For Rute Gabriel and Pipo Vieira, it was the tomato plant on their 25th-floor balcony in Toronto that convinced them to return home.  The couple, sweethearts ever since high school in this Portuguese region of stone-fenced fields and olive groves, we

Pan Thurneysen, tanned, lean, and ponytailed, bends over the side of the vessel he helms, one of the four small current-powered rope ferries that ply the Rhine River in Basel, Switzerland. He’s scooping a bowl of water for a boarding passenger – some

When Shikuku Willy Ooko was in his early 20s, he was deeply taken with the Afro-Alpine forests of central Kenya. So much so that he decided to buy 15 acres of woodland adjacent to Mount Kenya National Park & Reserve, in the small market town of Naro

They pace the spartan hotel lobby, moving back and forth between the faux leather couches. They all seem to be in a hurry, but with nowhere to go – holding phones, anxiously awaiting yet dreading the next call. These unplanned guests – Palestinian re

The olive tree, according to Greek mythology, was created by Athena, the goddess of wisdom, as a gift to the people of her namesake city, Athens. Olives and olive oil have become synonymous with Greece, and are credited, in part, with fueling the ris

In a warren of narrow lanes in western India, almost every man carries a paper pouch in his pocket full of glittering diamonds. Among them is Nagji Rawal. Back at his shop, the diamond broker sits cross-legged with a velvet jewelry tray perched on hi

From the outside, the light peeking through a window of the modest one-story home provides the only clue the day has begun at Kingfield Kinder Care.  Inside, Jackie Lobdell dotes on the children already in her care. She serves bite-size grapes and ci

Canada’s Supreme Court is majority-female for the first time. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau chose Mary Moreau to replace a retiring justice, giving the court five female and four male members. Ms. Moreau most recently served as chief justice of Alber

Rarely have so many Lebanese turned out on the streets to demand wholesale political change as when they began their self-declared “October Revolution” of 2019. And rarely has there been so little positive result. In recent years, Lebanon has been en