Sri Lanka’s presidential powers to pardon convicted prisoners are facing renewed scrutiny after a convicted financial fraudster was released from prison, reportedly without presidential approval, triggering a criminal investigation and raised fresh concerns over impunity and corruption within the island’s justice system.

Just months after a controversial Israeli community centre in Sri Lanka was identified as the potential target of a “terrorist” attack, the Sri Lankan government has revealed that four Israeli religious centres are currently operating in the country, with two of them unregistered.

As the world marked World Environment Day this week with a united call to #BeatPlasticPollution, Tamil environmental activists condemned Sri Lanka’s continued neglect of the North-East’s deepening ecological crises.

While government officials launched a tree-planting and coastal conservation project along Colombo’s Marine Drive on June 5, activists in the North accused authorities of deliberately ignoring marine pollution and environmental degradation across the Tamil homeland.

The Tamil National Assembly and the Democratic Tamil National Alliance (DTNA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Jaffna, pledging to jointly pursue a federal solution recognising the Tamil homeland and to seek international justice for the genocide committed against the Tamil people.