Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Getty Images Joe Biden is set to begin his long-anticipated maiden visit to Africa as US president but it comes amidst uncertainty over future US-Africa relations as Donald Trump prepares to succeed him in January. Biden’s visit to oil-rich Angola seeks to underline an attempt by America to focus more on trade and heavy investment…

Getty Images Since Hunter Biden’s conviction on federal felony gun and tax charges over the summer, the White House has insisted that President Joe Biden had no intention of pardoning his son. But on Sunday, the president issued a controversial sweeping pardon, saying his son had been subject to attacks from his political rivals. Republicans…

A Belgium court has ordered the government to pay reparations to five mixed-race women who were forcibly removed from their families in the colonial-era Belgian Congo. The women, now in their 70s, were taken from their mothers when they were young children and placed in orphanages under a state policy. The court said the government…

Reuters US President Joe Biden has issued a presidential pardon for his son Hunter, who was facing sentencing for two criminal cases. The move has proven controversial, since Biden senior previously ruled out such a move. But he argued that the cases against his son were politically motivated. His use of his pardoning powers continues…

Getty Images Sea turtles are consumed as a delicacy in some communities in the Philippines Three people have died and at least 32 were hospitalised in the Philippines after eating an endangered sea turtle cooked in stew. Dozens of indigenous Teduray people reported symptoms such as diarrhoea, vomiting and abdominal spasms since eating the dish…

The world’s top court has begun hearing evidence in a significant case that may clarify the legal responsibilities of governments in relation to climate change. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague will hear testimony from nearly 100 countries including Vanuatu, the Pacific island nation that initiated the effort to get a legal…

Norway has paused its controversial project to open up its seabed for commercial-scale deep-sea mining. Oslo had planned to let companies apply to mine 280,000 sq km (108,000 sq miles) of its waters for precious metals – an area bigger than the size of the UK. The move was blocked after the country’s Socialist Left…

Joe Biden had repeatedly denied that he was going to pardon his son Hunter for his gun and tax evasion convictions or commute what was shaping up to be a substantive prison sentence. On the Sunday evening after Thanksgiving – at a moment when the American public’s attention was decidedly elsewhere – he announced he…

Lyse Doucet / BBC No one lives in the ghostly outskirts of El Geneina anymore. But its empty buildings still stand to tell their shocking stories, loudly and clearly. Charred homes and shops are peppered with bullet holes. Doors are wrecked. Metal shutters are smashed. Rusting Sudanese army tanks dot the streets. You can still…

Dozens of people have died in a crush following clashes at a football match in Guinea’s second-largest city, N’zérékoré, local media report. Prime Minister Mamadou Oury Bah said a stampede at the event led to a number of victims on Sunday and called for calm. One doctor, who did not want to be named, told…