How Iran Devastated an American Naval Base in the Middle East

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Alex Ossola (0:33)

Open AI limits access to its newest models, citing the US government's concerns about its security. Plus, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows that Iran's attacks on an American naval base caused extensive damage, pushing the US to reconsider its presence in the region.

Shelby Holliday (0:49)

This was a very high-intensity war. Iran fired more than 8,000 missiles and drones during the conflict. Some of those missiles and drones got through US air defenses and hit US bases, including the base in Bahrain.

And when they did hit, they were very precise.

Alex Ossola (1:03)

And want to skip the line? Our travel columnist tried out the TSA's latest experiment to cut down on time spent at airport security.

It's Friday, June 26th. I'm Alex Ossola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

This just in, the US has launched a fresh attack on Iran. US. Central Command said the strikes hit Iranian drone storage locations and coastal radar sites, and are in response to the attack Iran launched yesterday on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier, President Trump said Iran violated the ceasefire with that attack. It's the latest sign that the fragile ceasefire between the two countries is breaking apart. For more on this developing news, head to wsj.com. And later in this program, we'll have more on Iran's ability to hit US assets in the region.

Two US senators are calling for a federal investigation into Polymarket. Utah Republican John Curtis and California Democrat Adam Schiff sent a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's chairman yesterday. They're asking regulators to probe Polymarket's social media promotion of fake bets. That comes after The Wall Street Journal reported on the prediction market's deceptive marketing practices. Reporter Caitlin Ostroff told our Tech News Briefing podcast earlier this week about what the journal found.

Caitlin Ostroff (2:23)

Our reporting found that Polymarket paid people to create videos where they show these trades, where they show themselves betting on the platform, but that Polymarket, one, directed them not to disclose that they were being paid by Polymarket. After we reached out about Polymarket's marketing techniques, the creators began disclosing that they were Polymarket partners. But also we found that all of the trades placed in these videos created by these creators, none of them were actually on Polymarket's website.

Alex Ossola (2:51)

The journal has learned that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is in the midst of a continuing investigation into Polymarket. The investigation hasn't been previously reported. A Polymarket spokesperson declined to comment on the letter and the investigation. We should note that Polymarket has a data partnership with Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal. The journal used only publicly available data for its analysis.

In other tech news, OpenAI has released its latest models under the umbrella name of GPT 5.6. But for now, they're only being made available to a small group of customers approved by the Trump administration in light of discussions between OpenAI and the White House. That's coincided with a Trump administration ban on foreigners accessing two of Anthropix's newest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5 OpenAI said that it hoped to make GPT 5.6 generally available in the coming weeks. It also warned that the recent trend of the White House restricting industry activity on national security grounds shouldn't become the norm.

Turning to Europe, German car maker Volkswagen is working on a radical overhaul of its business. It's likely to result in thousands of additional job losses beyond the 50,000 already agreed with unions. Volkswagen said today that the move is an effort to make the company more efficient and comes at a difficult moment in its business. WSJ European Autos reporter Stephen Wilmot told me about the challenges pushing Volkswagen to make these changes.

Stephen Wilmot (4:16)

They're getting hit on all sides really. Their North American business has really been challenged by tariffs that President Trump introduced last year. Meanwhile, they've been losing market share quite rapidly in China, where they were the market leader for decades because local companies such as BYD and JILIA are rapidly taking market share.

And now, their European market is also coming under strain, as the Chinese automakers have been making further inroads and Tesla has also been rebounding. So it's a whole host of things. And that's led their management team to decide that they really do need a fresh plan on top of all of the restructuring they've already done.