Oil prices have started to fall after a decision to release 100 million barrels of oil and fuel reserves, International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol said on Friday.

“We took a step today on diesel. We held a meeting with world leaders and announced that we would start releasing 100 million barrels of oil again,” Birol said. “Prices are starting to fall.”

“I hope this will be a beneficial step both for the world and for Turkey,” he added.

Birol was speaking in Istanbul at a press meeting titled “Financing the Transformation: Turkey on the Road to COP31”, hosted by Turkey’s Banks Association Chairman Alpaslan Cakar.

AD Ports Group has completed its Dhs3.1bn ($835m) acquisition of Brazilian agri-bulk port terminal operator Corredor Logística e Infraestrutura (CLI), the biggest acquisition in the Abu Dhabi group’s history.

The deal, first announced in June, was completed after receiving the required regulatory and antitrust approvals in Brazil, including from the National Waterway Transportation Agency (ANTAQ) and the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE).

AD Ports Group acquired CLI from funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management and IG4 Capital.

The transaction gives the group its first strategic foothold in South America and expands its exposure to Brazil’s agricultural export market.

CLI operates two major agri-bulk export terminals under long-term concessions. CLI Sul, located at the Port of Santos, handles sugar as well as corn and soybeans, while CLI Norte operates at the Port of Itaqui as part of Brazil’s “Arc of the North” agricultural export corridor.

In 2025, CLI handled a combined 17 million tonnes of agri-bulk cargo and recorded revenues of Dhs654m ($178m), with EBITDA of Dhs360m ($98m).

“The formal completion of the CLI acquisition marks an important development in AD Ports Group’s international growth and strengthens our presence in one of the world’s most important agricultural export markets,” said Mohammed Al Tamimi, CEO of Noatum Ports – AD Ports Group.

He said Noatum Ports would move to integrate CLI into the group’s wider international operations.

AD Ports eyes new Brazil-Abu Dhabi trade routes

AD Ports said the acquisition would also support plans to develop new trade routes connecting Brazil directly with Khalifa Port and the Abu Dhabi Food Hub in KEZAD.

The group is targeting wider connections between Brazilian agricultural exports and markets across the Indian subcontinent, East Africa and Southeast Asia through its ports, shipping and logistics network.

The Dhs3.1bn transaction eclipses AD Ports Group’s previous major acquisitions, including its Dhs2.65bn ($720m) purchase of Spanish logistics company Noatum in 2023 and its initial Dhs1.9bn ($510m) acquisition of a 51 per cent stake in Dubai-based Global Feeder Shipping in 2024.

AD Ports subsequently increased its ownership of Global Feeder Shipping to 81 per cent in June this year through the purchase of an additional 30 per cent stake for Dhs1.1bn.

The completion of the CLI deal comes as AD Ports Group continues to expand its international footprint and build its agrifoods business, with investments and port operations spanning markets including Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Jordan and Spain.

Dubai’s financial regulator has fined ADGM-licensed wealth manager Vault Wealth Dhs401,000 for providing financial services from the DIFC without the required authorisation.

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) imposed a $109,200 (Dhs401,000) penalty on Vault Wealth Limited for carrying on financial services in or from the Dubai International Financial Centre without being authorised by the regulator.

The fine was reduced by 30 per cent from $156,000 (Dhs573,000) after Vault Wealth agreed to settle the matter.

Vault Wealth is a wealth management firm incorporated in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and regulated by the ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA).

Its activities include advising on investments or credit and arranging investment deals.

What did Vault Wealth do?

The regulator found that Vault Wealth breached the Financial Services Prohibition under Article 41(1) of the Regulatory Law 2004 by providing services including advising on financial products and arranging deals in investments without DFSA authorisation.

Between February and May 2024, Vault Wealth employees worked from the offices of related DIFC entity Vault Technology Limited, which was not regulated by the DFSA.

Prospective clients were invited to the DIFC office, where Vault Wealth staff provided financial advice and helped clients onboard to an investment platform.

Clients also supplied know-your-customer documentation to facilitate the creation of investment accounts.

The DFSA said the office did not make clear that the DIFC entity was separate from Vault Wealth.

As a result, prospective clients meeting Vault Wealth personnel at the office could have believed the company was authorised by the DFSA to provide financial services in or from the DIFC.

Senior management knew authorisation was required

The DFSA said Vault Wealth’s senior management was aware of the requirement to obtain DFSA authorisation.

Despite this, the company did not proceed with obtaining approval and continued providing financial services in or from the DIFC, according to the regulator.

Senior management also failed to act on concerns raised by Vault Wealth’s then compliance officer about the absence of the required licence.

The DFSA treated these issues as aggravating factors when determining the size of the fine.

Alan Linning, managing director of enforcement at the DFSA, said authorisation was fundamental to the integrity of the DIFC’s regulatory framework and the protection of people using financial services within the centre.

“Authorisation by another regulator does not permit a firm to conduct financial services in or from DIFC,” Linning said.

He added that firms must ensure they have the appropriate DFSA authorisation before undertaking regulated activity, warning that the regulator would intervene where companies operate outside the regulatory perimeter.

Binance’s AI-driven risk systems helped protect more than 8 million users and prevent approximately US$4.6 billion in potential losses during the first half of 2026, as the company continues to deploy artificial intelligence across its security, anti-fraud and compliance infrastructure.

The systems cover abnormal trading activity, account takeover attempts, scams and transaction fraud, with AI increasingly embedded across the user journey wherever real-time risk decisions are required.

In H1 2026, Binance intercepted millions of scam and phishing attempts, blacklisted more than 42,000 malicious addresses and issued more than 14,000 real-time warnings every day.

Binance currently operates more than 100 AI models across its anti-fraud and anti-scam controls. The infrastructure is built, trained and supervised in-house, with human risk analysts setting thresholds, reviewing edge cases and retraining models as new scam patterns emerge.

Across fraud controls, AI models now make 80% to 90% of real-time risk decisions, while also assisting in approximately 45% of human review workflows. Human reviewers remain central to cases requiring more detailed validation and contextual judgement.

AI embedded across the user journey

AI is deployed across identity verification, account security, payments and broader transaction protection and screening. Each action is evaluated as it occurs, with the large majority of decisions resolved automatically.

This enables risk protection to operate at platform scale without slowing down legitimate users, with most users not seeing the checks taking place in the background.

Within Know Your Customer (KYC) identity verification processes, Binance’s AI-enabled review pipelines have delivered up to 100x operational efficiency gains over manual processes in specific workflows, while specialists remain involved in higher-risk cases.

Binance uses a hybrid approach combining proprietary technology with external AI and foundation models. Its in-house models are designed around risks observed specifically on the platform, while external models are used for broader reasoning tasks.

The company also operates an internal Red Team that tests its defences by examining how emerging technologies could potentially be used against the platform.

Jimmy Su, Chief Security Officer at Binance, said: “These exercises help us identify weaknesses before attackers do, validate that our controls work under realistic conditions, and continuously strengthen the people, processes and technology protecting our users. In security, you cannot simply assume your defenses will work – you have to challenge them.”

Layered protection against social engineering

Social engineering remains an area where multiple AI technologies work together, particularly in peer-to-peer trading.

Binance’s in-house computer vision models detect fake proof-of-payment images by analysing transaction details and subtle image manipulations. AI is used for high-volume discovery and screening, while human reviewers provide more detailed validation and contextual judgement.

Findings from emerging attack patterns are subsequently used to fine-tune the models, creating a continuous feedback loop in which AI provides scale and human specialists provide accuracy.

Binance also applies structured model governance throughout the AI model lifecycle, covering development, validation, deployment and ongoing monitoring.

AI supporting compliance and internal operations

Beyond direct user protection, Binance’s compliance teams use AI-assisted automation to support areas including KYC fraud detection and transaction-monitoring execution.

More than 24 AI initiatives have been deployed across user onboarding, screening escalations and partner due diligence.

AI is also being adopted across Binance’s internal operations. The company’s internal agentic tool currently has approximately 72% uptake across teams, supported by company-wide training, prompt-engineering programmes and structured oversight.

Binance says its AI systems operate within a privacy-first framework built around data minimisation, purpose limitation and user-rights safeguards. These principles are incorporated into how AI models are developed and deployed, with the objective of protecting users from financial abuse and harm without compromising data privacy.

As increasingly sophisticated forms of deception become easier and cheaper to produce, Binance continues to invest in a combination of AI-driven scale and human judgement, including retraining models, refining thresholds and keeping experienced analysts involved in cases requiring more detailed review.

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Etihad Rail has introduced six additional train services between Abu Dhabi and Dubai this weekend in response to exceptional early demand, reflecting customers’ enthusiasm for travelling by rail.

More than 1,000 additional seats have been released across three new services on Saturday, October 3, with another 1,000 seats offered across three new services on Sunday, October 4.

The additional services will operate at the following departure times on both days:

12:14 pm: Abu Dhabi to Dubai

1.43 pm: Dubai to Abu Dhabi

4:43 pm: Abu Dhabi to Dubai

All times are UAE local time.

Tickets for the additional services went on sale at 2 pm on Friday, October 2.

Etihad Rail began the introductory phase of its passenger services on June 30, 2026, with the first train departing Fujairah at 5.34 am for Mohammed Bin Zayed City Station in Abu Dhabi. The service initially connected Abu Dhabi and Fujairah, with the journey taking about one hour and 45 minutes.

The network expanded on September 30 with the opening of Dubai’s Al Yalayis station and Al Dhaid station in Sharjah, alongside the start of regular passenger services linking Dubai with Abu Dhabi and Fujairah.

Etihad Rail’s passenger trains are designed to operate at speeds of up to 200 kilometres per hour.