Yesterday, British MPs met with Tamil activists, lawyers, and religious leaders in the parliament to demand that the UK government recognise the genocide perpetrated against Eelam Tamils.

The conference aimed at addressing the ongoing structural genocide against the Tamil community and reflecting on the urgent need for accountability for past atrocities.

In the town of Pulmoaddai, located in the Trincomalee District, more than 25 soldiers and monks are tirelessly working day and night to construct a new Buddhist vihara. Their objective is to complete the project swiftly, despite accusations of illegal deforestation that preceded it.

Four Tamil National People's Front activists have been arrested by the Kilinochchi Police and subject to interrogation in the early hours of today.

Following the threatening of TNPF leader Gajendrakumar Ponnnambalam and his subsequent arrest and release on bail, Chairman of the Oversight Committee on National Security, former Rear Admiral, Sarath Weerasekara MP warned that Tamil MPs must know their place or face arrest.

“Tamil MPs should not get emotional and jump up and down at the drop of the hat. They need to know their place, if not they will be locked up in prison,” Weerasekara stated.

He added:

‘Por Thozhil’ stands on a decent albeit formulaic plot, a good central performance from Sarathkumar and a progressively tense second half.

The families of the disappeared in Vavuniya continued their ongoing protest on June 8th, marking 2,300 days of continuous protest. The families have been protesting on rotation for 2,300 days, demanding the return of their loved ones and an international mechanism to ensure justice.

The LGBTIQ+ community in Jaffna held their second annual Pride March on June 10th. The march began at the Jaffna bus stand and ended in front of the Jaffna library.

Chairman of the Oversight Committee on National Security Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara MP has bemoaned the Sri Lankan government’s weak response to accusations of genocide by the Canadian government, which he claims is a politically motivated lie.

In his statement last Wednesday, Weerasekera decried the decision by the Canadian government to issue a statement recognising the Sri Lankan government’s military offensive as an act of genocide and sanctioning two former Sri Lankan presidents, Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

New laws to be introduced for the mandatory registration of non governmental organizations at the NGO secretariat, ‘so that we can monitor them closely’ says Public Security Minister Tiran Alles in response Milan Jayathilake MP who slams them as a 'threat to national security'. pic.twitter.com/WvKxgWBZmD

Manila-based Asian Development Bank has picked Sri Lanka as a priority country to pilot a new financing approach to conserve and build ‘natural capital', despite military back deforestation across the North-east.

Natural capital could include forests, wetlands, marine ecosystems and also agricultural areas. The ADB has set up a division focusing on natural capital and climate and is drawing up a blueprint on how the lender can help enhance such assets.