A group of lawyers appearing before the Mannar Magistrate Courts have called on the Sri Lankan government to arrest those responsible for a campaign targeting Mannar High Court judges through posters displayed in Colombo. On the second day of their strike, the lawyers demanded justice for the judges, condemning the hate campaign against them.

In Batticaloa’s Gandhi Park, an art exhibition unveiled 150 paintings that powerfully conveyed themes of loss, grief, and the relentless search for the disappeared—15 years after the Mullivaikkall genocide.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) has officially issued a Telecommunications Service Provider License to Starlink Lanka (Private) Limited, according to an announcement by the President’s Media Division (PMD) on August 13.

Sri Lanka's President Ranil Wickremesinghe has taken control of the Ministry of Justice, Prison Affairs, and Constitutional Reforms, following the resignation of Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, who stepped down from his ministerial role to run in the upcoming Presidential election.

Despite the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the end of the armed conflict, Tamils arriving in Sri Lanka from abroad continue to face harassment by authorities who claim there are links to the LTTE.

In an incident last month, a man accused of being a former LTTE member, who had spent 18 years abroad, was detained at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) and interrogated by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID).

A group of Sri Lankan public officials faced strong resistance from Tamil residents as they attempted to illegally occupy hundreds of acres of coastal land for mineral sand mining, threatening the livelihoods of fishermen in the war-affected North-East.

The legal battle involving Mullaitivu Media Association President and Mullaitivu District Journalist Shanmugam Thavaseelan continues in Sri Lankan courts, with the next hearing scheduled for October this year. During today’s court session, the Sri Lankan naval officer who accused Thavaseelan of assault was cross-examined, but no verdict was reached, and the case was postponed.

The Sri Lankan government is continuing to persecute Tamil families of the disappeared, said Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a release this morning.

Referring to the Sri Lankan government's latest attempt to suppress the voices of the Families of the Disappeared who were protesting across the homeland today, HRW noted that the Sri Lankan state, through its actions, continues to "resist any progress to address the terrible legacy of enforced disappearances, and instead compounds the anguish of victims’ families."

Tamil Fest, an annual street festival organised by the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) to celebrate Tamil culture and identity, was marred by controversy, after protests demanded the organisation apologise for meeting with accused war criminal Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka last year.

^{(Image courtesy: Rajeevkanth Facebook Post)}

Rajkumar Rajeevkanth, an activist from the People's Struggle Alliance—a breakaway group from the Aragalaya—was arrested earlier today in Trincomalee by Sri Lankan police. He was participating in protests organized by the Tamil Families of the Disappeared, who were staging demonstrations across the North-East to mark the International Day of the Disappeared.