2026 World Press Photo Contest Winners

The winners of the 2026 World Press Photo Contest have been announced. They present "outstanding work from photojournalists and documentary photographers worldwide, connecting global audiences to the most pressing stories of our time."

I'll have to keep an eye out to see if they will be displayed in Toronto. I've seen a couple of the contest winners' exhibitions and it's definitely the best way to see them. 

Amateur Photographer has an article that displays some of the most striking photos in a larger format than the contest website. 

Photo of the Week - April 12, 2026

This week's photo is of a wheelchair ramp on the Lake Ontario waterfront in Pickering. There is a raised walkway along the beach with ramps leading down to the sand and this ramp. 

Beachfront wheelchair ramp

Saturday Sounds - Bruce Hornsby - Indigo Park

I've been a fan of Bruce Hornsby since the late 1980s and have seen him perform a couple of times (once in 1992 with the Grateful Dead and in 1993  with his band). He's released consistently enjoyable music since then and his latest album, Indigo Park, is no exception. 

Relix published an in-depth profile of Hornsby and the album recently. 

As he is tracking the unexpected origins of “Indigo Park”—the title-track of the new, 10-song studio set he’s scheduled to release on April 3 via Zappo Productions/Thirty Tigers—Hornsby is sitting in a hotel room in Houston, before a solo set at The Heights Theater, and then he’s off to a college town about an hour away. The Virginia-based musician is quick to mention at the top of his Zoom interview that, despite over four decades on the road, he’s never played this particular venue before. And that desire to experience fresh musical situations has continued to guide the pianist through an unexpected latter-career renaissance that’s led to the release of four albums in five years—2019’s Absolute Zero, 2020’s Non-Secure Connection, 2022’s ’Flicted and 2024’s Deep Sea Vents—a prolific second act scoring films and his own version of a Never Ending Tour with his veteran band, the Noisemakers. In that time, he’s also naturally aged into a gracious elder stateman, collaborating with improv-forward favorites like Goose and Eggy on stage and working closely with a new generation of indie-rock icons in the studio.

There are two songs written with the Dead's late lyricist, Robert Hunter, and collaborations with several musicians, including Bonnie Raitt and the late Bob Weir. I've listened to the album a couple of times and like it a lot. If he was coming to Toronto on his current tour, I'd probably be going. 

The Pentagon Is Going After the Catholic Church

Back in January, the Pentagon had a meeting with a US cardinal in which they basically threatened the Catholic Church and mentioned the Avignon Papacy. That was a period in the 14th century in which the French kidnapped the pope, keeping the papacy in France for 70 years. 

I hadn't heard about this until seeing a post today from Dean Blundell. I did check and there are multiple news sites also reporting about the meeting (here and here, for example).

Pope Leo will not be visiting the US for the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of 1776.  Instead, he'll be visiting the island of Lampedusa, off the coast of Sicily, where many African migrants arrive.  

I very much doubt that Pope Leo will visit the US as long as the Trump administration remains in power. And I do not doubt that the Catholic Church and the papacy will be around long after the Trump administration fades into unhappy memory. 

Featured Links - April 8, 2026

Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about.

A choppy bay

• The Next Coup Attempt. "And How to Stop It." An unsettling post from historian Timothy Snyder. 
• The Artemis Earth photo is incredible – but the one thing that nobody is telling you about it will blow your mind. 'The famous "Hello, World" photo by astronaut Reid Wiseman isn’t quite what you think.' I didn't figure it out until I read the article.
• How to Find Thunderbird Profile Location in Windows 11, 10, 8, 8.1, 7. I needed to figure this out because Thunderbird moved the profile folder on my wife's laptop and my backup program couldn't find it. This is a useful article for anyone using Thunderbird on Windows.
• The Lancet: Long COVID and Risk of Incident Cardiovascular Disease. "A recent study (see PLoS Med.: Association Between COVID-19 Vaccination and Sudden Death in Apparently Healthy Younger Individuals) found no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines increase the risk of sudden cardiac death in young healthy adults, but they did find a strong link between recent COVID infection and an increased risk of sudden cardiac death." 
• Data Centres Are on Track to Wreck the Planet. Can We Stop Them? "They will guzzle more water and power than the world can afford—for an AI video of your cat as an astronaut."
• Any USB drive or cable you plug in might be a silent killer. "As if we didn’t already have enough malware to worry about, malicious hackers and state-sponsored cybercrime teams are turning ordinary-looking USB drives and cables into weapons that can infect or fry — within a single second — any computer or electronic component you plug them into."
• Experiments refute dark matter claim. "The results of her analysis, which have excluded the dark matter explanation with greater confidence, were published in Physics Review Letters ...". 
• Canadian couple shows how a $40 weekly food budget is possible. "Michelle Nijdam, 31, has been gaining a following online after she started sharing how she sticks to a strict $160 monthly budget (or $40 weekly budget) while living in Vancouver — one of the most expensive cities in Canada. On her YouTube channel, @MichellesHomemaking, she talks about the ups and downs of having a tight budget while sharing some handy tips."
• Gambling on War and Death. "Polymarket allows anonymous accounts to bet on everything — but with increasing attention to war. Will a tanker be seized? When will the next drone strike occur? Gamblers can even look at maps of Ukrainian villages and play the odds on which neighbourhood of innocent civilians will be hit. It is literally about making a killing on killing. And it is also about manipulating the market in frightening ways."
• The 51st State Fantasy Is Over: How King Charles and Mark Carney Put An End To Trump's Desire To Invade Canada. "How Trump’s annexation campaign collapsed against 200 years of history, one king, and a prime minister who played the long game."
• Art UK. "Connecting you to art. Art UK is a unique digital experience that connects everyone with the UK's public art collections. We digitally unite one million artworks from 3,500 institutions – museums, libraries, town halls, hospitals – as well as public art in our streets such as sculptures and murals."
• Why U.S. Gatling Guns Are Not Stopping Iran’s Shahed Drones. "In any discussion of drone defense, Gatling-type guns are often presented as a trump card. These rapid-fire weapons, originally developed to defend U.S. warships against sea-skimming missiles, can easily down bigger and faster threats than a 120 mph Shahed drone. On paper they look devastatingly effective, and news reports speak enthusiastically of their “shredding Iranian drones.” But they are not a magic wand to make all drones disappear, and some Shaheds are getting through."
• America forgot how to make a classified nuclear warhead ingredient. "The U.S. government forgot how to make a classified component of its own nuclear warheads, then spent $92 million figuring it out again. The material is called Fogbank, and almost everything about it is classified — its composition, its purpose, and how it's manufactured." Just think of all the money they could have saved if they'd had a documentation library,

The US versus Canada 13

It's time for amother article abut the ongoing cultural and economic conflct between Canada and the United States. 

• Doug Ford takes anti-tariff message to Texas as opposition cries foul (gift link). "Ontario Premier Doug Ford is in Texas this week, meeting with businesses and American lawmakers to shore up support for local industries and advocate against U.S. tariffs, ahead of crucial trade talks between Canada and the U.S."
• Pete Hegseth Is Waging a Holy War to Take Over Canada/Greenland To Build Greater North America "in Jesus’ Name”. "The Secretary of War just merged the Crusades with colonial conquest and called it God’s plan. Canada is on the map."
  
• American booze bans, 'Buy Canadian' policy flagged by U.S. as trade irritants: report. "U.S. wants its alcohol returned to all markets after being pulled from shelves in several provinces." Even if it got back on our shelves, that doesn't mean that Canadians will buy it. 
• A Mother, a Child and Niemöller’s Warning. "News reports tell us of Canadian Tania Warner, age 47, being held in a Texas ICE detention centre with her seven-year-old autistic daughter. She was stopped in an arbitrary traffic search while returning from a baby shower. Tania is married to an American and believed her papers were in order. It didn’t matter. They took her away."
• Two Ops, One Playbook: How MAGA (and Maple MAGA) Turn MAID and “Anti‑Christian Bias” into a Psy‑op For a "Crusade" Against Canadians. "CANADA said "NO" to importing MAGA when we elected Mark Carney. So the Trump Regime (and MAPLE MAGA) is supporting TWO "Psy-Ops" across Canada to justify a "Crusade" north of the border."
• The MAGA Plot to Take Down Canada. "A growing movement of MAGA-pilled Albertan separatists would happily break up the country to be closer to Trump."
• On Behalf of Canada, Tucker Carlson Can Go F*** Himself. "Let's break down Tucker's latest "Let's take over Canada" campaign, sponsored by Russian State Media." Carlson is vile and the thought of him even running for the US presidency in 2028 makes me cringe. 
• How Alberta’s Separatist Movement Could Shake North America. "The resentments, politics, and risks behind their push to leave Canada."

Off for Easter Weekend

It's Easter weekend up here in the Great (not so) White North, and I'm taking the weekend off from blogging. It's time to work on my income tax return and maybe start getting the yard back in shape if it doesn't rain too much. 

I'll be back here on Monday with a post about Canada and the US. Until then, here'a a picture of our cats (CJ on the left and McGee on the right). 

CJ and McGee