Hello and welcome to NewsHour. It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service studios in central London. I'm Tim Franks.

And we're beginning with a highly contested legacy of 12 days of war between Israel and Iran, a war which, of course, also very directly involved the United States with its

bombing of Iranian nuclear sites and the Iranian missiles fired towards a US military base in Qatar.

Just how contested has come both in the United States with differing assessments from American

intelligence agencies about the level of damage inflicted on Iran's nuclear program.

We'll have more on that in just a moment. But it's also come out of Iran because today, for the

first time since the ceasefire was agreed with Israel, there was an appearance, albeit via a recorded

video message from the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanai,

who'd not been seen for more than a week.

The Islamic Republic dealt a severe slap to the face of America.

It attacked and inflicted damage on the Al-Udade Air Base, which is one of the key US bases in the region.

In the past couple of hours, the US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has been speaking at the Pentagon,

alongside the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, staff, General Dan Kane.

Neither man offered specific new intelligence on the battle damage

assessment of the American strikes against Iranian nuclear targets. But Mr. Hegset did have

strong words for the U.S. media. And time and time again, classified information is leaked or

peddled for political purposes to try to make the president look bad.

And what's really happening is you're undermining the success of incredible B2 pilots

and incredible F-35 pilots and incredible refuelers and incredible air defenders

who accomplished their mission, set back a nuclear program in ways that other presidents would have dreamed.

How about we celebrate that? How about we talk about how special America is? back a nuclear program in ways that other presidents would have dreamed.

How about we celebrate that?

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