China is witnessing its biggest wave of public dissent in a decade. Chinese universities are now sending students home in a bid to tighten COVID restrictions.

US President Joe Biden has called on lawmakers to pass legislation that would avert a nationwide rail shutdown. This would impose a contract that has not been approved by all negotiating unions but would nonetheless guarantee a 24 percent wage increase for rail workers. The US economy stands to lose $2 billion a day in the event of a strike.

At the Chinese Communist Party Congress, President Xi Jinping said "resolving the Taiwan issue is the Chinese people's own business." Taipei responded saying it will not back down on its sovereignty.

In response to rising energy prices and dwindling oil and natural gas imports from Russia, Germany is launching a set of binding measures to reduce energy consumption nationwide. Here's what this entails.

The US president will also visit Saudi Arabia, where he will have talks with Saudi officials and attend a summit of Gulf allies. Iran's nuclear program is set to be high on the agenda during his stay in Israel.

Imports from China's Xinjiang region have been banned in the United States from yesterday as new rules came into force. Under the regulations, firms will have to prove imports from the region are not produced using forced labour.

Mali's military junta has announced it will be exiting a multi-national military force tackling an insurgency in West Africa's Sahel region.

FRANCE 24 spoke to Lu Shaye, the Chinese ambassador to France. He insisted Beijing was prioritising "peaceful reunification" with Taiwan, but said the Chinese authorities had "not ruled out the use of force" – not with the intention of targeting "the people of Taiwan", but rather to dissuade "separatists in Taiwan" and certain "foreign forces". The Chinese diplomat also said he was "sure" there would be no mass surge in Covid-19 cases during the Winter Olympics, which open in Beijing on February 4.

The U.N. human rights office called on Tuesday (October 12) for a "prompt, thorough, impartial and independent investigations" into the use of disproportionate force by Libyan authorities against migrants and asylum seekers. Armed forces in Tripoli began a series of mass arrests a week earlier, detaining more than 4,000 people in overcrowded detention centres, U.N. rights spokeswoman, Marta Hurtado told a news briefing in Geneva. "Women, children and men were arrested and handcuffed. Security forces used unnecessary and disproportionate force to detain them, including shooting and beating those who resisted or tried to escape. As a result, at least one person died, five were injured, and more than 4,000 were detained," she said.

Forces train in Afghanistan's last anti-Taliban holdout Panjshir which remains the only holdout against the Taliban after the hardline Islamists took control of Afghanistan.

FG task force says enforcement of safety protocols will continue

Three people have died in a northern California wildfire. A separate blaze ripped through the world-famed wine regions of Napa and Sonoma as the state sees a historic fire season.