IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair.

We’ve hand-picked some of the week’s best reads for you to savour.

1. Hannah Kobayashi’s mysterious non-disappearance, explained

The Hawaii resident’s disappearance, who went missing in Los Angeles last month after failing to get on her connecting flight to New York, has become a viral internet mystery.

(Vox, approx 7 mins reading time)

Los Angeles police announced Monday that they’d reviewed surveillance video showing a woman they believed to be Kobayashi on November 12, the day her family reported her missing. Kobayashi, who is from Hawaii, had failed to complete a flight from her home state to New York City. The footage shows a woman who appears to be Kobayashi at a Los Angeles bus station, buying a ticket to the border. Police say she used her passport to make the purchase, then crossed over into Mexico from San Ysidro.

The investigation is the second high-profile missing persons case in recent weeks to take an unexpected turn after the person turned up seemingly unharmed. On November 11, the day before Kobayashi’s family reported her missing, a Wisconsin man resurfaced after being missing for months to admit that he had faked his own death in a dramatic kayaking incident in order to escape his life and start over in Eastern Europe. Los Angeles investigators felt that Kobayashi had likewise walked away from her own life and that, until she decided to resurface, there was little they could do.

2. A man was murdered in cold blood and you’re laughing? 

Suspected shooter Luigi Mangione is led into the Blair County Courthouse for an extradition hearing. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson has stunned the world –  but the online reaction has stunned others further. 

(The New Yorker, approx 9 mins reading time)

The particulars of this murder are strange and remarkable: it occurred in public; the suspected shooter went to Starbucks beforehand; he got away from the scene via bicycle; he has not yet been found. But the public reaction has been even wilder, even more lawless. The jokes came streaming in on every social-media platform, in the comments underneath every news article. “I’m sorry, prior authorization is required for thoughts and prayers,” someone commented on TikTok, a response that got more than fifteen thousand likes. “Does he have a history of shootings? Denied coverage,” another person wrote, under an Instagram post from CNN. On X, someone posted, with the caption “My official response to the UHC CEO’s murder,” an infographic comparing wealth distribution in late eighteenth-century France to wealth distribution in present-day America. The whiff of populist anarchy in the air is salty, unprecedented, and notably across the aisle.

3. Coastal erosion: the number of  Irish homes at risk of falling into sea rises by 173% in five years

Internal government document warns coastal erosion has severely escalated on Ireland’s coasts since 2017, The Journal Investigates revealed this week.

(The Journal Investigates, approx 9 mins reading time) 

The huge hike is detailed in an internal Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) report which warns 2,279 properties are currently in danger from eroding shorelines — an increase of 1,445 since 2017.

The report, obtained by The Journal Investigates, said the surge of impacted homes is “likely an underestimate”, as just half of local authorities impacted by coastal erosion were able to provide data.

The figures are based on a Climate Action Regional Office (CARO) study of Ireland’s 19 coastal councils, which found a 58% increase in properties lost to the sea between 2017 and 2022.

4. Walk on air against your better judgement – What Seamus Heaney gave me

Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney poet, reading at the 3rd Feis Teamhra at the Hill of Tara. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Caitlin Flanagan writes about the impact of Seamus Heaney and his poetry on her as a child. 

The Atlantic, approx 24 mins reading time)

You can’t jump people into Roman Catholicism after the age of reason; they have to “come to God” on their own, or be in some kind of trouble. We didn’t believe any of it, and not just because of what our parents had always told us. It didn’t sound plausible. We lay in our beds at night and fumed. At the baptism, Ellen and I would have to have water poured on our long hair, like a couple of idiots. We would have to say something about believing in God, and we would have to reject the devil and all his pomps. (Pomps : shows of magnificence, splendor. Enough said! Rejected!) We took our final lesson, and a rehearsal was staged. Someone made a fruitcake with marzipan icing. In Ireland, when a woman makes a fruitcake, there’s no turning back. We were fucked.

But then—like a dream, like a magic fish bone—word arrived from Belfast that Seamus and Marie Heaney were coming down for the event, and that Seamus would write a poem. That changed everything for me. Anything the Heaneys were cool with, I was cool with. They were my idea of what a dazzling couple ought to be, and they were always, always kind to us, and we needed kindness.

When Seamus stood up and read the poem, “Baptism: for Ellen and Kate Flanagan,” I accepted everything—all of it, all at once: poetry, God, and myself.

5. ‘Can we show someone being shot?’: the tense true story behind September 5

The Oscar-tipped drama follows the ABC crew of journalists who had to cover the unfolding violence as terrorism overtook the the Munich Olympics in 1972 – David Walsh talks to Geoffrey Mason about the true story behind it. 

(The Guardian, approx 10 mins reading time)

Geoffrey Mason had begun the day expecting to oversee TV coverage of sports such as boxing, swimming and volleyball. Hours later, he found himself staring at German machine guns and being ordered to turn the cameras off.

The story of how Mason’s control room responded to the hostage siege at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich is told in September 5, a thriller starring John Magaro and Peter Sarsgaard and directed by Tim Fehlbaum. The film follows the ABC Sports team as they turn their cameras on the news – the first time a terrorist attack would be broadcast live to a global audience.

6. Nicola Coughlan Bet on Herself—And Won

Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Irish actress Nicola Coughlan, of Bridgeton and Derry Girls fame, talks her inspirations and career after being named one of Time Magazine’s Next Generation Leaders. 

(Time Magazine, approx 8 mins reading time)

As Coughlan landed her big break somewhat later than many of her peers, she steps into this new chapter with more life experience and a firm idea of who she is. She earned praise during the Bridgerton press tour for how she balanced pleas for humanity in the Middle East alongside her promotion of the series. At a time when celebrities are urged to speak out on various issues, only to be told to “stay in their lane” when they do, Coughlan has taught herself to drown out the noise and stand up for what she believes in. She has found her stride in the industry, but she’s far from complacent. “There’s no making it,” she says. “You just have to keep going and can’t rest on your laurels.”

7.‘Mummy would prefer you not to do that’: how ‘no’ became a dirty word in parenting

(The Guardian, approx 15 mins reading time)

The gentle, child-led approach to raising children has become popular with millennials – and one two-letter word has fallen sharply out of fashion. Nell Frizzell asks the question: is this progress, or a recipe for future disaster?

If you’ve been to a playground recently, I’ll hazard a guess that you have witnessed parents going to extraordinary lengths to avoid bad language. But it’s not those delicious four-letter words they’re so worried about. It’s a simple two-letter word that parents have come to fear: no.

You know the sort of thing: “I understand that you’re feeling cross right now, darling, but when you throw sand at me, it hurts.” “Please don’t throw that handful of pebbles at Mummy. It doesn’t make me feel nice.” “You’re feeling frustrated but we don’t eat two ice-creams before lunch.”

Whether, when and how to use the word no is an argument that divides generations. Does saying no to a child squash their self-esteem, or make them feel cared for?

Note: The Journal generally selects stories that are not paywalled, but some might not be accessible if you have exceeded your free article limit on the site in question.