Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Why did Trump float takeovers of Greenland and the Panama Canal?
President-elect Donald Trump ran on a platform of isolating the US from foreign conflicts like the Ukraine war, increasing tariffs on foreign trade partners, and rebuilding domestic manufacturing. But in recent days he has suggested a more outwardly aggressive approach for his foreign policy. At first, he joked about Canada being an additional US state.…
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Palestinian Christians struggle to find hope at Christmas
Reuters A baby Jesus figure was placed on top of a pile of rubble in Bethlehem’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, with sermons focusing on the Gaza war The little town of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank has good reason to consider itself the capital of Christmas but this year it does not feel like it.…
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Can Donald Trump undo Joe Biden’s death penalty commutations?
Getty Images Approximately 2,200 inmates are still on death row at a state level With just weeks left in office, US President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 federal death row inmates – potentially thwarting President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to expand federal executions during his upcoming administration. Biden’s move was swiftly…
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Australian towns evacuated over Christmas as bushfires rage
Residents in an Australian region engulfed by bushfires were given two hours to return home to collect their belongings before Christmas on Tuesday, as emergency crews try to contain the blaze. Communities around the Grampians, in Victoria, have been evacuated amid warnings from authorities that conditions there in the days ahead could be the worst…
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Brazil shuts BYD factory site over ‘slavery’ conditions
Brazilian authorities have halted the construction of a factory for Chinese electric vehicle (EV) giant BYD, saying workers lived in conditions comparable to “slavery”. More than 160 workers have been rescued in Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia, according to a statement from the Public Labour Prosecutor’s Office (MPT). They were allegedly put in a “degrading”…
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Twelve dead in explosion at ammunition factory in Turkey
An explosion at an ammunition and explosives factory in north-west Turkey has killed at least 12 people and injured four others. The blast happened at 08:25 local time (05:25 GMT) in the capsule production section, the governor of the city of Balikesir, Ismail Ustaoglu, said. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the cause was not yet…
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Former CEO has dementia, lawyers say
The former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) has dementia and late onset Alzheimer’s disease, his legal team has said in a court document filed in New York. Lawyers for Mike Jeffries have requested a hearing to determine whether he is mentally fit to stand trial on federal sex trafficking charges. The 80-year-old was arrested…
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Ukraine’s stamps put humour, patriotism and swearing in the post
MYKOLA TYS/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock The head of Ukraine’s postal company, Ukrposhta, says they’re “breaking the rules” with their war stamps Rude gestures are rare on postage stamps, but Ukraine’s best known stamp has one. It shows a soldier raising the middle finger to a Russian warship in reference to a stand-off at Snake Island on day one…
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Three shot dead as gunmen attack Haiti’s biggest hospital
At least three people have been killed when armed men in Haiti opened fire at medical staff, police and journalists during a briefing to announce the reopening of the country’s biggest public hospital. Many others injured were injured in Tuesday’s attack in the General Hospital in the capital Port-au-Prince. Pictures posted online appear to show…
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How Indian artists envisioned Christ’s birth
From the British Library archive This 17th Century painting fuses Islamic motifs with Renaissance style artwork The birth of Jesus Christ – a seminal biblical event – has been the subject of many paintings by Western artists, who have often applied the ideas of beauty and creativity prevalent there while depicting the event on canvas.…
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