Blow for drought-hit England as opening of new reservoir delayed by 5 years

Concern over water supplies likely to grow as cost of Havant Thicket project more than doubles

Fire in My Mouth — Julia Wolfe’s vivid work pays homage to victims of factory fire

Honouring 146 workers who died in 1911, a choir of the same number gave an atmospheric performance at London’s Southbank Centre

Germany urges US to allow Patriot missile production in Europe

Berlin wants to manufacture more interceptors to boost stocks as Ukraine struggles to secure enough air-defence systems

UK on course to miss climate targets, energy secretary admits

Miatta Fahnbulleh promises ‘pragmatic’ approach on North Sea oil and gas, as decisions on Rosebank and Jackdaw fields loom

Just how much power will AI need?

Rise of agentic AI could supercharge the electricity demands of data centres

The Nerd Reich — have the tech elite given up on democracy?

Gil Durán makes the case for why a group of rich, arrogant and increasingly powerful oligarchs are looking beyond elections to a libertarian future

Met Opera opens its season with a witchy take on Verdi’s Macbeth

Director Louisa Proske makes her house debut with a hair-raising production starring Lise Davidsen and a gripping Quinn Kelsey

Should we rent or sell a property that we’ve inherited?

My grandfather left my sister and me a house in his will. How can we avoid falling out over what we do with it?

The west does not have a leadership problem

If Friedrich Merz and almost everyone else is unpopular, perhaps governments aren’t the issue

L&G to cut a tenth of its workforce

Move to slash 1,000 jobs comes as part of broader effort by chief executive António Simões to restructure FTSE 100 group

Swiss lawmakers back tougher bank capital rules in blow to UBS

Parliament’s upper house rejects compromise proposal in battle between lender and Bern

Lidl owner among suitors circling Tesco’s European business

Schwarz Group, Ahold Delhaize and Biedronka are expected to bid as UK retailer retreats from international operations

FirstFT: Oil on track for sixth consecutive day of falls

Also in today’s newsletter: financier Todd Boehly leads consortium to buy Lukoil’s international assets, and OECD warns on surging government bond yields

Dartmoor’s Princetown Press makes prints fit for a king

Inside the Crown-approved letterpress studio

Why Germany’s ‘chancellor-in-waiting’ is biding his time

Hendrik Wüst, the popular premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, is seen as the most likely successor to Friedrich Merz

The model making vegan shoes sexy

Jessica Miller has designed a heel for Aera – and her Metallica husband approves

Drone specialist Tekever’s valuation soars fivefold to $6.4bn

Portuguese group becomes one of Europe’s most valuable start-ups after latest $580mn fundraising deal

Azerbaijan pardons French national as part of secret prisoner release deal

Paris blindsided allies when it pushed for Russian oligarch to be exempt from EU sanctions as part of its deal with Baku

Bank of England does not need to raise interest rates, says OECD

Paris-based group says the UK is ‘starting from a different position’ on monetary policy compared with other countries

Enter slopfiling

Some companies love ChatGPT and they don’t care who knows it

Pornhub’s age checks probed by UK watchdog

Ofcom investigates whether porn site’s service provider met its duty to protect children online

The Lib Dems’ unserious tax cut pledge

An unlikely plan to fund increased tax thresholds with extra growth from EU deals will turn away target voters

OECD sounds alarm on surging government bond yields

Paris-based forecaster says governments’ debt interest bills are increasing pressure on public finances

Diageo poaches WPP finance chief as CEO Lewis overhauls top team

Drinks group’s chief Dave Lewis appoints former Tesco colleague Joanne Wilson