Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

We’ve been looking at the US military’s presence in the Caribbean today as the Trump administration continues to put pressure on Venezuela. Here’s three posts to catch you up:

• Satellite images capture US naval vessels moving across the Caribbean
• A map of new airspace warnings for pilots flying in southern Venezuela
• Experts explaining why a reported second strike on an alleged drug boat was likely to be illegal

We’ve also analysed satellite images of major flooding caused by cyclones in both Indonesia and Sri Lanka, as well as a new tent camp for displaced Palestinians being built by Egypt in Gaza.

And our fact-checking team looked into how a £150 cut to energy bills in Great Britain is being paid for.

Thanks for joining us today. BBC Verify Live, with reporting from London, Washington DC, New Delhi and Nairobi, will be back tomorrow.

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify senior journalist, reporting from Washington DC

Speaking on ABC News on Sunday, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said the Biden administration did not properly vet Afghan evacuees who entered the US under an immigration scheme launched after the Taliban takeover in 2021.

Similar claims have been made by President Donald Trump and other administration officials since the shooting of two National Guard soldiers by an Afghan suspect, who arrived on the scheme known as “Operation Allies Welcome”.

“He brought people to this country and then just said, well, we'll vet them later”, Noem said of the Biden administration.

An archived government website for the scheme , externalmentions a vetting process that included “reviewing fingerprints, photos, and other biometric and biographic data for every single Afghan before they are cleared to travel to the United States”.

Jennie Murray, of the immigration advocacy group the National Immigration Forum, also told BBC Verify about the vetting that took place before the Afghans were allowed to enter the US.

"Evacuees were processed on military bases and held for several weeks, and even months, until they were ready for entrance into the United States. This is when the security vetting and medical screening was processed, extensively", she said.

However, two audits published between 2022 and 2024 found flaws in the scheme’s vetting programme.

One of them found the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had “inaccurate, incomplete, or missing” data on some of the evacuees. It said this was partly a result of the DHS not having a list of Afghans “who lacked sufficient identification documents”.

Click here to read the full article.

Shruti Menon
BBC Verify senior journalist, reporting from Delhi

New satellite imagery captured before and after cyclone Ditwah hit Sri Lanka shows significant flooding in the capital Colombo and surrounding areas.

The Kelani river, which runs through Colombo, has burst its banks and floodwaters can be seen in densely populated neighbourhoods.

In the Embulgama area about 20km (12 miles) to the east of Colombo, the Kelani river has also breached its embankment and flooded settlements and hotels.

Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Centre has reported a death toll of 355 and at least 366 people missing, with more than a million affected by flooding.

Benedict Garman
BBC Verify senior journalist

A new tent camp for displaced Palestinians which has been funded by Egypt is under construction in central Gaza in one of the military corridors formerly occupied by the Israeli army.

Footage shared on Saturday by The Egyptian Committee, an organisation set up by Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi to support Palestinians, shows a UN delegation visiting the site as blue tents are constructed and bulldozers continue preparing the surrounding area.

The Egyptian Committee says the project in the Netzarim Corridor is intended to be “the largest humanitarian shelter camp” in Gaza. It aims to provide shelter for more than 15,000 Palestinian families.

Construction was announced on 11 November and satellite images show that by 30 November an area of the Netzarim Corridor spanning about 11 acres (4.5 hectares) had been cleared, with blue tents visible in rows in one small section.

The Egyptian Committee has said the finished camp will cover an area of around 500 acres. By that measure, the camp is so far around 2% complete.

Judging by the density of temporary shelters in satellite images we have analysed, most displaced people are still living in the al-Mawasi area near Khan Younis in the south of Gaza.

Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

On Friday, the Washington Post reported , externalthat a US strike on a suspected Venezuelan drug boat in September left two survivors, but that a second attack was carried out to comply with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's orders to "kill everybody" on board.

Hegseth has described the claims as "fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory”.

But Prof Luke Moffett of Queen’s University Belfast says if the reports are accurate, then “these strikes are illegal and could implicate all those involved with murder under US and international law”.

Even if these strikes were part of an officially declared armed conflict, Moffett says: “The ordering of 'no quarter', to leave no survivors, would be a war crime.”

Prof Michael Becker of Trinity College Dublin agrees, telling us they would be illegal under two elements of the Geneva Conventions:

• Attacking people considered “out of combat” and no longer a threat
• Failing to provide “humane treatment of shipwrecked individuals”

The US has not declared war on Venezuela and has characterised these strikes as law enforcement operations to prevent alleged drug trafficking.

Moffett says such an operation “has to use necessary and proportionate force” but these strikes are “clearly excessive and disproportionate”.

Hegseth has described the strikes as "lawful under both US and international law".

Becker says knowing when Hegseth issued his reported "kill everybody" order is critical.

If it was issued before the initial strike, there could be a presumption Hegseth intended it to “be interpreted in accordance with the applicable law”.

That would raise questions about why the commander of the operation authorised the second strike.

You can read the rest of my reporting on this story here.

Shruti Menon
BBC Verify senior journalist, reporting from Delhi

We’ve been looking at latest satellite imagery to assess the extent of flooding on the Indonesian island of Sumatra caused by cyclone Senyar.

Before and after images from Planet Labs, captured on 28 October and today, show major flooding in Aceh and North Sumatra provinces.

In the area of North Aceh, pictures of the coast reveal large tracts of farmland and residential roads submerged in yellow-brown floodwater across several acres.

Aceh province had previously been devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in which more than 160,000 people were estimated to have died.

In North Sumatra, the images show extensive river overflow and flooding affecting populated areas.

We have also verified video shared on social media from last week in North Sumatra which shows homes, roads and entire neighbourhoods inundated by floods.

The death toll from these floods has risen to more than 500, according to Indonesia’s disaster management agency. Another 500 are reported missing and around 1.4 million people have been displaced.

Barbara Metzler and Kumar Malhotra
BBC Verify

As tensions between the US and Venezuela grow, we’ve been using satellite imagery to monitor the American navy’s presence in the Caribbean in the absence of clear tracking data.

Ship-tracking platforms sometimes show the location for military vessels. However, it is often unreliable as these ships do not always report their positions.

But analysis of satellite images has made it possible to identify at least six warships in the region over the past week.

The largest is the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford - the bottom ship ringed here - which was about 75 miles (120km) south of the Dominican Republic on 27 November. This is about 430 miles (700km) from the Venezuelan coast.

It had previously been spotted further east in mid-November about 125 miles (200km) south of Puerto Rico, a US territory in the Caribbean where a significant military build-up has occurred in recent weeks.

Other vessels it is possible to identify include MV Ocean Trader, a command ship used by US special forces and USS San Antonio, a transport ship designed for amphibious warfare.

Our analysis also shows that some naval vessels deployed to the region have changed their positions - in some cases moving back to a US port or naval base. We do not know the reason for these movements but they may have been to resupply.

Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify journalist

We’ve been looking at dashcam footage from the Ukrainian city of Dnipro which captures the moment a projectile struck causing a large explosion during what officials said was a Russian attack.

We searched Google using screen grabs from the video to see whether earlier copies of the footage existed. During this process, like with our earlier Dagestan geolocation work, one of the search results was an advert for the modern apartment block in the video. This gave us a street name so we could match the location of the video to satellite images using surrounding buildings and street furniture as markers.

It’s not clear from this clip alone what was struck, but Ukraine’s emergency services say businesses and dozens of cars were damaged. It also shared photos of covered bodies, burnt out buildings and firefighters at the scene.

The head of Dnipropetrovsk region, Vladyslav Hayvanenko, warned residents of a “rocket attack” on Dnipro earlier this morning, before posting that four people had been killed and 40 injured.

Anthony Reuben
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Reuters

At a news conference this morning, Keir Starmer defended his chancellor against claims that she misled the public about the state of the public finances ahead of the Budget, saying “there was no misleading”.

Criticism of Rachel Reeves has focused on comments she made:

• In a speech on 4 November when she said UK productivity was “weaker than previously thought” and did not rule out tax rises in the forthcoming Budget
• On 10 November, when asked on BBC 5 Live about raising income tax, she said: "It would, of course be possible to stick with the manifesto commitments, but that would require things like deep cuts in capital spending"

In a letter to MPs on Friday 28 November, the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility revealed that its forecast - given to the chancellor on 31 October - found that the fall in productivity would be partly offset by an increase in expected wages and inflation and therefore higher tax receipts.

It predicted that Reeves would have at least £4bn of headroom against her fiscal rules - although this assessment did not include the cost of the government’s welfare and Winter Fuel Payment changes since the Spring Statement, which were likely to add up to about £6bn.

Reeves told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg programme yesterday: “I clearly could not deliver a budget with just £4.2bn of headroom” and in fact she increased it to almost £22bn.

Economist and former head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies Paul Johnson told BBC News that Reeves’ 4 November speech had “nothing in there that was actually wrong”, but added: “It gave a somewhat gloomier impression of what was happening to the public finance forecasts than was in fact the case.”

Paul Brown and Sherie Ryder
BBC Verify

Image source, Telegram/Exilenova+

The Kremlin has responded to a Ukrainian underwater drone attack on two oil tankers in the Black Sea by saying it was “outrageous” without acknowledging the vessels were part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet”.

The two ships are among hundreds of tankers used by Russia to bypass Western sanctions on its oil exports following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Marine tracking websites showed that two Gambia-flagged tankers, Kairos and Virat, appeared to slow down and come to a halt on Friday afternoon. This suggests the attack happened at around 14:00 GMT.

We were able to match features of the two ships with pictures from online reference sources. This meant we could confirm footage of smoke billowing from one of the tankers was from the Kairos.

We can see the same structure and signage on the ship in the video and as the camera pans round we can see the same yellow tramlines on deck.

The attacks have been claimed to be a join operation of the 13th Main Directorate of Military Counterintelligence of the SBU and the Ukrainian Navy.

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

We’re keen to hear what you think the BBC Verify team should be looking into.

We're interested in investigating claims you may've seen online in your social feeds. We're also keen to know if you've think an image may have been made using artificial intelligence to spread disinformation.

You can also get in touch with BBC Verify if you've got a question about how we verify video posted online or work with satellite imagery.

You can send your suggestions to the team here.

Gerry Georgieva
BBC Verify researcher

The government says that, starting in April 2026, a typical dual-fuel household in Great Britain will save around £150 a year on average off its energy bill.

This comes from two specific changes in the Budget, external – the scrapping of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme and the reduction in the amount households pay towards the Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme.

The ECO required large energy firms to fund energy efficiency measures, like insulation or heating upgrades, in low-income and vulnerable households, with these costs were passed on to bill payers.

Earlier this year, the government said there was “systemic failure” with the scheme’s implementation and it says scrapping it will cut £59 a year off a typical household’s energy bill.

It estimates that another £88 a year will be cut from bills through reforms to the RO scheme, which required electricity companies to invest in renewable energy generation (with the costs passed to consumers).

For the next three years, 75% of these costs for renewables will instead be funded by the government, at an average cost of £2.3bn a year, external, which the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, external says will lead to higher government borrowing.

Finally, as a result of these measures, £7 will be saved from VAT, getting the total saving figure to £154 a year.

Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify journalist

We’ve been verifying videos and images of a reported drone attack this morning in the Republic of Dagestan in southern Russia.

A mobile phone camera recording of CCTV footage has been circulating online showing what appears to be a drone flying low followed by a large explosion in the city of Kaspiysk.

Another verified video and several photographs show a nearby apartment block with shattered windows and debris scattered across parking areas which were said to have been caused by the attack. Kaspiysk is more than 900 miles (1,500km) from Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.

We were able to confirm where this happened by searching the photograph below on Google’s image search engine, which brought up a property sales website with a street address. We used this to match satellite images to the social media photos and videos.

Earlier, Dagestan’s governor Sergey Melikov said several drones had been shot down in Kaspiysk. A 12-year-old girl was injured during the drone attack, according to the regional health ministry.

Image source, Telegram

Joshua Cheetham and Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify

We’re looking today at the US military build-up and operations in the Caribbean, including in areas close to Venezuela and in the skies above it. We’ll use ship-tracking tools and available satellite imagery to update what we know about the number, type and latest locations of US warships in the region.

On Saturday, President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: "To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.”

The US does not have legal authority to close another country's airspace and Venezuela has condemned Trump's statement, describing it as a “colonialist threat”.

As of this morning, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has published a new notice about four “exclusion zones” where non-commercial civilian aircraft have been warned against flying.

The warning comes from Venezuela’s civil aviation authority and covers a large eastern portion of Apure state in the country's south-west as well as most of the state’s border with Colombia.

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

Good morning from the live page team.

This morning we’re updating what we know about the US military build-up in the Caribbean as the Trump administration continues to put pressure on the Venezuelan government, accusing it of failing to stem the flow of drugs into the US.

We’ll use publicly available sources like ship and flight tracking to assess what has been deployed to the area and where they are. We're also checking out a warning to non-commercial civilian air traffic to avoid flying over parts of southern Venezuela to see who issued it and for what purpose.

New satellite images have revealed the impact of flooding in Asia which has killed hundreds of people from Sri Lanka to Indonesia. We’ll bring you updates here on what they show and how they help us understand the scale of the devastation.

In the UK, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to focus on welfare reform when he speaks in London this morning. Our fact-check team will be listening in.

We’re keen to hear from you if you’ve seen claims being shared online that don’t seem right or images which look like they might’ve been made using artificial intelligence - you can get in touch with us here.