Nicholas Barrett
BBC Verify researcher

With a fresh strike by resident – or junior – doctors due to happen just before Christmas, this morning on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme there was a heated discussion about whether their pay has risen or fallen.

The answer depends on how far back you go and what measure of inflation you use to calculate how their pay has been affected by rising prices over time.

The doctors’ union – the British Medical Association – has looked at pay since 2008 and has used the retail price index (RPI) measure of inflation (which includes housing costs) to calculate how much it has been “eroded” by rising prices.

RPI has been criticised for exaggerating price rises and lost its official statistics status in 2013, external.

Using this measure, resident doctors’ pay was around 19% lower in 2024/2025 than it was in 2008, according to the Nuffield Trust health think tank, external.

But using the standard measure of inflation, the consumer prices index (CPI), it was down around 7%.

The government says resident doctors’ pay has risen and is using a different starting point – 2015 – and CPI.

Since 2015, resident doctors’ pay has risen by 7.9% on CPI and fallen by 4.2% on RPI, according to the Nuffield Trust.

Shruti Menon and Erwan Rivault
BBC Verify

New satellite imagery from Planet Labs shows extreme flooding in Thailand’s southern Songkhla province, one of the regions which has been worst-affected by heavy rainfall from cyclone Senyar.

Yesterday, Thai authorities reported 176 deaths caused by flooding so far, 138 of which were in Songkhla.

Images taken on Sunday show significant expansion of floods in populated areas and farmland around Songkhla lake, with the yellow-brown waters indicating high sediment concentrations caused by run-off.

Water levels have begun to recede now in some parts of Songkhla according to reporting by BBC Thai, but several areas in the province remain inundated.

Data from Thailand’s Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency indicates nearly 96,000 acres of farmland has been affected in the province and over 300,000 people impacted.

Richard Irvine-Brown, Shayan Sardarizadeh and Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify

Russia has claimed to have taken control of the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine hours before the US and Russia hold peace talks in Moscow.

We’ve been looking at a video clip shared on Telegram by the Russian Ministry of Defence, as well as a longer version from a pro-Kremlin war blogger.

The videos show Russian troops holding up flags in Pokrovsk which is considered a key logistics hub due to its road and rail links.

The city in Ukraine’s Donetsk region has been fiercely fought over for over a year, with recent months seeing incremental Russian gains in their efforts to occupy it. Some experts now contest how critical it is, due to the level of destruction brought about by fighting.

The footage shows soldiers walking through heavily damaged central Pokrovsk and unravelling a Russian flag opposite the Donetsk National Technical University.

It’s hard to determine from this video alone if Russians are in control of Pokrovsk. Videos from active combat zones can emerge online with a significant time lag and flag raising in itself does not constitute evidence of control of an area.

Ukrainian forces fighting in Pokrovsk have denied Russia has seized the city, claiming to control the north still and that the Russian troops who raised the flag were beaten back shortly afterwards.

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

We’ve been assessing footageshared by Russia’s Ministry of Defence claiming to show its troops raising their flag in theUkrainian city of Pokrovsk. Moscow says it is in full control of the city -which has been fought over for more than a year. Ukraine says its forcesstill hold the north of the city so we’re working to get a better idea of what’shappening.

We’ve received new satelliteimagery whichshows the impact of last week’s devastating flooding across south andsouth-east Asia. These images show how parts of southern Thailand were inundated after theintense rainfall.

Elsewhere our fact-check teamis looking ahead to an expected announcement on plans to restrict the right totrial by jury in England and Wales. Ahead of a statement from Justice SecretaryDavid Lammy our team will set outsome of the background on why the government says it has to act.

You can send your questionsto BBC Verify about the stories we’re covering or claims you’d like us to checkvia this link.