News 2 August 2026

The Algarve now has daily sea and land patrols, and Ceuta is the reason why

Portugal's Maritime Police and Navy have put daily patrols along the Algarve coast after the mass crossing into Ceuta. Here is what actually changed on the water.

The Algarve coastline woke up on Saturday with a lot more people watching the water. The Maritime Police and the Navy have started running daily patrols along the region’s sea border, by boat and on land, and the timing is no coincidence — it is a direct answer to what happened across the strait in Ceuta.

The operation runs alongside the GNR’s coastal and border control unit, and the stated aim is to spot vessels that might be tied to irregular crossings or other illicit activity. In plain terms: anything moving at odd hours on a route that makes no sense will now have company.

Why did the Algarve step up patrols this week?

Because Ceuta changed the scale of the problem in a matter of days. The Spanish enclave saw its largest ever arrival from Morocco, with local authorities putting the figure at roughly 60,000 people in a very short window — the same episode that had Spain sending almost everyone back within hours. When pressure of that size builds to the south, the worry is that some of it looks for Atlantic routes instead. The Algarve is the nearest door.

Worth keeping the proportions straight, though: there has been no mass arrival on a Portuguese beach. This is prevention, not a reaction to a landing.

What are authorities asking residents and holidaymakers to do?

Pick up the phone. The Maritime Police and the Navy have asked the public to report suspicious movements to the Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Centre in Lisbon or to the local Maritime Police command. A boat pulled up on an empty beach before dawn, people disembarking outside a harbour, a launch with no visible registration — that sort of thing.

In August the Algarve has more eyes on it than at any other point in the year, and that is exactly what the authorities are counting on. The operational detail is set out in the Navy’s own statement.

For anyone lying on the sand, the practical change is close to nothing — maybe a grey launch passing offshore a bit more often. That is the plan: barely noticed, and early.

By Marta Carneiro

Image: Alan Wilson from Peterborough, Cambs, UK / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

News 2 August 2026

A sightseeing flight over the Nazca Lines crashed and all 13 people on board died

A Cessna flying tourists over Peru's Nazca Lines came down near Socos on Saturday. All 11 foreign passengers and both crew were killed.

Anyone who has heard of the Nazca Lines pictures the same thing: a tiny plane circling above the desert so you can pick out the monkey, the hummingbird and the astronaut scratched into the ground two thousand years ago. It is the only real way to see them. That is the flight that ended in disaster on Saturday. The aircraft was a Cessna Caravan C-208 operated by the Peruvian carrier Aerodiana. It left Pisco at around 12:10 local time carrying 13 people —…

News 2 August 2026

Wild boar and deer now cause over a thousand road crashes a year in Portugal

Collisions with wild boar, deer and other ungulates on roads managed by Infraestruturas de Portugal went from under 20 a year in 2015 to more than 140 in 2025. Nationwide, the annual total has passed a thousand.

If you drive inland roads at night and have had that moment where a dark shape crosses your headlights, that was not bad luck. That was statistics. Collisions with wild boar, deer and other ungulates on roads managed by Infraestruturas de Portugal have gone from fewer than 20 a year up to 2015 to more than 140 in 2025 — and across the whole country, counting every road, the annual total has already passed a thousand. The agency's records start in 2010,…

News 2 August 2026

Moscow woke up to an explosion in a restaurant — three dead and 21 injured

An improvised explosive device killed three people and injured 21 in a restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square in Moscow. Russian authorities have not officially identified the woman who was carrying the device.

Three people were killed and 21 injured when an explosion tore through a restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square in Moscow. Russian authorities say the blast came from an improvised explosive device, carried by a woman who has not yet been officially identified. The square is one of the city's landmarks — dominated by one of the seven Stalinist towers Moscow built after the war, with restaurants and offices at street level and traffic moving through it all day.…

News 1 August 2026

Two tonnes of cocaine washed up on the Comporta coast, and nobody has been arrested

Portugal's Maritime Police recovered 2,100 kilos of cocaine along the Alentejo coast south of Tróia, along with fuel canisters. There are no arrests and the case has gone to the judicial police.

On most beaches the most dramatic thing to wash up is a jellyfish. On the Comporta stretch this week, it was bales. 2,100 kilos — 2.1 tonnes — recovered by the Maritime Police at several points along the Alentejo coastline south of Tróia. It was not one dramatic seizure: the bales were spotted and collected over a number of days during shoreline patrols, backed by the local maritime authority and marines from the Portuguese Navy. Alongside the drugs came…

Bar chart showing the share of workers putting in 49 hours or more per week: Greece 12.4%, Cyprus 10.4%, Portugal 9.2% and the EU average 6.6%

News 1 August 2026

Portugal has one of the EU's biggest shares of people working 49-hour weeks

About 9.2% of Portuguese workers aged 20 to 64 put in 49 hours or more a week, against an EU average of 6.6%. The average Portuguese week runs to 37.4 hours.

The short answer: roughly 9.2% of Portuguese workers aged 20 to 64 put in 49 hours or more a week, against an EU average of 6.6%. That parks Portugal near the top of a league table nobody particularly wants to lead. Just over nine in a hundred. That is close to half again above the European average, and it puts Portugal among the four or five EU countries with the largest share of long working weeks, depending on the year and the source. Greece leads on…

News 1 August 2026

A 4.7 quake shook Naples and the Campi Flegrei — the strongest there in 40 years

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake in the Campi Flegrei injured 21 people, forced evacuations in Pozzuoli and halted trains and ferries. It was the region's strongest in four decades.

At 7.49pm on Friday the ground west of Naples gave a magnitude 4.7 jolt, and the region knew immediately this was not another of the tremors it has learned to live with. It was the strongest in four decades. Twenty-one people were hurt, two of them seriously, and around 18 families had to leave their homes. The epicentre sat about three kilometres down, between Pozzuoli and Quarto, inside the Campi Flegrei caldera — the stretch of ground beside Naples…

Bar chart of Portugal's 2026 burnt area by land type: forest 16,810 hectares, scrub 12,092 and farmland 1,788

News 31 July 2026

Portugal's burnt area in 2026 has passed 30,000 hectares — the third worst since 2016

ICNF's tally to July 15 puts 2026 at 30,690 hectares burnt across 4,975 rural fires. Viseu takes the biggest share, Porto logs the most ignitions, and burnt area is up 67% on the ten-year average.

Thirty thousand six hundred and ninety hectares. That is the figure ICNF closes the first six and a half months of the year on, and it is enough to make 2026 the third worst year for burnt area since 2016 — the year after the fires that changed how the country talks about fire at all. Between January 1 and July 15, 30,690 hectares burnt across 4,975 rural fires. The number of ignitions is the fifth highest since 2016; the burnt area is the third. Set…

News 31 July 2026

INEM changes its rulebook on August 1, and Portugal's emergency service gets a four-seat board

INEM's new organic law takes effect on August 1: a special-regime public institute, a board doubled to four, and the door opened to deals with private ambulance operators.

From Saturday, the institute that answers 112 and sends the ambulances out stops running on rules written in 2012. INEM's new organic law was published in mid-July and takes effect on August 1. Most of what it changes sits inside the machine rather than on the road — but it decides who calls the shots when somebody dials for help. Three things, mainly. INEM becomes a special-regime public institute, with its own statute inside the state administration.…

News 31 July 2026

A TAP flight to Bissau lost an engine and had to turn back to Lisbon

The Airbus A320neo was climbing out of Lisbon when one engine lost oil pressure and was shut down. The crew declared PAN PAN and landed safely. Nobody was hurt.

It took off from Lisbon bound for Bissau and, minutes later, it was already turning around. A TAP Airbus A320neo lost oil pressure in one engine on Thursday, the crew shut that engine down during the climb, and the aircraft came back to where it started, landing safely at 2.30pm. Nobody was hurt. It is aviation's second-highest alert, one rung below Mayday. When pilots say PAN PAN to air traffic control they are flagging a serious problem on board without…

News 30 July 2026

Oil companies in Portugal face a windfall levy on 2026 profits, measured against the last two years

Portugal's cabinet has approved a Temporary Solidarity Contribution on the oil sector. It hits only the share of profits above the 2024 and 2025 average, with revenue going to household support and energy efficiency.

With oil trading high since the spring, it was only a matter of time before somebody asked who pockets the difference. On Thursday the cabinet answered: it approved a bill creating a Temporary Solidarity Contribution on the Petroleum Sector, an exceptional levy on the windfall profits that crude extraction and refining companies book in 2026. It does not touch all profit, and that distinction is the whole point. It applies only to the slice of results…

News 30 July 2026

Cais do Sodré metro station shuts from 8 to 26 August, with the Green Line stopping at Baixa-Chiado

Lisbon's Cais do Sodré metro station closes between 8 and 26 August for works on the future Circular line. The Green Line will run Telheiras to Baixa-Chiado only. Alternatives and reopening date.

If Cais do Sodré is your metro stop, you have 19 awkward days coming. The station closes to the public from 8 to 26 August and only reopens on the 27th, for railway signalling work tied to Lisbon's future Circular line. Through that window the Green Line runs only between Telheiras and Baixa-Chiado, in both directions. Which means no direct metro ride to the Cais do Sodré ferry terminal or the Cascais train line, in precisely the month when half of Lisbon…

News 30 July 2026

Police seized 61 kilos of cocaine at Lisbon airport, and the two suspects had flown in from Porto

Operation Escala Improvável: Portugal's Judicial Police seized 61 kilos of cocaine at Lisbon airport and arrested two men who flew from Porto to reach the baggage conveyors.

Buying a Porto-Lisbon ticket with no intention of ever leaving the airside area is a plan that deserved its codename. Portugal's Judicial Police called it Operation Escala Improvável — Unlikely Layover — and it ended the way these things tend to: 61 kilos of cocaine seized at Humberto Delgado Airport and two men, aged 35 and 54, held in pre-trial detention. The cocaine arrived inside two suitcases on a flight from the Dominican Republic. According to…

News 30 July 2026

The Valpaços wildfire has crossed into Mirandela and hundreds of crews are still fighting it

The Valpaços wildfire crossed the Rabaçal river into Mirandela. More than 850 firefighters on the ground, at least 21 houses hit and five minor injuries.

The fire that started on Tuesday in Ervões, in the municipality of Valpaços, still has not let up. It crossed the Rabaçal river, pushed into the neighbouring municipality of Mirandela and was still burning this morning, with more than 850 personnel and close to 270 vehicles working the flanks. After Valpaços, the flames entered Mirandela near Bouças and reached the villages of Fradizela, São Pedro Velho and Vale de Telhas. Vale de Telhas was ringed by…

News 29 July 2026

Iran fired missiles at American forces, the US shot them down, and oil jumped 4 per cent

The US says it intercepted ballistic missiles launched by Iran at its forces in the Middle East, a day after Washington announced a pause in strikes. Brent crude climbed more than 4 per cent.

It lasted a little over 24 hours. A day after Donald Trump announced the United States was halting its strikes on Iran, the American military says it intercepted ballistic missiles fired by Tehran at US forces in the Middle East — an attempted surprise attack, in Washington's description. By the American account, the missiles were detected and shot down before reaching their targets, with no US casualties reported. The timing is what makes it significant:…