Police in Chicago have arrested two Nigerian brothers in connection with an alleged racist and homophobic attack on black actor Jussie Smollett last month.

Smollett, 36, who is gay, has said his attackers were white and that his story would not have been doubted if an attacker had been “a Muslim, or a Mexican, or someone black”. He stated that they had punched and kicked him, abused him with homophobic epithets and shouted: “This is MAGA country.”