Joanna Kakissis

The teenagers on the Afghan girls national soccer team lean on each other as they adjust to a new life in Portugal, where they fled after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

Scientists are watching how Portugal and other highly vaccinated countries are faring against the coronavirus' new omicron variant.

Greece, where 62 percent of people are fully vaccinated, has started collecting monthly fines from those who refuse the shots. Austria is also taking similar measures.

People of the former Soviet bloc rejoiced when the Iron Curtain fell and embraced membership in the European Union. Hungary is an example of a growing culture clash in the conservative East.

Portugal, where nearly everyone is vaccinated, is becoming a test case for living with the coronavirus — as a worrying new strain spreads worldwide.

As new COVID-19 strains threaten southern Europe's summer of recovery, tourism-reliant countries are scrambling to save vacation season while adapting their hospitality industries to the uncertainty.

As parents, teachers and children across the globe struggle with how to return to school safely during the pandemic, we look at strategies in Mexico, South Korea and Greece.

Couples discuss how travel restrictions have kept them oceans apart for months. While they lobby governments to allow them to see each other, some have had to delay weddings or even miss a childbirth.

A couple forced into a long-distance marriage because of a Trump administration travel ban on Muslim countries haven't seen each other in more than five months because of pandemic travel restrictions.

Unmarried couples have been hard-hit by the travel restrictions introduced in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Once such couple has been finally reunited in Greece.