What happened
The Metropolitan Police will stop investigating so-called non-crime hate incidents following the collapse of a case against Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan. The 57-year-old writer (pictured above) was arrested at Heathrow last month by five armed officers over social media posts about transgender issues, initially on suspicion of inciting violence. The Crown Prosecution Service has since dropped the case.

Who said what
Linehan described the case as having been “the latest attempt to silence and suppress gender-critical voices”. The Met acknowledged criticism of the arrest, saying it would still record such incidents for intelligence, but not investigate them.

Linehan’s case “drew criticism of the police and government from some politicians and free-speech campaigners”, said Sky News. His arrest “brought the issues around NCHIs into sharp focus”, said Martin Evans in The Telegraph, although the Met police shift was “not made because of the force’s handling of the incident”, but because of a “growing concern that it was serving as a distraction for hard-pressed officers”.

What next?
Linehan intends to pursue legal action while the Met says its new policy will allow officers to focus on criminal investigations and public safety.

What happened
Defence Secretary John Healey has announced that the armed forces will receive new powers to allow them to shoot down drones over UK military bases. This follows 19 Russian drones entering Polish airspace last month and four mystery drone sightings being recorded on British air bases last year.

Who said what
During the Cold War “military bases were on alert for attacks targeting the British mainland”, said Sky News’s defence correspondent Deborah Haynes. “But this is a sense of war-readiness that has been allowed to fade” as UK governments “no longer believed that there was a threat to the UK that required the armed forces to be prepared to defend themselves in an instant. That is changing.”

What next?
“It is not clear how soon these new powers would come into effect,” said The Telegraph. The EU is “pursuing plans” led by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for a “drone wall” aimed at countering current and future incursions despite reservations among some member states, said Politico.

Medical researchers are witnessing a rise in the number of “imposter participants” taking part in surveys and trials, fuelling concerns for patient safety and the reliability of studies.

The imposters range from automated bots to people lying about previous health issues or deliberately misleading researchers over their conditions and diagnoses.

Academics are in the dark over the exact motivations of these pretenders. When there isn’t a financial interest, feelings of “boredom” and “curiosity” are major players. In more serious cases, “an ideological intent to disrupt research” may be a factor.

Online recruitment methods have triggered a “seismic transformation” across the health landscape, said tech news site Bioengineer. The attraction is clear: the “expanded accessibility” has made it easier than ever to enrol in studies, but this has opened the door for individuals and artificial sources to “falsify data” or “mimic” authentic responses.

Researchers already have to walk a tightrope to gain credible and fair results, said Alan Martino and Arielle Perrotta on The Conversation. They must maintain a balance between providing “thorough vetting” while simultaneously preserving the “ethical commitment to respect the autonomy of participants”.

There is a fine line between ensuring the “validity” of data, but not “creating barriers for legitimate participants”, said Martino and Perrotta. If measures are too stringent, then credible concerns could be ignored.

“The key to success is balancing caution with empathy”, where patients’ experiences are weighed up, analysing the risks of including or excluding them. If recruitment processes are “clear and specific”, there is caution around compensation and the interview practices are revised, there can be increased credibility among researchers.