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.

A newly released report by the Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research (ACPR) has detailed the extent to which Sri Lanka’s security forces continue to maintain an oppressive culture of surveillance and intimidation in the Tamil North-East, more than 16 years after the end of the armed conflict.

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.