Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Getty Images François Bayrou has long been a centrist ally of President Macron President Emmanuel Macron has named centrist leader François Bayrou as France’s next prime minister, in a bid to end months of political turmoil. Bayrou, 73, is a mayor from the southwest and leads the MoDem party. Ahead of the announcement, he spent…

Getty President Macron has turned to a fellow centrist, and one of France’s most experienced politicians, to extricate the country from its crisis of government. But if François Bayrou commands plenty of respect across the political spectrum, it is hard to see how he can avoid the same man-traps that felled his predecessor Michel Barnier.…

Getty Images The Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi city is at the centre of a dispute in court India’s top court is hearing a number of petitions challenging a decades-old law that preserves the character and identity of religious places as they existed at the time of the country’s independence in 1947. The law, introduced in…

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, 80, has defended the use of military courts to try civilians – following an outcry over the arrest and trial of opposition leader Kizza Besigye. His 68-year-old rival has been charged in a military court with possession of pistols and attempting to purchase weapons abroad – accusations he denies. Besigye, who…

Reuters President Yoon Suk Yeol shocked the world with his attempt to impose martial law The news is moving so quickly in South Korea, the papers can no longer keep up. President Yoon Suk Yeol’s shock attempt to impose martial law last Tuesday night was so short-lived it failed to make the front page. By…

BBC Diary of a CEO host Steven Bartlett is amplifying harmful health misinformation on his number-one ranked podcast, a BBC investigation has found. Recent claims from guests – including that cancer can be treated by following a keto diet, rather than proven treatments – were allowed by the Dragons’ Den star with little or no…

A former Syrian government official has been charged with torture in the United States, authorities said on Thursday. Samir Ousman Alsheikh, who oversaw the Damascus Central Prison from 2005 and 2008, was charged by a federal grand jury with several counts of torture and conspiracy to commit torture. US authorities said the allegations against Alsheikh…

Getty Images While Trump visited the newly restored Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Islamist fighters in Syria toppled Assad’s regime When Donald Trump sat with world leaders in Paris last weekend to marvel at the restored Notre Dame cathedral, armed Islamist fighters in Syria were in jeeps on the road to Damascus finalising the fall…

AFP Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju shocked the world of chess on Thursday when he became the youngest world champion at the age of just 18. The Chennai-born prodigy defeated defending champion, China’s Ding Liren, in a dramatic match staged in Singapore which he had entered as the challenger. It marked the peak to date of…

Bolivia has extradited its former anti-drugs director to the United States, where he faces drug trafficking charges. Maximiliano Dávila, also known as “Macho”, is accused of facilitating cocaine smuggling to the US during his time as the head of Bolivia’s anti-narcotics agency. His extradition, which took place on Thursday, was approved by Bolivia’s Supreme Court…