Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Ariana Grande says she has no plans to abandon her music career after announcing she was working on another film project. After starring alongside Cynthia Erivo in Wicked, the Positions singer confirmed on Wednesday she’d been cast in the film adaptation of the Dr. Seuss book Oh, The Places You’ll Go! But posting on socials,…

On Wednesday, Israel intensified its airstrikes on Syria, including near the presidential palace and on the defence ministry headquarters in central Damascus. Images show the ministry’s building was severely damaged, with a clean-up operation now under way. Some of the attacks were caught on camera by news crews broadcasting at the time. Syria’s health ministry…

Germany is set to tighten its laws to crack down on gangs smuggling migrants to the UK by the end of the year, Downing Street has said. The announcement comes alongside a new agreement between the UK and Germany covering areas including migration, business and defence, which will be signed during Friedrich Merz’s first official…

Former US President Barack Obama made a surprise appearance on the IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson podcast and video show, which aired on Wednesday. “There hasn’t been one moment in our marriage where I thought about quitting my man,” Michelle said to address rumours that she and the former president were going through…

Syria’s interim president has said it is his “priority” to protect the country’s Druze citizens, after Israel vowed to destroy government forces it accused of attacking members of the religious minority in Suweida province. In his first televised statement since Israel’s air strikes on Damascus on Wednesday, Ahmed al-Sharaa also warned that Syrians were not…

A fire that tore through a shopping centre in the Iraqi city of Kut has left dozens dead and injured, state media has reported. The blaze at the mall, which had reportedly opened five days ago, broke out on Wednesday night and has since been brought under control. “The number of victims has reached about…

Tess Mallinder Heron BBC Monitoring Getty Images A fresh wave of deadly sectarian violence has rocked Syria, putting into focus the country’s fragile security landscape as the new government attempts to impose its authority over the fractured territory. On Sunday 13 July, the reported abduction of a merchant from the Druze minority sparked days of…

Samsung boss Lee Jae-yong has been cleared by South Korea’s top court of fraud charges, concluding a years-long legal battle over his role in a 2015 merger deal. Lee, the grandson of Samsung’s founder and the de facto head of the company since 2014, had been accused of using stock and accounting fraud to try…

Watch: How a day of bombing unfolded in Damascus Israel’s military struck the Syrian defence ministry in Damascus and government forces in southern Syria on Wednesday, as deadly sectarian fighting in the mostly Druze province of Suweida continued for a fourth day. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said its forces were “working to save our…

At least two people have been killed and a further 27 injured following a Russian air strike on a shopping centre and market in the town of Dobropillia in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, officials have said. More than 50 shops, 300 apartments and eight cars were damaged in the attack on Wednesday evening, regional governor…