WASHINGTON: Jem Jenkins Jones was stuck at home in Wales for much of the past year amid pandemic lockdowns but managed to fulfill a promise to her 10-year-old daughter to see the northern lights from Iceland and South Africa’s game reserves – in virtual reality. 

KUWAIT: Kuwait yesterday recorded 1,198 new coronavirus infections, taking total cases to 227,178, while nine fatalities over the past 24 hours raised the death toll to 1,279. 

BEIJING: China yesterday launched a PR war on Western brands critical of rights abuses in Xinjiang, with celebrities severing ties with Nike, H&M facing a boycott and Burberry dumped from a deal with a gaming giant. 

CERRO PELADO, Uruguay: Rotating cattle to keep the grass long, synching cows’ pregnancies and improving bovine diet are just some of the tactics Uruguayan farmers are using to mitigate the impact of cattle on climate change. 

NEW YORK: Oil prices surged following the blockage of the Suez canal, while stocks were mixed as governments struggle to contain the latest wave of the coronavirus. 

GAZIPUR, Bangladesh: Bangladesh turns 50 this week as an economic success story but also an increasingly repressive de facto one-party state where a cartoon or Facebook post can land you in jail, or worse. 

KUWAIT: Kuwait yesterday reported 1,390 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, taking the total caseload to 224,432. 

SAN FRANCISCO: US chip titan Intel said Tuesday it will invest $20 billion in building two new plants in Arizona as part of a plan to ramp up production in the United States and Europe. 

IBADAN, Nigeria: The train travels at a stately speed, taking more than two and a half hours to traverse little more than 150 kilometers (90 miles) of countryside in southern Nigeria. But the fledgling service is developing a fanclub among travellers exhausted by the country’s notoriously choked, chaotic and dangerous roads.