Displaced Tamil landowners of Valikamam North protested at Palaly Junction for a fourth week running, demanding the return of land held by the military for 36 years, as police barred the mostly elderly demonstrators from even erecting a shelter against Jaffna's punishing mid-July sun, days after the government confirmed the land would never be given back.

With the printing presses turning again, its two great foreign-currency lifelines fraying and a fuel bill set to soar as the United States blockades the Strait of Hormuz, Sri Lanka's fragile recovery is being tested from every side, and a debt reckoning in 2028 threatens to tip the island back towards the abyss of 2022.

British Tamil Professor Sir Nishan Canagarajah has been knighted by King Charles at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on Tuesday, formally conferring an honour that caps a remarkable journey for the University of Leicester's vice-chancellor, from wartime Jaffna to the upper reaches of British public life.

Former Sri Lankan state minister and paramilitary leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, widely known as Pillayan, has been further remanded until 24 July as the Criminal Investigation Department continues its probe into five killings in Batticaloa in 2008.

The death toll from the deadly clashes at Negombo Prison has risen to 31 after two more prison officers died while receiving treatment at the National Hospital in Colombo.

Last week saw the second deadliest episode of prison violence in Sri Lanka's history. Only the massacre of Tamil political prisoners at Welikada in 1983 has claimed more lives inside a Sri Lankan jail. It is a record the state should be haunted to approach.

A fresh attempt to acquire Tamil land in Vadamaradchi East for reported Sri Lankan military use was suspended on Thursday after the landowner, local residents and activists intervened to block the survey.

Sri Lanka's deputy defence minister has told parliament that land held within the Palaly High Security Zone deemed vital to national security will not be returned to its Tamil owners, and that a further 1,661 acres are to be permanently acquired for the military, with still more sought to expand the airport, even as displaced families across the North-East enter their third month of weekly protests demanding their land back.

For Toronto-based dancer Kajaanan Navaratnam, an early connection to Tamil culture became the foundation for an international performance career, eventually leading him to one of the biggest sporting events in the world: the FIFA World Cup 2026 opening ceremony in Canada.

Residents of Valikamam North staged their twelfth consecutive weekly protest on Friday outside the Sri Lankan military commander's bungalow at Myliddy, demanding the release of the privately owned ancestral land that remains occupied under the High Security Zone (HSZ).