Almost a year after initially being summoned, Valikamam East Divisional Council chairman Thiyagaraja Nirosh has been acquitted over Maaveerar Naal commemorations, as Sri Lankan authorities cracked down on commemoration events across the North-East.

Nirosh and his deputy Kapilan were ordered to appear at Mallakam District Court last year after the police sought a court order to ban any memorial events from taking place.

They were initially charged with violating coronavirus prevention laws.

It has been a decade since Pa Ranjith debuted with his film ‘Attakathi’, a seemingly simple rom-com following the life of a hopeless romantic. Since then, Pa Ranjith has been one of a handful of directors responsible for revolutionising Tamil cinema and subverting the discourse surrounding caste, with his groundbreaking films ‘Madras’, ‘Kabali’ and ‘Kaala’. Last year’s ‘Sarpatta Parambarai’ garnered much acclaim despite being released on streaming services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ranjith seems to have come full circle with his latest release ‘Natchathiram Nagargirathu’, as he returns to the subject of love. Through this, we witness the extent of his development as a filmmaker. The politics of love were hidden in the background of ‘Attakathi’, whereas in ‘NN’, Ranjith brings all the guts and glory of love to the forefront. 

Speaking before the 55^th Asian Development Bank’s annual conference, Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe maintained that factors underlying the global economic crisis are not economic alone but are “the consequences of evolving geopolitics”.

A Sri Lankan government minister has pledged legal action after a senior official told the BBC that a power plant was forced to shut down, after the wrong type of crude oil was imported and used.

"Sulphur content is too high in the furnace oil [fuel oil] which is not suitable for the current power plants and it's also not conforming with environmental standards," Janaka Ratnayake, the head of the Public Utilities Commission, told the BBC.

As the Sri Lankan government’s newly formed ‘National Council’ held its inaugural meeting today, not all of the named council members were present, with the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam stating he was appointed “without my consultation or consent”.

“I will not be taking my place in the “National Council”,” tweeted Ponnambalam last week.

The Sri Lankan navy detained six persons on Tuesday and a further seven people on Wednesday, including several children, as more groups of asylum seekers attempted to flee the island.

Both groups attempted to leave the island through Mannar and were apprehended by the Sri Lankan navy, which continues to occupy the region.

AmeriCares, a US- based non-profit organisation, donated more than US$773,000 of medical supplies, following a request made by the Sri Lankan embassy in Washington.

This donation consists of essential medicines, including prenatal and lactation vitamins, chronic disease medications, intravascular catheters, syringes, and gloves.

Several donations from US non-governmental organisations, including HOPE Worldwide and Heart to Heart International have been made in recent months, in light of a crippling economic crisis in Sri Lanka.

A Sri Lankan lawmaker and former minister vowed that the military and monks would continue with the construction of a Buddhist vihara in Mullaitivu, despite opposition from local Tamils and a Sri Lankan court order barring any further work from taking place.

Speaking in parliament, Sarath Weerasekara, a staunch Sinhala nationalist and former minister, claimed that only Sri Lanka’s Department of Archaeology could halt the construction, despite the ongoing court order.

Following a brutal crackdown on demonstrators and the establishment of "high-security zones" in Colombo, Human Rights Watch has urged the Sri Lankan government to reverse course and respect people's right to protest.

The statement follows a sweeping crackdown on demonstrators last week that saw the arrest of 84 people,  who had taken to the streets to demand the release of student activists detained under Sri Lanka's notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act. The police reportedly used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters last Saturday.

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reportedly told Sri Lanka’s president Ranil Wickremesinghe that his government was “looking forward to investing in Sri Lanka once again,” as the two met in Tokyo yesterday.

A free trade deal between the two countries was signed in 2018, when Wickremesinghe was prime minister, but was scrapped a year later as Sri Lankan opposition grew.