US President Donald Trump has suggested that the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean could be next for a name change, shortly after signing an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America.”

Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump joked that after renaming a gulf and a lake, the next step could be an ocean.

“We have a gulf and we have a lake,” Trump said. “Now all we need is an ocean. Maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.”

The remarks came as Trump signed the order changing the name of Lake Ontario on U.S. government maps, following his earlier move to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”

Trump has also restored the former name “Mount McKinley” for Alaska’s highest peak, reversing the official use of Denali adopted during the Obama administration.

The latest proposal comes amid increasingly strained relations between Washington and Ottawa. Trump has repeatedly criticised Canada over trade and has previously suggested that the country should be treated as a U.S. state.

While the U.S. government can determine the names used on its own official maps, it cannot compel Canada, other countries or international organisations to adopt the changes.

For now, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans remain firmly on the map under their familiar names — but Trump has made clear he is not ruling out another change.

The U.S. imposed ‌Iran-related sanctions on an Egyptian bank on Friday, part of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s campaign to increase economic pressure to try to break a stalemate six months into Washington’s war with Iran, Reuters reported.

Treasury said it moved to cut off Banque Misr’s branches in the United Arab Emirates from dollar transactions for its dealings ​with Iran. In a statement, it said its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) proposed a rule that would revoke Banque Misr ​UAE’s correspondent banking access to U.S. financial institutions.

The action, teased by Bessent on Monday as a “major announcement” ⁠of a secondary sanction on an international bank, was first reported by the Financial Times.

“Treasury promised to sever every economic lifeline Tehran ​has left and finally end the threat of the Iranian regime,” Bessent said in a statement. “We also warned that Iran’s enablers cannot continue ​to enjoy access to the U.S. dollar and the global financial system. Banque Misr UAE decided to find out the hard way, and today, we are taking the first step in holding it accountable for its continued, egregious support of the Iranian regime.”

Egypt’s central bank said on Friday that the U.S. ​action only affected Banque Misr’s UAE branches and did not extend to any other Egyptian banks. The Central Bank of Egypt said ​in a statement that it and Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs were in contact with the U.S. authorities about the measures.

A Treasury official also said ‌the ⁠action only applies to Banque Misr’s UAE branches, allowing the bank to continue dollar transactions through its head office in Cairo and other foreign branches. These include Paris, Frankfurt, Riyadh, Beirut and Djibouti, according to Banque Misr’s website.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control separately issued sanctions targeting the manager of Iran’s Bank Melli branch in the UAE as well as a Hong Kong entity that it said helped ​launder money for a sanctioned ​Iranian exchange house.

Banque Misr UAE ⁠did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on a public holiday. The sanctioned Bank Melli branch manager, Reza Mohammad Taeedi, also did not immediately respond to a Reuters email requesting comment.

The U.S. Treasury said it views Banque Misr’s six UAE branches as a “critical node” ​for the Iranian ⁠government’s access to U.S. dollars.

The department said it estimates that between January 2024 and June 2026, Banque Misr UAE processed approximately $1.8 billion in transactions for 103 companies that are potentially part of Iranian shadow banking networks.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggott said in a statement that Bank ⁠Melli has ​served as a critical financial hub for Iran’s armed forces, including the Islamic ​Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, both entities under U.S. sanctions.

Iran has urged other nations not to join new U.S. sanctions.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin ​will not attack a NATO country, and he played down media ‌reports that CIA Director John Ratcliffe warned Russian officials against such an attack earlier in the week.

“He’s not going to attack a NATO territory,” Trump said of the Russian leader while speaking to reporters ​in the Oval Office.

Earlier in the day, Trump told Axios in a ​phone interview that there would be no such attack, and that Ratcliffe, who ⁠flew to Russia on Tuesday to meet briefly with intelligence counterparts, had not ​been dispatched to deliver any particular message.

“Ratcliffe sees his Russian counterpart once every six ​months or once every year. They have a very good relationship. There was no message and there was nothing unusual,” Trump told the news outlet.

Trump’s comments came after the Wall Street Journal ​reported on Wednesday that Ratcliffe had traveled to Moscow to warn Russia off any ​attack on a NATO member.

Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Ratcliffe did bring ‌up ⁠the possibility of a Russian operation against a NATO member during that meeting, though it was unclear if that was the sole purpose of the trip.

One source said they discussed several topics, including Russia’s support for Iran, which has proven an irritant ​for the U.S. The ​sources were granted ⁠anonymity to discuss U.S. intelligence.

European and U.S. intelligence officials have long monitored Russian sabotage and gray zone attacks in Europe that ​fall below the threshold of full-on war and which are generally aimed ​at weakening ⁠NATO’s unity and its member states’ willingness to support Ukraine against Russian aggression.

Among the potential plots that Western intelligence officials have been monitoring in recent months is the possibility ⁠that Russia ​uses a Ukrainian drone to attack a country in ​eastern or northeastern Europe in a false flag operation that obscures Moscow’s authorship.