Rachel Abrams

From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily.

Since December, the U.S.

has been stopping and seizing oil tankers traveling in and out of Venezuela.

After President Trump imposed a blockade on ships carrying sanctioned Venezuelan oil.

Ships that are part of what's known as a ghost fleet.

Oil tankers that try to secretly make their way around the world.

A seventh sanctioned oil tanker.

Funding petrostates like Venezuela, Iran, and Russia.

Today, my colleague Christiane Trebert on what these ghost fleets are exactly and how their days might be numbered.

It's Tuesday, January 27th.

Christiane, welcome to The Daily.

So, Christiane, the U.S.

has been seizing and stopping oil tankers coming in and out of Venezuela for weeks now.

And at first, this seemed like part of a pressure campaign against President Nicolas Maduro.

But then, obviously, the U.S.

captured Maduro.

And I think a lot of people assumed that this effort, this pressure on the ships would stop.

But instead, it's actually not only continued, but expanded.

You are the newsroom's resident expert on these oil tankers.

You've been tracking all of this as part of our visual investigations team.