US President Donald Trump has declared the Strait of Hormuz a “new US territory.”

Trump on Tuesday shared a map graphic on Truth Social, a social media platform he owns, labelling the Strait of Hormuz a “NEW U.S. Territory”.

The same graphic was also posted by the official White House account on X.

The image shows a blue-highlighted map of the strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, with a circle around the narrow passage and the words “NEW U.S. Territory” displayed prominently.

The development follows Trump’s recent comments that he would declare the Strait of Hormuz US territory after defeating Iran.

Speaking at a political rally in New York State on Friday, Trump said,

“After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated — pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.”

Photo: Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema greets United Party for National Development (UPND) supporters during their election campaign launch in Lusaka, Zambia, June 28, 2026. Credit : REUTERS

Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema was well ahead in counting for national elections on Sunday with nearly half the constituencies declared, ‌the electoral commission said.

Reuters reported that Hichilema had 54.82% or 1,056,812 of the declared votes, figures showed, putting him on track for re-election without a second-round runoff if he keeps the overall majority.

His main ⁠challenger, Brian Mundubile, was in second place with 43% or 830,841 of the declared votes, with 105 out of 226 constituencies announced by around 1500 GMT.

The presidential vote — held alongside parliamentary and local elections on Thursday — is seen as a test of whether Hichilema’s economic gains since a pandemic-era debt ‌crisis ⁠are enough to win him a second term in Africa’s second-largest copper producer after the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Electoral Commission of Zambia temporarily halted vote counting on Friday, ⁠citing violence against officials and the theft of ballot papers.

• Solar Eclipse 2026

Millions of people are turning their gaze skywards in the hope of witnessing one of nature’s greatest spectacles, a rare total solar eclipse, as it sweeps over mainland Europe to briefly turn day into night.

The Moon is first expected to blot out the Sun, leaving only the shimmering glow of its outer corona, in Russia’s remote Arctic north, before parts of Greenland and Iceland are enveloped in the arc of its eerie shadow.

Excitement is highest in Spain, where tourists thronged the streets of normally quiet villages to experience the dramatic natural phenomenon as the eclipse’s narrow path cuts across the Iberian Peninsula from the northern Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean Sea in the south.

Mainland Europe has not experienced a total solar eclipse for 20 years while Spain has not witnessed one in more than a century.

Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, however, has not seen a total solar eclipse since 1433.

Supplies of special viewing glasses were in high demand as a partial eclipse will be visible for millions more in most of Europe, Canada, the northern United States and northwest Africa.

However, a total eclipse of the Sun is expected to only be visible in a handful of places.

Credit: EURO NEWS