GOOD MORNING. HERE’S everything you need to know as 2026 gets underway.

Budget changes

1. As of midnight, a raft of Budget changes voted through in October took effect. Among them, increases in weekly social welfare payments to some 1.5 million people and an increase in the national minimum wage. 

Pension auto-enrolment

2. Another significant change to come in today is the beginning of the auto-enrolment pension scheme, which will provide workers with access to a retirement savings scheme if they do not already have one.

Crans-Montana

3. Several people have been killed and others injured as a fire ripped through a bar in the luxury Alpine ski resort town of Crans-Montana, Swiss police said early this morning. 

Antisemitic graffiti

4. Gardaí said yesterday evening that they had launched a hate crime investigation after antisemitic graffiti was daubed on two roads in Co Louth in recent days.

The graffiti, which included swastika symbols and the words ‘Jew Rat’ and ‘USA’, was painted on the R165 and the L1260 near Ardee.

New Year, new New York City Mayor

5. Zohran Mamdani, the young upstart of the US left who defeated Andrew Cuomo in two elections last year, was sworn in at midnight underneath City Hall to become the first Muslim Mayor of New York city. 

For whom the New Year bell tolls

6. Increases to toll charges on a number of roads on Ireland’s road network have also kicked in from midnight, with opposition politicians criticising what they say is a lack of effort by the government to stop the increases.  

New Year, Kneecap

7. Irish rap trio Kneecap have said that an appeal by British prosecutors against a court decision to strike out charges against rapper Mo Chara is set to be held on 14 January. In a post online this morning, Kneecap said that notice has been issued that the previously reported appeal now has a start date. 

New Year, New EU

8. As of midnight, Bulgaria became the 21st country to switch to the Euro. The milestone has met with both cheers and fears in the European Union’s poorest nation. 

Gaza aid ban

9. Israel has said it will ban the activities of 37 international NGOs operating in Gaza, including  Doctors Without Borders, in a move the UN has said will exacerbate the humanitarian situation in the region.