The Minister of Internal Administration, Constança Urbano de Sousa, has offered her resignation which was accepted by the Prime Minister who said the minister asked him to accept her offer as it would 'preserve her personal dignity' - hence, he could not refuse to accept it.

Constança Urbano de Sousa leaves office followed by a trail of black smoke after a summer of fires including two where citizens lost their lives: July 17th at Pedrógão Grande, (65) and last weekend in the north and central regions during which 41 people are known to have perished. The Interior Ministry is in charge of firefighters, the police and civil protection agency, all of which faced sharp criticism after the fires.

Portugal’s President, in a superb display of doing what presidents should do, has laid it on the line for the current prime minister, António Costa, whose future now looks shakier than at any point during his leadership.

Appalled that he alone is visiting and hugging survivors of the latest deadly fires, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has insisted that the government apologises for letting down the public by failing to undertake the number one obligation of any government, to protect its citizens and if it can not do this, he will dissolve parliament.

Portugal’s tourism authority for central Portugal promotes the historic Leiria Pine Forest, known also as the King’s Pine Forest (Pinhal do Rei), which was planted in the C13th on the orders of King D. Afonso III to ensure a steady and sustainable supply of wood to build the caravels and other ships that led the Discoveries.

The forest was extended on the order of King D. Dinis I, and for centuries, in an early example of sustainability, for every tree cut, one was planted.

According to the National Authority for Civil Protection's report at noon today, the horrendous fires that swept across 225,447 hectares of Portugal’s forest and farmland over the past three days, have injured 71 people, of which 16 remain in serious condition, and killed 37 people with seven still missing.

An update on Tuesday evening reports 41 dead with no people reported as missing with the one-month-old baby, thought to have died, now confirmed as "well and with the family."

Pedro Santana Lopes, the prime minister of Portugal between 2004 and 2005, is to bid for the leadership of the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) this weekend.

This is the position soon to be vacated by another former prime minister, Pedro Passos Coelho who finally has got the message that he no longer is wanted and is stepping down.

Portugal and Spain are to continue their cross-border cooperation along the Guadiana river in a new project to protect the natural areas of its lower reaches. Project ‘Valagua’ was presented today in Castro Marim.

The ‘Project for Environmental Valuation and Integrated Management of Water and Habitats in the Cross-border Lower Guadiana’ will continue until September 2019.

On an evening when the death of a one-month-old baby was confirmed as one of the 38 who perished in the weekend’s fires, with seven people still unaccounted for, the Viegas Report has been released, blaming an electrical cable for the devastating fire in Pedrógão Grande this June.
 
The independent technical report on Pedrógão Grande, ordered by the Government, arrived on Monday afternoon at the Ministry of Internal Administration.

The commander of the Portuguese League of Fire Brigades, Jaime Marta Soares, said that the number of fires set deliberately this past weekend goes beyond any established pattern displayed by arsonists, and suggested that a ‘terrorist organisation’ is behind these tragedies.

The seemingly careful selection of multiple incendiary points to create large fires, led Soares to comment, "I believe that there is a terrorist organisation that is premeditated and organised to set fire to our country, it is a way of creating instability,"