Is the Next Pandemic Already Being Mismanaged?

Is the Next Pandemic Already Being Mismanaged?

In early April, a passenger aboard the Dutch expedition cruise ship MV Hondius fell ill with fever and respiratory distress while crossing the South Atlantic. He died on April 11. No tests were conducted. His body was removed from the vessel, and the ship continued its voyage. By early May, health authorities across three continents were scrambling to trace the movements of 147 people from 23 countries who had shared the same cabins and recirculated air. On 2 May 2026, WHO received a formal not


Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

No Justification for holding the Strait of Hormuz Hostage by the Iranian regime

No Justification for holding the Strait of Hormuz Hostage by the Iranian regime

By Reuven Azar, Israel’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka and India. The following is submitted in response to the opinion article by Kazem Gharibabadi, Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs of Iran, titled "The Strait of Hormuz: New Arrangements Under International Law," published in Jaffna Monitor. The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world's most vital maritime corridors. Roughly one-fifth of global oil trade passes through this narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to th


Reuven Azar

Reuven Azar

Drug Use Confirmed in Deadly Kilinochchi Motorcycle Crash That Killed Mother

Drug Use Confirmed in Deadly Kilinochchi Motorcycle Crash That Killed Mother

KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka — A youth hospitalized after a deadly motorcycle crash that killed a 32-year-old mother in Sri Lanka's Northern Province has admitted to police that he was riding the motorcycle involved in the collision, after initially claiming he had only been traveling as a pillion passenger, police sources told Jaffna Monitor on Tuesday. The crash, which occurred Monday on the Uruthirapuram-Karadipokku road in Kilinochchi district, killed Kagitha Shanmugam, who was on her way to pick


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Selective Justice and Sri Lanka’s Unfinished Republic — A Letter to the President
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake with Ampitiye Sumana Thero, who is facing an ongoing ICCPR case over alleged anti-Tamil remarks.

Selective Justice and Sri Lanka’s Unfinished Republic — A Letter to the President

Mr President, As Sri Lanka marked fifty-four years as a Republic a few days ago, it should have been a moment for honest reflection: on sovereignty, on democracy, and on whether this country has truly upheld its promise of equal dignity to all who call it home. It is in that spirit, and with deep disappointment, that I write this. I am an Attorney-at-Law. I am also one of the complainants in the ICCPR case against Ampitiye Sumanarathana Thera, now before the High Court of Batticaloa. And I am


Dhanuka Rananjaka Kahandagamage

Dhanuka Rananjaka Kahandagamage

Sri Lanka Should Not Import the Middle East’s Hatreds

Sri Lanka Should Not Import the Middle East’s Hatreds

By: Soraya M Deen Sri Lanka is witnessing the rise of a dangerous ideology disguised as virtue: antizionism that increasingly spills into outright antisemitism. As a Muslim, I find it exhausting and deeply alarming. I have watched its ugly tentacles spread into my homeland thousands of miles away from the Middle East. First, there was hostility toward Israeli tourists visiting Sri Lanka. Then came campaigns against a Chabad house, as if Jewish worship itself was somehow offensive. Now Sri Lan


Soraya M. Deen

Soraya M. Deen

Young Mother Dies After Motorcycle Crash With Stunt Rider in Kilinochchi

Young Mother Dies After Motorcycle Crash With Stunt Rider in Kilinochchi

KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka — A 32-year-old mother was killed Sunday when a motorcycle ridden by a youth, allegedly performing dangerous stunts on a public road, struck her motorcycle head-on in Kilinochchi district, in Sri Lanka's Northern Province, police said. The victim, identified as Kagitha Shanmugam, was riding from Uruthirapuram toward Karadipokku to pick up her 7-year-old daughter from school when the crash occurred on the road connecting the two towns. Witnesses described the impact as ho


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE

THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE

ANURADHAPURA, Sri Lanka — She was eleven years old, by her own account, when her mother first brought her to the private residential quarters inside one of the holiest Buddhist precincts in the world. She was fourteen when she told police what happened there. The man she named is Pallegama Hemarathana Thero, 71, the Atamasthanadhipathi — Chief Prelate and Custodian of the Eight Sacred Sites of Anuradhapura, and the senior-most administrative authority over the Sri Maha Bodhi: the sacred fig tr


Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Tamils Caught Between the JVP and Their Traditional Tamil Party Leadership

Tamils Caught Between the JVP and Their Traditional Tamil Party Leadership

By M.R. Narayan Swamy “If we have to vote, who should get our vote?” a middle-aged Tamil man asked a friend at a social event in Jaffna. The innocuous query betrayed a sense of confusion that prevails in the minds of many Tamils in Sri Lanka, nearly two years after they jolted the traditional Tamil parties in parliamentary elections almost everywhere. Tamils admit they have always seen the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the country’s dominant ruling party, as a Sinhala-Buddhist entity. But


M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy