Zendaya continued her stylish Spider-Man: Brand New Day press tour alongside husband Tom Holland at Wednesday’s star-studded premiere in London.

The actress, 29, who portrays MJ in the film, turned heads as usual in a plunging white gown from Tamara Ralph with a silver sequin web design.

The stunning dress featured sparkly straps and cinched her in at the waist before flowing out into a chiffon train. 

The pair put on a typically loved-up display as they posed together at the premiere after confirming last month that they were indeed married. 

Meanwhile Tom, 30, – whose performance in Christopher Nolan‘s $250million epic The Odyssey was recently roasted by critics as ‘comic book basic’ – wore a dark purple Anderson & Sheppard suit and bespoke Pragnell spider brooch.

Tom steps back into the iconic suit as Peter Parker for the latest installment – which is already impressing fans -, taking on the legendary web-slinger role once played by Tobey Maguire.  

The actress, 29, who portrays MJ in the film, turned heads as usual in a plunging white gown with silver sequin detailing on

Florence Pugh, 30, meanwhile stunned in a silver tassel dress with a statement structured neckline. She will reprise her role as Yelena Belova in the film.

A host of other stars were also at the premiere and all stuck with a mostly black theme including Myleene Klass, Laura Whitmore, Cat Burns, Lottie Moss and Nadiya Bychkova.

The new film was released in cinemas on Wednesday and the fan reviews are already very positive.

Fans penned on X after wasting no time in heading to the cinema: ‘I’ve just returned from watching Brand New Day, it’s genuinely one of the best Spider Man movies ever, and if we’re talking about Tom’s, this one takes the crown alongside No Way Home. I also wanna add this, marvel is SO back.’,

‘Just came out of Spider-Man Brand New Day… I can’t lie I enjoyed it very much. I loved it. Spider-Man is still my GOAT superhero and Tom Holland has done a great job. Super excited for the future.’,

‘NO SPOILER My first immediate thoughts on Spider-Man Brand New Day This is by far the best live action spiderman best spiderman fights they had me feeling like i was watching montage from insomniac spiderman such a good movie tom holland is the goat.’,

‘Just saw Spider-Man: Brand New Day. This is the best one for Tom Holland’s Spidey Quadrilogy (imho) & I really like how well the emotion is handled in this.’,

‘Tomorrow is a Brand New Day. Man, it feels emotional. I’ve always loved Marvel, but there’s something diff about Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. Watching Peter go from Infinity War and Endgame to losing almost everyone in No Way Home… that journey hits hard. It feels personal.’,

The stunning dress featured sparkly strap detailing and cinched her in at the waist before flowing out into a chiffon train

The pair put on a typically loved-up display as they posed together at the premiere after confirming last month that they were indeed married

They shared a sweet moment holding hands at the event 

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She wore her long dark tresses in curly waves 

The Tamara Ralph design clung perfectly to her figure 

She looked stunning as she posed up a storm in the white gown 

The pair looked every inch the perfect couple as they posed together 

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She commanded attention as usual in the white dress

Meanwhile Tom, 30, – whose performance in Christopher Nolan’s $250million epic The Odyssey was recently roasted by critics as ‘comic book basic’ – wore a dark purple suit

Tom steps back into the iconic suit as Peter Parker for the latest installment, taking on the legendary web-slinger role once played by Tobey Maguire

L-R: Florence Pugh, Tom Holland, Zendaya and Marisa Tomei

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Zendaya and Tom posed with their co-star Marisa Tomei

She also flashed a glimpse of her huge Jessica McCormack engagement ring

‘Brand new day isn’t the beginning, it’s the ending of the movie. Best spider man movie!

‘Just watched Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and yeah this is the best Spider-Man movie ever. I definitely need a rewatch asap.’

Zendaya and Tom famously met on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016.

Fast forward ten years, and the pair are now married and back on the promotional trail for their latest Spider-Man film.

The new film follows the ending of No Way Home, in which a spell cast by Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) caused everyone in the world to forget the existence of Spider-Man’s secret identity, Peter Parker (Holland).

Florence Pugh meanwhile stunned in a silver tassel dress with a statement structured neckline 

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She looked sensational in the gorgeous number which she teamed with strappy heels 

She will reprise her role as Yelena Belova in the film

Myleene Klass looked stunning in a backless black gown

Myleene was joined by her daughter Ava, 18, for the premiere 

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Laura Whitmore and her husband Iain Stirling looked smart in all black looks

Cat Burns looked stylish as she arrived

Clara Amfo wore a web-inspired silver dress

Strictly’s Nadiya Bychkova showed off her toned abs in a black co-ord

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Lottie Moss meanwhile wore a red mini dress and towering heels 

Tom Fletcher wore a pink shirt and black trousers 

Tom’s co-star Marisa Tomei wore a strapless navy dress. Marisa portrayed May Parker (Aunt May) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Marisa and Tom posed together

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The new film follows the ending of No Way Home, in which a spell cast by Dr. Strange caused everyone in the world to forget the existence of Spider-Man’s secret identity, Peter Parker

Brand New Day picks up four years later, after Parker has largely given up on his connection to the world around him and has devoted himself entirely to fighting crime as Spider-Man, even as his former girlfriend MJ (Holland’s real-life wife, Zendaya, who stunned in a black arachnid-theme gown at the film’s premiere on Monday in Los Angeles) has moved on with a new love interest after forgetting that they were ever a couple.

Amid the turmoil in his life, Parker’s superpowers begin to undergo a sometimes disturbing evolution, which several critics compared approvingly to the direction taken by the popular original trilogy starring Tobey Maguire as the web-slinger.

Critics have called it one of the best of the iconic web-slinger’s films – and a return to form for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Critics had high praise for Brand New Day’s returning star, Tom, and they largely applauded the film’s move away from the confusing bloat of the previous entry in the series, Spider-Man: No Way Home.

The New York Post’s Johnny Oleksinski wrote that the current Spider-Man series is the only part of the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe that he still looks forward to.

Oleksinski called Brand New Day a ‘welcome reunion’ with Holland and Peter Parker, though he noted that it was ‘much darker’ than previous Spider-Man entries.

He agreed with the comparisons to the Maguire years, writing, ‘Tonally, Brand New Day is a lot more like Tobey Maguire’s aughts films, which to my mind are not only the gold standard of Spider-Man movies, but Marvel films as well.’

Writing for RogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico gave Brand New Day a middling 2.5 stars out of four.

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The new film was released in cinemas on Wednesday and the fan reviews are already very positive

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Like others, he saw a negative influence from the MCU and worried that the film was only a transitional piece to set up a bigger payoff.

‘Affection for the characters who have been around for four movies now goes a long way to holding Brand New Day together,’ Tallerico wrote, ‘but it ultimately succumbs to one of the biggest problems of late-stage MCU: The feeling that it’s just preparation for more movies.’

The premiere comes as Tom and Zendaya’s latest movie The Odyssey has already set critical and audience review records. 

Figures show from just under one week of The Odyssey’s wide release, July 17, the movie’s total haul is $303million worldwide, with likely another $15-20million coming in when Wednesday’s figures arrive.

But with the couple’s upcoming Spider-Man movie set to be released in days, fans will have to see which film becomes the top-grossing film of the year, as Brand New Day is currently breaking ticket pre-sale records for the opening weekend and first week.

It comes after last month Supergirl was projected to face a staggering $100million loss after it bombed at the box office on its opening weekend.  

The film, which stars Milly Alcock, 26, as the superhero, was released globally in June.

It marked a major setback for Warner Bros and the rebooted DC Universe as Supergirl cost $170million to produce and $120million to take to market. 

Warner Bros had a hopeful beginning last summer when Superman became the highest-grossing superhero movie of the year. 

But poor tickets sales on the opening weekend saw Supergirl take in $38million in U.S. and Canadian theaters and $30million in overseas markets. 

A first-of-its-kind U.S. study suggests invasive mold infections may be an underappreciated — and potentially deadly — threat.

The researchers detected about 450 cases in Atlanta-area hospitals over five years. About a third of the patients died in the hospital.

The findings, published this week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, come from an attempt to better gauge how common these kinds of illnesses are. The government does not require doctors to report the illnesses.

“It’s kind of the first time we’ve had an estimate like this,” said the CDC’s Dr. Jeremy Gold, the study’s senior author.

And it’s important to understand it now, because the problem may grow in the future, he added. Mold exposure is a recurring problem in the wake of hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters influenced by climate change, researchers have found.

“I agree that the frequency of fungal infections will likely increase with climate change,” said Dr. Jeffrey Jenks, an infectious disease researcher at Duke University.

Meanwhile, there’s a growing population of older people who are more susceptible to such illnesses, Gold said.

Invasive mold diseases are rare infections caused by certain species. Most people who get infected inhale mold spores, but they can also enter the body through cuts or wounds or from contaminated medical equipment.

The spores don’t cause health problems for most people, but they can be life-threatening to some, including the elderly, cancer patients and others with weakened immune systems.

Previously, CDC researchers estimated more than 15,000 hospitalizations a year could be tied to invasive mold disease.

To better understand how common cases might be at a local level, the research team worked with four Atlanta-area hospitals and their affiliated outpatient clinics to look for potential cases from 2020 to 2024.

They initially identified nearly 1,000 potential cases, but winnowed the number down to about 450 by ruling out patients who may have had signs of exposure but didn’t qualify as having invasive mold disease.

The researchers found that hospitals can expect to see 3 to 5 cases per year for every 100 inpatient beds. The rates were higher at larger academic hospitals that tend to see more complicated illnesses.

Most patients had impaired immune systems or — in a number of cases — were weakened after falling sick from COVID-19.

Mold exposures can occur in hospitals or other healthcare facilities, but the study did not try to determine where each patient was first exposed, Gold said.

It’s hard to generalize what was seen in the Atlanta area to other parts of the country where mold may be more or less of a problem, he said. But it should give hospital administrators at least a rough idea about whether the number of cases they see is what might be expected or whether it’s an outbreak, Gold added.

Jenks called the study’s findings “valuable,” but said “seeing results from similar studies done in different parts of the United States would be helpful.”

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

In response, the Saudis pumped as much oil as they could – around five million barrels per day – through their east-west pipeline to their export terminal on the Red Sea, on their opposite coast, at Yanbu.

From there it was loaded onto tankers that headed south, out into the Arabian Sea and off to markets in Asia.

So far so good.

But on 13 July, the Saudis bombed Sanaa airport just outside the Yemeni capital. The strike was claimed by Yemen’s Saudi-supported government, which said it wanted to prevent an Iranian plane from landing. In retaliation, the Houthis attacked regional Saudi airports at Abha and Jizan.

More worryingly for Riyadh, the Houthis have begun attacking Saudi shipping in the Red Sea, making it extremely dangerous for ships to pass through the narrow Bab El Mandeb strait at the southern end of the Red Sea. That in turn chokes off Saudi oil exports to Asia.

Saudi Arabia spent seven years trying to bomb the Houthis into submission and failed.

The war that raged across Yemen was one of the worst humanitarian disasters of our time and its effects are still being felt.

In 2022, Saudi Arabia agreed to an uneasy truce with the Houthis and there were reports of payoffs, but now the richest country in the region, Saudi Arabia, is once more facing the threat of drone and missile attacks from its southern neighbour at the same time as attacks from Iraq to the north.

None of this was envisaged in the plans for Vision 2030.

The Ebola outbreak that emerged in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and crossed into neighbouring Uganda may have been killing people for weeks before the alarm was raised. When Médecins Sans Frontières investigated in May 2026, it reported that at least 55 people had died since the beginning of April.

On May 17, the WHO Director-General declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, signalling that countries needed to coordinate their response. By then, the virus had been circulating in a conflict-affected region where fighting had weakened the clinics, laboratories and reporting systems needed to detect and contain it.

This collision between conflict and disease extends far beyond one country. A review of previous research found that war can help infectious diseases spread by damaging healthcare, interrupting vaccination and sanitation, forcing people from their homes and preventing aid workers from reaching them. Violence can also make outbreaks harder to detect.

Spotting an outbreak early gives health authorities a better chance of containing it before it becomes a larger crisis. Yet our research suggests that countries may be least able to spot outbreaks in precisely the places where the danger is greatest.

We examined infectious-disease outbreaks reported through the World Health Organization’s disease outbreak news (Dons) between 1996 and 2024. We then compared where and when those outbreaks were reported with records of armed conflict across 236 countries and territories.

The WHO archive does not include every outbreak worldwide. It contains selected events that were detected, reported to the WHO and considered important enough to publish. Researchers have also found inconsistencies in disease names, case numbers and other details. If an outbreak goes unnoticed, or is noticed but never reported internationally, it cannot appear in the archive.

Our results therefore show patterns in reported outbreaks, not every outbreak that occurred. Even so, they suggest that conflict may affect both how diseases spread and which ones become visible to the wider world.

Many of the diseases reported more often during conflict were linked to the collapse of basic services. Reported polio outbreaks, for example, became more common during civil wars. This fits with evidence that conflict reduces vaccination coverage by displacing communities and making it dangerous or impossible for health workers to reach them.

The naturally occurring “wild” poliovirus now continues to circulate routinely in only Afghanistan and Pakistan, where insecurity has repeatedly obstructed efforts to eliminate it. Other countries can experience outbreaks linked to the weakened virus used in oral polio vaccines. These rare outbreaks occur when vaccination rates are so low that the weakened virus circulates for a long time and changes into a form capable of causing illness.

Reported cholera outbreaks followed a similar pattern, but the clearest rise came one and two years after fighting began. This may be because clean-water supplies, sanitation and healthcare deteriorate gradually during a prolonged conflict. Our study found a pattern – but it can’t prove that this was the cause.

The war in Yemen contributed to one of the largest recorded cholera epidemics in recent history. More than a million suspected cases were recorded as conflict damaged water and sanitation systems, disrupted healthcare and displaced communities.

Many of the patterns we found were strongest in sub-Saharan Africa. This may partly be because some of the diseases studied are already more common there as a result of climate, wildlife and other local environmental conditions – not conflict alone.

The pattern remained after we allowed for differences in countries’ income. But income does not tell us everything about how well a country can detect and report disease. We therefore cannot say how much of the result reflects the places where particular diseases naturally occur and how much reflects differences in reporting.

When outbreaks disappear from the records

One result ran in the opposite direction: influenza was reported less often during conflict.

History gives us little reason to assume that war prevents flu from spreading. During the first world war, mass troop movements and crowded military camps helped the 1918 influenza pandemic spread around the world. It infected an estimated 500 million people and is thought to have killed at least 50 million.

Crowding in shelters and camps could similarly help respiratory infections spread during modern conflicts. But war can also change how people travel and make it harder for them to visit a clinic. Laboratories may close, testing supplies may run out and health authorities may no longer be able to collect or share results. Flu could therefore continue spreading while becoming less visible in official records.

Tracking influenza depends on laboratories and national reporting systems connected through the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System. Damage to this network could help explain why fewer influenza outbreaks were reported during conflict.

There is another complication. Disease outbreak news is not the WHO’s main record of routine flu activity, and the types of influenza events selected for publication have changed over time. The decline could therefore reflect weaker testing and reporting, a real change in transmission, or changes in what the WHO published. Our data cannot determine which explanation is correct.

We also grouped conflicts according to how many people were killed in fighting each year. Reported outbreaks did not continue to rise as conflicts became deadlier, while reported influenza fell further.

One possible explanation is that disease monitoring continues to work during less intense conflicts but starts to collapse in the most violent ones. Yet this is not proof. Counting deaths across a whole country cannot capture every local effect of war, and changes in how diseases spread or what gets reported could also have shaped the result.

Pandemic-preparedness programmes developed since the COVID-19 pandemic have placed great emphasis on laboratories and disease-monitoring networks. But these systems still depend on something more basic: health workers who can reach people safely, clinics that remain open and institutions capable of reporting what they find. When those foundations collapse, even advanced warning systems may receive too little reliable information.

An outbreak map is often read as a picture of where disease exists. It is also a picture of where the world can still see outbreaks. In places fractured by conflict, that visibility may be fading precisely when the need for it is greatest.

The academy graduate is taking full advantage of more first-team exposure with Tottenham missing a whole host of senior players due to a mixture of injury, lack of match fitness and post-World Cup holidays, having previously established a reputation as one of English football’s brightest youth talents.

A British family have told how they were left sleeping on a beach and then in a tent in a garden after the wildfires in Gironde forced them to evacuate.

Melissa Sood, 33, and her family were evacuated from the seaside town of Biscarrosse, around 40 miles south-west of Bordeaux.

The GP practice manager had been on a trip to visit her grandmother alongside her husband Sunny, 42, a police officer, her daughter, 14, and her brother and sister.

Melissa said she and her family were initially left stranded on the beach, sleeping on cardboard boxes, until a family friend reached out and said they could camp in their garden in Sanguinet, around seven miles away.

She said: “The fire looked like a scene from a disaster movie, it was terrible. We started to hear explosions, from the gas canisters in people’s barbecues, it was really eerie. My daughter was really scared.

“Our house was evacuated; we had to pull some cardboard boxes out of a recycling bin and use them to try and sleep on the grass. There’s no hotels anywhere, we’ve been sleeping in a tent in a kind French person’s garden since Friday, we’ve had no sleep at all.”

By ANDREW JEHRING, CHIEF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT and ELIANA SILVER, SENIOR FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER and ISABELLA MACHIN, REPORTER

Published: 13:39 BST, 29 July 2026 | Updated: 19:28 BST, 29 July 2026

A furious Donald Trump has threatened to punish Iran following a “surprise” attack on US military targets in the Middle East.

The offensive took place days after the US president suspended air strikes over the region.

In an expletive-ridden outburst, he told Fox News: “We’re going to beat the f****** sh** out of them. We’ll be hitting them hard. They’re going to get a beating.”

In a day of escalation in the region, Saudi Arabia also joined the US in striking several Iran-backed groups.

Mr Trump’s angry comments came after the US Central Command said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had launched ballistic missiles at US military units.

Iran confirmed late on Tuesday that it had fired at US bases in Jordan and at ships in the Strait of Hormuz, and also rejected an Omani proposal to jointly manage the strait.

Backed by the other Gulf states, Oman has proposed a plan for joint regional control of the strait that would allow the payment of voluntary service charges.

But a senior Iranian official said Iran rejected the proposal as “unreasonable”.

The official said a 50-50 joint control arrangement with Oman would not serve Iran’s interests, though ⁠Tehran considers Oman a valuable neighbour.

Hopes of a cooling of regional tensions faded on Wednesday after Saudi Arabia joined the US in airstrikes that Washington and Riyadh said ​were in retaliation for drone attacks on Saudi oil targets launched from ‌Iraq.

Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, powerful Iran-backed paramilitary groups incorporated into the Iraqi security forces, said at least 20 of its members were killed and 32 wounded in the attacks.

Iraqi men shouted Shi’ite sectarian ⁠slogans and “Death to America!” as they carried the bodies of fighters out of a hospital in Mosul in northern Iraq, footage from Iraq’s Al-Ahad television showed.

Iran said the attacks were an attempt by the United States and Israel to spread their war further in the region.

One of the Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, said US and Saudi forces would pay a “heavy price”.

Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government, one of the few in the world to maintain close military and diplomatic ties with both Tehran and Washington, called an emergency meeting.

The Iraqi presidency denounced the strikes on the paramilitaries as “an unacceptable attack and a flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty”, while also calling for a halt to attacks by armed groups against Iraq’s neighbours.

Saudi Arabia said on X that it “does not seek escalation” but “will respond to any aggression it faces”.

The kingdom has been drawn into the war on more than one front, after Houthi rebels in Yemen threatened to impose fees on ships passing through the Red Sea.

The Iran-backed group was planning to implement their own tolls on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, in an echo of Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

A blockade of Saudi ships through the strait, which is within range of the Houthis’ drones and rockets, has already been announced.

As a result, the Saudis launched air strikes against the Houthis for the first time since 2022.

In a politically charged week, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House on Tuesday to discuss Iran with Mr Trump in the pair’s first sit-down since the war began.

The meeting lasted nearly 90 minutes and was “positive and productive”, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

In a social media posting several hours after the talks, Mr Trump called it a “very good meeting” where “many important subjects were discussed” but offered no further details.

An Israeli official briefed on the White House meeting said Mr Netanyahu made it clear to Mr Trump and his cabinet that if Iran were to attack Israel, they would respond, but that beyond that, they would trust the judgement of the president regarding next steps.

By SHANNON MCGUIGAN, NEWS REPORTER

Published: 19:07 BST, 29 July 2026 | Updated: 19:18 BST, 29 July 2026

Met Police will not take action over the photo Zack Polanski shared of a T-shirt ‘showing Nigel Farage‘s execution’. 

The Green Party leader shared a photo on Instagram of a man wearing a shirt ‘inciting the murder of Farage’. 

Polanski insisted he has not ‘done anything wrong’ and made an ‘inadvertent mistake’ but will not apologise for the post, which he shared to his 713,000 followers on Monday.

The Met Police said on Wednesday night that it had completed its probe. 

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The Green Party leader sparked fury on Monday when she shared an image featuring a man wearing a black T-shirt with the message, ‘We’re only making plans for Nigel’ and an image of a guillotine.

It saw Mr Farage call for his political opponent to be arrested, while Reform’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf accused the Green leader of ‘inciting murder’. The party confirmed it had reported Mr Polanski to police.

At the time, a Met spokesman said the force was ‘conducting inquiries’ and took ‘reports of this nature extremely seriously’. 

In an attempt to defend himself, Mr Polanski told BBC Newsnight on Tuesday that the police had not been in contact with him, adding he ‘didn’t pay enough attention to the T-shirt’ and was ‘horrified’ by its ‘dangerous message’.

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Nigel Farage called for Zack Polanski to be arrested after the Green Party leader shared a photograph of a man wearing a T-shirt ‘planning his decapitation’

Zack Polanski insisted he has not ‘done anything wrong’ after the Green Party leader shared a photograph of a man wearing a T-shirt allegedly ‘inciting murder’

The Green Party leader said during the programme on Tuesday night: ‘This was not my post, it was a collaboration from a photographer.

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‘It had 20 images and I just didn’t look carefully enough and I accepted it. 

‘As soon as I was aware of what happened, I unaccepted it and took it down.

‘I think it would be odd for the police to speak to me about that because I think it’s quite obvious that I’ve not done anything wrong other than making an inadvertent mistake.

‘That being said, if the police do want to talk to me, of course I’m very happy to co-operate.’  

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A Met Police spokesperson said: ‘We absolutely understand the reaction to this image being shared online, particularly in the context of increasing threats towards politicians.

‘We take the safety and security of those in public life, including politicians, very seriously. Where we identify threats we take appropriate action and where there is evidence of offences we will investigate.

‘While there will be people who will argue that those who shared the image in this Instagram post should be subject to criminal action, our review has concluded that on this occasion, the threshold is not met. We have spoken with those impacted to explain that decision making and to provide reassurance around our ongoing commitment to their security and the additional support available.’

– This is a breaking news story, more to come.

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Multiple UK regions have officially been declared in drought as farmers warn crop damage could trigger higher supermarket prices and even shortages of baking potatoes

Almost half of England has officially been plunged into drought after a succession of sweltering heatwaves has resulted in the driest July on record..

The Environment Agency has declared drought across seven regions spawning central, eastern and southern England, warning the country is now using water faster than nature can replace it.

Farmers say the prolonged dry spell is already damaging crops, forcing supermarkets to push up prices and could even lead to shortages of some vegetables, including baking potatoes.

The areas now officially in drought are East Anglia, Hertfordshire and the entirety of London, the Thames Valley, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Devon and Cornwall, the West Midlands, and Wessex, which covers Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, and Gloucestershire.

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England has received just 7% of its average July rainfall, while southern England has seen only 1% of what would normally be expected.

The Environment Agency said the combination of a dry spring, a hot summer and repeated heatwaves has triggered a “flash” drought, despite reservoirs and groundwater being replenished by a wet winter.

The announcement comes as parts of the UK endure a fourth heatwave of the summer, with temperatures climbing into the 30s.

Three earlier wildfires have already fuelled wildfires, damaged rivers and wildlife, hit agriculture and prompted hosepipe bans affecting millions of people.

Many farmers say the impact is already severe. Paul Francis, of Long Farms in Suffolk, said the lack of rainfall had significantly reduced yields of rapeseed, potatoes, onions and carrots, with vegetables also expected to be smaller than usual.

“You feel helpless,” he said. “England is usually good for enough rain for crops and we work hard to grow them but the weather can spoil it.”

He warned there could be shortages of baking potatoes and onions this year, adding that supermarkets should increase prices to better support farmers facing mounting losses.

National Farmers Union deputy president Paul Tomkins said: “Farmers and growers have always had to contend with the weather, but what they are experiencing now is climate change in action.

“Across every sector and every part of the country, farmers and growers are seeing first-hand the impact of dry weather and drought, with more extreme conditions making it harder, riskier and more costly to produce the nation’s food.”

The NFU is urging ministers to make it easier for farmers to build reservoirs and store water by simplifying planning rules and introducing more flexible water abstraction licences.

Water minister Emma Hardy said: “Our climate is changing, droughts are becoming increasingly common, and we need to be prepared for this new normal.

“We’re delivering long-term change in the water industry and driving record investments in infrastructure, including nine new reservoirs.

“We expect water companies to follow their drought plans, to go further and faster to reduce leaks, and to ensure supplies are not disrupted even in the driest of weather.”

Robert Palmer, deputy director of climate and campaign organisation Uplift, said: “For weeks we’ve watched wildfires destroy homes, crops and wildlife. Half the country is now suffering from drought. Climate breakdown is no longer a threat in the future – it’s here now.

“Yet politicians are still considering new oil and gas drilling – the very thing driving the climate crisis. Rather than listening to the fossil fuel lobby and Donald Trump, our leaders must follow the science, which shows that the world already has far more oil and gas than can ever be safely burned.

“Every new oil and gas field approved, particularly on the scale of the Rosebank oil field, will lead to more harm – more severe drought, worsening wildfires, more floods.

“Governments need to act now, not just on how we adapt to these frightening changes, but to stop them from getting worse. That means standing up to the oil and gas firms and saying no to new drilling and Rosebank.”

Forecasters say little meaningful rain is expected before next week, and even then only small amounts are forecast.

Met Office meteorologist Liam Eslick said the high-pressure system dominating the UK’s weather is likely to persist into August and the first half of September, reports the Independent.

“We want a good soaking, a good long period of rain to come, but in the forecast at the moment, especially over the next few days, there’s not actually a lot going on for England,” he said.

“The only time we may see a little bit more in the way of extensive rain is possibly on Sunday evening into Monday. There may be some heavier bursts, but it’s not going to be long-lived. It’s not going to provide anything substantial for England.”