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

The United States has revoked more than 175,000 visas issued to foreign nationals since President Donald Trump returned to office.

Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2025, when he was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.

The State Department disclosed the figure on Monday, saying most cancellations followed law enforcement encounters involving criminal activity fraud, assault, reckless driving, theft and drug-related offences.

Other cases involved child molestation, fraud, embezzlement and more serious offences including kidnapping, sexual battery, domestic violence and possession of child sexual abuse material.

The State Department said its continuous-vetting programme is designed to identify visa holders who violate the conditions attached to their visas, commit crimes, defraud Americans or pose public safety risks.

It stressed that obtaining a US visa does not guarantee permanent permission to enter the country, describing a US visa as a privilege rather than a right.