While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Oct 9, 2026
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US Vice-President J.D. Vance answering questions at an Oct 8 White House press conference.
PHOTO: EPA
US freezes Microsoft, Adobe, Infosys green-card applications
The Trump administration froze on Oct 8 some green-card filings by Microsoft, Adobe and major IT outsourcers and opened probes into nine top universities, widening a visa crackdown it says targets fraud and protects American jobs.
The twin actions mark the broadest strike yet against skilled-worker immigration programmes – potentially cutting off a common path to permanent residency for foreign tech workers – while putting some of the country’s top research universities on notice.
“There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused the system more than Microsoft,” Vice-President J.D. Vance said.
He said the company laid off 6,000 American workers in 2025 while benefiting from 6,300 H-1B temporary worker visas and nearly 3,000 green cards.
‘Public’ execution by firing squad for military base shooter
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the firing squad execution of convicted military base shooter Nidal Hasan will be “public,” according to a video shared on Oct 8 by the Pentagon.
“He’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be, and we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” Hegseth told right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec in a clip posted on X by various official Pentagon accounts.
“People need to understand that... there’s serious consequence for these types of things,” Hegseth said, speaking aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier.
France pledges 3,000 substitute teachers after protests
PHOTO: REUTERS
France’s education minister on Oct 8 promised 3,000 substitute teachers for the country’s worst-off high schools, after tens of thousands took to the streets nationwide to demand better education and less police brutality.
Students have blocked entrances to hundreds of high schools for more than a week, with squads of riot police deployed - occasionally resulting in violent clashes.
High school students across the country - most aged 15 to 18 - have complained of absent teachers, overloaded timetables, dilapidated classrooms and buildings that cannot cope with rising temperatures.
Russian strike on buses kills 30 in frontline Ukrainian city
PHOTO: REUTERS
Ukraine on Oct 8 accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians after 30 people were killed when two buses were blown up in the frontline city of Kramatorsk, in one of the deadliest single attacks for weeks.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed that the attack “will not go unanswered” after photos posted by local authorities showed the burnt-out metal shell of the vehicles, with bodies and debris strewn across the road.
“Russia is trying to destroy all life in (the) Donbas (region) and the world must respond to this,” he wrote on Telegram, warning that the death toll could rise.
City must ‘stick together’ during crisis, says Haaland
Erling Haaland said Manchester City must “stick together” in uncertain times after being found guilty of over 100 charges of breaking Premier League financial rules.
City face a severe points penalty or even expulsion from the Premier League after an independent commission found they used “sham” commercial contracts to inflate revenue and cut costs by over £900 million (S$1.5 billion) between 2009 and 2018.
Haaland did not join City until 2022, but it is the current squad that could bear the burden of any sanction.