We're looking into false claims being spread in the wake of a US immigration agent fatally shooting a woman in Minneapolis
AI has been used to generate to spread misinformation, including attempts unmask and identify the agent involved
For coverage of protests that have broken out over the shooting, here's the main BBC News live page
The team are also examining recent clashes in Syria, after days of fighting between Kurdish fighters and government forces in the city of Aleppo
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How the ICE shooting in Minneapolis unfolded second-by-second
Edited by Adam Durbin
Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist
We’ve spent much of today debunking false claims related to an incident where US immigration agent shot and killed a woman in the Minnesota.
These include:
The team also put together a detailed analysis of how the shooting happened. Click here to watch our frame-by-frame breakdown of the incident.
For coverage of protests that have broken out over the shooting, here's the main BBC News live page.
Away from the US, we’ve verified videos of fighting and evacuations in the city of Aleppo in northern Syria.
BBC Verify Live will back tomorrow, so please do check in for more from the team.
Kayleen Devlin and Barbara Metzler
BBC Verify
A Russian-registered oil tanker, sanctioned by multiple countries including the US and the UK, is currently passing through the English Channel on a journey from Venezuela that began in mid-December, according to information being transmitted from the vessel.
BBC Verify has analysed location data provided by MarineTraffic, which shows the tanker Aria most recently transmitting a position south of Cornwall at 16:59 GMT.
We've also reviewed radar satellite imagery from 06:40 today, which shows a vessel entering the Channel, consistent with the tanker’s position at that time.
We’ve tracked the vessel’s journey back to early November when it left Russian waters and declared it was “laden”, which means it was carrying cargo.
It then embarked on a journey through the Baltic and North Seas, into the English Channel and out across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, eventually reaching Venezuela’s main oil facility, the José oil terminal, on 12 December.
Four days later, the Aria set sail back across the Atlantic, declaring itself to be “in ballast”, the phrase for not carrying cargo, reaching the Channel this morning.
Sherie Ryder
BBC Verify journalist
This morning we’ve been monitoring footage on social media from Aleppo, where there are ongoing clashes between the Syrian government and Kurdish fighters.
In one verified clip we can see smoke rising in the vicinity of a number of buildings in Sheikh Maqsoud, a Kurdish area in the north of the city where thousands of people have fled fighting since Monday.
We carried out reverse image searches on several screenshots, which helped us to confirm that the footage was posted today, indicating it is authentic and not from a previous conflict in Syria.
In separate footage shared on Wednesday, we can see men in military fatigues firing mortars nearby. The projectiles appear to being aimed towards Sheikh Maqsoud, but we cannot confirm if it is related or what was struck.
Around a mile (1.5km) south of the incident in Sheikh Maqsoud, we’ve verified another video of smoke rising near a mosque on Teshreen Avenue.
Syrian state media reported renewed shelling of residential neighbourhoods in the city on Tuesday, which it said was carried out by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The SDF has denied having a military presence in Aleppo and accused Syrian government forces of attacks to forcibly displace residents of Kurdish areas.
Tom Edgington
BBC Verify senior journalist
This video can not be played
Does the US have the right to take over Greenland?
Tensions between the US and Denmark have been rising this week, after the White House said it was considering all options to take Greenland.
Greenland is a self-governing territory and part of Denmark, which retains responsibility for its security. On Sunday, US President Donald Trump appeared to dismiss Greenland’s security arrangements, telling reporters: “You know what Denmark did recently to boost up security on Greenland? They added one more dog sled. It’s true.”
Following Trump’s comments, BBC Verify contacted the Danish Ministry of Defence to ask about its military presence in the region.
It sent us a statement today, saying it decided to make a several investments in January in 2025, which included satellite surveillance, two additional long-range drones, and new Arctic vessels. There was no mention of dog sleds.
The ministry also said made “significant additional investments” in October, including:
Furthermore, the ministry says it has decided to acquire 16 additional F-35 fighter jets, bringing the total to 43.
It says these decisions “strengthens both our national defence and Nato’s collective defence, including in the Arctic and the North Atlantic”.
Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist
The Department of Homeland Security, external , external(DHS), external has claimed, external that the woman fatally shot in her car by an ICE officer in Minneapolis had tried to run over its officer, adding that law enforcement are facing a “1,300% increase in assaults”.
The DHS has repeatedly cited large percentage rises in assaults against ICE but rarely provides the figures behind them or defines what it means by “assault”.
A DHS press release, external from November reported 28 vehicular attacks against ICE since January, compared to two incidents in the same period of 2024 – a 1,300% increase.
A month later, ICE reported a, external , external“1,347%, external increase in assaults”, external but did not provide any further breakdown. ICE has expanded its enforcement activity and the size of its workforce under the current Trump administration.
The agency says it has recruited 12,000 more employees over the past year, external, although not all of them will be involved in front line immigration enforcement. Arrests and detentions have also risen, according to analysis by the Migration Policy Institute. , external
We have asked the DHS if the 1,300% rise mentioned in its statement refers to the figure used in the November press release.
Rob England
BBC Verify senior data journalist
The first small boat crossings of 2026 took place this week, with 32 people arriving across the English Channel in a single boat on Monday.
That puts this year’s total so far behind the same point in 2025, 2023 and 2022, all of which had recorded more crossings within the first seven days.
The earliest January arrivals in any year since records began in 2018 were on 2 January, seen in both 2023 and 2021.
January and February tend to see fewer crossings. The highest average monthly totals typically fall in August and September.
Experts say many factors influence crossing patterns, including enforcement, smuggler networks, conditions in countries of origin and the weather. It remains unclear which of these plays the biggest role.
For context, small boat arrivals between July 2024 and June 2025 accounted for about 5% of total immigration to the UK.
You can find out more about migration to the UK in our tracker.
Kayleen Devlin
BBC Verify senior journalist
It’s been more than 24 hours since US forces boarded and seized the sanctioned oil tanker Marinera, formerly known as Bella 1, as it was sailing in the North Atlantic.
Yesterday morning, the Marinera was broadcasting it location regularly and we confirmed through satellite imagery that it was accurate. But shortly after being seized the tanker stopped transmitting its position.
The last location data from the vessel was reported at 14:36 GMT yesterday to the south-east of Iceland.
We’ve tried to locate the vessel using satellite imagery, but unfortunately there is too much cloud cover to get an accurate picture. So where might it be going?
Maritime tracking service TankerTrackers told BBC Verify that they see little value in the US bringing Marinera back to the US.
“She’s empty of cargo and beyond her service age. That becomes a cost and environmental liability,” said Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.
A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota on Wednesday.
BBC Verify has broken down how the incident happened – as Jake Horton explains:
This video can not be played
Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist
A widely shared photo claiming to be of the victim of Wednesday’s shooting in Minnesota is actually of an unrelated individual.
A US immigration agent shot dead 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis last night.
The photo of the woman who was not involved and a real picture of Good both appear in a 2020 Facebook post by the English Department of Old Dominion University in Virginia congratulating the winners of a poetry competition.
We are not sharing the image or the name of the unrelated woman to avoid further invasion of her privacy.
Reverse images searches of the unrelated photo show that it has been posted hundreds of times in the last 12 hours. This post alone gathered more than two million views.
A visual comparison of the unrelated photo with the real image of Good clearly shows they are different people.
We also checked our findings by using facial recognition software to confirm the unrelated image matches the profile picture of two social media accounts of the woman wrongly identified, as well as checking that it was not a match for the real image of Good.
Paul Brown and Richard Irvine-Brown
BBC Verify
We’ve been looking into videos of fighting and evacuations in the city of Aleppo in northern Syria, after clashes broke out between Kurdish armed groups and government forces this week.
One verified video, filmed near a school in central Aleppo on Tuesday, shows at least nine projectiles being fired out of the city to the west. We are not able to confirm who carried out this shelling.
Overnight video shows at least nine projectiles fired west, out of the city, including two intercepted in the air
Another video from Wednesday morning we have verified shows smoke rising in the Kurdish-majority Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood in the north.
We have also verified several clips showing the organised evacuation on Al Zahoor Street, to the south of a second Kurdish area of northern Aleppo called Ashrafiyah. Some of the videos show the presence of armed men and people in the uniform of the Syrian Red Crescent aid organisation.
Many news agencies posted video of people carrying belongings on Al Zahoor Street, Aleppo
At least 12 people have reportedly been killed, while tens of thousands of civilians have also fled Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh.
Syria’s military has declared both neighbourhoods “closed military areas” and said the operation was responding to armed groups.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which has said it does not have a military presence in Aleppo, has accused Syria’s government of a "criminal attempt" to displace people.
Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist
We’re tracking how AI is being used to spread false images claiming to be from yesterday’s deadly shooting in Minneapolis involving a US immigration officer.
Multiple versions of this image are circulating widely, falsely claiming to show an interaction between the woman who was killed and an ICE agent.
This fake picture is based on real footage from the scene and many of the details look very similar, but there are clear signs this image is AI-generated.
The most obvious red flag is that the woman appears to be sitting in the passenger seat, rather than the driver’s seat, which is empty.
Authentic footage of the incident reviewed by BBC Verify only shows agents wearing uniforms labelled “Police” and not “ICE”.
While the white house in the middle of the photo is notably accurate in recreating a real house in footage, the house on the right is missing a front door and has different-looking windows.
Phil Leake
BBC Verify data journalist
Venezuela has produced relatively little oil in recent years despite holding the largest known oil reserves in the world.
According to data from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Venezuela is home to 303 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, almost a fifth of the world total.
But separate figures from the US Energy Information Administration show that it produced around 860,000 barrels of crude oil per day on average in 2024, just 1% of global output.
Venezuelan oil production was above 3 million barrels per day in the late 1990s and stood at 2.5 million per day as recently as 2014.
The drop in the last decade is due to a number of factors including a lack of investment, extraction difficulties and economic sanctions.
Several US oil companies left Venezuela after President Hugo Chavez exerted more state control over their assets in 2007, which led to a loss of investment, infrastructure and technical support in the industry.
Venezuela’s oil is mostly heavy crude which requires extra processing compared with oil produced in other parts of the world.
The country was also hit with sanctions imposed by US President Donald Trump in 2019, during his first term.
Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist
As footage from yesterday’s deadly shooting in Minneapolis has spread online, BBC Verify has seen many attempts to use AI to unmask the ICE agent involved in the shooting.
At no point in the footage reviewed by BBC Verify does this agent remove his mask, but screenshots of him have been fed into AI-generation tools in an effort to identify him.
Many of these AI-manipulated images have circulated widely across social media without being labelled or explained as being AI.
We’ve reported before on misinformation fuelled by “AI-enhanced” images of President Trump, a man suspected of shooting Charlie Kirk and a picture from the Epstein files
As you can see, attempts to use AI to generate the ICE agent’s face without a mask has resulted in very different outcomes every time.
That’s because when you ask AI to generate an image it can only make a prediction based on the images it has been trained on Prof Thomas Nowotny, head of the AI research group at the University of Sussex, has told BBC Verify.
“AI will only ever be able to generate a likely image, of which there are many different equally plausible versions,” Nowotny said.
Adam Durbin
BBC Verify Live editor
Good morning from BBC Verify Live.
We’re looking into events in Minneapolis, after a woman was shot dead yesterday by US immigration agent. We’ve debunked several different pieces of misinformation spreading abut the incident, including AI-generated attempts to unmask the officer involved and a fake picture purporting to show the him speaking to the woman in her car before the incident. Our verification team also working on a frame-by-frame analysis of real videos of the shooting that do exist, so we’ll share that with you shortly.
We’re also looking into recent fighting around the city of Aleppo in northern Syria, after clashes between the government and the Kurdish fighters broke out on Monday. At least 12 people have been killed since and thousands more have fled the Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods designated as "closed military areas" by Syria’s military. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which says it has no military presence in Aleppo, accused the military of a "criminal attempt" to displace people.
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