Stage Talks with Bellingcat

This week we spoke with Trevor Ball of Bellingcat about how to identify weapons used in conflict, including the munitions appearing in the Iran conflict.The talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on March 12th 2026. Music featured is courtesy of Artlist.Recorded live in our Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/bellingcatLinks:The Weapons Being Deployed https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/03/03/bombs-will-fall-everywhere-the-american-israeli-and-iranian-weapons-being-deployed-in-middle-east/ The Incendiary Bomb Never Seen in Israel https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/03/07/the-incendiary-bomb-never-seen-in-israel-before/ Video Of US Tomahawk Missile Strike Next to Girls’ School https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/03/08/video-shows-us-tomahawk-missile-strike-next-to-girls-school-in-iran/ US Missiles Spotted Over Iraq https://www.bellingcat.com/news/middle-east/2026/03/11/iran-war-iraq-tomahawks-munitions-syria-located-kurdistan-missiles-fired/ OSMP The Iran War 2026 https://osmp.ngo/collection/the-iran-war-2026/ Iran-Israel conflict June 2025 https://osmp.ngo/collection/iran-israel-conflict-june-2025/ US munitions used in Yemen 2025 https://osmp.ngo/collection/us-munitions-in-yemen/ Bulletpicker - https://www.bulletpicker.com/index.html ODIN- https://odin.tradoc.army.mil/WEGImages shared by Iranian state media show remnants of a US Tomahawk missile https://bsky.app/profile/bellingcat.com/post/3mgnv5iscv226Talk with the OSMP team last year: https://rss.com/podcasts/bellingcatstagetalk/1945244/SIPRI https://www.sipri.org/Identifying possible crater in Gaza: https://www.bellingcat.com/?p=40534 CAGE: https://cage.dla.mil/Home/UsageAgreeConflict Armament Research field investigation on the Kh-101: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/ea22b213d5414fefbcfe2f977ff07910

Aram Shabanian, an open-source researcher known for real-time monitoring with scanners, webcams and sensors. He walks through using live radio, traffic and environmental feeds. He highlights building camera networks, spotting escalation cues, ethical sharing and archiving tricks. Practical tools and surprising data sources come up throughout.

In this week's Stage Talk we were joined by Amnesty International UK’s Gender Justice Director Chiara Capraro. In a recent report, Chiara and her team mapped the structure and funding of 65 anti-rights groups operating across the UK. She shares the methodology behind the research, what it reveals about the current trajectory of rights-restriction campaigning, and what it could mean in the years ahead. We also explore the key similarities and differences between movements in the UK and the US.The talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on Thursday February 12th 2026. Music featured is courtesy of Artlist. You can contact Chiara on chiara.capraro@amnesty.org.ukRecorded live in the Bellingcat Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/bellingcatLinks discussed:The report: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/knowledge-hub/all-resources/the-anti-rights-movement/Alliance Defending Freedom Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_Defending_FreedomNY Times report on the US anti-abortion influence on Britain: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/world/europe/uk-abortion-farage.htmlSex Matters Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Matters_(advocacy_group)LGB Alliance Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGB_AllianceCompanies House: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-houseBellingcat tool to dig into US corporate data: https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2023/12/18/new-tools-dig-deeper-into-hard-to-aggregate-us-corporate-data/Hope Not Hate: https://hopenothate.org.uk/Telegraph article on ministers cutting down on foreign donations: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02/12/ministers-crackdown-on-foreign-political-donations/Our previous Stage Talk on counter-disinformation strategies: https://rss.com/podcasts/bellingcatstagetalk/2507049/Democracy for Sale: https://democracyforsale.substack.com/Panorama investigation on Pregnancy Crisis Centres: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64751800EPF: https://www.epfweb.org/publications

Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat and open-source investigation pioneer, and Dr Claire Wardle, Cornell information ecosystems expert and co-founder of First Draft News, discuss the rise of verification practices. They explore early OSINT community building, geolocation and forensic techniques, the 2016 inflection, funding and sustainability, AI’s threat to trust, platform tensions, and the future of community-led verification.

Katherine De Tolly, a research consultant at Bellingcat and expert in financial investigations, shares her insights on navigating trade data. She discusses how this data reveals illicit flows, using an intriguing case study of opioid shipments from India to West Africa. Katherine explains the challenges of data inconsistencies, the importance of corroboration, and the surprising clarity of illegal trade records. Plus, she offers practical tips for analyzing ship data while emphasizing the need for a broader understanding of global trade dynamics.

Dr. Owen (Eoghan) Darbyshire, an environmental scientist at the Conflict and Environment Observatory, discusses the hidden ecological impacts of warfare. He reveals how conflicts contribute to air, land, and water pollution, affecting human health and fragile ecosystems. Owen highlights the importance of open-source investigations, like satellite imagery, for tracking environmental damage. He emphasizes innovative tools like the WISEN incident database for verifying harms, while exploring the long-term consequences of warfare on nature and communities.

Michael Hilliard, Director of Defence and Security Analysis at the Oxus Society, shares insights into the complexities of modern warfare and military power measurement. He discusses the challenges of comparing military capabilities across regions and highlights Uzbekistan’s military posture, geography, and economic factors. Hilliard reveals intriguing wargame scenarios testing Uzbek defenses and examines the implications of logistics and paramilitary roles in the region. He also explores the influence of foreign suppliers, emphasizing the importance of domestic repair capabilities for military readiness.

This week, Bellingcat researchers Michael Colborne and Youri van der Weide dive into the intriguing world of far-right fashion. Michael discusses how clothing serves as a tool for youth recruitment and identity, while also revealing subtle symbols that help mainstream extremist views. Youri shares insights from his investigation into neo-Nazi merchandise linked to Russian paramilitary groups, uncovering connections through online records and public interactions. They both highlight the implications of reporting on these trends and provide resources for monitoring extremist symbols.

This week, we were discussing how open source research can help build vital factchecking skills across disciplines. We spoke to Prof. dr. Brianne McGonigle Leyh, a professor and one of the leaders of the Open-Source Global Justice Investigations Lab at Utrecht University. Alongside her, we were joined by Felix Lommerse, the student assistant at the lab and a former student of the course. In the talk they described the purpose of the project, how major newsrooms have got involved and why other universities may want to take note.The talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on Thursday October 9th 2025. Music featured is courtesy of Artlist.Recorded live in the Bellingcat Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/bellingcatLinks discussed:The lab: https://www.uu.nl/en/research/institutions-for-open-societies/contesting-governance/projects/open-source-global-justice-investigations-labBerkeley: https://humanrights.berkeley.edu/Dr Alexa Koenig Stage Talk: https://rss.com/podcasts/bellingcatstagetalk/1908244/FT article in partnership with lab: https://ig.ft.com/haiti-gangsTheir work was also mentioned by GIJN: https://gijn.org/stories/african-journalism-database-local-digital-verification/Their timeline of the Palestinian protests at Utrecht University: https://www.uu.nl/sites/default/files/UU%20May%207%20-%209%20Events%20Report_0.pdfBellingcat challenge site: https://challenge.bellingcat.com/Giancarlo's article on protecting your mental hygiene as a researcher: https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2022/11/23/how-to-maintain-mental-hygiene-as-an-open-source-researcher/The Dart Center referenced has been closed over the summer. You can now access those resources here: https://gcjt.org/

This week we spoke to maritime researcher Christian Panton. Christian builds resources to monitor ships as a hobby and has created a useful database of 'sketchy boats' that require further investigation. In the talk he described the purpose of the tool and how he created it, and provided a detailed overview of the current issues with researching ships up to no good. The talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on Thursday September 25th 2025. Music featured is courtesy of Artlist.Recorded live in the Bellingcat Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/bellingcatLinks discussed:Sketchy Boats website: https://sketchy.boats/Sketchy Boats GitHub: https://github.com/christianpanton/those.sketchy.boatsChristian's pages: https://bsky.app/profile/pa.nton.cxhttps://christian.panton.org/Lloyds list investigation on false flags that Christian contributed to: https://www.lloydslist.com/LL1154326/Massive-fraudulent-flag-operation-linking-over-20-separate-fake-sites-uncoveredBellingcat investigation into the ships smuggling grain from occupied Crimea: https://www.lloydslist.com/LL1154326/Massive-fraudulent-flag-operation-linking-over-20-separate-fake-sites-uncoveredBellingcat's Ship Detection Tool (built with Ollie Ballinger): https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2023/05/11/peering-beyond-the-clouds-a-guide-to-bellingcats-ship-detection-tool/ And Ollie's GitHub page: https://oballinger.github.io/ #maritime channel in Discord: https://discord.com/channels/709752884257882135/920298016123023400