersonation tactics it uses to produce fake news reports.

I've been looking into how it works.

Tom Gould
BBC Verify journalist

We’ve been speaking to Sam Wise, aviation analyst at intelligence firm Janes, who broke down for us the significance of the key US military jets that have been tracked heading towards the Gulf.

• F-35 – Stealth fighter jets which “can be used in a first-strike role to attack heavily defended targets”.
• F-22 – Advanced fighter jets, also with stealth capabilities, which “aren't regularly deployed to the Middle East because they're fewer, high value assets”.
• KC-135 and KC-46 – Refuelling tankers to support the long-range movement of other aircraft, with numbers now “much higher than you would typically see” in the region
• E-3 – Command and surveillance aircraft which allow the US “to conduct and control very large-scale air operations”

This is not a typical deployment, Wise told BBC Verify: “It is clear signalling of being capable of performing large air operations.”

Anthony Reuben
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Getty Images

I’ve been looking into the data for avalanches in the northern hemisphere this winter following the deaths of eight people in the Lake Tahoe region of California.

Three people are known to have been killed by two avalanches in the French Alps on Tuesday, bringing the number of deaths in the region to 28 this winter.

In Europe, fatality figures are collected by the European Avalanche Warning Services, external, external(EAWS), external which records incidents from 1 October each year.

There have been 91 deaths since October 2025, making this the worst winter since 2022-23. EAWS says the average is about 100 per year.

In the US, national statistics are compiled by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, external, external(CAIC), external. It says the average number of deaths per year over the last decade is 27.

Its figure for this winter, external is 14, but that has not yet been updated with the deaths in Lake Tahoe.

Peter Mwai
BBC Verify senior journalist, reporting from Nairobi

Warning: This post contains distressing details.

A United Nations investigation has said evidence of atrocitiescarried out by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during the siege and capture of el-Fasher last year “point to genocide”.

“Genocidal intent is the only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the RSF’s systematic pattern of ethnically targeted killings, sexual violence, destruction, and public statements explicitly calling for the elimination of non-Arab communities,” the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan’s report says.

It adds thousands were killed, raped or disappeared during “three days of absolute horror” between 25 and 27 October.

The report is consistent with an investigation by BBC Verify which confirmed widespread killings across the capital of North Darfur state.

Satellite images we analysed showed the RSF constructed a huge berm - a raised sand barrier - around the perimeter of el-Fasher, sealing off access routes and blocking aid during the nearly two-year siege.

Verified footage recorded during the capture of el-Fasher showing dozens of people attempting to escape had been killed near the berm, while other satellite images from 26 October 2025 identified by Yale University researchers appear to confirm killings in the city’s streets as well.

Several videos showed a senior RSF commander, Brig Gen Al-Fateh Abdullah Idris - also known as Abu Lulu - shooting people who had been captured trying to flee and other injured civilians. He was later sanctioned by the UK government.

One of the most graphic videos we analysed showed the aftermath of a massacre at a university, where dozens of bodies were scattered across the floor. It also showed the execution of an elderly man.

Alex Murray
BBC Verify journalist

The last 24 hours have been exceptionally busy for analysts tracking the scale of the US military deployments in Europe and the Middle East, including the sighting of the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier near Morocco.

Data from Flightradar24 shows the US has established refuelling points at bases stretching from Rota in southern Spain to the island of Crete in Greece to assist the operation of fighter jets and other aircraft, as Washington reportedly weighs up options for possible military action against Iran.

The KC-135 Stratotanker refuelling aircraft is the workhorse of the fleet and six of them are listed on Flightradar24 as being on the ground at Rota Naval Station.

At Souda Bay Naval Station in Crete there are seven more KC-135s.

Image source, Getty Images

“It’s genuinely becoming difficult to keep pace with movements of this scale and intensity,” according to analysts from Italmilradar, who track military movements in the Mediterranean.

This assessment tallies with what we’ve heard from other experts. Sam Wise, an aviation analyst at intelligence firm Janes, says there has been a “higher than normal amount of movement” in recent days.

The high-profile nature and scale of the deployments means the US no longer has an element of surprise in any action against Iran, according to Arun Dawson, a researcher at the Freeman Air and Space Institute.

Dawson adds the US will likely need “to mount a larger or more sustained effort” if it hopes to succeed.

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

We’ve been reporting on an almost-daily basis the movement of US military aircraft in Europe and the Middle East as the Trump administration reportedly weighs up its options for action against Iran.

Today we’re going to assess what flight and ship-tracking data shows of the latest movements and try to get an idea of the scale of this deployment through open source and expert analysis.

A UN fact-finding mission says actions by the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in the city of el-Fasher point to genocide. We’ll explain how BBC Verify has previously used satellite imagery and verified video to investigate widespread killings in the city.

And our fact-check team is looking into US President Donald Trump’s latest comments about the UK’s deal with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands. They’re looking at the number of times he’s spoken about the plan - which includes the UK-US base on Diego Garcia - since he returned to the White House.

If you want to raise a story with us you think we should investigate then get in touch with BBC Verify here.