Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

World chess number one Magnus Carlsen has quit a major tournament after being told he could not carry on playing while wearing jeans. The chess great had been defending his titles at the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in New York when officials made the request. The grandmaster said he had offered to…

White House spokesman John Kirby has said the US has seen “early indications” that Russia may have been responsible for the downing of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed on 25 December, killing 38 people. Mr Kirby did not elaborate further, but told reporters the US had offered assistance to the investigation into the crash.…

AFP via Getty Images Singh’s funeral procession through the streets of Delhi India has mourned one of its longest-serving prime ministers, Manmohan Singh, with a state funeral in Delhi. Singh led the country from 2004 to 2014 and was considered the architect of India’s economic liberalisation. He died on Thursday aged 92. Prime Minister Narendra…

Patrícia Pascal When she was a young child and taking too long to get ready for school, family get-togethers or to sing in the church choir, Cape Verdean musician Carmen Souza was often told to “ariope”. What she did not realise until years later was that the Creole word came directly from the English word…

Actress Olivia Hussey, who shot to international prominence as a teenager for her role in the acclaimed 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet, has died aged 73. The Argentinian-born actress, who grew up in London, died on Friday surrounded by her loved ones, a statement posted on her Instagram said. Hussey won the best…

US President-elect Donald Trump has asked the US Supreme Court to delay an upcoming TikTok ban while he works on a “political resolution”. His lawyer filed a legal brief on Friday with the court that says Trump “opposes banning TikTok” and “seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he…

BBC Many Ukrainians have loved ones fighting on the frontline or in captivity A Ukrainian official has told the BBC they hope a New Year prisoner exchange with Russia will happen “any day,” although arrangements could fall through at the last minute. Petro Yatsenko, from Ukraine’s Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said…

Reuters Manmohan Singh came across as a quiet, gentle person in public The prospect of a shy politician is somewhat hard to imagine. Unless that politician is Manmohan Singh. Since the death of the former Indian prime minister on Thursday, much has been said about the “kind and soft-spoken politician” who changed the course of…

Chester Zoo The snails were marked with ‘colour coded’ identification dots before being released More than 1,300 pea-sized, critically endangered snails that were bred in a zoo have been set free to wander (very slowly) on a remote Atlantic island. The release brings two species of Desertas Island land snails back to the wild. Prior…

BBC This has been a miserable year for Boeing. Not only has it struggled to cope with a safety and quality control crisis, it has lost billions of dollars following a strike by workers that paralysed production at two of its biggest factories. Even its space programme has been in trouble. Two astronauts were left…