Following the success of his royally commissioned sonnet for Armistice Day, British-Tamil poet Arji Manuelpillai sat down with Tamil Guardian to discuss his poetry, performances and the transformative power of the arts.

The Jaffna Magistrate’s Court has directed former Sri Lankan president and accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa to submit an affidavit detailing any alleged threats to his life, after he once again failed to appear before the court in connection with the abduction of Lalith Kumar Weeraraju and Kugan Muruganandan.

Fishing communities in Jaffna staged a protest on Friday demanding an end to the continued incursions by Indian fishermen into waters off the Tamil homeland.

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has written to Anura Kumara Dissanayake, raising concerns regarding the Emergency (Miscellaneous Provisions and Powers) Regulations, No.1 of 2025, issued on 28 November.

Sri Lanka’s tea plantations have been left in ruins after Cyclone Ditwah tore across the island last week, uprooting fully grown crops, destroying entire hamlets and pushing thousands of already vulnerable plantation workers into deeper precarity.  The cyclone, described as the worst to strike the island in a century, has killed at over 600 people and affected more than two million, leaving an already fragile economy in tatters.

Sri Lanka’s agricultural sector has suffered extensive devastation following Cyclone Ditwah, with preliminary assessments showing that more than 200,000 hectares of farmland have been damaged across the island, according to a report in The Morning.

Vanni District parliamentarian Thurairasa Ravikaran has raised urgent concerns over what he described as an ongoing attempt by Sinhala groups to encroach on the ancestral lands of Tamil residents in Kokkuthoduvai 15th kattai, a border village in the Mullaitivu–Karaithuraipattu Divisional Secretariat Division.

Moody’s Ratings has warned that the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah will have its most severe fiscal and credit impact on Sri Lanka, citing Colombo’s weak financial position, limited resilience, and high exposure to climate risk.

Sri Lanka has issued fresh landslide and monsoons warnings as the death toll from the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah rose to at least 638, with 191 more still missing and more than two million people affected across the island.

Maravankulam villagers held a candlelight memorial for civilians lost in the recent crisis and handed over collected relief items for distribution to affected families.