Jussie Smollett, a gay and black actor who stars in the Fox network drama “Empire,” is facing felony criminal charges of disorderly conduct and filing a false police report.

Chicago police said on Twitter Thursday morning that Smollett has now been taken into custody.

He claimed that on January 29, two masked men beat him late at night in downtown Chicago while yelling racist and homophobic slurs. He also initially told police that the attackers poured bleach on him and tied a rope around his neck.

The alleged incident initially seemed to serve as an example of growing intolerance in the US and led to an outpouring of support for the actor. But over the following weeks, the 36-year-old went from victim to suspect.

“Felony criminal charges have been approved by Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office against Jussie Smollett for Disorderly Conduct / Filing a False Police Report,” Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement late Wednesday.

Smollett’s attorneys promised to conduct their own investigation and mount “an aggressive defense.”

“Like any other citizen, Mr Smollett enjoys the presumption of innocence, particularly when there has been an investigation like this one where information, both true and false, has been repeatedly leaked,” attorneys Todd Pugh and Victor Henderson said in a statement.

The actor reported to police that his alleged assailants yelled “This is MAGA country” — a reference to US President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

But detectives grew suspicious of the account after interrogating two men who reportedly revealed that they were hired to stage the incident.

Chicago TV station WBBM said the men, brothers Ola and Abel Osundairo, claimed Smollett was unhappy that a threatening letter he had earlier received at the Chicago studios where “Empire” is filmed had not received enough attention.

Shamima Begum, who travelled to Syria in 2015 and now wants to return to Britain after giving birth in a refugee camp in Syria last week, said the order was “unjust”.

“I am a bit shocked,” she told ITV News after learning of the move, which was announced in a letter Tuesday from the British government to her mother in London.

“It’s a bit upsetting and frustrating. I feel like it’s a bit unjust on me and my son.”

She said an “option” could be to apply for citizenship in The Netherlands, where her husband and the father of her newborn child — an IS fighter believed to be held by Kurdish forces in Syria — is from and has relatives.

“Maybe I can ask for citizenship in Holland,” Begum added. “If he gets sent back to prison in Holland I can just wait for him while he is in prison.”

– ‘Children should not suffer’ –

Begum’s fate has stirred controversy since she and two friends fled her east London home to join the terror network four years ago when she was aged 15.

The case highlights a dilemma facing many European countries, divided over whether to allow jihadists and IS sympathisers home to face prosecution or bar them over security concerns as the so-called “caliphate” crumbles.

Britain’s Home Office said it did not discuss individual cases when asked about Begum.

Interior minister Sajid Javid told lawmakers Wednesday that revoking citizenship was “a powerful tool” not used lightly.

“But when someone turns their back on (our) fundamental values and supports terror they don’t have an automatic right to return to the UK,” he said.

However Javid hinted that Begum’s newborn son could be treated differently.

“Children should not suffer, so if a parent does lose their British citizenship it does not affect the rights of their child,” the minister said.

Begum gave birth to her third child at the weekend, and appealed to British authorities to show “compassion” by allowing her to raise the baby in Britain — while expressing no regret over having joined IS.

– ‘All legal avenues’ –

In the ministry’s letter sent to Begum’s mother, it said the teen had the right to appeal the order.

Tasnime Akunjee, a lawyer for her family, said it was disappointed with the move and “considering all legal avenues to challenge this decision”.

Begum, who is of Bangladeshi heritage, was born in Britain, has never had a Bangladeshi passport and is not a dual citizen, according to Akunjee.

The Home Office reportedly believes that she is entitled to claim citizenship in the south Asian country.

Chiranjiv Sarker, head of the consular wing and dual nationality issues at Bangladesh’s foreign ministry, told AFP it was aware of the case but had not received any contact from the family.

“So far none of her family members (has) approached us,” he said. “What I learn from newspapers is that Shamima was trying to return to Britain.”

He added that, if approached, the ministry would need to try to verify Begum’s Bangladeshi heritage to assess any possible eligibility for citizenship.

– Trump call rebuffed –

Begum is currently in a refugee camp in northeast Syria where she fled to escape fighting in the east of the country along with hundreds of other people with links to IS.

She said she had previously given birth to two other children after marrying in Syria. Both children are said to have died, apparently from illness and malnutrition.

Begum fled Britain with Kadiza Sultana, who has since been reported killed, and Amira Abase.

Begum said in recent media interviews that Abase had stayed in a village where IS fighters were making a final stand against US-backed forces.

European countries have been grappling with what to do with foreign fighters detained in Syria by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who have warned they may not be able to guard their jails once US troops leave.

The British government on Monday rebuffed US President Donald Trump’s call for European allies to take back hundreds of alleged jihadists captured in the war-ravaged country.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman said the fighters should instead face justice in places where they committed their crimes.

The group’s call was in response to comments from Australian Border Force (ABF) commissioner Michael Outram on Monday that “human error” in his forces had led to Hakeem al-Araibi, a refugee with Australian residency, being detained for more than two months in a Thai jail and facing the threat of extradition to his native country.

“It is absolutely unacceptable that Hakeem, a completely innocent man supposedly under the Australian government’s care, was detained for 76 days in Thailand in fear for his life simply because someone at Border Force forgot to send an email,” Amnesty International Australia’s Tim O’Connor said.

The Australian government must conduct an independent investigation into this “monumental mistake” that caused a young man and his family months of heartache and could have cost them much more had he been sent back to Bahrain, he said.

The government must ensure that no other refugee is ever put in this situation again, O’Connor said. The results of any investigation must be made public immediately, and systems put in place to ensure no other person would suffer as Hakeem and his family did, he added.

“Human error must never again result in someone’s life being endangered,” he said.

Thailand faced blame and severe criticism over the arrest of al-Araibi on November 27 at Suvarnabhumi Airport, when he and his wife arrived here on a honeymoon trip.

Thailand effected the arrest on a request from Bahrain, which was alerted about al-Araibi’s trip through an Interpol red notice posted by Australia. Bahrain then sought his extradition over charges he faced in his country, which led to an extradition trial and resulted in him being detained in jail until this month.

The Australian government was at the forefront of repeated calls for the Thai government to release al-Araibi although the case was being heard by a Thai court. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison stepped up pressure by twice writing to his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, to free the Bahraini.

Australia’s sporting organisations protested the arrest and one of them cancelled a friendly football match scheduled to be held in Thailand. Amnesty International Australia also condemned Bangkok, demanding that the 25-year-old Bahraini be freed immediately.

Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai insisted that it was an Australian Interpol alert that had led to Bahrain requesting al-Araibai’s extradition. Morrison denied the information.

Al-Araibi was eventually released on February 11 and returned to Australia after Bahrain dropped its extradition request following a visit to the Gulf country by Don to discuss the issue.

According to Australian media, ABF commissioner Outram said his officer failed to send a notification to Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Department of Home Affairs, which would have alerted them to the fact that al-Araibi was on a protection visa in Australia.

That fact, once revealed to the AFP the day after al-Araibi was arrested in Thailand, prompted Interpol to withdraw the “red notice” issued at the request of Bahrain. Had it been known to the AFP beforehand, the AFP-based Interpol team would not have issued the notice.

The email notification is a manual, not automatic, process, Outram told a Senate inquiry on Monday night that “having reviewed the circumstances surrounding al-Araibi, it is clear that human error occurred within the [border force] process”.

Outram conceded that the mistake made by the border force had directly resulted in the AFP informing Thai authorities that a red notice existed for al-Araibi. “The officer in this case forgot to send an email. It’s as simple as that,” he said. However, he declined to apologise to al-Araibi, saying his detention could have occurred by some other means too, such as direct contact between Bahrain and Thailand.

    The guidelines issued last week complained that K-pop stars looked too alike, saying “the problem of … uniformity among singers is serious”, and noting most idols were thin and wore identical make-up and skimpy outfits.

South Korea’s K-pop world is a multi-billion-dollar business, but so too is the plastic surgery industry in the image-obsessed country, and tens of thousands of people go under the knife every year in pursuit of the perfect look.

The guidelines from the ministry of gender equality drew criticism online — and also from a lawmaker who said it was reminiscent of censorship during the country’s period of authoritarian government which ended in 1980s.

    Demanding the state apologises, Lawmaker Ha Tae-keung said the guidelines were a “totalitarian and unconstitutional idea”.

Until the late 1980s, censorship permeated every part of South Korean society and the state controlled everything from what could be screened on TV to the length of a man’s hair.

“It is truly surprising that South Korea is doing what communist dictatorships, like China and North Korea, would consider doing,” one online critic said.

In the wake of criticism, the ministry said Tuesday it would withdraw the recommendation after it had “caused unnecessary confusion”.

But it added it had neither the intention nor authority to control TV production and it had simply tried to “prevent media, which has big influence on people’s daily life, from undermining human rights or fostering discrimination unintentionally”.

Critics say the narrow concept of beauty promoted by Korean celebrities was pushing many to go under the knife.

In 2017 all four members of K-pop band SixBomb went through extensive plastic surgery, from nose jobs to breast implants, before releasing a single.

A series of videos showed the four women visiting a clinic, strutting into an operating theatre and lying on the operating table.

In a survey of teenagers last year, nearly 70 percent said the idea of trying to become a celebrity in the entertainment industry had crossed their mind.

The ministry alluded to the impact TV celebrities have on young people in the guidelines.

“Overt concerns for how one should look on TV has a negative impact not only on adults, but also on teenagers and children,” it said.

    The dark blue coats — worn by about 10 officers in the Blue House’s National Security Office — have the 12-digit sequence 615104427919 sewn onto the back.

The number 615 marks the June 15 North-South joint declaration in 2000, 104 is for the October 4 North-South joint declaration in 2007, 427 is for the historic Panmunjom Declaration on April 27 last year, and 919 stands for the September 19 Pyongyang Joint Declaration that also took place in 2018.

“We just hope to keep the positive spirit alive,” one jacket-wearer told AFP.

    “We have ordered and are wearing the jackets at work voluntarily. It was solely our idea to do this,” he added.

A Blue House spokesman refused to say whether the jacket wearers had the upcoming summit between US President Donald Trump and Kim specifically in mind this week as they donned the coats, which they had made last year.

Kim is expected to visit Seoul not long after the summit.

Cross-border ties improved dramatically as the leaders of the two Koreas met three times last year — twice at the border truce village of Panmunjom and once in the North’s capital Pyongyang — and a reconciliatory push gathered pace.

The May 26 summit, the second inter-Korean talk held at Panmunjom last year, was not included on the coats as no declaration was released following the event, the Blue House jacket-wearer said.

“We wanted to have these numbers sewn on the back of our jackets so that we remember those key dates and wish our best for the next inter-Korean summit,” he added.

He told how one of his colleagues came up with the idea, brought it up during a work meeting and others agreed.

During Moon’s visit to Pyongyang last year, the North Korean leader promised to pay a return visit to the South’s capital Seoul.

If he visits as expected this year, Kim will be the first North Korean leader to set foot in the capital since the nations split at the end of World War II.

Moon welcomed Kim’s comments at the time, agreeing to meet with him “more frequently” in 2019.

Kim is scheduled to meet US President Donald Trump in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi on February 27-28, following their first summit in Singapore last year.

Critics say Pyongyang has made no concrete commitments so far and is unlikely to surrender its nuclear weapons.

The Australian news portal ABC reported that an unnamed associate of Sirul in Australia said he took Sirul’s case for political asylum to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Sydney.

“He wants to be released into Australian society, released from detention, so that he can go into the Australian society and live, because he said that his crime was a political crime,” the associate was quoted as saying.

ABC reported that after a lengthy court process, the tribunal rejected Sirul’s initial claim, and an appeal on Monday (Feb 18), on the grounds that it was not a political crime.

Altantuya, 28, is believed to have been shot dead before her body was blown to bits with explosives at a secondary forest near the Subang Dam in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam in 2006.

In 2009, Sirul and accomplice Azilah Hadri were convicted of murdering Altantuya and were sentenced to death.

The Court of Appeal overturned their sentences in 2013 but upon the prosecution’s appeal, they were upheld by the Federal Court.

Sirul fled to Australia where he was detained by Immigration after Interpol issued a Red Notice on him.

He has been at the detention centre since 2015, but in 2018, said he was willing to reveal what happened in the case if he is given a full pardon to return to Malaysia.

Speaking to Malaysiakini, he expressed his “displea­sure” over how the murder trial took place, adding that he had followed his lawyers’ instructions.

He also claimed that the “main witness was not called” during the trial and hoped that the case would be heard again.

    Pacquiao, the only fighter to win world titles in eight different weight divisions, said he and his wife have even made a point not to have gloves and equipment at home.

The boxer, known for his rags-to-riches climb from the street, has tried to push his son Emmanuel Jr, who is known Jimuel, to choose another path.

“It pains me that he is boxing because I know how hard it is. I told him, ‘Daddy only went into boxing because of poverty… You, you don’t need to box’,” Pacquiao said on broadcaster ABS-CBN.

    “But he said: ‘Daddy, like you boxing is my passion also. I want to be a representative of this country as an athlete’,”  Pacquiao added.

Pacquiao made the comments after a video of Jimuel sparring during an exhibition match was posted on Facebook.

“His mommy had cried several times telling him, ‘Don’t go into boxing, son’,” Pacquiao said of his wife, Jinkee, who had also urged the 40-year-old boxer to retire.

“He really wants to do it,” he added.

The younger Pacquiao wouldn’t be the first son of a high-profile boxer to follow dad’s lead. The sons of British boxers Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank, as well as American slugger Joe Frazier became fighters.

The Facebook footage shows the younger Pacquiao sending his opponent to his knees with aggressive moves reminiscent of his father. Jimuel was wearing gloves and gear branded “Pacman”, his dad’s nickname.

The elder Pacquiao was watching the match through a video call and was seen talking to his son before it started.

An aide for Pacquiao told AFP Jimuel took up boxing only in December, a month before his father easily defeated Adrien Broner in Las Vegas.

As for his own career, Pacquiao said he was still eager for a rematch with Floyd Mayweather but had yet to discuss his next fight with adviser Al Haymon.

Pacquiao in October signed with Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions group after being promoted by Top Rank’s Bob Arum for the past 14 years.

Pacquiao said he was open to fighting unbeaten US “super champion” Keith Thurman, Errol Spence Jr or Britain’s Amir Khan.

From his perch at Chanel, the German-born designer presided over the most famous of all fashion houses like the 18th-century absolute monarchs he modelled himself on.

With his powdered white pony tail, black sunglasses, and starched high-collared white shirts, he was as instantly recognisable as his celebrity clients.

While other designers came to be associated with a particular look, Lagerfeld’s greatest invention was “Karl”.

He put himself at the heart not just of his own label, but also of Chanel and Fendi — the Italian house he headed for more than half a century.

Such staggering stamina and longevity in a world as ephemeral as fashion, where talents regularly crash and burn, added to the mystery this steely survivor loved to wrap himself in.

His waspish wit — “Anyone who wears jogging pants has lost control of their life” — added another layer of fascination and ensured he hogged the headlines even when his clothes did not.

A renovator rather than a revolutionary, his genius was for subtly, or sometimes not so subtly, updating classic luxury labels with street style influences.

His streetwise smarts sent Chanel sales surging to $10 billion in 2017 even as Lagerfeld entered the second half of his eighties.

“Karl doesn’t so much design as reign,” one fashion insider remarked.

Lagerfeld was never in any doubt that he was born to lead, confessing he had asked his Prussian mother for a valet for his fifth birthday.

His origins, however, were not quite as aristocratic as he may have liked.

– Rivalry with Saint Laurent –

His father ran an evaporated milk company in the northern port city of Hamburg, and although the family were comfortable, he was far from the precocious artist prince of later lore who lived in a castle with a retinue of servants.

Like his age, from which he shaved up to five years at times, much about the Lagerfeld legend is hazy.

In 1952, his mother packed him off to Paris to complete his education, saying he could do whatever he wanted as long as he did not become a priest or a dancer.

Two years later he shared the prestigious Woolmark design prize with Yves Saint Laurent.

It was the beginning of a friendship that would later turn to romantic and professional rivalry, with Lagerfeld once dismissing the great designer as “very provincial, very middle-of-the-road French, very pied-noir”.

From the start, the fast-talking, lisping Lagerfeld honed his reputation as a brilliant provocateur who could play to the gallery in four languages.

He designed the shortest skirts ever seen on the Paris catwalk in 1962 for Jean Patou and later, during the hippie years, sent a model out wearing nothing but a feather in her pubic hair.

Having pushed Fendi into the big league, he was brought in to save Chanel in 1983 when only its celebrated range of perfumes was making money.

And revive it he did.

He took its trademark quilted handbags, tweeds, and cardigan jackets and exaggerated them into something more gaudy and refined at the same time, while still true to the spirit of the brand’s founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel.

Along the way, Lagerfeld helped create the “supermodel”, elevating the likes of Ines de la Fressange, Claudia Schiffer, Linda Evangelista, and Stella Tennant into household names.

He even helped popularise the yellow hi-vis vest by posing in one for an official French safety campaign — “It’s ugly, it goes with nothing, but it could save your life” — only for it to become the uniform of recent anti-government protests.

– ‘Cultural bulimic’ –

But as fast as he made money, Lagerfeld spent it, throwing millions “out of the window”, as he described it, for art, furniture, and homes in which to display his treasures.

He once described himself as a “cultural bulimic”.

Despite being at the centre of fashion’s social whirl, Lagerfeld was always a solitary figure. His only long-standing relationship was with the philandering French aristocrat Jacques de Bascher, who cheated on him with Saint Laurent.

“Karl’s multilingual loquacity and his constant sociability belie a solitary nature and a visceral isolation from others,” his biographer Alicia Drake wrote.

After de Bascher died of an AIDS-related illness in 1989, Lagerfeld, who said repeatedly that “I have no human feelings”, piled on the pounds and lavished gifts on several young men with whom he became infatuated, she said.

But he later lost all the weight and more — 92 pounds (42 kilos), he said — so he could “squeeze into Hedi Slimane’s suits”, and wrote a bestselling diet book.

As the years went by, Lagerfeld assembled his own alternative jet-set “family” comprised of his male and female muses including US model Brad Kroenig, whose son Hudson — Lagerfeld’s godson — became a fixture of the Chanel catwalk.

“I have a sister in America who I haven’t seen for 40 years. Her children never even send me a Christmas card,” Lagerfeld complained.

Despite the company of his fashion family and the small coterie of male models known as “Karl’s Boys” who often accompanied him, Drake argued that Lagerfeld “is alone in a crowd. At the centre of this solitary soul is a denial of intimacy,” she added.

It was an insight that Lagerfeld himself seemed to confirm when he said, “I live in a set, with the curtains of the stage closed with no audience.

“I am like a caricature of myself. It is like a mask. For me the Venice carnival lasts all year long.”

“I have nothing to say,” the designer declared in December 2018, scotching rumours he was writing his memoirs.

“I’m actually trying to make sure that I won’t be remembered.”