Bloomberg The chief of Taiwan’s military told a local magazine the island’s forces could repel an initial attack from China if they are well-prepared. “China is certainly strong enough to start a war, but it’s not so strong that it can successfully take Taiwan within one or two weeks,” Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said in an interview with CommonWealth ...

  Bloomberg Australia and the Philippines are considering joint patrols in the South China Sea, their defense ministers said, as the Southeast Asian nation reported continuing presence of suspected Chinese vessels in contested waters. Australia also wants to pursue more military exercises with the Philippines, Defense Minister Richard Marles said in a briefing after meeting with Filipino counterpart Carlito Galvez ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suggested a coming deal with the European Union over post-Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland would involve legal changes to the existing treaty, something the bloc has previously opposed. In the House of Commons, Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson complained that under the existing “unacceptable” deal — known as the protocol — “EU laws ...