Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has filed criminal complaints in France and Belgium against subsidiaries of the tech giant Apple, accusing it of using conflict minerals. Acting on behalf of the Congolese government, lawyers have argued that Apple is complicit in crimes committed by armed groups that control some of the mines in the east…

The founder of the feared Los Zetas drugs cartel has been deported to Mexico after serving a lengthy jail sentence in the United States. Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, 57, led Los Zetas until 2003, when he was cornered by Mexican soldiers near his hometown of Matamoros. Under his leadership, the group became one of the most…

Getty Images The European Union’s executive has opened a formal investigation into TikTok because of “serious indications” of foreign interference in the recent Romanian presidential election using the video-sharing platform. The second-round vote was cancelled earlier this month after declassified intelligence documents revealed 25,000 TikTok accounts were suddenly activated weeks before polls opened in the…

AFP A petition calling for Paul Watson’s release had previously surpassed 123,000 signatures Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson has been released from prison in Greenland where he spent five months in custody, after Denmark rejected a Japanese request to extradite him. Mr Watson, 74, was detained by police when his ship docked in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk,…

North Korean troops have been killed fighting Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region, the US has said. These would be the first reported casualties since it emerged in October that North Korea had sent around 10,000 troops to reinforce Russia’s war effort. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, the GUR, has also said at least 30…

After months of deadlock, there are new signs that Israel and Hamas could be moving closer to a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. A senior Palestinian official involved in the indirect negotiations told the BBC that talks were in a “decisive and final phase”. Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, has also said an agreement…

Getty Images India has nearly a billion eligible voters India, the world’s largest democracy, is almost always in election mode. With 28 states, eight union territories and nearly a billion eligible voters, polls are a constant feature of the nation’s political landscape. For years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has championed the…

As head of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection troops, Igor Kirillov – who has died in an explosion in Moscow – was accused by the West of overseeing the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine. Ukraine’s SBU security service said it was behind the blast which it described as a special…

Francesco Tosto/BBC The BBC first interviewed Baraa after she fled the Old City of Homs as a child nearly a decade ago “Even now, I look back and wonder how we survived this nightmare,” Baraa quietly reflects. Now 20 years old, the university student joined the joyous celebrations engulfing the streets of Syria last Sunday…

Reuters A high-ranking general in the Russian armed forces and his assistant have been killed in an explosion in Moscow. Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, head of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces (NBC), was leaving a residential block early on Tuesday when a device hidden in a scooter was detonated, Russia’s Investigative Committee said. Pictures…