Hackers linked to Iran shut down a British power plant for four days in what is believed to be the first successful Iranian cyberattack to force a UK electricity-generating facility offline, The Telegraph reported. The attack did not disrupt Britain's broader electricity supply because the facility was relatively small, according to the report.

But its apparent success has raised concern among British officials because it demonstrated that hackers affiliated with Tehran may be capable of penetrating and disabling sensitive energy infrastructure. British authorities have declined to identify the plant, citing security concerns.

The Telegraph reported that staff spent four days working to restore the facility after the breach. The incident occurred around the same time as a wave of cyberattacks against U.S. water infrastructure that affected facilities in 12 states last month and prompted concern at the White House, the newspaper reported.

Following the British breach, the government briefed energy company executives and sent businesses guidance on cybersecurity precautions and their next steps, according to The Telegraph. The incident was also reported to Britain's National Cyber Security Centre, or NCSC, the public-facing arm of the GCHQ intelligence agency responsible for helping organizations defend critical infrastructure against cyber threats.

While cyberattacks against British institutions are frequent, The Telegraph said no previous hacking operation is believed to have successfully brought a UK power plant to a standstill. The plant targeted in the attack was small enough that losing it for several days had no meaningful effect on national generating capacity.

Britain has dozens of smaller power stations connected to the grid, including gas-fired facilities that may operate only intermittently when additional electricity is needed. A British government source sought to play down the effect on the grid while acknowledging the incident.

“We have thresholds for important generators to legally notify us of cyber activity, and this site is nowhere near,” the source told The Telegraph. “It’s a very small scale site, less than a rounding error compared to grid capacity.” The purpose of the attack remains unclear.

The Telegraph reported that it was unlikely to have been designed to cause significant harm to civilians and appears to have attracted little public attention at the time. One possibility, according to the report, is that the operation was intended as a demonstration of capability, showing that hackers linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps could penetrate British systems and shut down sensitive infrastructure.

Attacks on US water systems The British incident coincided with cyberattacks on dozens of wastewater treatment facilities across the United States. Those attacks caused flooding and drops in water pressure in some locations, while some authorities told residents to boil water before drinking it.

The first known incident was reported in Minnesota on July 26, followed by breaches in states including Michigan, Georgia, South Dakota and New Jersey, according to The Telegraph. The FBI initially attributed the incidents to “malicious cyber actors.

” U.S. government sources subsequently told media outlets that the activity was believed to have originated in Tehran. Iran has intensified cyber operations against Western targets since the escalation of the Middle East conflict and particularly since U.

S. and Israeli airstrikes began in February, The Telegraph reported. Suspected Iranian attacks have since been reported in several European countries, including Germany, Poland, Finland, Belgium and Albania, although Israel and other countries in the Middle East remain among the most frequent targets.

British authorities had already been warning organizations to prepare for such activity. In March, the NCSC urged companies to reassess their cybersecurity measures because of the conflict. Richard Horne, the agency's chief executive, said in June that the NCSC had handled more than 200 attacks against critical national infrastructure during the previous year.

The agency declined to comment specifically on the power plant attack, in keeping with its policy of generally not discussing individual incidents. Growing threat to critical infrastructure Britain and the United States have repeatedly warned that state-linked hackers from Iran, Russia, China and North Korea target government networks and critical infrastructure on a regular basis.

Previous major cyber incidents in Britain have disrupted NHS systems, schools and manufacturing operations. Hackers have also targeted retailers and government-related databases, including an attack that compromised Electoral Commission voter records.

But successfully disabling an electricity-generating facility represents a potentially more serious threshold because of the implications for critical national infrastructure. An assessment by Britain's parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee last year described Iranian cyber warfare as a “significant area of asymmetric strength,” according to The Telegraph.

Iran is believed to spend tens of millions of dollars supporting hacking groups involving hundreds of personnel. A separate Cabinet Office risk assessment published last month put the likelihood of a serious and successful cyberattack on domestic infrastructure at between 5% and 25%.

The assessment also warned that artificial intelligence could increase the scale and accessibility of such operations by automating attacks and allowing them to be carried out more rapidly and efficiently. Despite the breach, the British government stressed that the country's electricity network had not been endangered.

“The UK has a highly resilient energy system,” a government spokesman told The Telegraph. “We work closely with the energy sector to protect infrastructure and ensure the highest security standards.” “This story refers to an incident impacting a small-scale energy generator, and at no point was there a risk to the wider energy system.

UK power plant 'shut down for four days' after major Iran-linked cyber attack The incident took place in July, at the same time as a series of attacks on US water infrastructure which sparked worry in the White House and affected 12 states A power plant in Great Britain was forced to close for four days after a cyber attack by Iran-linked hackers, it has been revealed.

According to reports, the facility was disabled "while staff fought to bring it back online" after the attack last month - the exact location of the site has not been revealed due to security reasons. It is, however, understood that the plant affected was not one of the biggest sites in the country, according to the Telegraph.

Due to the relatively small nature of the plant, the outage had no impact on the UK’s wider power supply or energy generation. This has been confirmed by the Government, which has described the UK's energy system as 'highly resilient. The incident took place in July, at the same time as a series of attacks on US water infrastructure - those attacks affected 12 states and caused concern in the White House.

In response, the Government briefed the chief executives of power companies and wrote to businesses with advice, direction and next steps. A Government source told the Telegraph: “We have thresholds for important generators to legally notify us of cyber activity, and this site is nowhere near.

It’s a very small scale site, less than a rounding error compared to grid capacity.” A Government spokesman said: “The UK has a highly resilient energy system. We work closely with the energy sector to protect infrastructure and ensure the highest security standards.

“This story refers to an incident impacting a small-scale energy generator, and at no point was there a risk to the wider energy system.

Iran condemns US plans to announce new sanctions Warning that nations joining the US ‘economic war’ would be deemed enemies, Iran said the move could impact trading partners including China Iran on Saturday denounced US plans to announce new sanctions that could put further strain on the Islamic Republic’s economy and have an impact on its most important trading partners including China.

Iran on Saturday warned countries against taking part in the United States’ “economic war” against the Islamic Republic, saying they would be considered enemies. “We declare to all countries … do not join the economic war waged by the United States.

Any country participating in the imposition of economic restrictions against us is considered an enemy,” said Mohsen Rezai, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, on state television. After nearly six months of war since the US and Israel launched air strikes against Iran on February 28, the sides are not firing at each other but also showing no sign of pursuing peace talks.

Oil shipments are at a virtual standstill in the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran threatening to strike any unauthorised oil tankers that try to transit the vital waterway, and Iran’s economy is already under immense pressure from sanctions. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to hold a press conference on Monday after threatening “the toughest sanctions in history” on Iran.

Bessent has also urged cooperation with Washington from China, which buys more than 80 per cent of Iran’s shipped oil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler. Beijing has urged diplomacy.

CHICAGO (AP) — After trade negotiations crumbled at the eleventh hour, U.S. President Donald Trump's 50% tariffs on scores of Canadian imports kicked in Saturday. The new levies are expected to affect about 5% of Canada's annual exports to the U.

S., roughly $20 billion in goods ranging from hockey sticks to agricultural products. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney quickly promised Saturday that his government would roll out “dollar for dollar” retaliatory measures starting Sept. 8.

No further talks are scheduled. The latest escalation between the two countries — which once held one of the world's most durable trade alliances — plunges them deeper into a trade war that has kept both sides of the border on edge throughout Trump's second term in office.

Experts warn steeper tariffs raise costs for businesses and almost always trickle down to households in the form of higher prices. “Nearly all industries and professions are likely to see downstream effects from this spiraling trade dispute,” said Augustine Lo, of law firm Dorsey & Whitney, whose work includes advising clients on international trade.

Here's what we know. Which goods are affected? Again, the 50% tariffs from the U.S. are set to affect $20 billion of Canadian goods. Canada sends the vast majority of its goods exports to the U.S. (72% last year), and Trump administration says the new taxes will be levied on products ranging from hockey sticks to wine and cement.

The list is long. According to documents published by the White House, other goods subject to the tax include honey, seeds and agricultural products — as well as select makeup, perfumes, clothing, jewelry, furniture, cameras, fabric and more.

The 50% levy also applies to some products that were previously protected under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a trade pact from Trump's first term. That marks a shift from past levies — and further underlines questions around the future of the USMCA overall.

How is Trump imposing these tariffs? To impose these 50% tariffs, Trump reached back to a long-dormant Great Depression-era law: Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930. When the U.S. and world economies were in collapse nearly a century ago, Congress passed the 1930 law as part of broader “Smoot-Hawley” legislation (named after its congressional sponsors).

The act raised tariffs more generally across the board, and became notorious among economists for limiting world commerce and making the Great Depression worse. But Section 338 — which authorizes the president to slap import taxes of up to 50% on imports from countries that have discriminated against U.

S. businesses — has never been used specifically to raise tariffs until now. No investigation is required to justify the levies. Nor is there any limit on how long they can stay in place. Since there's no precedent, however, the latest tariffs may also see more legal challenges.

When announcing his planned tariffs last month, Trump claimed that Canada was unfairly discriminating against U.S. exports of automobiles, alcohol and dairy products. The president expressed anger over Canada's retaliation against his own tariffs last year — noting Canadian imports of American alcohol and cars started to fall last spring.

Is Canada retaliating? Canada's Carney quickly promised to match the new levies “dollar for dollar” — later announcing retaliation would begin Sept. 8. He noted Canada's tariff increases would target steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper and electronics.

The prime minister said Canada was willing to drop remaining retaliatory tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos if the U.S. substantially lowered its own, and to encourage provinces to restore U.S. alcohol sales. But eventually, he said Washington’s final demands went too far.

Carney accused Washington of using “economic integration as a weapon,” and that Canada had been “attacked” by the latest U.S. tariffs. He said his country had the reserves and resilience to respond. Trump’s top trade negotiator, Jamieson Greer, pledged additional measures to respond to Canada's retaliation — without immediately specifying what that would look like.

In a Saturday interview with “Fox & Friends Weekend,” Greer also claimed the administration offered to cut tariffs on steel, autos and lumber, but Canada “didn't want” the deal. What's next? Tariffs are taxes paid by importers, or businesses that buy goods from abroad.

That typically trickles down to consumers through higher prices — and, as seen over the last year, can also create uncertainty for workers across affected sectors. North America now has a “new tariff landscape,” Dave Townsend, a partner at law firm Dorsey & Whitney, said Saturday.

He noted a big question is whether the latest levies prove to be temporary. The 50% tariffs come on top of previously-imposed levies, including a 10% rate Trump slapped on Canada just last month ostensibly for failing to do enough to prevent imports produced by forced labor and separate sectoral levies impacting trading partners globally.

The growing trade sanctions on Canada underscore Trump’s willingness to risk breaking established alliances. And Canada’s reluctance to accept a deal may reflect recent experience. Trump has repeatedly targeted Canada, even after instances where it made concessions following his demands.

Some tolls on the newly opened Gordie Howe Bridge will be shared for 15 years, despite the fact that Canadians paid for the span linking Detroit and Windsor. Canada also withdrew a digital services tax last year. All the while, Trump has threatened more tariffs over everything from a TV ad criticizing his trade policies (later pulled by Ontario's government ) to wildfires that blackened skies across North America.

Steeper tariffs have already contributed to higher inflation — but appeared to level off some in recent months, per researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, notably after the Supreme Court in February struck down some of Trump's most sweeping levies.

Still, Saturday’s taxes against Canada mark the latest instance of Trump turning to other laws to impose tariffs. And more recently, Washington’s war with Iran has driven prices even higher. With the cost of living at the center of many voters' minds in a midterm election year, political ramifications could mount for the Republican president in the coming months.

_____ AP Writers Paul Wiseman in Washington and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed.