Anbang, Fosun and Apollo may sound like three characters from Lord of the Rings but in reality are the three brave companies willing to risk billions of euros of their shareholders’ money on buying Novo Banco, the carefully crafted ‘good bank’ that emerged from the wreckage of Ricardo Salgado’s once emblematic Banco Espírito Santo.

The putative buyers have until August 7th to improve their opening offers as the Treasury, under the guidance of Maria Luís Albuquerque, needs around 25% more than the current rather thin offerings to enable her to pay off the shed-load of taxpayers’ cash that was handed over to avert a fully blown banking crisis had BES been allowed to implode as it should have under normal market forces.

The “get real” stance of PM Passos Coelho over Brussels’ plan for Portugal to absorb 2,400 migrants over the next couple of years has won a substantial cut, bringing final numbers down to “a little more than 1,400” - but the question still remains, “how will Portugal be able to cope?”

Last year, for instance, the country authorised visas for only 40 incoming migrant “refugees”.

As the country is assailed by pre-election promises from all sides, the grim reality is that it will take the best part of 20 years to bring unemployment in Portugal back to pre-crisis levels.

The message is contained in a report published on Monday by the IMF.

Barclays Bank has admitted that it is pulling out all the stops to sell what remains of its operations in Portugal for fear of what will happen if Greece shows new signs of weakening.

This is the message coming from Portugal’s Económico website this morning, alongside its Spanish pink-page counterpart Expansión.

Days before border control agency inspectors threatened a series of walkouts at Portugal’s airports, strike action has been averted.

Calling it “Government cedes to SEF inspectors’ demands and stops strike”, Diário de Notícias writes that a MoU (memorandum of understanding) was signed between the agency workers’ union and the secretaries of state for Internal Administration.

Environmental organisation Quercus has officially stripped Lagos’ Dona Ana beach of its “gold quality” flag over its controversial sand replenishment project.

The threat had already been made earlier this month and was made official on Wednesday (July 29).

Legacy contact - the Facebook service that allows people to run accounts of the dead - has finally arrived in Portugal after being available elsewhere since February.

Briefly, it involves what Americans call “memorialization”.

Getting a huge “thumbs down” in the nation’s tabloid press for his comments this week, Portugal’s minister for foreign affairs, Rui Machete, has admitted Portugal has “no concrete data” on the number of Portuguese who have gone to fight for Islamic State in conflict zones.

His comments came as Spain has revealed 126 nationals are believed to have left the country to fight for IS.