Friday 1 May 2026
The Mighty Headlines
Economics: Japan intervenes to prop up the yen
Business and markets: Google shares rise by 10 per cent
Foreign Affairs: Food shortage in North Korea
Security and intelligence: Iran says nuclear capabilities are “national assets”
Domestic politics: Poll predicts Labour and Conservative council losses
The Mighty Stats
FTSE = 10,378.82 (up 1.62%)
S&P 500 = 7,209.01 (up 1.02%)
Nasdaq = 24,892.31 (up 0.89%)
Stoxx 600 = 611.28 (up 1.38%)
£1 = $1.36 / €1.16
Lab / Con / Reform / Green = 17 / 18 / 24 / 20 per cent (Find Out Now, 29-30 April)
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*Terrorism threat level update in the UK: The UK Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre has raised the terror threat in the UK from “substantial” to “severe”. The Home Office says this follows, but is not solely the result of, the attack on two Jewish men in north London on Wednesday. The higher threat level means that a terrorist attack is considered to be highly likely in the next six months.*
The Mighty Detail
Economics: Japanese officials are reported to have intervened to prop up the yen. It comes as the yen reached 160 yen to the dollar yesterday – approaching its cheapest level in nearly forty years.
The cheap price risked making imports even more expensive for Japanese companies and so increasing inflation in the country.
The yen increased by 3 per cent after the intervention.
Business and markets: Shares in Google’s parent company, Alphabet, rose by 10 per cent yesterday. It comes after it recorded $20 billion of sales from cloud computing in the last quarter (following demand for its AI products). It is investing $200 billion in AI this year.
Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft will spend over $700 billion on AI this year.
Foreign Affairs:North Korea is facing a shortage of food because of a severe drought affecting the country. The state-run news agency said that workers were seeking to protect crops and repair water infrastructure. The UN said in February that millions on North Koreans were already undernourished.
Security and intelligence: Iran’s Supreme Leader said yesterday that his country’s nuclear and missile capabilities were regarded as national assets to be protected. The US’s war aims are to rid Iran of its military nuclear capabilities.
The UN separately said on Tuesday that Iran’s highly enriched uranium is still likely to be at the Isfahan nuclear complex.
Domestic politics: Polling by polling expert and Conservative peer Lord Hayward suggests that the Labour Party will lose 1,850 council seats in next week’s local elections. Reform UK is set to gain 1,550 seats, the Greens are predicted to gain 500 seats and the Conservatives are set to lose 600 seats.
The Mighty Calendar
What’s happening today?
May Day
King’s Charles continues visit to Bermuda
UK Parliament still prorogued ahead of King’s Speech
Lookahead to the weekend
Saturday
Princess Charlotte’s 11th birthday
Kentucky Derby
Super-bantamweight world title fight: Naoya Inoue vs Junto Nakatani
Sunday
IMF Chair speaks at the Milken Institute Global Conference
Madrid Open men’s final (tennis)
F1 Miami Grand Prix
The Mighty Finale
🌤️Weather today
Sunny and dry in the east of England. Thundery afternoon showers in the northwest. Cloudy in the southwest. High of 24C and low of 11C in London. Light cloud in Belfast. Sunny spells in Edinburgh.
✏️Life coaching quote of the day
“Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.” – Golda Meir, first (and so far only) female Prime Minister of Israel
Mighty takeaway: Live the life that you imagined for yourself!
That’s it for this Friday morning. To our readers in the UK and continental Europe, we hope that you have a lovely long weekend.
Cheerio!
The Mighty Memo team
*To read the Mighty Memo manifesto and learn about why we do this visit: https://www.mightymemo.co.uk/why*