• Bison return to Portugal
• Portugal ran on 100 percent renewable energy for six days in a row
• Portugal to speed up solar parks to cut gas use - energy secretary

• Portugal: Schools implement Consciousness-Based Education
• Portugal: 66 students and teachers learn Transcendental Meditation
• Portugal: Teachers, parents, education leaders support secondary school implementing Consciousness-Based Education

• The European capital where rent is triple the minimum wage
• Portugal battles wildfires amid drought, heat; 29 injured
• Strong winds reignite wildfires in central Portugal

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Bison return to Portugal
6 June 2024 - A herd of eight bison was last week transferred from Poland to the Greater Coa Valley in northern Portugal where, after a period of acclimatization, they will eventually be set free on the 7,600-hectare Termas de Monfortinho, and Herdade do Vale Feitoso estate. Once the bison are settled into their new home, people will be allowed to view them as part of a wildlife tourism initiative set up under the guidance of the Wild Coa Network, a network of more than 50 nature-based businesses in and around the Greater Coa Valley. (more)

Portugal ran on 100 percent renewable energy for six days in a row
7 December 2023 - Thanks to its unique geography, Portugal can truly benefit from renewable energy. It boasts over a thousand miles of coast, over 300 sunny days a year, and, when it's cloudy, it can get powerful winds. This convenient mixture resulted in Portugal running on 100 percent renewable energy for six days in a row, painting a hopeful picture for the future. ...Portugal has pledged a 2050 deadline for net-zero carbon emissions. (more)

Portugal to speed up solar parks to cut gas use - energy secretary
13 August 2022 - Portugal will accelerate construction of solar parks to replace gas-fired electricity generation and hit an EU target to cut gas use, Energy Secretary Joao Galamba said. (more)

'A blessing in disguise': COVID gives boost to Portugal's bicycle makers
5 October 2020 - Portugal's bicycle makers feared for their future when the coronavirus pandemic forced them in March to shut for two months but 2020 now looks set to be a bumper year as people shun public transport and opt for healthier ways of getting around. Portugal, Europe's largest manufacturer of bicycles, had to shut its nearly 40 factories and put their 8,000-strong workforce on furlough to help curb the spread of COVID-19, but is now struggling to keep up with booming global demand. (more)

Dolphins return to Lisbon's Tagus river
10 July 2020 - Amid hard times brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, one sight is putting a smile on people's faces in Portugal -- dolphins splashing around near Lisbon's shores. Though dolphins have been sighted in the Tagus since Roman times, the mammals are no longer seen often, according to a 2015 repor t... But over the last two months, social media channels have been alive with videos and images of dolphins shared by those lucky enough to catch sight of them leaping out of the waves. (more)

Portugal's oil company Galp targets growth in renewable power
19 February 2020 - Portuguese oil company Galp Energia said on Tuesday [18 February] it would kick off its green business by installing renewable energy capacity of 10 gigawatts in the decade ahead, enough to power millions of homes. Galp, which last month bought solar power projects from Spain's ACS ... hopes to install 3.3 gigawatts of solar energy in Portugal and Spain alone by 2023 ... (more)

Herbs and hotels: The small businesses helping revive rural Portugal
28 November 2019 - Portugal's rural areas have been losing population for several decades now a growing number of small businesses are propping up the rural interior, drawn by the availability of land. After Bruno Vargas and his wife had their first baby, they wanted a quieter life. So, they left their home in Angola and returned to his native region in Portugal's rural interior to set up an organic herbs company. (more)

Herbs and hotels: The small businesses helping revive rural Portugal
28 November 2019 - After Bruno Vargas and his wife had their first baby, they wanted a quieter life. So, they left their home in Angola and returned to his native region in PoPrtugal's rural interior to set up an organic herbs company. Now he grows an array of aromatic plants ... mainly for export. Herbas Organic Herbs is one of a growing number of small businesses cropping up in Portugal's sparsely populated rural interior, drawn by the availability of land, rising tourist interest, and business funding opportunities, say rural development experts. (more)

Portugal's oldest university bans beef to fight climate change
25 September 2019 - Portugal's oldest university, the University of Coimbra, announced this week that it would stop serving beef for the first time in its 729-year history in an effort to combat the climate crisis. Goldsmiths, University of London, announced last month that it would be removing beef from its menu. The move spurred students from the University of California system in the United States to create a petition calling for their institution to do the same. (more)

Scorched Portugal turns to the goat as a low-cost firefighter
17 August 2019 - Portugal has scrambled to find solutions to wildfires that have ravaged the country in recent years. It has tested high-tech tools like drones and used satellites and aircraft to fight the fires. It has grappled with long-term policy changes to improve land management that could prevent them. And then there is the goat. ... A simple, low-cost solution, Portuguese officials now hope, may lie with the humble goat, which feeds on the underbrush that fuels fires. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Portugal: Schools implement Consciousness-Based Education
18 July 2013 - In Portugal two schools have implemented the Consciousness-Based Education curriculum. The first school, located in the southern Portugal town of Algarve, started the programme in 2010. A second school, in the northern part of Portugal, decided to implement Consciousness-Based Education earlier this year. (more)

Portugal: 66 students and teachers learn Transcendental Meditation
16 July 2011 - In Portugal and Portuguese-speaking nations of Africa, many are learning the Transcendental Meditation Programme, as well as enjoying programmes of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in education and health. (more)

Portugal: Teachers, parents, education leaders support secondary school implementing Consciousness-Based Education
15 December 2009 - In Portugal, a secondary school with 600 students is implementing Consciousness-Based Education. The school could potentially create invincibility for the nation, through group practice of Transcendental Meditation. Interest is also rising from other schools and education leaders, to offer the scientifically demonstrated benefits of the meditation technique to their students. (more)

Portugal enjoys new Maharishi Invincibility Centre, Consciousness-Based Education programme
30 September 2009 - Portugal has enjoyed recent expansion of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programmes, promising enlightenment for a greater number of individuals and invincibility for the nation. (more)

Portugal: New wave of interest in Transcendental Meditation
30 November 2007 - Dr David Lynch, celebrated filmmaker and leading proponent of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's peace-creating technologies, visited Portugal this month as part of a tour throughout Europe, generating the nation's biggest wave of interest in Transcendental Meditation in 20 years. (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

The European capital where rent is triple the minimum wage
27 May 2023 - Georgina Simoes is a carer at a nursing home in the Portuguese capital Lisbon. She earns just above the minimum wage. Her rent, at euros 300 a month, is low by the city's current standards. But she still has to work two jobs to afford it. And conditions at the property are poor -- she can't shower because water leaks into the neighbours' flat. ...Georgina's circumstances are far from unique. (more)

Portugal battles wildfires amid drought, heat; 29 injured
10 July 2022 - More than 3,000 firefighters and 30 aircraft battled wildfires Sunday [10 July] in Portugal that authorities say have injured 29 people. ... The European Union says climate change has the continent facing one of its hardest years for natural disasters such as droughts and wildfires. ... In June, 96 percent of the southern European country was classified as being in either in 'extreme' or 'severe' drought. (more)

Strong winds reignite wildfires in central Portugal
22 July 2019 - More than 1,000 firefighters battled wildfires in central Portugal on Monday [22 July], forcing the evacuation of several villages as the authorities hoped to limit the number of residents at risk. The fires are small in comparison to a massive fire which hit the same region in June 2017 that killed 64 people and burnt about 55,000 hectares in a few days. But with temperatures set to reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas on Monday ... Covered in eucalyptus and pine trees, central Portugal is frequently hit by summer blazes, with hilly terrain making it especially difficult for firefighters to reach. (more)

Wildfires blaze across unseasonably hot, dry Portugal
27 March 2019 - Hundreds of Portuguese firefighters struggled on Wednesday (227 March) to contain wildfires which erupted far earlier in the season than usual because of unexpectedly hot and windy weather. Ten fires were burning across the country, most in the north, several months before the late spring season when fire crews are normally in place. Meteorologists said global warming had made it difficult to predict where blazes would erupt. (more)

Portugal's wildfire moves south towards tourist coastal spots
7 August 2018 - Portugal's government moved command of the emergency services battling a huge fire in the southern Algarve region to the national level on Tuesday (7 August) as the fire moved south towards popular tourist towns on the coast. The blaze started in eucalyptus and pine forests in the hills but is now steadily moving towards the coast where thousands of tourists, foreign and local, take their holidays every year. (more)

Portugal wildfires kill at least 35; 4 dead in Spain
16 October 2017 - Late season wildfires that broke out over the weekend in Portugal have killed at least 35 people ... authorities said Monday (16 October), making 2017 by far the deadliest year on record for forest blazes in the country. In neighboring Spain, wildfires have also killed at least four people and prompted the evacuation of thousands in the northwest region of Galicia, as the remnants of winds from Hurricane Ophelia fanned the flames along Iberia's Atlantic coast. ... A prolonged drought has made the calamity worse this year. (more)

Portugal fights record number of wildfires for 1 day in 2017
12 August 2017 - Portugal is fighting to put out a spate of wildfires after the southern European country hit a year high of outbreaks for a single day on Friday, authorities say. Portugal's Civil Protection Agency, which coordinates its firefighting efforts, said Saturday that it recorded a record for this year of 220 separate wildfires on Friday [11 August]. (more)

Spain, Portugal issue health alerts amid scorching temps
29 June 2015 - Spain and Portugal both issued weather alerts Monday, advising residents to take extra care as temperatures soared above 40 C (104 F) in some southern areas. Portuguese authorities also warned of a high risk of forest fires. Official statistics show that after an uncommonly dry winter and spring, almost 54 percent of the Portuguese mainland was enduring extreme or severe drought at the end of May. With little rainfall in June, that percentage is expected to rise. (more)

Portugal political crisis rages again as talks break off
19 July 2013 - Portugal's main political parties broke off talks on Friday on a 'national salvation' pact to ensure an EU/IMF bailout stays on track, leaving it to the president to decide how to proceed. Political turmoil has already forced Lisbon to request a delay in the eighth review of the bailout by its creditors, which was initially due to start last Monday, until the end of August or early September. The 78-billion-euro ($102.5-billion) bailout programme and attached austerity policies are associated with the worst recession in Portugal since the 1970s. The leader of the main opposition Socialists, Antonio Jose Seguro, said the ruling coalition had rejected most of his party's proposals aimed to renegotiate the terms of the bailout. The crisis, which started as an internal political rift in the ruling coalition and expanded to a debate over the bailout plan, has threatened to derail Portugal's planned exit from the bailout and full return to debt markets in mid-2014. (more)

Second ministerial resignation plunges Portugal into crisis
2 July 2013 - Portugal's prime minister refused to accept the resignation of his foreign minister on Tuesday, raising the stakes in a political crisis that could derail Lisbon's plan to exit an international bailout. Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho told the nation that he would continue to head the government to ensure political stability and would work in coming hours to overcome the crisis sparked by the resignation of Foreign Minister Paulo Portas. Coelho's decision puts the responsibility for the government's survival squarely on the shoulders of Portas, who now has to decide whether to stay in his post or pull his rightist CDS-PP party out of the coalition. Without the CDS-PP, the centre-right government would lose its majority. Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar, the architect of a programme of spending cuts and tax hikes required by foreign lenders as a condition of their support, resigned a day earlier, citing an erosion in support for the bailout. (more)