‘Azores High’ saves Portugal from heatwave // Economy soaring in nation beset by other problems
Portuguese news in English on Monday, July 24, 2023.
NOTE: I’m away next week so there won’t be a newsletter. I’ll speak to you again in August.
‘Azores High’ saves Portugal from heatwave
Portugal has a weather system over the Azores to thank for escaping the heatwave that’s sent temperatures soaring across southern Europe and helped set global average temperature records, Público reports. The “Azores High”, sometimes referred to as an anticyclone, is dragging cooler air from the North Atlantic along the Portuguese coast, weather bureau meteorologist Alessandro Marraccini says.
World Meteorological Organisation Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas last week said the extreme weather was becoming more common in our warming climate. “This underlines the increasing urgency of cutting greenhouse gas emissions as quickly and as deeply as possible” and stepping up efforts to adapt to “what is, unfortunately, becoming the new normal”, he said, in English. The Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), is predicting a summer between 0.5 and 3 degrees warmer than average, before wetter than usual weather from October, Expresso reports.
Economy soaring in nation beset by other problems
Economically, Portugal is doing better than it has been for years, but scandals, political turbulence, strikes and the cost of living are leaving the nation far from content, Público reports. It’s been decades since the economic indicators have been this favourable but off the balance sheets, the government is also dealing with a drought affecting 36% of the country, worsening public services, the cost of housing and a more and more globalised society. University of Minho economics Professor Fernando Alexandre says the country is living in a virtuous moment that could accelerate but that’s bringing on “growing pains”. This was the complicated context surrounding last week’s parliament-closing State of the Nation debate, making a judgment about whether the country was better or worse off hard to make depending on where you looked.
Protests and despair as police shut most of Porto music hub
The Porto City Council has sealed up most of a shopping centre where about 500 musicians have rehearsal spaces, Público reports. The move, which saw police shut 105 of the Stop centre’s 126 rooms last week, impacted countless artists from small bands right through to one of Portugal’s largest, Ornatos Violeta. The crackdown on what was described as the city’s “second Casa da Música (one of its biggest venues)”, and a “cultural jewel” was greeted with protests and despair. The council was accused of ripping the heart out of the project and killing it. Dozens of musicians were seen taking their equipment out of the space on the day the shops were sealed up. Ornatos Violeta drummer Pedro Santos said there were no alternatives to the space, creating a “gigantic problem” for the city’s musicians. “If this existed in New York it would be incredible, but in Porto it seems like we’re the poor relatives,” he said. The council said the shops were shut due to a lack of licences and safety after a 10-year process accompanied by increasing complaints by neighbours. Days later, the council suggested the musicians could “temporarily” return from between 10.30am and 10.30pm, under the supervision of firefighters, Público reports.
In brief
Government offers 320 rental accessible rental contracts. The offers, for between €250 and €900 a month, are part of the program that sees the government rent properties and sublet them to young people and families in need. (Dinheiro Vivo)
English-only law faculty name considered illegal. The relevant minister declared the name NOVA School of Law illegal in 2021, but the faculty says it still hasn’t been notified of the change. A respected law professor said higher education institutes had to have names in Portuguese.(Diário de Notícias).
EU says slavery inflicted 'untold suffering', hints at reparations. The European Union described the centuries of slave trade, in which Portuguese ships transported millions of Africans to be sold into slavery in Brazil, was a “crime against humanity”. (Reuters, in English)
Portuguese detained in Turkey for 19 days for 'looking gay'. Miguel Álvaro said police assumed he was about to participate in an illegal gay pride rally held in a country that’s been increasingly criticised for its crackdown on LGBTQ+ people. (Público)
On a lighter note
It’s been a historic week in sport for Portugal, with the women’s football team making their World Cup debut and young gun Diogo Ribeiro winning the country’s first world championships medal for swimming. The women went down 1-0 to the Netherlands in a tough group that also includes world champions USA and Vietnam. But it was joy for Ribeiro, just 18, who finished second in the 50m butterfly at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Japan overnight, Público reports. “I have no words. I still don’t believe it. It’s a dream come true! I knew I could dream,” he said.
Thank you for including interesting and relevant news that's not already in the default English-language Portuguese news publications.