The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has entered in collaboration with The University of Jaffna, to launch 'The Project for Research and Education Capacity improvement in Dry Zone Agriculture at University of Jaffna’.

The Sri Lankan government has decided to pay USD $6.7 million to the Chinese fertiliser company Seawin Biotech Group in a bid to settle the fertiliser dispute. 

Agricultural Minister Mahindananda Aluthhamage, announced on the 14 December that the payment would be made, the vast majority of it is made up of a USD $5 million cash deposit placed by the company.

Following a historic visit to Jaffna Library, Nallur Kandaswamy Temple, and meeting fishermen in Mannar, China's ambassador to Sri Lanka met with the leader of Sri Lanka's opposition Sajith Premadasa and donated 8 kidney dialysis machines worth an estimated Rs. 20 million to hospitals across the North-East provinces.

_{Sri Lankan Military administers vaccines in Mannar}

Starting 1 January, Sri Lankan authorities will require the public to show COVID-19 vaccination certificates if they wish to enter public places.

Tourism minister Prasanna Ranatunga announced Sri Lanka’s sudden switch from gradually opening up the country to now re-imposing mandates. 

The Australian government has come under criticism after the launch of a website that includes video games and a film competition, supposedly to deter asylum seekers from Sri Lanka fleeing the island.

The website – www.zerochance.lk – includes a Pacman-style video game where the player attempts to reach Australia by boat and is “caught by border patrol”, has their boat hit by a storm, or a number of other tragic endings.

Shritharan Sivagnanam, a parliamentarian of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), denounced the growing presence of China in the Tamil homeland in light of the recent visit made by the Chinese Ambassador to Jaffna and Mannar. 

This week marked 21 years since the Mirusuvil massacre, where Sri Lankan soldiers murdered eight Tamil civilians in Jaffna, including three children, before dumping their bodies in a mass grave.

Earlier this month, the US State Department announced that Sunil Rathnayake, one of the soldiers involved in the massacre, would be barred from entry to the United States over his role in the killings.

Locals in Jaffna have lodged a complaint to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, stating that a drunken Sri Lankan police officer entered a home in Kayts last week and assaulted the occupants, including a woman and a 17-year-old child.

The assault reportedly happened after Sri Lankan officers conducted a raid in the region and detained a 17-year-old Tamil child over an alleged theft.

The United States has donated 820,000 additional Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccines to Sri Lanka's Ministry of Health. The US has now donated a total of 3.4 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, and USAID has provided $17.9 million to Sri Lanka's Ministry of Health. 

"The United States supports Sri Lanka's ongoing efforts to vaccinate as many people as possible," said U.S. Chargé d'Affaires Martin Kelly.  

Sri Lanka’s Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), the union for Doctors across Sri Lanka, began their strike in five provinces; Mannar, Trincomalee, Nuwara Eliya, Ratnapura, and Polonnaruwa today. After failing to be heard by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health, the doctors will now engage in an island-wide strike against the “military mentality” and “adamant and egoistic attitude” of Sri Lanka’s Secretary of Health.