What happened
One of the five men arrested near RAF Fairford called police himself prior to the group being detained. The three vans involved were searched by military and forensic teams, but no explosives were found. Petrol was recovered from the vehicles. Investigators are examining whether the group was acting on behalf of Iran, with some of the possible motives including surveillance, a test of the base’s defences or an attempt to send a message.

Who said what
The revelation that one of the men called police themselves “will deepen the intrigue surrounding the incident”, said Fiona Hamilton in The Times. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the incident “clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor”. But counter-terrorism chief Laurence Taylor said police were “keeping an open mind” about the investigation. Iran has denied any involvement.

What next?
The five men remain under investigation and are subject to bail conditions. Police are considering whether the case could fall under the National Security Act, which carries prison sentences of up to 14 years for certain offences carried out on behalf of hostile states.

What happened
Anti-migrant activist Daniel Thomas – also known as Danny Tommo – has had his bid for bail refused following an incident in which he allegedly took a knife to an inflatable boat in the English Channel while an emergency responder was on board.

Thomas has pleaded not guilty to charges of criminal damage and failing to disclose his phone’s Pin code to police.

Who said what
Thomas’ lawyer Simon Pentol, KC – who had offered a “package of bail conditions” to secure his client’s freedom – described the ruling as “politically charged and fundamentally flawed”. Judge James Newton-Price, KC said his decision was “not concerned with the political issues or motivation”.

The maximum sentence if convicted of criminal damage valued at more than £5,000 is 10 years’ imprisonment, said The Independent. If lower than the £5,000 threshold, the maximum sentence could be a fine and three months’ jail time. The value of the dinghy is unknown as the boat has been “taken back to France”.

What next?
Thomas faces six months in custody ahead of a provisional trial date set for 1 March next year.

It is quite fitting that Los Angeles’ new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art looks like a spaceship since it is the “colossal pet project” of the man behind the “Star Wars” franchise, George Lucas, said The Washington Post. Thought to cost an “eye-popping” $1 billion (£756 million), the art inside is a “dizzying mix” of Renaissance and baroque paintings, digital reproductions, a Naboo N-1 Starfighter and “great heaps of the finest dreck”.

At the museum’s official opening, Lucas’s co-founder and wife Mellody Hobson said the collection’s broad scope was intentional, as narrative art should be anything that “depicts the myths that anchor us, the stories that we believe in”. But for many in the art world such a statement subverts the traditional principles of art and signals a worrying trend towards more superficial art curation.

“There is something so cinematic, commercial and kitsch” about it; it is definitely in the right city – “home of the Hollywood hills and tills”, said The Economist. There is a “certain scorning of traditional expertise”: very few exhibits display accompanying text to explain what they are and why they’re there. “Snooty critics may sneer”, but Lucas wants people “looking at the image and not the history lesson”.

Disconnecting art from its history in this way “sidelines the moral, ethical and cultural content of the story”, added The Washington Post. It’s as though the museum is dedicated to “the anti-intellectual proposition that art is feeling and experiencing, not thinking” by getting rid of “all the old hierarchies, categories and distinctions”, and replacing them with “anything that feels cinematic”. It’s a “bewildering” yet also “astonishing pantheon of disparate but recognisable images”. It will be “extraordinarily popular”.