Farmers reject govt proposal on agri laws, to intensify agitation with nationwide protest on Dec 14
New Delhi: Farmer leaders Wednesday rejected a government proposal on the three contentious agriculture-marketing laws, and said they would intensify their agitation against the legislations with a nationwide protest on December 14.
They also said they will block the Jaipur-Delhi and the Delhi-Agra expressways on or before December 12, and all the roads entering into the national capital, one-by-one, if their demands are unmet.
Farmer leader Shiv Kumar Kakka told a press conference here that there was nothing new in the government's proposal sent to them on Wednesday, and that it was "completely rejected" by the 'Sanyukta Kisan Committee'.
Farmer leader Jangvir Singh said that their unions may consider if the government sends another proposal.
Kakka said the farmers have decided to intensify their agitation, and that they will block all roads leading to Delhi one by one if the three farm laws are not scrapped.
Another farmer leader, Darshan Pal, said the proposals sent by Union Home Minister Amit Shah contained the same things as Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told farmer leaders in previous meetings.
All the highways to Delhi will be blocked on December 14 as part of the nationwide protest, he said.
The Union Home Minister had Tuesday evening met 13 representatives of the protesting farmers, but the their talk failed to break the impasse.
The farmers continue to protest at several border points of Delhi, demanding the government scrap all the three laws. The government has been defending these laws, saying they will benefit the farmers in the long run and raise their incomes.
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Trump sues BBC for USD 10 billion, alleges defamation over edited Jan 6 speech
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Monday seeking USD 10 billion in damages from the BBC, accusing the British broadcaster of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices.
The 33-page lawsuit accuses the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump,” calling it “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 US presidential election.
It accused the BBC of “splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump's speech on January 6, 2021” in order to ”intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said.”
The lawsuit, filed in a Florida court, seeks USD 5 billion in damages for defamation and USD 5 billion for unfair trade practices.
The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
The broadcaster apologised last month to Trump over the edit of the Jan. 6 speech. But the publicly funded BBC rejected claims it had defamed him, after Trump threatened legal action.
BBC chairman Samir Shah had called it an “error of judgment,” which triggered the resignations of the BBC's top executive and its head of news.
The speech took place before some of Trump's supporters stormed the US Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.
The BBC had broadcast the hourlong documentary — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — days before the 2024 US presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
Trump said earlier Monday that he was suing the BBC “for putting words in my mouth.”
“They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with Jan. 6 that I didn't say, and they're beautiful words that I said, right?" the president said unprompted during an appearance in the Oval Office. "They're beautiful words, talking about patriotism and all of the good things that I said. They didn't say that, but they used terrible words.”
The president's lawsuit was filed in Florida. Deadlines to bring the case in British courts expired more than a year ago.
Legal experts have brought up potential challenges to a case in the US, given that the documentary was not shown in the country.
The lawsuit alleges that people in the US can watch the BBC's original content, including the “Panorama” series, which includes the documentary, by using the subscription streaming platform BritBox or a virtual private network service.
The 103-year-old BBC is a national institution funded through an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds (USD 230) paid by every household that watches live TV or BBC content. Bound by the terms of its charter to be impartial, it typically faces especially intense scrutiny and criticism from both conservatives and liberals.
