It must once have seemed that, “much like the British Empire, the sun would never set on WH Smith”, said Alexander Larman in The Spectator. But the skies are looking dark.

The retailer is currently in talks to sell off its portfolio of 500 UK high-street stores, meaning a brand that has existed for over 230 years may follow Debenhams and Woolworths and disappear from our streets for good.

WH Smith does plan to retain its “travel-retail” presence in airports, train stations and hospitals, the part of its business which “now accounts for more than 85% of its profit”, said the BBC.

‘Regrettable experience’

At the height of its popularity in the 1960s, “half the British population purchased their newspapers from WH Smith”, said the Daily Mail. By the 1970s, it had became the “ultimate stationery destination”, famous for “sleek interiors” and “state-of-the-art listening pods”, where you could listen to (vinyl) records before buying them..

Sold by the original Smith family in the 1980s, the company went “from strength to strength”, cementing its reputation as a “heavyweight in retail”, and a “quintessentially British” one to boot.

So, where did it all go wrong for the chain which, against all odds, seemed to have “survived the high-street cull”?, asked The i Paper. Undoubtedly, the “shift from people shopping in-store to online” has played a part in the retailer’s demise.

The “untidy” and unloved state of its stores has also been key. A recent Which? survey found WH Smith “ranked the lowest” for customer experience in a high-street shop – the “ninth year in a row” it’s been placed in the “bottom two spots”. Time spent in any of the brand’s high-street branches is now a “regrettable experience”, said Larman in The Spectator. With innovation sparse, and attempts at expansion unsuccessful, the stores are clearly “in need of a metaphorical trip to Dignitas”.

‘Easier, cheaper, better’

WH Smith has confirmed that talks are in progress over the sale of its high-street stores but that there is “no certainty any agreement will be reached”. Consequently, the jobs of 5,000 store staff now hang in the balance. About 200 WH Smith stores also operate Post Office counters “staffed by WH Smith employees”, said the BBC.

Clearly, WH Smith’s future is “bleak”, but we’re all “part of the problem”, said Mark Smith in The Herald. We “say we want the high street” but, actually, we “stay at home and scroll, scroll, scroll, because it’s easier, cheaper, better”. WH Smith is the “diplodocus that survived the asteroid” and “the high street is no longer as it was”.

If you’re counting on a last-minute rescue from a “deep-pocketed buyer” who can turn WH Smith around, “don’t get your hopes up”, said Larman. Just like “many other things in public life today”, there is really “no reasonable hope for its revival”.

“It may not look wholly appetising, but this dark paste could be the future of coffee,” said Jonathan Wells in The Telegraph. The “thick, glossy” mixture in question – one that comes in a tube and is similar in appearance to Marmite – is actually a blend of ground coffee, coffee extract, sugar, water and naturally fermented xanthan gum.

Swiss hikers Alexander Häberlin and Philippe Greinacher came up with the idea for the quirky spread while climbing Mont Fort in 2023 after getting “fed up with carrying bulky coffee-making equipment” on their expeditions. Once home, the pair “knocked together a prototype in their kitchen” for No Normal Coffee.

What does it taste like? “On toast, it’s strong.” The paste is “almost yeasty, like a dark, thick soy sauce”, with notes of “bitter dark chocolate”. That isn’t to say it’s “unpleasant” but it is rather strong so “only the thinnest coating is required” on your toast.

Still, it’s clear the ingredients are top quality and the “sweet touch” from the organic Swiss sugar beat is the paste’s “masterstroke”, helping to balance what could otherwise have tipped over into “overbearing bitterness”. If you aren’t ready to brave it on toast, a teaspoon of the paste can be dissolved in boiling water to make your morning brew as a “more authentic” alternative to instant coffee.

Häberlin and Greinacher aren’t the only ones thinking outside the box when it comes to inventive toast toppings. A “new generation of bakers” are elevating the “humble slice” to another level with a slew of “upmarket spreads”, said Grace Cook in the Financial Times.

Among the highlights are Pollen Bakery’s wildly popular Croissant Butter – an “indulgent” mix of caramelised pastry pieces with toasted white chocolate that sells out “within minutes” – and the nut-based brand Mada Mada’s delicious Black Sesame Praliné. As you would expect, these spreads are “disgustingly more-ish”. So “why not batch eat them with a spoon?”

“It has been a long fight full of tears for us.” So said Ann “Waaddao” Chumaporn, the organiser of Bangkok Pride March, after Thailand finally began recognising same-sex marriages last week.

But while “hundreds of couples” celebrate the enactment of the bill by tying the knot, others are asking “the same question” that was heard “throughout the long campaign to get the equal marriage law passed”, reported the BBC. “Why Thailand? Why nowhere else, aside from Taiwan and Nepal, in Asia?”

An outlier in the region

For all that Thailand is “famously open to and accepting of” LGBT people, equal rights for same-sex couples still required “a determined campaign to change attitudes”, said the broadcaster’s Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head. And Thailand, along with Taiwan and Nepal, is “an outlier” in Asia for having legalised same-sex marriage. “Few other countries in the region are likely to follow suit.”

Thailand was “already a magnet” for LGBT tourists, said The Times – particularly from far more “restrictive” areas in Asia. In predominantly Muslim countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, LGBT people face “overt discrimination at best and often criminal punishment”. In Brunei, the penalty for sex between men is technically death by stoning.

In China, homosexuality is by rights legal but the government has banned same-sex couples and “effeminate men” from television. Although the Philippines has “a large and visible LGBT community”, the powerful Roman Catholic church means there is “no apparent prospect of marriage equality”. Singapore may have repealed the British colonial-era law criminalising homosexuality in 2022, but it simultaneously changed the constitution to define marriage as heterosexual.

Some Asian commentators have characterised homosexuality as “a Western behaviour, superimposed upon Eastern cultures as a decadent, neo-colonial side effect of globalisation”, said Time. But that is “gloriously false” when you look at the history. It was “contact with the West”, particularly Christian missionaries and British colonial rule, that “steadily chipped away” at Asia’s historic “permissiveness” towards same-sex relationships.

The turning tide

In “largely conservative” southeast Asia, advocating for LGBT rights “can be an uphill battle”, said the South China Morning Post. But activists say “people are more willing to come out, talk about and campaign for LGBT issues and rights”.

The shift “began about a decade ago but has accelerated in the past five years”. There are various suggestions as to why, including the popularity of K-pop, digital platforms connecting communities and an increasing number of straight people showing support.

Thailand’s so-called “Boy Love” dramas, which depict affairs between beautiful young men, have also become enormously popular and are now a major export. The way LGBT characters are portrayed on TV dramas has made a huge difference to shifting attitudes, according to Tinnaphop Sinsomboonthong, an assistant professor at Thammasat University. “Nowadays they represent us as normal characters, like you see in real life,” he told the BBC. “This really helped change perceptions and values in all generations.”