Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

1 week ago | restofworld.org | Yudhijit Bhattacharjee |Jane Seidel

One morning in January, Byju Raveendran sat in the back seat of his shiny black Cadillac as it sped through Dubai. Just three years prior, the schoolteachers’ son had appeared on the Forbes list of richest Indians as founder and CEO of Byju’s, then one of the world’s most valuable education technology companies. He was dressed casually in a T-shirt and jeans, while his driver, Hashim, was more formally attired in a collared shirt.

Jan 10, 2025 | xpresschronicle.com | Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

The Chinese government’s paranoia about overseas dissidents can seem strange, considering the enormous differences in power between exiled protesters who organize marches in America and their mighty homeland, a geopolitical and economic superpower whose citizens they have almost no ability to mobilize. But to those familiar with the Chinese Communist Party, the government’s obsession with dissidents, no matter where in the world they are, is unsurprising.

Jan 10, 2025 | nytimes.com | Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

One morning in late July last year, Shujun Wang shuffled into a courtroom at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, leaning on his cane as he made his way to the defense table. Settling into a seat next to his lawyers, the 76-year-old Chinese American scholar smoothed his jet-black hair and adjusted his tie, whose red-and-blue pattern, set against his white shirt, vaguely suggested the American flag.

Jan 8, 2025 | nationalgeographic.com | Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

The helicopter landed on top of the cliff, its blades chopping the cold air. Stepping out, National Geographic Explorer Gina Moseley breathed deeply and took in the commanding view of Greenland’s barren landscape. To the south, a frozen lake stretched out for miles, eventually giving way to brown and gray plateaus, interrupted by the white flash of glaciers in the distance. In the other direction, some 560 miles beyond the horizon, was the North Pole.

Jan 7, 2025 | science.org | Paul Voosen |Michael Greshko |Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

NASA is considering two options for the shape of its reworked mission to collect rock samples from the surface of Mars and rocket them to Earth, the agency announced today. Either one would cut billions from the original mission’s cost and speed its development. But the agency will leave the choice to the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. The decision reflects both technical and political reality, Bill Nelson, NASA’s outgoing administrator, said in a press briefing.