The Federal Reserve, the U.S. Senate, the Department of Justice, NASA, and other federal agencies were victims of computer intrusions by a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group, the DOJ said on Wednesday morning as it announced the court-ordered seizure of internet domains used for hacking platforms.

The hacking platforms, known as “QScan” and “QTRouter,” were “used to target U.S. critical infrastructure and other sensitive networks,” the DOJ said in a statement.

“Other targeted networks include those operated by hospitals, telecommunications providers, power companies, financial institutions, and defense contractors,” a court filing said.

Other federal agencies that were victims of computer intrusion by the platforms were the Energy Department, the Health and Human Services Department, and the National Institutes of Health, according to the DOJ.

The DOJ did not detail the damage to the agencies or other targets from the computer intrusions.

A Chinese state-sponsored group known as “QTFY” created and operated the hacking platforms, according to court documents unsealed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of California.

QTFY was employed by Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company, a China-based company, according to filings. QTFY’s paying customers include the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of State Security and the People’s Liberation Army, the DOJ said.

The department said that the seized internet domains were hard-coded into both the QScan and QTRouter malware. The seizures made the QScan and QTRouter inoperable, according to the DOJ.

Attorney General Todd Blanche, in a statement on Wednesday, said, “State-sponsored malicious hackers preying on America’s critical infrastructure will be stopped and prosecuted. We are here to ensure security for the American people and will use every tool we have to keep that promise.”

“Federal law enforcement investigated and disabled the PRC’s malicious software, the latest in a series of technical operations to dismantle indiscriminate hacking activities sponsored by the People’s Republic of China,” Blanche said.

CNBC has requested comment from the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C.

The announcement of the seizure of domains used for the hacking comes more than a month after John Harold Rogers, a former senior advisor to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, was sentenced to 38 months in prison for making false statements to federal investigators about sharing restricted information about monetary policy and the Federal Open Market Committee with Chinese intelligence operatives.

Rogers was acquitted at trial of the more serious charge of conspiracy to commit economic espionage.

Abu Dhabi’s National Oil Company (ADNOC) said one of its vessels was targeted by a missile while transiting the Strait of Hormuz in the early hours of Saturday, as Iran’s military stressed that the crucial waterway would only be reopened when the U.S. accepts Iran’s conditions.

“The incident resulted in no injuries, and the situation has been brought under control,” ADNOC said in a statement.

The United Arab Emirates, of which Abu Dhabi is the capital, said in a post on X that it “condemns in the strongest terms the targeting of an ADNOC-affiliated tanker while it was passing through the Strait of Hormuz.”

Tehran’s ability to effectively close the strait — an open, untolled international waterway before the U.S.-Iran war started on Feb. 28 — has triggered a global energy supply shock that has driven up gas prices, exacerbated inflation and raised alarms about oil reserves.

Oil prices rose Friday as investors waited for an agreement teased by the Trump administration earlier this week to open the strait to freedom of navigation.

“The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is subject to the specific mechanism and conditions of the Islamic Republic of Iran and has nothing to do with the negotiations between Iran and Oman,” Sardar Mohbi, a spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said in a statement on Telegram translated by Google.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Tuesday that an agreement to open Hormuz with freedom of movement could come as soon as Wednesday. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had also indicated that an agreement was imminent.

But a deal still has not been announced yet. Meanwhile, ship traffic through Hormuz was down 33% on Friday compared to the day prior, with most vessels using the Iranian route, according to the trade intelligence firm Kpler.

Iran and Oman are working on an agreement to define transit routes through the strait, according to media reports. Inbound traffic would transit Iranian waters while outbound traffic would go through Omani waters.

But Iranian state media published a draft plan Thursday that would restrict traffic through Hormuz. The plan is under review by Iran’s parliament, according to the state outlet Fars.

Under the draft plan, Iran would ban U.S. and Israeli ships from transiting the Strait. Other nations that have harmed Iran would not be allowed to transit until compensation is paid, according to the draft.

Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, gained more than 1% to close at $83.55 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate advanced about 1% to settle at $78.18 per barrel. Prices fell more than 7% for the week.

A brief hiatus in fighting between the U.S. and Iran after a June 17 memorandum of understanding was followed by weeks of attacks and counterstrikes between the U.S. and…

President Donald Trump on Friday defended his Department of Justice‘s issuance of subpoenas to New York Times reporters, as it was revealed that Google also received a subpoena in the same criminal investigation of the leak of information about the president’s new Air Force One plane.

Trump’s comments on the subpoenas came a day after the DOJ told a New York federal judge it was withdrawing those subpoenas for grand jury testimony by Times reporters and their phone records. The DOJ is investigating the leak of concerns about the security measures on the president’s Qatari-donated plane, which the Times wrote about earlier in July.

Judge Arun Subramanian had warned prosecutors on Thursday that if they did not voluntarily withdraw the subpoenas, he would quash them.

“We’re not after journalists,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday. “We’re after leakers. We’re after people that are cowards, people that are unpatriotic, people that are treasonous in many cases.”

“And the way you find them is through journalists,” the president said.

“That person should be found, and the way you find them is to tell the journalist, if it’s something having to do with national security, you tell the journalist: ‘Who is it?’ ” Trump said.

“And we have a long way to go with that case,” he added.

At around the same time that Trump was talking, a letter that lawyers for Google sent Friday to Subramanian was unsealed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on the order of the judge.

The letter revealed that Google on July 16 was issued a subpoena from a grand jury at the behest of the DOJ seeking “subscriber information associated with a phone number.”

The subpoena was sent to Google a day after lawyers for the Times moved to quash subpoenas issued to their reporters.

Google also received on July 16 an order not to disclose to the phone number subscriber that fact that it had received a subpoena for their information.

In their letter on Friday, Google’s lawyers asked Subramanian to vacate the non-disclosure order, which had been signed by a magistrate judge, arguing that the order violates the First Amendment of the Constitution, which established the right to free speech.

“The government has admitted that, at the time of its application for the NDO, it ‘inadvertently included language that the investigation was “not public” when the fact of the investigation was public,’ ” the letter said.

Subramanian granted the request to vacate the NDO, a court filing shows.

The U.S. said on Sunday it targeted Iranian forces that struck Jordan last week, an attack by Iran that left two American service members dead and one missing.

Kuwait reported launching defenses against another wave of Iranian projectiles overnight.

The developments over the weekend further jeopardized last month’s fragile truce between the two sides, potentially raising fresh concerns over oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Central Command said it completed an eighth straight night of strikes against Iranian targets.

“CENTCOM forces successfully hit Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defense facilities, maritime capabilities, and missile and drone storage sites to continue degrading Iranian military capabilities,” it said in a post on X.

“American military assets also targeted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces that launched attacks against U.S. service members in Jordan on July 17,” it added.

U.S. President Donald Trump ordered military forces to launch new airstrikes, starting Saturday at 6 p.m. ET, in order to “degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz” and “punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces who launched attacks against American service members in Jordan last night,” according to Centcom.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Saturday the country has suspended its commitments to the memorandum of understanding signed last month with the U.S.

When asked about Iran saying it is no longer abiding by the interim peace agreement, Trump told a NewsNation reporter, “I couldn’t care less.”

The memorandum of understanding signed by the U.S. and Iran last month continued to unravel amid the latest round of fighting, with both sides trading targeted airstrikes in the region. The interim agreement was intended to reopen the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz and end the conflict.

Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said that the country has “unforgettable lessons in store” for the U.S.

“Now that the American enemy seeks to ignite war and endure heavier costs, it should know that the Iranian nation and the Resistance Front have #unforgettable_lessons in store for it,” the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting said in a message from Khamenei on X.

Aluminium Bahrain, which hosts the world’s largest smelter of the metal, said on Sunday its facility was subjected to an Iranian attack as the U.S.-Israel-led war extended into a second month.

The company, known as Alba, said in a statement that the attack happened on Saturday.

“Alba is assessing the extent of the damage to its facilities and remains focused on maintaining its operational resilience and the safety of its employees,” Alba said.

The company had cut production capacity by 19% of its 1.6 million tons of annual output “as an operational measure to preserve business continuity amid ongoing supply and transit disruptions affecting the Strait of Hormuz,” the company said on March 15.

The production cuts have been adding to fears of a global shortage of the metal. Aluminum prices surged to four-year highs earlier this month before paring some of those gains. They remain 4.3% above their Feb. 27 levels.

While aluminum may be the most abundant metal on earth, it is crucial to the functioning of the world economy. It is an essential material across electronics, transport, and construction, as well as other industries such as solar panels and packaging. 

Iran has been retaliating against U.S. and Israeli attacks that began on Feb. 28 by firing missiles and drones at its regional neighbors.

The United Arab Emirates said on Sunday its air defenses were dealing with the latest salvo of incoming missiles.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait was estimated to account for 12% of seaborne oil trade and 8% of liquefied natural gas trade in the first half of 2023.

Iranian forces have already effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, through which about 20% of the world’s oil supplies moved before the war.

Oil prices on Friday closed at their highest level in more than three years, as President Donald Trump’s pivot toward negotiations with Iran failed to ease market fears about the huge supply disruption in the Middle East.

U.S. crude oil prices rose 5.46% to close at $99.64 per barrel. International benchmark Brent crude prices gained 4.22%…

Iran fired two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at ​Diego Garcia but did ‌not hit the U.S.-U.K. military base in the Indian ​Ocean, the Wall ​Street Journal reported, ⁠citing multiple U.S. ​officials.

One of the missiles failed ​in flight, while a U.S. warship fired an SM-3 interceptor ​at the other, ​although it could not be determined ‌if ⁠the interception succeeded, the newspaper said on Friday. The Journal did not specify when ​the ​missiles ⁠were fired.

A spokesperson for the U.K. Ministry of Defence told CNBC it was preparing a statement.

The White House and the British ​embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to ⁠Reuters’ ​requests for comment.

The reported attack marked Iran’s first operational use of intermediate-range ballistic missiles and a significant attempt to reach far beyond the Middle East and threaten U.S. interests, the Wall Street Journal said.

The U.K. agreed in May 2025 to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, where the Diego Garcia base is located, to Mauritius, which has long-disputed the U.K.’s acquisition and ownership of the archipelago in the Indian Ocean.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the U.K.’s plan.

Amazon‘s data center in Bahrain was targeted by Iran‘s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for the company’s support of the U.S. military, Iranian state media said Wednesday.

The company’s cloud computing unit said Monday that one of its facilities in Bahrain was damaged due to a nearby drone strike on Sunday. Two data centers in the United Arab Emirates were also damaged after they were “directly struck” by drones.

All of the facilities remain offline, according to the Amazon Web Services health dashboard.

The attack in Bahrain was launched “to identify the role of these centers in supporting the enemy’s military and intelligence activities,” Iran’s Fars News Agency said on Telegram.

The incidents came after joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran over the weekend. Iran has retaliated against Israeli and U.S. bases across the Gulf.

Representatives from Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In addition to structural damage, the data centers also experienced power disruptions and some water damage after firefighters worked to put out sparks and fire. Some popular AWS applications experienced “elevated error rates and degraded availability” due to the incident.

AWS advised cloud customers to back up their data, consider migrating their workloads to other regions and direct traffic away from Bahrain and the UAE.

AWS announced its Bahrain region in 2019, and it hosts significant workloads for governments there. The company also operates a corporate office in Bahrain that is primarily for AWS employees.

Earlier this week, Amazon instructed all of its corporate employees in the Middle East to work remotely and “follow local government guidelines” amid escalating instability in the region.