
US government issues security alert for Americans travelling abroad
The US State Department has issued a security alert for all its citizens travelling abroad in the wake of American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
"The conflict between Israel and Iran has resulted in disruptions to travel and periodic closure of airspace across the Middle East. There is the potential for demonstrations against US citizens and interests abroad," the department posted on X and on its website.
"The Department of State advises US citizens worldwide to exercise increased caution. Please read carefully our Travel Advisory, country information and any recent security alerts when planning travel."
Iran launched at least 27 missiles at Israel on Sunday morning, hours after the US attacked three Iranian nuclear sites, escalating the Middle East conflict.
The conflict has resulted in the closure of air spaces over Israel and Iran, as well as the suspension of civilian operations over Iraq, leading to hundreds of commercial flight suspensions and delays in the wider region.
On Sunday, Singapore Airlines cancelled its flights to Dubai following the US strikes on Iran. British Airways also cancelled its flights from London to Dubai and Doha on Sunday, citing "recent events".
Bahrain, home to the US Central Command's regional base, also issued public safety guidance on Sunday in the wake of the US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
The Gulf nation is strategically close to Iran and hosts US personnel and military officials.
"In light of recent developments in the regional security situation, we urge citizens and residents to use main roads only when necessary, to maintain public safety and to allow the relevant authorities to use the roads efficiently," an Interior Ministry statement read.
"A remote working system will be activated across ministries and government agencies, with a 70 per cent work-from-home capacity," the official Bahrain News Agency said on Sunday.
About 9,000 defence personnel are stationed in Bahrain, including military and civilian staff. The US Navy's Fifth Fleet provides security to ships and aircraft in the region.
In a similar development, the Kuwaiti Finance Ministry said on Sunday it has activated its emergency plan to ensure the continuity of financial and service operations with high efficiency.
On Sunday, the UAE President Sheikh Mohamed held phone calls with leaders around the region and the world on Sunday about how air strikes on Iran could affect regional security and stability.
The US mission to the UAE also said that the embassy in Abu Dhabi and consulate in Dubai remain fully operational.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Khaleej Times
13 minutes ago
- Khaleej Times
Sunmarke students take centre stage as future changemakers at TEDxSunmarke 2025 and Think & Thrive Summit
Sunmarke School, one of Dubai's leading British curriculum institutions known for its innovation and character building ethos, has once again demonstrated the power of student voice through two landmark events held in June, the Think & Thrive Summit and TEDxSunmarke 2025. These extraordinary initiatives are key features of Sunmarke's Signature Programmes, which are designed to give students real-world experiences far beyond the classroom. Held on June 10, TEDxSunmarke 2025 delivered a dynamic showcase of student-led thought leadership under the theme 'Beyond the Surface'. Twelve articulate student speakers and one distinguished guest took to the TEDx stage, exploring themes ranging from personal ambition and mental health to climate action and hidden narratives of success. The talks resonated with raw authenticity and critical insight, reflecting the school's unwavering commitment to developing not just scholars, but confident changemakers prepared for the complexities of tomorrow. On June 3, Sunmarke hosted the Think & Thrive Summit, a dynamic event that brought industry leaders into direct conversation with students. More than a speaking event, Think & Thrive is a student-moderated conversation space where curiosity, aspiration, and mentorship converge. This year's line-up featured renowned personalities including Rasna Al Khamis, chief marketing officer at Emirates Nature–WWF, who shared her experience leading sustainability campaigns across the region; Lachlan Kitchen, seasoned radio host and deputy programme director at Talk 100.3 FM, who offered insights into the evolving world of media and live broadcasting; Maitha Alawadi, an award-winning Emirati scriptwriter and director who spoke on regional narratives and cultural storytelling; and Malika Singh, a celebrated Bollywood film producer, who discussed content creation at scale and the global influence of cinema. Their stories of triumph, creativity, and resilience served as a powerful career compass for Sunmarke's ambitious secondary students. These events are part of Sunmarke's acclaimed signature programmes, a suite of transformative initiatives encompassing STEAM & Design Thinking, AI Learning, Environmental Sustainability, Careers Development, Performing Arts and more. These programmes spark curiosity, build leadership, and develop the self-awareness students need to thrive in an ever-changing world. 'TEDxSunmarke & Think & Thrive Summit was a powerful reminder of what our students can achieve when given the stage, they inspired, challenged, and led with conviction. At Sunmarke, we see oracy as a cornerstone of confidence and leadership. Through signature programmes like TEDx and Think & Thrive, we're not just preparing students for exams, but empowering them to find their voice and shape the future," says Nicholas Rickford, Principal of Sunmarke School. Part of Fortes Education, Sunmarke School is rated 'Outstanding' by the British Schools Overseas Inspection Authority and 'Very Good' by the KHDA. It offers a breadth of post-16 pathways including A-Levels, the IB Diploma Programme, and BTEC qualifications. With over 260 after-school and extracurricular activities, top global university placements, and a purpose-built campus boasting state-of-the-art STEAM labs, media studios, and Olympic-standard facilities, Sunmarke remains at the forefront of educational excellence in the UAE. Sunmarke is ranked 68th globally among IB schools and 3rd in the UAE, a testament to its academic distinction and student outcomes. To learn more about Sunmarke School and its signature programmes, visit


Tahawul Tech
27 minutes ago
- Tahawul Tech
Fortinet upgrades CNAPP, expands solution availability via AWS Marketplace
New Lacework FortiCNAPP innovations and expanded solution availability in AWS Marketplace accelerate full application life-cycle protection, threat detection, and response. Abu Dhabi — Fortinet, a global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, announced powerful updates to Lacework FortiCNAPP at its' Security Day in Abu Dhabi on Monday. Alain Penel, VP of Middle East, Turkey & CIS at Fortinet: 'Whether you are born in the cloud or migrating business workloads, Fortinet delivers a unified cloud native application protection platform to empower organisations who adopt a multi-cloud strategy – securing their workloads, applications, and environments with agnostic visibility. This includes posture management and runtime security across the entire CICD lifecycle without compromising performance or agility. 'Fortinet is expanding its security cloud delivered offerings on AWS marketplace with FortiNDR, FortiSIEM, and FortiAppSec to provide real-time detection, contextual enterprise-wide visibility, cloud threat hunting, automated response and application security at cloud speed and scale.' The company also announced that the FortiAppSec Cloud service, FortiMail Workspace Security, FortiNDR Cloud, FortiSIEM, and Fortinet Incident Response services are now available in AWS Marketplace, a digital catalog that helps you find, buy, deploy, and manage software, data products, and professional services from thousands of vendors. 'Fortinet is committed to accelerating secure cloud transformation for our customers,' said Nirav Shah, Senior Vice President, Products and Solutions at Fortinet. 'By making more of our services available in AWS Marketplace and enhancing leading cloud-native solutions like Lacework FortiCNAPP and FortiAppSec Cloud, we're making it easier than ever for organisations to protect every cloud workload, application, and network edge.' Fortinet has enhanced Lacework FortiCNAPP to deliver even stronger protection for cloud-native applications across their entire life cycle. These updates reinforce FortiCNAPP as an industry-leading, cloud-native security platform designed to deliver faster detection, deeper insights, and simplified operations at scale. Real-Time CloudTrail Alerting – Enables near-instant detection of critical activity, such as compromised credentials or anomalous API behavior, by reducing AWS CloudTrail alert latency from 24 hours to under 15 minutes. Explorer (Security Graph) – Provides a visual, interactive view of attack paths and asset relationships, making pinpointing and investigating exposures, such as internet-facing vulnerabilities, easier. Agentless Windows Scanning – Supports agentless scanning for Windows workloads across any cloud, identifying vulnerabilities and secrets without requiring software deployment. This is ideal for expanding visibility and compliance with minimal overhead. Fleet Management – Delivers detailed visibility across large environments into agent inventory, health, and deployment status, helping teams monitor coverage and optimise cloud security. In addition, Fortinet expands its cloud services for web applications and APIs by introducing new service bundles that include Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), CDN, and SoC-as-a-Service, in addition to its AI-powered zero-day threat detection, analysis, and remediation to protect web applications and APIs. Full-Stack protection available in AWS Marketplace Fortinet has expanded the availability of its cloud security portfolio in AWS Marketplace. This provides Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers with the ability to streamline the purchase and management of more Fortinet offerings within their AWS Marketplace account. By deploying solutions on AWS, Fortinet makes it easier for customers to deploy protection, streamline procurement, and apply AWS Enterprise Discount Program (EDP) commitments. Services now available in AWS Marketplace include: FortiAppSec Cloud – Unified web application and API protection (WAAP) with web application firewall (WAF), bot management, API security, and DDoS mitigation FortiMail Workspace Security – End-to-end SaaS protection across email, browsers, and collaboration tools to stop advanced threats in platforms like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, and Teams with a built-in, 24×7 managed incident response service to accelerate threat containment and lighten the load on SOC teams FortiNDR Cloud – AI-driven threat detection optimised for distributed cloud infrastructure FortiSIEM – Scalable log management and incident response for complex environments Fortinet has achieved the AWS Security Incident Response Specialisation, which recognises that Fortinet provides a streamlined incident response solution backed by AWS security response experts through AWS Security Incident Response. The capabilities of Fortinet's specialised cloud consulting and FortiGuard Incident Response Services teams help AWS customers strengthen their cloud security posture. Fortinet Incident Response Services are now available in AWS Marketplace, offering expert support backed by deep integration with AWS and the Fortinet Security Fabric. This underscores Fortinet's commitment to supporting customers with end-to-end security expertise—from proactive risk assessments to prompt incident handling—backed by deep integration with AWS-native tools and FortiGuard threat intelligence. Strategic shift toward unified cloud-native security This launch reinforces Fortinet's commitment to simplifying cloud security by consolidating fragmented, non-integrated solutions into a unified cloud security platform. Rather than relying on isolated point products, Fortinet delivers integrated solutions across application, network, and user layers designed to streamline management and scale efficiently in any environment. By unifying capabilities like WAAP, network detection and response (NDR), security information and event management (SIEM), cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP), and workspace security under a single vendor and deployment model, organisations gain comprehensive cloud protection along with greater speed, cost-efficiency, and operational clarity. For those with cloud spend commitments and desire to optimise their cloud security investments, particularly in dynamic environments, Fortinet FortiFlex offers a flexible, daily usage-based licensing model that supports rapid deployment, elastic scaling, and seamless drawdown of existing cloud commitments, helping organisations protect what they need, when they need it, while only paying for what they use.


Khaleej Times
28 minutes ago
- Khaleej Times
Qatar says security remains stable after US embassy asks citizens to 'shelter in place'
Authorities in Qatar have affirmed that the security situation in the country remains stable and under control, following a series of precautionary advisories issued by some foreign embassies to their citizens. Advisor to Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Dr Majed Al Ansari, emphasised that these notices do not indicate the presence of any specific or credible threats within Qatar. The US Embassy in Qatar sent an email to American citizens on Monday recommending them to shelter in place until further notice. The embassy clarified that the message was issued 'out of an abundance of caution' and did not provide additional details. In response, the Qatari official reassured both citizens and residents that security services are closely monitoring the situation and are fully prepared to take any necessary measures to safeguard public safety. Al Ansari wrote on X: "These advisories do not necessarily reflect the existence of specific or credible threats. We would like to reassure the public that the security situation in the State remains stable. "The relevant authorities are closely monitoring the situation and remain fully prepared to take all necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of citizens, residents and visitors. "The public will be kept informed of any developments that may warrant notification or action, and we stress the importance of obtaining information from official sources." He added that Qatar continues to exert intensive diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region and to preserve regional security and stability through ongoing engagement with relevant stakeholders and regional and international partners.