r/bellingcat

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

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