As well as fears are growing for a lost Argentine Navy submarine, coffee could really be a lifesaver, and a Catholic school's 'rude' statue gets a grilling
Hi, this is Anna dishing out the top stories for you today.
Humanitarian crisis - A reportedly brutal and aggressive police operation is under way on Manus Island, as Papa New Guinean police and immigration officers, with the backing of the Australian government, have entered the former detention centre in an effort to move detainees out. Refugees inside the centre have reported large numbers of officials who have given them an hour to leave and in some cases hand over their phones. According to the Australian government, a new centre paid for by taxpayers’ money awaits refugees.
Lost at sea - Fears for a missing Argentine Navy submarine are growing as it is believed to be running low on oxygen. The Navy is also investigating reports of a loud noise detected a few hours after the submarine went missing. A spokesman called the noise a ‘hydro-acoustic anomaly’ and would not confirm whether there had been an explosion. 44 people are on board.
‘Ethnic cleansing’ - The United States has called the Myanmar military operation against the Rohingya Muslim population ‘ethnic cleansing’ and threatened targeted sanctions against those responsible for what it called ‘horrendous atrocities’. Today, however, Bangladesh has signed a deal with Myanmar to return hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled a recent army crackdown.
One cup, two cup, three cup, four cup… - Coffee could be the lifesaver you didn’t know was just a cup away. A new report suggests that people who drink three to four cups of coffee a day are more likely to see health benefits than problems, including lower risks of premature death and heart disease. It could also lower risks of diabetes, liver disease, dementia and some cancers. So, even if that fourth coffee makes you feel like a rabbit on crack cocaine, it could be your saving grace.
Art gets political - A group of activists built a replica of Berlin’s Holocaust memorial outside the house of a far-right AfD politician in Germany to protest his assertions that the country should stop atoning for Nazi guilt. Art collective Centre for Political Beauty set up 24 large concrete slabs in a garden next to Björn Höcke’s house, saying it wanted to send a daily reminder of the horrors that led to deaths of six million Jewish people.
Religious regret - This story ignites those thoughts we all have when something like this happens: Who OK’d this? An all-boys Catholic school in Adelaide, Australia, has been forced to cover up an unfortunate new statue purporting to show a Saint holding a piece of bread, with a young boy kneeling next to him. Of course, with the clearly suggestive sculpturing, alongside the Catholic Church’s dirty history of sexual abuse, the image went viral. The whole saga could be read as an unfortunate metaphor for the abuse, and subsequent cover-up, within the religion.