Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Oil vaulted above $100 a barrel and share markets retreated on Monday after President Donald Trump ordered a US naval blockade targeting traffic to and from Iranian ports, sharply escalating tensions around the Strait of Hormuz after weekend talks between Washington and Tehran collapsed in Islamabad. The move revived fears of a wider confrontation across the Gulf and renewed concern over inflation, shipping […]
DIFC Art Nights will return to Gate Village in Dubai from 23 to 26 April, offering free entry to a four-day programme of visual art, performances, panel discussions and workshops as the financial district once again turns part of its public realm into an open-access cultural venue. Organisers have billed the 2026 edition as the 21st staging of the event, with visitors able to attend from 5pm […]
Adobe has issued an emergency update for Acrobat and Reader after confirming that a zero-day vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-34621 is being exploited in the wild, putting Windows and macOS users on notice to install the patch quickly. The company assigned the update a Priority 1 rating, its most urgent category for product security bulletins, and said successful exploitation could lead to arbitrary code execution. The flaw affects […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways has unveiled one of its largest single-market expansions in years, adding five mainland China destinations and 28 weekly flights as it deepens its joint venture with China Eastern Airlines and sharpens its focus on a corridor carrying growing weight in trade, tourism and cargo. The move will lift Etihad’s mainland China operation to 35 weekly services across six gateways, […]
Apache Tomcat users are being urged to move quickly after the Apache Software Foundation disclosed a set of security flaws that could let attackers undermine encrypted traffic protections, slip past certificate checks in some scenarios and exploit a defect introduced by an earlier fix. The most urgent concern centres on Tomcat’s EncryptInterceptor, where one vulnerability was followed by a second flaw in the remedy itself, creating a […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Central Bank of the UAE has appointed financial software group VERMEG to develop a central securities depository solution, a move that places the monetary authority more directly inside the country’s post-trade market infrastructure and signals a broader push to tighten the links between payments, settlement and capital markets. The announcement was made on 13 April, with CBUAE saying the project is intended to […]
Elon Musk’s X is preparing to launch XChat as a standalone messaging app for iPhone and iPad on 17 April, turning what had been a feature inside the social platform into a separate product aimed at users seeking private, app-first communication. Apple’s App Store listing identifies X Corp. as the developer, describes the service as fully end-to-end encrypted, and says it is built as a focused space […]
The decision marks a further escalation in Japan’s energy contingency response at a time when the Strait of Hormuz remains under severe strain despite a two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran. The waterway is one of the world’s most important oil chokepoints, and its disruption has hit Japan especially hard because the country depends on the Middle East for about 95% of its oil imports. Takaichi’s government has been racing to prevent shortages, stabilise prices and reassure refiners, transport operators and households that fuel will continue to flow.
Tokyo had already moved ahead on March 16 with the release of reserves equivalent to 50 days of consumption, combining privately held stocks with state reserves and supplies jointly held with producing nations. That initial step was announced before a formal coordinated action by the International Energy Agency, underscoring the urgency felt by Japanese officials as tanker traffic through Hormuz became severely constrained. The new plan adds another layer of insurance rather than replacing the earlier programme, signalling that authorities believe the market shock may last longer than first expected.
Officials say Japan still has considerable room to act. As of April 7, the country held reserves covering 228 days, including 143 days in the public stockpile. That buffer gives policymakers flexibility, but it also reflects the scale of the threat they see. Refiners have already been forced to adjust operations as crude availability tightens, and the government is attempting to manage not only total supply but also how fuel is distributed across the country. Concerns have centred on keeping essential sectors supplied first, particularly healthcare, transport, agriculture, fisheries and livestock production.
Japan’s strategy goes beyond drawing down reserves. Takaichi said the government expects that by May more than half of oil imports will be secured through routes that do not involve the Strait of Hormuz. That shift is central to Tokyo’s effort to avoid becoming hostage to a single maritime corridor while conflict risk remains elevated. Officials have not identified every supplier publicly, but the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has indicated that Japan is seeking alternative barrels from a wide range of countries, including Malaysia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Nigeria and Angola.
The United States is set to play a larger role in that reshaping of supply. A ministry document cited by Reuters said oil imports from the US in May would be four times higher than a year earlier. Japan imported about 189,000 barrels a day from the US in May last year, equal to roughly 8% of total crude purchases for that month. Tokyo is also drawing on Middle East supplies that can bypass Hormuz, including shipments from Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea outlet at Yanbu and from Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. Those routes do not eliminate vulnerability, but they reduce reliance on the narrow strait at the centre of the crisis.
Domestic politics and inflation pressures are also shaping the response. Takaichi has paired the reserve releases with fuel price measures meant to keep retail gasoline around a nationwide average of ¥170 a litre, even if crude prices remain elevated. Officials have warned that a prolonged supply shock could otherwise push pump prices much higher and strain households as well as businesses already dealing with cost pressures. Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama has also flagged the fiscal burden of existing subsidy measures, suggesting that energy security is becoming not only a supply issue but a budgetary one.
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Saudi Arabia has restored full pumping capacity on its East-West pipeline to about seven million barrels a day, reactivating a strategic export artery that has become central to global crude flows during the disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The Ministry of Energy said operational and technical teams brought the line back to full strength within days of attacks that had […]
Amazon has drawn a hard line under Amazon Luna’s experiment with digital game sales, ending the purchase of standalone titles on the cloud platform and stripping out third-party store access and subscriptions as it pushes the service towards a fully subscription-led model. The change took effect on April 10, with Amazon saying users will no longer be able to buy individual games through Luna or sign up […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai University of Sharjah has opened a conference on intellectual security and social media, placing the debate over online influence, youth vulnerability and responsible digital engagement at the centre of its academic agenda as governments, universities and religious scholars grapple with the speed at which harmful narratives can spread online. The event, organised by the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies through its Forum […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Qatar Islamic Bank has been named Qatar’s best private bank at the Euromoney Private Banking Awards 2026, handing the lender a prominent endorsement in a market where domestic banks and international wealth managers are competing more aggressively for high-net-worth clients seeking personalised advice, Shari’a-compliant products and stronger digital access. Euromoney’s national winners list for Qatar names QIB as the country’s best private bank […]
A frantic hunt for oil cargoes that can be delivered at once has tightened the global crude market, even as headline prices have swung with every turn in the fragile ceasefire around Iran and the Strait of Hormuz. Behind the moves in futures, traders, refiners and state buyers have been competing for physical barrels from the North Sea, West Africa, the United States and anywhere else supplies […]
Two empty supertankers heading towards the Persian Gulf reversed course near the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, underscoring how quickly shipping sentiment can turn when diplomacy falters in one of the world’s most sensitive energy corridors. The movements came as talks between Washington and Tehran in Islamabad ended without agreement, leaving a fragile ceasefire under strain and traders, shipowners and refiners facing renewed uncertainty over access to […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai University of Doha for Science and Technology and the Community College of Qatar have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at deepening academic collaboration, in a move that underscores Qatar’s push to align higher education more closely with labour-market needs and applied learning. The agreement establishes a framework for cooperation and knowledge exchange between the two institutions, with the stated goal of advancing […]
Police in San Francisco arrested a 20-year-old man after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the home of OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, in an attack that was followed within an hour by threats against the company’s headquarters, according to police statements and OpenAI. No injuries were reported, but the episode has sharpened concerns over the security risks facing senior technology executives as arguments over artificial intelligence […]
Greenlogue/AP Spring rain has reshaped the Aja Mountains in Hail into a greener, water-fed landscape, drawing fresh attention to one of the region’s best-known natural landmarks and reinforcing a wider push to turn northern Saudi Arabia’s scenery into a stronger tourism asset. Official reports on April 9 described vegetation spreading across ravines and valleys after rainfall, with seasonal grasses and wild plants softening the granite terrain […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Saudi Arabia Railways has launched five new logistics routes aimed at accelerating cargo movement between Gulf ports, inland industrial centres and cross-border markets, in a move designed to strengthen the Kingdom’s position in regional and international trade. The new network combines rail and road links, tying Arabian Gulf gateways to central and northern regions, with onward access to the Red Sea and […]
Hackers posing as trusted messaging and communications services have mounted a sustained surveillance campaign across the Middle East and North Africa, using fake app pages, phishing domains and a custom Android spyware known as ProSpy to target journalists, activists and political figures, according to a joint body of research published this week by Lookout, Access Now and SMEX. The operation, active since at least 2022 and documented […]
Wafacash and Money Fellows have signed a strategic partnership at GITEX Africa in Marrakech aimed at digitising Daret, the traditional savings circle widely used in Morocco, in a move both companies say could widen access to formal financial tools while preserving a long-standing social practice. The agreement marks Money Fellows’ formal push into Morocco and places Wafacash, a subsidiary of Attijariwafa Bank Group, at the centre of […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Capital, liquidity and asset quality at the UAE’s largest banks remain robust, according to Dubai-based Al Ramz Capital, which says a ceasefire between Washington and Tehran has removed an immediate geopolitical overhang that had weighed on sentiment, valuations and foreign risk appetite. The firm said direct exposure to sectors most sensitive to conflict, including real estate, hospitality, aviation, transport and trade finance, […]
Scientists tracking airborne particles over agricultural land in Oklahoma have identified medium-chain chlorinated paraffins, or MCCPs, in the atmosphere, marking what researchers describe as the first airborne detection of the chemical group in the Western Hemisphere. The finding has drawn attention because MCCPs are toxic industrial compounds under growing international scrutiny, and the researchers suspect the material may have reached the air from fertiliser made with treated […]
Dubai has unveiled a parking-linked retail incentive that will allow motorists to recover paid parking costs as cashback when they shop at participating neighbourhood businesses, in a move that blends urban mobility policy with support for smaller traders. The initiative, called Spots for Shops, is being introduced by Parkin, the emirate’s public parking operator, with the first phase due to go live on the Parkin app in […]
RAVE has staged one of crypto’s sharpest April breakouts, vaulting from roughly $0.25 at the start of the month to above $2 at its peak within days, a move that pushed the token into the market’s top tier by capitalisation and drew a surge of speculative trading across spot and derivatives venues. The question now is less about how fast the token climbed than whether that ascent […]
