Notices by Bellingcat (bellingcat@mstdn.social)

Another Russian ship has been added to the grain smuggling fleet, captured on camera and on satellite imagery, evading sanctions to deliver grain from occupied Crimea to Houthi-controlled Yemen. https://youtube.com/shorts/OrTUamNLid8?feature=share

Bellingcat has geolocated footage of a mass killing outside the recently captured Sudanese city of El Fasher. In the video, which has circulated widely online, RSF commander Abu Lulu can be seen firing his weapon at what appears to be ten unarmed men sitting on the ground. Image: @vantortech
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Children tear-gassed. Teenagers tackled to the ground. Bellingcat analysed footage of clashes between federal officers and civilians after a judge issued a restraining order on crowd-control tactics in Illinois: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/10/31/illinois-immigration-protests/?utm_source=mastodon

Can LLMs identify where a photo was taken? And how accurate are they?

In this month’s Patreon podcast, we dive into AI tools for open source research and explore how AI is transforming the way we work. Will it ever be more than just one of many resources in the open source investigator’s toolbox?

Listen here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-is-ai-way-we-140076426

It is a good time to learn how to find accurate information online. We’re offering virtual training sessions over the month of October, teaching you Bellingcat’s investigative techniques…

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 officials' statements that the first attack was caused by a “cigarette butt” or “lighter”. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/09/10/incendiary-munitions-strike-gaza-bound-flotilla-two-nights-in-a-row/?utm_source=mastodon

In less than a month of federal control of DC, we, with Evident Media, have verified 42 federal agent encounters, half of which involve DC police; with traffic stops that quickly turn into detentions, and workers pulled off mopeds mid-shift. In some cases, federal agents are seen in plain clothes lacking any identifiable badge or patch; many wore tactical vests bearing the words "Police" only. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/09/08/dc-trump-feds-immigration-delivery-riders/?utm_source=mastodon

In the three weeks after DC was placed under federal control, Trump’s administration said more than 300 people without legal immigration status were arrested in the District. We’ve made our dataset, of the 42 captured on camera, available to the public.
You can watch our partner Evident’s video on this reporting here: https://youtu.be/d1iPee8u290

Today the Supreme Court ruled in the Government's favour to pause an injunction preventing US immigration officers from making investigative stops in the Los Angeles area based on a presence at particular work locations or apparent race or ethnicity. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/08/politics/supreme-court-ice-patrols-california

We previously reported on ICE action within California with Evident Media and Calmatters . In DC we’ve seen similar patterns. Read our investigation on that here: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/07/08/masked-armed-and-forceful-finding-patterns-in-los-angeles-immigration-raids/

Finding key information shared at council meetings takes time and effort. Today, we've launched a tool that allows you to search verbatim quotes from council meetings in the UK and Ireland, without the need to watch long recordings or sift through extensive notes. https://council-search.bellingcat.com/

Our Council Transcript Search tool has proved popular. Interested in what goes into building a tool like this? Listen to our latest Stage Talk on podcast platforms. The creator of this resource, Galen Reich, shares his tips for creating a sustainable research tool. https://rss.com/podcasts/bellingcatstagetalk/2193709/

We thought it was time we introduced ourselves...
From a global crisis to an underreported event, we find the facts using publicly available resources. From documenting human rights abuses to tracking environmental damage, our investigations focus on issues that affect communities worldwide. By detailing our methods, we invite you to explore, replicate, and contribute to investigations. Find out more:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyQyHt4LNKM

Launched publicly in 2022, our Auto Archiver tool has helped newsrooms and NGO’s preserve over 150,000 web pages and social media posts to date. It is a staple in our newsroom.
If you work in a newsroom or research team and want to access a demo or help to deploy the Auto Archiver internally you can reach us at contact-tech@bellingcat.com with the Subject “Auto Archiver at [my team/organisation]” and tell us more about your organisation and archiving needs.

Nothing is permanent on social media. Users deleting their posts or webpages can lead to the erasure of a trail of evidence that may be crucial to your investigations. But how do you keep that vital data? We've improved our Auto Archiver tool to make archiving your sources easier and set it up to be more manageable to navigate as a research team... https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2025/08/13/the-open-source-tool-that-has-preserved-150000-pieces-of-online-evidence/?utm_source=mstdn

More than 40 people have been confirmed dead, and 80,000 residents have been evacuated across Beijing due to widespread flooding. Bellingcat used public sources to begin to track the damage. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/08/08/strongwhat-can-open-sources-reveal-about-beijings-deadly-floods-strong/?utm_source=mastodon

On Friday, a federal judge in LA granted a temporary restraining order against immigration raids in Southern California. https://calmatters.org/justice/2025/07/la-immigration-restraining-order/

Join us this Thursday as we discuss how to monitor immigration raids using open sources, with Bellingcat's Kolina Koltai alongside Sergio Olmos of @CALMatters and Kevin Clancy of Evident Media, as the U.S. population prepares for another wave of arrests. https://discord.gg/uQUGhUHk?event=1394292393557360722

Working with our partners Evident and @CALMatters we have monitored the LA raids, discovering recurring trends and tactics used by officers.
Footage collected is of more than 100 arrests and shows agents from the likes of Border Patrol (BP) and, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arresting people in public spaces, from car washes to swap meets, with officers often obscuring their identities and sometimes using significant force. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/07/08/masked-armed-and-forceful-finding-patterns-in-los-angeles-immigration-raids/?utm_source=mastodon

We’re back with a new series of open source challenges! Bellingcat researcher Peter Barth created five exercises that allow you to uncover some dark secrets buried in time. Welcome to a world of forgotten files, and (confusing) historic maps. https://challenge.bellingcat.com/

In this month's Bellingchat Premium we go behind the scenes of our investigation into a figure controlling one of the largest deepfake porn websites in the world. Listen in as our team reveals how with the CBC, TjekDet and Politiken we uncovered his identity.
Exclusive to our Patreon members.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/unmasking-linked-131814555

You can also read the full investigation here: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/05/07/canadian-pharmacist-linked-to-worlds-most-notorious-deepfake-porn-site/?utm_source=mastodon