Mitoe Matsumoto was three years and four months old when an atomic bomb exploded over Nagasaki at 11.02am on 9 August 1945. Eighty-one years later, the 84-year-old Japanese survivor says the experience
In the history of modern science, few figures embody the intersection of discovery, identity and institutional struggle as profoundly as Abdus Salam. Born on January 29, 1926, and remembered for his groundbreaking
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A historic and bloody conflict took place 269 years ago at a place called Palashi, on the banks of the Bhagirathi River, about 50 kilometers north of Krishnanagar in Nadia district of
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Michael Heseltine spent six decades at the centre of British political life, occupying some of the highest offices of state and becoming one of the Conservative Party’s most recognisable figures. Yet, at
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Another of the five police stations captured by the rebels during the April 1971 uprising was the Warakapola Police Station in the Kegalle District. The rebels who captured the Warakapola Police Station
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In the remote northern region of Coahuila, Mexico, a small community is fighting to preserve a history that crosses borders and centuries. El Nacimiento, a rural village near the Sierra de Santa
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The discovery and continuing excavation of human remains at the Chemmani mass grave in northern Sri Lanka have intensified demands for answers from the government and renewed calls for international attention to
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The deeper we explore humanity’s past, the harder it becomes to sustain some of the most powerful political myths of the modern world. For more than a century, authoritarian ideologies have sought
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In a March 2026 paper published in the journal Science Advances, which focused on variability in governance along the autocratic-democratic axis, my coauthors and I found that one of the strongest associations for the 40
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In the mid-1980s, as Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict moved toward a more dangerous phase, US intelligence analysts assessed that Colombo faced a difficult choice: pursue a negotiated settlement with Tamil militants or
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Drawing on historical examples and contemporary political trends, an analysis argues that modern right-wing populist movements rely on updated forms of propaganda that challenge shared realities, reshape public debate, and thrive in
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French rabbi and author Delphine Horvilleur has said that Jews “have learned from history that they will never find peace,” in a wide-ranging interview published by El País, where she reflects on
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35 years ago, in 1991, I was selected to one of the prestigious sea appointments in Sri Lanka Navy. After a short familiarisation course, I was appointed to P 467 (old pennant
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I write from Isfahan, the third-largest city in Iran and the second-most impacted by the recent war. Since the ceasefire on 8 April 2026, we Iranians finally got a break from fighter jets flying
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Some time ago, I received an invitation from my Sri Lankan friend Ramani to join a WhatsApp group of Sri Lankans, who had studied Russian at the Pushkin Institute in Moscow at
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The following essay is based on the speech delivered by the author at a ceremony held in his honour by the Alumni Organisation of the University of Colombo on 2 June 2026
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