Mariano Rajoy, Spain’s Prime Minister, has taken another step in his mission to prevent Catalonia from holding a referendum on its independence.
The Guardia Civil has been instructed by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia to block websites supportive of the independence vote - a vote judged illegal under Spain’s constitution - including the official website of the Catalan National Assembly, a civil body whose aim is to achieve independence for Catalonia.
Health Minister, Adalberto Campos Fernandes, said today that the proposal from Portugal’s nurses for an across-the-board pay rise of €400 a month was totally out of the question.
A nurses' union threatens another strike, this one set for October 16th, if the government does not meet a set of demands handed to the ministry which include a minimum increase of €400 a month for all nursing professionals, according to a union source.
The new President of Angola, João Lourenço, did not mention Portugal in his inaugural speech in which he noted the country’s "principal partners" and welcomed others who "respected Angola’s national sovereignty."
The new head of state is well aware that Portugal is the main market for Angolan imports and has set out to increase the tension between the two governments by ignoring Portugal's commercial importance.
This summer’s tourist passenger figures have surpassed all previous records as between June and August 2017, 16 million people passed through Portugal’s ANA-managed airports, two million more than in the same period last year.
At the ten national airports managed by French-owned ANA, 16,312,927 passengers passed through in three months, compared to last year’s figure of 14,120,302.
An undergraduate, studying at the Algarve’s University, has been found dead..
The 19-year-old, named as Diogo Miguel Sousa Costa, was living in student accommodation and the GNR already has commented that there appears to have been no crime committed.
The Governor of the Bank of Portugal, Carlos Costa, has pre-empted a report into banking supervision by criticising the Ministry of Finance for something that is far from being decided.
Deeply perturbed that his power is being eroded and the he is about to lose much of his supervisory remit, Costa says that attempts have been made to question the independence of central banks. This refers to the current debate over reforms to the supervision of banking, insurance and capital markets.
Portugal’s taxpayers are reducing the national deficit at a record pace with tax revenues growing at double the rate predicted in the 2017 Budget.
The Government says the increased flow of citizens’ money into the Treasury, €26.6 billion in the first eight months of this year, represents an increase of €1.5 billion on the same period last year is due to the accelerating economy.
A veritable plague of bedbugs has stuck at hotels and short-term tourist rental properties in Lisbon and Oporto, lurking in beds and mattress, enjoying warm and dark environments - and tourists are getting the blame.
The Deputy Director-General for Health, Drª Maria Graça Freitas, is aware of cases in Lisbon, mostly in tourist rental accommodation, and has stated that the bugs pose no danger to public health.
