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richib.bsky.social
Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social
6K followers 670 following 2.3K posts
Portfolio: https://www.clippings.me/users/richardirvinebrown

Journo. BBC Verify.

Digital investigative journalism since 2014, cars/money data before, BBC Sport 2007-2011.
Posts Replies Media Videos
richib.bsky.social
Well at least Sean Dyche is available to steer Spurs to safety by the end of the season.
February 12, 2026 at 9:47 AM
richib.bsky.social
Re-upping this as it's getting on for 300,000 views as a YouTube short: www.youtube.com/shorts/Sm1FQ...
richib.bsky.social Richard Irvine-Brown @richib.bsky.social · 10d
As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a film journalist.

Produced by @herdjemimah.bsky.social, edited by @olgar.bsky.social and @biancabritton.bsky.social.
February 11, 2026 at 10:38 PM
Reposted by Richard Irvine-Brown
herdjemimah.bsky.social
Last week we joined #UNBOXDLive in Digbeth, bringing Verify to life for 16-24s. We shared how our journalism works and ran our 'Filter the Fakes' quiz designed by
@paulybrown.bsky.social, challenging audiences to spot AI images. Listening to young people is central to shaping the BBC’s future.
February 11, 2026 at 7:29 PM
richib.bsky.social
'Death to Khamenei' / 'Death to the dictator': Celebrations of the Islamic Revolution in Tehran last night also drew cries against the Iranian government following weeks of deadly protest.

For the BBC Verify live page: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c7...
Screengrabs from two social media videos filmed in Tehran, 10 February 2026, overlaid with BBC Verify watermarks and the subtitles Death to Khamenei and Death to the dictator.
February 11, 2026 at 5:32 PM
richib.bsky.social
The US has seized another sanctioned oil tanker, this time in the Indian Ocean: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c0...
A sanctioned oil tanker, Aquila II, has been seized in the Indian Ocean, the US Department of Defense has announced. Images posted by the Pentagon show a ship consistent with the size and colour scheme of the Aquila II. We’ve also matched the windows on the tanker’s bridge with other images of the ship on the internet. We can’t be certain when the pictures posted by the US military were taken but a reverse-search shows they were not publicly online before today. The US says it tracked the vessel, which is on its sanctions list, from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean. The tanker appears not to have been transmitting its location data for months. It suddenly appeared early on Sunday morning in the Indian Ocean between Australia and Madagascar heading north-east at 10 knots. It’s currently 170 nautical miles further north-east than it was yesterday and while it’s still heading in the same direction its speed has slowed to about 5 knots.
February 9, 2026 at 6:56 PM
richib.bsky.social
Post a banger that isn't in English.

soundcloud.com/mrbongo/gold...
February 9, 2026 at 6:54 PM
richib.bsky.social
Have you considered those who lost out most (and even then, not a lot) from the disallowed Man City goal are Brentford?

Had it been allowed, our bus stop in Hounslow would have gone above Liverpool, to sixth, on goal difference.
The Premier League table as of 9 February. Highlighted is the goal difference (plus 5) and points (39) of both Liverpool and Brentford.
February 9, 2026 at 7:12 AM
Reposted by Richard Irvine-Brown
punkrockhistory.bsky.social
44 years ago
Joe Strummer’s original handwritten set list for The Clash’s February 1, 1982 concert at the Sun Plaza Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

Image from Recordmecca

#punk #punks #punkrock #theclash #joestrummer #history #punkrockhistory
February 8, 2026 at 4:33 AM
richib.bsky.social
As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a film journalist.

Produced by @herdjemimah.bsky.social, edited by @olgar.bsky.social and @biancabritton.bsky.social.
February 6, 2026 at 12:23 PM
Reposted by Richard Irvine-Brown
shayan86.bsky.social
Previously unseen photos showing Jeffrey Epstein's body lying on a stretcher and being attended to by medics in the immediate aftermath of his death have been released as part of a declassified FBI report in the latest batch of the Epstein files.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Details of Jeffrey Epstein post-mortem released in latest files
Twenty new photos released on Friday show Epstein in the immediate aftermath of his death.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 4, 2026 at 1:10 PM
richib.bsky.social
Watch: How we put together what happened during Russian's renewed attacks on Ukraine, starting on Sunday.

Particularly, how we could work out where at least 12 miners were killed, near Pavlohrad.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cg...

How-to-open-source-this-yourself thread to follow.
Screengrab from BBC video of Richard Irvine-Brown presenting a BBC Verify package on Russian strikes in Ukraine. He stands between two large touch screens, on one is a freeze frame of a video of a drone strike, on the other is a satellite image of western Ternivka, Ukraine.
February 4, 2026 at 12:13 PM
richib.bsky.social
Gaza, with @paulybrown.bsky.social and @benedictgarman.com, locating three of the strikes from Friday and Saturday. Two from Gaza City, one from al-Mawasi.

On the BBC Verify live page: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cg...
Across Friday and Saturday 32 people were killed in a series of strikes across Gaza, according to the Hamas-run civil defence authority. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said a series of strikes were conducted in response to a claimed Hamas violation of the ceasefire agreement on Friday. The IDF said these strikes had hit “four commanders and additional terrorists from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations across the Gaza Strip”. In one video we see a projectile striking Amer Ben Alaas road, to the northwest of Gaza City and within 100m (330ft) of a maternity hospital and a school. We could be certain of the spot by counting the solar panels and water storage tanks on nearby roofs. In another clip, filmed in the aftermath of a strike on a police station around a mile (1.5 km) to the north of Gaza City, we see unmoving people on stretchers being carried to ambulances and at least one man with a head wound. Both these locations are more than two miles (3km) from the Yellow Line boundary of control established by Israel as part of October’s Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal. Meanwhile, in the southern coastal area al-Mawasi, two verified videos of a different incident confirm an attack happened more than 2.5 miles (4km) from the yellow line, close to road which connects to the city of Khan Younis.
February 3, 2026 at 8:13 PM
richib.bsky.social
Reposting to share we've posted the video on YouTube (should you wish to go to a separate social media platform to see it): www.youtube.com/shorts/nodpN...
February 2, 2026 at 9:58 AM
richib.bsky.social
Latest deadly Russian strikes in Ukraine.

Copy from me on what we could say on Zaporizhzhia: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Twelve miners killed by Russian strike in Ukraine, energy company says
Seven others were reported injured in the strike near a bus carrying the workers on Sunday.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 1, 2026 at 11:27 PM
richib.bsky.social
If you liked BotW, try Necronomicon, a portmanteau Lovecraft movie from the Yuzna/Gordon stable starring Bruce Campbell and David Warner.

Exactly as good as that sentence sounds to you, with Christopher Gans directing the first part. It’s a moody oddity versus the next two splatter-y stories.
ajfixer.bsky.social Andy Fix @ajfixer.bsky.social · 15d
Today is the 25th anniversary of the release of Brotherhood of the Wolf, the greatest 18th century France kung-fu/undercover nun/monster horror/action movie ever put to film! Seriously, go watch it.

#dailynerdfix #moviesky
February 1, 2026 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by Richard Irvine-Brown
leguape.bsky.social
How did these US F-15s end up at al Muwaffaq Salti, Jordan (OJMS) on satellite images? Reasonably confident these are one Centcom announced as in theatre on 20/01/26 of 494th Squadron USAF ("Panthers") x.com/CENTCOM/stat...

Fighters rarely disclose tracking publicly, here's my workings...
Satellite imagery from Planet Labs PBC shows a row of F-15 fighter jets lined up at ground facilities at a Jordanian airbase. Their distinctive shapes can be seen as dark outlines contrasting with the lighter colours of the desert base.
January 28, 2026 at 1:37 PM
richib.bsky.social
BBC Verify is trying to show the world (a) how we know what we know, and (b) how you can do it, too.

Always needs a team.

Here's a crash course, using examples from @shayan86.bsky.social, @paulybrown.bsky.social, @emmapengelly.bsky.social, @sryder.bsky.social and @danict89.bsky.social.
January 27, 2026 at 1:48 PM
richib.bsky.social
Have you seen the snow in Kamchatka, Russia, this week? Maybe you have, and you really have. Or maybe not, or maybe you have but it's not. Clear?

Getting knee deep in AI with @sryder.bsky.social.
January 23, 2026 at 8:36 PM
richib.bsky.social
Two weeks since Iran shut off the internet. Since then, BBC Persian and BBC Verify have verified around 100 videos which have made it out. But we've seen the flow dwindle.

Most are from Tehran, many from Kahrizak. Some from Rasht.

From the BBC Verify live page today: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cw...
The internet shutdown in Iran has now lasted two weeks, and has severely restricted the flow of images out of the county amid anti-government protests. Internet monitoring body NetBlocks has called it “one of the deadliest crackdowns in modern history”.Some videos have evaded the blackout, however, and so far BBC Verify and BBC Persian have verified more than 100 of them. Because of the shutdown, we can only assess the date videos were published by searching for the earliest copies online. It’s thorough, and can indicate when something was first shared. But it is not a definitive way of saying when something happened. This is particularly true in Iran’s case, as the lack of connectivity means people are likely unable to share footage in an incident’s immediate aftermath. However, going by this method, 36 of the verified videos first appeared on 8 January and 16 from 9 January. After this, footage began to dry up - down to three on 15 January. There was single resurgence of 11 videos we’ve traced to being uploaded on 17 January, with many of them showing fire damage around Rasht, the largest city on Iran’s Caspian Sea coast. More than 60 of the videos were in Tehran, of which 14 are from a mortuary on the southern edge of the capital, where potentially hundreds of dead bodies have been laid out. These figures are also only an indication what has happened in Iran - and cannot represent the true scale of the protests during the shutdown.
January 22, 2026 at 6:19 PM
richib.bsky.social
The protests in Iran have seen lethal consequences, seen repeatedly at the Kahrizak mortuary, Tehran.

Working with @shayan86.bsky.social and Farida Elsebai, we have counted potentially hundreds of bodies there.

Our summary for the BBC Verify live page from Monday: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9...
Nearly 100 bodies seen in a video at Tehran mortuary Farida Elsebai, Richard Irvine-Brown and Shayan Sardarizadeh BBC Arabic and BBC Verify More videos showing dozens of bodies in a mortuary in Iran’s capital Tehran have emerged over the weekend. BBC Verify has previously identified nearly 200 body bags and shrouded figures in videos taken at the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Centre in southern Tehran, following a wave of deadly anti-government protests in Iran. Similar to the videos we have already verified, the latest imagery shows many bodies laid out in a large, red-roofed building at the north of the site and a white-walled, windowless room in its annex, both of which we recognised from videos shared previously. One video, which we have not found publicly online before Saturday, is a continuous shot lasting nearly four minutes. More than 90 body bags, shrouds and bodies - including some in caskets, with discoloured skin or with visible wounds - can be seen in this footage. At least three body bags appear to be significantly smaller than the others, indicating the person who died may be a child.
January 22, 2026 at 5:10 PM
richib.bsky.social
A verified motorcade of armed members of the Iranian regime, a video which first appeared last week, and two posts which headlined the BBC Verify live page on Friday, from Farida Elsebai, Ghoncheh Habibiazad and me: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cy...
BBC Verify Live: Verified video shows armoured cars, paramilitaries and riot police on streets in Iran
Latest updates from the BBC's specialists in fact-checking, verifying video and tackling disinformation.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 21, 2026 at 3:48 PM
richib.bsky.social
"The obvious victim is transparency"

What Isik Mater of NetBlocks could tell us about Uganda's internet shutdown during the election, and what SnapMaps can show us of the internet coming back on: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9...

With the help of Verify live page ed @robcorp.bsky.social.
BBC graphic of two images from SnapMaps, taken evening of 18 January 2026, showing activity returning to Uganda and none at all in Iran.
January 19, 2026 at 5:21 PM
richib.bsky.social
Switching from investigations in conflict areas to breaking news from Hong Kong last week.

Verifying video of a man with a large knife shot by police, for the BBC Verify live page: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cz...

The man, below, was stood about 22.3922248,113.9769404 (try it in any map app).
Screengrab from a social media video showing a man with a large knife near Tuen Mun Town Plaza, Hong Kong, 15 January 2026.
January 19, 2026 at 4:12 PM
richib.bsky.social
Tehran, Iran.

Last weekend we verified all we could from what broke through the regime's internet restrictions. With @shayan86.bsky.social, @benedictgarman.com and Ghoncheh Habibiazad.

Which led to major reports and videos from BBC Verify, plus four live page posts.

My how-to notes to follow.
A collage of BBC Verify live page headlines from 12 January: Protesters gather in Tehran square during reported blackout, 'Death to Khamenei' chanted at Tehran funeral, Videos from mortuary show how deadly protests have become, One video shows potentially 200 dead at Tehran mortuary. Alongside them are a screengrab from a social media video posted 10 January, showing protests at Punak Square, and two screengrabs from a social media video posted 11 January showing a protest at a funeral parlour in Tehran.
January 18, 2026 at 9:15 PM
richib.bsky.social
A week on from a very busy weekend in Iran. Working with @shayan86.bsky.social to verify material out of Mashhad, Tehran and other locations, which led to this piece: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Quick thread on how-to geolocate, to follow.
Iran warns it will retaliate if US attacks, as hundreds killed in protests
President Trump said on Sunday that the US military was considering
www.bbc.co.uk
January 17, 2026 at 9:34 PM