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The government has introduced a new circular aimed at regulating all programmes organised for the upcoming Vesak season, including Vesak zones and Dansals, with authorities moving to prohibit activities deemed inappropriate for the religious festival.

Speaking at a media briefing at the Department of Government Information, Minister of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Hiniduma Sunil Senevi said that events such as head-banging programmes and haunted houses will not be allowed during Vesak celebrations.

He further announced that organisers of Dansals have been instructed to use yellow flags instead of Buddhist flags, as part of the new regulatory framework.

According to the Minister, the programme will be implemented jointly by the All Ceylon Shasanarakshaka Bala Mandalaya and relevant state institutions, with special guidelines issued covering Dansals, Vesak decorations, road safety, and public safety.

Authorities will also take steps to prevent inappropriate decorations and displays, while strengthening coordination with security forces throughout the Vesak period.

The State Vesak Festival will be held under the theme “Let’s rally together for the common good”, focusing on social responsibility through Amisa and Prathipatti Pooja programmes, he said.

The main festival is scheduled to commence on May 27 at the Midellawala Purana Viharaya, with the participation of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

A series of islandwide programmes will then continue across the Matara District for one week until June 2.

Chief Secretary of the All Ceylon Shasanarakshaka Bala Mandalaya, Venerable Mugunuwela Anuruddha, said several religious and community development initiatives will also be carried out alongside this year’s Vesak celebrations, including the development of temples and monasteries in the Matara District.

He also noted that a delegation from Vietnam is expected to take part in this year’s Vesak festivities, adding an international dimension to the religious observances.

Relentless adverse weather conditions continuing across the island have left hundreds of homes damaged and thousands of residents affected, according to the latest update from the Disaster Management Centre (DMC).

The DMC reported that 200 houses have suffered partial damage due to the ongoing inclement weather, with the worst impact recorded in the Kalutara District, where 90 homes were damaged.

Several other districts have also reported damaged properties. Authorities confirmed that 25 houses were partially damaged in both Batticaloa District and Gampaha District, while 22 houses were affected in Ratnapura District.

Meanwhile, 14 damaged houses were reported from Galle District. Additional incidents of property damage were recorded in Monaragala District, Colombo District, Jaffna District, Hambantota District, Anuradhapura District, Mannar District and Trincomalee District.

The DMC further stated that one house was completely destroyed in the Ratnapura District as severe weather conditions continued to batter several regions.

Overall, the disaster situation has affected 1,582 families across the country. According to officials, 5,267 individuals belonging to those families have been impacted by the prevailing weather conditions.

The affected residents have been reported from 66 Divisional Secretariat divisions islandwide, as authorities continue to monitor the evolving situation.

The ‘‘National War Heroes’ Commemoration Ceremony,’’ is scheduled to be held today (19) at the Parliamentary Grounds in front of the National War Hero’s Monument in Battaramulla, under the patronage of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.  

The police have announced a special traffic management plan to be implemented during the event.

Accordingly, vehicular traffic will be limited along Parliament Road from Polduwa (Diyatha Uyana) junction to Keangnam junction Battaramulla from 3.30 pm today till conclusion of the National War Heroes’ commemoration. 

Alternative routes:

• Vehicles exiting Colombo via the Parliamentary Road may proceed through Polduwa Junction, Battaramulla, Palanthuna, and Keangnam Junction.    
• Vehicles entering Colombo from Keangnam Junction may travel via Palanthuna and Battaramulla.  
• Vehicles arriving from Rajamalwatta via Bodhiraja Mawatha may proceed to Battaramulla Road and continue along their required routes.

Parking arrangements for buses and trucks:

• From Japan Sri Lanka Friendship Road Junction to Kimbulāwala Junction.    
• From the Ceylon Electricity Board area along Japan Sri Lanka Friendship Road up to Pelawatta.

(Adaderana.lk)

Iam deeply saddened and devastated to hear of the passing of DBS Jeyaraj, undoubtedly one of the finest journalists Sri Lanka has ever produced.

DBS, as he was often referred to, was not merely a journalist. He was a true legend of his profession, whose commitment was extraordinary and unwavering. In an era where many compromised, DBS remained fiercely dedicated to truth, detail, and the pursuit of a story, with remarkable courage and conviction.

To me personally, he was also a damn good colleague and friend. What I will remember most about DBS is his instinctive desire to stand by the underdog and his ability to remain human despite the many complexities of our country and its politics.

Sri Lanka has lost a truly exceptional son and journalism has lost one of its greats.

DBS was a book. An entire newspaper’s worth of space would be necessary to write a review that does justice to his story. That is for later.

My heartfelt sympathies go to Mrs Jeyaraj and her family. Your husband was a true legend and his place in Sri Lankan journalism will remain firmly entrenched. He loved Sri Lanka in an extraordinary way and was a proud Sri Lankan.

Meta Platforms is rolling out a new “Incognito Chat” feature for its artificial intelligence assistant on WhatsApp messaging service, the company said on Wednesday, as it looks to address data privacy concerns.

Meta said incognito chats will be powered by its private processing technology, ensuring conversations remain invisible to anyone, including the company itself.

“Your conversations are not saved and by default, your messages disappear — giving you a space to think and explore ideas without anyone ⁠watching,” the company said in a blog post.

The move comes as people often share sensitive personal, financial, health or work-related information with AI assistants, despite privacy concerns about how their data could be stored or used by the companies.

“We’re starting to ask a lot of meaningful questions about our lives with AI systems. It doesn’t always feel like you should have to share the information behind those questions with the companies that run those AI systems,” Head ⁠of WhatsApp Will Cathcart said in a media briefing.

According to a company website, messages people share with Meta AI may be used by the social media company to improve its AI models, but personal chats on WhatsApp remain protected by end-to-end encryption ⁠and are not accessible for that purpose.

For now, incognito chat is text-only, meaning users will not be able to upload images, Cathcart said.

He added that the AI will ⁠also have built-in safety guardrails, refusing to answer problematic questions or steering conversations in different directions.

Meta said it also plans to introduce “Side Chat” with ⁠Meta AI in the coming months, a feature that will allow users to get private assistance within any chat on WhatsApp.

Source: Reuters

Seventeen years after the guns fell silent, Sri Lanka is still stuck between the illusion of peace and the reality of unresolved injustice. The military defeat of the LTTE in May 2009 ended nearly three decades of bloodshed, terror, and destruction. Roads were rebuilt, railways restored, cities modernised, and infrastructure expanded across the former battle zone. The visible scars of war have, to some extent, faded. Yet beneath the surface lies a harder truth that wars may be won on the battlefield, but peace must be built in the hearts and minds of people. That peace remains painfully incomplete.

For many in the South, the end of the war marked liberation from fear and uncertainty. For many Tamils in the North and the East, however, the end of the conflict did not bring closure, dignity, or equality. Instead, many continue to live with grief, suspicion, militarisation, and a lingering sense that they remain second-class citizens in their own country.

The roots of the ethnic conflict were never purely military. They lay in decades of political exclusion, language discrimination, broken promises, and the refusal to meaningfully share power. Policies that marginalised Tamil identity and aspirations created the alienation that ultimately fuelled armed conflict. Seventeen years later, many of those underlying grievances remain unresolved.

Perhaps the deepest wound remains the question of accountability. Families of the disappeared still search for answers. Mothers continue protests in the North demanding justice for loved ones who never returned. Allegations of grave human rights abuses, particularly during the final stages of the war, remain largely unaddressed.

The failure to act even on straightforward and symbolic cases has reinforced distrust. The Chemani mass grave is one such example. Allegations that scores of Tamils killed during the conflict were buried there demand credible, transparent investigation. Yet there is little confidence that justice will ever be delivered.

This is why the presidency of Anura Kumara Dissanayake carried such historic promise. He came to power with a once-in-a-generation mandate from both the North and the South. Unlike many traditional political leaders, neither he nor his party are tainted by allegations of wartime abuses. On the contrary, they themselves have experienced State repression and violence. Many believed this gave him both the moral authority and political opportunity to reshape Sri Lanka’s future and build a genuinely inclusive nation.

Yet two years into his presidency, the reconciliation agenda appears stalled. There has been little movement toward constitutional reform or meaningful power-sharing. The political courage required to address the national question remains absent. Symbolic gestures and rhetoric cannot substitute for structural change. Without concrete measures to devolve power, strengthen minority protections, and address wartime accountability, reconciliation risks becoming another empty slogan.

The tragedy is that opportunities such as this do not come often. Sri Lanka today is exhausted by economic crisis, corruption, and decades of division. There is a broad public appetite for a new political culture that moves beyond ethnic nationalism and majoritarian triumphalism. A durable peace requires not merely the absence of war, but the presence of justice, equality, and mutual trust.

History has shown that unresolved grievances do not disappear simply because guns are silent. Nations cannot build unity on selective memory or denial. Seventeen years on, the battlefield is quiet. But the harder battle — for trust, dignity, and equal citizenship — still remains to be won.

(Ft.lk)

A foreign national was arrested in Kollupitiya after police uncovered a stock of allegedly smuggled foreign cigarettes during a targeted raid near Nimalka Gardens.

The operation was carried out by officers attached to the Colombo South Divisional Criminal Investigation Unit, who conducted the raid as part of an ongoing effort to crack down on illegal trade activities in the area.

Police said the suspect was found in possession of 540 sticks of foreign cigarettes believed to have been brought into Sri Lanka unlawfully.

The arrested individual has been identified as a 35-year-old Chinese national, according to police.

Authorities stated that the cigarettes were suspected to have been imported illegally, and investigations are now underway to determine the source and intended distribution of the contraband.

Kollupitiya Police are conducting further investigations into the incident.

A man stands near a small tea shop in Colombo carefully counting a few folded notes before ordering his evening meal. In another part of the country, a mother walks slowly through a supermarket while silently calculating which items she can afford and which ones must be left behind. A university student living away from home stares at a missed call from his parents because he already knows the conversation will somehow return to money. 

These are not extraordinary stories. They are ordinary Sri Lankan moments that quietly reveal how deeply money influences the emotional lives of people.

Society often treats money as either a symbol of greed or a measure of success, but psychologically, money is connected to something far more human. For most people, money is not about luxury cars, expensive hotels, or social media lifestyles. It is about safety, stability, dignity, and peace of mind. 

When people worry about money, they are rarely worried about paper notes themselves. They are worried about whether their children can continue school peacefully, whether there will be enough for medicine during an emergency, or whether tomorrow will become harder than today.

This became painfully visible during Sri Lanka’s recent economic crisis. People who once felt financially stable suddenly experienced fear and uncertainty in ways they had never imagined. 

Families started planning daily life around shortages, fuel queues, electricity cuts, and rising prices. Even individuals with education and employment felt emotionally shaken because financial insecurity affects the human mind in powerful ways. 

The stress was not limited to economics. It slowly entered relationships, conversations, sleeping patterns, and emotional well-being.

Survival, stability and dignity

Psychologists explain that when people experience constant financial pressure, the brain enters a state of survival thinking. In this condition, the mind focuses more on immediate threats and less on creativity, hope, and long-term thinking. 

This is why financial stress often makes people impatient, anxious, emotionally reactive, and mentally exhausted. A father who returns home frustrated after hearing about another price increase may not truly be angry about the price itself. A mother lying awake at night thinking about school expenses is not simply doing calculations. Both are carrying invisible emotional burdens connected to uncertainty and responsibility.

This is one reason why the statement ‘money cannot buy happiness’ can sometimes sound disconnected from reality. Happiness may not be purchasable, but financial instability can certainly damage peace of mind. 

There is a significant difference between luxury and emotional security. Luxury is wanting a more expensive phone or a larger television. Emotional security is knowing that there is enough money available when a parent becomes ill or when a child suddenly needs support. Most ordinary people are not trying to become millionaires. They are simply trying to reduce fear and create stability for themselves and their families.

A three-wheeler driver working late into the night may not be chasing wealth in the glamorous sense society imagines. He may simply want to pay school fees on time and avoid the embarrassment of borrowing money. 

A young woman saving part of her salary carefully each month may not be materialistic. She may simply want independence and the confidence that she can survive difficult situations without depending entirely on others. Money, in many ways, represents the ability to make choices with dignity.

A culture of comparison

At the same time, modern society has created a dangerous emotional confusion about money. Today people no longer compare values, kindness, or character as much as they compare lifestyles. 

Social media has intensified this behaviour by turning wealth into a public performance. One person posts photos of a new vehicle, another uploads images from a foreign vacation, and suddenly countless others begin questioning their own progress in life. People start feeling unsuccessful not because they are failing, but because they are constantly exposed to carefully edited versions of other people’s lives.

This culture of comparison creates deep psychological pressure. Some people begin spending beyond their actual capacity simply to maintain appearances. Others hide financial struggles behind smiling photographs and attractive captions. Many young people now feel that success must be visible and publicly displayed in order to be meaningful. 

Unfortunately, this mindset creates emotional exhaustion because the human mind quickly adapts to material improvements. The excitement of expensive purchases fades, salaries become normal over time, and new desires continuously replace old ones. This cycle leaves many people emotionally restless even after achieving financial goals they once believed would make them permanently happy.

That is why some individuals with modest incomes continue to live peacefully and joyfully, while others surrounded by wealth remain anxious and dissatisfied. 

Real wealth is often more psychological than material. A person who can sleep peacefully at night, manage emotions wisely, avoid unnecessary comparison, and maintain healthy relationships may actually be emotionally richer than someone constantly trapped in fear, debt, and social pressure.

The need for holistic financial education

Sri Lankan culture once understood this balance more naturally. In many families, happiness was measured through togetherness, mutual respect, and emotional connection rather than public display. Neighbours supported one another during difficult times, and people were less obsessed with proving success externally. 

Modern culture, however, has gradually replaced contentment with competition. People now feel pressure not only to survive but also to appear successful in the eyes of others. This invisible competition quietly damages emotional well-being because comparison constantly creates the feeling that one’s life is incomplete.

Perhaps this is why society must begin having healthier conversations about money. Children are taught mathematics, science, and language, but very few are taught how to emotionally understand money. 

Financial education should not only focus on earning and spending. It should also teach emotional discipline, self-worth, responsible living, and the difference between genuine needs and social pressure. A person who understands money psychologically is less likely to become controlled by it.

True wealth and wisdom

True financial wisdom is not always about earning the highest salary. Sometimes it is about creating balance, protecting peace of mind, avoiding unnecessary debt, and resisting social pressure. There is dignity in living within one’s means, intelligence in saving carefully, and strength in refusing to measure personal worth through public comparison. 

The richest moments in life are often deeply ordinary: a mother buying schoolbooks without anxiety, a young graduate supporting parents for the first time, a family eating dinner peacefully without discussing unpaid bills, or a father finally sleeping without fear of tomorrow’s expenses.

These moments rarely appear on social media, but psychologically they are priceless because they represent emotional stability. 

Perhaps the real purpose of money is not to make people superior to others, but to reduce fear and create possibility. Money provides breathing space for the human mind, and when people finally experience emotional breathing space, they become more hopeful, patient, creative, and emotionally present in their relationships and communities.

Sri Lanka does not merely need economic recovery. It also needs emotional recovery from the fear and exhaustion created by prolonged uncertainty. People need to rediscover that human value cannot be measured entirely through possessions or income. Money matters because stability matters, and stability protects the human spirit. 

Ultimately, true wealth may not be about becoming someone admired by strangers, but about reaching a stage in life where the mind feels calm, the family feels safe, and the future no longer feels controlled by fear.