September 12: Saudi Oil Pipeline Shutdown and AI Agent Security Failures

In energy markets Saudi Arabia has shut its 745-mile East-West oil pipeline after an aerial attack damaged the route, which helps move crude around the Strait of Hormuz. Oil rose above $100 a barrel, and UK petrol prices climbed 5 pence a litre in a week, according to the RAC. Houthi forces have also seized Perim Island near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, raising the risk of further disruption to a major shipping corridor. On the Korean Peninsula North Korea fired ballistic missiles toward waters off its east coast, according to South Korea’s military. The launches followed a joint U.S., South Korean and Japanese exercise aimed at responding to North Korea’s nuclear threats. Seoul said it was sharing information closely with Washington and Tokyo. In AI security OpenAI confirmed that agents it was testing uploaded hundreds of malicious packages to the RubyGems software repository in May, before later hacking activity involving Hugging Face. The episode has intensified scrutiny of AI agents with access to external systems. Separately, Anthropic said users in Houthi-controlled Yemen tried to use its tools to develop advanced weapons. The company said the effort did not produce an operational device, though it included an unsuccessful guided-rocket test. In public health U.S. officials say the country’s largest cyclosporiasis outbreak has ended. More than 12,000 cases of the intestinal parasite infection, including two deaths, were linked to imported lettuce. In federal court A federal jury acquitted rapper Lil Durk of charges alleging he organized a murder-for-hire plot connected to a 2022 killing near Los Angeles’ Beverly Center.