President Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued a notice prohibiting anyone from being on any public road, in a park, on trains, or on the seashore, unless they have written permission from the authorities....Social media sites have been blocked, including Facebook and Twitter.WhatsApp is also down...Thursday's protest outside President Rajapaksa's Colombo house began peacefully, but participants said things turned violent after police fired tear gas, water cannons and also beat people present.Protesters retaliated against the police by pelting them with stones.At least two dozen police personnel were reportedly injured
CNN:
For weeks, Sri Lanka has been battling its worst economic crisis since the island nation gained independence in 1948, leaving food, fuel, gas and medicine in short supply, and sending the cost of basic goods skyrocketing....After winning the presidential election [in 2019, President] Rajapaksa appointed his brother, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as Prime Minister and filled dozens of government roles with serving or former military and intelligence personnel, according to the UN. Their younger brother, Basil Rajapaksa, was later appointed finance minister.
CNBC:
India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was in Sri Lanka this week to offer help to the struggling Sri Lankan economy in an attempt to pry it away from a decades-long Chinese embrace.
Sri Lanka’s two-year-old economic crisis comes after two decades of heavy Chinese investment