The parliament selected former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the country’s next president after his predecessor fled the country last week and resigned by email.

The island nation of 22 million people is facing an economic crisis with shortages of medicine, fuel, and food.

Joining the discussion:

• Nishan De Mel is an economist and the Executive Director of Verite Research.
• Dayan Jayatilleka served as the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva and is currently a columnist for Daily FT.

According to the World Health Organization, the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of Omicron are fueling a global surge in COVID-19 cases.

Joining the discussion:

• Scott Ratzan is the Executive Director of Business Partners to CONVINCE.
• Jeffrey Lazarus is a Professor with the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. 

For more:

Protesters and people on Sri Lanka's new president and the country's issues https://t.co/sKDRnlrVdC

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) July 20, 2022

BREAKING | IMF hopes to complete Sri Lanka aid talks 'as quickly as possible'https://t.co/Q6Q05zxfHv#SriLanka #SriLankaCrisis #IMF

— Nikkei Asia (@NikkeiAsia) July 20, 2022

He knows you’re tired of COVID-19. But @UCSF chair of medicine Dr. @Bob_Wachter tells @ceelei that with the stubborn new variant BA.5 and the threat of long COVID, which his wife @katiehafner has, the boring old advice still holds.

🎧 Listen: https://t.co/LgD7ZpYubw

— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) July 13, 2022