Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Phelan Chatterjee BBC News Getty Images The attack happened at a school for adults, on a campus where there are also children’s schools On Tuesday afternoon, the gunman behind Sweden’s worst-ever mass shooting paced up and down through the corridors of Risbergska adult educational centre. His steps could be heard outside the classroom of Hellen…

An unlikely pair of a tiger and a boar were rescued from a well in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday. Officials said the boar was being chased by the tiger when they both fell into the water. The animals were safely rescued by forest officials. Video shows the tiger unharmed after…

Thousands of employees at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will be placed on leave from Friday night, the agency has said in a statement on its website. In the announcement, USAID said all “direct-hire personnel” will be placed on leave at the end of this week except those on “mission-critical functions, core…

Belgian police are looking for armed gunmen after a shooting reported in one of the capital’s underground stations. CCTV footage shows at least two men wearing balaclavas and carrying what appeared to be Kalashnikov weapons at the entrance of Clemenceau station in Brussels early on Wednesday. The federal police, as well as railway police and…

The Philippines’ parliament has voted to impeach Vice-President Sara Duterte following complaints about alleged corruption. Duterte has been accused of misusing millions of dollars in public funds and threatening to have President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr assassinated. She has denied the charges and alleged she is the victim of a political vendetta. The shock move…

Alison Francis Senior Science Journalist Vesuvius Challenge X-ray scans and AI have meant the inside of ancient scroll can be revealed A badly burnt scroll from the Roman town of Herculaneum has been digitally “unwrapped”, providing the first look inside for 2,000 years. The document, which looks like a lump of charcoal, was charred by…

Sebastian Usher BBC’s Middle East analyst Reuters The famous leaning al-Hadba minaret was destroyed in the battle to liberate Mosul in 2017 Historic buildings in Mosul, including churches and mosques, are being reopened following years of devastation resulting from the Iraqi city’s takeover by the extremist Islamic State (IS) group. The project, organised and funded…

Ed Butler Business reporter, BBC News Reporting fromAccra, Ghana Getty Images Cashew nuts, which grow from beneath cashew fruits, are a big export crop for Ghana The Accra street vendor looks at me, bemused. I’m trying to establish how the rather flimsy 30g bag of roasted cashew nuts she’s selling, beside a sweltering highway in…

Alphabet, the parent company of technology giant Google, is no longer promising that it will never use artificial intelligence (AI) for purposes such as developing weapons and surveillance tools. The firm has rewritten the principles guiding its use of AI, dropping a section which ruled out uses that were “likely to cause harm”. In a…

The US Postal Service (USPS) says it has temporarily stopped accepting parcels from mainland China and Hong Kong. Letters will not be affected by the suspension, according to a statement on the company’s website. It said the suspension will be in place “until further notice” and did not offer any explanation for the decision. The…