Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

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…

Getty Images Salome Zourabichvili (right) was filmed asking masked riot police: “Are you serving Russia or Georgia?” Salome Zourabichvili’s family fled Georgia in 1921 after Soviet forces snuffed out the country’s three-year experiment with independence from Russia. A century later, Georgia’s pro-Western president is refusing to leave office, arguing she is the last legitimate institution…

BBC Abdullah Al Nofal (left) and his wife Douna Haj Ahmed It was early December when Douna Haj Ahmed, a Syrian refugee, discovered the disturbing details of her husband’s detention in the notorious Al-Khatib prison – known as “Hell on Earth“. She was watching bewildered prisoners fleeing the country’s brutal security apparatus, on the news…

Getty Images What is driving people to murder strangers en masse? It’s a question many in China are asking “The Chinese people are so miserable,” read a social media post in the wake of yet another mass killing in the country earlier this year. The same user also warned: “There will only be more and…

Prosecutors have formally charged a man in the death of a woman set alight on a New York subway train. On Friday, Sebastian Zapeta was indicted on charges of murder and arson, though he did not appear during the brief court hearing. Mr Zapeta, 33, is accused of setting fire to the woman, who may…

EPA On 25 December, 38 people died when an Azerbaijan Airlines flight, which had been due to land in Russia, crash-landed in Kazakhstan. The circumstances around the crash remain unclear, but limited evidence so far suggests it may have been damaged by missiles fired by a Russian air-defence system as it tried to land in…

High-profile supporters of President-elect Donald Trump clashed online over a visa programme intended to bring skilled tech workers to the US – a preview of possible tensions in the upcoming Trump White House. In a post on X Thursday, Vivek Ramaswamy, who was tapped by Trump to slash government spending, defended the H-1B visa system…