Bellingcat

Sign up here to receive Bellingcat’s biggest investigations by email as soon as they are published. Become a member and support our work here. An online ad for Ben McAdams, the Democratic candidate for Congress in Utah, emphasised that he could be trusted because he “fought back against MAGA”. Source: Think Big / Google Ad Transparency Center In Texas, another ad promoted Republican candidate Chris Gober, calling him a “MAGA warrior”. Source: American Mission / Google Ad Transparency

Sign up here to receive Bellingcat’s biggest investigations by email as soon as they are published. Become a member and support our work here. Imagery captured by the European Space Agency’s freely available Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 satellites appears to be delayed over Gaza and parts of the West Bank, a Bellingcat analysis has found. While the delay remains relatively short at just 24 hours, this can still impact the speed at which analysts and researchers can observe what is happening

Sign up here to receive Bellingcat’s biggest investigations by email as soon as they are published. In September, the AI company Anthropic published a blog post that claimed its models were approaching “superhuman capabilities for geolocating outdoor photos”. Anthropic made this claim by comparing its models’ performance to that of players of the popular online game GeoGuessr, which challenges users to geolocate Google Street View images.  Bellingcat has been running its own benchmark

Sign up here to receive Bellingcat’s biggest investigations by email as soon as they are published. Satellite imagery obtained by Bellingcat lays bare the extent of tree-felling at a Washington DC golf course that President Trump is reportedly seeking to transform into a championship-level course, despite moves to protect the site by conservationists.  The extent and circumstances surrounding the rapid changes prompted a judge to call an emergency hearing earlier this week, banning an

Sign up here to receive Bellingcat’s biggest investigations by email as soon as they are published. US non-profits whose founding leaders or organisations have been associated with India’s controversial Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – or initiatives the Hindu nationalist group has endorsed – received millions of dollars over recent years through grants that allow donors to remain anonymous, a Bellingcat analysis has found.  The right-wing and Hindu nationalist volunteer organisati

Earlier this week, several viral social media posts and news articles stated that Google had updated satellite imagery over Gaza. The imagery shared in these posts and articles shows several areas, including the southern city of Rafah. Huge destruction is detailed in the images, including what appears to be entire neighbourhoods flattened But the imagery wasn’t entirely new.  A Google spokesperson told Bellingcat that they regularly updated third-party satellite images and that the

This article is the result of a collaboration with The Sunday Times. You can find their corresponding piece here.  Sign up here to receive Bellingcat’s biggest investigations by email as soon as they are published. Crime boss Christy Kinahan leads a $1.5 billion illicit network involved in drug trafficking, money laundering and arms smuggling from the cartel’s base in Dubai. Christy Kinahan, the Irish founder of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group who is being pursued by authorities around

Sign up here to receive Bellingcat’s biggest investigations by email as soon as they are published. WARNING: This report contains links to graphic images and footage. A joint Bellingcat and Jeune Afrique investigation into drone strikes carried out by the Malian military adds new details about the attacks which frequently are carried out in civilian areas and have reportedly resulted in the deaths of civilians. The incidents, concentrated in northern Mali, often involved

Guess what? Bellingcat is finally launching an official merch line! That’s right: after years of fantasizing and wishing, we’re finally ready to get our name and logo on cool merch that you’ll be able to show off. We’re working with a high quality, sustainable merchandising company to make all kinds of cool swag: coffee cups, caps, t-shirts, hoodies, and more! We want your help designing the merch! It’s not a Bellingcat project if it doesn’t involve you, our community, and our official

Sign up here to receive Bellingcat’s biggest investigations by email as soon as they are published. Illustration by Oisín Mac Con Iomaire On a June night in 1996, in a basement apartment in Boston’s Chinatown, a killer put a pistol to the back of a young man’s head and pulled the trigger. The victim’s body was wrapped in quilts, lowered into the trunk of a car and driven about 20 miles southwest of the city, where it was dumped in the woods. It lay undiscovered th

Sign up here to receive Bellingcat’s biggest investigations by email as soon as they are published. A sanctioned vessel that was previously reported to have transported weapons destined for Russian mercenaries has been traversing ports on the west coast of Africa since March, exhibiting what experts told Bellingcat  was an unusual set of movements and behaviours. Patria (IMO: 9159921) has been sanctioned by the US, Ukraine and Canada. Support Bellingcat Your d

Sign up here to receive Bellingcat’s biggest investigations by email as soon as they are published. Satellite images obtained and analysed by Bellingcat show over five miles of new road constructed in Big Bend National Park in southwestern Texas, part of a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) “Smart Wall” installation, which includes roads, barriers, lighting and cameras.  The project was paused earlier this week after pushback from local residents, politicians and

This article is the result of a collaboration with The Sunday Times. You can find their corresponding piece here. The Kinahan cartel, led by Christy Kinahan (centre) and his sons Christopher Jr (left) and Daniel (right), controls one of the most powerful transnational crime groups in the world from the Emirates. Source: Supplied A key leader of the Kinahan cartel who is wanted by authorities around the world and has been living in hiding in Dubai for a decade has just had his Emirates resid

Cristiano Ronaldo during Portugal’s losing game against Spain earlier this month. Source: Imagn Images via Reuters Connect Football fans wagered more than US $14 billion on the FIFA World Cup through prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi, a Bellingcat analysis has found. Support Bellingcat Your donations directly contribute to our ability to publish groundbreaking investigations and uncover wrongdoing around the world. Donate On the crypto-based Polymarket, which provides

Bellingcat has geolocated footage showing Shahed-136 type kamikaze drones in operation in Mali. Defence Blog and France 24 previously published reports that these drones were being deployed on the battlefield in northern Mali. But Bellingcat and Jeune Afrique subsequently verified two recent strikes using geolocation, satellite imagery and expert analysis to provide some of the clearest open-source evidence to date documenting their deployment. The two strikes took place in the villages o

This investigation is a collaboration between Bellingcat and New Zealand news site The Press. You can read The Press’ piece here.  Content warning: This article discusses non-consensual sexually explicit content and child sexual abuse material. In 2024, a former track and field coach in Boston, Massachusetts, was sentenced to five years in jail for attempting to trick and extort more than 100 women, including student-athletes he coached, into sending him intimate photos. 

Bellingcat has geolocated footage circulating on social media that appears to show coffins placed in newly dug trenches following the recent deadly earthquakes in Venezuela. The site identified extends over two hectares beside an existing cemetery in La Esperanza, a town near La Guaira on the country’s northern coast. It was visited by a representative of our Latin American reporting partners who captured pictures of work ongoing at the site. They also report speaking to a resident w

If you’ve seen reports of a wildfire in your region and you’re looking for open source data, NASA’s fire-tracking tool is often the first place to start. It provides a heat signature and an approximate location. But detection is only the first step in understanding what’s happened. In this guide, we explore ways to analyse and report on the scale and severity of wildfires, including those in protected areas where ecosystems are often most fragile. We also examine how often fires recur in the sam

At least 1,719 people are reported to have died after two devastating earthquakes struck northwestern Venezuela last week. The final casualty count is expected to rise significantly. Some media outlets report resident’s growing frustration with the Venezuelan government and its recovery efforts. Sky News on June 29 reported that the United Nations Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs in Venezuela was preparing for as many as 10,000 deaths.  Social media posts, news reports and d

This article is the result of a collaboration with The Sunday Times. You can find their corresponding piece here. https://www.bellingcat.com/app/uploads/2026/06/1aa_Vid_Top_dixon062026.mp4 Every Friday evening, the brochure says, players can compete to win cash prizes in one of the world’s fastest-growing racquet sports. The padel club in Dubai’s west is the picture of modern wellness culture: climate-controlled courts, a private sauna and ice bath, and one-on-one coaching. The