Red alert sounded in four districts as monsoon set to hit Kerala coast today

  • The weather department has predicted that the southwest monsoon is likely to set in over Kerala in the next 24 hours. The Kerala State Disaster Management Authority has issued red and orange alerts in different parts of the state from June 9-11. 
  • Last year, the state in August witnessed one of its worst floods in which more than 350 people lost their lives.
  • A red alert, which means ‘very heavy’ to ‘extremely heavy’ rainfall, has been issued in Thrissur district on June 10 and in Ernakulam, Malappuram, and Kozhikode districts on June 11. 

Trump ‘indefinitely suspends’ tariffs after US, Mexico reach deal on immigration

  • President Donald Trump said he would drop plans for tariffs on Mexico that he’d been threatening to impose for the past week after the country promised new steps to stem an influx of illegal migration into the US. 
  • “I am pleased to inform you that The United States of America has reached a signed agreement with Mexico,” Trump said in a tweet Friday night. 

1 In 5 Boys Married Off Before Turning 15, Shows UNICEF Study

  • The UNICEF has, after its first-ever in-depth analysis of child grooms, said that an estimated 11.5 crore boys and men around the world were married as children. Of which 1 in 5 children (2.3 crore) were married off before the age of 15. 
  • According to the data, the Central African Republic has the highest prevalence of child marriage among males (28 per cent), followed by Nicaragua (19 per cent) and Madagascar (13 per cent). 
  • The study, which was carried out using data compiled from 82 countries, revealed that child marriage among boys is prevalent across a range of countries around the world, spanning sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia, and East Asia and the Pacific.

GDP growth concerns in India put more interest rate cuts on the radar

  • A marked slowdown in Asia’s third-largest economy pushed growth concerns to the top of the Reserve Bank of India’s agenda, suggesting more policy easing will follow its third interest-rate cut of the year. 
  • Governor Shaktikanta Das and the inflation-targeting RBI he leads is now squarely focused on boosting investment and consumption after quarterly growth cooled to a five-year low at the beginning of 2019.