The Chinese communist regime’s military new Reserve Personnel Law will be implemented on March 1. It will raise the age limit for reserve service, covering male Chinese citizens aged between 18 and 60. Analysts say that the changes reflect the regime’s intention to invade Taiwan. The new law set the maximum service age for reserve…

WASHINGTON—The Biden administration has asked Congress for $500 million to modernize the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve (SPR), a document outlining the request shows. If approved by Congress, the request, issued by the White House on Nov. 15, provides the Department of Energy (DOE) with funding to improve the four SPR sites along the Texas and…

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Energy on Thursday said it sold 15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to six companies, completing the last batch of the largest-ever release from the stockpile announced by President Joe Biden in March. The contracts were awarded to Phillips 66, Marathon Petroleum Supply and Trading LLC, Shell…

TOKYO—Japan’s foreign reserves fell by a record $54 billion in September, official data showed on Friday, as global market ructions dented the value of foreign bonds and prompted dollar-selling intervention to arrest a steep decline in the yen. The reserves stood at $1.238 trillion at the end of September, the lowest amount since the end…

Crude inventory in the U.S. emergency reserves fell by 3.1 million barrels in the week to Aug. 26, according to data from the Department of Energy. Stockpiles in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) fell to 450 million barrels, according to the data, the lowest since December 1984. The 3.1 million-barrel draw was the smallest draw…

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen called for civil efforts to defend the country against the increased authoritarian threat, referencing the Ukraine war, as she visited training army reservists. “The recent situation in Ukraine once again proved that to protect the country, in addition to the assistance from the international society, depends on the unity of the…

LONDON—Oil prices fell sharply on Thursday, extending losses from the previous session, as the United States said it was considering selling oil from its strategic reserves and as Russia said it was ready to stabilise the natural gas market. Brent crude prices fell $1.24, or 1.5 percent, to $79.84 a barrel by 0918 GMT, after…

WASHINGTON—U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday promised to redouble efforts to find “diverse candidates” to replace two high-profile officials who resigned this week after criticism of their securities trading, as the central bank tried to regroup from a blow to its typically staid, technocratic image. “I can absolutely guarantee you that we will…