European and South American leaders are set to sign a new trade deal following decades of diplomatic negotiations. First broached in 1999, the EU-Mercosur agreement will create the world’s largest free trade area, covering more than 700 million people.

What is in the deal?
As part of the agreement, “Mercosur will remove duties on 91% of EU exports” over 15 years, said RTE. This includes scrapping the 35% tariff on European cars, the 27% duty on EU wine exports and the 35% on spirits.

In return, the EU will “progressively remove duties” for 92% of Mercosur exports over up to 10 years. In addition, the EU will allow an additional 99,000 tonnes of beef to be exported from South America, while Mercosur will give the EU a duty-free 30,000-ton quota for cheeses. There will also be protections over recognised brands – such as “Parmigiano Reggiano” – to prevent imitations.

Why has it been controversial?
European farmers have been staging “violent demonstrations” against the deal for months, said the Financial Times. In recent weeks, tractors have circled Paris’ Arc de Triomphe and milk was dumped in the streets of Milan, and since the deal was confirmed, there have been large-scale protests in Ireland, Poland and Belgium.

In the final negotiations, the EU was forced to offer “several concessions” to farmers and “agricultural powerhouses” such as Italy. The European Commission promised an extra €45 billion to farmers in a new seven-year budget from 2028, and agreed safeguards to prevent market disruption from South American imports.

Who are the winners and losers?
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has added “yet another laurel in Rome’s crown”, said Politico. She “saw which way the political winds were blowing and skilfully extracted last-minute concessions for Italian farmers after threatening to throw her weight behind French opposition to the deal”.

Despite such concessions, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is also a winner, having transformed a “lumbering dinosaur” of a bloc that was “consistently outmanoeuvred by the US and China” into a promising trading proposition. 

For von der Leyen and Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the agreement will “signal independence from the world’s two largest economies”, said the Buenos Aires Times, and show that “broad multilateral deals remain possible in a global order upended by Donald Trump”.

“Seemingly, everyone has a podcast now,” said USA Today. “So it’s about time that major awards shows caught up, right?”

The Golden Globes waded into “previously uncharted territory” last night, handing out its very first podcast of the year award to Amy Poehler for her show “Good Hang with Amy Poehler”. But this significant change to the category line-up has provoked a backlash.

‘Bid for relevance’
The “celebrity-heavy” focus of the final list suggests the category is “at least in part, a way to lure more big names to a ceremony that’s always relied on star power to justify its existence”, said Abbie Ruzicka, co-founder of podcast producer Arcana Audio, in The New York Times. It appears more like a “bid for relevance” from the Globes than a genuine “sudden appreciation for the medium”.

While the inclusion of the podcast category in this year’s show makes sense, “the category, as it exists, does not”. It remains unclear how works that “differ so dramatically in their form and intent” can be fairly evaluated against each other. “Mashing together” celebrity chats with news shows and “self-help monologues” while omitting narrative podcasts reveals a “lack of understanding about what podcasts are and why they matter. Podcasting isn’t a genre; it’s an industry.”

‘Simple fix’
Poehler’s victory “might just have been the most satisfying win of the night – and not just because she beat her ex-husband Will Arnett”, said Glamour. “There’s something even sweeter.”

Although “not everything is a battle of the sexes”, it does “make a difference how much of the idle chit chat” we consume while driving or cooking is “being uttered by a man or a woman”. In a world filled with “toxic masculinity”, what a “breath of fresh air” to see Poehler succeed in the field with her “thoughtful and kind conversations, and feminism couched in humour. She is also, as ever, funny as hell.”

If the new category is to “endure” at the Golden Globes, the “fix may be simple”, said Ruzicka. Podcasts should be treated the same way as Hollywood movies and TV shows, with categories spanning everything from chat shows to scripted fiction. As a “rare visible stage” for podcasts, it’s vital that the ceremony gets this right. “Having opened the door, now comes the harder part: listening.”

Power station staff check solar panels above a lake where local farmers raise fish, in a hybrid project in Tianchang, east China. The East Asian nation is the world leader in renewables and holds more than half of the total installed solar capacity.

 AFP / Getty Images

The month-long challenge to eat only plant-based foods has become a staple to kick off the new year. Whether motivated by health or environmental concerns, or just a desire to try new recipes, embracing a vegan diet is a great way to start 2026.

Instead of embarking on a radical overhaul of a meat-filled diet, one of the best ways to approach Veganuary is to change in small ways – or “veganise” – your existing recipes, food writer Richard Makin told The Guardian. Most people have eight to 10 dishes that they make on rotation: rather than ditching them, just “switch up the ingredients a bit”, replacing dairy milk with soya milk, or beef mince with Quorn mince. Taking incremental steps means “you tend not to feel quite so dislocated in your diet”.

If this is your first foray into vegan cooking, it’s important not to overcomplicate things, food author Anna Jones told Vogue. Don’t treat vegetables any differently than you would meat: many “are much better when put on the grill” to soak up all the “char and smoke”. Consider using umami-rich ingredients such as sundried tomatoes and miso for a “deep savouriness”, and add a handful of fresh chopped herbs to further “enhance” the flavours of plant-based dishes.

One of 2025’s “most talked-about ingredients”, beans are also perfect for adding flavour and fibre to your New Year cooking repertoire, said Hannah Twiggs in The Independent. In a “rare feat” for January eating, they are packed with anti-inflammatory benefits while having a “knack for making food taste better rather than worse”. A Veganuary favourite is Mediterranean butter beans with toasted focaccia – the “richness of the sundried tomatoes” and the “saltiness of the olives” make for “next-level soul food”.

If you hit a wall with one ingredient, that’s perfectly fine, Toni Vernelli, the former communications chief for Veganuary, told The Independent. “There’s such a diversity out there” that you may need to shop around and try different varieties of plant-based milks or vegan sausages until you “find one that works for you”. And if you find yourself reaching for a milk chocolate bar, that’s fine. “You didn’t fail, you were a human being.”

Sorry, Trump and Farage – London is no lawless ‘warzone’. Violent crime is lower than ever
Sadiq Khan in The Guardian
Our capital city has “quietly reached” its lowest recorded murder rate, writes London Mayor Sadiq Khan. This will “come as a surprise” to many, because certain “politicians and commentators” have been spamming social media with “distortions and untruths” that paint a “dystopian picture of a lawless place”. Our “crackdown on violent crime” is creating a “safer London for everyone”, whatever “loudmouths and alarmists intent on sowing fear and division” may claim.

Individual suffering can’t justify this assisted dying bill
Nigel Biggar in The New Statesman
“Sometimes, the manner of dying can rend the heart,” writes peer, ethicist and priest Nigel Biggar. But we “cannot legislate simply on the basis of individual cases, however harrowing”. MPs “must consider” all the “social ramifications of a law and weigh its risks”. The “assisted suicide” bill would allow the “more privileged” to choose “between decent palliative care and assisted suicide”, but the choice for the “poorer and less white” would be “between grievous suffering and killing themselves”.

It’s never been cooler to be out in the freezing cold
Jane Shilling in The Telegraph
Mountain rescue teams report a 25% increase in callouts, a rise driven by “high maintenance” visitors “attracted to a beauty spot by social media, who set off without the right gear”, writes Jane Shilling. “Somewhere within” those “who put themselves and their rescuers at risk by sheer dimwittery”, there’s a “quasi-Romantic longing to reconnect with nature”. We just “seem to have forgotten” what to wear to “tackle freezing conditions”, as if “getting rugged up was a bit feeble”.