While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Jan 15, 2026
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US President Donald Trump vowed to “permanently pause” migration from all “Third World Countries”, following a shooting by an Afghan national.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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US suspending immigrant visa processing for 75 nations
US President Donald Trump’s administration is suspending processing for immigrant visas for applicants from 75 countries, a State Department spokesperson said on Jan 14, as part of Washington’s intensifying immigration crackdown.
The pause, which will impact applicants from countries including Somalia, Iran, Russia, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Yemen, Thailand and Brazil, will begin on Jan 21, the spokesperson said.
It does not affect visitor visas.
The memo outlining the suspension, which was first reported by Fox News, directs US embassies to refuse visas under existing law while the department reassesses its procedures.
Trump undeterred after high-stakes Greenland meeting
A meeting on Jan 14 between top US officials and the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland appeared to do little to quell President Donald Trump’s ambition of taking over Greenland, raising the prospect of prolonged geopolitical tension between Copenhagen and Washington.
Following the White House meeting between Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, his Greenlandic counterpart, Ms Vivian Motzfeldt, US Vice-President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Mr Rasmussen said the US and Denmark would form a working group to discuss a broad array of concerns regarding the Danish overseas territory.
But he also made clear that Washington had not budged on its position that it must acquire Greenland, an outcome Mr Rasmussen and Ms Motzfeldt described as an unacceptable breach of sovereignty.
Ford suspends US worker who heckled Trump
PHOTO: KENNY HOLSTON/NYTIMES
The Ford employee whose heckling of Donald Trump prompted an obscene gesture from the US president has been suspended, the US auto workers’ union said on Jan 14.
During a tour of the Ford Motor Company’s F-150 factory in Dearborn, Michigan on Jan 13, Mr Trump raised his middle finger at the worker following catcalls, according to widely seen video of the incident.
The heckler seemed to shout, in part, “paedophile protector,” US media reported – an apparent reference to suspicions that Mr Trump has been covering up disclosures related to the convicted sex offender and late financier Jeffrey Epstein, a former friend of the president.
Some saved, some not: Rescuers face train crash havoc
PHOTO: REUTERS
Residents and workers were confronted with a scene of carnage on Jan 14 as they rushed to try and rescue passengers after one of Thailand’s worst rail accidents in decades.
“I saw bodies piled up inside a carriage with metal wreckage all over when I looked through the window... We tried to pull them out but they were trapped,” 28-year-old waitress Penporn Poomrateuk told AFP.
“I felt scared,” said Ms Penporn, who rushed to the scene after hearing the sounds of a train and then a crash from her family’s restaurant in Thailand’s rural Nakhon Ratchasima province, north-east of the capital Bangkok.
Sparklers start fire at Madrid restaurant
Sparklers ignited a minor fire at a Madrid restaurant over the weekend, the owner said on Jan 14, less than two weeks after a deadly blaze at a Swiss bar also linked to pyrotechnics.
The fire broke out on the night of Jan 10 at Fanatico, a trendy restaurant in the centre of the Spanish capital, and was extinguished in about eight seconds using fire extinguishers, restaurant operator GLH Singular Restaurants said in a statement.
“There were no injuries and no structural damage to the establishment,” the statement added.
