Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

An American man identifying himself as Travis Timmerman has been found near the Syrian capital Damascus after being freed from a prison as rebels took over the country. Mr Timmerman, who said he was arrested upon entering Syria seven months ago, told the BBC’s US news partner CBS that he had been trying to make…

Getty Images The decision was long awaited in Bulgaria and Romania, but for truckers, the bureaucracy is not yet over Seventeen years after Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union, they have been given the green light to become members of its border-free Schengen travel zone. The decision by fellow EU member states means that…

The Australian state of Queensland has passed laws which will see children as young as 10 subject to the same penalties as adults if convicted of crimes such as murder, serious assault and break-ins. The government says the harsher sentencing rules are in response to “community outrage over crimes being perpetrated by young offenders” and…

Embattled South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has defended his shock decision to declare martial law last week, saying he did it to protect the country’s democracy. In a surprise televised address on Thursday, he said the attempt was a legal decision to “prevent the collapse” of democracy and counter the opposition’s “parliamentary dictatorship”. Yoon…

Two famous real estate brokers and their brother have been charged with sex trafficking in a case involving the alleged drugging, assaulting and raping of dozens of women over more than a decade. Prosecutors say Tal and Oren Alexander, who are known for selling high-end properties in New York and Miami, along with their brother…

Luigi Mangione, the suspect accused of fatally shooting healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thompson in New York, is unlikely to be able to mount an effective legal defence to the charges he faces, according to experts. Mr Mangione, 26, was arrested in Pennsylvania on Monday after a days-long, multi-state manhunt ended at a McDonalds in the…

Getty Images Hollywood star Jamie Foxx has revealed the cause of his hospital admission in April last year. Speaking during a Netflix special, the Django Unchained star told the audience he’d suffered a “brain bleed that led to a stroke”. He said he had a bad headache one day and asked for an aspirin but…

BBC Hamza al-Khatib’s death sparked protests in 2011 that led to Syria’s civil war If the push to oust Bashar al-Assad was born anywhere, it was born in Deraa, a small city in Syria near the Jordanian border. Here, on 21 May 2011, the tortured and mutilated body of 13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib was delivered to…

Getty Images Between July and September, India’s economy slumped to a seven-quarter low of 5.4% Is the world’s fastest-growing big economy losing steam? The latest GDP numbers paint a sobering picture. Between July and September, India’s economy slumped to a seven-quarter low of 5.4%, well below the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) forecast of 7%.…

Users of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp have experienced difficulties accessing them due to a mass global outage. “We’re aware that a technical issue is impacting some users’ ability to access our apps. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience,” Meta, which owns the apps, said…