Protests were held in Batticaloa, Jaffna and Mannar on Friday, condemning the recent flurry of arrests of anti-government protesters in the South. 

The protests, organised by the North-East Coordinating Committee, called on the Sri Lankan government to stop arresting and assaulting those who had organised and participated in the mass anti-government protests in recent months and release those who have already been detained. 

Chinese plans to dock a military ship in Sri Lanka’s southern port have raised alarm in New Delhi as officials raise concerns that their southern neighbour may act as a military base in their backyard.

According to a Sri Lankan consulting firm, the Belt & Road Initiative Sri Lanka, the ship (known as the Yuan Wang 5) would dock in the Hambantota port for a week and "conduct space tracking, satellite control and research tracking in the north-western part of the Indian Ocean region through August and September".

Speaking in Sri Lanka's parliament earlier this week, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP Major Sudharshana Denipitiya claimed that the 'Aragalaya' protesters are "funded by the LTTE diaspora with hopes to ruin the country."

According to Economy Next, the MP said that "this not the time when we should be taking part in #Aragalaya but a time we should step forth and help the country."

Writing in Just Security, Tasha Manoranjan, founder and a director of People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) stresses that “accountability for atrocities against Tamils and curbing Sinhala Buddhist nationalism are key for the island’s future stability and prosperity”.

Germany's Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) and the People's Council of Eelam Tamils (VETD) joined Tamils in the homeland and the diaspora to commemorate the 39th anniversary of Black July this week. 

TYO Germany's coordinator Ancana Pakeerathan lit a fire to commemorate the thousands of Tamils that were murdered, displaced, raped, burnt alive and impacted during Black July. 

In a recent statement, the World Bank announced that it “does not plan to offer new financing in Sri Lanka” until the crisis-hit island has an “adequate macroeconomic policy framework in place.”

According to the lender Sri Lanka requires structural reforms that focus on economic stabilization in order to secure new financing. The economic crisis has disrupted life in the country, creating shortages of essential goods like food, fuel and medicine.

A Tamil man who was arrested under the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) last year for allegedly 'promoting Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ideology', has finally been released on bail earlier today.

Ganapathipillai Mohan, also known as 'theatre Mohan', was arrested by Sri Lankan police for allegedly sharing a photo of LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.  They also seized a mobile phone and an Apple iPad.

Kollywood actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan met with Sri Lankan officials in Chennai last week, as he took photographs shaking hands with Sri Lanka’s Deputy High Commissioner.

Haasan, who heads the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) party, had discussions with officials, with the Deputy High Commission stating he “expressed his interest to ‘Support Sri Lanka’ through his Welfare Association”.

The favourite to win Canada’s Conservative Party leadership contest pledged to “bring the full weight of the Government of Canada” to ensure an international tribunal for Sri Lanka’s genocide of Tamils and called for Gotabaya Rajapaksa to be arrested in Singapore.

The US Ambassador to Sri Lanka announced over US $1 million would be provided to fund a people trafficking prevention project that is being run with the country’s ministry of defence, an institution that is accused of a range of rights abuses and still headed by an accused war criminal.

“The US is committed to ending human trafficking in all its forms,” said Julie Chung in a tweet with photographs from her attendance at in Colombo earlier today.