WHO counted 3,973 confirmed cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to 4 August, across five provinces. Frontline health workers in the epicentre have walked out over pay.

By Marta Carneiro

Map: Profoss, after an original by NordNordWest / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

History A climbed from 94 to 109 points and descriptive geometry fell from 108 to 95. Some 85,745 papers were sat, 2,663 fewer than in 2025, and the no-show rate went from 6% to 9%.

Average marks in the second phase of Portugal's national secondary exams improved in 16 of the 24 papers sat, measured against 2025. The figures come from the Júri Nacional de Exames and were released by the education ministry late in the afternoon of 12 August. History A rose furthest, from 94 to 109 points on the 0-200 scale. Descriptive geometry fell furthest, from 108 to 95. What sits between those two ends is more interesting than either. Among the…

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The man was detained on a domestic violence warrant, questioned by a judge and freed on condition of reporting to a police station every two weeks. The government says it is holding extra officers in Lisbon's tourist areas.

The man detained after the shooting that wounded a Swedish tourist on Rua Augusta, in central Lisbon, has been released. He appeared before a judge for a first questioning and was freed on condition that he reports to his local PSP station every two weeks. One detail explains the decision and got lost in most of this week's argument about it. The arrest was not made over the shooting. He was picked up on a warrant issued in a separate domestic violence…

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An average of 0.8 millimetres of rain fell across the mainland, under 8% of the normal figure for the month, and meteorological drought went from covering 60% of the country to all of it.

Mainland Portugal recorded an average of 0.8 millimetres of rain across the whole of July. That is under 8% of what the month normally delivers, according to IPMA's provisional figures. It makes July 2026 the driest July of this century, and the eighth driest since comparable records began in 1931. Outside Viana do Castelo and Braga, essentially nothing fell anywhere. The drought map moved accordingly. At the end of June, meteorological drought covered…

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Red flags went up at La Concha, Ondarreta and Zurriola as Portuguese man-o'-war colonies crowded the Basque coast, and the city council now reassesses conditions every two hours at most.

The Portuguese man-o'-war is not a jellyfish. It is a floating colony trailing a tentacle that can run for metres, and this month enough of them reached the Gipuzkoa coast for lifeguards to raise the red flag in the middle of the swimming season. The peak came on 4 August. San Sebastián's beaches logged roughly 120 sting cases needing assistance in a single day, the overwhelming majority of them minor, according to the city council. Earlier in the week…

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The magnitude 7.4 quake struck San José del Palmar in Chocó at a depth of about 103km. Five departmental capitals are on red alert and seven airports have suspended operations.

At least 132 people were killed and 570 injured by the earthquake that hit western Colombia on Monday morning. The toll is provisional and rescue teams are still working through rubble in several cities. The epicentre was San José del Palmar, in the department of Chocó, roughly 400km west of Bogotá. The Colombian Geological Service put the magnitude at 7.4 and the depth at about 103km, while the USGS record for the event puts it at 110km. Either way it is…

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Syria's Fourth Criminal Court convicted the ousted president of premeditated murder and torture. He was tried in absentia and remains in Russia, so the sentence cannot be carried out.

A court in Damascus sentenced Bashar al-Assad to death on Tuesday, convicting him in absentia of premeditated murder, torture and crimes against humanity. It is the first capital sentence handed down against the ousted president or anyone in his inner circle since the regime collapsed in December 2024. Assad was not there to hear it. He has lived in Russia since fleeing, and unless Moscow returns him the sentence stays on paper. His brother Maher al-Assad…

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The epicentre sat about 18 kilometres east of Odemira. Ourique felt it most strongly, at intensity IV, with weaker shaking in Almodôvar and Santiago do Cacém. No damage was reported.

It happened at 3.08 on Monday morning. Portugal's institute for the sea and atmosphere, the IPMA, recorded a magnitude 3.5 earthquake with its epicentre roughly 18 kilometres east of Odemira, in the Beja district. No injuries and no damage have been reported. The shaking reached a maximum intensity of IV on the modified Mercalli scale in the Ourique council, and was felt more faintly in Almodôvar and in Santiago do Cacém, across the line in the Setúbal…

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Bragança, Vila Real, Viseu and Guarda go under a yellow warning from 9am Tuesday until 9pm Wednesday. Madeira and Porto Santo have been under one since today.

The heat is not going anywhere this week. The IPMA has placed the districts of Bragança, Vila Real, Viseu and Guarda under a yellow warning for persistently high temperatures, running from 9am on Tuesday to 9pm on Wednesday. In the islands the warning is already live. The north and south coasts of Madeira and the island of Porto Santo went yellow today, and stay that way until 6pm on Wednesday. Yellow is the mildest of the three levels. It is not a…

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Business United and its owner, António Mira, had their assets frozen after the FBI identified the company as a middleman in a supply chain feeding Iran's military helicopter fleet.

A Portuguese company landed on Monday in a place no Portuguese company wants to be. Business United and its owner, António Mira, were sanctioned by the United States after the FBI identified the firm as an alleged intermediary in operations buying helicopters and components for Pasargad Helicopter Company, an Iranian firm tied to the country's military fleet. The designations are administered by the Treasury Department and bite straight away. Assets held…

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Iran's national security chief has set out the conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz: an end to the naval blockade, a US withdrawal from the region, full compensation for war damage and the unconditional release of frozen assets.

Iran has finally written down what it wants in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and the list runs long. Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who heads the country's national security council, said on Saturday that the United States must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports and pull its forces out of the region before anything returns to normal. That is only the opening. Tehran also wants Washington to promise it will never threaten Iran again, to…

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The fire took hold on the slopes above Tignale on the lake's western shore, driven by strong winds and weeks without rain. Two Canadair aircraft were sent in.

Around 200 people were moved out of homes and tourist accommodation on Friday night after a fire broke out at about 9.15pm on the Olzano slope above Tignale, on the western shore of Lake Garda in northern Italy. Many of them were holidaymakers. It is August, and that stretch of the lake runs almost entirely on visitors: villages pinned to the hillside, one narrow road in, holiday houses and small hotels wedged between the pine woods and the water.

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From midnight on Saturday 8 August until 7 September, Spanish ports and airports are running random identity and passport checks on passengers coming in from Italy. Non-EU residents are the ones who will be stopped.

Anyone routing home through Spain from Italy over the next few weeks should budget for a stop that was not in the plan. On Friday 7 August the Spanish government decided to temporarily restore border controls at ports and airports for passengers arriving from Italy. The measure took effect at midnight on Saturday 8 August and is set to run until midnight on 7 September. Officers are checking identity and passports, and asking third-country nationals for a…

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It happened on Friday at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Bang Kruai. The toll settled at nine dead including the gunman, with around thirty injured. It is Thailand's worst attack of its kind since 2022.

It happened on Friday morning in Bang Kruai, in Nonthaburi province north of Bangkok. A 14-year-old student killed his grandparents at home, then went to Debsirin Nonthaburi School, where he opened fire before taking his own life. The counts moved around all Friday and only settled on Saturday: nine dead in all, the gunman included. Five people were killed inside the school — two teachers and three other staff, among them the deputy director — and the…

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60,391 students applied in the first round of the national higher education contest, up 21.8% on last year. Ministry figures published Friday, a day after the deadline closed.

60,391 students filed an application in the first round of Portugal's national higher education admissions contest. That is 21.8% more than in 2025 and, setting aside the distorted pandemic years, the highest figure in thirty years. Fernando Alexandre's ministry released the count on Friday, the day after the deadline closed. It may still creep up. Applications sitting in validation when the platform shuts are added later, so the published number is a…

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