Friday newspaper round-up: Food and drink trade deficit, datacentre project, Meta, Morgan Stanley

(Sharecast News) - The gap between Britain's food and drink exports and imports has neared its highest this century, as a combination of Brexit, war in the Middle East and US tariffs dented deliveries overseas while imports soared. The UK's food and drink trade deficit has risen to more than £21bn - the largest since 2000 - in what industry leaders said was a "wake-up call" for the government to protect homegrown produce in the interest of national security. - Guardian

A huge datacentre project hailed by the UK government will miss its launch date next year and could be delayed into the mid-2030s. The site in Loughton, Essex, was described as the country's largest AI supercomputer when it was announced in 2025, but power supply problems mean it now faces a lengthy wait before coming online. Doubts had already emerged about the scheme after the Guardian revealed in March that the planned location was still an operational scaffolding yard. - Guardian

Whitehall is on high alert because of the threat that TalkTalk, the broadband provider, may go into administration within days and open up a national security vulnerability. Security officials responsible for Britain's most critical infrastructure are in close daily contact with senior civil servants and telecoms regulators as they seek to ensure that TalkTalk is able to keep operating in the event of an insolvency. - Telegraph

Meta is launching a new camera-free version of its smart glasses following concerns that they are being used to film women and girls without their consent. The tech giant unveiled a new line-up of the gadgets at its annual conference in California on Wednesday. The audio-only Ray-Ban glasses, which will be available next month from a starting price of $349 (£264), come amid growing questions about privacy violations from tiny cameras embedded in the wearables, which critics have dubbed "pervert" glasses. - Telegraph

A top investment banker at Morgan Stanley has caused a crisis for the Wall Street giant by accidentally leaking a list of more than 100 deals that the firm is circling. The bank is trying to limit the fallout from the blunder, which happened when one of its senior financiers in Hong Kong emailed the wrong file to some of the lender's clients. - The Times

The former boss of a failed community energy company has been hired to lead the government's £1 billion local power plan, prompting outrage from investors who say they lost millions. Sarah Merrick founded and ran Ripple Energy, which sold consumers stakes in renewable power projects in return for promised electricity bill discounts. Ripple collapsed into administration last year, leaving about 7,000 people struggling to recoup more than £10 million they had paid to join a proposed wind farm co-operative in Scotland. - The Times