| 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. Government-farmers talks inconclusive; next meeting on Jan 8 The seventh round of talks between protesting farmer unions and three central ministers ended inconclusively on Monday as the farmer leaders insisted on the repeal of the three contentious farm laws right from the beginning, even as the government listed various benefits from the Acts. The next meeting will take place on January 8. Farmer leaders said the government told them that it needed to consult internally before coming back to the unions. The union leaders will also have their own meeting on Tuesday to decide their next course of action. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railways, Commerce and Food Minister Piyush Goyal, and Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash, who is an MP from Punjab, held the talks with the representatives of 40 farmer unions at the Vigyan Bhawan. The meeting began with a two-minute silent tribute to the farmers who lost their lives during the ongoing protest, according to a farm union representative. Since the agitation began, more than 50 protestors have died from various causes, including traffic accidents, heart attacks, and at least three protestors who allegedly died by suicide. Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh, are protesting at various Delhi borders for over a month against the three laws. They have stayed put despite heavy rains and water-logging at protest sites over the last couple of days, besides severe cold weather conditions prevailing in and around the national capital. The government has ruled out a repeal of the three agri laws. SC asks govt. to repeal law which confiscates cattle before owner is found guilty of cruelty  VMC staff seizing stray cows in Vijayawada on Wednesday. The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to "delete" its three-year-old law, which allowed the seizure of cattle from people who depended on these animals for a livelihood, even before they were found guilty of cruelty towards them. A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde warned the government that it would "stay" the implementation of a 2017 law which allowed authorities to seize cattle on a mere suspicion that they suffered cruel treatment at the hands of their owners or were being primed for slaughter. These animals, the law prescribes, would then be lodged in 'gaushalas' as "case property" to await the court's verdict. In short, a farmer, a livestock owner or a cattle trader loses his animals before being found guilty of the charge of cruelty. "Understand one thing here... These animals, and I am not talking about pet dogs and cats, are a source of livelihood. You cannot just seize and keep them confiscated like that... Your Rules are plainly contrary to Section 29 of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, under which only a person convicted of cruelty can lose his animal. You either delete this (Rules) or we will stay it," Chief Justice Bobde addressed Additional Solicitor General Jayant K. Sud, for the Centre. Sud submitted that the Rules had already been notified. "There is evidence on record to show that actual cruelty is being done against animals," the law officer said. He then sought time to file a response. The court scheduled the next hearing for Monday. The law under question is the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Care and Maintenance of Case Property Animals) Rules, 2017 notified on May 23, 2017. The Buffalo Traders Welfare Association, represented by advocate Sanobar Ali Qureshi, said the Rules were being used as a tool to seize and forfeit their cattle. The association said the law's existence had emboldened "anti-social elements" to take matters into their own hands and loot cattle traders. "It is pertinent to mention that these frequent lootings are also threatening the rule of law and generally emboldening groups of persons to take the law into their own hands. Moreover, these incidents are acting as triggers for communal polarisation of society, and if not halted effectively and immediately will have disastrous consequences on the social fabric of the country," the association said. Reliance moves Punjab and Haryana HC against vandalism of mobile towers  Reliance Jio Amid several cases of vandalism of mobile towers and disruption of telecom services in Punjab during the ongoing farmers' agitation against farm laws, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, seeking the intervention of government authorities to bring a complete stop to such acts. In an official statement on Monday, RIL said it had moved the High Court through its subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL). In its petition, the company submitted, "The miscreants indulging in vandalism have been instigated and aided by vested interests and our business rivals. Taking advantage of the ongoing farmers' agitation near the national capital, these vested interests have launched an incessant, malicious and motivated vilification campaign against Reliance, which has absolutely no basis in truth." The statement included facts to establish that Reliance had nothing whatsoever to do with the three farm laws currently being debated in the country, and in no way benefited from them. It said Reliance Retail Limited (RRL), Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), or any other affiliate of our parent company, that is, Reliance Industries Limited, had not done any "corporate" or "contract" farming in the past, and had absolutely no plans to enter this business. Work on Ayodhya Ram temple foundation to begin by January-end, says trust Work on the foundation for the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya would start by the end of January, said the trust entrusted with its construction, even as it acknowledged that the study of the soil was still not complete even after seven months. From the day the construction starts, the temple would be completed in 36-39 months, said Champat Rai, general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra. "We had hoped construction would have started in June but the study has not been completed [even] after seven months. The results are not matching. There is sand, crumbly sand, under the ground or some old debris lying deep," said Rai at a press conference in Kanpur. Rai also said that the Indian Space Research Organisation had sent them pictures of a channel (stream) of River Sarayu under the site of construction. The first soil testing took place in February 2020. Rai stressed that the foundation work would take place only after clear results. "If there is any confusion in the results, the tests are done again. This reflects the seriousness about the foundation of the temple," he said. Engineers and experts from around 10 institutes, including the National Geophysical Research Institute (Hyderabad), Central Building Research Institute (Roorkee), IIT-Bombay, IIT-Guwahati and IIT-Madras, were engaged in the study, he added. Work on the temple was being done keeping in mind its load-bearing capacity and longevity, Rai said. The temple will be 360 feet in length, 235 feet wide and 161 feet in height, while the plinth will be 16.5 feet above the ground level, he added. Google employees form union More than 200 Google employees in the U.S. have formed a workers' union, the elected leaders of the union wrote in a New York Times opinion piece on Monday. The 'Alphabet Workers Union' aims to ensure that employees work at a fair wage, without fear of abuse, retaliation or discrimination, the union heads wrote. Google has been under fire from the U.S. labour regulator, which has accused the company of unlawfully questioning several workers who were then terminated for protesting against company policies and trying to organise a union. Google has said it was confident it acted legally. "We're building on years of organising efforts at Google to create a formal structure for workers," the union leaders wrote, adding that so far 226 employees had signed union cards with the Communications Workers of America. "Our employees have protected labour rights that we support. But as we've always done, we'll continue engaging directly with all our employees," Kara Silverstein, director of people operations at Google, said on Monday. U.K. judge refuses extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange  A supporter of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange holds a placard, at the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court, in London, Britain, January 4, 2021. A British judge has rejected the United States' request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face espionage charges, saying it would be "oppressive" because of his mental health, AP reported. In a mixed ruling for Assange and his supporters, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser rejected defense arguments that the 49-year-old Australian faces a politically motivated American prosecution that rides roughshod over free-speech protections. But she said Assange's precarious mental health would likely deteriorate further under the conditions of "near total isolation" he would face in a U.S. prison. She ruled that Assange was likely to commit suicide if sent to the U.S. The U.S. government said it would appeal the decision. U.S. prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks' publication of leaked military and diplomatic documents a decade ago. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison. Lawyers for the 49-year-old Australian argue that he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment protections of freedom of speech for publishing leaked documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments  Disinfection at a multiplex theatre in Chennai ahead of its opening in November last year. File photograph used for representational purposes only The number of coronavirus cases reported from India stood at 1,03,47,939 at the time of writing this newsletter, with the death toll at 1,49,805. The Tamil Nadu government today said that movie halls in the State will be permitted to screen movies at full seating capacity. Though the State government allowed cinema halls to reopen with 50% seating capacity in November last year, movie fans did not return to theatres in large numbers for several reasons. While the risk of contracting Covid-19 was one of the reasons, the theatres weren't able to screen new releases as producers were reluctant to release their movies with just 50% capacity. With the number of Covid-19 cases steadily falling in the State, a Government Order said that the Tamil Theatres and Multiplex Owners Association had placed a request with the State Government to allow them to increase the capacity from 50% to a full house. The theatres will be permitted to screen movies with full capacity by following all the Standard Operating Procedure. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
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