Names and faces
■ Empire actor Jussie Smollett has responded to critics who question his report about being attacked in downtown Chicago last month, saying it was “ridiculous” to think he would lie. Smollett, 36, told police that two masked men shouted racial and homophobic slurs before attacking him and putting a rope around his neck while he was walking outside around 2 a.m. on Jan. 29. Smollett, who is black and openly gay, told ABC News in an interview aired Thursday that he left the rope and clothes on when police arrived “because I wanted them to see.” He said he’s heard various stories about people questioning the attack, which he said occurred while he was out getting food at a Subway restaurant. “I’ve heard that it was a date gone bad, which I also resent that narrative,” he said. “I’m not gonna go out and get a tuna sandwich and a salad to meet somebody. That’s ridiculous. And it’s offensive.” Police on Thursday said detectives are interviewing two “persons of interest” who surveillance photos show were in the area where Smollett said he was attacked last month. The two men aren’t considered suspects, Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said, adding that the men were identified through advanced technology, interviews with Smollett and witnesses, and transportation records. Smollett also gave detectives heavily redacted phone records that police have said are insufficient for a criminal investigation. However, Smollett told ABC News in the interview that he believes the two men are the ones who attacked him. “I don’t have any doubt in my mind that that’s them,” he said. “Never did.”
■ Prince Philip won’t face charges in connection with a wreck that left two women injured, British prosecutors said Thursday. The decision came just days after Buckingham Palace said the 97-year-old royal would stop driving. The husband of Queen Elizabeth II was driving a Land Rover near the royal family’s Sandringham estate in eastern England when he smashed into another car on Jan. 17. Philip wasn’t injured. Two women in the other car were hurt, but not seriously. “We took into account all of the circumstances in this case, including the level of culpability, the age of the driver and the surrender of the driving license,” said Chris Long of the Crown Prosecution Service. “We have decided that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute.” Philip wrote a letter of apology to one of the injured women days after the collision, explaining that the sun was in his eyes when he pulled onto a main road near the estate. “I can only imagine that I failed to see the car coming, and I am very contrite about the consequences,” he wrote to Emma Fairweather, who suffered a broken wrist in the crash.