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Good morning from the Financial Times.

Today is Thursday, April 20th, and this is your FT News Briefing.

There's been a big drop in European natural gas usage.

Ukrainian officials say they're running dangerously low on air defense missiles.

In Germany, it looks like it'll be the next country to legalize recreational cannabis.

This is a major development in the decolonisation of cannabis, and it could very much be seen

as an important precedent in Europe. I'm Sonia Hudson in from Archfilippino,

and here's the news you need to start your day.

There's been fears of a gas shortage in Europe. Ever since Russia launched

its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. But now, a new study from the EU is easing some

of those concerns. The report says natural gas consumption fell almost 18% over the past eight

months. The large drop was partly thanks to a milder winter, but it also reflected energy

conservation efforts and a switch to alternative fuel and power sources.

The larger than expected fall in EU gas consumption has also driven a recent drop in prices,

and helped boost storage levels.

Ukrainian officials are meeting in Germany tomorrow to plead with western allies to send

them air defense supplies. Kiev is in the midst of planning a spring counteroffensive,

but it's worried that a shortage of surface-to-air missiles would allow Russia to launch widespread

bombing attacks. Here's the FT's European diplomatic correspondent, Henry Foley.

Trying to make advances. The second big concern for the Ukrainians is that if the counteroffensive

...