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Trump Says Will 'Soon' Declare Hormuz Strait US Territory

Police officers applaud as President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Police officers applaud as President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
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Trump Says Will 'Soon' Declare Hormuz Strait US Territory

Police officers applaud as President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Police officers applaud as President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

President Donald Trump said Friday he would "finish defeating" Iran and "soon" declare the Strait of Hormuz part of US territory.

Trump has repeatedly said that the key energy waterway, which Tehran effectively closed at the start of the Middle East war, is under US control -- an assertion Tehran denies.

"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," he said with a chuckle during a political rally at a police academy in New York state.

"It's true," he added, according to AFP.

An unnamed White House official later clarified that Trump was joking, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi fired back Saturday in a post on X, stressing that the "Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian."

"This strait will only be closed and opened under Iran's command," he added.

Trump, together with Israel, launched a war against Iran on February 28.

The United States remains locked in a stalemate with Iran over the strait, with Iran denying access to much of the civilian shipping and the US Navy mounting a blockade of Iranian ports in an attempt to cripple its economy.

"We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to," Trump said to a cheering crowd of supporters and police.

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World

South Korea Says Russian Military Planes Entered Its Air Defense Zone

Seoul's defense ministry said multiple Russian aircraft had entered and then left its air defense identification zone over the East Sea. (Republic of Korea Air Force)
Seoul's defense ministry said multiple Russian aircraft had entered and then left its air defense identification zone over the East Sea. (Republic of Korea Air Force)
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South Korea Says Russian Military Planes Entered Its Air Defense Zone

Seoul's defense ministry said multiple Russian aircraft had entered and then left its air defense identification zone over the East Sea. (Republic of Korea Air Force)
Seoul's defense ministry said multiple Russian aircraft had entered and then left its air defense identification zone over the East Sea. (Republic of Korea Air Force)

South Korea said on Wednesday it had scrambled fighter jets in response to Russian military aircraft entering its air defense zone, the second such incursion in weeks.

The relationship between the countries has worsened since South Korea joined Western sanctions following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and since Moscow built stronger ties with North Korea.

Seoul's defense ministry said multiple Russian aircraft had entered and then left its air defense identification zone over the East Sea, also called the Sea of Japan.

"South Korea's military detected the Russian aircraft before they entered the zone and deployed Air Force fighter jets to prepare for any contingency," it said, without giving details.

The Russian aircraft did not violate South Korean airspace, it said.

An air defense identification zone is not sovereign airspace but a buffer area where countries require foreign aircraft to identify themselves for security purposes.

Military aircraft are generally expected to notify the relevant country before entering its zone, although there is no legal obligation to do so.

In late June, more than 10 Chinese and Russian military aircraft entered South Korea's air defense zone.

Beijing's defense ministry said at the time that Chinese and Russian forces had conducted a "strategic air patrol" over the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea and the western Pacific Ocean.

Russia's defense ministry said the patrol was part of normal military cooperation plans and "not directed against third countries".

But South Korea still lodged protests with Beijing and Moscow and demanded measures to prevent a recurrence.

World

Pakistan Hospital Fire Kills 14 Infants

Police officers move past an ambulance outside an intensive care unit after a fire broke out at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, August 26, 2026. (Reuters)
Police officers move past an ambulance outside an intensive care unit after a fire broke out at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, August 26, 2026. (Reuters)
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Pakistan Hospital Fire Kills 14 Infants

Police officers move past an ambulance outside an intensive care unit after a fire broke out at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, August 26, 2026. (Reuters)
Police officers move past an ambulance outside an intensive care unit after a fire broke out at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, August 26, 2026. (Reuters)

A fire erupted in a hospital's maternity ward in Islamabad on Wednesday, killing 14 infants, Pakistani authorities said, with the prime minister calling for an investigation. 

The fire broke out on the third floor of the Mother and Child Health Ward at the public Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), the Islamabad district office said in a statement. 

The statement gave a death toll of 14, who according to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif were all infants. 

Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi expressed "deep grief and sorrow over the deaths of 14 infants" in separate statements. 

"Such a situation involving children is irreparable," the prime minister said. 

"The circumstances that led to the incident should be thoroughly reviewed, those responsible should be identified, and the strictest possible action should be taken." 

Authorities have not identified the cause of the fire. 

Sohail Ashraf, the Islamabad chief commissioner, said the emergency call was made just before 7:00 am (0200 GMT), with rescue and police teams reaching the scene "immediately" and bringing the fire under control. 

Outside the hospital, an AFP reporter saw a woman in tears and a man clear glass from two broken windows, as security guards stood at the entrance to the leading medical facility. 

Fires in large buildings are frequent in Pakistan, often due to poor safety laws and building codes as well as lax enforcement. 

In January, more than 65 people were killed in a shopping center fire in the port city of Karachi. 

At least 11 people were killed in another shopping mall fire in Karachi in 2023. 

In 2021, at least 16 workers died after a factory fire in the same city. 

In 2012, at least 250 laborers died at a garment factory in Baldia Town, in western Karachi, when a fire engulfed the facility. The building had no fire escape. 

World

Six Chinese Nationals Among Seven Killed in Russian Gas Plant Fire

Trucks race on the frozen Amur River during the Russia-China winter sports festival ZimFestAmur, with the Chinese city of Heihe seen in the background, in the far eastern town of Blagoveshchensk, in Amur region, Russia, February 28, 2026. (Reuters)
Trucks race on the frozen Amur River during the Russia-China winter sports festival ZimFestAmur, with the Chinese city of Heihe seen in the background, in the far eastern town of Blagoveshchensk, in Amur region, Russia, February 28, 2026. (Reuters)
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Six Chinese Nationals Among Seven Killed in Russian Gas Plant Fire

Trucks race on the frozen Amur River during the Russia-China winter sports festival ZimFestAmur, with the Chinese city of Heihe seen in the background, in the far eastern town of Blagoveshchensk, in Amur region, Russia, February 28, 2026. (Reuters)
Trucks race on the frozen Amur River during the Russia-China winter sports festival ZimFestAmur, with the Chinese city of Heihe seen in the background, in the far eastern town of Blagoveshchensk, in Amur region, Russia, February 28, 2026. (Reuters)

Six Chinese nationals were killed and nine more are missing after a fire broke out at a gas chemical complex in Russia's far eastern Amur ‌region, the ‌plant said on Wednesday.

A total of ‌seven ⁠people died and ⁠152 people were treated for injures, including 36 who were rushed to hospitals, the plant said on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday.

The fire, which broke out on Tuesday, was extinguished, it added.

An ⁠emergency services plane had arrived to ‌transport the injured ‌to other hospitals in Russia.

The complex, which bills ‌itself as one of the world's largest ‌polyethylene and polypropylene producers, is a joint project of Russian company Sibur and Chinese oil and gas company Sinopec. It has yet to ‌begin operations and was preparing for production start.

Russia frequently relies on ⁠foreign ⁠labor, including workers from China, for the construction of large industrial and infrastructure projects.

Russia's Investigative Committee said it was investigating the incident as a potential breach of industrial safety regulations and was working to establish the cause of the fire.

The Amur Gas Chemical Complex is expected to produce 2.3 million metric tons of polyethylene and 400,000 tons of polypropylene per year.