arrest

Officers baton-charge demonstrators in overnight operation as activists demand government action on soaring rents and home shortages.

Police in Portugal have cleared a camp in central Lisbon set up to protest against the country’s deepening housing crisis, baton-charging demonstrators and making 25 arrests.

Dozens of officers, some with police dogs, moved in on the camp in Rossio Square shortly after 2am (02:00 GMT) on Sunday.

They had warned protesters that their tents would be dismantled if they were not removed, threatening disobedience charges for those who resisted.

Protesters had pitched more than 100 tents after Saturday’s protest march by thousands along one of Lisbon’s main avenues.

A smaller camp of about 50 tents was also dismantled in Porto’s Praca D Joao I public square, where police made six arrests.

Police said the operation was “proportionate” and that the 25 people arrested in Lisbon were later released and are due in court on Monday.

While police reported seven minor injuries among officers and protesters in the two operations, the activist group Casa para Viver (Homes to Live) said 60 people were hurt and called for a fresh protest outside parliament on Tuesday.

“Choosing the early hours of the morning to unleash dogs and baton-charge peaceful protesters is a political decision. It shows this government would rather repress those denouncing the housing crisis than address it,” the group said.

Home affordability crises

Portugal is grappling with one of Europe’s most acute home affordability crises, as prices have more than doubled since 2017 while rents for new leases have nearly doubled, with young people among the hardest hit.

Protesters say soaring rents and higher living costs are squeezing households and turning housing into a growing source of discontent.

The Bank of Portugal estimates a shortfall of 300,000 homes nationwide, equivalent to Lisbon’s entire housing stock.

The protesters are demanding that the government scrap a bill to make evictions easier and end rent caps on new leases, which passed a first parliamentary reading, although the far-right Chega party abstained.

The protests in Portugal echo recent demonstrations in Spain over home shortages and surging rents.

There have also been protests in cities including Paris, where small student demonstrations over school conditions broadened into wider protests against government economic policies.

Selma Blair’s team has released a lengthy statement regarding the actor’s recent arrest following an incident while aboard a flight.

“Selma Blair experienced a medical emergency on the flight,” said the statement provided to People on Friday. “There was no attempt to open the door of the aircraft. Selma did not intend to harm anyone.”

The statement is intended to “correct the record on a few points already in public circulation” regarding Blair’s alleged violent conduct aboard a Delta Airlines flight. The Times has reached out to Blair’s reps for comment.

The “Cruel Intentions” star was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport late Sunday after an alleged altercation with staff during a flight from Los Angeles. Upon landing, Blair, 54, was taken into custody, then transported to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. In addition to her alleged actions aboard the flight, the “Legally Blonde” star has been accused of kicking a Port Authority Police Department officer as she was being transported to the hospital, as well as kicking a nurse.

“Since Sunday night, the public account of what happened to Selma aboard a flight to New York has been built almost entirely on a police statement and a decade-old headline,” Blair’s spokesperson said in the Friday statement to People.

The spokesperson called out the lack of “fair reporting” around the situation, adding that they are grateful for the “handful of journalists [who] have taken the time to report on Selma as a human being rather than a headline.”

Blair was charged with two counts of second-degree assault on Monday for her alleged actions involving the police officer and nurse. Blair pleaded not guilty to the charges. At the hearing, her attorney, Shawn Barnes, reportedly told the judge that “this was not an intentional assault” and that the actor had “missed several doses of … a powerful medication that controls severe neurological symptoms,” per the New York Post.

Blair lives with multiple sclerosis, a chronic neurological disorder and autoimmune disease, which she has been open about since 2018.

The statement also addressed Blair’s medical condition — denouncing any who suggest the actor does not have multiple sclerosis — how and why she travels with a service dog, her activism and her busy schedule as an actor and entrepreneur.

“Selma had never been arrested before Sunday night,” the statement said. “There is much more to this story than has been reported, and we ask to consider the entirety of the facts before rushing to judgment, whether in the courtroom or in the court of public opinion.”

Coworker alerted police after receiving disturbing messages from 19-year-old suspect.

A ‌teenager arrested in a Chicago suburb had shared a document expressing ⁠white supremacist ⁠views and outlined an alleged plan to carry out a mass shooting, potentially targeting a Hindu place of worship, police in the US state of Illinois have said.

Alexandros Paporakis, 19, of Palatine, was arrested on Sunday after an individual reported receiving concerning electronic communications from him, Palatine police said on Wednesday. It was not ⁠immediately clear whether he had legal representation.

Detectives searched Paporakis’s home and recovered a rifle, multiple loaded rifle magazines and hundreds of additional rounds of rifle ammunition.

“Among the recovered items was a tactical vest containing body armor and a patch displaying imagery associated with white supremacist extremism,” a police statement said.

Paporakis’s coworker reportedly told police that he openly identified himself as a white supremacist at work and said he “couldn’t wait” to kill Indian people, according to prosecutors from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office.

Detectives recovered a document called “Why I fought: A.K.A.: (Aurora Shooter’s Manifesto)” which had sentiments expressing white supremacist and extremist ideologies, referencing violence towards South Asians, specifically Indians.

Authorities believed Paporakis was planning to carry out his attack on Sunday, possibly targeting a Hindu temple in Aurora, 40 miles (65km) southwest of Palatine.

“However, the specific intended location has not been confirmed and remains under ⁠investigation,” the police said, adding the FBI was assisting in the probe.

Police said Paporakis is facing felony charges of “making a terrorist threat” and possessing an unlawful weapon.

The suspect appeared for a detention hearing on Wednesday and his next court appearance is scheduled for the end of October.

Human rights advocates said hate against South Asians has surged in the United States in recent years due to rising anti-immigration policies and a rise in white supremacist ideology.

HARRISBURG, Pa. — When the U.S. Department of Homeland Security publicized the arrest of a Nigerian man for indecent exposure this week, it included a political attack that’s drawing complaints from Democrats and a nonpartisan government watchdog.

The department’s news release alleges that the man worked for a Democratic congressional candidate in a Pennsylvania battleground district, an unusual reference to a high-profile midterm contest.

“It’s unbelievable that Janelle Stelson would employ an illegal alien to work on a congressional campaign, let alone a pervert who exposed himself in public,” Charles Wall, deputy director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in the news release.

A police report said the man had fliers for Stelson in his vehicle. Stelson denied that the man was a campaign employee.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about how it established the man worked for Stelson. Its news release cited a news report quoting a conservative activist who asserted the connection.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint Thursday with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, calling the department’s attack on Stelson a blatant violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits government officials from using their official positions to influence elections.

Donald Sherman, who leads CREW, said he’d never seen anything like the department’s statement, where a law enforcement agency “goes out of its way” to reference a campaign affiliation in a news release that has nothing to do with election-related crimes.

The news release is “consistent with the message that the administration and that the president has sent from the top that ICE is to be involved in elections, regardless of what the law says,” Sherman said.

Stelson, a former local television personality, is running for the second time against Republican Rep. Scott Perry in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District. It’s expected to be one of the races that determines control of the U.S. House in the November midterms.

“If he is an illegal immigrant who committed a crime he should be deported,” Stelson’s campaign said. “We never heard of him prior to the news of his arrest. We are grateful to law enforcement for acting swiftly to arrest him.”

President Trump’s administration is already under scrutiny for using federal resources for political purposes. The Department of Homeland Security has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on advertisements glorifying Trump and promoting his campaign messaging, drawing a pair of lawsuits and bipartisan backlash.

According to a police report obtained by the Associated Press, Chimaobim Adedayo Igbojekwe was arrested by an East Pennsboro Township police officer on Sept. 27 after a report of a suspicious vehicle parked next to a public park on a residential street in the Harrisburg suburb.

The officer wrote that, when Igbojekwe opened the door to talk to the officer, he noticed that Igbojekwe’s “genitals were exposed.”

Igbojekwe told the officer he was “in the neighborhood for work and that he was waiting to hand out [fliers] for Janelle Stelson’s political campaign,” according to the report. Igbojekwe produced a stack of fliers, the officer wrote.

It’s not clear whether the man was working as a paid canvasser for another organization.

Igbojekwe was charged with disorderly conduct and indecent exposure. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, courts records say, and later was arrested by ICE.

Homeland Security said Igbojekwe entered the country legally in 2017 but remained past his “authorized period.” He was granted deferred action in 2021.

Igbojekwe’s public defender did not return a call about the case.

Levy writes for the Associated Press.

San Francisco 49ers owner and CEO Jed York has been suspended for six games and fined $500,000 for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, the league announced Friday.

York was arrested Aug. 23 as part of an Ohio prostitution sting after he responded to an online ad that was actually set up by Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force officers.

The 45-year-old executive pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and possessing criminal tools (in this case, the phone he used to set up the encounter). He was sentenced to one day in jail and fined $1,150. The $160 seized in the sting was given to the task force as part of his plea.

Since York has not attended any games or league meetings so far this season, he was credited with having served three games of his suspension. He is eligible to return Oct. 20, the day after the 49ers’ Week 6 game against the Washington Commanders and the day the league’s fall meetings begin in New York.

“To my family, to the players, coaches, and employees of the San Francisco 49ers, to our fans and partners, I am deeply sorry,” York said in a statement released by the team. “This was an inexcusable mistake and I take full responsibility. What I did does not reflect my values or the man I strive to be for my family.”

York filed for divorce from his wife, Danielle Belluomini York, in May. They have two sons together. York has been the 49ers’ CEO since 2008 and became the principal owner in 2024. His family has owned the 49ers since 1977.

“While I fell short of the model I want to set for my sons, I now hope to show them the importance of owning up to one’s failures, and that even our worst moments teach us to be better,” York said. “Leading the 49ers is a privilege, and one I don’t take lightly. Your trust will have to be earned back over time, and I look forward to that work ahead.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Counter-terrorism police also questioned a UK national, days after five others were arrested and released on bail.

A man with dual UK-Iranian citizenship has been arrested in connection with an alleged security incident at an airbase in southwest England over the weekend.

British counter-terrorism police said on Thursday that a “27-year-old man, a dual UK/Iranian national, was arrested” in central London.

He was detained “on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts” as part of an investigation into the events Sunday near RAF Fairford.

A second man, 26 – a UK national – was also “questioned under caution”, the police statement added.

The RAF base 160km west of London has been used by US bombers during decades of conflicts in the Middle East, including the US and Israel’s war on Iran, which began in February.

On Sunday, five men, all in their 20s and from London, were arrested on suspicion of explosives offences and “terrorism” over the incident at RAF Fairford. They have since been released on bail.

“The investigation into circumstances surrounding events in Gloucestershire is hugely complex, and our specialist teams are interrogating multiple lines of enquiry,” Vicki Evans, the senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing for the Metropolitan Police, said in a statement.

“As we’ve made clear, we’re looking at all possible angles – including possible foreign state involvement.”

Earlier, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said there were “strong indications” that Iran played a role in an alleged security incident.

Iran, however, strongly denied any involvement in the incident and the country’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, hit back at Burnham’s allegations.

More to come…