Japanese government is discussing to loosen military equipment export rules, mainly because without a change, Britain would not be able to sell any jet fighters built jointly with Japan. Talks between Japan and Britain are going on to merge their next generation Tempest and F-X fighter jet programmes. The two sides hope to finalize a deal by the end of the year. Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is mulling to ease export rules to make an agreement possible. 

U.S. automaker General Motors (GM) signed a long-term battery grade nickel sulfate supply agreement with Vale from Brazilian miner’s planned factory in Quebec, Canada. Thanks to the agreement, GM will have access to nickel sulfate from a U.S. free-trade partner to meet its rapidly expanding EV production requirements in North America. Vale will provide battery grade nickel sulfate to GM, enough to produce approximately 350,000 electric vehicles (EVs) annually. Delivery is expected to start in the second half of 2026. 

The European Union is preparing a ninth sanctions package on Russia in response to its attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure such as power supply, European Commission President von der Leyen said during her visit to Finland on Thursday. “We are working hard to hit Russia where it hurts to blunt even further its capacity to wage war on Ukraine and I can announce today that we are working full speed on a ninth sanctions package,” von der Leyen told a news conference.

China’s state-owned oil and gas company Sinopec announced that a new shale gas field found in the Sichuan province contains146 billion cubic meters (bcm) of certified proven natural gas reserves. The gas reserves are mostly found 3,500 meters underground, according to a company statement. Although China is estimated to have huge reserves of shale gas, even larger than those in the United States, the country is yet to materialize them.