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Satellites and shoe-leather: How investors get beyond China’s dubious data

FILE PHOTO: Delivery driver rides his electric vehicle past Chinese and foreign car dealerships in Beijing
FILE PHOTO: A delivery driver rides his electric vehicle past Chinese and foreign car dealerships in Beijing, China October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

March 11, 2019

By Daniel Leussink, Swati Pandey and Trevor Hunnicutt

TOKYO/SYDNEY/NEW YORK (Reuters) – When TAL Education Group, a mid-sized tutoring services firm in China, reported a three-fold increase in its 2018 third-quarter net income earlier this year, few people made much of it.

Rather, investors fretted over a weak performance in China from Apple Inc – a classic yardstick for measuring demand and the health of the world’s second-largest economy.

For Brendan Ahern, the New York-based chief investment officer at Krane Funds Advisors, TAL’s results showed that, while China may be showing signs of pain from a long-running U.S.-Sino trade war, parts of its economy are still doing well.

“With some study of China, you can get results that are very contrary to this view of China as one entity,” said Ahern.

Ahern is not alone. Foreign investors keen to get a grasp of China’s economy have for years distrusted official data.

Many have models built on inputs such as auto sales or air traffic and even indicators such as commentary from food and beauty firms.

“Many people look for alternative data sources in China as proxies for growth, rather than the just the official figures,” said Ross Hutchison, a fund manager at Aberdeen Standard Investments in Edinburgh. “I find it helpful to consider ‘micro’ stories, where you can get a better sense of actual activity.”

In 2018, even as the trade war sapped exports and investment at home, China’s official GDP growth was 6.6 percent – as always, unerringly within official targets.

That was a 28-year low for China, but still almost double the global average of 3.7 percent.

“There are always questions about it and there are always doubts raised about it,” said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut.

“U.S. investors for the most part put a little haircut on it. If the number is X, they suspect the real number is X minus something, and then it is more about trying to identify the trend of numbers rather than the absolute levels.”

What’s more, for an economy that exceeds $10 trillion and a population of nearly 1.4 billion, analysts says China’s economic statistics are released too swiftly for investors to have faith in their accuracy, leading them to read the economic tea leaves elsewhere.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics did not respond to a faxed request for comment.

FAKES, FILTERS

Around the same time that Apple’s disappointing iPhone sales were making investors nervous about China, Aberdeen’s Hutchison was looking at athletic apparel firm Nike Inc’s estimate-beating results and double-digit sales growth in China.

“To me, it suggests that the worries around Apple are not a canary in the coalmine for faltering Chinese growth, but that increasingly expensive iPhones just aren’t as cool as they used to be,” said Hutchison.

Peter Bye, a portfolio manager on the U.S. equity team at UBS Asset Management, agrees some filtering of data is needed.

Bye cites the example of the 2013 crackdown by Chinese authorities on gift-giving by officials, which skewed demand for luxury brands.

“Therefore, China growth numbers out of some high-end brands again weren’t that indicative of China consumer health.”

His discretionary list of data points includes travel commentary from booking platforms as well as commentary from beauty and food companies around the region pandering to Chinese travelers and customers.

For U.S. hedge fund manager Teddy Vallee, founder of Pervalle Global, the correlations between China’s credit growth and other markets such as global crude and copper are material, so he looks at China’s base money or M1 growth.

“The issue today is we haven’t seen M1 turn higher, so it’s quite difficult to be constructive until this turns,” Vallee said.

(GRAPHIC: Proxy economic indicators for China – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Ch1a4i)

BIRD’S EYE VIEW

The Economist magazine’s Li Keqiang index was inspired by comments from the Chinese premier a decade or so ago that the official GDP was ‘man-made’. Li based his preferred measures of economic growth on bank loans, rail freight and electricity consumption.

But as China weans its economy off a reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, analysts have found the Li Keqiang index needs additional measures.

Unfortunately, China’s modern economy, more represented by internet payment platforms and sales systems such as WeChat and Alipay, isn’t yet openly sharing data on online traffic.

Jian Shi Cortesi, an Asian equities portfolio manager at GAM Investment Management in Zurich, tracks a China Satellite Manufacturing Index, developed by San Francisco-based SpaceKnow.

It analyses industrial facilities in China using imagery from space and algorithms measuring the level of manufacturing activity.

Qinwei Wang, a London-based senior economist at European asset manager Amundi, uses in-house models incorporating freight and passenger traffic data, floor space under construction and electricity consumption.

“These data are more independent from official GDP and headline data, of high frequency, difficult to manipulate by officials, and cover the relatively broad economy,” said Wang.

For many analysts like Sarah Shaw, a Sydney-based global portfolio manager at 4D Infrastructure, nothing beats boots on the ground.

“If you’re wandering around in Beijing and you can’t get into a restaurant or you can’t get on a train because they are all full, that’s an indication that things are still relatively okay.”

(Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak, Kate Duguid, Lewis Krauskopf, Dhara Ranasinghe, Caroline Valetkevitch and Jennifer Ablan; Writing by Vidya Ranganathan; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

Source: OANN

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Israeli army probes shooting death of West Bank Palestinian

The Israeli military says it's investigating the fatal shooting of a Palestinian man by an Israeli civilian earlier this month near the West Bank city of Nablus.

The inquiry comes the same day as Sunday's announcement by Israeli rights group B'Tselem saying it found inconsistencies in the initial report that the Palestinian man was armed with a knife.

On April 3, the Israeli driver shot Mohammed Abdel Fattah, 23, who he said tried to stab him after hurling a stone at his car.

Since 2015, Palestinians have killed over 50 Israelis in West Bank attacks, while Israeli forces have killed over 260 Palestinians there in the same period. Israel says most were attackers, but the army also has also used deadly force during clashes between protesters and soldiers.

Source: Fox News World

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European shares little changed before U.S. jobs data

The German share price index DAX graph at the stock exchange in Frankfurt
The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, April 4, 2019. REUTERS/Staff

April 5, 2019

(Reuters) – European shares were little changed on Friday as investors waited for a closely watched U.S. jobs report and trade talks between China and the United States continued.

The pan-region STOXX 600 index was up 0.1 percent at 0730 GMT, set for its best weekly rise in three weeks. Most European markets were higher, but Germany’s tariff-sensitive DAX slipped lower.

German industrial output rose in February, some good news for Europe’s largest economy. All eyes will now be on the U.S. non-farm payrolls report for March due later in the day, which is expected to show a recovery from February’s 17-month low.

U.S. President Donald Trump said a U.S.-China trade deal could be announced within four weeks, but he warned China it would be difficult to let trade continue without an agreement.

More complications arose for a possible merger of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank. The European Central Bank will ask Deutsche Bank to raise fresh funds before it gives the go-ahead for the deal, a source told Reuters.

The demand could complicate a bid to create Europe’s third-largest bank out of Germany’s top two lenders, who have struggled to recover since the financial crisis.

Shares of both banks were slightly higher.

SES shares jumped more than 6 percent after the company’s successful launch of medium earth orbit satellites.

Swiss producer and supplier of polymers and chemicals Ems Chemie climbed 5 percent after it beat first-quarter net sales target.

Ladbrokes owner GVC Holdings Plc shares rose after it posted 8 percent growth in quarterly net gaming revenue.

Hammerson Plc dragged down STOXX 600 real estate shares after Jefferies trimmed its price target for the British shopping centre operator.

Zurich Insurance Group AG shares came under pressure as it traded ex-dividend.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh in Bengaluru, editing by Larry King)

Source: OANN

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NYT: Trump Asked Whitaker to Put Ally in Charge of Cohen Case

President Donald Trump asked former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker to put an ally in charge of investigating his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, according to The New York Times.

The Times reported Tuesday that Trump called Whitaker late last year and asked him to put Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York who worked on the Trump transition's legal team in 2017, in charge of the investigation into Cohen and payments made to women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.

Berman had previously recused himself from the probe, which is being conducted by the Southern District, and Whitaker, who stepped down last week after Attorney General William Barr's confirmation, knew Berman could not reverse his recusal, according to the Times.

The White House and the Justice Department declined to comment on the story to the Times. Whitaker referred the newspaper's questions to the Justice Department.

Cohen was recently sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to eight charges, including fraud and campaign finance violations. He is scheduled to testify before Congress at some point before he begins his sentence March 6.

Source: NewsMax America

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White House to fight Dems’ subpoena of ex-White House counsel Don McGahn

The White House will fight House Democrats' subpoena of testimony and documents from ex-White House counsel Don McGahn, Fox News is told.

That would set up a series of contentious legal showdowns as Democrats seek to publicly question current and former Trump aides who featured prominently in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on the Russia investigation.

Fox News is also told the White House intends to vigorously oppose subpoenas that might run up against executive privilege, a power sanctioned by the Supreme Court that allows the president and members of the executive branch to shield certain internal communications from disclosure, absent a compelling overriding justification.

Neither the "presidential communications privilege," which protects discussions by the president and senior aides, and the "deliberative process privilege," which protects even lower-level talks concerning policy discussions, were invoked by the White House to redact any sections of Mueller's report.

IN PRIVATE CONFERENCE CALL MONDAY, DEMS BACK OFF IMPEACHMENT PLANS -- EVEN MAXINE WATERS PUMPS THE BRAKES

But as Democrats ramp up their investigations following the report's release, Trump and his team have begun pushing back on a campaign of probes they say are nakedly partisan.

White House counsel Don McGahn looks on as President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

White House counsel Don McGahn looks on as President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The White House scored an early victory in that effort on Tuesday, after House Democrats agreed to postpone a subpoena deadline for Trump's financial records, following Trump's lawsuit challenging the subpoena.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., on Monday subpoenaed McGahn to testify publicly next month. Nadler described McGahn, who stepped down as White House counsel in October 2018, as "a critical witness to many of the alleged instances of obstruction of justice and other misconduct described in the Special Counsel's report."

EX-TRUMP ATTORNEY DOWD DISPUTES MUELLER REPORT, SAYS TRUMP NEVER ORDERED MCGAHN TO FIRE MUELLER

"The Special Counsel's report, even in redacted form, outlines substantial evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction and other abuses," Nadler said. "It now falls to Congress to determine for itself the full scope of the misconduct and to decide what steps to take in the exercise of our duties of oversight, legislation and constitutional accountability."

On "Fox News Sunday," host Chris Wallace pressed Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani on a section of the Mueller report outlining how Trump allegedly told McGahn to inform the acting attorney general that Mueller should be removed in June 2017 -- a demand that McGahn ignored. Trump has strongly suggested that claim was 'bulls---.'"

"If he had fired him, there wouldn’t have been an obstruction," Giuliani began. "So, as long as he was replaced by somebody, which he would have been, and there were good reasons- arguable reasons."

Giuliani insisted that accounts of McGahn's story have changed multiple times and that Trump was merely calling for Mueller's supposed conflicts of interests to be "considered."

Mueller's report contained purported conversations between Trump and McGahn that have raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill.

"Why do you take notes? Lawyers don't take notes. I never had a lawyer who took notes," Trump said, according to Mueller's report. The special counsel said McGahn responded that he keeps notes "because he is a 'real lawyer' and explained that notes create a record and are not a bad thing."

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These notes appear to have angered Trump, but also allowed Mueller to conclude that McGahn was a credible witness “with no motive to lie or exaggerate given the position he held in the White House."

Last week, Trump unleashed a series of broadsides concerning claims that his associates had given Mueller damaging information.

“Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, which are fabricated & totally untrue," Trump tweeted. "Watch out for people that take so-called 'notes,' when the notes never existed until needed."

John Dowd, who served as a member of President Trump’s legal team from June 2017 until March 2018, backed up Trump on “Fox & Friends” Monday.

Asked when Trump said to fire Mueller, Dowd said: “He never did. I was there at the same time that the report says McGahn mentioned this, and I was assigned to deal with Mueller and briefed the president every day. ...  At no time did the president ever say, ‘you know, John, I’m going to get rid of him.’ It was the opposite."

Dowd contnued: “Here’s the message the president had for Bob Mueller, he told me to carry -- number one, you tell him I respect what he is doing; number two, you tell him he has my full cooperation; number three, get it done as quickly as possible; and number four, whatever else you need, let me know. That was always the message and that is exactly what we did.”

Fox News' Samuel Chamberlain contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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German pastor praises Madeira medics after deadly bus crash

A German pastor working on Madeira is praising the medics who cared for the survivors of the bus crash on the Portuguese island that killed 29 people.

Ilse Everlien Berardo told German broadcaster n-tv Thursday the survivors she spoke to were "very calm. Of course, they were in a state of shock."

The bus carrying 55 people, many of them vacationers from Germany, rolled down a steep hillside Wednesday after veering off the road on a bend east of the capital, Funchal, striking at least one house.

Berardo said the "the nurses and doctors were really touching in the way they dealt with the people."

Berardo said she spoke to one woman who thought she might have lost her partner, adding. "what I can do is hold their hand and show them they're not alone."

Source: Fox News World

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Official: Threatened Afghan journalist wounded by bomb blast

An Afghan official says a journalist who has long been threatened has been wounded in a bomb blast in southern Helmand province.

Omar Zwak, spokesman for the Helmand governor, says TV and radio journalist Nesar Ahmad Ahmadi was wounded by a sticky bomb that exploded as he was heading to the office in his vehicle. It happened in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, on Tuesday.

Zwak said Ahmadi had a leg wound and was transferred to Kabul for further treatment.

He is the director for Sabahoon radio and also a reporter for Sabahoon television broadcaster in Helmand.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Taliban insurgents are active in southern Afghanistan especially in Helmand.

The Taliban have been carrying out near-daily attacks across Afghanistan.

Source: Fox News World

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“Outdated laws” need fixing to deal with the surge in illegal immigrant families crossing the U.S. border with Mexico, a top Border Patrol official said Friday.

Migrant families face no consequences if apprehended trying to cross the border illegally under present law, Border Patrol chief of Operations Brian Hastings claimed during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

“We need a change in the current outdated laws that we’re dealing with for this current demographic and this crisis that we have,” he said.

Hastings said as of Thursday there have been 440,000 apprehensions along the southwest border. There were 396,000 apprehensions all of last year.

SOUTHERN BORDER AT ‘BREAKING POINT’ AFTER MORE THAN 76,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TRIED CROSSING IN FEBRUARY, OFFICIALS SAY

And those numbers continue to rise, he said.

Historically 70 to 90 percent of apprehensions at the border were quickly returned to Mexico, Hastings said.

Now, 83 percent of those apprehended have come from the Central American northern triangle which includes Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, and of those 63 percent are “family units” and children who cannot be returned, he said.

“There are no consequences that we can apply to this group currently,” Hastings said. “We’re overwhelmed. If you look at agents there doing a tremendous job trying to deal with the flow.”

The law dictates children have to be released after 20 days of detention.

FLORIDA SHERIFF ON BORDER CRISIS AFTER MAJOR DRUG BUST: ‘IT MAKES ME ABSOLUTELY CRAZY’

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says that has forced immigration officials to release entire families because “you don’t want to separate families.”

Recently, he said he is drafting legislation that would allow children to be detained for more than 20 days.

Hastings said agents are frustrated with the situation but are doing the best they can with the resources they have.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“Up to 40 percent of our agents are processing at any given time,” he said. “That should say that in and of itself is pulling from those border security resources.”

Source: Fox News National

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President Trump on Friday blasted liberal billionaire activist Tom Steyer for his continued push to impeach Trump — with Trump claiming Steyer is “trying to remain relevant” and doesn’t have the “guts” to run for the White House himself.

“Weirdo Tom Steyer, who didn’t have the ‘guts’ or money to run for President, is still trying to remain relevant by putting himself on ads begging for impeachment,” the president tweeted. “He doesn’t mention the fact that mine is perhaps the most successful first 2 year presidency in history & NO C OR O! [Collusion or Obstruction]”

TRUMP IMPEACHMENT BACKERS NOT GIVING UP AFTER MUELLER REPORT

Trump and his allies have pointed to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report’s conclusions that there was no evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign and its decision not to make a conclusion on obstruction of justice as a vindication for the president.

But some Democrats and left-wing activists have pointed to the instances of possible obstruction of justice that the investigation looked into as proof of the need for more investigations or even impeachment proceedings.

ELIZABETH WARREN DOUBLES DOWN ON TRUMP IMPEACHMENT PUSH, SAYS IT’S ‘BIGGER THAN POLITICS’

Steyer has been one of the leaders backing a push to impeach Trump and founded “Need to Impeach” and has kept up that push since the report’s release. He announced on Thursday that he was calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to support impeachment proceedings.

On Friday he responded to Trump’s tweet, calling him “angry and scared.”

“I know you want it all to go away. But for the sake of the country you must face your transgressions. Rage away, but that anger doesn’t matter,” he said in a tweet. The truth and the people will prevail.”

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Impeachment hearings have been backed by a number of House Democrats, as well as 2020 presidential hopefuls Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif. However, Pelosi has long been skeptical of impeachment proceedings against Trump.

“I’m not for impeachment,” Pelosi told The Washington Post in an interview last month. “Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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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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