Displaying items by tag: Portugal

To date, seven Portuguese firefighters have died while battling over fifty wildfires ravaging the country’s central and northern regions. Portugal has mobilised around 5,300 firefighters and has also called for EU help. The fires have forced the closure of major motorways and disrupted train services in the north. Though authorities describe the situation as ‘calmer but still worrying’, many villages remain under threat. The hardest-hit area, Aveiro district, has lost dozens of homes, with four deaths reported. The fires, which have already burned through more than 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) of forest and shrubland, could engulf a further 20,000 hectares. Portugal and Spain have so far recorded fewer fires than usual this year, but both remain vulnerable to the increasingly hot and dry conditions caused by global warming.

Six young people from wildfire and heatwave-affected areas in Portugal have taken 32 European governments to court, accusing them of violating their human rights by not taking sufficient action on climate change. The case, filed in September 2020 against all the EU member states and also Britain, Switzerland, Norway, Russia, and Turkey, is the largest climate case ever heard by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg. A ruling is expected in the first half of 2024. The applicants argue that the failure to address climate change endangers their rights to life and physical and mental well-being. One of the applicants, 15-year-old Andre Oliveira, highlighted the impact of heat extremes on his ability to exercise and spend time outdoors, leading to sleep difficulties and worsening conditions due to weak climate policies.

Lisbon’s rent is €2,000+. The minimum wage is €760. There are more houses than people, but prices don't go down. Comedian Diogo Faro posted a social media video about high rent. His inbox was flooded with messages like divorced couples who can't afford to move out, the elderly choosing between paying rent or buying medication; shortening their lives to have a roof. Lisbon's mayor said that housing is the biggest crisis in our lifetime. 1/3 of Lisbon's historical centre is unoccupied due to ‘touristification’ - holiday rentals diverting homes from residential use to tourism. Foreign investors with Golden Visas can reside in Portugal, renovate a house, and then allow it to remain empty. Houses are being sold over and over again, creating a distortion in the housing market.

All week Europe has been battling wildfires fuelled by soaring temperatures in Portugal, France, Turkey and Spain. Pray for 3,500 Portuguese firefighters battling dozens of blazes in record-breaking temperatures. Pray for the 600 people in Leiria who were forced out of their homes, and over 3,000 who were evacuated in Turkey. Pray for devastated people like 77-year-old Adelino, a Portuguese farmer who said, ‘Everything burned. It looked like the end of the world.’ Pray for Spanish farmers who have lost over 70,300 hectares. Pray for 1,000 French firefighters trying to control two major wildfires. 4,000 hectares have already burned in southwest France.

For the second time in less than a year, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has blocked an attempt to make it legal for Portuguese doctors to kill their patients. The latest version of the Bill, approved by members of the National Assembly was judged to be too radical by the Roman Catholic president and returned to them unsigned. De Sousa said, If ‘fatal disease’ was no longer a prerequisite for ‘medically assisted death’, he considered the bill to be out of step with ‘the values of life and self-determination, in the context of Portuguese society’.

A 79-year-old Spanish woman has been arrested in Portugal over suspicions of leading a drug ring. The 78-year-old woman, who was heading a smuggling group, was arrested in Vila Real, in northern Portugal, along with two other Spaniards, aged 26 and 60, as part of an operation carried out by Spanish and Portuguese police. They were bringing in cocaine through Portuguese ports using a legal company importing coral from the Dominican Republic. The woman was the head of the group as well as the manager and owner of the front company. The group was a wholesaler for other traffickers who then sold the cocaine on the black market in southern Spain.

As a statue in Lisbon is ‘jokingly’ and ‘inappropriately’ fitted with a face mask, new restrictions have been imposed on the city following a spike in coronavirus cases. Portugal has gone from a European ‘miracle’ to a partial outcast in a matter of weeks, amid a series of setbacks to the country's reopening plans. The capital, Lisbon, and the surrounding metropolitan area woke up on 23 June to increased restrictions and more power for police to enforce them, following a series of illegal parties with as many as 1,000 revelers in recent days. Prime minister Costa imposed new controls just days after celebrating his government's Champions League final phase coup.

The Covid-19 pandemic will increase the number of deprived people, and make it harder for those who are already struggling. Often they cannot afford to pay rent or utility bills, keep homes warm enough, eat good quality food, run a car, own a washing machine or TV, or pay for a telephone. In 2019, 5.6% of the EU’s population - 24 million people - found themselves in this situation. The risk of increased poverty is especially high for young people, those with low levels of education, and single-parent families, especially those headed by women. The highest levels of severe deprivation in the EU last year were in Bulgaria (19.9%), Greece (15.9%) and Romania (12.6%). Portugal also has over 2 million people in poverty or social exclusion, and unemployment is set to double in 2020.

Forest fires raging in Portugal since 17 June and which have killed more than sixty people have been brought under control, the civil protection agency says. The largest fire, in Pedrógão Grande, which ravaged 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of forests, was doused late on 21 June, and the second biggest blaze, in Góis, was contained the next day. Water-bombing planes and nearly 2,400 firefighters were involved in tackling the fires. Antonio Ribeiro, who led the Pedrógão operations, said that higher humidity levels and lower temperatures had allowed the firefighters to contain the fire and extinguish the remaining hotspots. The president of the League of Firefighters said he believed arson had caused the fire, contradicting an earlier police account.