Rockstar Games has confirmed that a data breach affected company information, saying a “limited amount of non-material company information” was accessed through a third-party incident and that the episode has had no impact on its operations or players. The disclosure lands at a sensitive moment for one of the world’s most closely watched game developers, with Grand Theft Auto VI still one of the industry’s biggest commercial […]
France and Britain are preparing to convene partner countries for what President Emmanuel Macron described as a peaceful multinational mission to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, marking a European push to keep one of the world’s most important energy arteries open without joining Washington’s new blockade of Iranian ports. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain would not support the US blockade and insisted […]
Britain will not back a United States blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday, drawing a firm line between protecting shipping routes and joining a wider military escalation around Iran. His intervention came after Washington announced it would block maritime traffic entering or leaving Iranian ports, while saying vessels transiting between non-Iranian ports could still pass through the strategic waterway. Starmer’s […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai AD Ports Group is accelerating its effort to turn itself from a Gulf port operator into a broader trade and logistics network, using expansion in Egypt, Africa, Pakistan and the Mediterranean to win a larger role in global supply chains as companies seek more resilient routes and integrated cargo services. For the Abu Dhabi-based group, 2025 marked another year of record financial growth. […]
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 […]
Google has moved to harden Chrome against one of cybercrime’s most effective tactics by making Device Bound Session Credentials publicly available for Windows users in Chrome 146, a step designed to stop attackers reusing stolen session cookies to enter accounts without passwords or multi-factor authentication. The change binds a signed-in web session to the user’s device, meaning a cookie lifted by malware should quickly become unusable on […]
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 […]
A critical security flaw in the User Registration & Membership plugin for WordPress has exposed thousands of websites to the risk of full administrative takeover, after researchers disclosed that versions up to and including 5.1.2 could allow attackers to gain elevated privileges without valid credentials. The issue, tracked as CVE-2026-1492, stems from improper privilege management during membership registration, creating a path for unauthorised users to register with […]
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 […]
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.
The immediate trigger has been the collapse in exports from the Gulf after the outbreak of war in late February and the severe disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Middle Eastern LPG exports fell 73% in March from the previous month to 419,000 barrels per day, according to Kpler data cited by Reuters. The squeeze sent April-loading spot premiums for propane and butane from the Gulf to record highs of $250 a tonne over March Saudi contract price swaps, while Saudi Aramco lifted its April official selling price for propane by $205 a tonne to $750 and for butane by $260 a tonne to $800.
That shock is now reshaping trade flows. Preliminary Kpler data show U. S. LPG exports are expected to rise to a record 2.7 million barrels per day in April, with about 1.8 million barrels per day heading to Asia, up 14% from March. Traders say cargoes are also being drawn from Canada, Norway, Argentina and Australia, but the United States has emerged as the principal swing supplier because of its sheer export scale. Marex’s Vasudev Balagopal told Reuters that major importers were actively diversifying beyond the Gulf, although brokers caution that U. S. export terminals were already running close to capacity before the conflict and cannot fully replace Middle East barrels on their own.
The substitution is costly and slow. U. S. Gulf terminal fees for propane and butane hit record levels in March, and cargoes from the Gulf Coast to Asia typically take more than 30 days to arrive, compared with roughly two weeks from the Middle East. Even where a ceasefire has allowed some movement through Hormuz, traders are treating the route as fragile and unpredictable. Reuters reported on April 11 that some tankers had begun exiting the Gulf after a truce, but hundreds of vessels remained stranded or delayed, underlining how quickly physical dislocation can outlast any diplomatic pause.
India’s position illustrates the strain most clearly. The country consumed 33.15 million metric tonnes of LPG last year, with imports covering about 60% of demand and roughly 90% of those imports sourced from the Middle East. State-backed retailers have kept prices for 14.2-kg domestic cylinders unchanged to protect households, even as commercial LPG prices were raised in April and the government diverted supplies away from industry to shield cooking-gas consumers. Reuters also reported that India increased domestic daily LPG output by 40% to 50,000 tonnes and secured 800,000 tonnes of replacement cargoes from the United States, Russia, Australia and elsewhere.
Officials in New Delhi are also using the shortage to accelerate a structural shift towards piped gas. Emergency powers have been invoked to direct limited LPG toward households, while expansion of city gas networks has been fast-tracked. India added 580,000 new household piped-gas connections in March, up sharply from a year earlier, and credit-rating agency ICRA estimates the policy push could cut LPG imports by 10% to 15% by 2030. The fiscal logic is clear: household LPG is sold at deeply subsidised rates, while piped gas is priced closer to the market, easing pressure on public finances as well as on import dependence.
China faces a different kind of pressure. There, LPG is not only a cooking fuel but also a crucial petrochemical feedstock. Rystad Energy estimates regional steam crackers lost about 135,000 barrels per day of LPG demand in March from February levels, with further declines expected in April and May. In China, propane dehydrogenation plants, already running at only 60% to 65% because of weak margins before the conflict, are expected to cut operating rates again as feedstock shortages bite. That matters beyond the energy sector because PDH plants make propylene, a building block for plastics and a wide range of manufactured goods.
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 […]
Pavel Durov, the Telegram founder, has escalated a public attack on WhatsApp, calling its claim of “end-to-end encryption by default” a “giant consumer fraud” and arguing that most private messages still become exposed through cloud backups. The charge, amplified on X amid a fresh US class action dispute over WhatsApp’s privacy promises, has reopened a wider argument about what encrypted messaging apps actually protect, what they leave […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
GitHub Copilot Chat has been shown to carry a serious prompt-injection weakness that allowed a researcher to demonstrate how secrets, private source code and other sensitive repository data could be siphoned out of trusted development workflows without planting malware in the victim’s environment. The issue, dubbed CamoLeak, was disclosed by Legit Security researcher Omer Mayraz after he said he found it in June 2025, reported it through […]
More than 5,000 Rockwell Automation and Allen-Bradley programmable logic controllers are exposed to the public internet, sharpening concern across United States critical infrastructure as federal agencies warn that Iran-affiliated cyber actors are actively targeting such devices. Security researchers at Censys said they identified 5,219 internet-exposed hosts globally that responded as Rockwell or Allen-Bradley systems, with nearly three quarters of them located in the United States. The warning […]
Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies fell on Saturday after high-level talks between the United States and Iran in Islamabad ended without an agreement, puncturing a bout of market optimism that had followed a temporary ceasefire and hopes of a broader diplomatic settlement. U. S. Vice President J. D. Vance said the American delegation was leaving Pakistan after about 21 hours of negotiations without a breakthrough. Markets reacted […]
Millions of Android users, including a large share of cryptocurrency wallet customers, were exposed to a software supply-chain weakness after a flaw in the widely used EngageSDK library was found to allow hostile apps on the same device to break through normal app boundaries and reach sensitive data. The issue centred on an “intent redirection” vulnerability inside the third-party Android kit, which is used for push notifications […]
