Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

We’re into the third day of monitoring violent clashes at the Thailand-Cambodia border, including verifying some dramatic footage of strikes inside Cambodia - we’ve mapped all of the incidents for you here.

President Donald Trump gave a high-profile speech on the US economy last night and our fact checking team have digging into his claims about:

• US egg prices
• Chinese wind power
• UK energy costs

We’ve also been keeping an eye on the skies over Venezuela as part of ongoing tensions with the US. Click here to read our full story on the US aircraft we tracked close to the Venezuelan coast last night.

Plus, we wrote a reminder that disguised watermarks can be a sign that a video is AI-generated. Here’s what to look out for.

That’s all from BBC Verify Live for today, we’ll be back tomorrow.

Lucy Dady and Aiden McNamee
BBC Verify

The average life expectancy for a baby girl born in the UK between 2022 and 2024 has reached a record 83.02 years, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This is 0.01 years - or just over three days - higher than the previous record from 2017 to 2019. Life expectancy measures are based on death rates in the past three years.

The latest figure is a record high and a year-on-year increase. But, looking at the big picture, life expectancy among women has returned to where it was before the Covid-19 pandemic rather than improved significantly.

In comparison, men are still behind pre-Covid levels. The life expectancy for a baby boy born in 2017-19 was 79.29 and the most recent data shows it is 79.12, a difference of roughly two months.

Life expectancy estimates are unable to account for future medical developments, or other major global events like the pandemic, which may impact death rates.

Rob England
BBC Verify senior data journalist

A new report from the National Audit Office, external suggests that in trying to clear one backlog in the asylum system, successive governments may have created another.

As of September 2025, there were 80,841 people waiting for an initial decision on their asylum claim. That number has been falling, in line with the government’s pledge to clear the backlog by the end of this parliament.

But the government watchdog is warning that may have come at a cost.

“Increases in speed of processing have sometimes come at the expense of the quality of decisions… and improvements in one area have shunted problems elsewhere,” the report says.

One of those problems is a growing backlog of appeals - cases where someone has been refused asylum but is challenging the decision.

The number of people with an outstanding asylum appeal reached 50,976 in the year to March 2025, up 88% on the previous year.

The National Audit Office says delays in the courts system, a shortage of judges, and limited access to legal aid are key challenges now facing the appeals process.

Aidan McNamee
BBC Verify data journalist

Earlier today, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy unveiled a £500m plan to support young people in England, a group she calls “the most isolated in generations”.

We’ve examined the data from the government’s latest Community Life Survey, released this morning, to assess this claim.

Despite a small dip on the overall figure from last year, 16 to 24-year-olds remain the loneliest age group. Nearly one in 10 report feeling lonely often or always.

Looking at indirect loneliness, assessed with questions about companionship, isolation and feeling left out, that figure climbs to almost one in eight.

In this latest survey, young people were also the least likely group to feel proud of their local area, trust the people around them or even chat to their neighbours.

Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify journalist

This week we’ve been finding and analysing videos and photos of the Thailand-Cambodia border clashes being shared on social media.

The hostilities have killed at least 10 people since breaking out on Sunday, as well as displacing hundreds of thousands.

Most of the verified material we have found has been on the Cambodian side of the border and we’ve been tracking the locations to help build a picture of what areas have been affected.

The Thai army has accused Cambodia of using drones and tanks in border areas, so we’re continuing to look for footage showing this.

The map below marks the locations of video and images that have been posted online of incidents which we have verified.

They include reported strikes on casinos, a hotel, a resort and a housing development in Cambodia:

Ben Chu
BBC Verify policy and analysis correspondent

When Chancellor Rachel Reeves appeared before the Treasury Select Committee earlier, there was a clash between her and Conservative MP Harriett Baldwin over whether there were any policy measures in the November 2025 Budget that will boost UK GDP growth.

In its official documents, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said that it would only score measures as positive for growth if they were estimated to lift UK GDP by at least 0.1% by the fifth year of its forecast.

The official forecaster said “no policies in this Budget met this threshold”., external

However, it’s possible that some of the policies in the Budget will help UK growth, but not within the analysis time frame or by more than the 0.1% threshold chosen by the OBR.

Reeves pointed to the approval of a new film studio in Buckinghamshire and progress towards delivering a third runway at Heathrow.

And, for context, the OBR scored a positive impact on UK GDP growth from the government’s planning reforms in the March 2025 Spring Statement and from the increase in public investment in the 2024 Budget.

Jake Horton
BBC Verify

Some US visitors may need to disclose five years of their social media history before entering the country, according to a new Customs and Border Protection (CBP) proposal.

The move would affect travellers using the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (Esta), a visa waiver program available to most citizens of countries including the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and dozens of others.

The plan, which is not yet in force and will have a 60-day feedback period, would be the latest increase in social media scrutiny for people entering the country by US authorities. You can read more here.

In June, the US government increased vetting of social media, external accounts for certain visa applicants - not tourists - who were asked to adjust their social media profile privacy settings to “public”.

That same month, I also reported on a Norwegian tourist who said he had his phone searched and was banned from entering the US after a meme of Vice President JD Vance was found on the device.

CBP say the number of travellers who have their electronic devices searched is small, and that less than 0.01% had their devices searched in the 2025 fiscal year., external

Watch my report on the incident below:

Nicholas Barrett
BBC Verify researcher

During last night’s speech on the US economy, President Donald Trump criticised wind energy projects in Scotland. He claimed “it's causing them to have the most expensive energy”.

The UK’s electricity prices have been among the highest in the G7 group of developed nations in recent years.

However, a House of Lords report notes, external that “the cost of renewable generation [which includes wind energy] has significantly decreased in the past decade” and “renewable generators typically have the lowest costs”.

The report notes that, because of the way Great Britain’s energy market is set up, the price paid for wholesale electricity is often determined by the price of natural gas, which is also used to generate electricity.

This has fed into higher bills, particularly following the energy crisis linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

There are costs associated with building wind turbines. The government is supporting the roll out of new projects through a scheme called “contracts for difference”, which allows costs to be passed to consumers via their energy bills.

Read more here: If the UK has more renewable energy, why aren't bills coming down?

Matt Murphy
BBC Verify senior journalist

I’ve been taking a look at two US fighter jets that were tracked circling the Gulf of Venezuela yesterday as tensions continue to escalate between the two countries.

The F/A-18 Super Hornets appeared on flight tracking sites near Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second-largest city, at around 13:00 local time (19:00 GMT), before circling the gulf for about 40 minutes.

A US defence official told the Associated Press the jets - which operated under the callsigns RHINO11 and RHINO12 - had conducted a “routine training flight” in the area.

A separate jet, an EA-18G Growler - flying under the codename GRIZZLY2 - also appeared on the tracking site Flightradar24, flying loops just north of Venezuela’s coast.

Justin Crump, head of the risk consultancy Sibylline, suggested the move was intended to “support the administration’s signalling and put pressure on the [Venezuelan] leadership”.

Greg Baswell, a former RAF Air Marshall, told BBC Verify the flights appeared to be “probing” Venezuelan defence and trying to check for responses such as radio traffic and encrypted signals related to defence systems.

The flights are the latest in a number of unusual US air force activities that have been reported since September.

But the F/A-18s, which are capable of engaging targets on the ground and in the air, are the first to approach the Venezuelan coastline so publicly in recent months.

Emma Pengelly and Kayleen Devlin
BBC Verify

This morning we’ve verified footage of a strike on a crane inside a temple complex in Cambodia, just across the border from Thailand.

In one video, men speaking Thai and filming a screen displaying military drone footage cheer as the crane crashes to the ground.

In another clip, which appears to be drone footage or a CCTV feed, we see at least two explosions on the base and arm of the crane, causing the structure to collapse.

Reports in Thailand claim the crane was targeted because it was being used by the Cambodian military to install anti-drone systems. We have not seen evidence to support this claim.

But we do know where it happened, as we’ve been able to verify the crane was at the site of Preah Vihear temple by matching ruins and small structures to Google Earth satellite images.

Different satellite pictures show the crane in place in early November, but it’s unclear when it was erected as the next available image is from 2021 when the crane was not in place.

The Royal Thai Air Force says all operations are being conducted in compliance with International Humanitarian Law and that it maintains “a firm policy of not targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure”.

Image source, X

Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

We’ve reported before about how people making videos using artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly seeking to disguise watermarks designed to label them in order to mislead viewers.

Many popular text-to-video models will add a watermark to their output, typically a stamp with the name or logo of the generator to indicate AI has been used to create content.

In clips made using OpenAI’s Sora generator, for example, an animated watermark appears for a few seconds at the top left of the screen. It then moves to the middle right, bottom left, back to the top left and repeats the pattern.

Now take a look at the screenshot from an AI video below, claiming to show a professor shouting at a student over an iPhone app project that was “offensive to S*malians”.

US flag emojis have been added to the video in the three locations where a watermark appears, but at various points in the video you can actually see parts of a watermark appear behind two of the flags.

We’ve highlighted what the watermarks behind the top and bottom flags look like here.

There are other clear red flags to suggest the video is AI-generated, such as the length of exactly 10 seconds and the distorted faces in the background.

The issue of Somali migration to the US has become a divisive topic of discussion online after recent comments criticising Somali immigrants by President Donald Trump.

This video is likely an example of what has become known on social media as “rage bait”, content that is designed to provoke outrage which will then increase its reach.

Nicholas Barrett
BBC Verify researcher

During last night’s speech on the US economy, President Donald Trump said this:

The claim that China doesn’t have any wind farms is false.

In fact, in 2024 China led the world in wind turbine installations, according to the World Wind Energy Association. , external

This year, wind power generation in China has reached 26 GW, the equivalent of about 5,300 turbines, according to a study by the Asia Society Policy Institute., external

One of the largest wind farms in the world is in Gansu in China.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Telegram

I’ve just been reviewing a video of the moment Russian forces targeted a dam in Ukraine's Kharkiv region on Monday.

Aerial footage of the strike shows two projectiles hitting the Pechenihy dam over the Siversrky Donets River, causing damage to its northern edge.

This new video matches with footage from the ground released on the day of the strike showing that part of the dam had collapsed.

Only low-resolution satellite imagery of the dam is available at the moment, but the damage is still evident.In response to Monday’s strike, Pechenihy mayor Olesandr Husarov informed residents that the road across the dam had been closed.

The Pechenihy reservoir is the main source of domestic and drinking water to Kharkiv city, according to the Ukrainian water supply company Vodokanal.

The Ukrainian military previously accused Russia of targeting the dam at least twice in late 2022.

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify senior journalist

Last night, US President Donald Trump gave a speech in Pennsylvania on the cost of living, a key concern among American voters. He is expected to give further speeches on the economy in the run-up to the 2026 midterm elections for Congress.

Here are three claims I fact-checked from his address.

Speaking about his administration’s record on the cost of living, Trump said “the price of eggs is down 80% since March”. The average cost to consumers of a dozen eggs was about $3.48 (£2.61) in September 2025, according to the latest figures published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, external , external(BLS), external.

That’s nearly half the $6.23 price in March 2025, a record high, so the decline is not as steep as Trump claimed.

Trump said towards the end of his speech that “inflation is stopped” under his leadership, but the latest figures show prices are still rising.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, external (BLS) says the Consumer Price Index increase 3% in the 12 months to September.

This is the same rate recorded in January 2025, when Trump returned to office for his second term.

Inflation under former President Joe Biden did peak at 9% in June 2022, a time when other countries saw high inflation linked to the Covid pandemic and a global energy shock.

Trump has also repeated his claim that his administration “inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country” but BLS figures show , externalit has been significantly higher in the past, for example in the 1920s.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Facebook

We’re investigating new footage of strikes and damage to Cambodian sites close to the disputed border with Thailand, as part of the renewed conflict which has led to at least 10 people being killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Two videos we have verified this morning show damage to a group of buildings in Cambodia's Pursat Province. The site is located just over 500m (1,600ft) from the Thmor Dar Diamond Hotel and Casino, which has been targeted at least twice in recent days and is itself very close to the border.

The footage shows smoke rising, debris strewn around and damage to some of the buildings. New satellite imagery of the site shows that at least one structure was levelled.

Many of the buildings are newly built and the site appears to still be under construction.

There are suggestions in Thai media that the site was being used as a mobilisation point for Cambodian troops. We've seen no evidence to back up the claim.

Adam Durbin
BBC Verify Live editor

We’re continuing to monitor the ongoing and deadly border clashes between Thailand and Cambodia, as more footage of explosions and the aftermath of alleged Thai attacks inside Cambodia have emerged on social media. We’re analysing what verified video and images can tell us about what’s happening and where attacks are being recorded in the renewed conflict.

Our verification team are also working on a newly emerged drone video showing a dam in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine being damaged by Russian strike. The dam, which was attacked on Sunday, is located around 25 miles (40km) from the city of Kharkiv and supplies Ukraine’s second largest urban area.

Plus, our fact-checkers are looking into several claims made by President Donald Trump about the US economy and the efficacy of wind power in China, which he made during a speech about the cost of living yesterday.