A wall is to be built in Calais to deter refugees and migrants from attempting to board lorries destined for the UK, said the UK’s new immigration minister on Tuesday.
“People are still getting through,” Robert Goodwill said “We have done the fences. Now we are doing the wall,” the new immigration minister told the Commons home affairs committee.
The theft of citrus fruit across the Algarve has grown beyond the occasional and now is big business with oranges entering the legitimate wholesale network.
“The networks need to be dismantled and the ringleaders arrested,” says Algfuturo which reckons around €3 million worth of citrus fruit has been pinched this year alone.
Retail sales in the eurozone were up by 1.1% in July this year, while those in Portugal rose by 1.8% when compared with the previous month.
The greater tally of sales in Portugal was the second highest in the single bloc coming after only Luxembourg where sales increased by 2.3% more than the month before.
Major-General Francisco Grave Pereira, the head of Portugal’s National Civil Protection Authority, has had to resign and will face charges after the General Inspectorate of Internal Affairs (IGAI) accused him of a failure to act in the public interest in the Kamov fire-fighting helicopter purchase from the Russians and subsequent transfer to the private company Everjets.
One of the main beneficiaries of Portugal’s spate of fires is Everjets, bought by Domingos Névoa in 2015 along with a convenient long-term contract signed by the Civil Protection Authority.
Two of the Algarve’s business associations have warned that despite this year’s buoyant tourism figures bringing a welcome boost to the regional and national economies, care needs to be taken not to get over-excited.
The Association of Hotels and Resorts in the Algarve (AHETA), said the government and the various agencies involved in tourism need to balance tourism with social development in the Algarve, especially when it comes to the physically and visually impaired.
Ratings agency Fitch is not in the business of cheering up the Portuguese government and today’s assessment of actions and events deemed harmful to the economy is no exception.
The long-awaited reduction in VAT for the restaurant sector is seen by the agency as a bad thing as it may impair the all important deficit reduction target for 2016.
To the relief of many Algarve residents, the current blistering temperature are set to drop on Wednesday as a cold front will bring a drop of 10°C across the region.
Weather expert Sandra Correia commented, "Today and for Tuesday we have issued hot weather warnings at level ‘orange’ for some districts, mainly inland in the north and the centre of Portugal and for almost the entire southern region where the maximum temperature will be reaching between 40°C and 43°C in some of these regions."
Many of Portugal’s drivers are removing diesel particulate filters from their vehicles which are still passing government inspections.
To save on replacing expensive parts and on fuel consumption, motorists are allowing polluting particles into the atmosphere with a consequent impact on air quality and health.
