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Jussie Smollett has been accused of paying two men to attack him in what police say was a ploy to raise his profile and "Empire" salary.        

(CUCUTA, Colombia) — Heightened tensions in Venezuela left one woman dead and a dozen injured near the border with Brazil on Friday, marking the first deadly clash related to the opposition’s plan to deliver humanitarian aid that President Nicolas Maduro has vowed not to accept. Emilio Gonzalez, mayor of the Venezuela border town of Gran Sabana, identified the woman killed by a gunshot as Zoraida Rodriguez, a member of an indigenous community. He said members of the Pemon ethnic group clashed with the Venezuela National Guard and army, who were moving tanks to the border with Brazil a day after Maduro ordered the crossing closed. The violence came just hours before dueling concerts were expected to begin on the country’s western border with Colombia, where tons of donated food and medicine are stored. British billionaire Richard Branson is sponsoring a Live Aid-style concert featuring dozens of musicians including Latin rock star Juanes on one side of a crossing that Colombian officials have renamed the “Unity Bridge,” while Maduro’s socialist government is promising a three-day festival deemed “Hands Off Venezuela” on the other. Several thousand people — many wearing white and carrying Venezuelan flags — were already gathered in a large field, as several uniformed officers on horses and foot stood guard near the border. “This government is going to fall,” people began chanting, in reference to Maduro’s government.

The Kentucky Board of Education is investigating reports of issues ranging from bed bugs to bad food at the Kentucky School for the Deaf in Danville.        

As it turns out, the 2018 elections aren’t quite over. On Thursday, the North Carolina State Board of Elections ordered a new election in the state’s Ninth Congressional District after testimony revealed how a political operative likely tampered with absentee ballots. The decision came three and a half months after Election Day, guaranteeing that the southern suburbs of Charlotte will be without a voice in Congress even longer as the final undecided race of 2018 is re-run. It was an embarrassing setback for Republican candidate Mark Harris, who had maintained for months that he had no real-time knowledge of a campaign consultant’s shady — and perhaps illegal — efforts to submit absentee ballots to sway the vote in his favor. It could also hurt Republicans, who have the advantage in that stretch of the increasingly purple state.

The case against dessert seems open and shut. The sugar that makes treats so sweet has been linked to weight gain and chronic diseases ranging from type 2 diabetes to cancer; many desserts also have an abundance of saturated fats, which potentially harm the heart, and plenty of empty calories. But some studies are suggesting that having dessert every once in a while — the real, indulgent kind, not the cut-up fresh-fruit kind — may actually be a useful tool for eating more healthfully, when it’s used strategically. It turns out that picking dessert first — instead of after a meal, like most of us do — is linked to eating less overall.

Stephen Colbert is not taking the Jussie Smollett news lightly. After the Empire star was taken into custody with felony charge of disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report, Colbert dedicated part of Thursday’s episode of The Late Show to denouncing Smollett’s actions. At a Thursday morning press conference, Chicago police said that Smollett staged a fake hate crime attack on himself because he was unhappy about his Empire salary.