Mapping Ukraine's attacks inside Russia, and can deleting emails help save water?

BBC News

16 hours ago

Update:
Date: 17:21 BST 15 August
Title: How BBC Verify is covering the Trump-Putin summit
Content: Thomas CopelandBBC Verify Live journalist
We're closing this live page now, but with a major summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska just hours away the BBC Verify team in Washington DC will be working through the evening to assess what comes from their meeting.
You'll find more coverage and analysis from our fact-checkers on the BBC's live page of the meeting in Anchorage.
You can scroll back through this page to see how we've gathered eyewitness accounts of a runway collision at Manchester Airport, tracked Russian advances along the front line in Ukraine and dug into the data behind claims that deleting old emails can help save water.
BBC Verify Live will be back with more on Monday.
Update:
Date: 17:09 BST 15 August
Title: Verifying video said to show foreign mercenaries fighting in Sudan's el-Fasher
Content: Sebastian Vandermeersch and Peter MwaiBBC Verify
We have been analysing footage that's recently emerged which is said to show foreign mercenaries fighting in el-Fasher, the capital of Sudan's North Darfur region.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have laid siege to the city for the past 14 months and it remains the last major Sudanese army stronghold in Darfur.
The RSF released a statement last weekend, external, denying claims that the United Arab Emirates has provided Colombian mercenaries to fight alongside the paramilitaries in Sudan's civil war.
Previous news reports have said Colombian mercenaries are in the country to train the RSF fighters, but this latest video appears to show they are involved in frontline combat.
BBC Verify has not yet independently confirmed their presence.
The clip shows about half a dozen men engaged in sustained gunfire along a road beside a mosque.
We matched the mosque in the footage with imagery on Google Maps thanks to its distinctive minaret, damaged dome, and painted exterior.
The fighters appear well-equipped, wearing combat helmets and uniforms not typically used by RSF or Sudanese government fighters.
The video first appeared online yesterday, and while we can't be sure when it was filmed, the RSF did launch a major offensive in el-Fasher on Monday.
Update:
Date: 16:59 BST 15 August
Title: Video shows fire at Russian oil refinery following Ukrainian drone attack
Content: Peter Mwai and Kumar MalhotraBBC Verify senior journalists
New footage has been posted online which shows fires burning at an oil refinery in Syzran in the Samara region of western Russia, following overnight Ukrainian drone attacks.
This is the second consecutive night Ukraine has targeted oil refineries in Russia after drones struck another refinery in the Volgograd region on Thursday.
We confirmed where two of the videos were filmed by matching the buildings, roads and other structures in the footage to satellite and street level imagery available on Google maps and Yandex, a Russia-based mapping service.
One video is filmed from a location in Syzran where there are tall residential buildings with distinct designs and the other is from a road intersection to the north of the oil refinery.
Ukraine's military confirmed in a statement, external it had attacked the refinery, saying it supplied fuel to the Russian armed forces.
Samara's regional governor, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, confirmed drone attacks had targeted the region and caused fires at 'one of the industrial facilities', external, but added that the fire had been contained.
Ukraine has regularly targeted oil refineries and energy facilities in Russia in recent weeks.
Update:
Date: 16:44 BST 15 August
Title: What happens to people who are refused asylum in the UK?
Content: Tamara KovacevicBBC Verify senior journalist
A couple of days ago we investigated how many people get asylum in the UK after successfully appealing against a refusal.
Mohan from Chesterfield contacted us to ask what happens to those whose appeal is turned down.
The answer is they are given 21 days notice before their asylum support ends, external and they have to leave their accommodation.
The Home Office provides accommodation in hotels, bed and breakfasts, flats or houses and asylum seekers usually get £49.18 a week if their accommodation doesn't provide meals or £9.95 if it does, external.
They are also informed that they do not have a right to stay in the UK and, if they don't leave voluntarily, are liable for removal. The notice period for removal, external must be a minimum of five working days.
However, just under half (48%) of those whose asylum claims were rejected between 2010 and 2020 had been removed by June 2024, according to analysis by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, external. The figure includes both voluntary and enforced returns.
Returns of failed asylum seekers declined during the 2010s but started increasing again from 2021 with last year seeing the highest number of returns since 2011.
Update:
Date: 16:16 BST 15 August
Title: Videos show swollen river as northern Pakistan is hit by flooding
Content: Richard Irvine-Brown and Sebastian VandermeerschBBC Verify
Verified video from two locations on the Ushu River shows the height of the water (left) and the darkening clouds on the (right)
We've been reviewing videos posted this morning from the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern Pakistan, where at least 146 people have been killed in flooding, according to local authorities.
Two videos we've verified so far from the province were filmed in Karandukai, a tourist spot in a remote region among the steep valleys between Afghanistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
The videos were filmed in two locations about 130m (430ft) apart. The first is on a river bend opposite a forested mountain range on the east bank. The river is high, right up to the terraces of accommodation built in the past decade, and flowing very fast.
In the first video, posted on SnapMaps around 07:00 local time (03:00 BST), we can see the clouds are just above tree-top level. In the second, posted three hours later, the clouds are much darker.
Checking the location of the videos against online mapping was made difficult as the name Karandukai doesn't appear on Google or Bing Maps - although it does on Yandex.
Satellite images show dozens of structures have been built there and expanded in the past decade, close to the same bend in the river. Weather radar shows the area has seen heavy rainfall and lightning storms for at least the previous 24 hours.
Update:
Date: 15:29 BST 15 August
Title: Watch: How Trump's drive to his golf course shaped homeless crackdown
Content: Jake HortonBBC Verify senior journalist, reporting from Washington
Here in Washington, we've been tracking President Donald Trump's journey from the White House to his golf club - and how it could have led to a crackdown on people living rough in the US capital.
The Trump administration has now begun removing people sleeping in tents on the streets of the capital. On Sunday morning, just before he played golf, Trump posted some pictures of tents on his Truth Social site, saying: "The homeless have to move out.'
The next day, he announced his administration was going to remove homeless encampments.
We've pieced together what he sees from his limousine on the way to the golf course - and what it reveals about how he views the US capital.
This video can not be played
How Trump's drive to his golf course shaped homeless crackdown
Update:
Date: 14:42 BST 15 August
Title: Tracking Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian logistics and infrastructure
Content: Olga Robinson, Joshua Cheetham and Yaroslava KiryukhinaBBC Verify and BBC Russian
In addition to the situation on the front line in Ukraine, we've also been looking at Ukrainian drone attacks on logistics and energy infrastructure in Russia and Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.
This map shows 27 drone attacks that we have tracked together with colleagues from BBC Russian this month.
You can see incidents we have verified in red and reported attacks in blue.
Targets so far have included oil refineries and depots, railway stations, airfields, drone storage facilities and industrial sites.
Charles Kupchan, senior fellow as the Council on Foreign Relations, says Ukraine's aerial campaign has two objectives: 'One is to hit targets, such as oil depots and military installation, that can impair Russia's war effort and decrease the revenue flowing into Russia's war economy.
'The other is to take the war to Russia and its people.'Overall, Ukraine's strategy is to increase the costs of the war to Russia, hoping that rising costs help convince Putin to stop his aggression and agree to a durable ceasefire,' Kupchan says.
Update:
Date: 13:44 BST 15 August
Title: What could Trump do if the talks with Putin fail?
Content: Nick BeakeBBC Verify correspondent, reporting from Washington
President Donald Trump has said there is a '25% chance' that his talks with President Vladimir Putin in Alaska about ending the Ukraine war will be unsuccessful.
If that proves to be the case, what might he do?
He has already threatened Russia with more sanctions but the country has been under this form of economic punishment for some time.
He has also threatened 'secondary sanctions' - punishing other countries that continue to trade with Russia.
That threat became a reality last week when he said that India - the second biggest buyer of Russian oil - would be hit with an additional 25% import tax on goods it sends to the US which would come into effect on 27 August.
Trump accuses India of not only buying huge amounts of Russian oil but then re-selling it to other countries at a big profit.
The biggest buyer of Russian crude oil is China but the US has not directly threatened it with secondary sanctions. In fact, Trump has declared a pause on tariffs on Chinese imports as the two sides try to reach a trade deal.
This is despite Chinese government statistics suggesting there's been no reduction in oil purchases this year from Moscow, despite the US president's warnings.
India has called Trump's secondary tariffs 'unjustified" and China has described them as 'illegal'.
Update:
Date: 12:51 BST 15 August
Title: Footage shows damage to aircraft wing after Manchester runway collision
Content: Rozina SiniBBC Verify eyewitness journalist
We've been reviewing more footage of the collision involving two planes at Manchester Airport.
An eyewitness, Corinna from Derby, took a video from inside one of aircraft which shows the damage to the wingtip of the second plane.
'We went into another taxiway to take off first, but as we did so we came extremely close to the plane and ended up clipping its wing. The whole plane shook,' she told BBC Verify's eyewitness team.
'About five fire engines came out immediately and we were told we had to go back to the airport due to the damage to our plane and their plane,' said Corinna.
'We have now been delayed by five hours,' she added.
Update:
Date: 12:18 BST 15 August
Title: What we know about Russian advances along the front line in Ukraine
Content: Olga Robinson and Joshua CheethamBBC Verify
Ahead of today's Trump-Putin summit in Alaska we've been looking at the situation on the front line in Ukraine.
Russia has been making incremental gains - particularly in Ukraine's east - in the past few months.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US research group that analyses conflicts using open-source data, says since the Russian summer offensive began in May its forces advanced an average of 15 to 16 sq km a day into Ukrainian territory.
Compare this to the first 11 days of August, when the average rate of advance was 23 sq km a day.
ISW Russia team lead and senior analyst George Barros says recent Russian advances are the result of months of preparations and tactical innovations.
'Russian forces have been working on eroding Ukraine's ability to defend its logistic lines since Spring 2025, and those efforts are paying dividends now,' he says.
Update:
Date: 11:55 BST 15 August
Title: Can deleting old emails help save water?
Content: Simran SohalBBC Verify researcher
With parts of the UK experiencing their fourth heatwave of the summer and millions subject to hosepipe bans, the National Drought Group has called the current water shortfall a "nationally significant incident.", external
The group, which includes the Environmental Agency, Met Office and water firms, has suggested deleting old emails and photos as one way to save water at home.
The group says data centres 'require vast amounts of water to cool their systems.", external
This has attracted quite a bit of attention online, so let's dig into the data.
According to a Thames Water estimate, external, a large data centre might use anywhere from four to 19 million litres of water per day to cool their servers - the same as supplying the daily demand of more than 50,000 households.
However, water for cooling servers accounts for just 25% of the total amount of water consumed by data centres in the UK, the Environment Agency say.
The rest is used to generate the electricity these centres need to store data in the first place.
Overall, the agency told BBC Verify that deleting 1,000 emails with attachments would save approximately 77.5 litres of water per year.
These are all estimates, however, and are subject to lots of variation, including the size of emails and pictures
The UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology has told BBC Verify that emails and photos are small files and 'would not significantly reduce water consumption'.
It says that the focus should be on how building more data centres may contribute to water scarcity. That's a concern not just in the UK, but across the globe.
According to the International Energy Agency, external, data centres, cryptocurrencies, and artificial intelligence consumed almost 2% of global electricity demand in 2022, roughly equivalent to the consumption of Japan.
By 2026 that demand could double, the agency say, putting more pressure on global water supplies than ever before.
Update:
Date: 11:09 BST 15 August
Title: How Trump's words and actions have changed on the Ukraine war
Content: Nick BeakeBBC Verify correspondent, reporting from Washington
With Donald Trump due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska later today, the US president's position on Ukraine has shifted many times since he returned to the White House in January.
From accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of 'gambling with World War Three' to accusing Vladimir Putin of talking 'bull****', his approach has been highly unconventional and unpredictable.
In February, Trump phoned Putin – a move fellow Western leaders had deemed unacceptable. Days after his bust-up with Zelensky in the Oval Office, in March Trump paused the supply of weapons and intelligence to Ukraine.
He resumed the flow a week later after Kyiv agreed to a US-proposed 30-day ceasefire. But Putin failed to commit to the deal – much to the anger of Trump who blasted his Russian counterpart for the increased missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities.
The Trump-Zelensky relationship appeared to benefit from their meeting in the Vatican moments before the funeral of Pope Francis in April.
But at the start of July came another major US shift, as Washington again paused military aid to Ukraine.
Reversing the decision days later, Trump said he would in fact be increasing the supply of Patriot defensive missiles to Ukraine and agreed to a Nato proposal to allow allies to buy US equipment for use by Kyiv.
Trump then set Putin a deadline to reach a peace deal with Ukraine – a deadline that came and went with no punishment for Russia.
Update:
Date: 10:35 BST 15 August
Title: Getting eyewitness accounts and footage after Easyjet aircraft collide
Content: Rozina SiniBBC Verify eyewitness journalist
We're reaching out to people who were onboard two EasyJet aircraft that clipped wings while taxying at the UK's Manchester Airport.
The incident, which happened shortly after 06:30 BST this morning, involved a flight bound for Paris and another heading to Gibraltar.
Tynisha Chaudhry, who was on the Gibraltar-bound flight with her partner, told the BBC she 'felt the whole plane shudder – it was a massive hit'.
Joshua Brandwood from Lancashire is at Charles De Gaulle airport waiting for the incoming Paris flight.
He told us: 'Our flight was due to depart at 09:25 but we weren't informed of anything.
'We saw our flight was delayed by an hour then it was delayed until 14:00.'
Joshua told us that gate staff didn't know what the issue was and he only found out after another passenger said there had been a collison.
'I'm already a nervous flier and now I'm scared of even getting that plane if it does manage to get here,' he told BBC Verify's eyewitness team.
Joshua Brandwood sent us this picture of passengers waiting for their flights at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport
Update:
Date: 10:22 BST 15 August
Title: Friday on BBC Verify
Content: Rob CorpBBC Verify Live editor
Welcome to today's live page.
After two Easyjet aircraft clipped wings at Manchester Airport in the UK our eyewitness team is sourcing pictures and video of the incident and looking to interview people who were on the jets at the time.
As US President Donald Trump heads to Alaska for his much-anticipated with Russia's Vladimir Putin, we've been doing extensive work on the context for these talks:
We're also currently verifying material being shared online showing extensive flooding in northern Pakistan which have killed at least 23 people.
And with data centres in the news today we're looking into whether deleting your emails and photos from the cloud (online servers where files and data can
be stored) is one way to reduce the water they use.