Sri Lankan President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has caved to Indian demands over the development of the Eastern Container Terminal (ECT) at Colombo harbour.

This follows a visit by India’s External Affairs Minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who is reported to have laid down “unequivocal terms” for the ECT. The agreement reached enables Sri Lanka to retain a 51% stake whilst the Adani Group, an Indian business with ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will hold 49%.

Indio-phobia

Sri Lankan soldiers beat and tortured a Tamil man from Keppapulavu in Mullaitivu yesterday after one of his cows accidentally broke through a weak fence and entered an army camp.

Sri Lankan soldiers walked past when the cow entered and asked Azhagaraja Rajarupan if the cow belonged to him and whether he had broken the fence. Rajarupan denied breaking the fence, following which the soldiers called more troops and a commander.

Famed music composer A.R. Rahman has teamed up with Oscar and Grammy-nominated artist M.I.A. and an array of Tamil artists around the world to launch 'maaja', a project to support and amplify the voices of independent artists. A.R Rahman hopes to 'elevate the world class talent' to a global stage.

Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary has hit out at the United Nations Human Rights Council, the United States and the Tamil diaspora in an interview on Monday, claiming that organisations were “bullying” Sri Lanka and revealed that his regime is awaiting a draft of a consensual resolution from the Core Group in Geneva.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary Admiral Jayanath Colombage said the UN Human Rights Council was being “unfair and unjust.”

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has slammed Sri Lanka’s newly established commission to investigated human rights violations, describing it as a “travesty of justice”.

The three-member commission which was appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on 21 January comes in advance of the UN Human Rights Council’s 46^th session and has been described the ICJ as an attempt to “deflect robust action”

Tamil farmers protested against the occupation of their grazing land by the Sri Lankan army by going on a march from Kokkadicholai to Paddipalai Divisional Secretariat office in Batticaloa on January 20^th

The appointment of former Air Force Commander, and accused war criminal, Sumangala Dias as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Canada is being stalled by the Canadian government, reports the Sunday Times, amid pushback from Canadian politicians and the Tamil diapsora.

Prominent Sinhala Buddhist monk and academic, Medagoda Abhayatissa, has attacked the development of the East Container Terminal as an attempted invasion of India.

Comparing the development of the port to the battle between Rama and Ravana the monk claimed

“If Sri Lanka loses the East Container Terminal, the government will never be able to raise its head again”.

Tamil-Swiss singer Priya Ragu has defined her own style of music - which uniquely blends soulful vocals and electro-pop beats that she refers to as 'Ragu Wavy'.

She is rapidly growing worldwide acclaim, as has already been named one of the 6 Musicians About to Blow Up in 2021 by Vogue, featured as one of the top 100 Essential emerging artists for 2021 by NME and had her single “Good Love 2.0” included on FIFA 21’s official soundtrack.

The 15^th anniversary of the murder of Tamil journalist Subramaniyam Sugirdharajan was marked by his colleagues in Batticaloa this week, as they paid tribute to the reporter who was shot dead after exposing the Sri Lankan Special Task Force's killing of 5 Tamil students, in a case that has been dubbed the 'Trinco 5'.