Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Nick Thorpe Central Europe correspondent SBU Ukraine said it uncovered a Hungarian espionage network earlier this month A spate of arrests, diplomatic expulsions and public humiliations has plunged relations between war-torn Ukraine and its prickly Nato neighbour Hungary to a new low. At the heart of the row are accusations that Viktor Orban’s Fidesz government…

Brandon Drenon BBC News, Washington DC Getty Images US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered embassies to stop scheduling appointments for student visas as it prepares to expand social media vetting of such applicants. In a copy of a memo sent to diplomatic posts, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the pause would last “until…

Thousands of Gazans stampede towards a food distribution centre Thousands of Palestinians have overrun an aid distribution site in Gaza set up by a controversial US and Israeli-backed group, a day after it began working there. Videos showed crowds walking over torn-down fences and earth berms at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s (GHF) compound in the…

Nitrous oxide – known colloquially as “laughing gas” – has many uses, from a painkiller during dental procedures to a whipping agent for canned whipped cream. While its euphoric side effects have long been known, the rise of vaping has helped create a perfect delivery vehicle for the gas – and a perfect recipe for…

Ullstein Bild / Getty Images The genocide in what is now Namibia lasted from 1904 to 1908 Dubbed “Germany’s forgotten genocide”, and described by historians as the first genocide of the 20th Century, the systematic murder of more than 70,000 Africans is being marked with a national day of remembrance for the first time in…

The search for a former Arkansas police chief convicted of rape and murder continues after he escaped from prison on Sunday. Grant Hardin was chief of police in Gateway, Arkansas – a small town of a few hundred residents on the state’s border with Missouri – for around four months in 2016, according to the…

Watch: Borders, diversity and the US: Key highlights from the King’s speech in Canada King Charles III has given a major speech at the opening of parliament in Canada in which he sought to define its place in an uncertain world and its relationship with the US. The address in Ottawa laid out priorities for…

A second suspect has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping and torturing an Italian tourist in an upscale Manhattan home for weeks in an effort to steal his cryptocurrency. William Duplessie, 32, turned himself in to authorities on Tuesday after his alleged accomplice was arrested last week. Their alleged victim told police he was hung off…

French police have arrested more than 20 people following a number of kidnapping plots targeting cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and their families. Authorities said the arrests were in connection with investigations into a recent abduction attempt in Nantes and the attempted kidnapping of a woman and child in Paris in May. The incidents have raised concerns about…

Bodycam video shows the moment officers in Texas arrested Leo Tate and Jermaine Donald, two of the 10 inmates who escaped the Orleans Parish jail in Louisiana on 16 May. The two men were arrested after a high-speed chase that involved multiple law enforcement agencies. The escaped prisoners, several of whom are facing murder charges,…