Residents of Kinniyadi in the Valaichchenai region staged a protest last week, blocking a vehicle transporting excavated soil in opposition to a contentious land excavation project that locals claim is being carried out under the false pretext of a fish farming initiative.

Preparations are underway at Mullivaikkal memorial ground ahead of Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day which is marked by Tamils in the homeland and the diaspora.

Every year, Tamils gather at the memorial ground on May 18 to commemorate the 169,796 people who went unaccounted for in the final phase of the armed conflict. 

Two Tamil farmers have been remanded in custody while a 16-year-old student was released on bail, following their arrest near Kurunthurmalai, after a complaint lodged by a Sinhala Buddhist monk.

Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) leader and Member of Parliament Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has hailed the results of Sri Lanka’s recent local government elections as a clear mandate in favour of Tamil nationalism, stating that the outcome represents a resounding rejection of ‘Sinhalese majoritarianism’ from the South.

Tamil landowners in Valikamam North staged a protest today, on full moon day, against the illegal Thaiyiddy Vihara built on their seized land, amid heavy police presence

PKK, also known as the Kurdistan Workers Party announced plans to disband and disarm, potentially bringing 40 years of conflict with Turkiye to an end. 

The move followed a call in February by the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan for the group to lay down its arms. In a letter written from prison, Ocalan said, 

Escalating atrocities in Gaza present an urgent moral crossroads and States must act now to end the violence or bear witness to the annihilation of the Palestinian population in Gaza – an outcome with irreversible consequences for our shared humanity and multilateral order, UN experts warned, demanding immediate international intervention.

The Tamil Genocide Monument, dedicated to the victims and survivors of the genocide perpetrated by the Sri Lankan state in the final phase of the armed conflict, was inaugurated in Brampton, Canada on May 10. 

Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a borough in Montreal, has passed a motion recognising May 18 as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day. 

The motion was passed on May 5 and comes as the Tamil nation marks 16 years since the genocide at Mullivaikkal, where an estimated 169,796 people were killed by the Sri Lankan army in the final days of the armed conflict.