Chennai – India’s sixth largest city – Has Nearly Run Out of Water, And No One Is Talking About It

This time last year the roughly half-a-million people who live in Cape Town were in a panic. Their city was three months away from becoming the first major metropolis to fully deplete its water sources, and as the saga unfolded, the whole world watched in earnest. Today, in Chennai – India’s sixth largest city – 4.6 million people have all but run out of water, and only now are we beginning to pay attention. Science: Alert

Churches in Stratford, West Ham and Leytonstone targeted in arson attacks

Three churches across east London were targeted in a series of arson attacks, according to church leaders. Archdeacon of West Ham, Elwin Cockett, said he was “shocked and saddened” by the vandalism and arson attacks at three churches yesterday (Wednesday, June 19) – St John’s church in Stratford, St Matthew’s in West Ham and Cann Hall Road Baptist Church in Leytonstone. Source: Guardian

Xi, Kim hold talks in Pyongyang

General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Chinese President Xi Jinping sat down here Thursday for talks with Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Xi is paying a two-day state visit to the neighboring country at the invitation of Kim, chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK. Source, People’s Daily

Dutch PM says Dr M’s MH17 comment ‘sows confusion’

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte today slammed his Malaysian counterpart for creating “confusion” by criticising a decision to charge four people over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had called the move by Dutch-led investigators to charge three Russians and a Ukrainian with murder for the 2014 disaster “ridiculous” and “politically motivated” against Moscow. Source Malay Mail