What happened
Donald Trump has vowed to "100%" follow through on his threat to impose sweeping tariffs on a group of European allies unless they agree to negotiations over Greenland’s future. In an interview yesterday, the US president said he would proceed with duties on imports from the UK and seven other Nato members, beginning in February and rising sharply by mid-year. He also declined to rule out military action when asked directly. 

Who said what
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said decisions about Greenland belonged to “Greenlanders and for the Danes alone”. 

For all Trump’s “bluster about restoring American strength”, his attempt to bully European allies over Greenland “reveals a deeper weakness”, said The Guardian’s editorial board: “coercive diplomacy only works if people are afraid to resist”. And Europe’s united response and pushback “shows the fear is fading”.

What next?
“However you slice it, America has more leverage over Europe than vice versa”, said The Economist, “except, maybe, in football”. European and South American countries “are the star turns” at this year’s American-hosted Fifa World Cup. Staying away would be a “blow to Mr Trump’s pride, at little economic cost”.

What happened
Films are too lengthy and are putting off cinemagoers. That's the view of Clare Binns, the creative director of Picturehouse Cinemas, who has said that directors and film companies should shorten the lengths of their films.

Named this year’s winner of the Bafta award for outstanding British contribution to cinema, she said this is a “wake-up call to directors”. “If they want their films in cinemas, people have to feel comfortable about what they’re committing to”.

Who said what
Binns isn't the only high-profile complainer on this subject. Following the release of “One Battle After Another”, Leonardo DiCaprio told The Times that he questioned whether audiences have the “appetite” for longer-form film viewing, fearing that “cinemas become silos”, or “like jazz bars”.

“Concerns also remain about industry consolidation”, said Nadia Khomami in The Guardian, including Netflix’s bid to buy Warner Bros Discovery. However, “people have predicted the end of cinema many times – when television arrived, when we went digital. We’re still standing,” said Binns.

What next?
The Bafta Film Awards ceremony will be hosted by Alan Cumming on 22 February.

Excessive fertiliser use can be expensive and bad for the environment, but plants require nutrients to grow. To combat this problem, scientists have been attempting to use genetic engineering to help crops control their own fertilisation, making them cooperate with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The new method could fight food insecurity and save waterways. 

Plants need nitrogen to grow, and most crops require fertiliser to obtain it. However, a “small group of plants, including peas, clover and beans, can grow without added nitrogen” by “forming a partnership with specific bacteria that turn nitrogen from the air into a form the plant can absorb,” said a release by Aarhus University about a study published in the journal Nature. 

Taking a page from those plants’ books, researchers have been working on developing self-fertilising crops, and major strides have already been made. In August 2025, scientists were able to use the gene editing tool CRISPR to make wheat crops produce their own fertilizer, according to a study published in Plant Biotechnology Journal. The edits enabled the wheat to “assist specific soil bacteria in nitrogen fixation,” which meant the “plants can absorb necessary nutrients without the reliance on synthetic fertilisers,” said Sustainability Times. 

Self-fertilizing crops are a “fundamental redesign of how modern agriculture works,” Steve Cubbage, a precision agriculture consultant and farmer, said in a piece for The Scoop. “Reduced fertiliser dependence means lower exposure to global supply disruptions, energy price shocks and geopolitical risk,” as well as a “resilience strategy that should be taken as seriously.”