Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

BBC Climate change and more resilient grapes are helping Denmark and Sweden build a winemaking sector Sipping a glass of local wine is likely not what springs to mind when visiting Scandinavia, but this colder, northerly region is emerging as a new wine frontier. Hundreds of commercial vineyards are now dotted across Denmark, Sweden, and…

Zakir Hussain, one of the world’s greatest tabla players, has died at the age of 73. The Indian classical music icon died of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease, at a hospital in San Francisco, his family said in a statement. Hussain was a four-time Grammy award winner and has received the Padma Vibhushan, India’s…

The five remaining members of the infamous “Bali Nine” drug ring say they are “relieved and happy” to be home in Australia, after serving nearly 20 years in Indonesian prisons. Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen, and Michael Czugaj arrived back in the country on Sunday following years of lobbying by Australia…

AFP Last year, India nudged past China to become the world’s most populous country Last year, India nudged past China to become the world’s most populous country, according to UN estimates. With nearly 1.45 billion people now, you’d think the country would be quiet about having more children. But guess what? The chatter has suddenly…

Michael Mvondo / BBC A man from Ghana has told the BBC how he was seized at gunpoint by jihadists in neighbouring Burkina Faso, before being taken to their vast desert camp where he gained a rare insight into their lives – from the children he believed were trained as suicide bombers, to the tunnels…

BBC Jawdat al-Tawil said his community could only wait and watch for Israel’s next move An hour’s drive from Damascus, on a country road into the Syrian village of Hadar, we meet Israel’s army. Two military vehicles and several soldiers in full combat gear man an impromptu checkpoint – a foreign authority in a country…

Watch: Cars smashed and walls knocked down following Mayotte cyclone The search for survivors on the Mayotte archipelago continued on Sunday after a cyclone devastated the French Indian Ocean territory. It is feared the eventual death toll could stretch into the thousands once the damage is fully assessed and with rescue workers still working to…

Footage released by Russia’s Southern Transport Prosecutor’s Office shows a Russian oil tanker broken in half and sinking amid a heavy storm, with streaks of oil visible in the water. The Ship is one of two Russian vessels with 29 crew members on board which have been heavily damaged in the Black Sea authorities in…

Israel’s government has approved a plan to encourage the expansion of settlements in the occupied Golan Heights. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move was necessary because a “new front” had opened up on Israel’s border with Syria after the fall of the Assad regime to an Islamist-led rebel alliance. Netanyahu said he wanted to…

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been discharged from hospital after undergoing emergency surgery for a brain bleed, doctors said. The 79-year-old appeared alongside his medical team at a news conference at Sírio-Libanês hospital in São Paulo. “This here is not an interview, this is simply a session to say thanks. To thank,…