Climate change impacts: Women in Sri Lanka often bearing the brunt of violence as increasingly frequent heatwaves, droughts, floods and storms exacerbate economic hardship
With drought and erratic rains depleting harvests, women farmers in Sri Lanka tell of beatings by husbands as incomes shrink. DIMUTHU ATTANAYAKE, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports…
Foreign volunteers replace workers who fled Israeli farms under fire
Hatsav, Israel Reuters Rather than stretch out under the Caribbean sun, Mark Landsman has been spending his vacation picking tomatoes in Israel, unpaid and in striking range of Palestinian rockets. The New Jersey man, among thousands of foreigners who have come to southern Israeli farms emptied of labourers by more than three months of war in the Gaza […]
Sri Lanka passes new law to regulate online content
Colombo, Sri Lanka Reuters Sri Lanka’s lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill to regulate online content, the speaker of the parliament announced, a law which opposition politicians and activists allege will muzzle free speech. The Online Safety Bill proposes jail terms for content that a five-member commission considers illegal and making social media platforms such […]
Thousands of Sri Lankan workers set to depart for Israel despite war
Colombo, Sri Lanka Reuters Supermarket manager Laknath Dias says the economic crisis in his native Sri Lanka is too much for him to bear. He is getting ready to fly to Israel in December to work as a farmhand for nearly 10 times the pay, despite the war with Hamas. Dias is among 20,000 workers […]
Sri Lankan protesters demand justice for 2019 Easter attacks
Colombo, Sri Lanka AP Thousands of Sri Lankans held a protest in the capital on Friday, demanding justice for the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed nearly 270 people. The protesters demanded that the government uncover who they said were the real conspirators behind the attacks on three churches – two […]
South Asia home to world’s highest number of child brides – UN
New Delhi, IndiaReuters South Asia is home to highest number of child brides in the world as increased financial pressures and school closures due to COVID-19 forced families to marry off their young daughters, according to new estimates released by UNICEF on Wednesday. There were 290 million child brides in the region, accounting for 45 […]
“Life is difficult”: Sri Lanka’s economic crisis leaves elderly homeless and penniless
PIYUMI FONSEKA, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports that an economic meltdown has forced some elderly people onto the streets as their families can no longer afford to care for them…
Sri Lanka marks independence anniversary amid economic woes
Colombo, Sri Lanka AP Sri Lanka marked its 75th independence anniversary on Saturday as a bankrupt nation, with many citizens angry, anxious and in no mood to celebrate. President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has started to improve some but not all of the acute shortages, acknowledged the somber state of the nation, saying in a televised speech, “We […]
Sri Lanka church seeks criminal justice for Easter bombings
Colombo, Sri LankaAP Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church urged the country Friday to criminally prosecute its former leader for negligence, a day after the top court ordered him to pay compensation to the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed nearly 270 people. Two local Muslim groups that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State […]
Essay: Mad world – global flashpoints to watch in 2023 in the era of ‘polycrisis’
In an article first published on The Conversation, SUSAN HARRIS RIMMER, director of the Policy Innovation Hub at the Griffith Business School in Australia, looks at what we can expect in 2023 after a year in which we saw “some of the most shocking humanitarian scenes in modern history”…