Tamil National Alliance MP S Sritharan delivered a scathing address to Sri Lanka’s parliament last week, where he denounced the army’s attack on Tamils at a petrol station in Mullaitivu and state-sponsored Buddhist colonization of the North-East in defiance of court orders, and called for justice for both.

Speaking in parliament, the lawmaker described how “fellow citizens belonging to another ethnicity of this country has been savagely attacked by the Sinhala army and Sinhala police”.

Outside the European parliament in Brussels, hundreds of Tamils gathered to demand an end to Sri Lanka’s ongoing military occupation of the Tamil homeland.

Front Line Defenders said they were "deeply concerned" after Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) issued a summons to Sinhala journalist following a complaint made by the Intelligence Division of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF).

Sri Lanka has shut down non-essential services until July 10th as the bankrupt nation's fuel supply runs dry amidst its worsening economic crisis. 

Cabinet spokesperson Bandula Gunawardane announced that fuel will only be supplied to essential services such as the health, defence, power and export industries, from midnight until July 10th. 

With Sri Lanka’s fuel shortage grinding the island to a halt, Colombo has sent a high level delegation to Russia in the hope of securing more fuel supplies despite the risk of international sanctions.

International fuel suppliers and foreign banks are now rejecting Sri Lankan backed letters of credit admitted a minister this morning, as fuel supplies look set to run dry this week with no new shipments incoming.

Sri Lanka only has 9,000 metric tons of diesel and 6,000 metric tons of petrol admitted Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera, enough for only a few more days.

Sri Lankan police have reportedly arrested two women in Amparai under the country’s archaic anti-LGBT laws that continue to criminalise homosexuality across the island.

The two women, an Indian Tamil woman and a local Muslim woman from Akkaraipattu have subsequently admitted into Kalmunai Base Hospital where they will reportedly be subjected to a “psychiatric evaluation”.

The arrest comes as pride was being celebrated around the world, including in Colombo and Jaffna. However, the Sri Lankan government continues to criminalise homosexuality.

As anti-government protests in Colombo continue, senior US officials from the State Department and US Treasury met with embattled Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa today, to discuss the island’s worsening economic crisis.

Robert Kaproth, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Asia, and Kelly Keiderling, South and Central Asian Affairs Bureau Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy, joined US Ambassador Julie Chung to meet with Rajapaksa in Colombo.

At least one teacher and as many as six male students belonging to a school in Mullaitivu have been arrested on charges relating to the sexual abuse, extortion, and exploitation of underage school girls. 

The disgraced teacher served as the designated Development Officer at the school. He now stands accused of coordinating several acts of sexual violence against underage school girls. The teacher reportedly wielded his influence to encourage male students, aged 17-18, to develop intimate relationships with young school girls. The boys were able to acquire nude photos and videos of the victims, which then appear to have been shared with the teacher. 

The Fitch Ratings credit rating agency has issued another downgrade for the Bank of Ceylon’s (BOC) Long- and Short-Term Foreign Currency (FC) Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) to 'RD' (Restricted Default) from 'CC' and 'C', respectively.

The organisation also downgraded the Viability Rating (VR) to 'f' from 'cc' and removed the ratings from Rating Watch Negative (RWN).