New York Times, Dec 22, 2017

choi

(1) Michael Kimmelman, An Ultimatum for Jakarta: Redevelop or Drown. (front page).
("Jakarta is sinking faster than any other big city on the planet, faster, even than climate change is causing the sea to rise-- so surreally fast that rivers sometimes flow upstream * * * and buildings slowly disappear underground, swallowed by the earth. He main cause: Jakartans are digging illegal wells, drip by drip draining the underground aquefers in which the city rests -- like deflating a giant cushion underneath it. About 40 percent of Jakarta now lies below sea level [Jakarta has built sea walls, like Dutch did]")

Nite:
(a) The text itself does not mention the rate of sinking. But a pair of satellite maps of Jakarta shows many places in the metropolitan area are sinking "more than 2 inches per year."
(b) There is no need to read the rest of this report.

(2) Palko Karasz, Australians Solve Puzzle of a Sub Lost 103 Years Ago.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/ ... ubmarine-found.html
(While looking for remains of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Australian Navy announced on Thursday (Dec 21) the discovery of the submarine AE1, sunk in September 1914 in one piece off Papua New Guinea south of Duke of York Islands 1,000 feet below sea water

Note:
(a) Australian submarine AE1 is a BRITISH E-class sub. Britain 's E-class submarines were preceded by ones in A- to D-classes (in that order) and followed by ones in L-class (after that, the class is not named with an English letter).

(b)
(i) Duke of York Islands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_of_York_Islands
(view maps)
are tiny specks in St George's Channel.

This Wiki page explained how it was named, but not its history.
(ii) For history of Duke of York Islands, view maps in
(A) For British New Guinea, see Territory of Papua
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territory_of_Papua
(1883-1975)
(B) German New Guinea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_New_Guinea
(table: 1884–1902)

The latter (German) but not the former (British) included Duke of York Islands.

(c) "The AE1 and its sister vessel, the AE2, arrived in Australia in the spring of 1914, crossing half the globe after their construction in England. They soon joined the war, but neither lasted long. After the AE1 vanished, the AE2 was reported to have been sunk by Turkish warships near the Sea of Marmara in 1915, during the Gallipoli campaign. The AE2 was discovered in 1998, about 240 feet down."
(i) Sea of Marmara
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Marmara
(section 1 Name)
(ii) Gallipoli campaign
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli_Campaign
(Feb 17, 1915 – Jan 9, 1916; at Gallipoli Peninsula, then of Ottoman Empire and now of Turkey; The campaign was the only major Ottoman victory of the war)

winston Churchill was Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty (1911-1815 and 1939-1940): similar to secretary of Navy in US. He picked this battle, lost badly and was forced to resigned; his political career was in tatters between the Wars, until he rallied Britons to fight Germans at the outset of World War II.
(iii) Gallipoli
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli
(a peninsula "with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east. Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name 'Καλλίπολις' (Kallípolis), meaning 'Beautiful City' ")