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In the next few months Metro buses will go cashless, break out into the provinces, and become electric. After years of plans, not only are buses running, the authorities are planning to sign-up private players too.

As the Bar unanimously opposes extending judges’ terms, the government is doubling down on its constitutional amendment. The president’s office hopes to pass it by September. Lal Wijenayake, a top NPPer, understands they want “certain judges out and certain judges in.”

When a fairly amateur phishing attack targeted the Treasury’s new PDMO, they didn’t notice the glaring red flags. Even after India warned them, they sent another million dollars to a fraudulent bank account.

The Malwatta chapter isn’t inquiring into one of their top monks, arrested on suspicion of child rape. They’re waiting for the courts to determine his culpability. Though the sangha has often called for the disrobing of errant monks in the past, they’re adopting a ‘wait-and-see’ approach now.

The police irregularly transferred an investigation into allegations that Anuradhapura’s top monk raped a child. They didn’t arrest the monk for nearly a month and didn’t inform the child protection authority.

AI and robots are replacing humans in industries from car-manufacturing to financial services. Could apparel be next? It’s unlikely for Sri Lanka, especially as the island focuses on more complex garments. But recruitment may take a hit.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s victory marked a high-water point for Sinhalese nationalism. But the NPP’s recent success in the North shows that its power is receding. Reading Rajesh Venugopal’s 2018 economic history suggests that the structural conditions which sustain this ideology are becoming weaker.

Some Malaiyaha Tamils displaced by Cyclone Ditwah wait for transitional shelters in tents. Many need permanent housing. Their wait, prolonged by bureaucratic bottlenecks and plantation companies’ reluctance to let go of profitable land, exposes how disasters disproportionately harm minority groups.

A review of Richard Simon’s Thomia, subtitled ‘the entangled history of Lanka and her greatest public school’. A history of failed promise and a requiem to Anglophone Lanka, Thomia traces the mighty currents, momentous events, and complex men who forged the fate of independent Sri Lanka.

The Iran war’s fallout is already here, including via higher oil prices and torpedoed ships. Sri Lanka is better placed than in the past to manage the adverse impact, which will depend greatly on the war’s duration. But there are silver linings too.