Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

A fake email claiming to be from the Epstein files which says Donald Trump “doesn’t like black girls” has gathered millions of views online.

BBC Verify has searched for the email, but it does not appear in any of the documents released by the US Department of Justice last Friday.

The fabricated email exchange appears to show sex offender Jeffrey Epstein telling another person not to bring two guests to New York City.

It reads: “trump will be there. doesn’t like black girls” and says he “wont go w in 10 feet”. The fake email also uses a word which could be considered derogatory.

The domain listed in the email – jeevacation.com – also does not appear in any other documents and public databases show this domain was created in 2019, more than six years after these email were purportedly sent.

Reverse image searches indicate that the earliest version of the picture available online was posted by an X account which has previously been reported to have created fabricated documents about the Trump administration.

Trump’s name does appear almost 5,000 times in the newly released files.

Among them is a list compiled by the FBI last year of historical allegations made against Trump, Epstein and other high-profile figures by callers to its national Threat Operation Center tip line.

Many of these appear to be based on unverified claims and were made without supporting evidence. The document now appears to have been removed from the US Department of Justice website and we’ve contacted them to ask why.

Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein and has not been accused of any crimes by Epstein’s victims. Being named or pictured in the files is not an indication of wrongdoing.

Thomas Spencer and Alex Murray
BBC Verify

We’ve been reviewing satellite imagery that shows the recent arrival of US fighter jets at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.

The latest imagery from 2 February shows a dozen F-15 fighter jet aircraft lined up in a row beside the main runway.

Other aircraft including an MQ-9 Reaper drone and several A-10C Thunderbolts designed for ground attack, can also be seen nearby.

BBC Verify asked Justin Crump, CEO of the risk and intelligence company Sibylline, how this might relate to the overall build up of US forces across the region.

He noted the US already has sufficient airpower on land and at sea to be able to launch hundreds of attacks a day against Iran.

The presence of this contingent of aircraft in Jordan, Crump says, offers “a backstop” to defend the region against any retaliatory response by Iran or its allies in the region in the event of conflict.

Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify journalist

We’ve been asking researchers about the partial restoration to the internet in Iran after a severe shutdown earlier last month.

The Iranian government cut off internet access on 8 January in response to widespread and deadly anti-government protests across that were taking hold of the country.

Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at network intelligence firm Kentik, told us connectivity in Iran is “erratic” at the moment.

The graph below shows the volume of Iran’s internet traffic per day pre-shutdown, during and afterwards – where we are now – amid partial restoration.

Different services are blocked at different times for different users and it changes throughout the day, Madory said. This is what internet monitoring group NetBlocks is also reporting.

“The common understanding is that this is the work of a new censorship system that has been put into place. At this time, it is unclear whether the erratic nature of the blocking is the expected behaviour or a symptom of a system that isn’t working properly,” Madory added.

Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

AI ethics experts have said they are deeply concerned after BBC Verify found repeated cases of X’s AI chatbot Grok attempting to remove redactions from images of children released by the US Department of Justice as part of the Epstein files.

In one post viewed almost 24 millions times, Grok responds to a user request to “unblur” an image of a child in a swimming pool next to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

These supposedly un-redacted faces made by Grok are not real, they are a prediction based on pictures the AI has been trained on, so they do not reveal the real child’s identity.

But Gina Neff, professor of responsible AI at Queen Mary University said these images “still do serious damage to our information sphere”.

“They disrespect the real victims by suggesting their right to privacy is little more than an online game,” Neff told BBC Verify.

Tanya Goodin, CEO of EthicAI, added “this is inevitably what happens when technology is built with absolutely no safety guardrails”.

We’ve contacted X to ask why the platform is allowing Grok to respond to users’ request to unblur the redacted images but haven’t heard back.

Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify journalist

We’ve verified new images of body bags and mourners at hospitals in Gaza being shared online this morning, after at least 17 Palestinians have been killed following Israeli strikes.

Hospitals in the north and south have reported six children among the dead.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said “terrorists” opened fire on troops on Wednesday in northern Gaza, seriously injuring a soldier. The IDF said it carried out “precise strikes in the area” responding to “a blatant violation of the ceasefire”.

In photos shared by local Gaza journalists at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, mourners – including children – stand around white body bags with their heads bowed.

In a video we’ve geolocated to Nasser Hospital a man, followed by large group of men walking behind him, carries a body wrapped in a white bag at the perimeter of the medical complex.

We’re continuing to look at video being shared purporting to show the latest Israeli attacks and their immediate aftermath.

Read the full BBC News report on the incidents here.

Adam Durbin
BBC Verify Live senior journalist

Good morning and welcome to BBC Verify Live.

We’re looking into Israeli strikes in Gaza earlier this morning, which local hospitals have reported killed at least 17 Palestinians. Israel has said the strikes followed “terrorists” opening fire and seriously wounding a soldier in a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire. The team are examining footage that is emerging on social media to see what we can say about the situation.

BBC Verify is also still sifting through the millions of documents from the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein published by the US Department of Justice. We’re examining what we can say about what the Epstein files reveal, as well as debunking false claims and images that have spread widely since the latest release.