If you aren't paying attention to what is happening in Illinois/Chicago, you're missing out on Bovino and federal agents using tear gas, pepper balls, and force against the people. Check out our investigation alongside @evidentmedia.org

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

Simply incredible imagery of Hurricane Melissa this morning as it approaches Jamaica.

I'm excited but a bit sad to announce that I've left Bellingcat to start a nonprofit investigative outlet focused on the far-right. We're called Decoherence Media, and we're launching today.

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. Follow its covert journey here: www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/10...

With colleagues at FA and Earshot, I recently contributed to an investigative documentary film that highlights the story of one man who left home in the early hours to get bread but never returned home. 'Soaked in Blood: The killing of Ameen Sameer Khalifa' from Middle East Eye can be seen here:

Hi. I wrote an essay about AI slop: How it feels like an invasive species for the internet. How its boosters describe building a future that’s devoid of craft. How frictionlessness can be nihilistic & how this stuff seems to leach part of our shared humanity out of the world. I hope you'll read it.

Someone went there: "It Kind of Seems Like Peter Thiel is Losing It" via @futurism.com futurism.com/future-socie...

“Yes, this was the first time we saw a dark STS transfer of Russian LNG in this part of the world. Oh, and CCH GAS did a lousy job at spoofing,” says Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, Inc., an online service that tracks and reports shipments of crude oil. gcaptain.com/china-joins-...

Many of these “illustrations” aren’t based on verified intelligence at all. Our analysis of 43 official IDF videos found recycled 3D environments, spatial inaccuracies, and assets lifted from unrelated artists and institutions.

Our New York Times Visual Investigations team is hiring a reporter. It's the same job I have -- use visual investigation/OSINT/etc. skills to report on the world. You'll need to be based in/near NYC. Pay range is ~110-130k. www.nytco.com/careers/job-...

Satellite analysis by Bellingcat found that wildfires destroyed over a third of Namibia’s most visited wildlife reserve last month, impacting crucial grazing lands for endangered species, including black rhinos and elephants. www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/10...

Bellingcat-oprichter: ‘Verbied algoritmes bij sociale media, ze vergiftigen onze democratie’

The Shadow Fleet shipping Russia's oil is already leaving trails of oil in its wake, raising the question of who will pay up if the worst is to happen. Our latest investigation with @victorjack.bsky.social of @politico.eu, using data from @skytruth.org. www.source-material.org/shadow-fleet...

Have we passed peak social media? @jburnmurdoch.ft.com here www.ft.com/content/a072...

Of all the best and kindest humans to ever live, Jane Goodall is near the top of my list. Rest in Peace, you beautiful soul. On behalf of the earth, I thank you www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/o...

i wrote about atproto and why it matters

hate to say i told you so share.google/4FfpeWYJ8kEF...

So what was one of the main motivators behind the far-right violence in The Hague last weekend? A fake antifa page that’s thought to be linked to the far right that claimed there’d be a counterdemo that no Dutch antifascists actually knew about archive.ph/2025.09.24-0...

this from my piece on charlie kirk is probably the most important takeaway if you want to know why bad faith, right-wing voices in media are treated as just another set of peers

I'm re-starting my charity Twitch streams starting tonight at 7:00 PM EST via @extralife4kids.bsky.social! Come hang out in the chat, and if you've got a dollar, donate it to Toronto's SickKids Hospital. 100% of proceeds go directly to the hospital! www.twitch.tv/gianfiorel

The Groyper Wars

the groypers sure seem to think Charlie Kirk was killed by a groyper

On-the-ground view of an IDF forward operating base located at the Al-Furqan Primary School. SkySat imagery from @planet.com shows the IDF first appeared in the vicinity of the school mid-August. Still there as of September 1 imagery.

🛰️ New! @bellingcat.com’s @foeke.bsky.social tested 24 versions of popular AI platforms on geolocation challenges — with surprising results. Read the findings here 👉

We're very pleased to announce Bellingcat and @texasobserver.org won this award- congratulations to @tristanl.ee and @stevanzetti.bsky.social for their hard work on this series of reporting. The winners of the category 'general excellence in an online newsroom' will be announced in September.

Something to note on the Nasser Hospital attack — there's a direct line of sight to the Reuters livestream position to a large IDF excavation northeast of the hospital. The livestream had even filmed what appear to be two IDF tanks moving in the area on Aug 21: www.youtube.com/live/uN78d9M...

More testing of LLMs for journalism, this time on identifying image location, date, and source. By @aisvarya17.bsky.social and @klaudia.bsky.social with some of my own commentary. www.cjr.org/tow_center/w... @columjournreview.bsky.social

In the Netherlands, a 24-year-old man from Erp was arrested yesterday in Badhoevedorp, near Amsterdam, on suspicion of preparing a terrorist offense. The suspect is believed to be a member of Geuzenbond, a far-right group we wrote about last year @bellingcat.com www.rtl.nl/nieuws/binne...

In May, we, alongside CBC's Visual Investigation Unit, @tjekdet.dk and @politiken.dk revealed the identity of the key administrator behind one of the largest AI porn sites. Dutch politicians across political parties are now calling for the Canadian to be extradited. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Two months have passed since we last tested AI models against our geolocation skillsets. Within that time more advanced models like GPT-5 and Google AI mode have launched. So @foeke.bsky.social is back again to put the chatbots to work… www.bellingcat.com/resources/20...

Sometimes people ask me if this is a bad thing for open source investigators, AI taking replacing one of our core skills, but a) you still need to have the skills to doublecheck it, and b) anything that makes geolocation faster is always welcome.

GPT-5 is a significant downgrade in terms of geolocation capability. Find our latest benchmark update below

It appears GeoSpy is giving demos to other law enforcement agencies too. The founder uploaded this redacted photo. I thought it looked like the Secret Service logo, so I phoned them. They said it was in Miami field office, but demo was for local law enforcement www.404media.co/lapd-eyes-ge...

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 data? We've updated our Auto Archiver tool to make archiving easier... www.bellingcat.com/resources/20...

AI mode within regular Google search, available outside the EU, is the best of these at geolocation now, barely beating GPT o4-mini-high and way, way faster. Will test GPT-5 when I can

What was known as the Huwara pogrom in early 2023, happens now daily. Settler-colonial violence burns Palestinians their properties, destroys their belongings, steals their land, restricts their freedom of movement and kills their loved ones in the West Bank. www.972mag.com/settler-impu...

AI maakt misleiding makkelijk – hoe biedt OSINT tegenwicht? www.instagram.com/rewindhuman/...

Bellingcat’s J&A helped build mechanisms for open source research to enhance legal accountability, particularly in atrocity crimes. This is the final research to be conducted by @bellingcat.com as part of this team but GLAN is continuing its OSI accountability work. j-and-a.glanlaw.org/kharkiv.

“If they run, we go” -ICE ICE has shown no signs of slowing down its raids, which, according to our analysis, appear targeted. From car washes to Home Depots, to a display of force and intimidation, these masked agents have stretched across LA, rounding up people with brown skin.

We ran 500 tests and: LLMs are quickly passing the threshold of being the most useful tool out there, if you're looking for the location of a photo from scratch.

We all know AI models can now create realistic images and videos but how do they fare at identifying where a real image was taken? Bellingcat researchers have put Large Language Models to the test: www.bellingcat.com/resources/ho...

We ran 500 tests and: LLMs are quickly passing the threshold of being the most useful tool out there, if you're looking for the location of a photo from scratch.

On #WorldEnvironmentDay we're here to remind you that open source research tools can be useful for monitoring environmental damage. Here's a short list of a few tools we've previously highlighted or used in our own investigations... 🧵

A major leak exposing Russian nuclear bases has been revealed by investigative journalists from Danwatch and Der Spiegel. The Russian facilities are in the Orenburg region, south of the Ural mountains and near the city of Yasny.

"X is racist. The only thing up for debate is whether this is a feature or a bug for those in charge," writes Charlie Warzel.