Global News Podcast - EU and India announce 'mother of all trade deals'

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

Two decades in the making, the EU-India agreement will allow free trade of goods between the bloc of 27 European states and the world's most populous country. Together, they make up nearly 25% of global gross domestic product and a market of two billion people. The deal will see a number of huge tariff cuts across a range of goods and services, and a joint security partnership.Also: new videos from Iran show bodies piled up inside a hospital, as rights organisations warn that thousands have died during the crackdown against anti-government protests. Spain is to grant legal status to half a million undocumented migrants. A new AI project in Britain helps schoolchildren connect with Holocaust survivors. US Republican Chris Madel ends bid for Minnesota governor and calls ICE action in the state "a disaster". A new study reveals how menopause triggers a loss of grey matter in the brain, similar to changes seen in Alzheimer's patients - but can the effects be mitigated? Tech giants in the US face a landmark trial over social media addiction claims. And why tennis stars Alcarez, Sinner and Sabalenka have been told to remove their fitness trackers.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: [e-mail]

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs.

Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 16 hours GMT on Tuesday the 27th of January. The EU and India hail their new trade agreement as the mother of all deals. following Iran's violent crackdown on protests, doctors and nurses who cared for the injured are now being arrested. And Spain is to grant legal status to half a million undocumented migrants. Also in this podcast, a new AI project in Britain helps schoolchildren connect with Holocaust survivors.

We were only two children. I'm my brother and myself. But we had a wonderful extended family. And how menopause is linked to a loss of grey matter. It does seem that the menopause might make the female brain more vulnerable to the risk of Alzheimer's disease. So what can be done? India and the European Union have reached a trade deal covering 2 billion people, and they're keen to talk it up.

Here's European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen using the kind of language more often heard from Donald Trump. We did it. we delivered the mother of all deals. We are creating a market of 2 billion people, and this is the tale of two giants, the world's second and fourth largest economies, two giants who choose partnership in a true win-win fashion, a strong message that cooperation is the best answer to global challenges.

And speaking through a translator, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, was equally bullish. Friends, today, India has concluded the largest ever free trade agreement in its history. This historic agreement will make access to the European markets easier for our farmers and small businesses. It will create new opportunities in manufacturing and will further strengthen cooperation between our farmers. our service sectors. The wide-ranging deal, which includes cuts to tariffs and a joint security partnership, comes as both sides face economic and political pressure from the US. I heard more from Arunaday Mukherjee outside the talks in Delhi. The deal essentially will allow free trade

of goods between the bloc of 27 European nations and the world's most populous country, which together make up nearly 25% of global GDP and have a market of, well, you're looking at about 2 billion people at least. And the deal is set to lower costs for European products entering India, namely cars, machinery, agricultural food items, after import duties are significantly reduced. It is also going to allow preferential entry of Indian exports into the European Union at reduced tariffs and aims to boost India's labour-intensive sectors, which is why this is important, because we're looking at sectors like textiles, apparel and engineering goods, which are some of those sectors which were hit adversely,

because of the impact of the US tariffs that India has been reeling under. We got a statement from Prime Minister Nareemori as well, who said that the deal is likely to make greater access to European markets and make it easier for India's farmers and also smaller businesses and will help boost manufacturing and services sector. So a visit and a summit certainly high on optics, and both sides appear to be fairly pleased with what they've got, at least as far as their body language is concerned.

Yeah, and put this into the broader context, obviously all the disruption to global trade going around at the moment. For both sides, it was very important, given that we've seen the pressures on the European Union, either when it comes to Greenland or when it comes to India, and it's continuing to purchase Russian oil, which has been something that has upset the US, and there's this constant threat of higher tariffs for India. So both sides have felt this urgency to try and get this deal over the line,

to try and recalibrate trade ties elsewhere and see what are the other alternatives, well, given the unpredictable scenario. So all of this is certainly going to be seen through that prison. But having said that, there was also a note of caution that I picked up from one of the economists who I was speaking to during my coverage, who said that this is all very well. Yes, there are many, many gains, but there will also be some challenges in terms of implementation because in those labour-intensive sectors that we're mentioning, they will also have to ensure that they adhere to a higher European safety standard. So there will be a change there, which could

invite higher input costs. That's something that we will have to wait and watch, but there is something certainly there to kind of keep watch off as far as being optimistic but also ensuring that there's some caution as well as they look forward to what they're calling the mother of all deals. In Renodei Mukaji in the Indian capital. The Iranian currency has fallen to its lowest ever level, 1.5 million reals to the US dollar. The rate offered in exchange shops in Tehran was reached as a US aircraft carrier arrived in the region, raising concerns there that President Trump may follow through on his threat of military action

over Iran's brutal response to mass protests. An Iranian human rights group says it's confirmed that almost 6,000 protesters were killed. Colleagues from the BBC Persian Service have been receiving video messages from inside the country. This one, which contained some distressing details, came in yesterday. It has been voiced over. I took this video on the 21st of Day, 10th of January.

It's speed warning in Bejah, Zahra. the largest cemetery in South of Tehran, the capital. And you could hear people chanting death to Khomeini, the supreme leader. It was shocking to see most bodies brought for burial were people under 30 and 40 years old. That day they must have delivered 30 bodies that morning, and not all were from Tehran. Many people came from different cities to identify bodies

and take their loved ones for burial to their place of birth. And they also brought bodies of a newlywed couple. It was really upsetting. The body of the person I went for his funeral got lost. After a few hours, a friend managed to identify the body. In fact, he found it in the section where women were kept. He said in the morgue where men were kept, they were like bodybacks on top of each other.

Many of them, many of the bodies were not even washed. and still in their clothes covered with blood. I just cannot put in towards images I witnessed that day. Well, in the past few hours, we got a voice note from a young businessman in his 30s. For his safety, we won't share his personal details. Iran's economy has been terrible for years, all because of Islamic Republic. Many companies can't survive anymore. Problems are so big that not working is better than working.

prices shoot up fast raw materials are expensive or impossible to find the dollars get stronger against the real everyday bad internet killed many online business too a startup's shut down and couldn't go on people's online shops on instagram and telegram are struggling hard businesses are dying factories close one by one a source are empty and quiet Well, Gonche Habib Zeday is a senior reporter with BBC Persian television. She's been telling Evan Davis more about the latest situation on the ground. The internet monitoring platform, NetBlocks, has said that there has been some brief connectivity spike that give the false impression of a white restoration while this has not been the case. I've been talking to my friends and family in Tehran and what they're saying is that their lives has been impacted.

And some of them had small businesses and online shops as well. You know, like Iran is under Western sanctions and you do have Amazon or other like platforms in Iran that you can easily buy from and you have to import into the country and that requires internet. And Iran's communication minister has said that the internet blackout is causing an estimated damage of about 34 million a day to Iran's economy. It's been really difficult to get a full picture of what's going on. inside the country right now with the internet outage. Do you feel, as you understand it, that protests are continuing

or have the authorities managed to hose them down, really, with this internet blackout and a lot of violence against protesters? From what I'm hearing, the protests are no longer happening, but so many families have lost their loved ones during the protests. I've been hearing that there are black banners on almost every street and Tehran black banners indicating that someone has died. And, you know, every time that the protest happens, people have been telling me that the deaths and the number of that comes closer to home.

Like before that it was like cousin of a cousin, a friend of a friend, but this time it's like a father of one of my friends has died during the East protest. And it's getting closer and closer to home. Conche Habibzidé from the BBC Persian Service. And we have more on this story on our YouTube channel. Search for BBC News on YouTube. And you'll find global news in the podcast section there. Many European politicians are becoming increasingly hostile to immigration,

but Spain's left-wing government is going the other way. It's set to approve a decree granting legal status to hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants. It'll apply to those without criminal records who arrived before the start of this year, once they've been in Spain for more than five months. The immigration minister, El Mase, says around half a million people will benefit. Today, we are living a historic, historic day. We are recognising, dignifying and guaranteeing opportunities and rights for people who are already in our country. From the moment their application is accepted, they will be free

to work in any sector, anywhere in the country. Our global affairs reporter Paul Moss told me more about the scheme and Spain's experience of migration. Spain is the nearest European country to Africa, so many migrants come from Africa on small boats smuggled into the country. Also, from Asia and the Middle East coming via Africa. But that said, a recent survey suggested the most common nationality of immigrants in Spain are actually illegal immigrants come from Latin America, particularly Colombia, Peru and Honduras. A lot of those arrived legally but outstayed their visas. And the reason why they're there, well, one simple reason is this, it is very easy for them to find work, even if it is illegal work. Spain has a very severe labor shortage, particularly in agriculture,

construction and hospitality. I mean, I remember talking to a construction industry manager in Spain a few years ago. You know, when my recording machine was switched off, he said, look, let me be honest. If we didn't employ illegal immigrants, the whole thing would fall apart. So for that reason, people still come to Spain

simply because they can find jobs. And if you're eating a Spanish orange or perhaps a tomato, there is a very high possibility it's picked by someone who was there working illegally. Well, you may have hinted at it there, but why would the Spanish government make this offer for people who arrived illegally? Well, yeah, in some ways, it's just a matter of practicality. If you have so many people working illegally, they're working in illegal

conditions. And crucially, of course, they're not paying any taxes. So the argument is it's better to accept reality that everyone knows these people are there. Half a million maybe more working illegally. Let's regularize their position. And that way, they'll become part of the economy. And of course, yes, they'll be contributing to government coffers. That said, there is also politics going on here. This policy has been pushed by the junior partner in Spain's ruling coalition, a party called Podemos, which means we can. Podemos have always had a very pro-immigration stance.

I've just been looking at their website, and they argue that globalisation shouldn't mean just free movement of money and goods. It should also mean people. So this is then pushing their policy in government. Paul Moss. Today marks Holocaust Memorial Day, commemorating the 6 million Jewish men, women and children, children murdered by the Nazis, as well as many other victims of the German occupation in the

Second World War. It also remembers other genocide, such as Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia. The 27th of January was chosen, as it marks the Liberation Day of the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Burkenau, in Poland. The Polish president will be attending a memorial event there, while in Ukraine President Zelenskyy has laid a memorial in Kiev to those killed. Here in the UK, the Charity, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, is launching a project where school children can speak to concentration camp survivors via AI. John McGuire met one, 95-year-old Susan Pollack. Susan, can you tell me about your childhood in Hungary? We were only two children, my brother and myself, but we had a wonderful extended family. It may seem strange to ask a virtual Susan questions of

about her long life when sitting beside the real one, but she wanted to demonstrate how she'll be able to answer questions long after she's gone. Well, I'm just overwhelmed with the technology and the science and whatever it involves. Remarkable. The Testimony 360 project gives school children the chance to immerse themselves in a Holocaust survivor's life story. Using virtual reality headsets, they can walk around places from Susan's life, including the Nazi concentration camps where she was taken as a young teenager.

This environment, they depressed me in Auschwitz, appearing every morning stark naked in front of Dr. Mangala, I knew his name, and looking at our body, who's lost so much weight, and who is still able to do some work. I can't describe this to you, how inhuman the conditions were. She was filmed answering around a thousand questions, and using artificial intelligence can respond to whatever the students ask.

The objective is to educate young people about what previous generations had inflicted and their victims endured. Lessons from history, that resonate today. Susan has always visited schools to tell them about her life and near death at the hands of the Nazis. These days, she can't commit as much time or travel as far as she used to, but with the Testimony 360 project, her experience, wisdom and humanity is immortalized. The lessons from history of Susan's story will live on.

in this podcast? I don't understand why Grand Slam are not allowed us to wear it and I really hope that they will reconsider. Why tennis stars have been told to take off their fitness trackers. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it.

It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman and in a new BBC series I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast. After growing anger over the killing of two US citizens in Minneapolis, President Trump has sent in his Bordersar, Tom Homan, to try to defuse tensions.

Despite his reputation as an immigration hardliner, he is seen as more sympathetic than Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem and border patrol chief Greg Bovino, who was seen as cheerleaders for the ice crackdown in the city. Mr Bovino, who has been pictured hurling tear gas at protesters, is expected to leave the city. At the same time, the fallout from the violence has led the Republican Chris Medell to pull out of the race to become state governor. Here's an extract from the video he posted announcing his decision. Driving while Hispanic is not a crime. Either is driving while Asian. At the end of the day, I have to look my daughters in the eye and tell them, I believe I did what was right.

And I am doing that today. Our correspondent Tom Bateman in Minneapolis told us why that announcement is so significant. He is a senior Republican in the state of Minnesota, and so to have him very publicly in a video online calling ICE operations all directed from the top of the time, Trump administration, an unmitigated disaster, saying it's expanded well beyond its stated focus. You know, that matters. And clearly he feels strongly enough about this that he has pulled out of the race.

But the other point is he's a Minnesota attorney. He had given legal counsel to Jonathan Ross, who was the ICE agent who had shot dead Renee Good, who was killed nearly three weeks ago now. And it actually sort of risen to prominence because of that fact. become quite controversial because of it. So you're seeing both senior Republicans across the states now, including the Oklahoma governor, for example, openly expressing criticism, concern about the Trump administration's approach here. And I think the White House, Mr Trump himself,

the radar is always switched on to what the base is feeling. I think they know that his poll rating is suffering because of this immigration drive. All this crucial context for the decision of Greg Bevino, a hugely controversial figure to leave the state. Yeah, and I mean, we've just been down at a hotel where the protesters say he is staying and decided well over 100 of them tonight to show up. Well, what we have here now are a line of agents that have fanned out. Some have tear gas guns.

I can see others wearing gas masks. Some have baton sticks. And I mean, this is suddenly escalated. The crowd here backing into words of wood and drums Because that hotel there, the building there is where they say Greg Pavino This commander at large of the border patrol is staying They say they want to give him a loud goodbye So they come here to protest

And then suddenly we saw these agents push forward One of them, I saw one fire, some kind of irritant into the ground several times a few rounds of that, it was then very hard to breathe. You can see more agents of gas masks coming forward now. They're clearly determined to push this crowd back. And it was really a sudden escalation as they came forward. I mean, basically this was a peaceful protest. Some people have taken it a bit far in terms of hitting one of the signs

at the car park of the hotel. But then we saw masked agents with tear gas rifles and other sort of irritant guns show up. And the situation really quickly escalated, firing some of that irritant into the crowd. It was very hard to breathe. They were pushing people back. And then I was seeing at least one person sort of dragged over towards these federal agents. So, you know, although it feels like there is a toning down of the rhetoric,

both from the White House and the Democrat leadership here, you know, certainly a sense that the mood on the streets is in itself. tensions are staying pretty high and that felt like it was escalating tonight. Tom Bateman in Minneapolis, talking to Nick Robinson. The menopause can have a significant impact on women's physical and mental health. Now, a large UK study has found that it can also cause

a loss of grey matter in the brain, affecting memory and emotions, the kind of changes also seen in Alzheimer's. A woman called Nicola told us how she was affected by the menopause. I don't think, unless you've actually been through, it that you understand the emotional roller coaster that everybody goes through. You can be all right one minute and then psych over text. You just have to say when you knew that you weren't feeling very well as to hide away kind

of thing or take it out like gardening. I used to take it out on doing that, digging or a lot of exercise and walking. When I've got brain flog, I'm just saying, I've got another blonde moment, but probably isn't a blonde moment. it could be the little grey cell. Professor Barbara Sahakian of Cambridge University told us these brain changes could help explain why women are more likely to develop dementia.

What we found was that the menopause is associated with decreased brain, grey matter volumes, and these important areas for learning and memory, such as the enterina cortex and hippocampus, and those are two of the first areas to be affected by the changes that we see in Alzheimer's disease. So it does seem that the menopause might make the female brain more vulnerable. So this may be, you know, part of the explanation for that.

Symptoms very commonly reported are increases in anxiety and depression and problems with sleep. And we know that the anterior cingulate, that was one of the areas where we found these decreased brain matter volumes, is associated with emotional regulations. So where you have difficulty with your emotion. and maybe get more anxious and depressed probably relates to those changes there. But there are things that you can do to improve that transition through the menopause by having a healthy lifestyle. So, you know, making sure that you get exercise, that you have good social support,

that you, you know, activate your brain by new learning. Because Eleanor McGuire has shown in one of her studies that you can actually increase the volume of the hippocampus, that brain area. if you learn and remember the location of places in space. And we all know that women during the menopause, many of them are dealing with teenage children or they may be still at work. And so the amount of stress that they have to cope with during that time

can be quite a lot. So if you're struggling and having problems to make sure that you have good social support so you can discuss the issues and not sort of suffer on your own. Barbara Sahakian of Cambridge University. A 19-year-old woman is suing social media companies like Meta and YouTube, saying their algorithms ruined her mental health by populating her feed with damaging content. There are thousands of similar lawsuits in train around the world,

but this one in California is the first to come to trial. Matthew Bergman is representing the plaintiff. Rachel Burden asked him how her life had been affected. She's been robbed of her childhood, her adolescence, and her teenage years. She has been subjected to horrific content that she has been forced to come addicted to and has suffered severe and ongoing mental health harms.

You talk about the design decisions that the social media companies have taken. Can you be a bit more specific? What are you looking at here? What we're looking at is companies that make money by selling advertising. The more time they can keep a young person on their platforms, the more advertising they sell,

the more money they make. So they show kids content, not that they want to see, but what they can't look away from. And they do that by exploiting the vulnerabilities of an adolescent brain, as well as the social insecurities that young people have. And the fact that by seeing material that is psychologically discordant and unpleasant to look at, they actually get a better dopamine response, ergo addictive behavior than showing material that is benign or uplifting. So, So they show you not what you want to see, but what you can't look away from. And when you're on social media, you are not the customer. You are the product.

And that's why we're bringing these cases. The social media companies themselves have said that the evidence you're putting forward falls short of proving that they are responsible for alleged time. So that is how they will argue against this. How difficult is it, do you think, to be able to explicitly show that it was social media activity? that led to the harms that you're describing here? Well, there's a reason why they call it a trial. It is our burden of proof, the one that we gladly assume.

I think when a fair and impartial jury has an opportunity to hear this young woman's story, they will reach the conclusion that social media played a substantial role in her injuries. What do you think the potential ramifications of this case could be in the future? The most important ramification of this case is that for the first time, social media is being subject to trial. That in and of itself is a huge change and a sea change, an industry that heretofore has thought of itself and behaved as though it were totally immune from any kind of accountability. And that was Matthew Bergman. In response, YouTube says the allegations in these complaints aren't true. Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook,

also strongly denies the claims and says its confident evidence will show its longstanding commitment to supporting young people. The world number one men's tennis player, Carlos Alcaras, has reached the semi-final of the Australian Open for the first time. But he and his big rival Yannick Sinner have had to play without their normal fitness trackers, watch-like health monitors they wear on their wrists. Both are being told to take them off.

Health analysis devices are not currently permitted at Grand Slam tournaments but are allowed at many other games. The top women's seed, Arena Sabalenko, isn't happy about it. I don't understand why because the whole year we are wearing on WTO tournaments, all of the tournaments I play, we wear a whoop. It's just for tracking my health. I don't understand why Grand Slam are not allowed us to wear it and I really hope that they will reconsider the decision

and let their players track their health monitor. So why are the rules different? I asked Jonathan Jureko, BBC tennis reporter in Melbourne. Well, that's a good question. We're not quite got to the bottom of it yet. So players are allowed to wear these during matches on the ATP tour and the WTA tour, but Grand Slams don't allow it. And we think that's because they've not got a collective agreement at the moment to allow these devices,

which are known as wearables to be used by players to collect data and help benefit them in terms of their conditioning. Are there other devices that they could use instead, like rings, for example? Not at grand slams. These are not permitted at the moment. As I said, they are permitted on the tour matches, and it's that inconsistency, which has baffled quite a lot of people, to be honest. I think in the near future that the grand slam will decide that it is fine, but it's just a matter of them. The four grand slams, that's Australian Open, French Open,

Mimbledon and US Open, all getting around the table and decided that these wearables are fine for the players to use at the four majors. And why do players feel it so important to monitor their health continually throughout a game? Well, player welfare has been a big discussion point in tennis for a long time, actually, and that's the physical and mental.

demands. So these devices allow them to track things like heart rates and blood pressure, breathing, and also sleep. So they think it's going to be really beneficial for them to be able to track this day to 24-7, collect it, and then make informed decisions about their physical condition. Is this just because people have got so used to tracking everything about themselves in the modern age? Because of course, you never had these kind of things in the old days. Yeah, that's right. I mean, the technology is new or newer and it plays a big part in things. I mean, a lot of listeners will have these devices and they use them during their exercise. Technology is obviously there.

And in tennis and within sports scientists, in tennis, they're kind of thinking, well, why is this not allowed? Because in American sports, particularly NFL, M-O-B and an MBA, they collect data from all their athletes and across the teams. And then they're able to make these uniform decisions and affect change, you know, rule changes in areas as well. So people want to use it more. Jonathan Jureka at the Australian Open in Melbourne. And that is all from us for now, but the Global News podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Russell Newlove and produced by Stephanie Zacherson and David Lewis. Our editors, Karen Martin, I'm Oliver Conway.

Until next time, goodbye. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure. Who did it? It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs.

Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.