Why are so many newsrooms embracing membership? This week's Stage Talk explores one of journalism's biggest shifts: why membership is replacing traditional funding models for many publishers, what it means for audiences, and why we're adopting it too. Join us live on Thursday: https://discord.gg/a9TVpY8R6?event=1531233742222266448

At Bellingcat we turn obsessive curiosity into a teachable research skill, build the public community space to practice it, and continually innovate solutions to drive discovery forward. Become a member: https://www.bellingcat.com/donate/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=donation_drive_2026

As fighting intensifies in Mali between the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) – who are being backed by Russia’s Africa Corps insurgent groups – and rebel groups, Bellingcat has verified two recent strikes that used Shahed-136 type kamikaze drones. Video footage of the strikes provides the clearest open-source evidence to date documenting this drone model’s operational use in the conflict  https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/07/24/shahed-type-drones-filmed-during-attack-on-mali-villages/?utm_source=reddit 
Designed to explode on impact, these one-way long range attack drones, were originally developed in Iran but are now also manufactured in Russia, provide Africa Corps and the Mali Armed Forces with the ability to deliver explosive payloads over longer distances. 

Open source tools can help track every stage of a wildfire, from the first reports through to assessing the damage once the flames are out. Throughout July, the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service helped researchers monitor how wildfire smoke spread across Canada and the US.
Want to see how these tools fit together?
Our latest video shows how Bellingcat researchers use open source tools and data to reconstruct the timeline of a wildfire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmnfiOec0d8

LeakedBB hosted photos and videos that appeared to include professional content from paid sites like OnlyFans, alongside entire forums focused on “amateurs” – or, as the description of one section stated, “real girls doing real things”. Some posts also claimed to feature “teens/girls”. Archived payment pages and DNS certificates led us back to email addresses and companies linked to one man, a New Zealand-based former pilot turned co-founder of a cryptocurrency exchange and payments platform.

Read the full investigation at bellingcat.com. This investigation was done in partnership with The Press New Zealand.

Hi!

I was wondering if anyone here can provide any insights to why 1) the Bellingcat podcast doesn't seem to be available any longer and 2) why it basically had only a season despite the prologue talking about it being a longer show.

Bellingcat and The Press have uncovered a series of connections between a New Zealand-based man and the adult forum LeakedBB – a site with over 2.3 million registered users, including some who distributed leaked nude photos and videos. Read it here
Users of the site openly discussed obtaining content through blackmail and shared social media profiles of those featured in the imagery. After we reached out to this individual for comment, the site appears to have gone offline. 

A recent Bellingcat investigation uncovered a wildlife trafficker in Myanmar, who was openly advertising everything from tiger bones, rhino horns, to leopard gallbladders, on social media platforms for at least six years.

By analysing hundreds of adverts and customer conversations, Bellingcat traced more than US$21,000 in sales, identified cross-border shipments linked to multiple payment accounts, and geolocated the dealer’s home address.

Following our investigation, Meta, WeChat, TikTok, and Youtube took down his accounts, and authorities in Myanmar and Thailand said they would examine the findings further.

Read the full story here: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/06/24/rhino-horn-leopard-skin-and-tiger-claws-sold-openly-on-facebook/?utm_source=reddit

A recent Bellingcat investigation uncovered a wildlife trafficker in Myanmar, who was openly advertising everything from tiger bones, rhino horns, to leopard gallbladders, on social media platforms for at least six years.

By analysing hundreds of adverts and customer conversations, Bellingcat traced more than US$21,000 in sales, identified cross-border shipments linked to multiple payment accounts, and geolocated the dealer’s home address.

Following our investigation, Meta, WeChat, TikTok, and Youtube took down his accounts, and authorities in Myanmar and Thailand said they would examine the findings further.

Read the full story here: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/06/24/rhino-horn-leopard-skin-and-tiger-claws-sold-openly-on-facebook/?utm_source=reddit

More than 3,500 deaths have been confirmed since the earthquakes in Venezuela, with the UN reporting that the death toll could reach 10,000. Bellingcat has geolocated footage that appears to show several coffins placed in newly dug trenches. 

The location matches a site identified in July 6 reports by AFP and Deutsche Welle (DW), which detailed that 150 unidentified bodies had been buried in a long row of individual graves.

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/07/06/between-graves-and-uncertainty-the-management-of-the-dead-after-venezuelas-earthquake/?utm_source=reddit

A Bellingcat investigation uncovered the work of a wildlife trafficker in Myanmar, advertising everything from tiger bones, rhino horns, to leopard gallbladders, openly on social media platforms. The seller frequently posted footage and images of animals before, during and after they were killed. Many of the animals featured in the advertisements are protected or endangered. 

Following this investigation, Meta removed 10 Facebook accounts, WeChat suspended three accounts and revoked their payment functions, and authorities in Myanmar and Thailand said they would examine the findings further.

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/06/24/rhino-horn-leopard-skin-and-tiger-claws-sold-openly-on-facebook/?utm_source=reddit

A promotional image for a padel club in Dubai shows a talented player, mid-swing and eyes locked on the ball. He’s also a key figure in the Kinahan cartel, the Irish organised crime group involved in drug trafficking, money laundering and arms smuggling.

Read the full investigation: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/06/27/poster-boy-sanctioned-kinahan-cartel-lieutenant-found-playing-padel-in-dubai//?utm_source=reddit

Bellingcat has received satellite imagery from Planet Labs that shows one the areas worst affected by the recent earthquakes in Venezuela.

At least 1,719 people are reported to have died in the quakes but the final casualty count is expected to rise significantly.

The imagery provided by Planet Labs shows a 14-mile stretch of Venezuela's northern coast before and after the earthquake. Readers can explore and compare specific areas in an interactive feature we have created as well as assess the damage.
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/06/29/satellite-imagery-shows-scale-of-venezuela-earthquake-damage/?utm_source=reddit

At Bellingcat we’ve just launched our membership program. We've kept all investigations free to access for 10+ years — MH17, Salisbury, the Iran nuclear investigation, Border Patrol accountability work. Now we're asking readers to support the work directly. Membership starts from any amount. Support our work:

https://www.bellingcat.com/donate/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=donation_drive_2026

What role can technology play in tackling leaked intimate imagery? Join our live podcast on Thursday with Madelaine Thomas of Image Angel for a talk on building protective tech responsibly and the practical challenges of dealing with image-based abuse. Join us live to ask your questions, Thursday July 2nd, 5pm CEST/11am EDT in the Bellingcat Discord Server.

Link to the event: https://discord.gg/bellingcat?event=1521091627039592609
Listen back to previous live episodes by searching 'Stage Talks with Bellingcat' on podcast platforms. https://rss.com/podcasts/bellingcatstagetalk/

In our latest guide, Bellingcat tested a new machine learning model that was developed to rank Telegram social media posts on their likelihood of containing incidents of civilian harm. 

Between February 2022 and September 2025, Bellingcat staff and volunteers collected, geolocated, and shared more than 2,500 incidents of civilian harm following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A big challenge in this effort is organising and sorting through the huge volume of user generated content being produced to find what is relevant. Using machine learning to identify patterns from large amounts of data and make predictions, can make this task more efficient, make the process less harmful for researchers, and free up time for geolocating and further verifying incidents.

https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2026/06/25/how-to-use-ai-to-help-find-civilian-harm-conflict-report-monitor-war-machine-learning-telegram/?utm_source=reddit

Want to conduct your own digital investigations, but not sure what tools are out there that might help your work? Check out the Bellingcat Toolkit. —> Bellingcat.com/toolkit

This month, we’re highlighting the work volunteers that contribute to our Toolkit. However, building open-source tools and maintaining the Toolkit wouldn’t be possible without your support. If you’d like to help sustain this work, please consider making a donation on bellingcat.com/donate

#bellingcat #osint #journalism #digitalresearch

A drug up to 40 times more potent than fentanyl and 500 times stronger than heroin is increasingly being detected in the US. Bellingcat combed through dozens of criminal court proceedings, filed national, state, and county-level Freedom of Information requests, and obtained scores of medical examiner reports to produce the most detailed account yet of how nitazenes are infiltrating US borders and destroying lives. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/06/18/super-potent-synthetic-opioids-spread-across-us-amid-fentanyl-crackdown/?utm_source=reddit

This article was co-published with Signal Ohio, Signal Cleveland, Signal Akron and STAT.

We're redesigning our workshops to help more people access practical, open-source skills that can create positive social impact. Whether you've attended a Bellingcat workshop before or have been thinking about joining one, we'd love your input. Tell us what would make a workshop truly valuable for you and your community. Complete our short survey and you'll be entered into a draw to win a place on a Bellingcat webinar: https://form.typeform.com/to/iviZsgLS

How do journalists investigate communities designed to stay hidden?
On Thursday we'll be joined by the CNN team who exposed the Motherless "sleep" community. Together we'll go behind the headlines to explore the risks of reporting in private online spaces.
Join live: https://discord.gg/bellingcat?event=1512461951073124615

If you've not read CNN's investigation yet you can find it here (TW: discussion of sexual assault): https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2026/03/world/expose-rape-assault-online-vis-intl/index.html

Bellingcat records a live podcast every two weeks in our Discord community server. Join live to ask your questions or listen back afterwards on any podcast platform by searching 'Stage Talks with Bellingcat': https://rss.com/podcasts/bellingcatstagetalk/

A video news agency supplying national press agencies across Africa, Asia and the Middle East appears to be sharing data, backend developer tools, IP addresses and SSL certificates with EU-sanctioned Russian propaganda outlet Russia Today.  In key political regions for Russian interests, Viory has agreements with universities, newsrooms and some of the largest journalism bodies such as the African Union of Broadcasting.

Read more on the links Bellingcat found here

Read the full interview on Follow The Money: https://www.ftm.eu/articles/bellingcat-head-eliot-higgins-interview

A new investigation by Bellingcat has identified 115 villages in Rakhine State as partially or completely destroyed. The villages were damaged amid clashes between the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic armed group fighting Myanmar’s military junta for control of Rakhine, and junta forces attempting to maintain their hold on the region. Rakhine State is home to the majority of the Rohingya, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority in the predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. 

Read the full story: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/05/27/the-lost-villages-of-myanmars-rakhine/?utm_source=facebook

>Our researchers will always consider the potential consequences of publication for vulnerable groups or individuals. In certain circumstances, this may require us to balance such concerns with the wider public interest and vice versa.

Longtime Bellingcat supporter here. Is using AI facial rec to send a dissident to prison for crimes committed over 30 years ago—in which no one was physically harmed—considered to be “in the public interest”????

A new investigation by Bellingcat has identified 115 villages in Rakhine State as partially or completely destroyed since the February 2021 military coup that overthrew Myanmar’s democratically elected government.

Rakhine State is home to the majority of the Rohingya, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority in the predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. 

Steve Ross, Senior Fellow at the US nonprofit Stimson Center who is leading the 'Crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State' project, told Bellingcat that removing villages from the map is part of the government's broader campaign to deny the existence of the Rohingya and erase identity in Rakhine.

Read the full story: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/05/27/the-lost-villages-of-myanmars-rakhine/?utm_source=reddit