diff --git a/app/controllers/news.php b/app/controllers/news.php
index 3cccc3ff94bdbd7151c295aaa66cf7886034e645..0cef4cfdc5091faed4981b90f8fdf99d63d1bcd4 100644
--- a/app/controllers/news.php
+++ b/app/controllers/news.php
@@ -464,7 +464,7 @@ class NewsController extends StudipController
         }
         // apply filter
         if (Request::submitted('apply_news_filter')) {
-            $this->news_isvisible['basic'] = !$this->news_isvisible['basic'];
+            $this->news_isvisible['basic'] = empty($this->news_isvisible['basic']);
             if (Request::get('news_searchterm') && mb_strlen(trim(Request::get('news_searchterm'))) < 3) {
                 PageLayout::postError(_('Der Suchbegriff muss mindestens 3 Zeichen lang sein.'));
             } elseif ((Request::get('news_startdate') && !$this->getTimeStamp(Request::get('news_startdate'))) || (Request::get('news_enddate') && !$this->getTimeStamp(Request::get('news_enddate'), 'end'))) {
@@ -537,7 +537,7 @@ class NewsController extends StudipController
                     }
                     // check if result set too big
                     $counter++;
-                    if ($counter == $limit + 1) {
+                    if ($counter === $limit + 1) {
                         PageLayout::postInfo(sprintf(_('Es werden nur die ersten %s Ankündigungen angezeigt.'), $limit));
                         unset($this->news_items[$type][$key]);
                     }
diff --git a/lib/classes/Interactable.class.php b/lib/classes/Interactable.class.php
index 6ba7c25ab7e2eb4eed63e34292e5ac88f93f5767..9796f9172b3f44d0aa3a5160f2b660ebb34b6a97 100644
--- a/lib/classes/Interactable.class.php
+++ b/lib/classes/Interactable.class.php
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ abstract class Interactable
             $class = self::hyphenate(mb_substr($name, 6));
 
             # a.) set name unless set
-            if (!is_string(@$args[1])) {
+            if (empty($args[1]) || !is_string($args[1])) {
                 $interactable->attributes['name'] =  $class;
             }