By Lex Harvey, CNN

(CNN) — Some people watch Netflix in their spare time. Remy Osman tracks rusty tankers transporting illicit oil through one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

From the roof of his Singapore apartment building, the British expat, who works as a food and beverage salesman, documents the passage of these shadow vessels, often sanctioned by the US and other Western countries, for his growing online audience.

Shadow fleets, also known as ghost or dark fleets, are ships that use murky tactics to transport oil for pariah states like Russia, Iran and Venezuela. Oil revenues from these fleets, consisting of aging tankers with opaque ownership, have become crucial sources of funding for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The US has cracked down on shadow fleets in recent months, seizing five sanctioned vessels as part of President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against Venezuela and its now-ousted leader Nicolás Maduro, who was captured by US forces earlier this month.

In the waters off Singapore, the underground industry comes into public view.

The Singapore Strait is a crucial maritime shipping route connecting the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. Roughly 100,000 ships pass through these waters each year, together carrying roughly one third of all goods traded globally.

The strait’s strategic location also makes it a hub for shadow fleets transiting between Iran, Russia and Venezuela to China, one of the world’s largest importers of sanctioned oil.

Osman has a front-row seat.

“Singapore is probably the best place on earth to see (shadow ships),” the 32-year-old said.

While ships above a certain size are required under international law to keep their automatic identification system (AIS) trackers on, shadow vessels will sometimes go dark to evade authorities. But because the Singapore Strait is so narrow, it’s practically impossible for a ship to transit safely without switching on its location tracker.

The strait is also so physically close to Singapore, a dense city home to roughly six million people, that Osman can see passing vessels and take photos or videos of them with just an iPhone.

Shadow fleet balloons

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent Western sanctions on Russian oil, the global shadow fleet has ballooned. While the deceptive tactics of the ships make them hard to track, data and analytics firm Kpler estimated the global shadow fleet comprised about 3,300 vessels in December 2025, representing about 6-7% of global crude flows.

The fleet is sustained through tactics such as fragmented ownership, rapid and repeated flag changes, manipulating location data, and shifting cargo at sea during the night or in areas with minimal oversight.

More than $100 billion worth of crude oil was moved through shadow and sanctioned fleets in 2025, according to Kpler.

Osman’s niche hobby began during the Covid-19 pandemic, when he was forced to quarantine for two weeks after moving to Singapore. He began spotting ships from his hotel room’s balcony and documenting their passage online.

It wasn’t until about a year ago that Osman shifted his focus to shadow vessels, after he noticed his audience was curious about the clandestine fleets. He says his page has exploded in recent months as shadow fleets have captured the news cycle.

Por Eric Levenson, CNN

La demanda federal presentada por el estado de Minnesota contra funcionarios del Gobierno de Trump se centra principalmente en cómo el despliegue masivo de agentes federales de inmigración en Minneapolis y el tiroteo mortal de Renee Good han sembrado el temor entre los residentes locales.

Entre los afectados se encuentran miembros del Departamento de Policía de Minneapolis, que aún arrastran las secuelas del verano de 2020.

“Para los agentes que estuvieron presentes durante los disturbios de 2020, este incidente ha activado recuerdos traumáticos mientras retoman sus labores operativas en medio de preocupaciones por una posible inestabilidad”, señala la demanda. “Los agentes que se incorporaron al departamento después de 2020 reportan impactos emocionales similares, tras haber vivido episodios de agitación como miembros de la comunidad”.

Una fuente policial describió la situación actual como “un desastre”.

“Todos nos alistamos para trabajar en la policía y hacer cumplir la ley, para salir a la calle y ayudar a las víctimas y meter a los malos entre rejas”, declaró la fuente a CNN. “Pero convertirnos en mediadores entre el Gobierno federal y los activistas no es para lo que nos alistamos”.

Estos comentarios reflejan uno de los aspectos de cómo la muerte de George Floyd a manos de la policía de Minneapolis, ocurrida hace más de cinco años, sigue proyectando una larga sombra sobre el área metropolitana de Minneapolis-St. Paul y ha influido en la respuesta al asesinato de Good la semana pasada por parte de un agente del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE, por sus siglas en inglés).

La muerte de Floyd en mayo de 2020 desencadenó protestas y disturbios en Minneapolis, quebró la confianza pública en las fuerzas del orden y provocó una salida masiva de policías, así como un fuerte aumento de la delincuencia.

En los últimos años, el número de agentes en la policía de Minneapolis se ha recuperado parcialmente y los delitos violentos han disminuido desde su punto máximo en 2021 y 2022. Sin embargo, las tácticas agresivas de ICE bajo el Gobierno de Trump, incluido el tiroteo mortal de Good la semana pasada, amenazan con revertir ese avance y reabrir una herida especialmente sensible en la ciudad.

“Esta no es cualquier ciudad; es Minneapolis”, dijo Chuck Wexler, director ejecutivo del Police Executive Research Forum, una organización nacional de investigación y políticas policiales. “Minneapolis, desde 2020, se convirtió en el epicentro del debate sobre la actuación policial”.

CNN habló con residentes de Minneapolis, expertos en seguridad pública y funcionarios locales, y revisó la demanda del estado para entender mejor cómo los acontecimientos de 2020 han moldeado la respuesta de la ciudad.

En particular, la agitación de hace casi seis años ha tenido varios impactos claros. Primero, la policía sigue estando gravemente subdotada de personal y teme desviar recursos limitados hacia asuntos relacionados con ICE. Segundo, el enfoque policial se ha desplazado hacia tácticas de desescalamiento, en marcado contraste con ICE. Y tercero, los activistas y el público están mejor informados y organizados que en otras ciudades.

En conjunto, estos factores indican que los agentes federales de inmigración probablemente enfrenten una resistencia más significativa y sostenida en Minneapolis que en otros lugares.

“La ciudad recibió una lección sobre lo bueno, lo malo y lo peor de la labor policial, y se convirtió en una especie de laboratorio para observar qué está pasando y cómo se pueden hacer reformas”, dijo Thaddeus Johnson, exfuncionario de las fuerzas del orden en Tennessee y miembro senior del Council on Criminal Justice, un centro de pensamiento no partidista. “Los propios residentes probablemente esté

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By Julian Zamora, Michael Rios, CNN

(CNN) — The US-based rescue team Grey Bull has released a short video showing how they helped Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado escape the country last month.

Machado left Venezuela in early December after almost a year in hiding so she could accept her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. She boarded a boat from the Venezuelan coast and sailed to a rendezvous point in the Caribbean Sea. There, she was picked up by Grey Bull founder and special forces veteran Bryan Stern and his team, who were waiting for her on another boat.

The edited, two-minute video released Friday shows the moment Machado reached and boarded the second vessel in the middle of the night.

“That’s them, that’s them, that’s them,” Stern is heard saying as lights from Machado’s boat appear in the distance and approach his vessel.

After confirming Machado’s identity, Stern is heard helping her board his boat, though the exact moment of the transfer is barely visible due to the darkness of the night.

“Hi, María. My name is Bryan. Nice to meet you. I got you,” he says as she gets on.

“So wet and so cold,” she’s heard saying.

The video then cuts to Machado wearing a dark jacket and hat, speaking directly to the camera: “I am María Corina Machado. I’m alive. I’m safe and very grateful to Grey Bull.”

The video ends with various still images of Machado with Stern and his team. Stern’s voice is heard over the photos, confirming that they had reached her.

“Jackpot, jackpot, jackpot. Objective Golden Dynamite,” Stern says before indicating that they were on their way to Curaçao, an island near Venezuela.

Stern previously said that they reached the shore in the early morning after a long, cold and tense journey. From there, Machado boarded a plane bound for Norway, where she was due to accept her Nobel Prize and see her family.

Grey Bull said last month that the extraction mission lasted nearly 16 hours and was carried out largely in the middle of the night through rough waters. The rescue group conducts civilian extractions in many parts of the world. Led by Stern, it has carried out at least 800 operations.

Machado earlier on Friday declined to comment on the extraction operation, citing safety concerns for those involved.

CNN has reached out to her team for comment.

Machado previously told reporters that she received support from the US government but declined to provide details, saying, “One day I will be able to tell you, because certainly I don’t want to put them in risk right now.”

Stern said last month that the operation was funded by anonymous donors and – to his knowledge – was not supported by the US government, but he acknowledged that his team did communicate with the US military to make them aware of their presence at sea.

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