WH Smith cuts sale price of high street business by £12m

WH Smith has cut the sale price of its high street business by £12m, after trading at the chain deteriorated in recent weeks.The 230-year-old British business closed the sale to the investment company Modella Capital on Monday, and revealed that the sale value terms had been revised down.WH Smith will now receive gross cash proceeds of up to £40m, not the £52m expected in March when it agreed to sell its 480 high street stores to Modella, which also owns Hobbycraft.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionShares in WH Smith were down 2% on Monday, after the news of the revised deal terms.WH Smith told the City that the original agreement was “no longer deliverable”

UK households hit by squeeze on living standards despite fastest growth in G7

UK households faced a renewed cost of living squeeze in the first three months of 2025 amid increases in taxes and inflation, official figures show, despite the economy growing at the fastest rate in the G7.The Office for National Statistics said an important measure of living standards – real household disposable income per head – fell by 1% in the first quarter after growth of 1.8% in the final three months of 2024, in the first quarterly decline for almost two years.The households’ saving ratio – which estimates the percentage of disposable income Britons save rather than spend – slumped by 1.1 percentage points to 10

Elon Musk calls Trump’s big bill ‘utterly insane and destructive’ as Senate debates

The billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk on Saturday criticized the latest version of Donald Trump’s sprawling tax and spending bill, calling it “utterly insane and destructive.“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!” Musk wrote on Saturday as the Senate was scheduled to call a vote to open debate on the nearly 1,000-page bill.“Utterly insane and destructive,” Musk added. “It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”Passing the package, Musk said, would be “political suicide for the Republican Party

Online hacks to offline heists: crypto leaders on edge amid increasing attacks

Industry figures are seeing beyond the ‘illusion of invisibility’ after series of investor kidnappingsCryptocurrency traders such as Mohammed Arsalan are prepared to watch their online assets expand and explode if they miss the right moment, making or breaking their fortunes in just minutes. All in a day’s work on the internet. Offline, though, they have found themselves less equipped for the consequences of affluence. A string of kidnappings has plagued the industry over the past year and left traders across the globe paranoid, fearful and keen to invest in physical security measures.Arsalan grew up working class in Karachi, Pakistan

Norris urges F1 fans at Silverstone not to cast Piastri as villain at British GP

Lando Norris has urged fans at Silverstone not to cast his McLaren teammate and world championship rival, Oscar Piastri, as a villain at Sunday’s British Grand Prix.Norris won the Austrian GP in Spielberg after a tense, lights-to-flag fight with Piastri, the pair in almost constant competition over 70 laps. Norris held his nerve with great control and has now closed to within 15 points of the Australian in the title fight With McLaren so dominant, the drivers’ championship looks to be a two-horse race between the teammates and the team principal, Andrea Stella, said the British driver was in a strong position to back-up his victory in Austria with a first home GP win.The fans at Silverstone will largely be on Norris’ side, with the 25-year-old selling out his own 10,000-capacity area at Stowe – renamed the Landostand which overlooks Stowe corner – for the first time.But when it was suggested Australian Piastri could receive a hostile reception from the British crowd, Norris said: “I certainly hope that doesn’t happen

Sonay Kartal gets Britain off to a flyer at Wimbledon with win over Ostapenko

This time last year, Sonay Kartal was ranked No 298, batting to make it as a professional. On Monday, after a whirlwind 12 months, the 23-year-old made it a perfect start for British players at Wimbledon as she upended the former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 7-5, 2-6, 6-2.Kartal, who cracked the top 50 for the first time earlier this month, saved three set points as she recovered from 5-2 down to win the first set and though No 20 seed Ostapenko bounced back to level, Kartal ripped through the third for a well-earned victory.“That was one of the toughest matches I have played,” Kartal said. “I struggle against the big hitters, she beat me easily last week (in Eastbourne)