While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Oct 8, 2026
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A masked woman walking past the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute, in the Russian city of Irkutsk, on Oct 7.
PHOTO: AFP
Trump says ‘we don’t think’ Russian plague is bio-weapon
US President Donald Trump said Oct 7 that the death of a Russian plague laboratory worker did not appear to be linked to a biological weapon.
“We don’t think so. We’re going to find out soon enough, but we don’t think so,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if a “bio-weapon” was involved.
Russia warned earlier against “false” information as reports emerged of a second suspected case. The US and UN have urged Russia to be more transparent.
Trump said Russia insisted it had the situation under control, but added that not much information was coming out.
International students to pay US$70,000 for work authorisation
PHOTO: REUTERS
The US Department of Homeland Security has proposed that international students pay at least US$70,000 (S$90,000) in training fees if they want to work in the country, according to a government notice posted online on Oct 7, part of the Trump administration’s wider crackdown on foreign visa holders.
Under the proposal, non-immigrant students with F-1 visas would be required to pay US$70,000 to a certified institution for on-the-job training, known as Optional Practical Training, and US$30,000 for any additional work training.
DHS said the new rules were meant “to combat fraud, strengthen the integrity of the immigration system, and protect US workers.”
Evicted pensioner who sparked Spain housing protests dies
PHOTO: REUTERS
An 87-year-old Madrid woman whose eviction triggered nationwide protests over Spain’s chronic housing crisis and a political debate that culminated in early elections died on Oct 7, a tenants’ union said.
“We are sorry to announce that Maricarmen passed away today,” the Madrid Tenants’ Union said in a statement about Maricarmen Abascal, adding that her cause marked “a turning point in the history of this country”.
Abascal became a symbol of Spain’s housing market on Sept 23 when she was evicted from her life-long Madrid home on a stretcher after the real estate firm that owned the apartment drastically hiked the rent.
Christa Pike ‘angry and confused’ over failed execution
PHOTO: AFP
Christa Pike, sentenced to death for a 1995 murder, awoke “angry and confused” in a hospital this week with a long recuperation ahead after surviving Tennessee’s botched effort to execute her, her lawyers said on Oct 7.
A week ago, Pike, 50, was taken from the execution chamber to a Nashville hospital, unconscious, critically ill and with severe arm injuries after two injections of the caustic barbiturate pentobarbital failed to kill her at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
As late as Oct 5, her lawyers believed Pike was brain dead and that life support would be removed the next day following the second botched execution in Tennessee this year, which has renewed scrutiny of capital punishment in the US.
Bottas arrives in Singapore after cycling over 419km from Malaysia
Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas made his entrance to the Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix in style on Oct 7 after cycling more than 419km over four days from Sepang.
The Cadillac driver took the internet by storm after confirming that he was making the journey on the road and gravel after the Bahrain GP in Malaysia concluded on Oct 4.
Since then, he has been posting daily updates of his ride on social media, with clips of the terrain he is cycling on.