BBC Verify: Fibre Optic Network Near China's New London Embassy

Watch: Mapping Chilean wildfires using satellite imagery Aisha Sembhi BBC Verify Live video journalist Earlier today we showed you satellite images of Chile showing extensive damage following wildfires that have killed at least 19 people. From these images, our team is able to paint an accurate picture of how much destruction the fires have left behind. But how do we go about actually tracking the fire and measuring its intensity? BBC Verify’s senior software engineer Barbara Metzler talked us through how she uses these satellite images in conjunction with infrared heat measurement tools to monitor the situation: Where are Chinese diplomats located in London currently? Nicholas Barrett BBC Verify researcher Security Minister Dan Jarvis has argued that giving China permission to build its new embassy close to the City of London will bring "clear national security advantages" by consolidating Beijing’s diplomatic premises into a single location. China will be able to close various diplomatic buildings it currently operates across the UK capital including the current embassy on Portland Place, just north of Oxford Circus. Different buildings on the same street also house a political office, a policy office and a public affairs office. Elsewhere in London, China has an economic office, defence office and a culture office. There’s also a visa application centre next to the Bank of England in the City. Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London, told the BBC: “One argument is that in having all Chinese government London-based personnel in one location, which is not the case at present… makes keeping tabs easier.” In a joint letter, MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum and GCHQ's director Anne Keast-Butler have said it is "not realistic to expect to be able wholly to eliminate each and every potential risk". However, they added a "proportionate" package of national security mitigations had been developed for the site. Which European countries have troops in Greenland? Tamara Kovacevic BBC Verify senior journalist President Trump threatened eight European countries with tariffs on their exports to the US after claiming they had “journeyed to Greenland, for purposes unknown”. The countries have sent troops to the island - which Trump wants to acquire - as part of efforts by Denmark to increase its Arctic training there, external, along with Nato allies. We’ve been finding out how many troops they currently have in Greenland. Denmark: The Danish authorities would not confirm how many extra troops they had sent to Greenland but a group were pictured arriving at Nuuk airport on Tuesday. Denmark has said it is “strengthening its presence” on the island. Germany: A spokesperson for the German government told BBC Verify a 15-strong team had been sent consisting of “experts from Joint Force Command, the Army, the Air Force and the Navy… made up of specialists in logistics, pilots, sailors, infrastructure and planning”. Sweden: The Swedish government told BBC Verify that three military officers had been sent: “At present, there are no plans for them to return to Sweden.” Netherlands: The Dutch government confirmed, external two naval officers had taken part in reconnaissance and provided operational and logistical expertise and they had "completed their work as planned". Norway: The Norwegian government told BBC Verify two officers were sent to “assess opportunities for further cooperation with Allies to strengthen security in the Arctic. […] The initial planning work is now complete, and we plan for the personnel to return to Norway this week.” Finland: The government of Finland also sent two officers, external on “a reconnaissance mission to explore exercise opportunities”. UK: Defence Secretary John Healey announced on 14 January, external “at the request of the Danish government there is one UK military officer that is part of this reconnaissance group”. The MOD says it is unable to comment on whether that officer is still in Greenland or not. France: Initial reports, external suggested 15 soldiers were deployed. However, neither the defence ministry nor the president’s office would confirm this number. Multi-storey building damaged in southern Ukraine after Russia strike Jake Horton and Sherie Ryder BBC Verify Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has reported several regions across Ukraine were attacked by Russia overnight. We reported earlier that large areas of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv were left without power and Zelensky has confirmed the regions of Vinnytsia, Dnipro, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava and Sumy were also hit. The strikes involved “a significant number of ballistic and cruise missiles” and “more than 300 attack drones”, he added. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine has published aftermath pictures which show damage to a multi-storey building and firefighters at work in the southern Odesa region. We’ve located one of the images, showing an emergency worker looking out from inside a heavily damaged building, to a residential neighbourhood in the city of Chornomorsk. “Civil and energy infrastructure was damaged. One of the hits was on the balcony of an apartment on the ninth floor of a nine-storey residential building,” according to the emergency services. How close is the Chinese embassy site in London to fibre optic cables? Anthony Reuben BBC Verify senior journalist Concerns have been raised about the location of the new Chinese embassy in London, including in the media, with objections that the site is close to fibre optic cables carrying sensitive information - especially those connecting the financial hubs in the City and Canary Wharf. Conservative shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel criticised the proposed site, external saying: “The location is right by our vital national infrastructure.” The planning application shows all of the cables nearby that are owned by BT, with a significant number of connections going into Royal Mint Court, the Wapping Telephone Exchange to the north of the site and also cables passing down the road by the site. It’s not just BT which has cables there. The planning application points out “there are a number of operators that have services located within the vicinity of the site”. But the document giving permission for the embassy, external says the minister responsible: “Notes that no bodies with responsibility for national security, including HO [Home Office] and FCDO [Foreign Office], have raised concerns or objected to the proposal on the basis of the proximity of the cables or other underground infrastructure.” It further notes that “this matter has not been raised by the owner and operator of the cables”. Mapping the extent of the deadly fires in Chile Barbara Metzler BBC Verify senior data scientist We posted earlier on this page about satellite imagery showing the impact of wildfires in Chile that have killed at least 19 people in the south of the country. We’ve also been looking at data from Nasa’s satellite-based Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS). FIRMS uses infrared heat measurements to detect active fires, making it a useful tool for tracking fires from space. The red dots in the graphic below show satellite-detected fire hotspots. Between 18 and 19 January, the pattern of hotspots changes, suggesting the fire has eased in some areas but remains intense in others. The largest affected area is on the outskirts of the coastal city of Concepción. Based on the satellite analysis, we estimate this area covers more than 200 sq km (77 sq miles). Previous UK Conservative government welcomed China’s investment in embassy site Anthony Reuben BBC Verify senior journalist The government has given planning permission for China to build its new embassy, external on a site near Tower Bridge close to the City of London. The plans have been criticised by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch who said, external: “We cannot allow the Chinese to build this spy embassy in an area so crucial to our national security.” However the land was sold to the Chinese in 2018 when the Conservatives were in government. At the time, then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson wrote to the Chinese government welcoming the move. Part of the letter was quoted in the House of Lords last year, external by Foreign Office minister Baroness Chapman. It said: “Consent is hereby given for the Royal Mint Court London to be deemed as diplomatic premises for the use as the chancery of the embassy of the People’s Republic of China in London”. Will the Chagos deal cost the UK £3.4bn or £35bn? Ben Chu BBC Verify policy and analysis correspondent Last year BBC Verify looked into whether the UK government is right to say the Chagos deal will cost £3.4bn. This is the agreement where the sovereignty of the British territory in the Indian Ocean is transferred to Mauritius while the joint UK-US military base on the island of Diego Garcia is leased back for 99 years. The Conservatives have claimed the agreement will cost £35bn and have cited a Freedom of Information release from the Government Actuary's Department from 2025 which they said shows their figure is right, external. So which figure is correct? The Conservatives are not wrong in pointing out the cumulative value of the annual outlay in cash terms over the 99 years of this deal could easily add up to £35bn. The government has reached its significantly lower figure by adjusting these cumulative payments for: Future inflation Something called “Social Time Preference” - the value society attaches to something in the present compared to the future, so the future costs and benefits are discounted to their present value The inflation adjustment is valid. A payment of £1bn in 2124 will be considerably less onerous for a future government than a payment of £1bn made in 2025, given the likely considerable growth of the economy and tax revenues over a century. Also, given the extremely long timeframe of the deal, analysts and actuaries consulted by BBC Verify say it is not unreasonable for the government to further discount the payments for Social Time Preference - given that studies of economic behaviour show immediate costs and benefits are valued more highly than future costs and benefits by individuals, businesses and governments., external How we track progress on NHS treatment waits Daniel Wainwright BBC Verify senior data journalist We’ve been reporting the findings of our latest analysis of NHS treatment waits in England and how many hospitals have not improved on the key 18-week target. When you enter your postcode in our tracker, linked to below, you get a choice of the trusts closest to you and you can have a look at each one that may serve your local area. Every trust has its own target based on how well it was doing in November 2024, either get to 60% waiting less than 18 weeks for treatment or to improve by five percentage points, whichever is greater. To help you track progress at your local hospital, we calculated each trust’s target and update our interactive tool every month when the NHS releases the latest data. We use simple bar charts showing the trust’s percentage in November 2024, the percentage now and how that compares with England overall. There are two trusts - Barking, Havering and Redbridge and Sheffield - which haven’t provided the NHS with their latest data so we present the most recent figures we have for them. You can see how your local hospital is doing here. AI-altered photo of Tehran morgue getting millions of views online Ghoncheh Habibiazad BBC Persian An AI-manipulated photo of a woman standing near dead bodies at a mortuary in Tehran has gone viral on X, with one post gathering more than 2.6 million views. The original photo was first posted by US-based Iranian activist Vahid on his Telegram channel, showing a woman standing in front of a body in a black bag outside the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Centre in the south of Iran’s capital. In the original, there are 20 bodies and 18 people, other than the woman, in the background. There is also what appears to be a carton of juice on the ground. We ran checks on this image to confirm it was not AI-generated. However in the AI-altered picture, the field of view has been widened to show more than 40 bodies - and a car has been added in the background. The other people have also disappeared and body bags now cover the woman’s feet and the carton. In one version of the image being shared there is a diamond-shaped logo in the bottom right corner, which indicates it was generated using Google’s text-to-image AI generator Nano Banana. SynthID, Google’s tool to check if something is AI-generated, confirmed it was made using the company’s software. NHS tracker - Has your hospital made progress on treatment waits? Daniel Wainwright BBC Verify senior data journalist It’s been a year since the government set new waiting list targets for NHS hospitals in England. They were required to ensure by March 2026 that a higher percentage of patients were waiting less than 18 weeks between GP referral and the start of elective treatment. BBC Verify has been tracking progress every month since, and overall, progress has been made. The waiting list stands at a still very large 7.3 million procedures but that’s the lowest it’s been since early 2023. However, the picture varies from hospital to hospital. Our analysis found 31 hospital trusts had a lower percentage of patients waiting less than 18 weeks than a year ago - in other words, their waiting times have worsened. Reasons vary, from staffing shortages, doctor strikes and problems with IT systems. However, the majority of trusts, 98 in our analysis, have seen improvement. As of November 2025, just under 62% of patients across England had been waiting less than 18 weeks. By March, the government and NHS want this to be 65%. But even that is a stepping stone towards the long-established target that 92% of patients should wait no more than 18 weeks for their treatment - a target that hasn’t been met for a decade. BBC Verify is tracking the progress of individual trusts and you can see how your local hospital is doing here. Kyiv without power after another night of strikes Jake Horton BBC Verify journalist Parts of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv are without electricity, heating and water following reports of overnight Russian attacks. The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said missile and drone strikes have left more than 5,600 multi-storey buildings without heating in Kyiv, where temperatures dropped to around -10C (14F) overnight. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of deliberately exploiting the harsh winter conditions as part of its war strategy. Zelensky declared an energy emergency last week, following a series of Russian attacks on the country’s infrastructure. Russian attacks on Kyiv have left thousands of homes without regular power, heating or running water in recent weeks. These attacks haven’t been limited to the capital. Ukrainian officials said earlier this month that more than one million people in the country’s south-east spent many hours without heating and water as a result of strikes. Ukraine has also hit a number of oil refineries in Russia as part of its own war effort which, in some cases, have caused temporary blackouts. Welcome to BBC Verify Live Rob Corp BBC Verify Live editor BBC Verify has received satellite imagery showing the impact on wildfires in two regions of southern Chile that have killed at least 19 people and displaced more than 50,000. By comparing pictures taken before and after the fires started we can get a good idea of the scale of the wildfires and where they have spread. Another night of Russian drone and missile strikes has left parts of the Ukrainian capital without power, heating and water, according to Kyiv’s mayor. As well as the attacks on Kyiv we’re also looking into reports that Odesa and Vinnytsia regions were also struck overnight. We’ve been working with the BBC’s health team to see what NHS data tells us about the impact of the government’s plan to tackle waiting lists in England. You can read more about their findings here. BBC Verify is always keen to hear from you - if you’ve seen a claim being made or a picture being shared that doesn’t look right do get in touch with us via this link.