Friday 15 May 2026
The Mighty Headlines
Economics: Venezuela to restructure its $150 billion sovereign debt
Business and markets: Nvidia adds $900 billion to share price in a week
Foreign Affairs: China warns US over support for Taiwan
Security and intelligence: US cancels 4,000 troop deployment to Poland
Domestic politics: Health Secretary resigns and Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, to stand for Parliament
The Mighty Stats
FTSE = 10,372.93 (up 0.46%)
S&P 500 = 7,501.24 (up 0.77%)
Nasdaq = 26,635.22 (up 0.88%)
Stoxx 600 = 616.05 (up 0.75%)
£1 = $1.34 / €1.15
Lab / Con / Reform / Green = 21 / 19 / 30 / 11 per cent (More in Common, 9-12 May)
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The Mighty Detail
Economics: The Venezuelan Government has said that it will restructure its significant sovereign debt to support public spending. Venezuela’s defaulted debt is at least $150 billion (around 200 per cent of its GDP) and the country stopped making payments on its public debt in 2017.
Business and markets: Shares in Nvidia have risen by 20 per cent in the last week as demand for AI-related stocks continues. The increase has added around $900 billion to the AI chipmaker’s market capitalisation. Nvidia’s total market cap is around $5.6 trillion.
Foreign Affairs:President Xi warned yesterday that US interference with Taiwan could lead to an “extremely dangerous place”. President Trump has not responded directly but US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that US policy towards the island was unchanged and that “any forced change in the status quo…would be bad for both countries”.
The US is planning a $14 billion package of arms sales to Taiwan.
Security and intelligence: The US has cancelled the deployment of an armoured brigade to Europe, affecting 4,000 troops due to go to Poland. It forms part of plans to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany, which the US announced earlier in May. The US has around 85,000 military personnel in Europe.
Russian lawmakers separately passed a law yesterday allowing the Kremlin to send Russian troops abroad to “protect Russian citizens”.
Domestic politics: The Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, resigned yesterday saying that he had lost confidence in the Prime Minister. Separately, Labour MP for Makerfield, Josh Simons, announced that he would stand down and force a by-election to allow the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, to return to the House of Commons and stand for the Labour Party leadership.
The Mighty Calendar
What’s happening today?
President Trump continues visit to China
Council of Europe Foreign Ministers discuss migration and the ECHR
Lookahead to the weekend
Saturday
Protests in London (Unite the Kingdom and Palestine Solidarity Campaign)
FA Cup final: Chelsea vs Manchester City, Wembley Stadium
Eurovision final, Vienna, Austria
Sunday
New UK rail timetables take effect
US PGA Championship final round (golf), Aronimink Golf Club, Pennsylvania, USA
The Mighty Finale
🌤️Weather today
Sunny spells in the west of England and the northeast. Light rain in the southeast. High of 14C and low of 5C in London. Light rain in Belfast until early afternoon. Light cloud but dry in Edinburgh.
✏️Life coaching quote of the day
“It is a brave thing to have courage to be an individual; it is also, perhaps, a lonely thing. But it is better than not being an individual, which is to be nobody at all.” – Eleanor Roosevelt, activist and diplomat
Mighty takeaway: Be yourself – simple in theory. Oddly difficult in practice.
That’s it for this Friday morning. We hope that you have a splendid weekend!
Adios!
The Mighty Memo team
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