Business

In a move that has set the M&A community talking on both sides of the Atlantic, eBay has firmly slammed the door on a $55.5bn (£40.9bn) unsolicited takeover approach from American video games retailer GameStop, branding the bid “neither credible nor attractive”.

The rejection, communicated in a sharply worded letter from eBay’s board to GameStop chief executive Ryan Cohen, will come as little surprise to anyone with a passing acquaintance of the relative scale of the two businesses. GameStop, the bricks-and-mortar gaming chain that found cult status in 2021 as the original “meme stock”, is roughly a quarter of the size of the online auction house it is attempting to swallow, a David-and-Goliath dynamic that City analysts have long viewed as a near-insurmountable hurdle.

In its rebuff, the eBay board cited “uncertainty” over how the deal would be financed, alongside concerns about “the impact of your proposal on eBay’s long-term growth and profitability”. Directors also pointed to “operational risks, and leadership structure of a combined entity”, as well as questions over “GameStop’s governance”, a pointed reference, observers will note, to a company whose share price has historically been driven as much by social media sentiment as by retail fundamentals.

GameStop had attempted to bolster the credibility of its overture with a commitment letter from TD Securities for roughly $20bn of debt financing. Yet that prospective debt pile is precisely what gave eBay’s board, and a chorus of independent analysts, pause for thought. Sucharita Kodali, retail analyst at Forrester, told Business Matters the proposition was hardly “a terribly good offer”, warning that it would saddle the auction giant with GameStop’s borrowings at a moment when eBay is finally finding its feet again.

That recovery is no idle boast. Despite the well-documented competitive squeeze from Amazon, Etsy and, more recently, the Chinese disruptor Temu, eBay posted net profits of $418.4m in 2025, more than treble the $131.3m delivered the year before, even as sales softened. The board insists its turnaround strategy is bearing fruit and is in no mood to surrender the upside to an opportunistic suitor.

Mr Cohen, however, is unlikely to retreat quietly. The GameStop chief, who built his fortune through online pet retailer Chewy before becoming the unofficial figurehead of the meme-stock movement, claimed last week that eBay could be transformed under his stewardship into a credible challenger to Amazon. He has also signalled his willingness to bypass the boardroom and take his proposition directly to eBay’s shareholders, a hostile gambit that would set the stage for one of the more colourful takeover battles of the year.

For Britain’s SME owners watching from across the Atlantic, the saga is more than a transatlantic curiosity. eBay remains a vital sales channel for thousands of small British retailers, many of whom built post-pandemic businesses on its platform. Any prolonged ownership dispute, or a deal that materially loaded the company with debt, could have tangible consequences for the fees, listing policies and seller protections those firms depend on.

For now, eBay’s chairman and chief executive will be hoping the matter ends here. The bookies, and most of Wall Street, are betting it won’t.

Read more:
ebay rebuffs GameStop’s surprise $55.5bn swoop

National Grid has unveiled what amounts to the most ambitious capital programme in its history, pledging a further £70bn over the next five years to rewire the energy systems of Britain and the north-eastern United States.

The FTSE 100 utility, which has spent the past two years reshaping itself into a pure-play networks business, said the fresh commitment would accelerate its march towards a net-zero electricity system on both sides of the Atlantic. The announcement, made alongside its full-year results, builds on a record £11.6bn of capital expenditure in the prior year and signals that the group sees no let-up in the structural demand for grid investment.

Of the headline figure, some £31bn will be funnelled into UK electricity transmission, expanding capacity to absorb the surge of offshore wind, solar and nuclear coming on stream this decade. The company described the spend as the foundation of a “decarbonised electricity network” by the 2030s, and the bill will, in part, be underwritten by Ofgem’s new RIIO-T3 framework, which has formally cleared the way for the heavier outlay.

Across the Atlantic, £17bn has been earmarked for New York and a further £12bn for New England, with around 60 per cent of the US allocation flowing directly into National Grid’s own networks. The group expects a 10 per cent uplift in returns from its asset base by the 2030/31 financial year on the back of the programme.

Zoe Yujnovich, who took the helm as chief executive earlier in the year, said the company was “embarking on the largest investment programme in our history… to modernise and expand energy networks across the UK and the US Northeast, networks that underpin economic growth, strengthen energy security and enable the transition to a cleaner, more flexible energy system.” She added that the group was “building the skilled workforce needed to deliver this investment at pace, creating thousands of jobs across our markets” — a message likely to play well in Westminster and Whitehall, where ministers have been pressing infrastructure operators to demonstrate the employment dividend of the green transition.

The growth ambitions came against a softer revenue backdrop. Total turnover slipped four per cent to £17.6bn from £18.3bn the previous year, a decline the company attributed to storm-related costs and the divestment of its renewables arm and US grain liquid natural gas business. Pre-tax profit, however, jumped to £4.2bn from £3.6bn, while earnings per share rose eight per cent to 78p.

Shareholders were rewarded with a final dividend of 32.1p, taking the full-year payout to 48.9p, a 3.8 per cent increase pegged to UK inflation. The market responded warmly, with shares climbing 1.5 per cent in early trading to 1,297p, leaving the stock up 11.9 per cent since January and comfortably outpacing the wider FTSE 100.

Looking ahead, National Grid expects UK electricity transmission revenue to rise by roughly £850m in the year ahead, with RIIO-T3 doing much of the heavy lifting. In New England, top-line growth of around $450m is forecast, driven by rate resets, though partially offset by the costs of the expanded build-out. New York is expected to follow a similar trajectory.

For SMEs reliant on a stable, predictable power supply, from manufacturers wrestling with energy-intensive processes to data-hungry tech firms, the scale of the commitment is significant. A more capacious, modern transmission network underpins the kind of long-term industrial planning that has been sorely lacking since the energy shock of 2022, and it puts hard numbers behind the government’s grid-connection reforms.

Yujnovich struck an appropriately customer-focused tone in her closing remarks. “Through… transforming our capabilities we will be able to meet the rapidly growing demand and enable a more efficient energy system, one that supports long-term affordability and reliability for customers,” she said.

For investors, the calculation is straightforward: a regulated, inflation-linked income stream married to a multi-decade capex story. For the wider economy, the prize is a grid finally fit for the century it has to serve.

Read more:
National Grid commits record £70bn to power the next decade of energy networks

For all the hand-wringing over privacy, Britain’s high streets, gyms and offices are about to be flooded with cameras hiding in plain sight.

The latest generation of so-called smart glasses, most notably Meta’s Ray-Ban range, has become one of the fastest-selling consumer electronics products in history, and the world’s largest technology companies are queuing up to follow suit.

The commercial momentum is undeniable. Meta has now shipped more than seven million pairs of its Ray-Ban smart glasses, made in partnership with Franco-Italian eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica, and the device accounts for more than 80 per cent of the global AI eyewear market, according to Counterpoint Research. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, told investors earlier this year that the glasses were “some of the fastest-growing consumer electronics in history”, a rare bright spot for a company that has spent tens of billions of dollars chasing the metaverse with limited return.

But the same product line is now sitting at the centre of a rapidly widening privacy row that could shape regulation, workplace policy and consumer trust for years to come, and which British SMEs, from beauty salons to cafés, are already being forced to think about.

A camera in every frame

The appeal of the device, on paper, is straightforward. The Ray-Ban model carries an almost invisible camera in the frame, small open-ear speakers in the arms, and a discreet indicator light. Wearers can take a photo, capture video, place a phone call or summon Meta’s AI assistant with a tap on the temple. For early adopters such as Mark Smith, a partner at advisory firm ISG, the attraction is mundane rather than futuristic. He wears his every day, he says, because they let him take a call or listen to a podcast while washing up without blocking out the room, and spare him from pulling out a phone to capture a moment while travelling.

The problem, as Smith himself concedes, is that nobody around the wearer can tell. The recording light is dim in daylight and easily missed. To the casual observer, the glasses look like any other pair of Wayfarers.

That ambiguity is now generating an uncomfortable run of headlines. Women have reported being approached on beaches, in shops and on the street by men wearing the glasses, who film their reactions to scripted pick-up lines or intrusive questions and then upload the clips for clicks. Victims often only discover the footage exists once it has gone viral — and any subsequent abuse with it. As photography in public places is broadly lawful in the UK, legal recourse is limited. One woman who asked for her secretly recorded video to be removed told the BBC she was informed by the poster that takedown was “a paid service”.

Lawsuits, content moderators and a Kenyan flashpoint

The reputational pressure on Meta has been compounded by the working conditions of those who train the AI behind the product. Content moderators in Kenya, tasked with reviewing footage captured through the glasses to build training data, alleged they had been required to watch graphic material including sexual activity and people using the lavatory. Two lawsuits followed from owners of the glasses themselves: one group claiming they had no idea such videos had ever been captured, another that they had not realised the footage was being shared back to Meta for human review.

The company has pointed to its terms of service, arguing that the possibility of human review in certain circumstances had been disclosed. A Meta spokesman, Tracy Clayton, told the BBC: “We have teams dedicated to limiting and combating misuse, but as with any technology, the onus is ultimately on individual people to not actively exploit it.”

That defence is unlikely to satisfy the regulators now circling the category. Meta is reportedly preparing to add facial recognition to a forthcoming version of the glasses, according to The New York Times, a feature that would allow wearers not just to record passers-by, but to identify them in real time.

The rest of Silicon Valley piles in

For all the controversy, the rest of Big Tech sees a market it cannot afford to miss. Apple is widely reported to be developing its own smart glasses, with Bloomberg suggesting a launch as soon as next year. Snap has confirmed a new, lighter pair of its Specs for 2026. Google, more than a decade on from the spectacular failure of Google Glass, pulled within two years of launch amid a furious privacy backlash, is preparing another attempt under its Android XR platform.

Analysts at Citigroup and researchers at UC Berkeley reckon as many as 100 million people could be wearing AI-enabled glasses within a few years. For investors, that points to a genuinely new product category, the first since the smartwatch. For regulators, public bodies and small businesses, it raises a far thornier question: how do you enforce existing rules against recording in courtrooms, hospitals, changing rooms, museums, cinemas and bathrooms when a meaningful slice of the population is wearing a camera on their face?

David Kessler, who leads the US privacy practice at international law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, says corporate clients are already wrestling with it. “There are some pretty dark places we could go here,” he said. “I’m not anti-technology in any sense, but as a societal matter… will I need to think [of being recorded] anytime I go out in public?”

What it means for British SMEs

For owner-managers in the UK, this is no longer a Silicon Valley curiosity. Anecdotes are mounting of customers and staff being caught off guard: the online influencer Aniessa Navarro recounted feeling “sick” when she realised mid-treatment that her beauty technician was wearing Meta’s glasses. The technician insisted they were neither charged nor recording, and were needed for prescription lenses — but the reputational risk for the salon is obvious.

Smaller businesses in hospitality, retail, healthcare, fitness and personal services should expect to revisit their acceptable-use policies, customer-facing signage and staff training. Under UK GDPR, covert recording of identifiable individuals on a business’s premises is likely to fall on the operator as well as the wearer once that footage is processed for any purpose beyond purely personal use. Insurers and trade bodies are likely to start asking questions.

Meta markets the product under the tagline “Designed for privacy, controlled by you”, and tells wearers not to record people who object and to switch the glasses off entirely in sensitive spaces. Those suggestions, by the company’s own admission, are honoured more in the breach than the observance. A growing genre of “prank” content sees young men in Ray-Bans persuading retail workers to smell candles laced with foul odours, getting members of the public to sign fake petitions, or filming themselves snatching food at drive-throughs.

A Google Glass moment, or a tipping point?

Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer, was asked on Instagram about “the stigma around people wearing smart glasses every day”. His answer leant heavily on the sales figures, arguing that the sheer volume shifted “suggest these are widely accepted”.

Not everyone is convinced. David Harris, a former Meta AI researcher now teaching at UC Berkeley and advising policymakers in the US and EU, believes the category is heading for the same wall that flattened Google Glass. “Technology like this is fundamentally an invasion of privacy and it’s really going to face more and more backlash,” he said.

The signs are already there. In December, a New York man posted a clip lamenting that a woman he had been filming on the subway had broken his Meta glasses. The internet did not commiserate. It crowned her a folk hero.

For Meta, for Apple, for Snap and for Google, the commercial prize from owning the face is enormous. But for an industry that has spent the past decade trying to rebuild public trust, betting the next platform on a device most bystanders cannot tell is a camera may yet prove the most expensive miscalculation of all.

Read more:
Smart glasses are ‘an invasion of privacy’, yet Meta is shifting them by the million

Britain’s economy delivered a rare piece of good news this morning, with the Office for National Statistics reporting that GDP expanded by 0.3 per cent in March, comfortably ahead of City forecasts and capping a first-quarter growth rate of 0.6 per cent.

The figures, the last to capture activity before the outbreak of the Iran war began rattling global markets, point to a services-led upswing that has handed the Chancellor a brief reprieve as she braces for what most economists agree will be a far bleaker summer.

According to the ONS, the services sector, still the engine room of the British economy, grew by 0.8 per cent over the quarter, with production nudging up 0.2 per cent and construction rising 0.4 per cent. Wholesale, computer programming and advertising were the standout performers.

“Growth picked up in the first quarter of the year, led by broad-based increases across the services sector,” said Liz McKeown, director of economic statistics at the ONS. “Within that, wholesale, computer programming and advertising performed particularly well.”

For the country’s 5.5 million small and medium-sized enterprises, however, the headline number masks a far more uncomfortable reality. The March print captures only the opening days of the conflict; April and May data, when they land, are expected to reveal the full cost of the disruption ripping through the Strait of Hormuz and into global supply chains.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves seized on the figures to defend her fiscal strategy, telling reporters that “now is not the time to put our economic stability at risk”.

“Today’s figures show the government has the right economic plan,” Reeves said. “The choices I have made as Chancellor mean our economy is in a stronger position as we deal with the costs of the war in Iran. This government is getting on with the job of building an economy that is stronger, more resilient, and prepared for the future.”

Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride was quick to puncture the mood, arguing that “the chaos surrounding the Labour leadership is destabilising Britain’s economy”. His intervention reflects mounting nerves in Westminster, where Sir Keir Starmer is fighting to hold his position amid backbench unrest.

Forecasters have already sharpened their pencils. Capital Economics has slashed its 2026 UK growth projection, with deputy chief UK economist Ruth Gregory warning that “prolonged political instability” represents “an extra downside risk” to her outlook.

“We would be very surprised if growth doesn’t weaken from May as the temporary boost from stockpiling unwinds and the squeeze on households’ real incomes from higher energy prices intensifies,” Gregory said. “In our adverse scenario, the economy suffers a mild recession. So the economy will probably give whoever is Prime Minister a rough ride.”

The energy picture is doing most of the damage. Brent crude has surged by roughly 50 per cent since March on fears of sustained supply disruption, and as a net energy importer Britain is more exposed than most of its G7 peers. Higher import costs are expected to filter rapidly into inflation, while weakening global demand threatens to weigh on the export book just as Britain’s manufacturers had begun to find their feet.

For SME owners, the practical consequences are already taking shape. Survey data shows consumer confidence has fallen sharply since the conflict began, and business investment, which had been showing tentative signs of recovery, is widely expected to stall as boardrooms wait for clarity on energy costs, interest rates and political direction.

The Treasury is understood to be poring over the latest figures ahead of an energy support package for businesses and households, with smaller firms in energy-intensive sectors lobbying hard for targeted relief.

Compounding the uncertainty, Reeves herself is reportedly weighing whether she could remain in her current role under a new Labour leader should Sir Keir be forced out. Bond traders are already pricing in a leftward shift, with gilt yields reflecting expectations that fiscal rules could be loosened and the current government’s growth policies quietly shelved.

For now, Sir Keir has dug in. Following Tuesday’s King’s Speech, in which he promised to “tear down” the status quo and pursue a “radical agenda”, the Prime Minister has cited the war as reason enough to remain at the helm. Whether anxious backbenchers, and equally anxious business owners, will share that assessment over the coming weeks remains very much an open question.

Read more:
UK economy defies gloom with surprise March growth as Iran war clouds outlook

Health goals don’t collapse in one moment. They erode. Tuesday the routine slips. Wednesday sleep is poor. By the following month, meals are reactive and the plan that felt solid in January has quietly disappeared. Nobody decided to stop. Things just drifted.

Weight management works the same way. Effort alone rarely explains the gap between intention and result. Biology runs a parallel process, one that operates independently of how motivated someone feels on a given morning. For a growing number of people, the real question is how habits and clinical support can fit together without making daily life feel like a medical programme.

Oral semaglutide changes part of that picture. A tablet format may remove one barrier for people who struggle with injections, which is why the Wegovy oral pill has entered the wider discussion. Worth examining what that actually means in practice.

UK Regulatory Status and Anticipated MHRA Approval Timeline

Semaglutide as an oral tablet for weight management is still developing in the UK, not a settled patient route yet. The FDA approved oral semaglutide 25mg in December 2025. In the UK, the 7.2mg Wegovy pen cleared MHRA review in April 2026. The oral tablet? No confirmed UK decision yet.

Private access and NHS routes may move at different speeds. They often do. Costs will vary depending on provider, assessment structure, and what follow-up looks like in each case. Anyone researching this now is doing so before full availability lands. That context matters for setting realistic expectations.

What the MHRA Approval Means for UK Patients

Approval of an injectable format does not automatically transfer to an oral one. Each formulation goes through its own process. What the injectable approval does show is that regulators have assessed higher-dose semaglutide for obesity under a separate formulation. That is useful context. It is not a guarantee of timeline for the tablet.

For people trying to understand how a tablet format might fit into their daily routine, the Wegovy pill is a clinical question first, not a lifestyle upgrade. Eligibility, medical history, side effects, and follow-up need proper review before any decision gets made. That review shapes whether treatment is appropriate, not just available.

Individual response varies. Clinical history, existing conditions, other medications. All of these shape what a prescriber recommends. Two people with similar health profiles may end up on different treatment paths depending on which format fits their actual daily life. That fit matters more than most people expect when treatment is meant to run for months.

Clinical Evidence from the OASIS-4 Trial and Efficacy Outcomes

Sixty-four weeks. Daily oral semaglutide 25mg. OASIS-4 participants recorded notable body weight reductions across the study period. Entry criteria: BMI 30 or above, or 27 and above where weight-related health conditions were present.

Two participants on the same protocol for the same duration can produce different outcomes. The trial cannot control for everything. Data supports efficacy. It does not promise a specific number on any individual’s scale. Starting from that position is more useful than starting from best-case projections.

What the trial does confirm: oral delivery of semaglutide produces clinically relevant weight reduction in eligible adults. Wegovy tablets work through the same receptor pathway as the injectable form. That is the foundation.

How Oral Semaglutide Compares to Injectable Wegovy

Wegovy by injection: 2.4mg, once weekly. Wegovy tablets: 25mg, once daily. GLP-1 receptor agonist action in both cases, influencing appetite and glycaemic control through the same biological mechanism. Outcomes appear to sit in a comparable range across available trial data.

Adherence drives the choice here, not pharmacology. Some people may not want to inject themselves at home over an extended period. Not a weakness. A real barrier that determines whether treatment starts at all. Removing the needle may reduce the training requirement, the anxiety, and the logistical weight of managing an injectable long-term.

Starting a format that gets maintained beats starting a theoretically better format that gets abandoned. That distinction is clinical, not just practical.

Dosing, Administration, and Safety Considerations

Empty stomach. Non-negotiable. Oral semaglutide 25mg needs 30 minutes clear before food or other medications. Built into how the tablet absorbs. Cannot be worked around.

Treatment starts low. Dose titrates upward over several weeks to reach 25mg. Standard for GLP-1 therapies. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation show up commonly in the early weeks. Most run mild to moderate. Many settle as adjustment progresses. Clinical assessment covers contraindications, medical history, and suitability before any prescription is issued. That step is where appropriateness gets determined, not after.

Practical Adherence Strategies for Daily Oral Dosing

Same time. Every morning. Before food. Before anything else. Vague plans to take it “in the morning” produce missed doses by week three. A single smartphone alarm, set once, removes the daily decision. It fires. The tablet gets taken. This is where daily routine does more than motivation.

Pill organisers add a physical confirmation layer. One glance replaces the need to remember. Useful on the mornings when memory is not reliable.

Missing one daily dose may carry less individual impact than missing a weekly injection. That is the maths. Across a full month, though, irregular patterns accumulate. Week one habits tend to stick. Week four corrections rarely do.

UK Access Pathways, Cost Considerations, and Patient Journey

Private prescription routes may move ahead of NHS funding. Costs will vary by provider, assessment model, and follow-up structure. These details should become clearer as approval progresses.

If approval is confirmed, GPhC-registered online pharmacies with clinician oversight may become one access route. A typical regulated process would involve clinical consultation, eligibility review, and a prescription only where criteria are met.

Weight management over the long term comes down to whether the format, the routine, and the clinical structure hold together across months. A treatment route can look strong on paper and still fail if it does not fit the morning, the workday, the meal pattern, and the person using it.

That is why the conversation around tablets matters. Not because a different format removes the need for assessment, follow-up, or daily habits. It does not. But for some patients, a routine that feels easier to keep may make the whole structure easier to maintain.

Read more:
How Everyday Habits Can Shape Long-Term Health Goals

Global oil stockpiles are emptying at the fastest pace ever recorded as the war in the Middle East tips the world into a deepening supply deficit, in a development that threatens to derail the recovery of Britain’s small and medium-sized businesses just as they were beginning to find their footing.

The International Energy Agency has warned of an “unprecedented supply shock” following the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping lane that until recently carried roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas. The destruction of energy infrastructure across the Gulf has compounded the damage, leaving traders, hauliers and manufacturers scrambling to absorb costs that were unthinkable only six months ago.

The Paris-based agency now expects a shortfall of around 1.8 million barrels a day to materialise this year, a dramatic reversal of the 410,000-barrel surplus it had forecast as recently as last month. The shift has come even as the economic damage of the conflict pulls demand sharply lower.

“With global oil inventories already drawing at a record clip, further price volatility appears likely ahead of the peak summer demand period,” the IEA cautioned.

Global supply is forecast to fall by an average 3.9 million barrels a day this year to 102.2 million, on the assumption that tanker traffic through the strait gradually resumes from the end of June. Even on that optimistic footing, the market is expected to remain in deficit until the final quarter.

Markets have whipsawed since hostilities between the United States and Iran erupted, with Brent crude, the international benchmark, surging to as high as $126 a barrel from just $60 at the start of the year. On Wednesday evening Brent snapped a three-day winning streak, sliding 2 per cent to $105.63 in its sharpest one-day retreat in a week. Even so, the benchmark is up 73.6 per cent year-to-date, a move that has rippled through every corner of the British economy from the haulage yards of the Midlands to the petrol forecourts of the south coast.

The IEA estimates that 246 million barrels have been drawn from inventories since the war began, leaving a perilously thin buffer against further shocks. In March the agency, which represents 32 member countries, released 400 million barrels of strategic reserves as a “stop-gap measure” in a co-ordinated bid to steady nerves.

Producers outside the Middle East have been pumping flat out to plug the gap. Forecasts for supply growth from the Americas have been raised by more than 600,000 barrels a day since January, to 1.5 million barrels a day this year, with Texan shale operators and Brazilian deepwater producers leading the charge. It has not been enough. Global supply slumped by a further 1.8 million barrels a day in April to 95.1 million, taking total losses since February to 12.8 million barrels a day. Output from Gulf states affected by the closure of the strait is running 14.4 million barrels a day below pre-war levels.

For Britain’s SME community, the second-order effects are arguably more punishing than the headline oil price itself. The IEA expects the economic fallout, rising inflation, slower growth and a sharp squeeze on household budgets, to drag global oil demand down by 420,000 barrels a day this year. That compares with a forecast decline of just 80,000 a day last month and projected growth of 850,000 barrels a day before the war began. It is the rapidity of the reversal, rather than its absolute scale, that has unnerved policymakers.

“Escalating demand destruction is underpinned by a surge in oil prices since the start of the war,” the IEA said. “Slower economic growth in both OECD and non-OECD countries is also beginning to weigh on consumer and industrial consumption.”

Fatih Birol, the agency’s executive director, last month described the current squeeze as the worst energy crisis the world has ever faced, eclipsing the oil shocks of the 1970s. “We are indeed facing the biggest energy security threat in history,” he said.

For owner-managed businesses already absorbing higher employment costs, stubborn inflation and fragile consumer confidence, the message from Paris is sobering. With warnings that the conflict could push Britain to the brink of recession, the next quarter is shaping up to be the most demanding test of SME resilience in a generation.

Read more:
Oil stocks drain at record pace as Iran war chokes global supply

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms has suffered a significant legal setback in Europe after the bloc’s highest court ruled that national regulators have the power to enforce compensation arrangements between online platforms and news publishers for the use of their journalism.

The Court of Justice of the European Union, sitting in Luxembourg, found in favour of Italy’s communications regulator, AGCOM, which Meta had accused of overstepping its remit by setting the price the social media group must pay for displaying snippets of press articles on Facebook and Instagram. The judgment is likely to embolden newspaper groups across the continent, including in the UK, that have long argued they are negotiating from a position of structural weakness against a handful of dominant American technology platforms.

“The court finds that a right to fair compensation for publishers is consistent with EU law, provided that that remuneration constitutes consideration for authorising their publications to be used online,” the judges said in their ruling.

Meta had argued that the Italian measures were incompatible with the rights publishers already enjoy under European copyright law, and that allowing national regulators to dictate commercial terms amounted to regulatory overreach. The company, which owns WhatsApp alongside its flagship social platforms, said it would study the judgment in full and “engage constructively as the matter returns to the Italian courts”.

For Britain’s beleaguered publishing sector, where regional titles in particular have been hollowed out over the past decade as advertising revenue migrated to Silicon Valley, the ruling will be watched closely. Although the UK is no longer bound by Court of Justice decisions following Brexit, Westminster has been drafting its own framework for compelling platforms to strike commercial deals with news publishers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act. The European judgment provides political cover for ministers minded to take a firmer line.

The European Publishers Council was quick to claim victory. Angela Mills Wade, its executive director, said the ruling acknowledged “the economic reality that publishers cannot negotiate on equal terms with dominant online platforms without transparency, access to relevant data, and safeguards against coercive behaviour”.

“This crucial decision comes at a time when AI-driven and platform-mediated uses of journalistic content are rapidly expanding,” she added. “This important ruling will pave the way for fairer negotiations with gatekeepers which have been abusing their dominance by refusing to negotiate in good faith. Quality journalism depends on the ability of publishers to recoup the investments required to produce trusted news and information.”

The decision lands at a fraught moment for relations between the technology industry and the creative economy. Earlier this month, five of the world’s largest publishing houses, including Elsevier, Hachette and Macmillan, filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta in a New York federal court, alleging that the Silicon Valley group pirated millions of books and academic articles to train Llama, its large language model. Works cited in the complaint include N. K. Jemisin’s award-winning novel The Fifth Season and Peter Brown’s bestselling children’s book The Wild Robot.

Meta has vowed to fight the case “aggressively”, but the action is symptomatic of a broader reckoning. Anthropic, the AI start-up backed by Amazon and Google, last year became the first major artificial intelligence company to settle such a claim, agreeing to pay a group of authors $1.5 billion to resolve litigation that the company’s lawyers feared could have run into many billions more had it gone to trial.

For owner-managed publishers, freelance journalists and the broader content economy, the direction of travel is becoming clearer. After two decades in which platforms harvested editorial output largely on their own terms, the legal pendulum is swinging, slowly, but unmistakably, back towards those who produce the work in the first place. Whether the compensation flowing from rulings such as this one will be enough to sustain quality journalism is a separate, and arguably more difficult, question.

Read more:
Meta dealt blow by EU court in landmark ruling on publisher payments

Britain’s small and medium-sized businesses have given the King’s Speech a decidedly lukewarm reception, with industry leaders accusing ministers of squandering a “critical opportunity” to ease the mounting cost pressures threatening to choke off growth across the economy.

While the legislative programme offered some genuine wins, most notably a long-awaited crackdown on late payments and a meaningful overhaul of City regulation, there was a conspicuous silence on the three issues that dominate the in-tray of every SME owner in the country: business rates, soaring energy bills and the rising cost of employing staff.

Coming as the deepening conflict in the Middle East drives up energy and shipping costs, the omissions felt particularly raw to firms already navigating what the CBI’s chief executive, Rain Newton-Smith, described as “strong global headwinds”.

A missed moment on rates and energy

Shevaun Haviland, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, did not mince her words. “With the Middle East conflict ratcheting up cost pressures, this was a critical opportunity to deliver meaningful change and give companies the certainty they urgently need,” she said. “Businesses will be disappointed to see no clear progress on reforming business rates, which remain a major cost burden for firms across the UK.”

Haviland was equally pointed on what she called the speech’s failure to grapple with supply-chain resilience, urging ministers to accelerate work on infrastructure, planning reform and the chronic backlog of grid connections that has become a binding constraint on industrial investment. Businesses, she said, wanted “a relentless focus on reducing costs, boosting investment and improving competitiveness”.

Newton-Smith struck a similar note. Firms, she argued, “want to go for growth, but they need strong leadership from government to reform an unfair business rates system, lower business energy bills and find appropriate landing zones on the Employment Rights Act”.

The British Retail Consortium went further, warning that ministers risked allowing an “inflationary storm” to take hold. Helen Dickinson, its chief executive, said: “Government cannot raise living standards without reducing the costs of doing business. Every moment of indecision will deepen the damage done to the British economy and extend the pain felt by households everywhere.”

Late payments: a long-overdue win for SMEs

For all the grumbling, one measure was greeted with something close to euphoria in the SME community. The Small Business Protections (Late Payments) Bill will impose maximum payment terms of 60 days, mandate interest on overdue invoices and arm the Small Business Commissioner with powers to investigate serial offenders and issue fines.

The economic case is stark. Late payments drain an estimated £11 billion from the UK economy every year and, according to government figures, contribute to the closure of 38 businesses every day.

Tina McKenzie, policy chair at the Federation of Small Businesses, called the bill “an historic moment for small firms”, adding: “Late payment destroys thousands of viable small firms a year. For too long, large businesses have used small suppliers as a free overdraft.”

Emma Jones, the Small Business Commissioner, described the package as “excellent news for UK businesses”. Steve Thomas, insolvency partner at Excello Law, said the measures could finally arrest the “domino effect” of large companies pushing smaller suppliers towards insolvency, though he argued the 60-day deadline should ultimately be tightened to 28.

The City cheers a regulatory reset

In the Square Mile, the mood was markedly brighter. The Enhancing Financial Services Bill promises a significant pruning of the post-crisis regulatory thicket, including an overhaul of the Financial Ombudsman Service, the absorption of the Payment Systems Regulator into the Financial Conduct Authority, and a streamlining of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime.

Miles Celic, chief executive of TheCityUK, said the package “signals a clear commitment to strengthening the UK’s position as a leading international financial centre”. Hannah Gurga, director-general of the Association of British Insurers, hailed it as “a significant step towards strengthening the UK’s competitiveness and long-term economic stability”.

Chris Hayward, policy chairman at the City of London Corporation, struck a note of cautious optimism. “Delivery will be key,” he said. “We must now maintain momentum and ensure reforms translate into tangible improvements in how regulation operates in practice.”

The accompanying Competition Reform Bill, which aims to speed up merger investigations and bake a growth duty into regulators’ decision-making, was similarly well received. Michael Moore, chief executive of UK Private Capital, said quicker, more focused investigations would provide “increased clarity” for private capital firms weighing UK investments.

Hospitality braced for a holiday tax

If the City had cause to smile, the hospitality sector did not. Proposals for local tourist levies have alarmed an industry already grappling with the highest employment and energy costs in its recent history.

Allen Simpson, chief executive of UK Hospitality, was blunt: a holiday tax, he said, would be “wildly unpopular, as well as economically destructive. A holiday tax will increase the cost of a staycation for Brits, it will hit lower income families hardest, it will lose the Treasury money and it will cost 33,000 jobs.”

Matthew Price, chief executive of Awaze, the holiday rentals group behind cottages.com and Hoseasons, warned that any levy on overnight stays “risks placing further pressure on consumers with already tight budgets, and by extension the communities and businesses that rely on holidaymakers for their living”. If a levy is unavoidable, he urged, it must be applied through “a standardised national framework that minimises the impact on guests, owners and the wider visitor economy in Britain”.

Steel, Europe and a leasehold flashpoint

Elsewhere, the Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Bill gives ministers the powers to take British Steel into full public ownership, subject to a public interest test. The CBI cautiously described nationalisation as “an expensive option of last resort”, while conceding that preserving sovereign steelmaking capability mattered for economic security.

The European Partnership Bill, which would fast-track future UK-EU agreements, was warmly welcomed by exporters and retailers. The BRC called it a “golden opportunity” to cut red tape for food businesses, manufacturers and suppliers trading across the Channel, though it pressed for clear guidance on the sanitary and phytosanitary arrangements that will follow.

The Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, which will ban leasehold for new flats in England and Wales and cap ground rents at £250 a year, drew predictable battle lines. Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, said the legislation “marks the beginning of the end for the leasehold system that has tainted the dream of home ownership for so many”. The Residential Freehold Association countered that the proposals were “a wholly unjustified interference with existing property rights” that risked damaging investor confidence in the housing market.

Regulatory sandboxes for the innovators

Finally, the Regulating for Growth Bill empowers regulators to establish “sandbox” schemes allowing firms to trial emerging technologies — from defence innovations to AI-controlled ships — under lighter-touch oversight. It was warmly received by investors, with Moore suggesting the powers would help founders and backers “grow, innovate and support jobs” in sectors often dependent on private capital.

 The verdict

Across 37 bills, the King’s Speech offered something for almost every business constituency, and, in the eyes of many SMEs, not nearly enough. The late payments crackdown will rightly be celebrated as a structural reform a generation overdue. The City has its long-promised regulatory reset. Exporters have a route to a closer European relationship.

But for the corner-shop retailer staring at a quadrupled rates bill, the manufacturer absorbing yet another energy price spike, or the publican counting the cost of the Employment Rights Act, the speech will feel like a missed opportunity. The political theatre may have moved on; the economic anxiety on Britain’s high streets has not.

Read more:
King’s Speech leaves small firms wanting more on rates, energy and red tape

GB News Radio has emerged as the fastest-growing network station in the country, with the latest RAJAR figures showing a 21 per cent surge in year-on-year reach that has pushed the upstart broadcaster decisively ahead of its closest commercial rivals.

The station, which forms part of the wider GB News operation, attracted 676,000 listeners during the first quarter of 2026, comfortably overtaking Times Radio on 604,000 and Talk on 560,000. It is a result that will sharpen the competitive temperature in a speech-radio market that has seen heavy investment from News UK, Global and Bauer over the past five years.

GB News Radio’s 21 per cent expansion outstripped Talk’s 16 per cent uplift and the 6 per cent rise recorded by LBC, the long-standing market leader in the news-and-talk format. Times Radio, by contrast, saw its annual reach contract by 3 per cent, raising fresh questions about the trajectory of News UK’s five-year-old digital station.

Listening hours at GB News Radio reached 4.35 million in the quarter, a modest 1 per cent improvement on the same period last year but a figure the broadcaster argues underlines deepening listener loyalty alongside the headline reach growth.

Much of the momentum has come from younger demographics that commercial talk-radio operators have historically struggled to capture. The station reported a 20 per cent increase among adults aged 35 to 54 over the past quarter, with the 35-to-54 male audience climbing 30 per cent — a cohort that remains particularly prized by advertisers in the speech genre.

Ben Briscoe, head of programming at GB News, said the numbers reflected a clear shift in listening habits. “These figures show more and more people are turning to GB News Radio for breaking news, opinion and coverage of the day’s biggest stories,” he said. “The continued growth reflects the hard work, commitment and first-class journalism produced by our teams across the schedule every day. Just like on TV, GB News Radio is leaving its rivals trailing behind.”

The radio performance mirrors a strong run for the group’s television operation. GB News was the most-watched news channel in the UK on local election results day, with BARB figures showing an average audience of 185,700 on Friday 8 May. That was 56 per cent ahead of Sky News, which drew 119,000 viewers, and almost double the BBC News Channel’s 93,200.

During April, the channel averaged 89,500 viewers and a 1.59 per cent share, edging Sky News on 86,200 viewers and a 1.53 per cent share. Between July 2025 and April 2026, GB News averaged 90,300 viewers and a 1.47 per cent share, ahead of the BBC News Channel’s 83,900 viewers (1.37 per cent) and Sky News’s 72,000 viewers (1.18 per cent), capping a ten-month run in which the broadcaster has consistently outperformed both established rivals.

For the wider commercial broadcasting sector, the latest RAJAR data points to a more fragmented and contestable speech-radio market than at any point in the past decade, and one in which the newest entrant is now setting the pace.

Read more:
GB News radio outpaces rivals with fastest growth on the UK airwaves

The entertainment industry no longer revolves around televisions, desktops, or fixed schedules.

Today, most digital entertainment happens on phones.

Streaming, gaming, sports coverage, social interaction, and live content now follow users everywhere through mobile platforms designed for constant access and instant engagement. What used to be secondary mobile versions of websites gradually became the center of the entire experience.

And honestly, that shift happened faster than most industries expected.

Mobile Became the Default Experience

A few years ago, companies still treated mobile apps as optional additions.

Now the opposite is true.

Many entertainment platforms are designed for smartphones first, with desktop versions adapting afterward. Businesses realized where user attention actually lives, and the industry changed around that reality.

People no longer wait to get home before consuming content. They watch clips during commutes, follow live scores while shopping, and interact with social platforms throughout the day.

Entertainment became continuous instead of scheduled.

Speed Changed User Expectations

One major reason mobile platforms became dominant is speed.

Everything happens instantly now. Notifications arrive immediately, live streams load within seconds, and updates refresh constantly in the background.

That level of responsiveness changed what users expect from digital services overall.

If an app feels slow or difficult to navigate, people leave quickly because alternatives are always available.

Modern entertainment platforms survive by reducing friction as much as possible.

Streaming and Gaming Adapted Quickly

Streaming services were among the first industries to fully embrace mobile-first behavior.

Short-form content exploded because people increasingly consume entertainment in smaller bursts throughout the day rather than through long viewing sessions.

Gaming platforms adapted in similar ways.

Mobile gaming became massive globally because phones removed hardware barriers and made access easier. Players no longer needed expensive consoles or PCs to participate in online entertainment ecosystems.

That accessibility expanded audiences dramatically.

Real-Time Interaction Became Essential

Modern entertainment is no longer passive.

Users now expect interaction while content is happening. Live chats, instant reactions, community discussions, polls, and personalized feeds became standard across digital platforms.

Sports and live betting especially changed because of this shift.

Mobile-first sportsbooks evolved around continuous engagement and fast updates, and MelBet (Arabic:  ميل بت) reflects how entertainment platforms increasingly prioritize instant access and real-time interaction on mobile devices.

The experience now feels active instead of static.

Social Media and Entertainment Merged Together

Another major change is how closely entertainment and social platforms became connected.

People rarely consume content silently anymore. They react, share opinions, create clips, and participate in discussions while events are still unfolding.

That social layer keeps users engaged much longer.

Watching the content itself became only part of the experience. The surrounding conversation often matters just as much.

Mobile Notifications Keep Users Connected

Notifications changed user behavior more than many people realize.

Platforms no longer wait for users to open apps manually. Instead, updates arrive directly on lock screens throughout the day.

A sports result, breaking news alert, streaming recommendation, or live event reminder immediately pulls people back into the platform ecosystem.

That constant connection helps explain why engagement numbers continue growing across mobile entertainment services.

Personalization Became More Aggressive

Entertainment apps also became much more personalized.

Algorithms now shape feeds, recommendations, and notifications based on user behavior patterns. Two people using the same platform may see completely different content experiences.

This increases engagement because users spend less time searching and more time consuming material already matched to their interests.

The process happens almost invisibly in the background.

Mobile Infrastructure Keeps Improving

Technology improvements also accelerated the shift.

Better smartphones, faster networks, and stronger mobile internet access made high-quality streaming and live interaction far easier than before.

As infrastructure improved, mobile entertainment became more reliable and more immersive.

The experience no longer feels limited compared to desktop systems.

In many cases, mobile platforms now perform better.

Entertainment Companies Think Mobile-First Now

The industry mindset changed completely.

Entertainment businesses now assume users will interact primarily through phones. Product design, advertising strategies, subscription systems, and engagement models are all built around mobile behavior from the start.

That approach influences almost every major entertainment category today.

Final Thoughts

Mobile platforms reshaped digital entertainment because they fit how people actually consume content now.

Users want speed, flexibility, interaction, and constant access, and smartphones deliver all of that in a single device people carry everywhere.

What started as a convenience gradually became the foundation of modern entertainment itself.

And judging by current trends, mobile-first experiences will only become more dominant in the years ahead.

Read more:
How Mobile Platforms Are Reshaping the Digital Entertainment Industry