Phil Leake and Christine Jeavans
BBC Verify

The NHS waiting list for planned treatment in England grew for the fourth time in five months in October, rising by 6,000 since September to a total of 7.4 million.

The waiting list has remained largely flat across the year so far having stood at 7.43 million in January.

Of those waiting, 61.8% had been on the list for fewer than 18 weeks, the same as September and the joint-best performance for more than three years. However, this remains below the NHS target of 92% and the government’s interim goal of 65% by March 2026.

To help reach the national target, the government has set every NHS trust in England an individual milestone to hit by next March. Each trust must see 60% of patients within 18 weeks or improve on their November 2024 figure by five percentage points, whichever is greater.

We’re tracking 135 trusts that had at least 5,000 waits for planned treatment last November. Among them, 101 had improved since then, 33 were doing the same or worse and one – Sheffield Hospitals NHS Trust – did not submit data for October.

Only 26 trusts were meeting their March 2026 target according to the latest figures.

Find out how your trust is getting on with our NHS tracker.

Sherie Ryder
BBC Verify journalist

Ukraine has released video of a naval drone in the Black Sea striking a tanker which is part of Russia’s shadow fleet of vessels transporting oil to bypass international sanctions.

The footage, which is made up of a series of clips filmed by at least two sea drones and published by Reuters, opens with video of one approaching the tanker. It then cuts to a shot, filmed by a second drone further away, of a large explosion near the rear of the tanker.

There are several more clips showing drones approaching the ship, before we see smoke and fire in aftermath of the blast. It is not clear from the video how many were used or if there were further explosions.

We were able to confirm the tanker is called Dashan, as its name is visible the side of the ship in the drone videos. We then verified this by matching features seen in the footage to reference images on the Vessel Finder website.

It was sailing under the flag of the Comoros Islands, reportedly towards the port of Novorossiysk in southern Russia.

Dashan is the third shadow fleet tanker, used to bypass a price cap on Russian oil exports, to be struck in the Black Sea in recent weeks. Last month we verified footage of two other targeted vessels, Kairos and Viras.

Caroline Parkinson
BBC Verify news editor

We’ll know more about the current flu outbreak this afternoon when the latest weekly data is published by the UK Health Security Agency, external , external(UKHSA), external. It will show levels of flu, Covid and another virus, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), across England between 1-7 December.

GP consultations linked to respiratory viruses, hospital admissions, vaccine take-up, plus the number of schools and care homes affected by outbreaks (which can be as few as three cases over a 10-day period) are recorded. The flu season has hit a month earlier than normal this year, and experts are warning a more severe strain of the virus appears to be circulating.

Data released by NHS England this morning has already revealed part of the picture – the number of patients in hospital with flu reached an average of 2,660 flu patients per day last week.

This is the highest ever level of hospital admissions for this time of year and up 55% on the week before.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

BBC Verify has confirmed that the vessel seen being boarded by US forces in footage released by the Department of Homeland Security is theSkipper (IMO 9304667).

The letters “pper” and numbers “30466” arevisible 21 seconds into the footage.

The vessel seen in the footage also matches reference imagery ofthe Skipper.

Shruti Menon
BBC Verify senior journalist, reporting from Delhi

Videos filmed in the aftermath of an overnight strike on a hospital in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state show fires around the complex and sections of a nearby building appear heavily damaged.

The footage was filmed at night outside the hospital in Mrauk-U township. The strike reportedly killed at least 34 people and injured dozens more.

To verify the location, I compared the footage with daytime aftermath imagery captured by news agencies and Getty Images, which show extensive damage to the same cluster of hospital buildings. The scorched roofs, the courtyard layout and the damaged wing match satellite imagery on Google Earth, confirming the location shown in the overnight footage was Mrauk-U hospital.

Reverse image searching three freeze-frames of the video showed that the footage is recent, with no versions found online earlier than last night.

The Myanmar military hasn’t commented on the incident so far. However, several pro-military Telegram channels claim that Aarakan Army (AA) – an armed group fighting against the Myanmar military – soldiers were receiving treatment at the hospital.

The AA, one of the strongest ethnic groups fighting the Myanmar’s military regime in the ongoing civil war, currently controls parts of Rakhine state including Mrauk-U.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

BBC Verify has been analysing footage released by the US government showing the seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela yesterday.

The footage shows troops boarding a vessel that resembles the Skipper (IMO international identification number 9304667) which is widely reported to be the tanker that was seized.

The video contains multiple aerial shots filmed from different angles. Two helicopters are filmed approaching the vessel before armed personnel rappel onto the deck and head towards the bridge. At least one of the helicopters is identifiable as a MH-60S Knighthawk – a type known to be flown from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford which has been in the Caribbean since mid-November.

Parts of the footage are blurred, presumably to conceal on-screen graphics such as GPS coordinates, but at times a compass heading is visible. Shadows in the footage suggests it was filmed in the morning.

US Attorney General Pamela Bondi says the operation was conducted jointly by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the US Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War.

The BBC’s US news partner CBS has reported the operation was conducted at 06:00 yesterday and involved 10 Coast Guard members, 10 Marines and special forces.

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

Good morning.

BBC Verify is pulling together information about the Skipper, the tanker widely reported to have been seized off Venezuela by the US yesterday. We’re using specialist vessel and shipment-tracking tools, along with satellite imagery and video analysis, to confirm the identity of the ship – and get a better picture of where it’s been and what it’s carrying.

Elsewhere, dramatic footage emerged last night of a sea drone strike on what the Ukrainian forces said was a Russian tanker in the Black Sea. The Ukrainian security service, the SBU, said the ship was left with “critical damage”.

We’re also looking at footage showing that aftermath of an air strike on a hospital in Myanmar’s Rakhine State which is said to have killed at least 34 people. The area is under the control of the separatist Arakan Army which has blamed Myanmar’s ruling military junta for the attack.

In the UK we’re expecting the latest stats on flu cases in the community across England. Health leaders have warned the number of people needing hospital treatment is adding to pressures on the NHS.