The new moon in Aadi (July) is one of the three most powerful new moons of the year. Devotees honour their ancestors by observing fasts, feeding crows and bathing in large bodies of natural water to rid themselves of their sins.

Hundreds of migrant workers from Sri Lanka are stranded in the Middle East, with at least 44 dead from the coronavirus, as they struggle to find a way to be repatriated back to the island.

The crisis of migrant workers is ongoing, as thousands have lost their jobs during the pandemic and have no feasible way of returning to the island. Those who want to return must also face the barrier of paying for a mandatory PCR test, which many do not have the funds to afford, especially as they scramble to pay for basic needs like food.

Amnesty International said it was “extremely concerned” that evidence against a Muslim human rights lawyer who was detained by Sri Lanka’s security forces under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) “may now be subject to fabrication”. 

The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), a newly formed party led by Sri Lanka’s Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, has vowed that there will be “no room for separatism” in its manifesto ahead of elections next month.

“As a victim of terrorism myself, I assure each and every citizen of this country that there will be a zero-tolerance approach to terrorism and extremism,” declared Premadasa in the manifesto. “I will appoint the best people to handle national security.”

Human rights lawyers, activists and journalists have “faced arrests, threats and harassment” in Sri Lanka as general elections draw closer reports international non-governmental organisation, CIVICUS.

Sri Lanka’s president Gotabaya Rajapaksa called for a “revolution in the construction sector” last week, as he announced he would place his trust on the local engineers in the same manner as when the state “placed faith on the youth in the battle against terrorism”.

Speaking with members of the Institution of Engineers on Thursday, Rajapaksa announced that the “culture of assigning development projects to foreign companies will be reverted and future development programme will be entrusted upon the local engineers”.

An Indian national has been arrested for alleged involvement in a kidney trafficking racket operating across Sri Lanka, India and Turkey, according to The News Minute.    

25-year-old D S Pavan Srinivas, was arrested by Hyderabad police on Saturday and accused of arranging around nine kidney transplants, earning a commission of Rs 6 lakhs for each one.

Former parliamentarian Selvam Adaikalanathan insisted that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) “has not sold out” and reiterated that it was “formed in Vanni on the basis of the struggle.”

Adaikalanathan, who is the current leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) and a member of the TNA, said “The TNA was formed with a sacrificial rationale in mind and it is formed with the endeavour to continuously serve its people, and we have proof of this,” during a meeting in Mannar last week.

In November 2019 Sri Lanka again produced headlines in the international media. Gotabhaya Rajapakse won the presidential elections by a landslide. Shortly afterwards, he appointed his brother and former president Mahinda Rajapakse as prime minister. Thus, the Rajapakse brothers are back in power after five years. In May 2009 they had conquered the last territories of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). The author outlines what this return means from a Tamil perspective.

Priya Murugappan, one of the Tamil asylum-seekers still detained by Australian authorities on Christmas Island, has been urgently evacuated for urgent medical treatment, according to latest reports.