Your IMPORTANT Weekly Briefing: (5th December 2025)

The Neil McCoy-Ward Newsletter

December 05, 2025

Opening Note…

Welcome back, friends!

Let's break down the latest...

Table of Contents

1. Weekly Spotlight

The U.S.–Venezuela Standoff Has Turned Serious

The Venezuela situation really does feel like we’ve moved from threats to a slow-motion countdown. Here’s what’s been happening recently.

Since late summer, the Caribbean has slowly been building up into a war zone. Under “Operation Southern Spear,” the U.S. military has been bombing small boats that are run by drug gangs linked to Venezuela. As of mid-November, there have been at least 21 strikes on 22 vessels in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, with about 80-plus people, drug runners killed. And yes, I crossed out the word people deliberately…

Because the media have been having a field day with how these ‘innocent’ fishermen are being murdered every day by the Trump admin… NO, they are not fishermen. What sort of fishermen travel in speed boats full of large packages and carry no fishing equipment? It’s almost laughable.

So yes, they are drug runners. And the cargo they are bringing into the US is killing people every day. But the media are glossing over this fact and only focusing on how cruel and inhumane the Trump admin is against these ‘innocent’ men trying to make a living for their families - give me a break.

It began with a single strike in early September, when a U.S. aircraft blew up a speedboat that Washington said was carrying cocaine from Venezuela. Trump said all 11 people on board who were allegedly from the Tren de Aragua gang were killed. Later reporting suggested the boat was turning back when it was hit, and that two survivors were killed in a follow-up strike (which is why human-rights groups now talk about possible war crimes). Whether or not that is true is still being investigated.

From there, the tempo picked up… By October and November, the strikes had become almost routine: boats destroyed & crews killed.

On 1st October, Trump formally told Congress the U.S. is now in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels at sea. The semantics are important because once you call it an armed conflict, the U.S. can treat suspected traffickers more like enemy combatants than criminals, which lowers the bar for using lethal force.

Then came the political escalation. The U.S. formally put a group called Cartel de los Soles on its foreign terrorist list and says Maduro himself is effectively at the top of it. That opens the door for strikes potentially on targets inside Venezuela’s territory, under the banner of “fighting terrorism.”

On top of that, Trump publicly warned that Venezuelan airspace is “closed” and backed the idea of releasing the strike footage to prove how tough he is being. At the same time, he has a large U.S. naval presence parked around Venezuela, which looks a lot less like a simple anti-drug patrol and much more like a pressure force that could support land or air operations if he gives the orders.

And in the middle of all this, he called Maduro directly. According to multiple sources, Trump used that call to deliver a blunt ultimatum: resign and leave, or face the consequences. Maduro refused and then went out in Caracas, standing on a truck surrounded by thousands of supporters, promising to resist what he called a “slave’s peace” imposed by Washington.

There are no real “peace talks” yet, but there are a few channels. Mexico and Brazil are quietly trying to pull the U.S. and Venezuela toward some kind of pause, though so far it’s just vague talk of “dialogue” with no meeting on the books. Maduro, for his part, is sending mixed signals: he’s allowed migrant deportation flights from the U.S. to restart, which is small but shows cooperation.

Inside Venezuela, he’s in constant talks with top military figures to keep them on side after Trump’s ultimatum, and some commanders have quietly floated the idea of an exit deal. The elite haven’t cracked, but the strain is obvious.

I’ll continue to watch this space and keep you informed…

2. Quick Takes

Here are the other top stories shaping the week:

  • Putin threatens full takeover of Donbas unless Ukraine pulls out

    Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia will seize the whole of Ukraine’s Donbas region by force unless Ukrainian troops withdraw, a demand Kyiv has flatly rejected. Russia already controls about 19% of Ukraine, including all of Luhansk and most of Donetsk, plus large parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, but around 5,000 square kilometres of Donetsk remains under Ukrainian control. Moscow is pushing for international acceptance of its claim over all of Donbas and other occupied regions, despite widely condemned referendums and most countries still recognising them as Ukrainian territory. Negotiations continue towards a peace deal, although Ukraine has very little sway at this point. In my mind, it’s only a matter of time - the war was over a long time ago and would have been over sooner had Ukraine not had such strong Western support.

  • Putin in India as Modi Tries to Balance Moscow and Washington

    Russian President Vladimir Putin is in New Delhi for his first trip to India since the Ukraine war began, receiving a full ceremonial welcome from Narendra Modi, including a guard of honour and 21-gun salute. The two leaders are holding a summit focused on defence, energy and trade, from Russian oil and weapons supplies to new projects in tech, aviation and space, with a goal of pushing trade towards $100bn by 2030. India has been buying large amounts of discounted Russian crude since Western sanctions, and now wants Russia to buy more Indian goods so the trade gap isn’t so lopsided. All this is happening while the US is pressuring India over its ties with Moscow and has hit Indian exports with tariffs linked to Russian oil, so Modi is repeating that India is “on the side of peace”. Defence upgrades, possible new joint plants in fertilisers and industry, and even Russian banks looking to open in India are part of the talks as both sides try to lock in a long-term partnership. 
    - This visit really shows how India is trying to cash in on being everyone’s “indispensable partner” at once, but the longer the Ukraine war and US tariffs roll on, the harder it will be to keep both Washington and Moscow happy.

  • Europeans Fear US Will Push Ukraine Into Uneasy Peace Deal

    European leaders on a leaked call said they fear Washington could push Ukraine into accepting territorial losses to Russia without clear long-term security guarantees. Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Friedrich Merz, NATO chief Mark Rutte and Finland’s Alexander Stubb all warned that Zelensky is in a weak position and could be left “alone” facing Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who are trying to sell a Trump peace plan shaped in talks with Putin. The leaders also agreed that frozen Russian assets in EU banks should stay under European control, amid reports that the US might return some of the money as part of a deal. Kyiv hasn’t confirmed the leak, but Ukrainian officials repeated that only Russia benefits if Europe and America split.

  • Macron’s push for tougher ‘disinformation’ powers

    Emmanuel Macron is pushing for new powers that would let authorities quickly block online content judged to be “false information” and create a professional certification system that separates approved media from outlets that refuse to follow official standards. Conservative media and opposition figures have reacted angrily, accusing him of drifting toward a “ministry of truth” and trying to lock in a single official narrative. Right-wing channels like CNews and Europe 1 say the plan is driven by Macron’s frustration with critical coverage, while National Rally and Republican leaders warn it threatens core free speech protections. The Élysée has hit back online by mocking these claims as themselves “disinformation,” and Macron now says there will be no state media label and no formal curb on free expression, despite his push for tougher controls. - My guess is he is getting angry with all the people who know and talk about his “wife”, ha. And I still can’t believe that rather than her taking a DNA test and having it all be over and done with, they are going to Court with expert witnesses who can prove that his wife is indeed a woman because they ‘knew her when she was young’… Say what now?! I don’t care either way. I think the whole thing is a circus, but why drag it on? Just take a DNA test, and it’s over and done with. Why drag this out with a year-long court case and childhood witnesses? It’s very suspicious if you ask me!

  • US data centre power boom collides with grid limits

    Bloomberg now thinks US data centre power demand could more than quadruple to 106 GW by 2035, driven by a wave of huge AI-heavy facilities, some over 500 MW each. Other analysts are pushing back, saying many utility forecasts are exaggerated and pointing out limits like global chip supply, duplicate project applications and speculative plans that may never get built. Even so, AI and cloud hubs are spreading beyond traditional markets into rural and exurban areas, especially across regions run by PJM, MISO and ERCOT, where data centre load could outpace new power plants. Grid planners are stuck juggling big corporate demand for new data centres with the need to keep lights on for everyone else, amid warnings of higher blackout risk in some fast-growing regions. - The question with this is what will be the priority, the regular citizen or the AI datacentres. We know what happened with water supplies in developing nations when it came to big ‘drinks’ manufacturers Vs local villages…

  • Nvidia Boss Touts AI-Dominated Future

    Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told Joe Rogan he expects around 90% of the world’s knowledge to be generated by AI within just two or three years, and said he sees little difference between learning from humans or machines. He brushed off worries about AI bias and hallucinations, even as critics fear the tech could be used to push political or ideological agendas. Huang also strongly backed President Trump, calling him “our president” and urging Americans to want him to succeed, while lobbying in Washington against export limits and AI rules he says would weaken the US against China. He praised Trump’s push for cheap, reliable energy as key fuel for AI data centres.

  • GAO Sting Finds Massive Obamacare Subsidy Fraud

    A new GAO probe found the federal Obamacare marketplace still approves fake applicants using bogus or misused Social Security numbers for generous subsidies. In 2024, all four test identities were signed up and given roughly $2,350 a month in help, and in 2025, eighteen out of twenty fake applicants stayed on the books, pulling in over $10,000 a month. Data checks also flagged tens of thousands of Social Security numbers tied to more than a year of subsidised coverage, including one number that racked up the equivalent of 71 years of insurance. CMS says it keeps the system flexible to help real people caught up in errors or identity theft and runs monthly checks, but GAO’s test shows scammers can slip through anyway.

  • Labour plans to let police use the passport database for facial recognition

    Labour is consulting on plans to let police match CCTV images of suspects against government photo databases, including passport and immigration records covering 45 million people, alongside wider use of “live” facial recognition cameras in crime hotspots. A new legal framework would let all forces, and potentially some public bodies and retailers, run facial recognition checks, backed by a national custody image database of up to 20 million people and phone apps that can identify individuals in the street. Policing minister Sarah Jones describes the technology as the biggest breakthrough since DNA and wants it used more widely to find wanted criminals, track sex offenders and target prolific shoplifters. Civil liberties group Big Brother Watch says the plans would turn the UK into an “open prison”, turning passports into de facto mugshots and putting millions of innocent people into secret police line-ups with real risks of misidentification and abuse. - This is one of those “just another tool for the police” moments that, in practice, builds an always-on ID system for the whole country. Another step closer to a dystopian future.

  • Labour delays four mayoral elections amid row over democracy

    Labour has pushed back four new mayoral elections in Essex, Hampshire and the Solent, Sussex and Brighton, and Norfolk and Suffolk from May 2026 to 2028, saying councils need more time to complete local government reorganisation tied to its devolution plans. Conservatives and Reform UK accuse the Government of dodging the voters, arguing the party wants to avoid likely heavy losses, with polling suggesting Reform could have been on course to win all four contests. Ministers insist the delays are a practical step so new combined authorities and merged councils are properly set up before residents choose their new mayors, and hit back by reminding critics of past Tory moves such as the prorogation of Parliament. - I don’t buy it. You don’t need 2 years to prepare for a local mayor election…

NEIL’S TAKEAWAYS:

In The United States:
We are starting to see Hedge funds leaning hard into borrowing again. Gross leverage (borrowing) across major prime brokers is sitting near record highs, with many funds effectively holding $300 of positions for every $100 of investor capital. Some of the big multi-strategy and quant shops are running far higher than that.

The risk is not that use of borrowed money exists, it always does, but that so many firms appear to be clustered in similar trades. When markets drift upward, that’s manageable, but in a correction, the unwind can move much faster than the underlying fundamentals because everyone tries to reduce exposure at the same time from the same assets. Regulators are openly flagging this, which tells you they’re worried about how crowded the positioning has become.

At the same time, day-to-day market sentiment still looks upbeat. Yields have eased, equities are brushing up against record levels, and investors are already pricing in another rate cut next week. Weak hiring data has helped fuel those expectations because a slowing labour market makes the Fed more comfortable cutting.

This gives us an odd combination: a bullish surface, a slowing economy underneath, and a hedge fund industry using more borrowed money than at any point in years. Markets tend to tolerate that right up until liquidity tightens or a sharp move forces funds to shrink their books quickly.

Prepare: The key here is to watch liquidity conditions and the behaviour of these leveraged funds, not just the index levels. When leverage is this elevated, corrections can overshoot. If you’re planning ahead, stay aware of sectors that have become crowded and sensitive to rapid de-risking, especially AI-linked tech and heavily borrowed equity strategies.

Across Europe
Europe is moving into a much more interventionist phase on supply chains, and the message from Brussels is unusually blunt. They are telling companies to diversify away from China, or the Commission may eventually force it by law.

The new €3 billion ReSourceEU programme is meant to push industry in that direction by supporting projects in mining, recycling, and processing, anything that reduces reliance on Chinese inputs. The motivation behind this is that now that China has shown it is willing to use raw materials as leverage, Europe doesn’t want to be caught short again.

The scale of the dependency is pretty hard to ignore. Nearly all of Europe’s permanent magnet imports come from China, and demand for materials like lithium is set to rise dramatically as EV production expands.

The Commission is willing to throw real money at the problem and even restrict scrap exports to keep resources inside the bloc. But senior officials admit progress is too slow, and the sense of urgency is rising, especially after recent export threats from Beijing. This is why the talk of potential mandatory diversification is now on the table.

At the same time, Brussels is trying to strengthen capital markets so European firms can scale without relying on U.S. markets or foreign investors. The proposal to expand cross-border operations, simplify licensing, and shift more oversight to ESMA is meant to create a deeper, more unified market. Europe’s savings pool is huge, but too much of it sits idle or flows overseas. Policymakers see this as a structural weakness.

Prepare: Keep an eye on sectors tied to critical materials, EV supply chains, and industrial tech, because policy support and funding could shift their outlook. If the EU has said they want to support projects like recycling and mining, look to companies that may benefit from this and expand.

On the Global Stage
The World Bank says the gap between what developing countries owe on existing debt and what they’re able to raise in new funding is now the widest it has been in more than fifty years. Even though global interest rates have eased, many emerging markets are still refinancing at rates close to 10%, roughly double the pre-2020 levels. Debt burdens keep growing, interest bills keep hitting new records, and more than half of low-income countries are either already in distress or close to it.

Part of the reason for this is the shift toward domestic borrowing. In fifty low- and middle-income nations, governments issued more local debt than external debt last year. On the one hand, this shows that domestic credit markets are maturing. But it also risks crowding out private-sector lending, shortening maturities, and raising rollover risks. Meanwhile, bilateral lending from richer countries has collapsed, so many governments are turning to costlier private markets or restructuring altogether.

The OECD’s new outlook also shows how the global economy is slowing ‘unevenly’. Growth is expected to soften almost everywhere through 2026, with the U.S., Europe, and China all easing at different speeds.

Prepare: If you’re thinking about the broad global picture, keep an eye on debt-heavy emerging markets, where refinancing risks could flare quickly if growth slows or markets turn. Also, watch global trade and tariff developments; rising protectionism is already feeding into prices and supply chains.

3. Opportunity Of The Week…

Your opportunity this week is simple: Take ACTION! Remember that course bundle you bought last week? Yeah, that one… get started on it.

And keep watching the courses as often as you can. The more you watch, the more your income will continue to increase, and your life will improve. Want to leave that job you dislike? Study study study - keep watching the courses every day and start building your cashflow streams.

In the next month or two, the Digital Product Blueprint will be on pre-release, too. So you’ll have yet another stream of income to build out and enjoy - and this time it will be digital. Meaning, infinite. Then keep doubling down and reinvesting the money you make. Then we enter the DRIP system and compound… Simple but effective.

4. Chart Of the Week:

Big Tech and Big Banks dominate the 2025 profit league

In 2025, global corporate profits are heavily concentrated in tech, finance and energy, with Alphabet topping the list at $124.3 billion in net income and Apple and Microsoft close behind.

NVIDIA stands out with a huge 53.7% profit margin, fuelled by surging demand for AI chips and data centre infrastructure. Major US and Chinese banks, including JPMorgan and China’s “Big Four”, rank near the top, thanks to their scale and vast lending and payments networks.

Saudi Aramco remains the most profitable non-tech company, while big pharma enjoys rich margins from blockbuster drugs, and retail giants like Walmart earn solid but much thinner margins due to their high operating costs.

5. Market Overview

In the U.S., the S&P 500 moved higher this week and continued to trade just shy of its all-time record, supported by growing expectations that the Federal Reserve may begin cutting interest rates soon. Softer private-sector employment data and signs of easing inflation boosted rate-cut sentiment, while falling Treasury yields helped lift risk assets. Energy, industrial, and financial stocks outperformed, and small-cap shares also rallied as investors positioned for potentially lower borrowing costs.

In the U.K., the FTSE 100 ended the week slightly weaker, as losses in financial stocks outweighed gains among mining and energy companies. Rising commodity prices helped support the resource-heavy sectors, but the index was unable to sustain momentum amid pressure on financials.

In Canada, the S&P/TSX Composite Index climbed to new highs, driven by strong quarterly results from major Canadian banks and renewed strength across energy and resource-linked stocks. Higher oil prices provided an additional lift to the energy sector, while upbeat domestic employment data and stable interest-rate expectations supported overall market sentiment.

In Australia, the ASX 200 posted a modest weekly gain, led by advances in the materials and energy sectors as global commodity prices strengthened. Mining and resource companies were the standout contributors, while non-resource sectors such as technology and consumer stocks trailed behind.

🇺🇸 United States – S&P 500

  • High: 6,895.05

  • Low: 6,805.04

🇬🇧 UK - FTSE 100

  • High: 9,744.01

  • Low: 9,667.01

🇨🇦 Canada – TSX Composite

  • High: 31,533.85

  • Low: 30,915.76

🇦🇺 Australia – ASX 200

  • High: 8,633.10

  • Low: 8,565.30

Cryptocurrency:

  • Bitcoin (BTC): -3.7%

  • Ethereum (ETH): -1.3%

  • Tether (USDT): 0.0%

  • XRP (XRP): -9.4%

  • BNB (BNB): -0.3%

  • USDC (USDC): 0.0%

  • Solana (SOL): -6.5%

  • TRON (TRX): 1.5%

  • Lido Staked Ether (STETH): -1.3%

  • Dogecoin (DOGE): -9.4%

-3.

Metals Market:

Gold Silver Ratio: 72 The gold–silver ratio moved this week mainly because silver’s price jumped much more than gold’s, helped by rate-cut expectations, a weaker dollar, and strong industrial demand for silver.

Gold & Silver:

  • Gold: Week High: £3,222.43 to Week Low: £3,131.61

  • Silver: Week High: £44.58 to Week Low: £41.83

6. Faith & Success

❝

“The joy of the Lord is your strength.”

— Nehemiah 8:10

This time of year can feel like a blur. It’s always super busy with festivals, celebrations, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, then into Christmas, New Year and then fulfilling on those new goals (resolutions).

And even if you’ve done financially well this year, there’s STILL this subtle pressure in the air to keep moving, keep buying, keep earning, keep ‘doing’. It’s funny how quickly the world can drain our energy without us even noticing.

That’s why I love this verse. Not because it pushes us to feel something we don’t, but because it reminds us that real strength doesn’t come from keeping up with the chaos of the World. It comes from the quieter places — the moments where we slow down, check in with ourselves, and reconnect with what actually matters.

Joy is usually found in the small things we tend to overlook: a peaceful morning, a genuine conversation with a friend (or stranger), the kind of quiet that lets your shoulders drop without you telling them to. By the way, are your shoulders raised right now? If so drop them (this reduces your stress) - top tip!

Just remember that everything will work out fine. It always does. It’s our human worrying brain that causes the stress ‘in the moment’.

So this week, give yourself permission to slow down a little. Enjoy the calm where you can find it. Let joy be something you notice, not something you chase. And as you step into the days ahead, carry that quiet strength with you; the kind that helps you breathe easier, think clearer, and move through life with a lighter heart.

Until next time,

God Bless,

Neil,

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DISCLAIMER
This newsletter is 100% FREE & is designed to help your thinking, not direct it. These newsletters shall NOT be construed as tax, legal, or financial advice and may be outdated or inaccurate; all decisions made as a result of this information are yours alone.

Trading/Liability: Neil McCoy-Ward operates/trades under a private Ltd company within the Isle of Man.