NEXT Manufacturing, a British-owned apparel exporter operating in Sri Lanka since 1978, has announced the indefinite closure of its Katunayake Production Plant, citing rising operational costs and persistent unprofitability, in a blow to Sri Lanka’s already struggling economy.

Two women have been arrested following the discovery of a gold-plated T56 assault rifle at the Havelock City housing complex in Colombo. The arrests were made after a security officer at the complex reported the presence of the weapon to the police.

Israel’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Reuven Javier Azar, paid a courtesy call on Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary, Air Vice Marshal Sampath Thuyacontha (Retd), at the Ministry of Defence in Sri Jayawardenepura, Kotte. 

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Public Security, Ananda Wijepala, delivered a damning statement in Parliament, confirming that multiple senior politicians are linked to organised criminal syndicates, including groups involved in drug trafficking, contract killings, and international crime networks.

Marking sixteen years since the Mullivaikkal genocide, the Mullivaikkal Remembrance Public Forum released a statement on 18 May 2025, reaffirming the Tamil nation’s unwavering commitment to justice, self-determination, and resistance against continued structural oppression by the Sri Lankan state.

Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) leader and Jaffna District MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has sharply criticised the Sri Lankan government’s latest move to seize thousands of acres of land in the North, accusing it of using bureaucratic manoeuvres as a pretext to advance Sinhala-Buddhist colonisation and displace Tamils from their homeland.

Tamil residents from Valikamam North submitted a formal petition to the Governor of the Northern Province on May 18, urging the immediate release of lands that remain under prolonged Sri Lankan military occupation.

The UN's humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher has said that 14,000 babies could die in the next 48 hours if aid is not let into Gaza.

A complete human skeleton has been unearthed during excavation works at the Sindhubath Hindu cremation grounds in Chemmani, Jaffna, intensifying suspicions that the site may be the location of a mass grave dating back to the mid-1990s, a period marked by extensive Sri Lankan military operations across the Tamil homeland.

A commemoration event to mark the massacres at Mullivaikkal was held at Wellawatte beach in Colombo on May 18, but faced a heavy Sri Lankan police presence and opposition from the Sinhala nationalist Sinhala Ravaya group. 

An attempt by a Colombo-based team to carry out a land survey for potential mineral sand mining in a privately-owned coastal property in the Pesalai 50-housing scheme area of Mannar was thwarted this week following local Tamil resistance.

Speaking at a remembrance event held in Neduntheevu to mark the 40th anniversary of the Kumuthini massacre, Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) Member of Parliament M.A. Sumanthiran condemned continued genocide denial by senior Sri Lankan politicians

Tamils in Belgium commemorated the tens of thousands of Tamils that were slaughtered by the Sri Lankan military in the 2009 genocide. 

On May 18, Tamils gathered outside the Operaplein in Antwerp, and laid flowers in memory of those who perished in Mullivaikkal.