While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Feb 10, 2026
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Ghislaine Maxwell and US President Donald Trump pictured together in an image released by the Department of Justice in Washington on Dec 23, 2025.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell seeks Trump clemency before testimony
Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell refused on Feb 9 to answer questions from a congressional panel but said she was prepared to speak if granted clemency by President Donald Trump.
Maxwell, 64, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking, was subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee to discuss her relations with Epstein.
Rather than answer the committee’s questions, however, the former British socialite invoked her Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate herself.
“As expected, Ghislaine Maxwell took the Fifth and refused to answer any questions,” committee chairman James Comer told reporters. “This is obviously very disappointing.”
Air Canada halts service to Cuba as island set to run out of jet fuel
PHOTO: AFP
Cuba is at risk of losing vital airline service as it prepares to run out of aviation fuel, with at least one major carrier, Air Canada, suspending all service to the island as a result.
The communist government warned international airlines they can no longer refuel at its main airport in Havana for the next month after Donald Trump threatened tariffs on any nation that supplies Cuba with oil. A-1 jet fuel won’t be available at Jose Marti International Airport beginning Feb 10 through March 11, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a notice on Feb 8.
Canada’s flagship carrier said on Feb 9 it was halting flights to Cuba effective immediately, though it plans to send empty planes to bring back about 3,000 vacationers currently on the island.
Russian oil tankers list Singapore as destination amid sanctions and shift to China
PHOTO: REUTERS
Russian oil tankers are increasingly listing Singapore as their official destination, signalling a shift in export flows from India to China and growing concerns over Western sanctions, traders said and LSEG shipping data shows.
LSEG data shows tankers carrying about 1.4 million metric tonnes of Russian crude departed for Singapore in January, the highest monthly volume in recent years.
Singapore doesn’t import Russian oil amid sanction risks, but its nearby waters are sometimes used for ship-to-ship transfers, traders said.
US forces seize ship in Indian Ocean that fled Caribbean blockade
PHOTO: DEPTOFWAR/X
US forces boarded and seized an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean that violated President Donald Trump’s blockade of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean and fled the region, the Pentagon said Feb 9.
The Pentagon told AFP that US forces had seized the ship, after announcing on X that the Aquila II was boarded “without incident” overnight.
The tanker “was operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean. It ran, and we followed,” the Pentagon said on X, adding that the vessel was “tracked and hunted” from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean.
Mystery of breaking medals baffles Winter Olympic organisers
PHOTO: REUTERS
Whether gold, silver or bronze, there is one thing Milano Cortina Winter Olympics medals have in common: they can break.
Games organisers on Feb 9 said they had launched an investigation into a spate of mishaps that have left Olympic medallists, including American downhill skiing champion Breezy Johnson, sporting a chipped medal.
"We are fully aware of the situation and you have seen the pictures," Milano Cortina Chief Games Operations Officer Andrea Francisi told a press conference on Feb 9. "We are looking into what exactly the problem is.
