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Hello and welcome to NewsHour.

It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service Studios in central London.

I'm Tim Franks.

We're beginning with what feels like a split screen.

There are the placid waters around the Strait of Hormuz to the west and even more static picture that of hundreds of tankers be calmed, unable to move. The other image is very different, albeit metaphorical, that of something much more precarious, a conflict teetering on the brink, warnings that a full-scale

shooting war may be about to reignite. What is certain is that on Monday, Iran and the US traded

fire after President Trump launched what he called Project Freedom, his effort to help

commercial ships through the waterway in the face of Iranian threats.

That seems so far to have made little difference to maritime traffic, but military tensions have

definitely been raised. Within the last hour, there's been an update from the U.S. Secretary

Defense, Pete Haxeth. Two U.S. commercial ships, along with American destroyers, have already safely transited the strait, showing the lane is clear.

We know the Iranians are embarrassed by this fact. They said they control the strait. They do not.

So American ships led the way, commercial and military, shouldering the initial risk from the front, as Americans always do.

And right now, hundreds more ships from nations around the world are lining up to transit.

But earlier, in the day this warning came in a post on social media from the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament,

Mohammed Baghear Galabath.

We know full well that the continuation of the status quo is intolerable for America,

whilst we have not even started yet.

Well, Bernd de Busman is a correspondent in our Washington Bureau who is monitoring that

press conference involving

the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth and the chiefs, chief of staff, General Dan Kane.

...