kottayam l saturday l june 01, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Guilty on all counts: Donald Trump now a convicted felon A jury found the ex-US president guilty on each of the 34 counts of falsifying records to hide a payment to silence porn star Stormy Daniels First ex-prez to be convicted of a crime $35-million fund boost to don’s campaign According to the grand jury, Donald Trump paid $130,000 to the adult film star to prevent her from publicising an alleged sexual encounter with him that could have been fatal to his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump, 77, is the first ex-US president to be convicted of any crime. This, however, does not bar the Republican presumptive nominee from running for president ■ Trump can become president if he wins the election, even if he is sent to jail. In theory, he can get four years in jail but is more likely to get probation ■ The former president has indicated he will appeal verdict. “This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt,” he said. His campaign team said support for him is intact, adding $35 million was raised soon after the verdict July 11, 2024 When Judge Juan Merchan will decide whether to send Trump to jail or not CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Popularity test for VIPs in final phase of polls Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking third consecutive term; five ministers in the fray Bharti and Congress’ Manish Tiwari. The prestige of actor KangaA clutch of VIPs will face their na Ranaut and Himachal minispopularity test in the last of ter Vikramaditya Singh Singh seven phases of the general is at stake in Mandi. elections on Saturday At stake . Taranjit Singh Sandhu, is the reputation of big hitters former envoy to the US, is pitsuch as Prime Minister Naren- ted against Akali Dal’s Anil dra Modi, his five cabinet Joshi from Amritsar. Union colleagues and Opposition minister R K Singh is aiming at leaders like the Trinaa hat-trick from Arrah, mool Congress’s Abwhere his challenger is hishek Banerjee. Sudama Prasad, a sitWhile Modi is mediting MLA of the CPI(ML) tating at the VivekananLiberation. da Rock memorial in In Varanasi, those Kanniyakumari, the contesting against Modi Parliamentary are Ajay Rai (Congress), party leaders are manconstituencies Ather Jamal Lari (BSP), aging the Varanasi (General 41; ST 3; SC 13) in Kolisetty Shiva Kumar joust. In all, 57 Lok Sabha 8 States/UTs go to polls (Yuga Thulasi Party), seats spread across sevGagan Prakash Yadav, en states — Bihar, Ut- 42 Assembly constituencies (Apna Dal, Kamerava(General 27; ST 6; SC 9) of tar Pradesh, West BenOdisha assembly, too, will di), and independents gal, Himachal Pradesh, have simultaneous polling Dinesh Kumar Yadav Jharkhand, Odisha, a n d S a n j ay Ku m a r Punjab — and the Un- 10.9 lakh polling Tiwari. ion territory of Chan- officials deployed In Patna Sahib, BJP digarh will go to polls. veterRavi Shankar PrasModi is seeking his Over 10.06 cr electors ad is aiming at a second third consecutive re- to cast their ballots - 5.24 consecutive term. election from Varanasi. cr male; 4.82 cr female and In Bengal, the seventh His cabinet colleague 3,574 third gender phase will cover Dum Anurag Thakur is seekDum, Barasat, Basirhat, ing re-election from Hamirpur. Jayanagar, Mathurapur, DiaHe is pitted against Congress’ mond Harbour, Jadavpur, KolkAnand Sharma. ata Dakshin, and Kolkata Uttar, Other prominent BJP leaders where the Trinamool secured in the fray are Anupriya Patel, victories in 2019. R K Singh, Mahendra Nath PanLate Mukhtar Ansari’s brothdey, Pankaj Chaudhary, Lalu er Afzal Ansari is in the fray Prasad Yadav’s daughter Misa from Ghazipur. RA J E SH K UMAR THA K UR @ New Delhi Phase 7 facts 57 10 on poll duty among 42 heatstroke deaths R a m a s h a nk a r @ Patna At least 42 people, including 10 polling personnel in Bihar, succumbed to heatstroke in the last 48 hours as heat wave conditions continued over the north, northwest and central India. The maximum casualty was in Odisha, where the toll stood at 19. Bihar followed with 14, UP five and Jharkhand four. Heatwave conditions are expected to persist during the seventh and last phase of polling for the general elections on Saturday . The temperature sensor at the Nagpur City Automatic Weather Station registered a maximum of Roadside vendors rest in the shade beneath a stationary train coach on a hot summer’s day in Mumbai | AP 56°C on Thursday, but it was attributed to a sensor error a day later. In Bihar, most of the deaths GDP beats estimates, grows 8.2% in FY24 were reported from Bhojpur where five polling personnel succumbed to heatstroke. They were deputed for the last phase of the elections. Three other polling officials died in Rohtas, while Kaimur and Aurangabad districts reported one such death each. In Aurangabad, at least 30 people are undergoing treatment following heatstroke in the last 24 hours. In Odisha, 13 suspected heatstroke deaths were reported in Sundargarh district and six in Jharsuguda. In Jharkhand, over 1,300 people were admitted to hospitals due to heat-related issues. Sorry DKS, no sorcery in Kerala, say mins E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @Kozhikode/T’Puram E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi INDIa’s real GDP grew at a fabulous 8.2% in FY24 against 7% in FY23. This is 60 bps higher than the second advance estimates, which pegged growth at 7.6%. This is also the third successive year of 7%-plus growth. It beats both RBI’s forecast of 7% and consensus estimates of 7.6-7.8%, and retains India’s position as the world’s fastest growing major economy for the third year in a row. However, Q4 growth slowed marginally to 7.8%, lower than the 8%-plus growth registered in each of the previous three quarters of FY24. According to provisional estimates released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Friday real GDP in absolute numbers, stood , , at `173.82 lakh crore in FY24 against `160.71 lakh crore a year before, while gross value added was `295.36 lakh crore. Likewise, Q4 real GDP stood at `47.24 lakh crore against `43.84 lakh crore a year ago. On the expenditure side, FY24’s growth was driven by domestic investments, which grew by 8.9%, while private consumption and g ove r n m e n t c o n s u m p t i o n re m a i n e d subdued. Two die of suffocation while cleaning waste tank E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @Kozhikode Two persons died of suffocation while attempting to clean the waste tank of a hotel at Iringadanpalli near Kovoor in Kozhikode on Friday. The deceased are Ashokan and Rineesh, both residents of Kinalur in Koorachund. According to eyewitnesses, the incident occ u r re d a ro u n d 4 p m . Ashokan was the first to enter the nearly 10-feetdeep waste tank located inside the hotel that has remained closed for over a week. However, he fainted immediately. In an attempt to rescue him, Rineesh entered the tank but he too fell unconscious. After being alerted, the fire and rescue services personnel reached the spot and took both the men out of the tank. Though they were rushed to the Government Medical Colle ge Hospital, Kozhikode, the duo was declared brought dead. “We reached the spot within 15 minutes of getting information. The tank is very narrow and hardly one person can enter it. Garbage has been reportedly lying in the tank for years and this might have produced poisonous chemicals, which resulted in the duo’s death,” said Robin Varghese, an officer with the Kozhikode city ● More on P4 fire station.  Shivakumar’s claims were aimed at ridiculing Kerala’s cultural ethos, and giving it a communal angle — M V Govindan This is something that will never happen in Kerala. We will investigate the claims — K Radhakrishnan, Minister The ripples caused by the Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister’s claim that black magic involving animal sacrifice was performed at a Kerala temple targeting him and the Congress-led government snowballed into a major controversy on Friday with the CPM state secretary describing D K Shivakumar as “insane”. The devaswom minister and temple authorities have strongly refuted the charge. Meanwhile, the Special Branch of the Kerala Police, after a thorough investigation that included inspections of temples and residences of several priests in Kannur district, submitted a report to the director general of police (DGP), dismissing Shivakumar’s allegations. Talking to reporters on Thursday Shivakumar had , alleged that 21 goats, three buffaloes, 21 black sheep, and five pigs were sacrificed as part of ‘shatru bhairava yaga’ performed by ‘tantriks’ in consultation with ‘Aghoris’ (ascetic Shaivite sadhus) at “Rajarajeshwari temple” in Kerala. The yaga, aimed at the destruction of enemies, was targeted against him, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the Congress government in Karnataka, he said. The Congress leader said he had received written information about the ritual, including its location and the individuals involved. He hinted at the involvement of political rivals but refrained from naming specific persons.● More on P4