Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

There are fears of water contamination after a bridge collapsed in northern Brazil at the weekend, sending lorries carrying thousands of litres of pesticides and sulphuric acid into the river below. Four people are known to have died, and more than 10 are missing after the central span of the bridge linking Tocantins and Maranhão…

Getty Images Blake Lively says there was a campaign to “destroy” her reputation Actress Blake Lively was arguably the internet’s public enemy number one for a couple of weeks in the summer. She’s now filed an explosive legal case that she claims lifts the lid on “hostile work environments” that are created to harm reputations…

Pope Francis has launched a special jubilee year for Roman Catholics during a ceremony on Christmas Eve at the Vatican. The Pope marked the start of the jubilee by opening the usually bricked-up Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica. Jubilees take place only once every 25 years, and more than 30 million pilgrims are expected…

Reuters Greenland has major mineral and oil reserves The Danish government has announced a huge boost in defence spending for Greenland, hours after US President-elect Donald Trump repeated his desire to purchase the Arctic territory. Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said the package was a “double digit billion amount” in krone, or at least…

Mozambique’s main opposition leader, Venâncio Mondlane, has declared that he will install himself as president on 15 January after rejecting his defeat in presidential elections. His announcement came as his supporters staged violent protests across the country to demand an end to the 49-year-rule of the Frelimo party. The capital Maputo was like a ghost…

EPA American Airlines has resumed flights after suspending its services for around an hour on Tuesday due to a technical issue that impacted the systems needed to release its planes. The nationwide halt was cancelled just before 13:00 GMT, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The disruption came during one of the busiest travel…

French Prime Minister François Bayrou believes dozens of people died when Cyclone Chido hit the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on 14 December, rather than thousands as some have feared. Bayrou told BFMTV he thought the “alarmist and sometimes terrifying numbers put forward won’t be borne out in reality”. The confirmed death toll on…

Four rioters have been given short jail terms for violence against football fans visiting Amsterdam for a Europa League match between Ajax and Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv. Sefa Ö, 32, was handed the longest sentence of six months in jail by Amsterdam district court, while another man was given 10 weeks and two others…

Reuters Ursa Major was seen listing heavily on Monday afternoon before sinking overnight A Russian cargo ship, Ursa Major, has sunk in the Mediterranean between Spain and Algeria after an explosion in the engine room, Russia’s foreign ministry has confirmed. It said 14 members of the crew were rescued and taken to the Spanish port…

Getty Images Tony Chung, who fled Hong Kong last year and is currently in the UK, is among those being sought by police Hong Kong police have offered rewards of HK$1m (£103,000; $129,000) for information leading to the arrests of six pro-democracy activists living in the UK and Canada. Among them is Tony Chung, the…