So on our Patreon, @NataliaAntonova and @IwriteOK decided to provide some comic relief by discussing the funniest person we've ever fact-checked — Jacob Wohl
@NataliaAntonova@IwriteOK@JaredHolt Don't get us wrong, the tenacity of Jacob Wohl's grift is also a sad commentary on how easily disinformation can become a career for some people — but Wohl is just comically bad at this stuff.
Adverts selling an opioid up to 500 times stronger than heroin are all over the internet, from social media platforms to trade sites. Bellingcat and partner @postimees investigate how this deadly drug is infiltrating Europe and beyond… bellingcat.com/news/2025/01/2…
Nitazenes were originally developed as a painkiller in the 1950s but never made it to market because even trace quantities can cause an overdose. The super-strength opioid has already caused hundreds of deaths in Europe, the UK and North America.
This powerful drug is now reemerging in underground drug markets, finding its way into counterfeit prescription medicines and famed street drugs like cocaine, heroin and ketamine.
Satellite Imagery is used extensively in open-source investigative research, in this guide tech-fellow @agnesfcameron explains how some satellite images reveal more than the eye can see. bellingcat.com/resources/2025…
In satellite imaging, images that use types of light we cannot normally see are known as multispectral images. In the example below, a river that is barely visible with a regular camera due to hazy conditions (left) can be clearly seen when captured using infrared light (right).
An image that reflects how the human eye naturally sees things is known as a “true colour image”, consisting of three bands (or ranges) of visible light – red, green and blue – that can combine to make up any colour.
Ukraine says it is outraged by the continued export of grain by a Russian-flagged vessel from a sanctioned port in occupied Crimea to Houthi-controlled Yemen. Bellingcat and @LloydsList investigate: bellingcat.com/news/2024/12/1…
What Ukraine describes as “grain theft” via occupied ports and territories has become a common occurrence since the onset of Russia’s full invasion, with dozens of ships ferrying grain from occupied ports to the likes of Syria, Iran and other destinations.
In this instance, the ship, Zafar, loaded grain at the Port of Sevastopol in early October and arrived in Yemen in mid-November. It masked its presence in Sevastopol by switching off its Automated Identification System (AIS), and was only known to have been there because it was spotted in satellite imagery.
Former Syrian President Bashar Al Assad ruled ruthlessly for over two decades. With the help of Russian and Iranian forces, he also carried out some of the most vicious acts of the country’s 13-year civil war, from chemical attacks to the bombing of hospitals 🧵
In this collaboration with @ForensicArchi, we showed that the M2 Hospital in Aleppo was struck 14 times by the Syrian Army or its allies between June and September 2016 forensic-architecture.org/investigation/…
Bellingcat was also able to cast significant doubt on Russian claims that another hospital in Allepo, known as M10, was not attacked that same year: bellingcat.com/news/mena/2016…
Last month a visit from Israeli football club Maccabi in Amsterdam resulted in violence erupting throughout the city. To gain a better understanding of the events, we worked with Dutch newspaper @trouw to analyse videos that circulated online. trouw.nl/binnenland/wat…
Early signs of clashes began prior to kick off with reports and videos emerging of Maccabi fans tearing a Palestinian flag off a building in Amsterdam and chanting anti-Arab slogans on their way to the stadium amongst other incidents.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema claimed there were 'hit-and-run actions' on a large scale, during and after the game, targeting Israelis in the city. In total, we were able to locate eighteen violent attacks on Maccabi supporters.
In this guide by @Pooja_Chaudhuri and @melzxy we outline how we used Meta’s free-to-use Ad Library to analyse data about political candidates’ ad spending to get a sense of how they approach digital advertising. bellingcat.com/resources/2024…
We break down how we analysed the campaigns of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris and got insights into which states they targeted, their estimated ad spending and some of the key themes that appeared in the ads.
We found that ahead of the 2024 US presidential election on Nov. 5, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign mentioned the phrase “Donald Trump” more than they did “Kamala Harris” in ads on Facebook and Instagram.