Daily News Dose: PC George's bail plea to be considered on Friday | May 26, 2022

Hello, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. I'm your host, Ajish Jimmy George, and these are the major news stories of the day:

Actor-survivor in 2017 assault case meets Chief Minister to speed up probe

PC George's bail plea to be considered on Friday

Arrival of monsoon in Kerala likely to get delayed

ED files chargesheet against Karnataka Congress chief Shivakumar

Russia-Ukraine war could cause global recession, says World Bank chief

Let's get into the details,

The survivor in the 2017 actor assault case met Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday to request his involvement in speeding up the proceedings of the case.The actor was accompanied by dubbing artist Bhagyalakshmi for the meeting at the CM's office at 10am. The chief minister assured the actor-survivor of his assistance during the meeting that lasted 10 minutes.

The CM enquired about the details of the case to the DGP and the Crime Branch head. It has been reported that the survivor conveyed to the chief minister the meeting held between a prominent LDF leader, Dileep and his lawyer, and the move to derail the investigation.

The survivor told reporters after the meeting that the Chief Minister had assured her that the government would stand by her. "I fully believe in his words," the survivor said.

The Kerala High Court will consider the bail plea of former Poonjar MLA P C George, who was arrested in connection with a hate speech case, on Friday.

Janapaksham leader P C George, who was arrested by the police after his bail was revoked, was sent to judicial remand by a court in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday. George had surrendered at the Palarivattom Police Station in Ernakulam by Wednesday evening. A team of police officers from Thiruvananthapuram formally arrested him and took him into custody from the Ernakulam AR camp. George was produced before the court this morning, which sent him to 14-day judicial remand.

With rain and sun playing hide and seek in Kerala quite literally, the southwest monsoon is likely to get delayed.

India Meteorological Department had predicted that the southwest monsoon is likely to hit the Kerala coast by May 27 a few days ago.

Going by the present climatic conditions, the monsoon which has already reached Andamans, is likely to move further in the southwest direction towards the Arabian Sea.

Met experts say that conditions for the monsoon to arrive in Kerala would become favourable only if the winds gain stability and strength.

With such favourable conditions yet to develop in the region, there is a possibility that the onset of monsoon is likely to get delayed further.

Meanwhile, the yellow alert for various districts till May 29 has been withdrawn by the IMD.

However, there is a possibility of rain and thundershowers besides strong winds in isolated places during this period.

The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet under the anti-money laundering law against Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar on Thursday.

The prosecution complaint has been filed under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act before a Delhi court.

Earlier in September 2018, the federal probe agency had registered a money laundering case against Shivakumar and others.

The case was based on an Income Tax Department chargesheet filed against Shivakumar and others before a court in Bengaluru for alleged tax evasion and hawala dealings.

Shivakumar was arrested by the ED in this case in 2019, and a number of his associates, including his daughter Aishwarya and Congress MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar, were questioned by the agency.

David Malpass, chief of the World Bank. has warned that Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine could cause a global recession as the price of food, energy and fertiliser jump. "As we look at the global GDP, it's hard right now to see how we avoid a recession... The idea of energy prices doubling is enough to trigger a recession by itself," he said in the latest warning over the rising risk that the world economy may be set to contract.

Last month, the World Bank cut its global economic growth forecast for this year by almost a full percentage point, to 3.2 per cent.

Malpass also said that many European countries were still too dependent on Russia for oil and gas.

That's even as Western nations push ahead with plans to reduce their dependence on Russian energy.

He also told a virtual event organised by the US Chamber of Commerce that moves by Russia to cut gas supplies could cause a "substantial slowdown" in the region. Developing countries are also being affected by shortages of fertiliser, food and energy, the World Bank head added.

Malpass also raised concerns about lockdowns in some of China's major cities. including the financial, manufacturing and shipping hub of Shanghai, which he said are "still having ramifications or slowdown impacts on the world".

That brings us to the end of this episode. Be sure to come back tomorrow. As always, thanks for listening to Daily News Dose.