Tamil lawyers have accused the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the occupying Sri Lankan Police Station in Palaly of misleading the Mallakam Magistrate’s Court regarding the arrests of individuals protesting against the illegal construction of the Tissa Vihara on Tamil-owned land in Thaiyiddy.

The 39th anniversary of the Verugal massacre was marked this week in a solemn commemoration in the Verugal-Poonagar area of Trincomalee. The event was organised by relatives of the victims, civil activists, and local community members to honour the memory of the 21 civilians brutally killed on 12 June 1986 while transporting dry food to displaced Tamils.

Tamil civil society activists and members of the Batticaloa District Coordination Committee travelled to Amparai this week, where they documented the construction of a new Buddha statue near the historic Ukanthamalai Murugan Temple.

This week marks 39 years since 31 Eelam Tamil Fishermen were brutally killed by the Sri Lankan Navy, in what has been dubbed the Mandaitivu massacre

To date, no one has been held accountable for the murders.

A mass protest was held in Mannar on Wednesday, with demonstrators calling for the immediate halt of unlawful and destructive projects that they say threaten the district’s Tamil people, natural resources, and fundamental human rights.

Five members of a Tamil family fled Sri Lanka and arrived by boat on the coast of Rameswaram in the early hours of Monday, according to Indian press reports, as people continue to leave the island.

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) announced a 15% increase in electricity tariffs, ahead of a key visit by a senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official to the island next week.

ITAK candidate Sivam Pakkiyanathan has been elected Mayor of the Batticaloa Municipal Council, with the backing of members from the opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB).

This week marks 69 years since Sri Lanka’s first anti-Tamil pogroms, when government backed Sinhala mobs murdered more than 150 Tamils across the island – the first of many massacres that were to take place in the decades to come.

As Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake arrived in Berlin today, Human Rights Watch has called on Germany to press for meaningful action on human rights and accountability for mass atrocities.

Sri Lanka’s President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has openly admitted to the “collapse” of the country’s social structure and systemic corruption across public institutions but pointed to Buddhism as “the foundation for a disciplined and culturally sophisticated nation”.

The Israeli military conducted an airstrike in southern Syria on June 8, 2025, claiming it targeted and killed a member of Hamas in the Mazraat Beit Jin area. Hamas has not issued a statement regarding the reported death.

Sri Lanka and China have signed two Memoranda of Understanding to set up a working group on trade facilitation and on industrial and supply chain cooperation, according to a statement from the Chinese Embassy in Colombo.