Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Yuna Ku BBC Korean Service Getty Images Starbucks has temporarily disabled the use of seven particular names on its app Walk into any Starbucks in South Korea right now, and there are some names you definitely won’t be hearing. Six to be exact – and they happen to be the names of the candidates running…

Germany has made its first permanent foreign military deployment since World War Two, sending troops to Lithuania’s eastern flank. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and defence secretary Boris Pistorius attended an inauguration ceremony for the deployment, in the company of Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nauseda, in the country’s capital city of Vilnius. “Peace in Europe has been…

Peter Mwai, Matt Murphy, Jake Horton & Joshua Cheetham BBC Verify BBC Donald Trump confronted President Cyril Ramaphosa during a tense exchange in the White House on Wednesday, with a series of contested claims about the killings of white farmers in South Africa. The meeting – at first warm and light-hearted – quickly changed tone…

Several people are believed to have died after a small plane crashed into a residential street in San Diego on Thursday morning. No residents were seriously injured, but there was “more than one fatality” among the passengers on board, Assistant Fire Chief Dan Eddy said. Several homes were destroyed and cars caught fire after the…

The Trump administration has moved to end Harvard’s ability to enrol international students, escalating a row with America’s oldest university. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on X that the administration has revoked Harvard’s “Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law.” “Let this serve as…

The state of Oklahoma may not direct public state funding to what was set to be the nation’s first religious charter school after the US Supreme Court deadlocked over the case. The justices were evenly split, voting 4-4 in a ruling on Thursday. The tie affirms a lower ruling from the Oklahoma State Supreme Court,…

Mark Poynting Climate reporter, BBC News Noaa/Reuters Hurricane Milton, in October 2024, was one of the Atlantic’s strongest recorded storms The coming Atlantic hurricane season is expected to be busier than usual, US science agency NOAA has warned, just as cuts to American research are raising fears about the ability to track and prepare for…

House Republicans have passed a sweeping multi-trillion dollar tax breaks package, a narrow victory for President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson after weeks of negotiations with conservative hold-outs. Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” passed with a vote of 215 votes to 214, with two Republicans joining Democrats to oppose it and one voting present.…

André Rhoden-Paul BBC News Watch: BBC at the scene of shooting outside Jewish museum A young couple who worked for the Israeli Embassy have been shot dead outside a Jewish museum in Washington DC. Police say the victims, who have been named as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were killed by a man who…

EPA More aid lorries entered Gaza through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing on Thursday More than 90 lorry loads of humanitarian aid have been collected by UN teams inside the Gaza Strip, three days after Israel eased an 11-week-long blockade. The aid, which included flour, baby food and medical equipment, was picked up from the…