The US military conducted an operation on Jan 3 to capture President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela. Bellingcat geolocated videos of helicopters involved in the raid, piecing together potential movements of the assault force The operation included air strikes targeting military sites, and a raid at Maduro’s residence inside Fort Tiuna in Caracas. In addition to armed helicopters, jets and drones provided cover for the assault force, according to the US military.

Bellingcat’s work in 2025 verified war crimes, exposed deepfake abuse, and challenged disinformation. We want to uncover wrongdoing. We can with your support:

This is how we cut through the digital noise to tell stories that matter. bellingcat.com/donate We've reported on conflicts around the world — from Myanmar to Gaza, Sudan to the DR Congo, Ukraine and beyond — verifying footage of war crimes, human-rights abuses and attacks on civilians. Read our latest on the reconstruction of Mariupol: bellingcat.com/news/europe/20…

An investigation by Bellingcat and @LloydsList found that Saudi Arabia joined the countries importing grain directly from a sanctioned port in occupied Crimea. Meanwhile Russia attempts to secure recognition of the Ukrainian territory via a US-led peace plan. bellingcat.com/news/2025/12/1… Using Satellite imagery and Automated Identification System (AIS) data from Lloyd’s List Intelligence we show that a Russian owned bulk carrier sailed from Sevastopol to Saudi Arabia twice in recent months.

Russian state media are today alleging that a Bellingcat reporter was involved in an attempt to hijack a Russian fighter plane.

We would like to make clear that Bellingcat had absolutely no involvement in the alleged activities and the accusations towards us are entirely false. The individual detailed in Russian media as a Bellingcat reporter has never worked for us in any capacity and we do not know who they are.

The largest aid flotilla in history has been attacked twice in two days whilst in port in Tunisia. Open source analysis suggests an incendiary munition is to blame, contradicting official statements. bellingcat.com/news/2025/09/1… On September 8 the main vessel in the flotilla, known as ‘the Family’ was struck by what witnesses claimed was a drone. Caught on another boat's camera, a flaming object had fallen onto the Family Boat from above.

A new report by Bellingcat’s Justice & Accountability (J&A) Unit and @GLAN_LAW detailing the use of cluster munitions in civilian areas in Kharkiv at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine is published today. j-and-a.glanlaw.org/kharkiv The report is based on 32 in-depth investigations of separate incidents that took place between February and April 2022. It offers one of the most detailed looks yet at the use of cluster munitions against civilian areas in the early stages of Russia’s full scale invasion.

On March 23, a convoy of aid workers, traveling in vehicles marked with emergency flashing lights, was struck by gunfire in Gaza. Bellingcat used video footage of the incident to perform an audio analysis of the shooting. bellingcat.com/news/2025/04/0… The rescue convoy made up of aid workers working for the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Palestine Civil Defense and the United Nations disappeared on a road that we geolocated just north of Gaza’s Tal as Sultan neighborhood.

Together with our publishing partners, Bellingcat continues the work of drone journalists who had been killed while documenting the war in Gaza, visualising the unprecedented scale of destruction through detailed 3D aerial maps. bellingcat.com/news/2025/03/2… Gathering aerial footage of Gaza is a dangerous task, and Bellingcat and our partners at @FbdnStories/ ARIJ/Paper Trail Media/Die Zeit/Der Standard/ Le Monde/RFI identified several cases where drone journalists were killed or injured shortly after capturing aerial images.

We all like to engage with cute animal videos of baby monkeys, little lion cubs… But what if they’re shown in small cages and in boxes, ready for sale? Bellingcat's @FoekePostma & contributors @ChrisOsieck and Darcy White track down a wildlife dealer bellingcat.com/news/2025/02/1… ‘BK’ is from Malaysia. Their business is selling wild animals, sometimes rare and endangered, to their social media followers. At the time of writing, ‘BK’ owned several accounts across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram and WhatsApp.

The downing of flight MH17 in 2014 inspired a movement of online researchers to search for answers... Now, you can see how the Bellingcat team helped uncover those answers in a new three-part documentary series on National Geographic. Produced in co-partnership with Passion Pictures, the series follows Bellingcat founder, Eliot Higgins, and other present and former Bellingcat researchers as they unravel the mystery of how, and by whom, the Malaysian Airlines flight was shot down.

Sheltering in schools or hospitals won’t be possible for many of those returning to Northern Gaza amid the ceasefire, Bellingcat found that more than 80% of former shelters have been damaged or destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). bellingcat.com/news/2025/02/0… While the ceasefire allows displaced Palestinians to return north, recent destruction in North Gaza will leave many homeless. Based on an analysis of 50 sites for internally displaced people (IDP), many former shelters are gone.

Neo-Nazis are congregating again in Hungary this February for a two day concert. The event is organised by a branch of a far-right group the UK suspects of "terrorist activities"… bellingcat.com/news/2025/01/3… The organisers, ‘Blood & Honour’, are an international neo-Nazi network. Their UK affiliate had its assets frozen by the UK government this January under counter-terrorism sanctions.

Rwanda-backed M23 rebels are consolidating their control over Goma, a city of approximately 2 million people. Clashes dominated the streets earlier this week forcing residents to stay inside. Bellingcat has been monitoring the ongoing crisis… bellingcat.com/news/2025/01/2… The city is central to trade and humanitarian support in the region and is also the gateway to precious mineral mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Patrizia Schlosser discovered more than 30 images of herself online, pictured naked and in chains. But the imagery was all faked. Bellingcat, with STRG_F, investigate the AI porn website disseminating this material, MrDeepfakes. bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu… Non-consensual deepfakes are when someone uses AI to create sexually explicit images and videos of someone else without their permission. Celebrities are often targeted, but the tech can be used on anyone, creating convincing pornographic content with a single photo.

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.

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).

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.

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/…

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.

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.

The Ukrainian city of Vovchansk has been pummelled by Russian forces. Hospitals, schools, residential blocks and more have been flattened. Now, a new analysis suggests close to 80% of buildings in the city have been either damaged or destroyed. bellingcat.com/news/2024/10/2… Bellingcat and journalists from the Kyiv, Kharkiv and Paris bureaus of @AFP investigated the destruction of Vochansk and spoke to residents who had fled.