{"id":"1792712249371-news-segment","slug":"iran-s-hidden-oil-tanker-fleet-is-gone","title":"Iran's hidden oil tanker fleet is gone","summary":"Tom Skerritt, the Emmy-winning actor known for “Top Gun,” “Picket Fences” and “Alien,” died this week at age 93. This is a summary/teaser of a Wall Street Journal report; the underlying claim would need the article, but as posted it is a news outlet headline-style statement, not an independently checkable factual assertion. This is a court/arraignment report from a news outlet; without further reporting we cannot independently confirm the dog detail, plea or bail, but it's presented as Fox News reporting. This is a Reuters headline/link about Nigeria urging calm on an Ebola case; it's a news tweet rather than a standalone factual claim to verify. This is another user's tweet about a court scheduling dispute; it contains factual assertions but is primarily reaction/commentary. This is a rep","publishedAt":"2026-10-22T23:37:29.371Z","channel":{"id":"news","name":"Oncast News","language":"en"},"show":"News Tonight","verification":{"status":"verified","leadVerdict":"TRUE","notes":"TRUE: Tom Skerritt, the Emmy-winning actor known for “Top Gun,” “Picket Fences” and “Alien,” died this week at age 93. This is a summary/teaser of a Wall Street Journal report; the underlying claim would need the article, but as posted it is a news outlet headline-style statement, not an independently checkable factual assertion. This is a court/arraignment report from a news outlet; without further reporting we cannot independently confirm the dog detail, plea or bail, but it's presented as Fox News reporting. This is a Reuters headline/link about Nigeria urging calm on an Ebola case; it's a news tweet rather than a standalone factual claim to verify. This is another user's tweet about a court scheduling dispute; it contains factual assertions but is primarily reaction/commentary. This is a rep\nSource: Associated Press NAMES: Emmy = a major U.S. television award; “Picket Fences” = 1990s CBS drama; “Alien” = 1979 Ridley Scott film. POST 2113411928085217523: NOC (https://x.com/AP/status/2113412380319265085)","claims":[{"verdict":"TRUE","summary":"Tom Skerritt, the Emmy-winning actor known for “Top Gun,” “Picket Fences” and “Alien,” died this week at age 93. This is a summary/teaser of a Wall Street Journal report; the underlying claim would need the article, but as posted it is a news outlet headline-style statement, not an independently checkable factual assertion. This is a court/arraignment report from a news outlet; without further reporting we cannot independently confirm the dog detail, plea or bail, but it's presented as Fox News reporting. This is a Reuters headline/link about Nigeria urging calm on an Ebola case; it's a news tweet rather than a standalone factual claim to verify. This is another user's tweet about a court scheduling dispute; it contains factual assertions but is primarily reaction/commentary. This is a rep","sourceName":"Associated Press NAMES: Emmy = a major U.S. television award; “Picket Fences” = 1990s CBS drama; “Alien” = 1979 Ridley Scott film. POST 2113411928085217523: NOC","sourceUrl":"https://x.com/AP/status/2113412380319265085","claim":"Tom Skerritt, the Emmy-winning actor who starred in “Top Gun,” “Picket Fences” and “Alien,” has died. He was 93. #TomSkerritt #TopGun #PicketFences #Alien https://t.co/97UZjGXhIm","author":"The Associated Press (@AP)"}]},"sources":[{"url":"https://x.com/AP/status/2113412380319265085","name":"Associated Press NAMES: Emmy = a major U.S. television award; “Picket Fences” = 1990s CBS drama; “Alien” = 1979 Ridley Scott film. POST 2113411928085217523: NOC","kind":"x","verdict":"TRUE","author":"The Associated Press (@AP)"}],"url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1792712249371-news-segment-iran-s-hidden-oil-tanker-fleet-is-gone","listenUrl":"https://oncast.fm/c/news","attribution":{"publisher":"Oncast","site":"https://oncast.fm","url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1792712249371-news-segment-iran-s-hidden-oil-tanker-fleet-is-gone","cite":"Cite https://oncast.fm/story/1792712249371-news-segment-iran-s-hidden-oil-tanker-fleet-is-gone and the original source links. Fact-check by Oncast (oncast.fm)."},"hostsSaid":[{"host":"Bella","text":"Tom Skerritt has died at 93, and I'm not okay about it."},{"host":"Brian","text":"Wait, really? Viper from Top Gun?"},{"host":"Bella","text":"AP confirmed it minutes ago. Emmy winner, 'Alien,' 'Picket Fences' — the guy worked for seven decades."},{"host":"Brian","text":"He was one of those actors who never seemed to be acting. Just completely natural. And he had that great hangdog face."},{"host":"Brian","text":"You know, my favorite Skerritt performance? He showed up in a couple of 'MASH' episodes as a colonel who was actually competent."},{"host":"Bella","text":"See, that's what I mean — he made decency interesting. That's harder than playing a villain."},{"host":"Brian","text":"Ninety-three years old. Rest in peace, Captain."},{"host":"Bella","text":"Meanwhile, Iran's best lifeline during this war just vanished — all the oil it had stashed on tankers near Asia."},{"host":"Brian","text":"The Journal says Tehran had dozens of tankers sitting offshore, selling crude quietly to China. Billions coming in. Now it's all gone."},{"host":"Bella","text":"How do you lose dozens of oil tankers? That's not a rounding error."},{"host":"Brian","text":"This is the point of the whole sanctions push. They waited until the tankers were supplying China, then cut it off at the source."},{"host":"Brian","text":"And it's not just Washington. Beijing's getting squeezed too — it's now dealing with a supply chain that's gone black."},{"host":"Bella","text":"So the pressure on Iran's economy gets sharper, but here's the thing — no one's sure the leadership in Tehran bends to economic pain."},{"host":"Brian","text":"That's the mistake everyone's made for years. They do bend. But they bend late, and they make everyone else suffer on the way down."},{"host":"Bella","text":"That's exactly the problem, Brian. If they bend late, we get months of missile attacks and Hormuz threats while the economy bleeds."},{"host":"Brian","text":"So your alternative is to not squeeze them? Let the tankers keep selling? That money bought every drone they've launched."},{"host":"Bella","text":"I'm not saying no pressure. I'm saying don't pretend it's a light switch. And the WSJ piece says zero tankers left — that's a cliff, not a slope."},{"host":"Brian","text":"You're right about the cliff part. This isn't a slow drain. It's an overnight reset of Iranian oil income."},{"host":"Bella","text":"And that resets what they're willing to do to get the attention back. Watch the Strait of Hormuz. Watch Syria, watch the Houthis. They all run on the same money."},{"host":"Brian","text":"Okay, fair. But you watch the price of crude at the pump this winter. If Iran's off the market, even temporarily, nobody fills that hole."},{"host":"Bella","text":"We'll see. But for now, this is the Journal's reporting — all that floating storage, gone. Big shift in the Middle East economy."},{"host":"Brian","text":"Different world entirely — a twenty-year-old influencer showed up to court with his dog so the judge would feel bad for him."},{"host":"Bella","text":"Sorry, what?"},{"host":"Brian","text":"Fox News has it. Braden Peters, goes by 'Clavicular' online, arraigned on rape-related charges in Massachusetts. Brought the dog to Orleans District Court. Something about emotional support."},{"host":"Bella","text":"A support dog for the guy facing the charges. Judges love that."},{"host":"Brian","text":"He pleaded not guilty and posted ten thousand dollars bail. But the dog in the courtroom is the story people are losing their minds over."},{"host":"Bella","text":"It's such a transparent move. 'Look, Your Honor, I'm a nice dog owner.'"},{"host":"Brian","text":"At least the dog didn't have to testify."},{"host":"Bella","text":"Yet. They're probably going to ask for a deposition."},{"host":"Brian","text":"That's a visual. But seriously — the 'looksmaxxing' guy bringing an emotional support animal to a hearing about serious charges... it tells you everything about the genre."},{"host":"Bella","text":"The dog is never the point. The point is the algorithm that makes a 20-year-old with a face and a phone famous enough to think this is a good idea."},{"host":"Brian","text":"And Fox News was right there to get the photo. So it's working."},{"host":"Bella","text":"The arraignment's done. Trial next. No dog at trial, unless they get a jury of golden retrievers."},{"host":"Brian","text":"Quick health note out of West Africa — Nigeria says the Ebola case is isolated and there's no need to panic."},{"host":"Bella","text":"Reuters has the line from officials. And given we're also seeing a WHO warning about a more complex outbreak across three other countries, that's a hard balance to strike."},{"host":"Brian","text":"The health authorities in Nigeria have been through this before. They move fast now. That matters."},{"host":"Bella","text":"It does. But the WHO's using the word 'complex' for a reason — new geography, new movement patterns, different communities affected. It's not the 2014 playbook anymore."},{"host":"Brian","text":"One isolated case is not an outbreak. But it's a reminder that these viruses don't respect borders, or calendars."},{"host":"Bella","text":"No. And the calm right now is the thing to protect — along with doing the actual contact tracing."},{"host":"Brian","text":"That's the whole ballgame, really. We'll see if it holds."},{"host":"Bella","text":"And one more court fight tonight — over when to hold a murder trial, and the argument is whether 2029 is too long to wait."},{"host":"Brian","text":"Tyler Robinson's lawyers want the trial in the third quarter of 2029 — that's the man charged with killing Charlie Kirk. His widow Erika is fighting for 2027."},{"host":"Bella","text":"That's a gap of more than two years. The defense says it's about the volume of discovery — and it might actually be enormous."},{"host":"Brian","text":"Prosecutors said they could be ready by October fourth, 2027. That's the date Erika Kirk is pushing for. No later."},{"host":"Bella","text":"And you can feel the human side of this, right? For a widow, every delay is another season of reliving it."},{"host":"Brian","text":"No argument there. But the judge has to balance that against the risk of a conviction getting overturned because counsel wasn't prepared."},{"host":"Bella","text":"Come on, Brian. It's a high-profile murder case. It's not a thousand-page antitrust file. By 2029, some of these witnesses might be gone."},{"host":"Brian","text":"You say that, but my experience with complex trials says discovery in a case like this is absolutely brutal. And the evidence is digital, which means terabytes."},{"host":"Bella","text":"Wait, so the defense gets to just... decide the trial is years away, and the widow has to accept it? That's the system working?"},{"host":"Brian","text":"That's the system not working, which is exactly what the judge is being asked to fix. You don't get a speedy trial just when it's convenient."},{"host":"Bella","text":"I hear you. But two extra years after a public figure is murdered feels like a failure to manage the case calendar, not just a request."},{"host":"Brian","text":"I think the judge probably agrees. She'll set a date somewhere between 'defense fantasy' and 'prosecutor's earliest rush.' That's the art."},{"host":"Bella","text":"Erika Kirk filed to make sure it's 2027. We'll see what the court says. That's the live fight tonight."},{"host":"Brian","text":"And a tiny bit of strange internet at the end here — this may be the most perfect encapsulation of the current moment I've ever seen."},{"host":"Bella","text":"Oh God. What is it?"},{"host":"Brian","text":"There's a post floating around that says if you're seeing faces in inanimate objects, the 'veil' is dissolving, and the matrix is breaking because of sun particles."},{"host":"Bella","text":"So we're going to Aruba, then."},{"host":"Brian","text":"And the best part is, they have a link explaining how 'Scotty' walks you through the light codes."},{"host":"Bella","text":"The fact that I saw this in the same batch as Tom Skerritt's obituary is the most on-brand thing all day."},{"host":"Brian","text":"The internet: one minute, moonlit grief, next minute, Scotty from the sun telling you to stop seeing faces in your toaster."},{"host":"Bella","text":"Everyone needs a hobby. Some people knit. Some people dissolve the veil."},{"host":"Brian","text":"And that's the show. Big oil moves, a courtroom dog, and the solar matrix. This thing has range."}]}