New restrictions have begun across Europe, many greeted by protests
The head of the World Health Organization has gone into self-quarantine after someone he had been in contact with tested positive for Covid-19.
With the virus again spreading rapidly across Europe and elsewhere, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is based in Geneva, made the announcement by Twitter late on Sunday night, but stressed he had no symptoms.
Continue reading...The World Health Organization has warned of a ‘critical juncture’ of the pandemic, particularly in the northern hemisphere, and urged heads of state to take action to reduce the spread of Covid-19.
European leaders have increased restrictions as cases have continued rising. Wales has started a two-week ‘firebreak’ lockdown and Portugal’s parliament has passed a law making the wearing of masks mandatory in many outdoor situations
Continue reading...The Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo has tested positive for coronavirus, the Portuguese Football Federation has confirmed.
The 35-year-old is said to be “doing well, without symptoms, and in isolation”, with no further positive tests reported in the squad before Portugal’s Nations League match against Sweden on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Inquiry into encounters off coasts of Spain and Portugal says speed could be a factor
Experts investigating a series of extraordinary encounters between orcas and yachts off the coasts of Spain and Portugal believe the animals responsible may have been triggered to target boat rudders by an earlier “aversive incident” involving some kind of vessel.
Related: 'They were having a real go': man tells of orca encounter off Spain
Continue reading...Campaigners call for urgent institutional response after attacks and death threats targeting MPs, academics and activists
Over the summer, Mamadou Ba, the head of an anti-racist organisation in Lisbon, received a letter. “Our goal is to kill every foreigner and anti-fascist – and you are among our targets,” it read. A few weeks later, it was followed up with a message telling him to leave Portugal or let his family face the consequences. That message was accompanied by a bullet casing.
Ba’s experience is one of a growing number of racist incidents perpetrated across Portugal that have led the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) to call for “an urgent institutional response”.
Continue reading...Tighter measures are being imposed, but they vary across the continent
Continue reading...From the Strait of Gibraltar to Galicia, orcas have been harassing yachts, damaging vessels and injuring crew
Full story: ‘I’ve never seen or heard of attacks’ – scientists baffled by orcas harassing boats
Scientists have been left baffled by incidents of orcas ramming sailing boats along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts.
In the last two months, from southern to northern Spain, sailors have sent distress calls after worrying encounters. Two boats lost part of their rudders, at least one crew member suffered bruising from the impact of the ramming, and several boats sustained serious damage.
Continue reading...Preliminary opinion a setback for Christian Brückner’s attempt to appeal conviction using European arrest warrant rules
The prime suspect in the disappearance of the British toddler Madeleine McCann was told that he was lawfully put on trial for rape last year, as his lawyers attempt to overturn that conviction at the European court of justice.
Christian Brückner, a 43-year-old German, is trying to overturn his conviction for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2005. He has argued at the ECJ that he had been extradited to Germany from Portugal, and later Italy, on a different charge.
Continue reading...Governments are at a nebulous stage: past the initial shocks but still without a clear end in sight
Nobody is clapping any more. Six months since Covid-19 registered as an urgent threat, and one country after another spiralled into lockdown, the nightly outpourings of solidarity with essential workers have petered out.
Governments behind which people rallied earlier in the outbreak are again facing criticism and scorn. Panic at the scenarios that filled imaginations in those first weeks – of millions of imminent deaths, medical systems buckling and food supplies running scarce – has largely abated.
Continue reading...Packages marked as ‘earrings’ spark biosecurity concerns and global investigations into origins
There is not much that Jan Goward does not grow in her small Eastbourne garden. “I grow everything,” she says. “I’ve got the exotics: the aubergines, the chillies …”
But some mystery seeds she received in the post this week – ostensibly from Singapore, and marked as stud earrings – will not be joining them.
Continue reading...Possible inquiry into assault on Hazel Behan comes after claims against Madeleine McCann suspect
Portuguese police have begun a process that could lead to the reopening of an investigation into the unsolved rape of an Irish woman as they seek to build a case against a possible suspect in connection with the abduction of Madeleine McCann.
Detectives in Portugal last week collected the archived case file on the vicious assault in 2004 of Hazel Behan, who was working as a holiday rep in Praia da Rocha on the Algarve, according to a source in the public prosecutor’s office.
Continue reading...A portrait of Lisbon, saudade and the fado folk music of the city and its relationship with tourism. Henri Kisielewski is the 2019 recipient of the Joan Wakelin bursary, administrated in partnership with the Royal Photographic Society
Fado is Lisbon’s urban folk music, born in and around the brothels, alleyways and tascas of the city’s poorest neighbourhoods. Fado is to Lisbon what the Blues are to the Delta. Written records trace it back to the early 19th century, though some argue it is much older, connecting it to oral traditions imported from across the Portuguese empire.
At the heart of fado is saudade. This elusive word – apparently untranslatable from the original Portuguese – broadly refers to a sense of sorrow, of yearning, and a resigned desire for what once was. This is the underlying emotion of all fado and perhaps of Lisbon itself.
Continue reading...Sites are near a beach where suspect Christian Brueckner’s camper van was photographed in 2007
Portuguese authorities have searched wells as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, according to reports.
The Mirror reported that police and divers in the Algarve region examined three disused wells in Vila do Bispo for eight hours on Thursday.
Continue reading...Foreign minister points out his country’s death rate from Covid-19 is a fraction of the UK’s
Portugal’s tourism sector reacted with fury and disbelief at England’s decision to maintain a quarantine regime for travellers coming from the country despite the UK having a higher death toll.
Portugal was left off a list of more than 50 countries that Westminster has deemed safe enough for travel without coronavirus-related restrictions, meaning holidaymakers returning from Portugal will have to quarantine for 14 days.
Continue reading...Front of magazine’s ‘Madness’ issue attacked as attempt to glamorise mental illness
Vogue Portugal has been criticised for insensitive treatment of mental health on one of its latest magazine covers.
The image – one of four covers created for its July/August “Madness” issue – features model Simona Kirchnerova crouched in a bath flanked by two nurses, with one pouring water over her head. The cover has been criticised both for attempting to glamorise mental illness and for the use of the outdated term “madness”.
Continue reading...Spain and Portugal reopen border as global tourism industry predicted to lose up to £2.6tn
The first tourist flights in four months landed on the Greek island of Crete, and Spain and Portugal reopened their land border as European countries continued to ease travel restrictions, as Brazil recorded 60,000 deaths.
A charter plane carrying 172 passengers from Hamburg landed at Heraklion airport on Crete at 8am, minutes after another aircraft had arrived from the Czech Republic, re-establishing the island’s air links with the outside world.
Continue reading...Ministers also expected to end policy of quarantining arrivals to the UK for 14 days
Overseas holidays will be given the green light from early next month, with the government expected to suspend the 14-day quarantine period for a series of countries and also to set up so-called air bridge arrangements for overseas destinations.
While the full list of countries involved is still being confirmed, the initial phase of travel opening up is expected to involve European nations including France, Greece, Spain and possibly Portugal, with other potentially more distant locations to follow.
Continue reading...As another religious painting restoration goes horribly wrong, we take a look at some of the finest examples of butchered statues, art installations and frescoes
In the latest instalment of the greatest genre of art news – and I write that as a lover of art – another restoration has gone awry. The word “awry” is being generous.
This is the revelation that a private collector, based in Valencia, paid €1,200 (£1,070) for a restoration job on baroque painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables. It is no longer immaculate. It now looks like an e-fit issued by a local police force, with those thin eyebrows popular in the 90s. What’s more, the restorer (who it turns out was a furniture restorer by trade) made two attempts – the second significantly worse than the first. That one, the e-fit one, has the Virgin Mary staring straight ahead, which isn’t even the same position as the original, which has Mary looking to the heavens.
Continue reading...Mistake raises questions over whether Christian Brückner had time to dispose of evidence
Criminal investigators in Germany notified Christian Brückner as early as 2013 that he was on their radar in connection with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, raising questions over whether they inadvertently allowed the suspect to dispose of evidence.
According to a report in the news weekly Der Spiegel, Brückner received a letter from police in Braunschweig on 4 November 2013 inviting him to be interviewed as a witness in the “missing person case Madeleine McCann”.
Continue reading...From protecting fishing communities to regrowing coral reefs, Guardian readers and environmentalists share how they’re working to defend the ocean
World Oceans Day, which took place on Monday, is marked by hundreds of beach cleans and events globally. Despite Covid-19 restrictions, environmentalists and readers from around the world shared how they are continuing to work to protect the ocean, and told us about the local marine issues that matter to them.
Continue reading...