News

Sri Lanka Police have issued a warning after receiving reports about organized groups falsely claiming to be senior police officials and targeting institutions in Colombo.

According to the Police Media Division, the suspects have been contacting tourist hotels and private establishments while impersonating high-ranking officers. They have reportedly requested food, financial contributions, and other forms of support under the pretext of organizing official police-related events.

Authorities have launched investigations into these fraudulent activities and are working to identify those responsible.

Police have urged businesses and the public to remain cautious and not to comply with such requests without proper verification. Anyone receiving suspicious calls or having information related to these scams is advised to inform the nearest police station or contact the Senior Superintendent of Police – Colombo Central via 071-8591551.

A comprehensive traffic management programme has been introduced today to facilitate smooth movement ahead of the upcoming ICC Men's T20 World Cup fixture between the Sri Lanka national cricket team and the New Zealand national cricket team in Colombo.

The match is set to begin at 7.00 p.m. tomorrow at the R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium, where a significant turnout of spectators is anticipated.

According to the Sri Lanka Police, traffic restrictions will be enforced on several roads surrounding the stadium to reduce congestion and maintain public safety. Motorists have been encouraged to avoid these areas where possible and cooperate with traffic officers on duty.

The roads affected by the special traffic plan include Vincent Perera Mawatha, Britto Babapulle Place, Sebastian Canal Road, 100-Foot Road, Temple Road, Sri Bodhiraja Mawatha, Maligawatte Lane, Jumma Masjid Road, and Saddharma Mawatha.

Meanwhile, authorities have allocated specific parking locations for spectators. These include the stadium’s main car park, Grandpass Mati Park, Sathosa car park, areas along Sebastian Canal Road, Applewatte, Kovil Road, and both sides of the 100-Foot Road.

To further strengthen security during the event, police officers and intelligence personnel, including those in plain clothes, will be deployed in and around the venue. Officials emphasized that these measures are intended to ensure the safety of spectators and minimize disruptions during the international cricket encounter.

A powerful winter blizzard that hit the north-eastern US has left two dead in Maryland and continues to delay flights and cause widespread power outages across the region.

In Calvert County, Maryland, on Sunday afternoon, a vehicle was struck by a falling tree that toppled onto the road way, killing Michael Simpson, 60, and Virginia Quesenberry, 43, the sheriff’s office said.

Parts of Maryland saw as much as 16in (40cm) of snowfall during the storm, while Providence, Rhode Island, saw the biggest blizzard in history with 37.9in of snow.

Travel bans and school closures are still in place for Rhode Island and parts of Massachusetts as residents dig out of the storm.

The hazardous and snowy conditions also led to serious flight disruptions on Monday and Tuesday. Over 5,000 flights were cancelled on Monday, while as of Tuesday morning, over 2,000 flights were cancelled and nearly 1,000 delayed, according to flight tracker FlightAware.

The most heavily affected airports were Boston’s Logan International Airport and New York’s John F Kennedy International and Laguardia airports.

The blizzard was the ninth biggest winter storm in the history of New York City, which recorded over 20in of snow.

On Sunday and Monday, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani enacted a travel ban to keep the roads clear from dangerous conditions. He said 2,600 sanitation workers were plowing roads, plus an additional 1,400 emergency snow shovelers who were clearing sidewalks and bus stops.

The city went back to in-person schooling on Tuesday, while parts of neighbouring states of New Jersey and Pennsylvannia announced school delays and virtual learning.

In Boston, Massachusetts, the blizzard led news outlet Boston Globe to halt printing of its newspaper for the first time in 153 years because conditions made it impossible to make paper deliveries on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday morning, 250,000 people in Massachusetts were still without power, according to poweroutage.us.

In the small coastal town of Scituate, Massachusetts, officials said on Monday that half the town was without electricity, and that residents “should expect several days without power” as powerful winds would make it challenging for companies to restore power.

The so-called “nor’easter” has now moved away from the US and across coastal parts of eastern Canada, though strong winds are expected to persist, according to the National Weather Service.

Source:adaderana.lk

The Department of Meteorology has predicted that showers or thundershowers may develop in parts of the Southern Province, as well as in the Ratnapura District and Monaragala District after 2.00 p.m. today (25).

Weather conditions across most other parts of Sri Lanka are expected to remain largely clear and stable throughout the day.

In addition, early morning mist is likely in several regions, including the Central Province, Sabaragamuwa Province, Western Province, and North Western Province, as well as in districts such as Anuradhapura District, Galle District, Matara District, Mannar District, and Vavuniya District.

Authorities have urged the public to remain alert and take necessary safety measures to reduce the risk of damage or injury caused by sudden gusty winds and lightning associated with thunderstorms.

A group of opposition political leaders convened a high-level discussion with former President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday morning in Colombo, aiming to enhance coordination and develop a unified political approach.

The meeting centered on strengthening collaboration among opposition parties while addressing several urgent national matters. Among the key topics discussed were the ongoing controversy surrounding coal procurement, the recent surge in underworld-related killings, and the current shortage of LP gas supplies.

Several senior political figures participated in the talks, including former ministers Udaya Gammanpila, Anura Priyadharshana Yapa, G. L. Peiris, Mahinda Amaraweera, Sagala Ratnayaka, and Thalatha Atukorale.

Sources from the United National Party (UNP) indicated that the discussion forms part of a broader initiative to align opposition policies and ensure a collective response to ongoing national and political challenges.

Gunmen ambushed a police vehicle and killed five officials in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, police said, as the South Asian nation struggles to quell a rising wave of militant attacks and faces renewed border tensions with neighbouring Afghanistan.

The ambush in Kohat city, situated along the border with Afghanistan, comes a day after a drone and gun attack killed three paramilitary troops in the nearby city of Karak.

“Several gunmen attacked a police patrol. A senior officer is among five policemen dead. They also burnt the vehicle,” a Kohat police spokesperson said.

No group claimed responsibility for either of the attacks.

Pakistan carried out air strikes in Afghanistan on Saturday - at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan - in what it said were militant targets responsible for a spate of recent suicide bombings on Pakistani soil.

Kabul and the United Nations have said that the strikes killed at least 13 civilians.

Islamabad has said militant groups have been provided sanctuary in Afghanistan, from where they plan and execute attacks across the border.

Afghanistan has denied the charge, saying the militancy is Pakistan’s internal problem.

“Pakistan’s attack was an act of terror that targeted civilians on Afghan soil and violated Afghanistan’s sovereignty,” Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday.

The districts bordering Afghanistan have long been home to a variety of Islamist militant groups, including the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, who have fought against the state since 2007.

Source: adaderana.lk

Starting on Wednesday (Feb 25), visitors to Britain from 85 countries, including Singapore, must obtain an electronic permit in advance of their trip or they will be barred from travelling, the UK interior ministry said.

The Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme requires all visitors who do not need a visa to enter Britain to purchase a pre-travel permit online at a cost of 16 pounds (US$21.57).

The scheme was introduced in 2023 and extended to European visitors in April last year, but has not been strictly enforced.

However, from Feb 25, it will be mandatory for visitors to the UK to have obtained an ETA to travel.

This means that airlines will prevent passengers from boarding if they do not have an ETA, eVisa or other valid documentation, the interior ministry said.

British and Irish citizens, including dual citizens, as well as those with the right to live in the UK, are exempt from needing an ETA.

“The ETA scheme is a vital part of our work to strengthen the UK’s border security, helping to deliver a more efficient and modern service that works for both visitors and the British public,” migration minister Mike Tapp said.

In October last year, the European Union (EU) began rolling out its much-delayed post-Brexit border security checks for UK nationals entering the bloc. Britain formally left the EU in 2020.

The EU’s Entry/Exit System removes the requirement to manually stamp passports at the EU’s external borders and instead creates digital records.

However, travellers have complained that the new system’s introduction has caused delays at some airports, and industry leaders have expressed concern that full implementation at Easter could cause widespread disruption.

Source: adaderana.lk

Portugal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paulo Rangel, arrived in Sri Lanka this morning (24) to begin a two-day official visit aimed at enhancing bilateral relations between the two nations.

He was accompanied by a delegation of four senior representatives from Portugal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The group landed at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) at 8:35 a.m., arriving from Dubai on Emirates flight EK-650.

Upon arrival, Minister Rangel and his delegation were formally received at the airport’s VIP lounge by Sri Lanka’s Deputy Minister of Ports and Civil Aviation, Janitha Ruwan Kodithuwakku, along with several senior officials representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The visit is expected to support diplomatic engagement and cooperation between Sri Lanka and Portugal across areas of mutual interest.

President Donald Trump’s temporary 15% tariffs to replace those struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court are meant to resolve a problem that many economists say does not exist: a U.S. balance of payments crisis, making them potentially vulnerable to new legal challenges.

Hours after the high court on Friday struck down a huge swath of tariffs Trump had imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the president announced the new duties under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 -- a never-used statute that even his own legal team dismissed as irrelevant months ago.

Collections of the new 15% tariffs began at midnight on Tuesday as IEEPA tariff collections of 10% to 50% halted.

The Section 122 law allows the president to impose duties of up to 15% for up to 150 days on any and all countries to address “large and serious” balance-of-payments deficits and “fundamental international payments problems.”

Trump’s tariff order argued that a serious balance of payments deficit existed in the form of a $1.2 trillion annual U.S. goods trade deficit and a current account deficit of 4% of GDP and a reversal of the U.S. primary income surplus.

Some economists, including former International Monetary Fund First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath, disagreed with the Trump administration’s alarm.

“We can all agree that the U.S. is not facing a balance of payment crisis, which is when countries experience an exorbitant increase in international borrowing costs and lose access to financial markets,” Gopinath told Reuters.

Gopinath rejected the White House’s claim that a negative balance on the U.S. primary income for the first time since 1960 was evidence of a large and serious balance of payment problem.

She attributed the negative balance to a large increase in foreign purchases of U.S. equities and risky assets over the past decade, which outperformed foreign equities over this period.

Mark Sobel, a former U.S. Treasury and IMF official, said that balance of payments crises are more associated with countries that have fixed exchange rates, and noted that the floating-rate dollar has been steady, the 10-year Treasury yield fairly stable, with U.S. stocks performing well.

Josh Lipsky, chair of international economics at the Atlantic Council think tank, agreed, noting that a balance of payments crisis occurred when a country could not pay for what it was importing or was unable to service foreign debt. That was fundamentally different from a trade deficit, he added.

Brad Setser, a currency and trade expert at the Council on Foreign Relations who served as a senior adviser to the U.S. Trade Representative in the Biden administration, took a somewhat contrarian view, arguing in lengthy X posts on Sunday that the Trump administration may have a reasonable case that there is a “large and serious” balance of payments deficit.

He noted that the current account deficit was far higher than when then-president Richard Nixon erected tariffs in 1971 to address a balance of payments crisis, and the U.S. net international investment position is much worse. This “gives the administration a real argument,” in favor of its tariffs, Setser wrote.

The White House, U.S. Treasury and U.S. Trade Representative did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the use of Section 122.

WRONG STATUTE FOR THE JOB

Despite the Trump administration’s new focus on balance of payments, the Justice Department had previously argued that Section 122 was the wrong statute to handle a national emergency over the trade deficit.

In court filings in its defense of IEEPA tariffs, the Justice Department said Section 122 would not have “any obvious application here, where the concerns the president identified in declaring an emergency arise from trade deficits, which are conceptually distinct from balance-of-payments deficits.”

Neal Katyal, who argued at the Supreme Court on behalf of plaintiffs challenging the IEEPA tariffs, told CNBC that the Trump administration’s stance against the use of Section 122 for a trade deficit will make those tariffs vulnerable to litigation.

“I’m not sure it will necessarily even need to get to the Supreme Court, but if the president adheres to this plan of using a statute that his own Justice Department has said he can’t use, yeah, I think that’s a pretty easy thing to litigate,” Katyal said.

It is unclear who might take the lead in challenging the Section 122 tariffs.

Sara Albrecht, chair of the Liberty Justice Center, a nonprofit, public-interest law firm representing several small businesses that challenged the IEEPA tariffs, said the group would closely monitor any new statutes being invoked.

Albrecht did not reveal any future litigation strategy, adding: “Our immediate focus is simple: making sure the refund process begins and that checks start flowing to the American businesses that paid those unconstitutional duties.”

In its ruling, the Supreme Court did not give instructions regarding refunds, instead remanding the case to a lower trade court to determine next steps.

Source:adaderana.lk

U.S. President Donald Trump will deliver the traditional State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday at a fraught moment for his presidency, with his approval ratings slumping, anxieties rising over Iran, and Americans struggling with the cost of living as the November midterm election nears.

The televised prime-time speech to Congress, his second in the 13 months since returning to the White House, offers Trump a chance to persuade voters to keep Republicans in power. But it comes as he faces stiff political headwinds at home and abroad.

The appearance follows a turbulent few days for his administration, including a Supreme Court decision invalidating his global tariff regime and new data showing the economy slowed more than expected while inflation accelerated.

The Department of Homeland Security is mostly shut down due to a dispute between congressional Republicans and Democrats over the administration’s aggressive immigration tactics, following the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed six in ten Americans, including 30% of Republicans, think Trump has become erratic as he ages.

Meanwhile, Trump has struggled to turn the page on the scandal surrounding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and opposition Democrats have invited several people who accuse Epstein of abusing them to the speech.

A White House official said Trump will announce a plan that would require tech companies to pay increased electricity costs in communities where new AI data centers are being built.

Fox News anchor Bret Baier said Trump will also call for new personal and corporate tax cuts.

A PUBLIC CASE AGAINST IRAN

Trump, who has openly coveted the Nobel Peace Prize and set up his own “Board of Peace,” appears to be inching closer to a military conflict with Iran over its nuclear program, moving warships to the Middle East and developing plans that could include a change of government, according to U.S. officials.

Tuesday’s speech could offer Trump a chance to mount for the first time a public case for military intervention. Two White House officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump will discuss his plans but did not offer details.

He will also tout his record of brokering peace deals, they said. He will be speaking on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a reminder that he has yet to resolve the war he once said he could end “in 24 hours.”

The president is expected to address the Supreme Court’s decision on tariffs, arguing that the court erred and outlining alternative laws he can use to reconstitute most of the levies.

Trump reacted with fury to the ruling last week, targeting several justices with personal attacks. A repeat performance on Tuesday could make for some awkward moments; at least some of the court’s nine justices are expected to attend.

White House aides and Republican campaign advisers, eyeing a challenging congressional midterm election, have urged Trump to focus on Americans’ economic worries. Trump’s victory in the 2024 election was based in large part on his promises to ease the cost of living, but opinion polls show voters are unconvinced by his efforts so far.

Trump has struggled to stay on message, straying in public speeches from the economy to his long list of grievances while at other times declaring he has already solved the problem.

One of the White House officials said Trump will “claim victory on the economy,” a message Republican lawmakers running for reelection are unlikely to welcome. He will argue that he inherited a poor economy from Democratic predecessor Joe Biden and that Democrats have overstated affordability concerns, both officials said.

Trump will point to stock market gains, private-sector investments and his tax cut legislation as evidence that he has helped the economy, the officials said. The president will also tout his tough border policies and his deportation campaign, despite polls showing most Americans believe his administration has gone too far in rounding up undocumented immigrants.

“This is the one opportunity the president has where the whole world is looking at what he has to say, and this is his opportunity to summarize everything that he’s done and not go off script,” said Amanda Makki, a Republican strategist and former Florida congressional candidate.

Trump, who has a propensity for ad-libbing, said on Monday his address would be lengthy. His 100-minute speech last March - technically not a State of the Union speech, but otherwise similar - was the longest presidential address to Congress in modern history.

The White House officials said this year’s edition was crafted with room for unscripted moments.
“We are planning around it,” one official said.

SOME DEMOCRATS OPTING OUT

Last year, some Democrats interrupted Trump’s speech with jeers before walking out in protest. This time around, more than 20 Democrats in the House of Representatives and Senate plan to skip the speech altogether in favor of an outdoor rally on the National Mall.

Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, one of those Democrats, told reporters on Monday the event would offer a more “honest description” of Trump’s record, rather than the “propaganda push” of the speech.

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, whose decisive victory in November was seen as an early midterms warning sign for Republicans, will deliver the official Democratic response to the speech.

Democratic U.S. Senator Alex Padilla of California, who was shoved to the ground and handcuffed last year after attempting to ask a question of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a press conference, will give the Spanish-language rebuttal.

Source:adaderana.lk

Trade unions of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) have once again cautioned the government that they would resort to trade union action as soon as the GCE Ordinary Level examinations conclude, if solutions are not provided to their eight demands and if the liquidation of the CEB is gazetted.

They stated that if a wrong decision is taken for unlawful restructuring without listening to their demands, they would be compelled to take this decision within the next 48 hours, even unwillingly.

The unions further said that if employee issues and energy concerns are ignored, and if a proper energy policy is not established, but instead a gazette notification is issued arbitrarily, they will definitely take this decision without further notice. 

They stressed that this serious decision could gravely affect the country and its citizens, and that the government must bear full responsibility.

The CEB unions added that they are not prepared to carry out such action while children are sitting for the GCE Ordinary Level examinations, and that their restraint is only because the exams are being held.

This was stated at a press conference held in Colombo yesterday (23 Feb) by representatives of the CEB Engineers’ Union, including Executive Committee Member Engineer Sandaruwan Manchanayake; Deputy Chairman of the Technical Engineers and Officers’ Union, Nandana Udaya Kumara; Chairman of the Electrical Technicians’ Union, Kosala Abeysinghe; and General Secretary of the Independent Workers’ Union, Prabath Priyantha. 

The warning comes after employees who have applied for the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) of the CEB recently stated that the CEB Chairman has confirmed the Gazette notification announcing the dissolution of the Board will be issued on February 28.

They had been further informed that the Government will ensure that compensation payments to employees who choose retirement will be disbursed without complications.

 (Source:Newswire)