Alex Horton Blog: whatever comes to my mind

Friday, May 22, 2026

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL TO HOST HEADS OF TWO OF CANADA'S LARGEST BOOK EVENTS

This August, the Edinburgh International Book Festival will welcome Roland Gulliver, Director of Toronto International Festival of Authors, and Shelley Youngblut, CEO & Creative Ringleader of Wordfest (Calgary), to Edinburgh as part of Global Ink 2026, its international forum bringing together leading literary festival directors from across the world.

As heads of two of Canada’s most established and internationally recognised literary festivals, Gulliver and Youngblut will join peers from Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australasia for a global exchange focused on readership, international writing and the evolving role of festivals in an increasingly connected literary landscape.

Global Ink takes place 17–19 August 2026 during the Edinburgh International Book Festival (15–30 August), bringing together 18 festival directors for closed‑door director sessions, public‑facingconversations and industry exchange, and reflecting the festival’s long‑term commitment to international collaboration and cultural dialogue.

A forum built for lasting collaboration

Global Ink was established to create the conditions for long‑term relationship‑building between people doing similar work in very different contexts. The programme combines industry discussions with public‑facing events, structured around shared learning, partnership development and long‑term impact. Delegates do not only meet in formal sessions, but are embedded in the wider life of the Festival - attending events with Scottish writers, experiencing the city’s cultural institutions and Edinburgh as the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature, and sharing informal social moments, including a traditional ceilidh, that help create lasting partnerships.

It takes place at a moment of growing international appetite for translated writing and cross‑border cultural exchange. Marking its tenth anniversary in 2026, the Booker Prize Foundation reports that sales of translated fiction in the UK have doubled since the International Booker Prize, in its current form, was first awarded in 2016, with UK print sales reaching a record £26m in 2023 alone. Nearly half of those buyers are now under 35 – an age profile that inverts the wider fiction market.

For the Edinburgh International Book Festival, this momentum builds on decades of international work. The Festival has hosted writers in translation and embodied internationalism as a core part of its programme for generations, increasingly with the support of international consulates and embassies. Through Global Ink, that long‑standing commitment is extended into structured peer exchange, while also creating opportunities to platform Scottish writers and creatives to an international network of festivals, stages and audiences.

Global Ink 2026 is supported by the Scottish Government and Creative Scotland, the national public body for the arts, through the Festivals EXPO Fund. Alongside this, the Edinburgh International Book Festival is currently working with the Scottish Government to shape joint opportunities involving delegates throughout this global forum, strengthening international connections and cultural exchange rooted in Scotland.

In August 2026, Global Ink will run alongside both Publishing Scotland’s international fellowship and the British Council‑supported Momentum programme (delivered by Festivals Edinburgh and Creative Scotland), maximising opportunities for collaboration and underlining Edinburgh’s role as a truly international cultural city that month.

Jenny Niven, Director of Edinburgh International Book Festival, said:
“When Global Ink began three years ago, our ambition was to build something more durable than a conference - a network of trust between people doing similar work in very different contexts. What’semerged is broader than a festival network alone. Global Ink is also about recognising the many partners, organisations and individuals involved in making literature international, and the collective effort behind international exchange. Seeing this year’s group come together - from Kraków to Kerala to Calgary – it feels like that shared momentum is really taking hold.”

Global Ink 2026: Confirmed delegates

Oceania

Ann Mossop - Sydney Writers’ Festival (Australia)

Rosemarie Milsom – Adelaide Writer’s Week (Australia)

Lyndsey Fineran - Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki (Aotearoa New Zealand)

North America

Roland Gulliver - Toronto International Festival of Authors (Canada)

Shelley Youngblut - Wordfest, Calgary (Canada)

Jodi Pincus - San Miguel Writers’ Conference & Literary Festival (Mexico)

Amanda Bullock - Literary Arts / Portland Book Festival (USA)

Marianne DeLeón - Texas Book Festival (USA)

South America

Daniela Ini — FILBA (Argentina)

Europe

Lucie Campos Mitchell - Villa Gillet / Littérature Live (France)

Perdita Maria Luise Krämer - Bremer Krimifestival CRIME TIME (Germany)

Aimée van Wylick - International Literature Festival Dublin (Ireland)

Judith Uyterlinde - Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival, The Hague (Netherlands)

Marit Borkenhagen - Norwegian Festival of Literature (Norway)

Carolina Pietyra - Kraków Festival Office / UNESCO City of Literature (Poland)

Oskar Ekström - Gothenburg Book Fair (Sweden)

Middle East

Ahlam Bolooki - Emirates Literature Foundation / Emirates Airline Festival of Literature (UAE)

Asia

Govind Deecee - Kerala Literature Festival / DC Books (India)

Janet DeNeefe - Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (Indonesia)

Beijing International Book Fair (China)

At a glance

Dates: 17–19 August 2026

Location: Edinburgh International Book Festival (15–30 August 2026) at Edinburgh Futures Institute

Delegation: 20 festival directors from 17 countries across five continents

Supported by: Scottish Government and Creative Scotland (Festivals EXPO Fund)

NORTH KOREAN CONSTITUTION NOW REQUIRES NUCLEAR MISSILE STRIKE IF KIM JUNG UN IS KILLED BY FOREIGN POWER

New York Post

North Korean constitution now requires nuclear missile strike if Kim Jong Un is killed by foreign power

By Emily Crane

Published May 10, 2026, 9:20 a.m. ET

North Korea’s constitution now calls for an immediate retaliatory nuclear missile strike if leader Kim Jong Un is killed by a foreign power.

The change, believed to have been adopted earlier this year, was made soon after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was wiped out in the US-Israeli strikes, the Telegraph reported.

“If the command-and-control system over the state’s nuclear forces is placed in danger by hostile forces’ attacks … a nuclear strike shall be launched automatically and immediately,” the revised Article 3 of North Korea’s nuclear-policy law now reads.

The revision, likely agreed on by the Supreme People’s Assembly, was only made public at a South Korean government intelligence briefing last week.

While the North Korean dictator already has control of the country’s nuclear forces, the update to the constitution makes clear what should occur if he is assassinated.

“This may have been policy before, but it has added emphasis now it has been enshrined in the constitution,” said Andrei Lankov, a professor of international relations at Kookmin University in Seoul, South Korea.

“Iran was the wake-up call,” Lankov said. “North Korea saw the remarkable efficiency of the US-Israeli decapitation attacks, which immediately eliminated the greater part of the Iranian leadership, and they must now be terrified.”

As part of the constitution revisions, Pyongyang also made tweaks to define its territory as bordering South Korea and tp remove references to reunification.

The change to Article 2 marks the first time North Korea has added a territorial clause to its constitution.

The new Article 2 now says North Korea’s territory includes land “bordering the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation to the north and the Republic of Korea to the south,” as well as territorial waters and airspace based on that land.

The clause adds that North Korea “will never tolerate any infringement” of its territory.

10 WAYS TO SPOT THE CLOSETED CONSERVATIVE WORKING AT STARBUCKS

Babylon Bee

10 Ways To Spot The Closeted Conservative Working At Starbucks

GHOULISH PARENTS BLINDFOLDED TWO YOUNG SONS FOR TWISTED TREASURE HUNT BEFORE ABANDONING THEM IN WOODS

New York Post

Ghoulish parents blindfolded two young sons for twisted treasure hunt before abandoning them in woods

By Anna Young

Published May 21, 2026, 3:28 p.m. ET

Two young French brothers were allegedly dumped in a Portuguese forest by their ghoulish parents – who lured them into a fake treasure hunt before blindfolding them thousands of miles from home.

The helpless 3- and 5-year-old children were rescued by a passing couple Tuesday night, who found them frantically wandering on a main road in Monte Novo do Sul with backpacks stuffed with clothing and food, according to Portuguese media.

Artur Quintas, a local baker who found the shaken boys, said they were “screaming and crying.”

He recalled the elder brother telling him their mother allegedly led them into the forest and covered their eyes as part of a game – but when they removed their blindfolds, she was gone.

“To trick the children, their mom blindfolded them and left them in the forest to play a game,” Quintas told SIC Notícias.

“They told them to go and look for a toy.”

Believing it was still a game, the boys were reportedly left stumbling through the wooded area lost for hours until Quintas and his wife found them.

The heroic stranger said he only made the horrifying realization the boys had been abandoned after spotting their backpacks filled with water, fruit, cookies, and a change of clothes, according to the outlets.

The couple rushed the deserted youngsters, from eastern France, to a local police station, where they told authorities their cruel mother had fed them before taking off.

The boys had no identification but were able to identify their mom from a photograph, Correio da Manhã reported.

French authorities have since launched a probe into the children’s mother and stepfather.

The investigation is ongoing.

TRANSGENDER PEDO WITCH WHO FILMED OWN SEVEN YEAR OLD DAUGHTER DEMANDS TO CONDUCT NUDE WICCAN RITUALS IN NEW JERSEY PRISON

New York Post

Transgender pedo ‘witch’ who filmed his own 7-year-old daughter demands to conduct nude Wiccan rituals in NJ women’s prison

By dspectornyp

Published May 16, 2026, 8:30 a.m. ET

A twisted transgender pedophile is demanding his women’s prison allow him to conduct Wiccan rituals in the nude in the prison yard.

Marina Volz, 37, a biological male born Matthew, is serving a 25-year sentence at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, N.J. for filming sadistic pornography of his own 7-year-old daughter.

Volz claims to be Wiccan and sued the prison, the New Jersey Department of Corrections and head of religious services Dr. Joy Lynch in 2023 for religious discrimination, alleging he was denied access to religious items such as Tabbards — a sleeveless Wiccan vestment — and the ability to worship on Wiccan holy days.

Wicca is a pagan religion that first sprang up in England in the 1950s, whose adherents practice witchcraft and refer to themselves as witches.

The witch is now in settlement talks with the New Jersey attorney general’s office and submitted a letter in February via his lawyers with numerous demands for religious accommodation — including the ability to conduct Wiccan rituals “skyclad,” the Wiccan term for nude, Reduxx reported.

He also demands “provision of ritualistic foodstuff for consumption” on the Wiccan holidays of Sabbats and Esbats, and access to Wiccan literature and religious items.

He also wants to be designated a Wiccan religious leader in the prison.

Last but not least, Volz demands he be allowed to marry his transgender accomplice in the child sex abuse case, Ashley Romero, a biological man.

The two were convicted in 2022, along with Sean Allen, who lived with them at their Franklin, N.J. home, for operating a “pornography production studio specializing in amateur, BDSM and taboo fetish content.”

The witch and his paramour took his daughter, then 7, from her mother’s arms in Oregon and transported her across the country to New Jersey. Romero was seen sexually abusing the girl with another man in videos the trio produced, and Allen was also filmed abusing the girl.

“If this was not heinous, cruel and depraved, I don’t know what is,” said the judge in the case, Peter Tobin.

A female inmate at the prison claimed that the pair were only trying to get married so they could share a cell, Reduxx reported.

“This is a man who has been convicted of human trafficking, aggravated sexual assault, and endangering the welfare of a child under circumstances that involved his own daughter. And now, he demands the right to engage in public nude religious rituals at a women’s prison. This should shock the conscience of every American,” Women’s Declaration International USA president Kara Dansky told The Post.

The New Jersey Department of Corrections began housing transgender inmates in women’s prisons in 2021 as part of a settlement with the ACLU.

HUNT FOR STOLEN DISNEY WORLD ANIMATRONIC REVEALED VAST BLACK MARKET FOR ITEMS STOLEN FROM THE PARKS

PEOPLE

Hunt for Stolen Disney World Animatronic Revealed Vast Black Market of Items Snatched from the Parks (Exclusive)

The documentary 'Stolen Kingdom' explores over 30 years of misdeeds at Disney World and how they led to the alleged theft of nearly half a million dollars in props

By Colson Thayer Published on May 17, 2026 08:05AM EDT

For nearly 20 years, the Buzzy animatronic in EPCOT's Cranium Command attraction delighted families as he navigated the world through the eyes of Bobby, a 12-year-old boy.

Beginning in 1989, guests were welcomed into a theater-style control room to witness Buzzy's antics as he controlled the boy's brain. However, the beloved attraction shut its doors on Jan. 1, 2007, when the park officially closed its Wonders of Life pavilion.

The attraction sat abandoned and Buzzy was left at the center of an empty theater for years, until one day, he vanished.

Following the land's closure, Wonders of Life became an alluring target for intrepid — and often unlawful — urban explorers, including those looking to make a quick buck. In August 2018, Buzzy made headlines after his headphones, hat and bomber jacket were stolen. Only a few months later, the entire animatronic went missing.

Documentary filmmaker Joshua Bailey still remembers the day it was reported that Buzzy was gone. As a central Florida native, he had long had a fascination with the parks and their attractions. He also developed an interest in urban exploration via YouTube. When Buzzy disappeared, he was fully ingratiated with both communities.

After years of developing sources within the community of Disney urban explorers, in 2021, Bailey began filming a documentary exploring an unseen side of the “Most Magical Place on Earth.” The director's new film, Stolen Kingdom, explores over 30 years of misdeeds at the Walt Disney World Resort and how, he claims, they led to the theft of almost half a million dollars' worth of props.

“The black market aspect was something that we weren't aware of before we shot the film, and was part of the decision in making it,” Bailey tells PEOPLE. “We learned more about it while shooting, but not a lot. It's a tough nut to crack. We just had no knowledge of there being a Disney prop black market."

That all changed when he met Patrick Spikes, a former Disney World employee and the film's primary antagonist.

Spikes opened Bailey's eyes to just how deep the underground community goes. In fact, while filming, Spikes was involved in multiple criminal investigations related to thousands of dollars of missing memorabilia.

“We did worry about Patrick and his [alleged] crimes and Buzzy-related information, because that is still an open case,” Bailey says of the two featured interviews with Spikes, filmed about a year apart. “Patrick starts admitting all these things that maybe aren't in the police report, maybe he's never talked about before… We were like, ‘Wow, Patrick. If you wish to admit things, go ahead, but if they asked us for this footage, I don't think we can say no.'”

He adds: “Patrick cares about Disney, but at the same time, he says he did do some things that were considered desecration to big Disney fans. But we'll never know how Patrick Spike's brain works.”

The mystery of Buzzy's disappearance remains one of the most infamous urban legends in Disney parks history, but for Bailey, the story is about more than just a missing robot. Stolen Kingdom aims to pull back the curtain on a subculture where nostalgia and greed collide.

After premiering at the Slamdance Film Festival last year, Stolen Kingdom is going on tour beginning May 21. Bailey is taking the film across the country for screenings at select cinemas until June 14. Stolen Kingdom will be released via TVOD on June 16.

MYSTERY OF THE MARY CELESTE GHOST SHIP SOLVED

Daily Mail

Mystery of the Mary Celeste 'ghost ship' is SOLVED: Study reveals how an explosion of ethanol vapor may have caused the crew to jump ship in panic

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

Published: 08:04 EDT, 18 May 2026 | Updated: 09:17 EDT, 18 May 2026

On December 5, 1872, a British ship sailing through the North Atlantic stumbled upon a merchant vessel, the Mary Celeste, drifting through the ocean without a soul aboard.

The cargo and the crew's belongings were untouched without a hint of a struggle, as if all 10 people on board had simply vanished into thin air.

Now, over 150 years later, scientists have finally solved the mystery of the most famous 'ghost ship' in nautical history.

And they say the real reason for the crew's sinister disappearance was an explosion of flammable ethanol vapour.

Dr Jack Rowbotham, a chemist from the University of Manchester, told the Daily Mail: 'One thing that has always been suspicious to us as chemists is that their only cargo was almost pure ethanol.'

In fact, the Mary Celeste was filled with over 1,700 barrels of pure alcohol, but when investigators came on board, nine of these barrels were mysteriously empty.

Scientists think that up to 1,100 litres of ethanol leaked into the hold and vaporised, creating the perfect conditions for a terrifying fireball.

'It basically spooked the crew into abandoning ship very quickly without leaving any trace,' says Dr Rowbotham.

Even at the time the Mary Celeste was found, the merchant ship's boozy cargo was the topic of intense speculation.

Given the missing crew and empty barrels, many assumed that some alcohol–fuelled disaster drove the crew to drunkenly flee the ship.

In an ironic twist, the crew were actually teetotal, having been hired by Captain Benjamin Briggs specifically for that reason.

But Dr Rowbotham says that alcohol was still the likely source of their downfall, just not in the way many suspected.

'There is a key temperature which is very important for ethanol, and that is 13°C (55°F),' says Dr Rowbotham.

'That point, called its flash point, is the minimum temperature at which the vapour from ethanol will ignite.'

Critically, the Mary Celeste took on its cargo of ethanol from New York in the middle of winter, where temperatures were well below the flash point.

But as the ship travelled eastwards into the Azores, the temperatures started climbing to somewhere above 20°C (68°F).

To make matters worse, the ship's logs show that the Mary Celeste had hit bad weather en route, leading them to batten down the hatches.

That created a sealed chamber below the deck, which slowly filled with increasingly dangerous ethanol fumes.

When the weather finally got better, the crew threw open the hatches, allowing oxygen to rush in and create an extremely flammable mixture.

While researchers will never know exactly what started the fire, it would have only taken a tiny spark to trigger an enormous explosion.

'They are basically sitting on a bomb, and they're hanging around smoking pipes,' says Dr Rowbotham.

To see what that would have looked like, Dr Rowbotham and fellow University of Manchester chemist Dr Frank Mair created a scale experiment as part of a new Channel 5 documentary.

Dr Rowbotham and Dr Mair built a one–to–18 scale model of the ship, and filled the hold with a proportional amount of ethanol vapour.

When the ship was cooled to New York temperatures, even a spark from an electrical cable didn't produce a fire.

However, once the scientists simulated temperatures closer to the Azores, that same spark triggered a violent explosion.

Dr Rowbotham says: 'An example of an ethanol fire that people might be familiar with is a Christmas pudding. Imagine that on something the size of a ship.'

The fire produced a roaring flash of blue flame that instantly engulfed the hold and ship, as well as a 'phenomenal' bang from the resulting shockwave.

Dr Rowbotham says that the fire in the scale model was so powerful it blew the hatches clean off the ship and threw them across the room.

That blast would have terrified the crew and may have scared them into abandoning ship as soon as they could.

However, despite being suggested as soon as the ship's cargo was revealed, the ethanol fire theory has long been rejected because of the ship's pristine condition.

None of the other barrels of ethanol caught fire, and the wood in the cargo bay was not so much as singed.

But these scale model experiments reveal that this is exactly what would happen in the case of a real alcohol explosion.

Despite the fire reaching around 2,000°C (3,632°F), none of the wood in the scale model had any trace of burns.

Dr Rowbotham says: 'If we hadn't filmed it, you wouldn't have been able to see that there had been an explosion on the ship.'

Ethanol and oxygen are such an efficient fuel mix that the flame flashes and vanishes in a matter of seconds, without leaving any soot or other signs of a fire.

While wood can burn well, it actually takes a long period of sustained heat to catch on fire.

This explains how there could have been an explosion big enough to startle the crew, which still left the Mary Celeste looking as pristine as the day it left port.

Dr Rowbotham adds: 'There are so many crazy conspiracy theories about what happened, but we wanted to show what you could learn from doing an experiment, and how valuable that is.'

The Mary Celeste: History's most famous ghost ship

On December 5, 1872, a British brigantine named Dei Gratia was sailing near the Portuguese islands of the Azores when the crew spotted a ship adrift on choppy seas.

To Captain David Morehouse's shock, that ship was the Mary Celeste, an American merchant vessel named the Mary Celeste, which had left New York just eight days before him.

The Mary Celeste was supposed to be travelling from New York to Genoa, Italy, with a cargo full of almost pure ethanol. This was to be used as part of a trade agreement, in which the US provided raw alcohol for Italy to make cheap fortified wines.

However, when Captain Morehouse came aboard to offer assistance, he discovered that the Mary Celeste was abandoned.

The cargo was intact, and there was still a six-month supply of food and water, but no one was left on board.

The mystery was further deepened by the fact that there was no sign of an apparent struggle or any reason that the crew would have needed to flee so fast.

After spotting the Mary Celeste, the crew of the Dei Gratia sailed around 800 miles to Gibraltar, to attend a salvage hearing that would determine whether they were entitled to payment from the ship's insurers.

The attorney general in charge of the inquiry, Frederick Solly-Flood, suspected foul play and launched a full investigation.

However, despite the court investigating the issue, no explanation was ever found for why the Mary Celeste would have been abandoned.