Jamshid Sharmahd’s wife watched in fear as the pixellated dot marking his location moved away from Dubai airport and towards the border with Oman.

The Iranian-German journalist and software engineer was supposed to be on a flight from Dubai to India, in late July 2020, for a business meeting, not travelling overland. His wife watched from their home in California as the dot passed a school and a hospital thousands of miles away in the Gulf state of Oman.

It had been three days since they had last spoken while he was at a Dubai airport hotel. He had calmed her fears about his safety while waiting for his delayed flight to Mumbai, sharing his live location before the two laughed it off.

Read more: theguardian.com

Photo: theguardian.com