Mike Baker

Later in the show, we'll return to our coverage of Iran, where demonstrations continue to spread nationwide, casualties rise, and Tehran signals that it may be losing its grip.

But first, our afternoon spotlight.

In a matter of hours, US forces have seized two sanctioned tankers tied to Venezuela's crude oil.

operating thousands of miles apart, one in the North Atlantic and one in the Caribbean, in a sign that Washington's oil blockade now reaches far beyond Caracas' backyard.

We'll start with a tanker called the Bella One, which has been playing a game of cat and mouse with U.S.

authorities for weeks now, evading the Coast Guard, changing its flag, and changing and repainting its name on the hull — that should do it — as well as painting a Russian flag on the side.

But the game came to an abrupt end today when the Bella 1, newly renamed the Marinera, was boarded by U.S.

authorities under a federal court warrant for sanctions violations.

U.S.

officials say the ship is part of Russia's shadow fleet of tankers tied to Venezuela's illicit oil trade.

As we've covered here on the PDB, Russia's shadow fleet is made up of vessels that routinely change names and flags and ownership structures to obscure their movements and evade enforcement.

U.S.

European Command confirmed the seizure in a post on X, noting that its tanker was intercepted in international waters after extensive tracking.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth amplified the message in a post of his own, writing that the blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil "...remains in full effect anywhere in the world."

And for a moment, their pursuit even threatened to spill into something potentially larger.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia dispatched a submarine and other naval vessels to escort the clandestine, well, not so clandestine tanker.

Two U.S.

officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the report, telling Reuters that Russian military assets were in the general vicinity during the operation, but there were no indications of any confrontation between U.S.

and Russian forces.

So to put it plainly, the Russians watched the U.S.