‘Scrapped’ Tanker Rises From the Dead: Inside Venezuela’s Expanding Zombie Fleet

Bloomberg December 26, 2025

By Weilun Soon (Bloomberg) — A 27-year-old crude tanker that was supposedly scrapped in 2021 is due to reach Venezuela late this week, according to ship-tracking data, in the latest example of how the South American country keeps its embattled oil industry alive.

The tanker identifying itself as Freesia I is likely to be a zombie vessel, meaning it is in fact another tanker assuming the identity of a dismantled ship. This tactic is occasionally employed by boats ferrying sanctioned oil to obscure their trajectories and cargoes.

Venezuela’s oil industry, once a global powerhouse, has been decimated by years of sanctions and underinvestment. But it has continued to export, mostly to China, thanks to some of the oldest and murkiest tankers in the global fleet — a maritime lifeline for the economy and for the government of President Nicolás Maduro.

In the year to date, Caracas shipped nearly 900,000 barrels per day, according to analytics firm Kpler. That’s a fraction of what it once sold, but enough to irk the Trump administration into some of the most forceful sanctions enforcement to date.

“Venezuela has been remarkably effective at masking both origin and ownership of crude and therefore at evading financial and trade-related controls,” said Dimitris Ampatzidis, senior risk and compliance analyst at Kpler. “That’s why Washington has increasingly moved from purely financial measures to physical disruption.”

US forces have struck alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and since early December have chased or boarded three tankers in waters near Venezuela, including one non-sanctioned vessel — a significant escalation. Washington says the campaign is meant to deter illicit activity and to signal that the US wants Maduro out of power. President Donald Trump has also said the US would keep any seized crude.

“While the US has sanctioned numerous vessels and organizations, it hasn’t stemmed the flow. Physical boarding is the next step,” said Mark Douglas, a maritime domain analyst at Starboard Maritime Intelligence. “It’s a signal that falsifying locations and documentation is no longer a shield. It’s now what makes you a target.”

So far, the tanker seizures have done little to spook oil traders about a disruption to supplies as the market braces for a global glut. US oil prices have been little changed in thin trading since tensions escalated about two weeks ago.

Out of a dark fleet of roughly 1,500 vessels — often old, usually uninsured and owned by shell companies — Venezuela relies on close to 400 ships, according to TankerTrackers.com.

The tankers indulge in most of the dark fleet’s typical practices to obscure movements and ownership, including spoofing, or the use of fake locations. As with Freesia I, they also occasionally assume the identity of other, often dismantled, ships.

The vessel identifying as Freesia I was at Venezuela’s José oil-export terminal in early May. It began its most recent trip in Southeast Asia in November, signaling it would arrive at the South American country’s Amuay port on Dec. 26, likely to receive a new cargo. It later switched the destination to “High Sea”, before turning off its transponder altogether on Tuesday, off French Guiana.

Spoofing is also common. The Skipper, the first Venezuela tanker to be targeted by US forces, was using this tactic when it was captured earlier this month. The 20-year-old tanker indicated through tracking systems, starting in late October, that it was idling off Guyana. Instead, satellite images captured on Nov. 14 and reviewed by Bloomberg News showed Skipper, with red tips on either side of its deck, docked at the port of José.

That suggests the ship had been manipulating its signals, and only on the day of the US seizure did Skipper reveal its true location.

At the time of seizure, Skipper said it was sailing under Guyana’s flag, but that has since been disputed by the South American country. Ships of all types need to be registered with a certain country’s flag registry, which in turn enforces safety and crew-welfare standards on board those ships. Many in the dark fleet turn to flags of convenience or false registrations to avoid inspection.

Venezuela’s regular dark fleet tankers are typically provided by other countries, as Caracas is unable to finance its own flotilla, and cannot rely on an existing fleet that is too small and old.

https://gcaptain.com/scrapped-tanker-rises-from-the-dead-inside-venezuelas-expanding-zombie-fleet/

China Has Turned a Small Container Feeder Into an Arsenal Ship

Published Dec 25, 2025 10:26 PM by The Maritime Executive

The U.S. Navy wants to compete with China's PLA Navy for sea control in the Western Pacific, which would be essential to defending U.S. allies and protecting American economic interests in the region. But year on year, China's naval fleet continues to grow and modernize, adding more (and more credible) combatant vessels to the order of battle. On Thursday, new open-source imagery from downtown Shanghai showed that the contest could get harder: the photos show that the People's Liberation Army has outfitted a standard container feeder with most of the trappings of a frigate, with an abundance of missile capacity.

The vessel in question, Zhong Da 79, is a Chinese-flagged container feeder of about 320 feet in length. She has no IMO number or Equasis record, consistent with a purely domestic vessel. AIS data from Pole Star Global shows that she only engages in coastwise trade along China's eastern and southern seaboard.

Zhong Da 79's trackline suggests that the vessel has spent months undergoing a refit over the past year. She put into a small regional shipyard in Longhai in mid-April, emerging again in mid-August. Ever since, she has been moored alongside an industrial pier on the Huangpu River near downtown Shanghai.

A coastal vessel of such a small size hardly registers in most assessments of national maritime strength. Nonetheless, Zhong Da 79 appears to be large enough to host 60 full size containerized missile cells, an air defense radar, a close-in weapons system, and potentially more equipment in other containers on deck. Measured purely by missile capacity, this is nearly twice the firepower planned for the U.S. Navy's Constellation-class frigate, which was recently canceled due to delays and cost overruns.

Zhong Da 79 lacks the speed, shock hardening and compartmentalization of a real frigate, and would be vulnerable if unescorted. The challenge is in China's vast potential for making many more, and cheaply. China's flag (including Hong Kong) covers nearly 8,000 vessels, and Chinese beneficial owners hold another 4,400 ships under other nations' registries. China's industrial base is well-equipped to deliver the military hardware and shipyard man-hours to conduct conversions or deliver additional newbuild units. At minimum, in a high-end fight, a boxship/arsenal ship would complicate planning and absorb scarce precision munitions. At maximum, such a vessel class could deliver effective antiaircraft or antiship missile fire, hide amongst civilian vessel traffic, and be replaced rapidly if lost.

https://maritime-executive.com/article/china-has-turned-a-small-container-feeder-into-an-arsenal-ship

>>24031448

>Real Raw News has learned

Kek

>>24031495

Where are your scriptwriters getting their 'shrooms?

>>24031501

Canada #86

China Sanctions 20 US Defense Firms, Issues 'Red Line' Warning Over Record Taiwan Arms Deal

by Tyler Durden Friday, Dec 26, 2025 - 08:25 AM

After sounding the constant warning that Washington is "playing with fire" in continually arming and supporting self-ruled Taiwan, China's foreign ministry announced Friday new sanctions on ten individuals and 20 American defense companies, mostly notably among them Boeing, specifically in response to American arms sales to Taiwan.

The ministry described that the sanctions freeze any assets that the listed people and firms hold in China and prohibit Chinese organizations and citizens from conducting business with them, and singled out Boeing's St. Louis-based defense branch, Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation and L3Harris Maritime Services - among others.

Also on the list is Palmer Luckey, the founder of defense firm Anduril Industries. The sanctioned executives are barred from traveling to mainland China, as well as Hong Kong and Macau.

"In response to the latest US announcement of large-scale arms sales to China’s Taiwan region, China has decided to take countermeasures in accordance with the anti-foreign sanctions law against 20 US defense-related companies and 10 senior executives who have engaged in arming Taiwan in recent years," stated the Chinese foreign ministry.

"Anyone who attempts to cross the line and make provocations on the Taiwan question will be met with China’s firm response… No country or force shall ever underestimate the resolve, will, and ability of the Chinese government and people to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity," it added.

The ministry described that "movable and immovable properties, and other kinds of assets" of these American firms and individuals within China "shall be frozen."

The punitive measure follows the Trump administration's provocative announcement last week of an $11.1 billion arms package for Taiwan, which is record-setting, confirmed as the largest such US sale to the island to date.

Beijing has said "The Taiwan issue lies at the heart of China’s core interests and represents the first red line in China-U.S. relations that must not be crossed," according to a foreign ministry spokesperson.

The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said the major arms sales are intended to support Taipei's efforts to "modernize its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability."

The biggest chunks of the package include some $4 billion of Himars truck-based missile launchers, enough for 82 of the advanced systems.

The Himars have enough range to be able to reach targets on China's east coast, which introduces a new level of 'deterrence' from Taipei's and Washington's perspectives.

Last week, soon on the heels of this, Beijing issued a blistering statement saying, "The 'Taiwan independence' forces on the island seek independence through force and resist reunification through force, squandering the hard-earned money of the people to purchase weapons at the cost of turning Taiwan into a powder keg."

That prior statement had added, "This cannot save the doomed fate of 'Taiwan independence' but will only accelerate the push of the Taiwan Strait toward a dangerous situation of military confrontation and war. The U.S. support for 'Taiwan Independence' through arms will only end up backfiring. Using Taiwan to contain China will not succeed."

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-sanctions-us-defense-firms-executives-over-record-taiwan-arms-sales-red-line

>>24031637

More times of israel trash

You gonna do haaretz or jpost next?

>>24031641

And there it is, original sauce is haaretz

>>24031651

utter bullshit

Canada #86

Jimmy Kimmel Attacks Trump, Warns of ‘Tyranny Booming’ in Christmas Address on UK TV: ‘We Won, the President Lost’

by Simon Kent 26 Dec 2025

A comfortably smug Jimmy Kimmel sent a personal message to UK television viewers saying “tyranny is booming over here” when he delivered a fireside chat across the pond on Christmas Day.

The left–wing, late-night host was chosen to give an “alternative Christmas message” on Channel 4 to counter the British monarch’s much-viewed annual televised address, as Breitbart News reported.

The channel began a tradition of airing an alternative Christmas message in 1993. Channel 4 said the message is often a thought-provoking and personal reflection pertinent to the events of the year.

Kimmel was chosen after the presenter’s ABC talk show was yanked off air in September after he made despicable comments about slain conservative icon and free speech martyr Charlie Kirk.

He also poked fun at President Donald Trump comments about White House ballroom renovations after being asked about Kirk’s murder.

“You may have read in your colorful newspapers my country’s president would like to shut me up because I don’t adore him in the way he likes to be adored,” he said, per the Los Angeles Times.

He attributed the return of Jimmy Kimmel Live! to the “millions and millions of people” he claims fought to get him back on the air in the name of free speech.

Kimmel offered his UK audience no evidence to support the claim of “millions and millions of people” stood with him.

“And because so many people spoke out, we came back. Our show came back stronger than ever. We won, the president lost, and now I’m back on the air every night giving the most powerful politician on Earth a right, and richly deserved, bollocking,” he said in a nod to the British slang for scolding.

Elsewhere during his address, Kimmel called the president “King Donny the 8th.” “We don’t have a problem with your king, just the guy who thinks he’s our king,” he said, apologizing for the state of America and its democratic institutions.

“Don’t give up on us,” Kimmel said. “We’re going through a bit of a wobble right now, but we’ll come around.”

As Breitbart News reported, the late-night host had falsely suggested on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Kirk’s assassin may have been part of the “MAGA gang,” and mocked Trump’s response, which included ordering American flags flown at half-staff.

ABC, Disney, and affiliates responded by briefly pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live! from all of their stations, with broadcast affiliate Nexstar citing Kimmel’s “offensive and insensitive” comments “at a critical time in our national political discourse,” and stressing the company’s desire to “move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”

After returning to the air, Kimmel was slammed for his non-apology monologue addressing the matter, and was accused of spinning the narrative “in typical leftist fashion” to paint himself as a long-suffering victim.

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2025/12/26/jimmy-kimmel-attacks-trump-warns-of-tyranny-booming-in-christmas-address-on-uk-tv-we-won-the-president-lost/