_{Photo credit (Twitter: @PragasGnanam)}

Following a recent meeting of the Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF), attended by Sri Lanka’s Foreign Secretary and State Minister Tharaka Balasuriya, the Secretary of the JAAF claimed that progress was being made and expressed optimism over the continuation over the GSP+ trading arrangement.

Speaking in Parliament, former Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe admitted that the Government of India had alerted Sri Lanka’s Police intelligence service of the Easter Sunday attacks hours prior to the incident however the police failed to act.

Over 270 people lost their lives during the attack and a further 500 were injured.

Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU)’s secretary, Joseph Stalin and 15 other union members who were arrested and kept at the Keppapulavu Air Force camp, were released on Friday morning following mounting condemnation of their detention.

Sri Lankan President, and accused war criminal, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed convicted Murder and former MP Duminda Silva as the chairman of the National Housing Development Authority.

Earlier this week, Britain’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Sarah Hulton, meet with Sri Lanka’s Minister for Youth and Sports, Namal Rajapaksa, where they reportedly discussed “online harms facing women, girls and vulnerable groups, human rights issues, and youth and sport opportunities”.

Aadi Pirappu was celebrated on Saturday 17th July across the North-East. 

Vavuniya 

Special Aadi Pirappu celebrations were organised by the Vavuniya Municipal Council, near the statue of Navaliyoor Somasundara Pulavar in Vavuniya.

Qatari authorities deported a Tamil man to Sri Lanka this week despite the threats of torture; where the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) arrested him for allegedly “promoting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)”. 

The Tamil Nadu Forest Department has confiscated 300 kilograms of banned sea cucumbers that were to be smuggled to Sri Lanka. They have also arrested and jailed seven persons involved in the smuggling incident and seized over 24 boats worth over 2 million rupees used for smuggling. 

Following the appointment of Basil Rajapaksa to the position of Finance Minister, Germany’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Holger Seubert, meet with the Finance Minister despite ongoing human rights violations.

Sri Lankan Minister of Public Security, Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara, has called for mandatory military training for those above the age of 18, despite increasing concerns over the intensifying militarisation of the state. 

The Batticaloa District Tamil Journalists Association has written a letter to Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa demanding to ensure press freedom in the island. 

This comes following the Terrorism Investigation Department’s (TID) interrogation of Selvakumar Nilanthan, a journalist based in Batticaloa.

The subject line of the letter read, “Stop suppression of journalism! Ensure protection of journalists!!”

Surgeons at Mullaitivu District Hospital performed the hospital's first successful knee replacement surgery on Tuesday.