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More than 100 American colleges and universities house Confucius Institutes, centres of Chinese language and cultural teaching funded and staffed in part with instructors screened by a Chinese government-affiliated entity known as Hanban. The Confucius Institutes may seem to many to be benign outposts offering cultural events programming and non-credit courses in introductory Chinese, calligraphy or Tai Chi, but for nearly as long as the Confucius Institutes have been around – more than 10 years now – they’ve been controversial.

While the media obsess over an alleged Russian conspiracy to collude with Donald Trump to affect America’s 2016 presidential election, what about Obama’s interference in the elections of other countries? Most Americans have no idea that President Obama meddled in elections all over the world. And apparently, the media decided there’s no reason for Americans to know about this illegal activity.

A judge on Monday awarded a total of $6.75 million to artists whose famous graffiti work was erased by the owner of the former 5Pointz Building in Queens. The award will be dished out to the 21 artists for various amounts, with one artist, Jonathan Cohen, expected to receive more than $1 million.

With demand for its redesigned full-size SUVs surging, Ford Motor is expanding production of the Expedition and Lincoln Navigator. The automaker will be increasing production of the two SUVs by approximately 25 percent. Both models are manufactured at Ford's truck plant in Louisville, Kentucky.

Journalists pushed back against President Trump's tweet Saturday saying people's lives are being destroyed by "a mere allegation," a comment that sparked backlash on social media. Trump decried how people's "lives are being shattered and destroyed be a mere allegation" after two White House aides abruptly resigned this week following claims of past domestic abuse. While Trump did not mention any specific allegations, he wrote: "Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused - life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer...

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is willing to resign and expressed his willingness to President Donald Trump, according to a report from ABC News. Breitbart News has confirmed the news from sources with direct knowledge of the situation. White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley denied that Kelly has offered his resignation.

President Trump is declining to read his daily brief and is instead having officials orally brief him on certain issues, The Washington Post reported Friday. Trump is breaking with precedent set by seven past presidents in choosing to rarely read the daily briefing, which includes what officials have deemed to be the most important U.S. intelligence from hot spots around the globe. Reading the report is not Trump's chosen "style of learning," one source told The Post.

The mysterious death last year of a U.S. Border Patrol agent – which has turned into a political football reaching the White House – did not appear to result from an attack or fight, the FBI announced Wednesday. Agent Rogelio Martinez died in November 2017 outside Van Horn, Texas, about 110 miles southeast of El Paso. According to an autopsy report from the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner, the cause of Martinez’s death is blunt force injuries of the head, but the manner of death is still undetermined.

CVS Health will increase employee pay and sweeten benefits to some employees using a portion of the company's windfall from the new tax law. CVS will boost starting pay for hourly employees to $11 per hour from $9 per hour, starting in April. Pay ranges and rates will be adjusted for many of its retail pharmacy technicians, front store associates and other hourly retail employees later in the year.

It's a highly fortified courtroom where some of the most secretive government decisions get made. And you've probably never heard of it. But in the coming days, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court -- known as the FISA court or FISC -- will get more attention after President Donald Trump claimed he was wiretapped during the Obama administration. (Trump has not offered any evidence supporting his claim.) So how exactly does the court work? And why does it have a controversial reputation? Here's what you need to know:

Air Force One is primed to receive an upgrade that will include new refrigerators expected to cost American taxpayers nearly $24 million. The US Air Force awarded Boeing a $23.6 million contract in December to replace two of the five "cold chiller units" aboard the aircraft used by President Donald Trump.

LEXINGTON COUNTY, SC (WIS) - It’s a picture that tells a story of loneliness, hopelessness, despair. In the quiet corner of a Lexington park is the place where a homeless veteran lived and died. A 15-year-old discovered the body of 69-year-old Dennis E. Reidy there on Tuesday. “Lying in, basically, a type of garage storage box,” said Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher.

The U.S.-led coalition battling the Islamic State in Syria killed up to 150 fighters on Saturday, the U.S. military announced Tuesday. The strikes from the U.S.-led coalition targeted ISIS terrorists near As Shafah, Syria. The precision strikes were the result of “extensive intelligence preparation” to confirm one of the terror group’s headquarters, as well as a command and control center located in the Middle Euphrates River Valley.

MONTREAL — After fleeing to Montreal from Long Island, Marlise Beauville felt, she said, as if she had reached the Promised Land. She entered the country last summer without immigration papers, yet received a work permit, a monthly stipend of 600 Canadian dollars, or $480, free health care and free French lessons. The weather has become bone-cold chilly but her Canadian neighbors are warm. Though it is not clear that she will be able to stay, she is hunkering down, adamant that limbo in Canada is better than returning to Haiti, where she fears that the family of her dead...

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal say President Donald Trump has had generally positive effects on U.S. economic growth, hiring and the performance of the stock market during his first year in office.

President Donald Trump has mistakenly said the US sold Norway fighter jets that exist only in a video game. He said that "F-52s", a fictional warplane from Call of Duty, had been exported to the Scandinavian country. The slip of the tongue came as he hosted Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg at the White House. Lockheed Martin, the defence contractor that makes the actual aircraft sent to Norway, said it did not have an F-52 programme, reports the Washington Post.

Overnight, Imamu Baraka was walking past a Baltimore hospital when he noticed something he says he'll never forget. The hospital's security guards had just wheeled a patient to a bus stop, and in the freezing temperatures they left her there. The only thing she had on was a hospital gown. "It's about 30 degrees out here right now," Baraka says in a recording of the encounter. "Are you OK, ma'am? Do you need me to call the police?" he asks.

WHDH) — Former electronics giant Circuit City says it is making a comeback. Circuit City made the announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show, which is being held this week in Las Vegas, according to a CNBC report. The retailer will launch a retail website on Feb. 15, CEO Ronny Shmoel said.

President Donald Trump has said the US could "conceivably" return to the 2015 Paris climate accord if an agreement treated America more fairly. He said it "was a bad deal for the US", repeating comments made when he announced the US withdrawal last June. But he said he had no problem with the accord itself. A US pull-out will make the US in effect the only country not to be part of the accord. The announcement sparked global anger.

Donald Trump’s spiritual adviser has suggested that people send her money in order to transform their lives, or face divine consequences. Paula White, who heads up the president’s evangelical advisory committee, suggested making a donation to her ministries to honor the religious principle of “first fruit,” which she said is the idea that all firsts belong to God, including the first harvest and, apparently, the first month of your salary.