| Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day's biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. EC issues guidelines for conduct of polls amid Covid-19 pandemic Ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections, the Election Commission on Friday approved guidelines for polls during the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing public meetings and road shows subject to social distancing and other safety norms. The EC's guidelines mandated the wearing of masks and gloves by voters, protective gear for polling staff, and limiting the number of people allowed for door-to-door campaigning to five, including the candidate. On election meetings, the guidelines stated: "Public gatherings/rallies may be conducted subject to adherence to extant Covid-19 guidelines." The District Election Officer should identify dedicated grounds for the gatherings, with entry and exit points marked clearly. "In all such identified grounds, the District Election Officer should, in advance, put markers to ensure social distancing norms by the attendees," it said. The number of attendees should not exceed the State Disaster Management Authority's prescribed limit for public gatherings. While masks are mandatory for voters, they would be asked to lower the masks for identification when required. Sanitisers would be kept at the entry as well inside booths. If an elector is found to have fever, he would be checked a second time, and if the temperature is still high, they would be given a token number and asked to come back during the last hour of polling to cast their vote. Similarly, electors suffering from Covid-19 would be allowed to cast their votes in the last hour of polling with preventive measures being followed. Will be an ally of light, not darkness, says Biden as he accepts Presidency nomination In a speech that portrayed America as having arrived at a moment of choice between two very different futures, Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden, in his nomination acceptance speech, said the country would overcome "this season of darkness". "The current President has cloaked America in darkness for much too long. Too much anger. Too much fear. Too much division," Biden said on the fourth and final day of a mostly virtual Democratic National Convention, themed America's Promise.  Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention. "If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I will be an ally of the light, not of the darkness. For, make no mistake, united we can, and will, overcome this season of darkness in America. We will choose hope over fear, facts over fiction, fairness over privilege," Biden said. Nine dead in Telangana Srisailam power plant fire Nine bodies have been recovered from the fire-ravaged 6×150 MW Srisailam Left Bank underground hydel station in Telangana, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officials confirmed. They said that a 39-member Fire Rescue and Disaster Management team was rushed to the Srisailam Dam.  Fire rages in the control panel of the Srisailam power house of the Telangana State Power Generation Corporation in the State's Kurnool district on August 21, 2020. "They recovered nine bodies from the tunnel and controlled the fire and smoke," a senior CISF official said. According to information reaching Hyderabad, a short-circuit in the terminal panel of the fourth unit of the hydel station on Thursday night is said to be the immediate cause of the accident. The authorities, however, said they would arrive at a conclusion only after finding out what exactly had happened. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 29,64,587 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 55,851. India on Friday reported 68,898 new cases. The Haryana government on Friday announced that all offices and shops in the state, except those selling essential items, will remain closed every Saturday and Sunday, in view of the coronavirus outbreak.  Health officials are seen at a community health centre in Bhubaneswar. Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana KP Singh said "latest corona negative report" will be mandatory for ministers, MLAs, officers and employees for attending the Assembly session that begins on August 28. In Brief: Asserting that Facebook has tolerated toxic content by Indian politicians and failed to enforce its policies fairly, the company's employees have asked the top management to review the handling of hate speech in India, the Wall Street Journal has reported. In a letter sent by members of the firm's internal group for Muslim employees, staffers from India, the U.S. and the Middle East said Facebook's policy enforcement process for high profile users needed to be more transparent and less susceptible to political influence, the WSJ report said. Publisher Bloomsbury was caught in a controversy after it emerged that it has invited BJP leader and former Delhi MLA Kapil Mishra to be the chief guest for the launch of a book on the riots that had occurred in north-east Delhi in February this year. Mishra has been widely blamed for allegedly inciting the riots through an inflammatory speech. The book, titled Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story, and published by Bloomsbury India, is authored by Monika Arora, Sonali Chitalkar and Prerna Malhotra. A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde allowed a plea by Shri Parshwatilak Shwetamber Murtipujak Tapagacch Jain Trust to keep temples at Dadar, Byculla and Chembur in Mumbai open for prayers on August 22 and 23 for the Paryushan festival. "We find it strange that they (the States) are willing to allow activities involving economic interests, but if it involves religion, they cite Covid to say they cannot open", Chief Justice Bobde remarked orally. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
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