Trump praises King while continuing complaints about British PM Keir Starmer; King Charles and Queen Camilla make first visit to 9/11 memorial; Democrats press Pete Hegseth over $35 billion Iran war

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been reprimanded in his pressured appearance before the House Armed Services Committee.

Congressman Adam Smith agreed with Hegseth on what appeared to be a coincidental admission that last year’s attacks on Iran did not, as the White House claimed, destroy the country’s nuclear apparatus.

“Their nuclear facilities have been destroyed,” Hegseth said of 2025’s Operation Midnight Hammer.

‘Woah, woah, woah, woah. We had to start this war, you just said, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat,” Smith replied.

“Are you saying it’s completely erased?”

Hegseth said Iran had not given up on its “ambitions”, with Smith suggesting Midnight Hammer had “achieved nothing substantial”.

“You’re missing the point,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth also denied suggestions that the war with Iran had become a “swamp” conflict from which the US could not easily extricate itself.

He claimed it had been an “astonishing military success” “on the battlefield”.

“Do you call Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz a win?” Congressman Seth Moulton, like Hegseth, a veteran of the Iraq War.

Moulton also mocked the US naval blockade, comparing it to a game of tag.