As Britain’s fourth Chancellor in as many months takes up office this week, there will be plenty on his plate. A falling sterling, rising interest rates and a spiralling cost of living crisis will leave Jeremy Hunt facing a difficult task. On his first day on the job, he told reporters of how wide spending cuts will be vital in reeling back government spending and repairing Britain’s economy. One area that will need urgent review is the UK multimillion-pound funding of Sri Lanka.

The former Norwegian peace envoy to Sri Lanka Erik Solheim met Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians M A Sumanthiran and R Shanakiyan in Colombo yesterday.

A 24-year-old Eelam Tamil man who was shot at by the Sri Lankan navy, swam across the Palk Strait and arrived in India last week, as he becomes the latest Tamil to flee the island.

A remembrance ceremony was held at the home of 2nd Lt. Maalathy, the first female fighter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to lose her life in the Tamil armed struggle, marking 35 years since her death.

Over 2,500 families have requested a meeting with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe before January 2023, regarding the release of military occupied land in Jaffna.

Sri Lanka’s justice minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe reiterated his government’s rejection of any international accountability mechanisms for mass atrocities, and instead claimed that he will hold discussions with Tamil diaspora leaders over a “domestic mechanism”.

Sri Lanka’s Fisheries Minister and accused war criminal Douglas Devananda was accompanied by dozens of police officers as security was ramped up for his visit to Mullaitivu this week.

Australian Federal Police have arrested and charged two men with attempting to bribe Sri Lankan government officials with hundreds of thousands of dollars, in order to win multi-million construction project contracts.

More than half of Sri Lanka’s crude oil imports have come from Russia, reports the Financial Times, as cash-strapped Colombo looks for cheaper sources of fuel globally.

As over 140 countries condemned Russia’s illegal annexation of regions of Ukraine, Sri Lanka abstained on the UN General Assembly resolution.

Responding to a question raised by the Chair of the International Development Committee, Sarah Champion, on the travel options afforded to migrants accompanied on Diego Garcia, British Minister of State, Jesse Norman, asserted that they were “not in detention and are free to leave at any time”.

Sri Lanka’s president claimed that protestors are taking children to demonstrations as “human shields”, comparing it to Sri Lanka’s military offensive in 2009 that killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians.

The Sri Lankan government has been accused of doing “very little to assist” a group of Eelam Tamils who were captured by Russian forces in Ukraine and tortured for months, after a senior Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry official slammed the group as “illegal migrants”.

Research from the University of Peradeniya has revealed that close to half of Sri Lanka's population, 42% (9.6 million people), are living under the poverty line.