British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed his government’s “continuing support for the people of Sri Lanka during their current economic difficulties” in a phone call with his counterpart Ranil Wickremesinghe earlier today.

In Mullaitivu, Families of the Disappeared gathered for the 1,906 day of protest and to mark the death of one of their members, Mary Fatima Pushparani.

Pushparani was a native of Vadamarachchi East & former president of Jaffna District Missing Persons Association. For the past 13 years, she searched for her son after having lost another to the war. She passed away at Chavakachcheri base hospital. At least 115 demonstrators have died without knowing the truth behind their loved ones’ disappearances.

Within less than two weeks since Mullivaikkal commemorations took place on the 18 May for the hundreds of thousands of Tamil genocide victims, another Tamil mother searching for her forcibly disappeared son has passed away.

Mary Fatima Pushparani Arulanantham, an Eelam Tamil mother of Vadamarachchi East and the former president of the Jaffna District Missing Persons Association passed away never receiving justice for her son who was forcibly disappeared by the Sri Lankan state. 

^{Photograph: Gardiner Expressway, May 10, 2009}

Thirteen years ago, I was among tens of thousands in Toronto’s Tamil community who protested the war in Sri Lanka. I remember waking up on Mother’s Day that year to the horrific news that an all-night artillery barrage killed nearly 1,000 people in a single night. After weeks of candlelight vigils, letter-writing campaigns and petitioning, we felt desperate to draw the world’s attention to Sri Lanka’s escalating genocide against the Tamil people.

Later that day, thousands of us occupied the Gardiner Expressway. It would become a landmark event in the history of our community.

A Tamil lawmaker thanked Canada’s parliament over a landmark motion that recognised May 18^th as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day and called for an internationally monitored referendum for Eelam Tamils and the diaspora to determine their political future.

S Sritharan, a parliamentarian with the Tamil National Alliance, wrote that he wanted to “wholeheartedly convey my gratitude to the House of Commons of the Canadian Parliament for acknowledging the Tamil Genocide by Sri Lanka”.

In particular, he thanked Canadian MP Gary Anandasangaree for bringing forward the motion and said he hopes the move would be the “first step towards justice, and non-recurrence”.

All holidays booked to Sri Lanka up to and including June 12 2022 with the travel provider Tui have been cancelled, as the country's tourism industry suffered another blow last week.

The economic crisis in Sri Lanka has produced a medicine shortage that doctors say could result in deaths, as hospitals are unable to perform life-saving procedures. 

The healthcare system sits on the brink of collapse as Sri Lanka confronts an unprecedented economic crisis. As 80% of medical supplies in the country are imported and foreign currency reserves are depleted, essential medications are in desperately short supply.

Women in Sri Lanka who were formerly employed in the textiles and garment industry are being forced to turn to prostitution and sex work, as an economic crisis on the island continues to impact on livelihoods reports The Telegraph.

“Poor politics has shattered my life and this is my only hope to put food on the table for my children,” on sex worker told The Telegraph.

The government of Tamil Nadu will see 10 stolen artefacts, that were retrieved from Australia and the USA, returned from New Delhi next week.

According to The Indian Express, the artefacts were reclaimed from Australia in 2020-2022 and six were retrieved from America in 2021. 

Tamil press clubs in the North-East launched a book in Batticaloa and Jaffna to mark the 18th anniversary of Tamil journalist Aiyathurai Nadesan's assassination. 

The book is a collection of essays by Nadesan's family, colleagues and friends, compiled to remember Nadesan's work.