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.

A tugboat involved in an incident leading to an oil spill in the Caribbean has now been arrested in Angola. Bellingcat previously identified the vessel responsible for the oil spill, its owners, and its location in Angola. splash247.com/trinidad-and-t… After the spill, authorities couldn’t find a registration number for the vessel responsible. Bellingcat was able to identify this mystery vessel as an unpowered barge that did not have a registration number to begin with. It was abandoned by its tugboat, the “Solo Creed". bellingcat.com/news/2024/02/1…

Our final workshops for this year are now live on our website ready for registrations! See what we’re offering and when here 🧵⬇️ On October 29th - November 1 we have a webinar looking at verification techniques and research on social platforms. The workshop will be targeted for American time zones. bellingcat.com/workshops/oct-…

In @kolinakoltai and @foekepostma’s latest investigation for Bellingcat they used satellite imagery to show activity on land belonging to Cards Against Humanity, which is the subject of a legal dispute with Elon Musk's SpaceX. bellingcat.com/news/2024/10/2… SpaceX is accused of trespassing on land owned by US game company, Cards Against Humanity, for more than six months as per a lawsuit filed and announced on September 19, 2024. cah-sues-elon-musk.s3.amazonaws.com/240919+Plainti…

Bellingcat’s Financial Investigations team explores the bizarre streams of online gambling company 1xBet, that allow gamblers to bet on tournaments organised on an industrial scale from amateur sports separated by curtains to strange arcade-like games. bellingcat.com/news/2024/10/2… 1xBet is blacklisted in several countries but remains one of the largest online casinos in the world, with a reported turnover of billions of dollars. ftm.nl/artikelen/1xbe…

Video released by the IDF allowed the site where Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed to be geolocated to the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood in Rafah. By @JakeGodin for Bellingcat: bellingcat.com/news/2024/10/1… On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in southern Gaza. As part of its announcement, the IDF shared images and video shot from the location where they said Sinwar was killed.

In our latest investigation, Bellingcat researcher @KolinaKoltai reveals the hidden network behind OpenDream, an AI art generator platform. She found several instances of child sexual abuse material being generated and featured on the site. bellingcat.com/news/2024/10/1… Bellingcat first came across OpenDream through promotional posts on X in July. Some of these posts featured images of young girls next to adult women in bikinis.

We asked you where we should capture satellite imagery! We selected a few of your suggestions and here are the results… 🧵bellingcat.com/resources/2024… Bellingcat uses @planet and @umbraspace satellite imagery on a regular basis for our investigations. With the help of these satellite services we can take a snapshot of anywhere in the world by "tasking" their satellites to take an image at up to 25-centimetre resolution.

A lesson in revisiting your findings! Bellingcat researcher @colbornemichael discovered a small streetwear shop in Bulgaria is designing far-right for fashion brands thanks to a previous geolocation. bellingcat.com/news/2024/10/0… Far-right fashion and merchandise sales can help promote racist ideas among youth, provide revenue for hate movements and help the far right strengthen bonds across borders and continents. We’ve previously covered how the Active Club movement uses this tactic:

https://x.com/bellingcat/status/1788269686188286269/video/1

Satellite imagery shows Israel Defense Forces (IDF) activity around the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) base, where Irish peacekeeping troops are stationed. New from Bellingcat’s @jakegodin bellingcat.com/news/2024/10/0… The imagery released by Planet Labs PBC shows at least 30 military vehicles that appear to belong to the IDF. New roads are visible, and nearby orchards have been cleared, around the base which is officially known as “UNP 6-52”.

Journalists @ellachakarian and @BenceXavier investigate suspected cases of property destruction and ransacking in Khankendi/Stepanakert in Nagorno-Karabakh, after over 100,000 Karabakh Armenians fled the region last year amongst Azerbaijan’s offensive. bellingcat.com/news/mena/2024… Since September last year, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been negotiating the terms for a peace treaty. A critical issue in these negotiations is the right to return for Nagorno-Karabakh’s displaced ethnic Armenian population.