While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Jan 9, 2026
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
US Vice-President J.D. Vance addressing the media at the White House on Jan 8.
PHOTO: EPA
Follow topic:
Take Trump seriously on Greenland, Vance tells Europe
US Vice President J.D. Vance warned Europe on Jan 8 to take Donald Trump “seriously” on Greenland, as the president ramps up threats against the Danish-ruled Arctic territory.
Mr Vance accused fellow NATO member Denmark and the rest of Europe of failing to do enough to protect the strategically-located island from the designs of Russia and China.
European capitals have been scrambling to come up with a coordinated response after the White House said this week that Mr Trump wanted to buy Greenland and refused to rule out military action.
“I guess my advice to European leaders and anybody else would be to take the president of the United States seriously,” Mr Vance told a briefing at the White House when asked about Greenland.
Senate rebukes Trump on Venezuela in war powers vote
PHOTO: AFP
The US Senate took a major step on Jan 8 towards passing a resolution to rein in President Donald Trump’s military actions in Venezuela – a rare bipartisan rebuke following alarm over the secretive capture of leader Nicolas Maduro.
The Democratic-led legislation, which bars further US hostilities against Venezuela without explicit congressional authorisation, got through a key procedural vote with support from five Republicans.
The vote on final passage, expected next week, is now seen as little more than a formality, and would mark one of Congress’ most forceful assertions of its war-making authority in decades.
‘Den of robbers’: German president’s world order warning
PHOTO: AFP
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has strongly criticised US foreign policy under President Donald Trump and urged the world not to let the world order disintegrate into a “den of robbers” where the unscrupulous take what they want.
In unusually strong remarks, which appeared to refer to actions such as the ousting of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro at the weekend, the former foreign minister said global democracy was being attacked as never before.
Although the German president’s role is largely ceremonial, his words carry some weight and he has more freedom to express views than politicians.
Several whales restrand at New Zealand’s Farewell Spit
Fifteen whales restranded and six have died after a mass stranding at Farewell Spit on the coast of New Zealand’s South Island, conservation group Project Jonah said on Jan 9, as volunteers prepared to attempt to refloat them.
A day earlier, on Jan 8, 55 whales were stranded in two locations in Farewell Spit, a 26km sandbar at the northern tip of the South Island. Most of them were refloated.
Project Jonah, in a statement on Facebook, said teams had been checking beaches across Golden Bay, where Farewell Spit is located, for other stranded whales and are working to keep the surviving animals cool and comfortable until the afternoon high tide.
Joshua pays tribute to friends killed in crash
PHOTO: AFP
Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua paid a moving tribute on Jan 8 to the two close friends killed in a car crash in Nigeria, labelling them “brothers” and “great men”.
Joshua suffered minor injuries in the Dec 29 crash and after being discharged from hospital he returned to England before attending the funerals of Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami on Dec 4.
“Thank you for all the love and care you have shown my brothers,” Joshua posted on Instagram.
