Current Events

The U.S. seizes two platforms China's state hackers ran against the Justice Department, NASA, and the Fed

The two platforms trace to a Nanjing firm whose named customers include China's Ministry of State Security and the People's Liberation Army, and the government dates the intrusions to at least 2018.

4 min read2026-08-28

National security

The U.S. seizes two platforms China's state hackers ran against the Justice Department, NASA, and the Fed¹

The Justice Department and FBI said on August 26 that they had seized QScan and QTRouter, two platforms they trace to the Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company, a Chinese firm whose customers they name as China's Ministry of State Security and the People's Liberation Army.¹²

The list of named targets is almost entirely federal. It runs from the Justice Department and NASA to the Federal Reserve, the Senate, the Departments of Energy and Health and Human Services, and the National Institutes of Health. The department dated the activity to at least 2018 and named four more victims, companies in the United States and South Korea, that it did not identify.²

Inflation

Prices rose 3.7% in the year to July, and core inflation has barely moved since spring³

The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported the PCE price index up 0.2% in July and 3.7% over the year. Core prices, which set aside food and energy, rose 0.2% on the month and 3.3% over the year, and core inflation has held between 3.3% and 3.4% since April. This is the PCE index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure, and it is a different gauge from the consumer price index quoted more widely.³

The University of Michigan's final reading of consumer sentiment for August, released the same week, fell to 51.0 from 55.2 in July, below the 54.5 economists had expected and enough to undo two months of gains. The survey's director, Joanne Hsu, tied part of the drop to the Iran conflict: sentiment among Republicans, she said, had fallen to 19% below its level just before the fighting and the lowest since the 2024 election.⁴

+3.7%PCE inflation, year to July

+3.3%Core PCE, year to July

51.0Consumer sentiment, August

Energy

The U.S. says it cleared Iran's mines from the Strait of Hormuz, a claim Iran and monitors dispute⁵

U.S. Central Command's commander, Adm. Brad Cooper, said in a video posted August 27 that American forces had cleared Iranian sea mines from the strait's internationally recognized shipping lanes, the Traffic Separation Scheme, using Navy divers, Navy SEALs, and air power. He put the effort at roughly 1,500 vessel transits facilitated and some 750 million barrels of crude moved.⁵⁶

The claim describes the lanes, not the strait. The Joint Maritime Information Center reports drifting or uncharted mines still a risk in and near those very lanes, with mine danger areas active, and holds its threat assessment at SEVERE.⁶ Iran effectively closed the strait after the February bombing began. It says it will reopen the strait only on four conditions: that the United States end the regional war, lift its blockade of Iranian ports, pay war-damage compensation, and remove sanctions.⁷

Iran's terms

The US must first take practical steps to fulfil Iran's conditions, and then Iran will proceed to open the Strait of Hormuz.⁷ Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council

Executive power

Roberts lets the White House ballroom keep rising while the justices weigh the case⁸

Chief Justice John Roberts, acting alone, stayed on August 21 the preliminary injunction that Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Leon had entered on April 16 to halt above-ground work on the White House ballroom, letting construction continue while the full court weighs the administration's request.⁸

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which filed the suit in December, is fighting the 90,000-square-foot project. The government told the justices it was 65% complete when it sought relief, a crew of 250 working twenty hours a day.⁹ The justices have not yet decided whether building over Judge Leon's April 16 injunction was lawful.⁸

The U.S. seizes two platforms China's state hackers ran against the Justice Department, NASA, and the Fed1

Prices rose 3.7% in the year to July, and core inflation has barely moved since spring3

The U.S. says it cleared Iran's mines from the Strait of Hormuz, a claim Iran and monitors dispute5

Roberts lets the White House ballroom keep rising while the justices weigh the case8

Sources

The U.S. seizes two platforms China's state hackers ran against the Justice Department, NASA, and the Fed¹

Prices rose 3.7% in the year to July, and core inflation has barely moved since spring³

The U.S. says it cleared Iran's mines from the Strait of Hormuz, a claim Iran and monitors dispute⁵

Roberts lets the White House ballroom keep rising while the justices weigh the case⁸