Taiwan’s Chou eyes Olympic badminton gold, even without a coach

Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann has tested positive for COVID-19, the club said on Thursday (October 21), a day after he missed their 4-0 Champions League win at Benfica in Lisbon with "flu-like symptoms."

The president says the United States has a "commitment" to protect Taiwan as China continues to impose its sovereignty on the island. Beijing has urged Washington to act with caution on the Taiwan issue.

Speaking after a summit in Brussels, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reaffirms the United States' commitment to continue to help Taiwan 'defend itself' against threats from China. Recent comments by US President Joe Biden sparked a new firestorm in Washington-Beijing relations, when he affirmed that the United States had an agreement to help defend US ally Taiwan. Authoritarian China regards self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to one day seize the island, by force if needed.

The president has again said that he has a commitment to defend Taiwan should China attack, contradicting the US's decades-old policy toward the island. It has prompted official clarification about the US's role in Asia.

Kyiv has hailed a ruling by a Dutch court saying a collection of ancient gold artifacts from Crimea should be handed to Ukraine. But the ruling could be appealed by Russia, which annexed the peninsula in 2014.

China opposed the representation of Taiwan at the international stage after the US called for a more "meaningful" participation of the island in United Nations bodies.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on Beijing to deescalate tensions in the Pacific during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

At least 22 people, including children, were killed and another eight were wounded after a passenger coach plunged into a ravine in the Pakistani zone of Kashmir on Wednesday (November 3) local police said. Among the dead were two children aged nine and four years, a prayer leader and a Pakistan army soldier, said Rashid Naeem Khan, a senior police official in divisional headquarters Poonch. He said the coach was on its way to the garrison city of Rawalpindi when the crash happened.

A group of EU lawmakers has concluded its three-day visit to Taiwan amid accusations of provocation from Beijing. The delegation has called for more international engagement.

Taipei has said it is one of the largest Chinese incursions into Taiwan's air defense identification zone since early October, coming right after an EU delegation visited Taipei to work on building ties.

At least 18 people were killed on Sunday in an artisanal gold mine collapse in southern Niger, the local mayor said on Monday. The disaster took place in the southern Maradi region, near the border with Nigeria. The death toll is likely to rise, said the mayor of the commune of Dan Issa, Adamou Guero, . The Governor of the Maradi region, Aboubacar Chaibou, visited the site on Monday and promised better working conditions for people at the sire.

Taipei said it aims to build a "resilient defense" to cope with rising military threats made by China. The threats reportedly include overflights of Taiwanese airspace and cyber warfare.