u/BellingcatOfficial

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

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

Footage analysed by Bellingcat and Jeune Afrique shows unexploded Russian-made cluster munition bomblets found in northern Mali - Despite Mali being a state party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) which prohibits their use. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/africa/2026/05/26/banned-russian-submunitions-found-after-malis-military-announces-airstrikes/?utm_source=reddit

Where reporting carries major safety risks, how can open-source analysis reveal what’s happening on the ground? In our next Stage Talk, Bellingcat researcher Pooja Chaudhuri shares how she monitors and verifies claims of violence in Myanmar. Join us live on Thursday in our Discord server: https://discord.gg/EjgxVKgv?event=1507374229585264760

Since the beginning of 2026, at least four landslides have reportedly killed hundreds of people at the Rubaya mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The mines are a major global source of coltan which iswidely used in smartphones, laptops and e-vehicles. Read more: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/africa/2026/05/12/congos-coltan-belt-verifying-deadly-landslides-at-mines-under-m23-control/?utm_source=reddit

As a nonprofit, Bellingcat’s strength is our collective.  We are seeking feedback from the broader investigative and research community to help us refine our reporting and partnership models. Your anonymous input is greatly appreciated. Please consider taking our 5 minute survey: https://bellingcat.questionpro.eu/t/AB3vDHmZB3wfUj

Satellite imagery shows that at least 46 towns or villages in southern Lebanon have been heavily damaged or, in some cases, entirely flattened by the Israeli Defence Forces. Bellingcat is publishing Planet satellite imagery for the entirety of the south of Lebanon. It shows that much of the demolition and destruction has taken place in recent weeks.
Read the analysis here 

Since the beginning of 2026, at least four landslides have reportedly killed hundreds of people at the Rubaya mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a major global source of coltan. Currently under the control of the Rwandan-backed armed rebel group M23, access to the Rubaya mines is restricted for journalists and many NGOs, and the true casualty figures are likely unknown. 

Bellingcat used open source methods to examine statements from the authorities and media reports. Bellingcat confirmed several incidents in which villages were engulfed in the landslide and residents living near the mine were among those killed. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/africa/2026/05/12/congos-coltan-belt-verifying-deadly-landslides-at-mines-under-m23-control/?utm_source=reddit