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Hedge funds hunt for shipping debt in new market push

FILE PHOTO: A container ship crosses the Gulf of Suez towards the Red Sea before entering the Suez Canal
FILE PHOTO: A container ship crosses the Gulf of Suez towards the Red Sea before entering the Suez Canal, near Ismailia port city, northeast of Cairo, Egypt October 27, 2018. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo

February 20, 2019

By Jonathan Saul and Maiya Keidan

LONDON (Reuters) – A growing number of hedge funds are moving into shipping debt, an asset class few have invested in before, looking to buy up loans and bonds as banks cut their exposure to the troubled sector.

World economy worries and cost pressures are dampening prospects for a proper recovery in many segments of the shipping

sector, which has struggled with tough markets for a decade.

Meanwhile European banks, particularly German lenders, are trying to offload distressed and performing loans to the industry which attracts high capital requirements.

The European Central Bank’s banking supervisor has flagged troubled non-performing loans in 2019 as “a concern for a significant number of euro area institutions”.

In one of the first deals to have been concluded in recent weeks, finance sources said hedge and private equity firm Avenue Capital together with asset manager King Street Capital Management bought at least $100 million of loans from investment groups Varde Partners and Oak Hill Advisors.

In June last year funds managed by Varde and Oak Hill purchased $1 billion worth of legacy shipping loans – which sources said included mainly performing but also some distressed assets – from Deutsche Bank.

Varde and Oak Hill declined to comment, while Avenue Capital and King Street did not respond to requests for comment.

Hedge funds clocked up hundreds of millions of dollars in losses from investments in mainly equities when the shipping industry first turned sour a decade ago – and have made limited forays for the most part since.

Last year some equity-focused funds bet on a recovery for the global shipping industry through the stock and futures markets but many are now retrenching after heavy losses in the fourth quarter.

Debt-focused funds are hoping for more luck.

“There is more hedge fund buying interest in shipping debt than in equity now. I don’t think anyone believes the (shipping) market will recover any time soon,” said Basil Karatzas of New York based shipping finance advisory firm Karatzas Marine Advisors & Co.

“So, if you buy equities the upside potential is limited. You can more easily make double-digit returns through credit risk investments.”

Deals expected to generate hedge fund interest include a portfolio of distressed shipping loans that Greece’s Piraeus Bank is seeking to sell, finance sources said.

A source close to the Piraeus Bank deal said the portfolio of shipping loans, called Nemo, was made up of non-performing and performing loans with a nominal value of 500 million to 600 million euros. The source said a sale was expected to close in the second quarter of 2019, declining to provide any details on potential bidders.

Other hedge funds looking at distressed loans include York Capital Management and Cross Ocean Partners, the sources said.

A spokesman for York Capital declined to comment, while Cross Ocean Partners did not respond to requests for comment.

Och-Ziff Capital Management was amongst the suitors for a 2.7 billion euro distressed portfolio of shipping loans that was sold this month by ailing German state bank NordLB, which sources said was bought by private equity firm Cerberus.

Och-Ziff did not respond to requests for comment.

NordLB plans to wind down its remaining non-performing shipping loan portfolio of nearly 4 billion euros almost completely by the end of the year, which sources said is still likely to involve some loan sell-offs and expected to generate hedge fund interest.

Germany’s No.2 lender DZ Bank is also trying to offload over one billion euros of toxic shipping loans from its troubled transport financing division DVB Bank, although there have been multiple delays with the sales process, finance sources said.

Others though have opted for other types of investments, viewing toxic debt as too risky now.

“Hedge funds need to step in to shipping but it’s a bit early for the distressed cycle. It’s a question of timing,” said Louis Gargour, chief investment officer at hedge fund firm LNG Capital, which has around 10 to 15 percent of its total exposure focused on bond issuances by shipping companies.

(Additional reporting by George Georgiopoulos in Athens; editing by David Evans)

Source: OANN

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Trump responds to Notre Dame cathedral fire: ‘Must act quickly’

President Trump responded to the massive fire that broke out at the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on Monday.

Trump tweeted his reaction to the fire as video and images of the flames over the famous cathedral were posted on social media.

The president also suggested sending flying water tankers to drown out the flames.

MASSIVE FIRE BREAKS OUT IN NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL IN PARIS

"So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!" Trump wrote.

French President Emmanuel Macron shared his thoughts with the nation and Catholics as "Our Lady of Paris" continued to erupt in flames on Monday.

"Like all our countrymen, I'm sad tonight to see this part of us burn," he wrote, in part, on Twitter.

Macron postponed a pre-recorded speech to the country that was set to be aired later Monday on French TV. Macron was expected to lay out his plan to address the citizen complaints that gave rise to the yellow vest protests that have rocked France since November.

Meanwhile, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo called it a "terrible fire."

NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL FIRE WITNESSES IN PARIS SHARE SHOCKING VIDEOS: 'IT KEEPS GETTING BIGGER AND BIGGER'

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire. Sources told Fox News that it appears the fire was related to recent construction done at the cathedral.

Notre Dame was undergoing a $6.8 million renovation project, with some sections under scaffolding, while bronze statues were removed last week amid construction.

This is a developing story. Check back here for updates.

Fox News' Lucia I. Suarez Sang and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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Lori Lightfoot Elected Chicago’s 1st Gay, Black, Female Mayor

Former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot was elected Chicago mayor on Tuesday, becoming the first black woman and first openly gay person to lead the nation's third-largest city.

Lightfoot defeated Toni Preckwinkle, who served in the City Council for 19 years before becoming Cook County Board president.

Lightfoot promised to rid City Hall of corruption and help low-income and working-class people she said had been "left behind and ignored" by Chicago's political ruling class. It was a message that resonated with voters weary of political scandal and insider deals, and who said the city's leaders for too long have invested in downtown at the expense of neighborhoods.

Chicago will become the largest U.S. city to elect a black woman as mayor when Lightfoot is sworn in May 20. She will join seven other black women currently serving as mayors in major U.S. cities, including Atlanta and New Orleans.

Lightfoot, 56, has never been elected to public office. She and her wife have one daughter.

She emerged as the surprising leader in the first round of voting in February when 14 candidates were on the ballot to succeed Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who decided against running for a third term.

Lightfoot seized on outrage over a white police officer's fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald to launch her reformer campaign. That was even before Emanuel announced he wouldn't seek re-election amid criticism for initially resisting calls to release video of the shooting.

"I'm not a person who decided I would climb the ladder of a corrupt political party," Lightfoot said during a debate last month. "I don't hold the title of committeeman, central committeeman, boss of the party."

Preckwinkle countered that her opponent lacks the necessary experience for the job.

"This is not an entry-level job," Preckwinkle has said repeatedly during the campaign. "It's easy to talk about change. It's hard to actually do it. And that's been my experience — being a change maker, a change agent, transforming institutions and communities."

Joyce Ross, 64, a resident of the city's predominantly black West Side who is a certified nursing assistant, cast her ballot Tuesday for Lightfoot. Ross said she believes Lightfoot will be better able to clean up the police department and curb city's violence.

She was also bothered by Preckwinkle's association with longtime Alderman Ed Burke, who was indicted earlier this year on charges he tried to shake down a restaurant owner who wanted to build in his ward.

"My momma always said birds of a feather flock together," Ross said.

Truly Gannon, a 39-year old mother of four who works as a dietitian, said she wasn't bothered by stories that portrayed Preckwinkle as an insider aligned with questionable politicians like Burke. She supported Preckwinkle, based on her experience.

"I'm not sure Lightfoot would be able to handle the job like Preckwinkle," she said.

The campaign between the two women got off to a contentious start, with Preckwinkle's advertising focusing on Lightfoot's work as a partner at Mayer Brown, one of the nation's largest law firms, and tagging her as a "wealthy corporate lawyer."

Preckwinkle also tried to cast Lightfoot as an insider for working in police oversight posts under Emanuel and police oversight, procurement and emergency communications posts under Mayor Richard M. Daley.

In one ad, Preckwinkle criticizes Lightfoot's oversight of the emergency communications in 2004 when a fire killed four children. A judge ordered Lightfoot to preserve 911 tapes after questions were raised about how the emergency call was handled. The ad notes some of the tapes were destroyed, prompting the judge to rebuke Lightfoot. The ad sparked a backlash from the family of three of the children killed, with their sister accusing Preckwinkle of trying to take advantage of her family's tragedy.

Lightfoot also responded by scolding her opponent for being negative while also airing ads pointing out Preckwinkle's connection to powerful local Democrats, including one under federal indictment.

Preckwinkle spent much of her time during the campaign answering for her ties to Chicago's political establishment. She and her supporters asserted her rise to Democratic Party leadership did not hinder her ability to oppose policies promoted by the city's ever-powerful mayors.

"My whole career has been about change, and change is action and results, not simply words," said Preckwinkle, who asserts her experience makes her better positioned to lead a city with financial problems and poorer neighborhoods that are racked by gun violence.

Despite the barbs on the campaign trail, the two advanced similar ideas to boost the city's deeply troubled finances, which include an estimated $250 million budget deficit next year and billions in unfunded pension liabilities.

Both candidates expressed support for a casino in Chicago and changing the state's income tax system to a graduated tax, in which higher earners are taxed at a higher rate — two measures lawmakers have tried for unsuccessfully for years to pass.

Lightfoot said that as mayor, she would focus on investing in neighborhoods on the West and South Sides and bring transparency and accountability to City Hall. She added she also wants to restore people's faith in government.

Election officials said turnout was approaching 30 percent just before polls were scheduled to close.

Source: NewsMax America

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Take your best shot: Life Lessons with soccer star Alex Morgan

Soccer star Alex Morgan
Soccer star Alex Morgan is seen in this undated photo released to Reuters on March 25, 2019. Courtesy Ryan Pfluger/Handout via REUTERS

March 27, 2019

By Chris Taylor

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Everyone has a dream of making it to the top, but what happens when you actually get there? Only a handful of people even know what that is like.

One of them is Alex Morgan, the soccer phenom and forward for the U.S. women’s national soccer team – ranked #1 on the planet, by the way – heading into the World Cup in France starting this June.

For the latest in Reuters’ “Life Lessons” series, the 29-year-old idol for young girls worldwide reminisces about how she dribbled her way to global stardom – and talks about what will come after the final whistle.

Q: Did you have a backup career in mind, in case soccer didn’t work out?

A: I had a dream that I wrote down on a yellow sticky note when I was seven years old. It said, ‘Dear mom, my dream is to be a professional soccer player. Love, Ali.’ My mom kept that for years.

At the time there wasn’t even a professional league, and I had never even seen the women’s national team play. So I never even thought about a Plan B, even though I went on to study political economy in college.

Q: When you did make it as a pro, how did you handle fame and wealth?

A: For two years after I started on the national team, I couldn’t receive any checks because I was playing for the NCAA. They have very strict rules about that. So my bank account in college was pretty grim, and my diet involved ramen noodles or finding the cheapest takeout.

Since I was a student-athlete, they did let me eat at the university cafes, so I would usually be there for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A lot of times I would be down to a few bucks, wondering how to get through the next couple of days before my food card was replenished.

So when I did become a professional player and started getting paid, that was a nice change. Nowadays I manage to save around 70 percent of what I make.

Q: What have you learned about managing money?

A: As a professional athlete, your income isn’t steady. Sometimes you get big checks and then sometimes you don’t get much for a couple of months. Lump sums come in randomly, since a lot of what I make is through partnerships with sponsors. So it’s been a learning curve for me to navigate that.

Q: You have started numerous side ventures, so what lessons about entrepreneurship can you share?

A: For me, with my book series and the movie I did for Nickelodeon, I like to take chances when the pressure is on. When I control things as much as possible, that is when I want to bet big, because I have a good sense of what I am able to do. So how I act in the business world is quite similar to how I act on the soccer pitch. I am happy betting on myself, and I tend to achieve more when my back is against the wall.

Q: Where do you spend your philanthropic time and money?

A: The main focus is kids and animals. I do a lot of work with Boys & Girls Clubs, and I’m an ambassador for UNICEF. I also support the ASPCA, because I am passionate about giving animals a voice. I even adopted a vegan diet, because it didn’t feel fair to have a dog I adore, and yet eat meat all the time.

Q: Have you envisioned what your retirement from soccer is going to look like?

A: I would love to start a family, and live in southern California, maybe in San Diego. My husband (LA Galaxy midfielder Servando Carrasco) definitely wants to stay in the soccer world, and I am enjoying dipping my toes into new areas, like books and movies. It is an exciting time.

Q: For that future family, what life lessons would you like to pass along?

A: Something I would want for my kids is to be confident and dream big, regardless of what obstacles are in the way. That is what I did when I was seven, not even knowing that professional soccer was a possibility. I would love for that message to hit home with them.

(Editing by Beth Pinsker and G Crosse)

Source: OANN

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Trump blasts Fed in latest salvo over rate hikes

U.S. President Trump speaks to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., March 29, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

March 29, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Friday that the U.S. Federal Reserve had made a mistake in raising interest rates and blamed the central bank for hurting the U.S. economy and stock markets.

“Had the Fed not mistakenly raised interest rates, especially since there is very little inflation, and had they not done the ridiculously timed quantitative tightening, the 3.0 percent GDP, & Stock Market, would have both been much higher & World Markets would be in a better place!,” Trump tweeted.

(Reporting by Tim Ahmann; Editing by Eric Beech)

Source: OANN

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Foreigners sell Danish shares after Danske Bank scandal: central bank

FILE PHOTO: Danske Bank sign is seen at the bank's Estonian branch in Tallinn
FILE PHOTO: Danske Bank sign is seen at the bank's Estonian branch in Tallinn, Estonia August 3, 2018. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

March 20, 2019

By Teis Jensen

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Foreign investors sold Danish shares worth almost $14 billion in 2018 following a money laundering scandal at the country’s largest lender Danske Bank, Denmark’s central bank governor said on Wednesday.

Danske Bank is under investigation in the United States, Denmark, Estonia, France and Britain over 200 billion euros ($226 billion) in payments from Russia, ex-Soviet states and elsewhere that were found to have flowed through its Estonian unit between 2007 and 2015.

Non-residents sold Danish equities worth 91 billion crowns ($13.85 billion) last year, including 21 billion crowns’ worth of banking shares, a report from the central bank showed on Wednesday.

The divestment of bank equities may reflect a loss of confidence in the Danish banking sector in the wake of Danske Bank’s money laundering case, it said.

“The trust from international investors has certainly been reduced,” governor Lars Rohde told reporters in Copenhagen.

He said political initiatives to combat money laundering were paramount to restore foreigners’ trust in Danish banks.

He said Danish politicians should consider new rules to force banks to block payments if they are suspected of being related to money laundering, similar to current rules governing payments suspected of being linked to financing terrorism.

Danske Bank’s annual report shows shareholders from the United States and Canada cut their holdings in the bank during 2018 to 17 percent of Danske’s shares by the end of that year from 24 percent by end-2017.

British investors also reduced their holding in Danske Bank over 2018 from 16 percent to 12 percent, while Danes and other Europeans increased their holdings of Danske Bank shares.

(Reporting by Teis Jensen; Editing by Catherine Evans and Jan Harvey)

Source: OANN

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Bashir ouster rekindles interest in long-defaulted Sudan loans

FILE PHOTO: Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir delivers a speech at the Presidential Palace in Khartoum
FILE PHOTO: Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir delivers a speech at the Presidential Palace in Khartoum, Sudan February 22, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo

April 12, 2019

By Karin Strohecker

LONDON (Reuters) – In the hazy world of distressed debt trading, the fall of Sudan’s autocratic ruler of 30 years, Omar al-Bashir, has sparked fresh interest among traders and holders of the country’s long-defaulted debt.

Following weeks of demonstrations kindled by soaring food costs, high unemployment and increasing repression, 75-year-old Bashir was overthrown on Thursday by the military, three decades after himself seizing power in a coup.

The newly ruling military council on Friday promised a transition to an elected civilian government.

Frozen for the best part of four decades, Sudan’s debt is part of a highly opaque market of legacy debts of countries isolated from the rest of the international community, such as pre-Castro Cuban debt or loans issued by North Korea.

Apart from defaulting on payments from the early 1980s onwards, Sudan was also subject to U.S. sanctions linked to the conflict in Darfur for nearly two decades until 2017.

“This is a big moment for the country. Now we need to see what happens next, what sort of a government or leader they will get, and how the situation will develop,” said one holder of the defaulted loans, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“There’s a potential for real change, but change isn’t always for the better and it could take a very long time for things to improve.”

Much of Sudan’s distressed debt trading centers around a state-guaranteed loan issued in 1981 as part of a debt restructuring agreement with a principal of 1.64 billion Swiss franc ($1.64 billion). Shortly after, the Sudanese government defaulted again on its obligations on the loan.

By now analysts estimate the amount due including nearly four decades of unpaid interest amounts to around 8 billion Swiss francs ($7.99 billion).

Loans are rarely changing hands, though distressed debt traders say they last priced between 7-9 cents in the dollar.

ISOLATED FROM MARKETS

Sudan has been cut off from international markets for years.

The U.S. government lifted most of its sanctions on Sudan in February 2017, but kept the country on its list of state sponsors of terrorism. This keeps the economy in a stranglehold, making it next to impossible for businesses to operate in dollar transactions and cutting off any access to international capital markets and many other funding sources for the government.

Apart from Somalia, Sudan is now the only country in the world with arrears to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), accounting for more than 80 percent of money overdue to the multilateral lender.

The impoverished northeastern African country is buckling under its debt with defaulted loans owed to the private sector making up just a small part of the burden.

“Public external debt is around $51 billion,” said Stuart Culverhouse, head of sovereign & fixed income research at Exotix, citing 2016 IMF data. “(This) is 88 percent of GDP. The ratio is likely to be higher now because of a weaker currency.”

The IMF stated in its December 2017 report that Sudan was eligible for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) plan – an IMF and World Bank initiative launched in 1996 to help poor countries struggling with external debt obtain debt relief.

Once a country has overhauled its debt burden with bilateral and multilateral lenders, it must come to an agreement with private sector lenders before being able to access international capital markets again.

Taking a punt on major regime changes, distressed debt investors in general are happy to slog it out, though the latest market developments have seen some rethink their position.

CAUTION

One debt trader reported a seller had withdrawn a Sudan position, wanting to see what happened first. Yet others were gauging if a possible spike in price could be an opportunity to sell.

Excitement over investment in Cuba for instance has gone tepid after U.S. President Donald Trump reversed his predecessor Barack Obama’s rapprochement with Havana. North Korean debt moved further into the twilight zone after Washington imposed fresh sanctions on Pyongyang in 2017.

“We’ve had a few setbacks lately, some may well think a spike in prices now could be a good time to get out,” said the holder of defaulted Sudan debt.

(Reporting by Karin Strohecker; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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A Florida measure that would ban sanctuary cities is set for a vote Friday in the state’s Senate after clearing its first hurdle earlier this week.

The bill would effectively make it against the law for Florida’s police departments to refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials.

“The Governor may initiate judicial proceedings in the name of the state against such officers to enforce compliance,” a draft version of the Senate bill reads.

A House version of the bill, which passed by a 69-47 vote Wednesday, adds that non-complying officials could be suspended or removed from office and face fines of up to $5,000 per day. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign off on the measure, although it’s not clear which version.

FLORIDA MAY SEND A BIG MESSAGE TO SANCTUARY CITIES

Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando), during a press conference at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, speaks out against bills in the House and Senate that would ban sanctuary cities in the state.

Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando), during a press conference at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, speaks out against bills in the House and Senate that would ban sanctuary cities in the state. (AP)

LAWRENCE JONES: NEEDLES, DRUG USE AND HUMAN WASTE ARE THE NEW NORMAL IN SAN FRANCISCO

Florida is home to 775,000 illegal immigrants out of 10.7 million present in the United States, ranking the state third among all states.

Nine states — Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas — already have enacted state laws requiring law enforcement to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Florida doesn’t have sanctuary cities like the ones in California and other states. But Republican lawmakers say a handful of their municipalities — including Orlando and West Palm Beach – are acting as “pseudo-sanctuary” cities, because they prevent law enforcement officials from asking about immigration status when they make arrests.

“There are still people here in the state of Florida, police chiefs that are just refusing to contact ICE, refusing to detain somebody that they know is here illegally,” Florida Republican Rep. Blaise Ingoglia said earlier this month. “So while the actual county municipality doesn’t have an actual adopted policy, they still have people in power within their sheriff’s department or police department that refuse to do it anyway.”

Florida’s Democratic Party has blasted the anti-Sanctuary measures, while the Miami-Dade Police Department says it should be up to federal authorities to handle immigration-related matters.

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“House Republicans today sold out their communities to Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis by passing this xenophobic and discriminatory bill,” the state’s Democratic Party said Wednesday after the House passed their version of the bill. “It’s abhorrent that Republican members who represent immigrant communities are now turning their backs on their constituents and jeopardizing their safety.

“Florida has long stood as a beacon for immigrant communities — and today Republicans did the best they could to destroy that reputation,” they added.

Fox News’ Elina Shirazi contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain's far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain’s far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville, Spain April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By John Stonestreet and Belén Carreño

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Vox party, aligned to a broader far-right movement emerging across Europe, has become the focus of speculation about last minute shifts in voting intentions since official polling for Sunday’s national election ended four days ago.

No single party is anywhere near securing a majority, and chances of a deadlocked parliament and a second election are high.

Leaders of the five parties vying for a role in government get final chances to pitch for power at rallies on Friday evening, before a campaign characterized by appeals to voters’ hearts rather than wallets ends at midnight.

By tradition, the final day before a Spanish election is politics-free.

Two main prizes are still up for grabs in the home straight. One concerns which of the two rival left and right multi-party blocs gets more votes.

The other is whether Vox could challenge the mainstream conservative PP for leadership of the latter bloc, which media outlets with access to unofficial soundings taken since Monday suggest could be starting to happen.

The right’s loose three-party alliance is led by the PP, the traditional conservative party that has alternated in office with outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists since Spain’s return to democracy in the 1970s.

The PP stands at around 20 percent, with center-right Ciudadanos near 14 percent and Vox around 11 percent, according to a final poll of polls in daily El Pais published on Monday.

Since then, however, interest in Vox – which will become the first far-right party to sit in parliament since 1982 – has snowballed.

It was founded in 2013, part of a broader anti-establishment, far-right movement that has also spread across – among others – Italy, France and Germany.

While it is careful to distance itself from the ideology of late dictator Francisco Franco, Vox’s signature policies include repealing laws banning Franco-era symbols and on gender-based violence, and shifting power away from Spain’s regional governments.

TRENDING

According to a Google trends graphic, Vox has generated more than three times more search inquiries than any other Spanish political party in the past week.

Reasons could include a groundswell of vocal activist support at Vox rallies in Madrid and Valencia, and its exclusion from two televised debates between the main party leaders, on the grounds of it having no deputies yet in parliament.

Conservative daily La Vanguardia called its enforced absence from Monday’s and Tuesday’s debates “a gift from heaven”, while left-wing Eldiario.es suggested the PP was haemorrhaging votes to Vox in rural areas.

Ignacio Jurado, politics lecturer at the University of York, agreed the main source of additional Vox votes would be disaffected PP supporters, and called the debate ban – whose impact he said was unclear – wrong.

“This is a party polling over 10 percent and there are people interested in what it says. So we lose more than we win in not having them (in the debates),” he said

For Jose Fernandez-Albertos, political scientist at Spanish National Research Council CSIC, Vox is enjoying the novelty effect that propelled then new, left-wing arrival Podemos to 20 percent of the vote in 2015.

“While it’s unclear how to interpret the (Google) data, what we do know is that it’s better to be popular and to be a newcomer, and that Vox will benefit in some form,” he said.

For now, the chances of Vox taking a major role in government remain slim, however.

The El Pais survey put the Socialists on around 30 percent, making them the frontrunners and likely to form a leftist bloc with Podemos, back down at around 14 percent.

The unofficial soundings suggest little change in the two parties’ combined vote, or the total vote of the rightist bloc.

That makes it unlikely that either bloc will win a majority on Sunday, triggering horse-trading with smaller parties favoring Catalan independence – the single most polarizing issues during campaigning – that could easily collapse into fresh elections.

(Election graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2ENugtw)

(Reporting by John Stonestreet and Belen Carreno, Editing by William Maclean)

Source: OANN

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The Amish population in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County is continuing to grow each year, despite the encroachment of urban sprawl on their communities.

The U.S. Census Bureau says the county added about 2,500 people in 2018. LNP reports that about 1,000 of them were Amish.

Elizabethtown College researchers say Lancaster County’s Amish population reached 33,143 in 2018, up 3.2% from the previous year.

The Amish accounted for about 41% of the county’s overall population growth last year.

Some experts are concerned that a planned 75-acre (30-hectare) housing and commercial project will make it more difficult for the county to accommodate the Amish.

Donald Kraybill, an authority on Amish culture, told Manheim Township commissioners this week that some in the community are worried about the development and the increased traffic it would bring.

___

Information from: LNP, http://lancasteronline.com

Source: Fox News National

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Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera has warned that if Democratic 2020 presidential candidates don’t take the crisis at the border seriously, they’ll do so at their own risk.

Speaking with “Fox & Friends” hosts on Friday morning, Rivera discussed the influx of candidates entering the race, including former Vice President Joe Biden, and gave an update on the newest developments at the border.

“If [Democrats] don’t take it seriously they ignore it at their peril,” Rivera said.

He went on to discuss the fact that Mexico is experiencing the same problems dealing with volumes of people at the border as the United States is. Processing facilities, as many have argued, are understaffed and underresourced, resulting in conditions that have been controversial.

TRUMP ASSESSES 2020 DEMS; TAKES SWIPES AT BIDEN, SANDERS; DISMISSES HARRIS, O’ROURKE; SAYS HE’S ROOTING FOR BUTTIGIEG 

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“It is very, very difficult when hundreds and hundreds become thousands and thousands ultimately become tens of it is very difficult to have an orderly system,” he said.

Rivera asserted his opinion that the United States could lessen the influx of migrants coming into the country by investing in the development of Central American countries, where many are fleeing from violence and economic instability.

“I believe, as I have said before on this program, that we have to stop the source of the migrant explosion, by a comprehensive system of political and economic reform in Central America where people have the incentive to stay home,” Rivera said.

“I think we have help Mexico with its infrastructure. Mexico has a moral burden, as the president made very clear, not to let unchecked herds of desperate people flow through 2,000 miles of Mexican territory to get our southern border.”

Rivera also brought up President Trump’s controversial comments about Mexican immigrants during his campaign in 2016.

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The Fox News correspondent said that having been so excited about Trump’s campaign, the comments made him feel “deflated” as a Hispanic American.

However, as the crisis at the border has accelerated over the last few years, Rivera argued that ultimately, the president’s comments weren’t incorrect.

“He is now in a position where he can justly say I was right, that the that the anarchy at the border doesn’t serve anybody,” Rivera said. “Maybe he said it in a language I felt was a little rough and insensitive, but there is no doubt.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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FILE PHOTO: The logo of the OPEC is seen at OPEC's headquarters in Vienna
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at OPEC’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo

April 26, 2019

JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he called the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and told the cartel to lower oil prices.

“Gasoline prices are coming down. I called up OPEC, I said you’ve got to bring them down. You’ve got to bring them down,” Trump told reporters.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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