Portugal's general discussion (general events)

[Mike88]

Turkish Airlines considering a proposal to buy TAP Airlines:

https://twitter.com/expresso/status/1465250557480873988

Turkish Airlines studying proposal to buy TAP

TAP is in the sights of Turkish Airlines, headlines the "Jornal de Negócios" on Monday, with a proposal that, to be made, should be around 1.9 billion euros. However, the offer under study will only be made if it is possible for the Turkish airline to obtain a majority stake in the capital of the Portuguese carrier, currently undergoing a restructuring process that involves difficult negotiations between the Portuguese State and the European Commission.

The démarches of Turkish Airlines, 49% owned by the Turkish State, by the recently rescued TAP are being carried out through diplomatic channels, the newspaper clarifies, despite the Government not being informed of the purchase intention. Only after the elections will the Turkish negotiate with the Executive that will come out, as the current one led by António Costa prefers to keep the majority of the capital in the hands of the State.
(...)

[Mike88]

Mortality on the rise in Portugal, almost reaching 2020 levels:

https://twitter.com/SolOnline/status/1467058874335309830

Mortality in the country almost at the 2020 level

In the last seven days, 295 more people died in the country than would be expected given the reality of recent years, and there is once again a higher-than-expected period of mortality, even with fewer deaths associated with covid-19 than in 2020. The balance appears on the Ministry of Health's National Mortality Surveillance Platform (EVM), which shows a new period of excess mortality, smaller than last year but above what can be considered to be expected in light of the records of the last five years . According to data published on the Ministry of Health's EVM platform, excess mortality is occurring in the population aged 75 and over in the Algarve region. Although for a year there have been more than 70 deaths associated with covid-19 per day, this year being five times less, there was even a day at the end of November when the number of global deaths in the country, which includes all causes of illnesses, covid-19 and others, but also victims of accidents, suicide and aggression, surpassed the 2020 record.

With the data available on the EVM platform, where mortality in the country is monitored daily from the death certificates, it is possible to conclude that in the last ten days of November 3718 people died in Portugal, whereas last year there were 3859 deaths, with days when the number of deaths was identical to that of 2020 and one day when it was higher, 28 November.
(...)

Jornal de Notícias also reports that the main reasons for the increase of mortality is the cold weather and other illnesses.

[Mike88]

Fugitive banker João Rendeiro, arrested in South Africa:

https://twitter.com/TimesLIVE/status/1469643056345493506

A fugitive banker wanted in Portugal on fraud charges involving €41m (about R740m) was arrested in Durban early on Saturday.

The website jn.pt said João Rendeiro was arrested in a raid involving officers from the Judicial Police in Portugal.

SA Police Service spokesperson Brig Vish Naidoo said the arrest took place in Umhlanga Rocks, and a TimesLIVE source said Rendeiro had been living in Sandton.

(...)

Rendeiro — founder and former president of Banco Privado Português (BPP), which collapsed in 2010 — was the subject of two international arrest warrants.

The former banker announced in a blog post on September 28 that he had left Portugal and that he did not intend to return to face trial. He had already been given a five-year prison term after an earlier conviction.

He said he felt wronged and claimed he had become a “scapegoat of a desire to punish those who, after all, were not punished”.

Rendeiro said he would return to Portugal only if he received a presidential pardon, but at a news conference in Lisbon on Saturday Neves said the Judicial Police had been tracking him since he left the UK on September 14 and arrived in SA on September 18.

(...)

Neves said Rendeiro obtained a SA residence permit on November 10. “He walked without disguises, but with great care. He didn't circulate freely,” he said.

Rendeiro's wife, Maria, 63, is under house arrest at the couple's mansion and Neves said when she was arrested for alleged money laundering on November 4 she told investigators her husband was in SA.

However, “we were already following him. She didn't give any clues. We had to safeguard the secret and I'm glad we managed to guard the information.”

Neves highlighted the importance of co-operation with the police and judicial authorities of SA and Angola.

[Mike88]

2021 Census: INE publishes provisional results 3 months early, as they were only expected by February 2022.

The National Statistics Institute has published the provisional results of the 2021 Census. Compared with the first results in July, the INE has updated down the population estimate, -3,090:

Portugal's population: 10,344,802 (-217,376 compared with 2011)

Interactive site: https://www.ine.pt/scripts/db_censos_2021.html

% of population by age: (compared with 2011)

53.2% Between 25-64 years (-2.0)
23.4% Above 65 years (+4.4)
23.4% Between 0-24 years (-2.4)

Alentejo and the Center regions have the highest % of elderly population, 27%. Azores islands have the lowest, 16.5%, and also has the highest % of young population, 26.5%.

Marital status %. (compared with 2011)

43.4% Single (+0.4)
41.1% Married (-2.1)
  8.0% Divorced (+2.0)
  7.5% Widowed (-0.3)

Women have the highest rate of widows, 11.7%, men only have 3%. The share of single men is higher than women, 46.8% vs 40.2%.

Nationality of the population: (compared with 2011)

9,789,503 Portuguese 94.6% (-1.7)
   555,299 Foreign 5.4% (+1.7)

81.4% of foreign population is from countries outside the EU. The Algarve has the highest % of foreign population, 14.7%, and Azores the lowest, just 1.5%.

% Population by education. (compared with 2011)

26.2% Basic School (-3.5)
21.4% Primary School (-4.1)
21.3% High School (+7.1)
17.4% College (+5.6)
13.7% None (-5.2)

Women has the highest % of population with a college degree, 60%, while men have the highest share in basic education, 54%.

Size of families %:

33.3% 2 people
24.8% Just one person
21.6% 3 people
14.7% 4 people
  5.6% 5 or more people

Azores has the highest share of big families, 5 or more people, with 9.6%. Lisbon has the highest share of families with just one person, 28%.

Building by occupation %: (compared with 2011)

70.0% Owners (-3.2)
22.3% Rented (+2.4)
  7.7% Other situation (+0.9)

The Center region has the highest share of property ownership, 77.3%, while Lisbon has the lowest 63.7%. In Lisbon, 29% of the households are rented.

Value of monthly rent euros %:

40.4% Between 650 and 999,9 euros
21.0% Above 1,000 euros
14.1% Between 400 and 649,9 euros
  6.9% Between 200 and 399,9 euros
17.6% Bellow 200 euros

61.4% of all rented houses have rents above 650 euros, which is basically the value of the minimum wage. Average salaries in Portugal are around 1,000 euros per month.

[Mike88]

I wish Portugal had shown a stiffer spine over Timor in 1974-5. And, that FRETILIN hadn’t staged a Marxist coup on the Indons doorstep. And that both Gough Whitlam and Suharto had slipped on banana peels and been incapacitated in the most crucial months.

That would be impossible at that time. Between 1974 and 1976, Portugal was complete chaos, as the country was living the post revolutionary years. Terrorist attacks, violent protests, forced nationalizations, deep divisions in society, almost creating the fear of a possible civil war. The then governments, all of them provisional, had no power at all or even time to think about Timor. Even the decolonization process was quite chaotic with the rapid recognition of the African colonies as independent nations, but this led to a massive influx of more than 500,000 Portuguese residents in Africa, in just one year, that fled to Portugal, which was badly managed, and of course the complete meltdown in Angola and Mozambique that entered in a bloody civil war.

Portugal, however, tried to make amends in the 90's by becoming the leading nation in the world to arise awareness to Timor's situation. Both PSD and PS governments in the 90's were deeply committed in helping Timor and in the late 90's, the efforts of President Jorge Sampaio, helped solve the Timor issue. There was also a massive nationwide movement in order to help Timor.

[Mike88]

Scandal in the police forces: GNR officers filmed torturing migrants in Odemira, Beja district.

https://twitter.com/cnnportugal/status/1471540654736031747

Migrants assaulted and humiliated by uniformed agents in Odemira who filmed their own acts of violence. Seven GNR soldiers are accused of a total of 33 crimes. Follow it on CNN Portugal and see all the details in Jornal das 8 on TVI.

When the Judiciary Police seized the mobile phones of five soldiers at the GNR post in Vila Nova de Milfontes in 2019, Odemira, suspected of alleged mistreatment of immigrants, was far from imagining the reality they would stumble upon. The apparatus of a 25-year-old guard, subject to the PJ's forensics, revealed brutal images – until now hidden by the Justice, but to which CNN Portugal and TVI had access. It consists of seven videos - with images filmed for fun by the military himself - of kidnapping, torture, humiliation, violence and racist insults to various agricultural workers in that region. So it appears in the judicial process.

The victims, from South Asia, the majority from Bangladesh, Nepal or Pakistan, are picked up in the street, at random and free of charge, for the enjoyment of seven uniformed soldiers, serving the State, who appear in the images. They set up ambushes under the pretext of false stop operations, traffic inspection, and take immigrants to the post – where they attack and humiliate them, being subjected to various violent practices. In one of the false stop operations, GNR elements caught an immigrant who, taken to a field at night, was tortured with pepper spray, which the military forced to inhale through the mouth and nose through the tube of the alcohol meter , known as the “balloon test”.

Meanwhile, with the victim in pain and asking for water in English, which they refuse to give, they appear in this GNR military video, laughing and uttering the following sentence: "It's pepper spray, oh animal. Son of a great b***h! Animal !".
(...)

[Mike88]

2021 Census: INE publishes provisional results 3 months early, as they were only expected by February 2022.

% of population by age: (compared with 2011)

53.2% Between 25-64 years (-2.0)
23.4% Above 65 years (+4.4)
23.4% Between 0-24 years (-2.4)

Alentejo and the Center regions have the highest % of elderly population, 27%. Azores islands have the lowest, 16.5%, and also has the highest % of young population, 26.5%.

Interesting, and a bit worrying, data: With the Census 2021 results, Portugal is now the 3rd country in the world with the highest share of population above 65 years old, just below Italy (23.5%), and Japan (28.4%).

https://twitter.com/expresso/status/1472349031271698440

2021 Census. Portugal is aging faster and faster, without immigrants the country enters into “demographic suicide”

It was already known that Portugal is an aging country, but the Census data released this week revealed an even darker scenario than expected. Almost a quarter of the population (23.4%) is over 65, the third highest percentage in the world, only behind Japan (28.4%) and practically on a par with Italy (23.5%). For every hundred young people, there are now 182 elderly people, a figure that has surpassed all predictions and shows an ever-accelerating rate of aging.

The value of the aging index surprised even researchers, as estimates for 2020 pointed to 167 elderly people for every 100 young people and the leap was not expected to be so great. “It shows that the trend is even stronger and faster than previously thought”, says Maria João Valente Rosa.
(...)

[Mike88]

2021 Census: Parish map with changes 2021 vs 2011.


https://www.ine.pt/scripts/db_censos_2021.html

Portugal 2021: 10,344,802 (-217,376 compared with 2011)

There were big population increases in the Lisbon metro area and in the Algarve, plus the south part of the Alentejo coastal shore, where a lot of immigrants from across the world work in agriculture plantations, many of them in very inhuman conditions.

In Porto metro area, there was stagnation with some increases in parishes, like my own, around Porto city. Across the country, urban and "suburban" parishes had some increases, but rural parishes had a massive drop in population, as the dark blue across the country shows.

Orange for increase, Blue for Decrease.

[Mike88]

Floods in the island of São Miguel, Azores, leaves 15 people homeless and a lot of damages:

https://twitter.com/MeteoTrasMontPT/status/1476899032773627904

The last day of the year brought a very significant storm in #Azores, with a lot of material damage and homeless.

The Civil Protection of the Azores registered during this Friday morning 11 new occurrences related to bad weather, totaling 87 identified since midnight in the entire archipelago.

In a statement, the Azores Regional Civil Protection and Fire Service (SRPCBA) clarifies that, from 8:00 am to around 12:00 pm, it recorded 11 situations "related to falling trees, flooding of roads, obstructions of roads, landslides and element falls".

On the island of São Miguel, 10 incidents were registered during the morning and on the island of Terceira, a new incident.

"There is no record of personal injury", observes the Civil Protection.

The bad weather that was felt during the night led to the registration of a total of 87 occurrences: 76 in São Miguel, nine in Terceira island, one in Santa Maria and another in Pico.

The transshipment of a stream in Feteiras, Ponta Delgada municipality, forced 15 people to be relocated and caused the dragging of 15 vehicles.
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The President of Azores Government, José Manuel Bolieiro, went to see the damages and promissed help and homes for those homeless:

(...)
According to Bolieiro, who was speaking at the place, the families who spent the night at the home of relatives "are all relocated, with the social services of the municipality and the government to deal with the matter".

“Everything is underway”, he stressed.

Asked about the recovery of goods damaged by the flood, the president of the Regional Government indicated that "the populations can count on maximum solidarity and support to return to normality after this situation."

Alerting to the “real impact of climate change” on the archipelago, a “difficult territory” and vulnerable to them, Bolieiro said he wanted to “implement as soon as possible” the Flood Risk Management Plan prepared by the executive.
(...)

[Mike88]

4.4 magnitude Earthquake felt this evening in the Algarve region:

https://twitter.com/LastQuake/status/1477387427861905414

The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) warned of the occurrence of an earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale, with an epicenter 82 kilometers from Olhão. The concussion happened at 9:03 pm on this Saturday night, at a depth of 12 kilometers.

On IPMA's Twitter account, some users of the social network residing in the Algarve (Loulé, Faro and Olhão) guarantee that they felt the impact of the earthquake.

Despite the scare caused by the incident, "this earthquake, according to the information available so far, did not cause personal or material damage and was felt with maximum intensity III/IV (modified Mercalli scale) in the Faro region", reacted the IPMA.

[Mike88]

Sexual abuse investigations: In just the first day open for reports, the commission of sexual abuse in the Church received 50 testimonies.

https://twitter.com/JornalNoticias/status/1480995196858818560

Collected 50 testimonies of sexual abuse in the church on the first day open to complaints 

The coordinator of the Independent Commission for the Study of Sexual Abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church, child psychiatrist Pedro Strecht, said, in a written response sent to Lusa, that "the telephone line was almost always filled" on the first day open to the collection of complaints and testimonies through the various channels opened for this purpose.

"By online survey or completed in a phone call, around 50 testimonies have already been validated", said Pedro Strecht, stressing, in a statement around 18:30, that the telephone line only closes at 20:00, suggesting that the number can be higher.

"The commission is pleased that its initial message was well received by people who were victims of this type of abuse", said Pedro Strecht.

The commission that will investigate sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Portugal began today to receive complaints from victims, from cases that have occurred since 1950, which can be sent to the authorities and investigated if the crimes have not yet expired.
(...)

[Mike88]

Portuguese Justice is investigating Roman Abramovich's grant of Portuguese nationality:

https://twitter.com/cnnportugal/status/1483525894891315211

PGR investigates Abramovich's Portuguese nationality

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, 55, has been a Portuguese citizen since April, when his Sephardic ancestry was certified.

The Attorney General's Office opened an inquiry into the attribution of Portuguese nationality to Roman Abramovich, an official PGR source confirmed to CNN Portugal. The investigation runs under the terms of the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP) in Lisbon.

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, 55, has been a Portuguese citizen since April.

To obtain nationality through naturalization, the businessman saw Sephardic ancestry being proven by the Sephardic Certification Commission of the Portuguese Jewish community, of which he has been a partner in recent years.

The Jewish Community of Porto clarified on December 18 that Abramovich obtained Portuguese nationality following a process of certification of Sephardicism through "the highest international Jewish institutions, in respect of legal criteria". Thousands of Jews of Sephardic descent (Jews of Iberian origin) have thus acquired Portuguese nationality in recent years.

Born in Saratov, in the former Soviet Union, the millionaire now has four nationalities: Russian, Israeli, Lithuanian and Portuguese.

This in indeed a weird story...

[Mike88]

Lowest number of newborns in Portuguese history reached in 2021: less the 80,000.

https://twitter.com/JornalNoticias/status/1483783699313217537

Less than 80 thousand babies in 2021 for the first time in Portugal

The "foot test", which covers almost all births in Portugal, tracked less than 80,000 babies in 2021, for the first time in the country, reveal data from the Ricardo Jorge National Institute of Health (INSA).

Last year, 79,217 newborns were studied under the National Neonatal Screening Program (PNRN), 6,239 fewer than in 2020 (85,456).

According to data released by the Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA), the highest number of babies screened was observed in the district of Lisbon (23,494), followed by Porto (14,736), Setúbal (5,919) and Braga ( 5,833).

Bragança, with 513 babies screened, Portalegre, with 584, and Guarda, with 645, were the districts that carried out the fewest tests in 2021.
(...)

On the other hand, deaths reached the highest figure since 1942: 125,032 deaths.

[Mike88]

Severe drought in Portugal. Government limits hydroelectric power in at least 5 dams:

https://twitter.com/euronews/status/1488912974572048401

Portugal is restricting the use of some reservoirs for hydroelectric power and irrigation amid an unusual winter drought.

On Tuesday, authorities temporarily limited water use at some hydropower dams to prioritise human consumption.

The Portuguese Institute of Meteorology (IPMA) said that the whole country was enduring some degree of drought because of relatively low rainfall since November.

The IPMA added the situation had now worsened, with at least 45% of the country in “severe” or “extreme” drought.

Five hydroelectric dams in central Portugal will be almost totally shut down and another in the southern Algarve region will halt irrigation, the environment ministry announced on Tuesday.
(...)
With February forecast to produce little rain, the restrictions will remain in place until March 1 when they will be reassessed.

Portuguese farmers have already voiced concerns, saying the drought could "severely" affect their crops and cattle.

[Mike88]

Government approves lithium mines, but local governments are against the mines:

https://twitter.com/euronews/status/1490017785757458432

The race for lithium in Portugal has reached its pinnacle.

While residents have continuously rallied against the rare metal's mining — citing huge environmental ramifications — the country's environment ministry has given the green light to the extraction of the "white gold" in six different parts of the country.

However, the municipality of Pinhel is preparing to file an injunction to stop exploration.

Residents in Fundão say plans for a mine will interfere with the area's central irrigation system, posing a threat to one of the region's leading industries, the agri-food sector.

"It will never be possible, I would say, for the municipalities, but also for the administration and even for the government, that mining will take place in what is one of the main assets of agricultural production where there is such large investment," says Mayor of Fundão Paulo Fernades.

"Besides, there are urban centres within this same area," Fernandes points out.

According to a London based mining company Savannah Resources, Portugal has 60,000 tons of known lithium reserves.
(...)

[Mike88]

Severe drought in Portugal. Government limits hydroelectric power in at least 5 dams:

Images of the big drought Portugal is going through:

https://twitter.com/mariateresa53/status/1488637642023579652

The drought in Portugal. From MC Somsen
Foz de Alge, Figueiró dos Vinhos, Leiria district.
April 2021.
January 2022.
It hasn't rained this year yet.
[photos by Carlos Silva]

https://twitter.com/P__Portugal/status/1490054748153819136

According to this tweet, only by late March/early April will rain start pouring into the country:
https://twitter.com/bestweather_pt/status/1490063425946411011

Next few days with some #rain in mountainous areas of #Morocco, some light rain in the archipelagos, in the east of #Spain but #mainland Portugal remains immersed in a drought situation that only towards the end of the month and in March / April could change a little .

[Mike88]

Vodafone Portugal services suffered a hacking attack:

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1490993871656038403

LISBON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Vodafone's (VOD.L) Portuguese unit said on Tuesday a hacker attack overnight had disrupted its services but assured its customers that their personal data had not been compromised as a result of the incident, which is under investigation.

Vodafone Portugal said in a statement its system faced technical problems on Monday evening, with thousands of customers reporting they were unable to make calls or access the internet on their phones or computers.

It later discovered the technical issues were caused by what it described as a "deliberate and malicious" cyber attack.

"There is no evidence customer data has been accessed or compromised," it said. "An in-depth investigation of the criminal act...will continue for an indefinite period, with the involvement of the competent authorities."
(...)

This is the 4th major hacking attack in Portugal in the last few weeks. Earlier in January, Expresso and SIC TV websites were hacked, deleting all of their archives, and Portugal's leading newspaper, Correio da Manhã, was also hacked as well the Parliament website on election day, last 30 January.

Several emergency communications, from hospitals to firefighters, were down for several hours, and emergency services had to use other companies to be "online".

[Mike88]

Portuguese police, tipped by the FBI, prevents a terrorist attack for tomorrow in a Lisbon University:

https://twitter.com/cnnportugal/status/1491844572485464066?cxt=HHwWhMC5sYGvjLQpA...

Exclusive: PJ stops at last minute a terrorist attack at the University of Lisbon

The Judiciary Police stopped at the limit a terrorist attack in Lisbon that would allegedly be committed this Friday at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. The suspect is a young engineering student who planned to kill several colleagues, CNN Portugal knows.

The attack on indiscriminate people was planned in detail by the young Portuguese, in writing, and aimed at committing as many murders as possible on fellow university students. When the National Counterterrorism Unit entered the student's home this morning, they found weapons - bladed - with which the suspect had planned, and announced, to commit the crimes - namely large knives.

The alert reached the PJ last week, CNN Portugal knows, through the FBI. The US authorities, in their monitoring of the Internet in general, social networks and the dark web to prevent the phenomenon of terrorism, detected conversations in chats in which the young Portuguese man intervened – where he announced his intention to commit an attack in Portugal.

The PJ quickly proceeded to monitor the life of this student and, in conjunction with the Public Ministry, decided to proceed with house searches this Thursday morning. They found the detailed plan of the armed attack that the suspect would carry out tomorrow and the weapons he kept at home for that purpose.

The 18-year-old suspect will be present this Friday for the first judicial interrogation of the accused detained for subjection to the coercive measure considered appropriate.

The Faculty of Sciences was currently on break for exams. During this Thursday and Friday exams are held in the area of ​​Mathematics, which bring together hundreds of students.

[Mike88]

Hooded invade and destroy bar in Vilamoura, Algarve:

https://twitter.com/postaldoalgarve/status/1492982193299230721

Hooded people set fire to a bar in Vilamoura. Customers left the establishment unharmed [with video]: Authors of the attack are on the run. Establishment located in the Olympus hotel building was set on fire late this afternoon.

A group of five hooded men attacked, on Sunday afternoon, a bar in Vilamoura, in the municipality of Loulé. Before dousing it with combustible liquid, setting it on fire, the men allegedly asked customers to leave the establishment. According to a source from the GNR, there are no injuries to report.
(...)
“It was two hooded men who came in and attacked the bar, doused it with gasoline and set it on fire. The 'staff' and customers were all able to leave without injury," said the Guard officer, although Expresso knows that the group was larger.
(...)

[Mike88]

Emergency team at Famalicão hospital, Braga, violently beaten up by the family of a patient:

https://twitter.com/dntwit/status/1496122868454752257

Group invades Famalicão Hospital emergency room and causes three injured

A group of about 10 people "burst" in the early hours of Tuesday at the Famalicão Hospital Emergency Room and attacked a security officer and health professionals, causing three injuries, hospital and police sources said.

In a statement, the Centro Hospitalar do Médio Ave (CHMA) states that the episode was recorded at 03:30, when the group "aggressively" entered the Emergency Department, accompanying a woman.

"When asked to calm down by the security element, they violently attacked him, forced him to enter the service and, when they were again asked to calm down, attacked the health professionals who approached him, causing serious injuries to two of professionals", he adds.

Also in a statement, the PSP states that it received a call via 112, reporting that there was a disorder with aggression, involving a group of 15 to 20 citizens, in the emergency department of the hospital in Vila Nova de Famalicão.

He adds that it was not possible to identify or detain the alleged aggressors, "because they fled the scene".
(...)

[Mike88]

2021 GDP numbers: INE confirms 4.9% growth in 2021.

https://twitter.com/RTPNoticias/status/1498337197367316488

Economy grew 4.9 percent in 2021.

The Portuguese economy grew by close to 5% last year. The Statistics Institute confirmed the country's fastest growth in more than 30 years. The increase in consumption and investment helped the economy's accounts.
The advance now registered comes after the Portuguese economy sank in 2020 because of the crisis caused by the Pandemic.

Overall 2021 numbers:

GDP: 211,5 billion euros
GDP per capita: 20,441 euros
Unemployment: 6.6%
Debt: 269,6 billion euros
Debt %: 127.5%
Deficit: -4.2%*

*Estimation based on the December 2021 data. Numbers still to be confirmed.

[Mike88]

Massive cargo ship with 4,000 luxury cars sinks off the Azores islands:

https://twitter.com/Publico/status/1498694102258532360?cxt=HHwWkIC-gY-Wt8wpAAAA

Shipwreck: Ship with thousands of luxury cars sinks off the Azores

The Felicity Ace ship, which was carrying about 4000 luxury Volkswagen group cars on board, sank this Tuesday about 46 kilometers off the coast.

During the towing operation, which began on February 24, “water entered” the ship, which “lost stability and sank,” Faial port captain João Mendes Cabeças told Reuters.

The boat sank “about 25 nautical miles, the equivalent of 46 kilometers, outside the limit of the Economic and Exclusive Zone of Portugal, in an area whose depth is around 3,000 meters”, details the Portuguese Navy in a statement.

At the site there are “some wreckage and a small patch of oily waste, which is being dispersed by the water jets of the tugboats and which is being monitored by the Directorate for Combating Pollution of the National Maritime Authority and the European Maritime Safety Agency” .

(...)

Volkswagen, Porsche and Bentley cars on board

The Felicity Ace, which was sailing 90 nautical miles (about 170 kilometers) southwest of the island of Faial, suffered a fire on board on the 16th of February. The 22 crew members were rescued and transported safely to Horta airport.

According to the Associated Press (AP) reported in February, the Felicity Ace, which departed Emden, Germany, headed for the port of Davisville, in the US state of Rhode Island, was transporting Volkswagen group cars.
(...)

[Mike88]

Sines Harbour CEO says that the Harbour is ready for expansion in order to stock pile gas for Europe:

https://twitter.com/ECO_PT/status/1498935085462134786

Sines may have a new terminal to deliver gas to Europe

The president of the Administration of the Ports of Sines and Algarve (APS) assures that “there is capacity to build a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal” in Portugal, in order to “increase storage capacity” for Europe, reports the Jornal de Negócios (paid access) this Wednesday.

These statements come after commentator Luís Marques Mendes stated in SIC that Brussels is preparing to “encourage interconnections between the Iberian Peninsula and France to take gas to Central Europe”, looking for an alternative to buying gas from Russia.

But Sines will only be able to move forward when the technical constraints in the interconnections between Spain and France are overcome. Furthermore, even if it goes ahead, this investment may take about two years and it will still be necessary to define who pays for the construction. Speaking to Negócios, the president of the Port and Logistics Community of Sines also added that a ship arrives every five days at the Alentejo port and is stored at REN's LNG terminal.

Currently, there's a big project to expand the harbour and it's being disputed by China and the US. China was poised to win the project, but then Covid appeared and China failed to propose a project. Now, the US is interested in picking up the project and this proposed new gas terminal could appeal even more to the Americans.

[Mike88]

Supermarkets are already rationing some products in the shelves:

https://twitter.com/observadorpt/status/1502200383774539778

Supermarkets are already limiting the sale of sunflower oil, a product imported from Ukraine

Continente and Mercadona began rationing the sale of bottles of cooking oil per customer. The measure comes after António Costa said that "there will be no shortage" of essential goods.

Sunflower oil, which Portugal imports from Ukraine, is starting to be rationed in some commercial areas. This is the case with Continente and Mercadona which, according to Jornal de Notícias, have already started to limit the number of products that each customer can purchase. But it's not just (pure) sunflower oils – even blended oils are being rationed.

In an image that the Observer had access to, the following message can be read: “Due to the sharp increase in demand for cooking oil, we inform you that the sale of the product is limited to the sale of three units per customer. Buy only what you need.”
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Also on the Continente Online website, several products are being rationed, even when they are not pure sunflower oil. “In view of the high demand, the sale of this product is limited to 2 units per customer”, can be read in a note on the website.
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[Mike88]

Porto's Jewish community Rabbi arrested by the police due to an investigation surrounding Roman Abramovich's Portuguese nationality issue:

https://twitter.com/dntwit/status/1502370661544591362

Rabbi who validated Abramovich's naturalization was arrested

Rabbi Daniel Litvak, responsible for the Sephardic Certification Commission of the Israeli Community of Porto (CIP), was arrested this Friday by the Judiciary Police.

In question are the alleged irregularities committed in processes to grant Portuguese nationality to descendants of Sephardic Jews, which are under investigation. One of the cases is that of Russian millionaire Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea, who became, since April 30, 2021, a Portuguese citizen under the Nationality Law for Sephardic Jews.

Daniel Litvak is suspected of the crimes of criminal association, active corruption, money laundering, tax fraud and influence peddling in the Abramovich case, but also of other processes of naturalization of descendants of Sephardic Jews.

In a statement, the Judiciary Police said that its National Anti-Corruption Unit (UNCC) carried out several home and non-domicile searches, including a lawyer's office, as part of an investigation conducted by the DCIAP.

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