How Iran Devastated an American Naval Base in the Middle East

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

Daily News, News

4.1 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2026

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

P.M. Edition for June 26. Iran’s missiles and drones have inflicted extensive damage on the U.S.’s naval base in Bahrain—destruction that the Pentagon hasn’t publicly acknowledged. The WSJ’s Shelby Holliday walks us through an exclusive analysis of the strikes, and how they’ve pushed the U.S. to recalculate its military’s footprint in the region. Plus, two U.S. senators call for regulators to open an investigation into Polymarket’s deceptive marketing practices following the Journal’s reporting on social-media promotion of fake bets. And Volkswagen is working on a radical overhaul that will likely result in thousands of additional job losses. We hear from Journal European autos reporter Stephen Wilmot about the carmaker’s challenges. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Find your perfect home on Realture.com.
0:02.5	The perfect home in the perfect neighborhood, in the perfect school district perfectly close to work, but perfectly far enough away to escape to.
0:09.8	With over half a million new listings every month on Realture.com, you won't miss out on your perfectly perfect home.
0:16.0	Trust the number one site Real Estate Professionals Trust.
0:18.9	Search now on Realture.com.
0:20.5	Based on average new for sale and
0:22.3	rental listings July 24th through June 2025. Number one trusted based on August 2025 proprietary survey
0:28.3	among real estate professionals. OpenAI limits access to its newest models, citing the U.S. government's concerns about its security.
0:40.0	Plus, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows that Iran's attacks on an American naval base caused extensive damage,
0:46.2	pushing the U.S. to reconsider its presence in the region.
0:49.2	This was a very high-intensity war.
0:51.2	Iran fired more than 8,000 missiles and drones during the conflict. Some of those
0:55.8	missiles and drones got through U.S. air defenses and hit U.S. bases, including the base in Bahrain.
1:01.3	And when they did hit, they were very precise. And want to skip the line? Our travel columnist
1:06.3	tried out the TSA's latest experiment to cut down on time spent at airport security.
1:13.0	It's Friday, June 26th.
1:15.1	I'm Alex O'Soullef for the Wall Street Journal.
1:20.3	This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.
1:25.2	This just in, the U.S. has launched a fresh attack on Iran. U.S. Central Command said the strikes hit
1:31.1	Iranian drone storage locations and coastal radar sites and are in response to the attack
1:36.1	Iran launched yesterday on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier, President Trump said
1:41.1	Iran violated the ceasefire with that attack. It's the latest sign that the fragile ceasefire between the two countries is breaking apart.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Wall Street Journal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Wall Street Journal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.