Middle East

Gulf nations are snapping up cheap Russian oil products while exporting their own crude at market rates. Saudia Arabia and the UAE have emerged as key storage and trading hubs for Russian products, the Wall Street Journal reported. Russia is sending 100,000 barrels a day to Saudi Arabia, up from effectively zero pre-Ukraine war, Kpler…

Montana on Friday became the first state in the US to approve a bill banning the social media app TikTok. A growing number of countries are partially or totally banning the app over security concerns. The US is threatening TikTok's Chinese parent company with a ban if it doesn't sell to another company. Loading Something…

An Iranian vessel tried to blind the bridges of US Navy ships on Monday, CENTCOM said. Two US Navy ships were conducting a routine crossing through the Strait of Hormuz. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy patrol boat crossed within 150 yards of the ships at night. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up!…

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been investing heavily in new military hardware in order to Iran. They have continued their buildup even as President Joe Biden has tried to reassure them of US support. Loading Something is loading. Iran's military moves in recent weeks have captured worldwide attention, stoking concern among rivals in the…

Middle Eastern states such as Saudi Arabia are set for a $1.3 trillion windfall from high oil prices, the IMF said. The Ukraine war-driven price jump will deliver the extra money over the next four years, it told the FT. Brent crude has averaged $104 a barrel this year, up from $71 in 2021, and…

The benchmark daily rate for oil supertankers neared $40,000 on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg data.  That marks the highest rate since June 2020 and comes amid a surge in crude exports from the Middle East and US. Changing ship routes amid Russia sanctions have lengthened the journeys of some supertankers.   Loading Something is loading. Giant…

Researchers have unearthed an attack campaign that uses previously unseen malware to target Middle Eastern organizations, some of which are in the industrial sector. Researchers with Kaspersky Lab, the security firm that discovered the campaign, have dubbed it WildPressure. It uses a family of malware that has no similarities to any malicious code seen in…

Meet the Reaper, a $64M death-dealing assassination drone straight out of a science-fiction nightmare. Designated the MQ-9 Reaper multi-purpose drone, it’s widely considered the deadliest unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the sky. And for good reason. On 3 January 2020, US President Donald Trump authorized the military’s use of an MQ-9 in the assassination of Iranian…

The 10-Year Challenge was the year’s first big internet fad. You remember? When people posted pictures of themselves from 2009 and 2019 in order to… well, actually, that was it. Depending on who you talk to, it was either a benign trend for people to show off how resilient their faces were against the tides…