Experience Nakhon Phanom’s Lai Reua Fai, an illuminated boat procession marking Buddhist Lent’s end. Explore its spiritual roots, riverside landmarks, unique Isan cuisine, and cross-border ties with Laos.

Experience the Illuminated Boat Procession

Immerse yourself in the enchanting experience of Nakhon Phanom’s Illuminated Boat Procession, locally known as Lai Reua Fai. This mesmerizing event occurs at the conclusion of the Buddhist Lent, when glowing vessels gracefully drift along the tranquil waters of the Mekong River. The dazzling display not only offers a visual feast but also connects deeply with the spiritual traditions of the region, making it a must-see spectacle for both locals and visitors.

Discover Spiritual Roots and Riverside Landmarks

Delve into the rich spiritual roots of this tradition and explore the historical landmarks that line the riverbanks. Nakhon Phanom, a province in northeastern Thailand, is a treasure trove of cultural and spiritual heritage. Visitors can explore ancient temples and riverside landmarks that narrate the tale of this region’s vibrant past. These sites offer a glimpse into the spiritual essence that underpins the festival’s significance, enhancing the overall experience.

Relish the Distinctive Isan Cuisine

While you’re in Nakhon Phanom, don’t miss sampling the distinctive Isan cuisine, known for its bold flavors and unique ingredients. The province offers a culinary journey that perfectly complements the visual feast of the boat procession. Additionally, the cross-border connections with neighboring Laos make the region an intriguing gateway year-round, where diverse cultures and cuisines blend seamlessly. Whether for its cultural richness, dynamic festivities, or gastronomic delights, Nakhon Phanom promises an unforgettable experience.

Source : River of Fire

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TUC general secretary Paul Nowak has suggested Andy Burnham could call an early general election if the prime minister decides Sir Keir Starmer’s 2024 election manifesto leaves too little room to change economic policy.

Mr Nowak made the comments in interviews ahead of the TUC’s 158th annual Congress, which runs in Brighton from Sunday to Wednesday. He also called for a series of measures to help workers, including more taxes on the financial sector, the insourcing of public services and the delivery of new employment rights in full.

Speaking to GB News, he said: “I don’t think that the public are battering down Andy Burnham’s door in Downing Street, saying, ‘Let’s have a general election’. We’ve got to get through the first Budget.

“Let’s see Andy’s 10-year plan. He might decide, actually, ‘I’ve not got enough room within the manifesto to deliver the change that I think we need to see.’”

Tax and the Budget

Chancellor John Healey, who will deliver his first Budget on 28 October, has said the new government is continuity Labour.

Mr Burnham, who became prime minister in July, has promised to honour Labour’s 2024 manifesto commitments not to raise VAT, income tax or national insurance. “I stick by the manifesto and the promises that it made,” he said before taking office, adding that there was “some room within that manifesto for movement on tax”.

Mr Nowak wants the prime minister to introduce a wealth tax. He told the Press Association: “We have an economy that is not working for too many people, a tax system that is better at taxing people than wealth.”

The CBI has warned Mr Healey ahead of the Budget that rising costs are damaging business investment, saying in a 75-page report that businesses paid almost £345bn in taxes in 2025-26.

Employment rights

Labour’s Employment Rights Act has already brought in changes covering sick pay and paternity leave. Under the government’s implementation timeline, the lower earnings limit and waiting period for statutory sick pay were removed on 6 April, when a day-one right to paternity leave was also introduced.

Further measures take effect on 30 October, according to the timeline. They include a duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union and a requirement for employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their employees.

More changes are due next year. The qualifying period for unfair dismissal will be cut to six months for dismissals from 1 January 2027, alongside the uncapping of compensatory awards. Fire and rehire protections and a right to guaranteed hours are also scheduled for 2027.

Mr Nowak told Politico that further changes to employment law were needed. “I think it’s entirely legitimate to say, at the next election, what is Labour’s manifesto going to say about employment rights?” he said.

“The idea that the Employment Rights Act is the finished article in terms of UK employment law, that nothing else needs to change, I think clearly is not the case.”

He also called for trade unions to be exempted from any move to cap political donations.

Paul Jones

Harvard alumni and former New York Times journalist. Editor of Business Matters for over 15 years, the UKs largest business magazine. I am also head of Capital Business Media’s automotive division working for clients such as Red Bull Racing, Honda, Aston Martin and Infiniti.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, minister of state for external affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh said on Friday that three rounds of CEPA negotiations have been held so far, with the latest round taking place in Ottawa from July 6-10. “Progress has been made across multiple negotiating tracks, with both sides working towards concluding the process by late 2026,” he said. PM Narendra Modi plans to visit Canada later this year to give further momentum to bilateral ties, which have improved under the current dispensation in Ottawa. The MEA said the proposed India-Canada CEPA aims to establish a free trade area by eliminating or reducing tariffs and other trade restrictions. The agreement is also intended to progressively liberalise trade in goods and services, promote a more transparent, predictable and facilitative trade and investment regime, and strengthen economic cooperation and people-to-people ties.

Canada represents a market of 41.65 million people, as of 2025, and $2.34 trillion in terms of GDP in terms of purchasing power parity.
The India-Canada CEPA holds significant potential to unlock and expand bilateral trade, which stood at $8.66 billion in 2024-25, comprising exports worth $4.22 billion from India and imports of $4.44 billion, according to an official.

Leaders in the West Country are set to gain new powers to charge a levy on overnight stays

A group of Bristol hotel bosses is warning that taxing visitor overnight stays could do “more harm than good” and are calling to be involved in any changes across the region.

Leaders in the West Country are set to gain new powers to charge a so-called “tourist tax” on overnight stays as a percentage of the cost of accommodation such as hotels and bed and breakfasts.

Helen Godwin, head of the West of England Combined Authority (Weca), is among 10 regional Labour mayors who have already pledged to cap the new fee on visitors’ tax at five per cent.

The Bristol Hoteliers Association (BHA), which represents a host of major hotels across the city, says it is “not opposed” to investment in Bristol but has “serious questions” it wants answered before any tourist tax is introduced.

Pramod Shaw, deputy chair of the BHA, said: “We intend to make sure those questions are heard loud and clear. Our industry has already absorbed significant financial pressures in recent years – soaring energy costs, increases in the National Living Wage and higher employer National Insurance contributions, which have all taken their toll.

“The Overnight Visitor Levy Bill has reignited fury across the business travel and hospitality industries, as this is not the time to add yet another cost to our sectors.”

Among the questions the BHA want answered is what the money raised from the levy will be used for. Mr Shaw said: “The BHA would like cast-iron guarantees that revenue raised will be ring-fenced and invested directly into Bristol’s visitor economy, improving transport links, enhancing the visitor experience and marketing Bristol more as a destination.

“We need transparency, accountability and firm guarantees, not vague promises.”

Ms Godwin has promised that “nothing is happening overnight” and has said there is a need to review “best practice from elsewhere”.

Many other European countries already apply tax to overnight stays on accommodation including in France, Italy and The Netherlands.

“We are used to paying a visitor levy ourselves when we go on holiday to other countries, and now is the time to look at making sure we can invest more in what matters through a small charge on overnight stays here – with common-sense exemptions where we need them,” added Ms Godwin.

The mayor said any funds raised could potentially be used to support improvements to the West’s transport network, including adding more late-night services.

“More late-night services would help more people enjoy what our region has to offer – and enable workers to get home more easily – and so would some more funding for public spaces including in central Bath and Bristol, alongside new support for the sectors that support tourism,” she added. “Things like this become possible sooner if we raise new funding through an overnight visitor levy.”

The West of England visitor economy currently generates around £2.7bn in visitor spend a year and supports more than 43,000 jobs.

The BHA says it is concerned adding a tourist tax could make Bristol and the wider region less attractive to visitors.

“Bristol does not exist in a vacuum, visitors have choices,” added Mr Shaw. “Several industry bodies have already warned that the UK applies much higher VAT rates than many competing countries, and levies the highest air departure tax in the world.

“Adding yet another charge risks making Bristol a less attractive proposition compared to other UK cities that may choose not to implement a levy.”

Other concerns raised by the BHA include who pays for administering the new charge. Mr Shaw said hotels did not want to become “unpaid tax collectors”.

“Household budgets are already being stretched, with fuel and food costs, and people could be prevented from staying in hotels at all if there is yet another additional cost to consider.

“We are not simply saying no to the levy, but we are here to represent the interests of Bristol’s hospitality industry and ensure that any decisions made are in the best long-term interests of this great city.

“If a levy is introduced, it must be fair, transparent and must be invested back into the visitor economy. We need a solution that works for Bristol’s visitors – who come from all over the world – Bristol’s businesses and Bristol’s future.”

Industry trade body UKHospitality has also criticised the proposals, claiming it could add around £100 to £120 on average to the cost of a family holiday in England.

“We know, don’t we, that local government is struggling for funds – it was hit very hard by austerity,” UKHospitality chief executive Allen Simpson told the BBC. “If you only devolve one tax raising power, of course local mayors are going to pull that lever until it snaps.”

Conservative shadow housing secretary David Simmonds added: “VAT is already charged at 20 per cent on hotels – much higher than in other countries – and now they’ll pay VAT on this tourism tax too: a Labour double whammy.”

Bosses expect full year results to be significantly better than 2025

Surveillance and security tech maker Petards has returned to operating profit and with a larger order book.

The manufacturer of CCTV systems for trains, communications systems for the defence sector and automatic numberplate recognition technology has reported a small half-year operating profit of £14,000 in the six months to the end of June – its first operating level profit since 2022. Bosses said delivery of higher margin work was responsible for the progress with stronger orders coming from rail and defence customers.

Petards’ order book at the end of June was £9.6m, up from £9.2m at the end of December, and supplemented with £700,000 of rail orders announced by the London Stock Exchange-listed firm in August. Revenues for the half year were slightly lower at £7.7m, compared to £7.9m in the same period last year.

But cash generation increased to £894,000, from £860,000. That led to reduction in net debt to £1.15m from £1.33m at the end of last year.

The firm runs its main rail sector factory at Team Valley, Gateshead. That division saw improved trading in the second half of 2025 and into the first half of this year with more orders and higher activity levels.

In H1 2026, total orders in the rail business were at a level not seen in more than five years. They included a £500,000 contract for retrofitting eyeTrain systems – used to detect track debris, to investigate incidents, for operational monitoring and for passenger security.

Meanwhile defence revenues were helped by the start of work on a £2.2m order from military vehicles maker Rheinmetall BAE Systems, for engineering design work on the Challenger 3 tank. And the group’s QRO business which makes automatic number plate readers was said to have rebounded in the first half following a weaker performance at the end of 2025.

Raschid Abdullah, chairman of Petards, said: “The upward trend in the group’s trading performance has continued into 2026, particularly in rail and defence where order intake has seen improvements over that of recent years. This in turn has driven greater operational efficiencies in those areas and improvements in gross profit margin.

“This has led to the order book at June 30, 2026 increasing to £9.6m (December 31, 2025: £9.2m) which has been supplemented by the further rail orders announced in August. We expect the group to continue to generate cash in the second half, and for a further reduction in net debt by the year end.

“The board remains confident that the group will perform well over the remainder of the year, and with the benefit of its current order book, it expects to deliver another significant improvement in its results over those achieved in 2025.”

LONDON — Britain’s FTSE 100 index climbed 38.53 points, or 0.36%, to 10,647.45 as of late morning Friday, offering a modest reprieve for London-listed shares after five consecutive sessions of losses driven by surging oil prices and rising global bond yields.

The index traded within a range of 10,602.13 to 10,647.98 during the session, according to live market data, recovering from Thursday’s close of 10,608.92, which had marked the FTSE 100’s lowest level since the beginning of August. Thursday’s session alone saw the index decline 0.57%, extending a losing streak that had persisted across the entire trading week amid a broader deterioration in global market sentiment.

According to Sunday Guardian Live’s market forecast ahead of Friday’s session, the FTSE 100 was expected to open modestly higher following the prior five-day decline, though analysts cautioned that any recovery was likely to remain limited given continued pressure from soaring oil prices, elevated global bond yields and rising interest rate expectations weighing on the broader market environment. The FTSE 250, London’s mid-cap index, had fallen 0.92% during Thursday’s session, reflecting even sharper losses among smaller and mid-sized UK companies during the week’s broader selloff.

The primary driver behind the week’s sustained weakness has been a dramatic increase in global oil prices tied to escalating conflict in the Middle East, with the resulting inflation concerns feeding directly into higher bond yields and renewed expectations for continued interest rate tightening among major central banks. A stronger-than-expected U.S. producer price report released earlier in the week further boosted market expectations for a Federal Reserve interest rate increase at its upcoming September meeting, adding to the broader pressure on risk assets across global markets, including UK equities.

Technical analysis of the FTSE 100’s recent price action has painted a cautious picture heading into Friday’s session. According to trading analysis from Nick Hilsden published Friday morning, the index’s chart structure had “deteriorated again” over the preceding sessions, with a recovery attempt failing the day before and the index’s short-term moving averages continuing to trend lower. Hilsden noted the index remained firmly positioned within a descending trading channel, with key resistance levels identified in the 10,650 to 10,668 range and a more significant daily pivot point near 10,701, a level Hilsden described as having served as a major resistance point during Thursday’s trading.

Hilsden’s analysis suggested a generally bearish near-term outlook for the index, even while cautioning against aggressively betting on further declines given how far the FTSE 100 had already fallen relative to its short-term technical indicators, with the daily relative strength index sitting around 32.7, a level often associated with an asset being oversold in the near term.

The FTSE 100, formally known as the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index and commonly referred to as the “Footsie,” represents the 100 most highly capitalized companies with primary listings on the London Stock Exchange. The index, which began trading on Jan. 3, 1984, carries a total market capitalization of approximately £2.492 trillion as of its most recent formal review in June, and is maintained and calculated by FTSE Russell, a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group.

Over the trailing 52 weeks, the FTSE 100 has traded within a considerably wider range than this week’s movements alone might suggest, spanning from a low of 9,107.40 to a high of 10,989.45, according to data compiled by Investing.com, illustrating the substantial overall gains the index has posted over the past year even amid this week’s sharper pullback. Trading volume for the index has remained robust throughout the recent volatility, with recent daily volume figures exceeding 837 million shares traded.

This week’s broader selloff across UK equities unfolded alongside similar pressure across global markets, with the ongoing conflict between the United States and Iran continuing to drive volatility in oil markets throughout the week. That conflict has kept energy prices elevated and added a persistent layer of uncertainty to the broader macroeconomic outlook facing central banks and investors alike, both in the UK and internationally, as markets continue attempting to price in the combined effects of geopolitical risk, inflation pressure and shifting interest rate expectations heading into the final months of the year.

Beyond the FTSE 100 specifically, the broader family of UK stock indices maintained by FTSE Russell has continued to reflect similar pressures throughout the week. The FTSE 250, which tracks mid-cap companies ranked 101st through 350th by market capitalization on the London Stock Exchange, carries a combined market capitalization of approximately £274 billion as of its most recent March review, with financials, industrials and consumer discretionary sectors together accounting for roughly 74% of that index’s overall weighting. The FTSE 350, which combines both the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 into a single broader large- and mid-cap index, maintains a total market capitalization of approximately £2.710 trillion.

With Friday’s modest rebound offering some relief following the week’s sustained selling pressure, investors are likely to remain focused in the coming sessions on whether oil prices continue climbing amid the unresolved Middle East conflict, along with any further signals from the Federal Reserve and Bank of England regarding the path of interest rates heading into the final months of 2026. Given the technical deterioration flagged by market analysts and the continued macroeconomic headwinds facing London-listed equities, Friday’s gain appears more likely to represent a tentative pause within a broader cautious trading environment than a definitive turning point for the index following its worst weekly stretch since the beginning of August.

The city’s innovation assets are geographically fragmented, institutionally divided, and too often marketed independently.

Economic development often assumes that naming something is the same as creating it, and we’ve often seen buildings become innovation centres, loose collections of organisations described as ecosystems, and, increasingly, any cluster of offices, laboratories, and public-sector institutions described as an innovation district.

But a genuine innovation district is far more demanding, as it is not simply a place where research happens, nor an incubator surrounded by apartments and coffee shops. It is a concentrated part of a city where universities, hospitals, investors, established companies, entrepreneurs, and start-ups are brought together in a way that encourages ideas, people, and capital to flow among them.

And whilst Manchester has one, Cardiff disappointingly does not.

With Andy Burnham taking his place as the new Prime Minister, it is worth noting that part of Manchester’s success as an economic hotspot stems from the ongoing development of the Oxford Road Corridor and the ambitious Sister innovation district being created on land previously occupied by the University of Manchester.

Sister is a £1.7bn development spread over 15 years, with plans for laboratories, offices, start-up space, homes, shops, restaurants and public areas. It is expected to accommodate businesses from their earliest stages through to becoming significant employers, rather than serving as an incubator from which successful companies are eventually forced to leave.

This is not simply another property development with the word innovation attached to it, but an attempt to build an economic system within a physical place. It also sits within a wider corridor that already brings together two universities, major hospitals, science parks, cultural institutions, tens of thousands of students, and more than 100,000 workers.

The critical point is not that each of these organisations exists because Cardiff also has universities, hospitals, research centres, and talented graduates, but that Manchester has spent years connecting them to make a real difference to the local economy.

It would be easy to attribute this entirely to the Prime Minister’s previous role, but much of the foundation predates his election as mayor, with Manchester’s universities, local government, health institutions and private investors collaborating for years.

That said, Mr Burnham has strengthened that model, given it a powerful public voice, and linked it to wider priorities such as transport, skills and devolved decision-making.

More importantly, the innovation district is the product of patient civic leadership, institutional cooperation and a willingness to think beyond individual projects and political cycles.

That is where Cardiff has fallen behind. Our capital city does not lack innovation assets. Cardiff University has its innovation campus and the Sbarc/Spark building, and it has recognised strengths in creative industries, financial technology, cyber security and life sciences.

The wider city region includes the compound semiconductor cluster around Newport, one of the most significant concentrations of expertise of its kind in Europe.

Yet these remain separate pieces of an unfinished jigsaw, with Cardiff developing projects rather than a place, programmes rather than a system, and partnerships rather than a single organisation with the authority and resources to deliver.

Unlike those of Manchester and other successful innovation districts, the city’s innovation assets are geographically fragmented, institutionally divided, and too often marketed independently.

Manchester’s great advantage is not merely scale but alignment and its universities, local government and private investors have been prepared to work together and use land, capital and institutional influence collectively.

Specialist property developers have been brought in to provide the laboratories, flexible workspaces and scale-up accommodation that the conventional commercial market will rarely build on its own.

There is also an acceptance that innovation districts require long-term investment and cannot be created through a three-year funding programme, launched at a ministerial event and then quietly set aside by the next initiative.

This raises an obvious question, namely why Cardiff, the capital city of a nation with control over economic development, planning, skills and many aspects of transport, has not developed something comparable?

Part of the answer lies in a historic lack of ambition around place-based innovation, and Cardiff’s major regeneration projects have largely prioritised government offices, corporate occupiers, housing, retail and major events.

Yes, Central Square has been transformed, but it was not conceived with entrepreneurship, laboratories, or high-growth businesses in mind.

Yet an opportunity now exists to create an innovation district around Cardiff Central, Central Quay, and the land south of the railway station. It is the most accessible location in Wales, close to the commercial centre and able to connect with specialist sites elsewhere in Cardiff and Newport.

The existing university campus, Heath Park, Cardiff Edge and the semiconductor cluster would remain important nodes, but there must be one recognisable heart of the system that should contain affordable space for start-ups, laboratories and prototyping facilities, access to investors, support for university spinouts and, crucially, premises for businesses to occupy as they grow.

That last point matters because Manchester has not solved everything, and like most UK cities, it remains better at producing start-ups than at retaining companies that require substantial growth capital.

Yes, some successful founders will still move to London or overseas to finance the next stage of their development, but Cardiff should learn from that weakness as well as Manchester’s strengths, because a genuine innovation district must not simply help people start businesses but must give them a reason to remain, grow and build significant companies in Wales.

Manchester has not discovered a magic formula, but it has shown what happens when political leadership, universities, property, investment, and entrepreneurship are treated as parts of the same strategy. More importantly, Cardiff could do the same with the right political will and economic vision.

Urban Centric has a new £24.25m funding facility with Handelsbanken

A developer behind a co-living scheme in the centre of Cardiff has secured a new £24.25m funding deal.

The Fitz & Knox project, the first co-living development in Wales, provides 208 rented studio apartments alongside communal facilities including a cinema room, gym, games room, co-working spaces and a rooftop terrace.

Completed earlier this year, the scheme is now fully occupied.

Cardiff-based Urban Centric, through special purpose vehicle Fitz & Knox Ltd, has refinanced a funding facility with Handelsbanken. The previous facility, provided by Shawbrook, supported the completion of the scheme. The deal marks Handelsbanken’s first funding transaction in the growing co-living market.

Lloyds is also an equity investor in the scheme through its Housing Growth Partnership arm, following a £7.9m investment.

The 100,000 sq ft building on Fitzalan Place was previously occupied by financial services firm Legal & General, which vacated the building after moving to its new Welsh headquarters at the Interchange scheme in 2023.

Chris Price, branch manager at Handelsbanken Cardiff, said: “At Handelsbanken we are committed to helping our customers achieve their ambitions. Our relationship ethos, combined with our expertise in the property space, makes us well placed to support innovative and sophisticated developments like this.

“We are very proud to be supporting Fitz & Knox as it delivers a unique proposition for professionals in Cardiff – the first of its kind in Wales. We are also delighted that its sustainable values are closely aligned with our own, and that we can help the team continue to achieve them.”

Andrew Woods, managing director of Urban Centric, said: “The Handelsbanken team have really taken the time to understand what we are trying to achieve here in Cardiff and have become a key strategic partner in helping us deliver this ambitious development.

“Fitz & Knox is a real milestone for the development of the co-living model in Wales, as well as a significant contribution to environmentally responsible property. Handelsbanken’s support has been central to helping us make this happen.”

Hugh James, through real estate finance partner David Marshall and senior associate David Penwarden, acted for Handelsbanken on the refinancing. Claudia Le Gros and Charlotte McPhail of Knights acted for Fitz & Knox Ltd.

Mr Marshall said: “We are delighted to have acted for Handelsbanken on the £24.25m refinance of the newly completed Fitz & Knox co-living scheme in central Cardiff.

“This project is Wales’ first co-living development scheme and has been a huge success – it’s not often you see accommodation on this scale fully occupied within 13 weeks of completion.

“It was a pleasure supporting Handelsbanken on such a landmark project, which highlights the bank’s appetite to facilitate new development projects in South Wales, as well as its commitment to supporting local developers.”