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☆ Pope to visit Mongolia, home to just 1,300 Catholics
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Last August, Francis named Archbishop Giorgio Marengo, an Italian, the first cardinal to be based in Mongolia, where he is the Catholic Church's administrator. According to Fides, the news agency of the Vatican's missionary activities, there are about 1,300 baptized Catholics in Mongolia among a population of about 3.3 million people. Although the number of Catholics in Mongolia is smaller that most individual parish churches in many countries, the country is significant for the Vatican. Mongolia, once known as Outer Mongolia, was part of China until 1921, when it achieved independence with the help of the then Soviet Union. Francis is due to visit Portugal from Aug. 2-6 to attend the World Youth Day in Lisbon and visit the Shrine of Fatima.

Persons: Pope Francis, Matteo Bruni, Francis, Archbishop Giorgio Marengo, Marengo, Fides, Keith Weir, Toby Chopra, Mark Potter Organizations: CITY, Roman Catholic Church, Vatican, Catholic, U.S . State Department, Fatima, Thomson Locations: Mongolia, China, Rome, Africa, Soviet Union, Inner Mongolia, Western Europe, Portugal, Lisbon, India

☆ Portugal moves closer to banning Chinese suppliers from 5G
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Sergio Goncalves | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LISBON, May 26 (Reuters) - Portugal's cybersecurity council CSSC has issued a resolution that could formally bar telecom operators from using Chinese equipment in their high-speed 5G mobile networks as well 4G platforms on which the new technology is based. The CSSC is the prime minister's consultative body and its document, dated May 23, is another blow to efforts by Chinese technology giant Huawei (HWT.UL) to enter the 5G market in Portugal and possibly extend existing contracts. Portugal's existing 5G networks are not standalone and still largely based on 4G technology and equipment. Its opinion is based on an undisclosed report that evaluated the safety of equipment in public electronic communications networks involving 5G technology. Reporting by Sergio Goncalves Editing by Andrei Khalip and Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Americans flocked to Portugal for cheaper, more peaceful lives, but newcomers also brought crowds and drove up the cost of living
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Jordan Pandy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Americans have been moving to Portugal for years, and the pandemic accelerated the trend further. The Bagbys are part of a wave of Americans who have moved to Portugal, a country roughly the size of Indiana. "It's a very reasonable cost of living," Zaretsky told Insider. Zaretsky paid 600,000 euros for the house in Portugal after selling her Austin, Texas, home for $676,000. Portugal has a strong tourism economy, and its shoulder season draws large crowds, making the petite coastal country feel tight.

LISBON, May 22 (Reuters) - Portuguese police will on Tuesday search a reservoir inland from where British three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007, authorities said, in the first formal development in the case in Portugal in several years. A fire brigade spokesperson said police were preparing to start searches on Tuesday at a dam in the southern region of Algarve about 50 km (31.07 miles) inland from a beach resort where Madeleine went missing from a rented apartment while on a family holiday. Police erected two tents beside the dam on Monday, Reuters TV footage showed. Brueckner, a convicted child abuser and drug dealer, is behind bars in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of the Algarve from where Madeleine went missing. German police said in June 2020 that Madeleine was assumed dead and that Brueckner was likely responsible for it.

[1/5] Portuguese surfer Teresa Bonvalot smiles after winning her heat in the Sydney Surf Pro on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Australia, May 19, 2023. REUTERS/Lincoln FeastMay 22 (Reuters) - When Portugal's Teresa Bonvalot qualified for the Tokyo Games in 2021 as a then 21-year-old, she had barely a month to prepare for surfing's Olympic debut and the biggest event of her life. Now, more than a year out from the Paris Games, Bonvalot has again booked an Olympic ticket and is relishing the extra time to ready her mind, body and equipment. "That was unbelievable to get the news to mark my spot there," Bonvalot said during a competition in Australia last week. A total of 24 women's places are available, with the International Surfing Association's World Surfing Games in El Salvador this month providing the next qualification spots.

☆ Pope to visit Portugal in August for World Youth Day, Fatima Shrine
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

VATICAN CITY, May 22 (Reuters) - Pope Francis will travel to Portugal from Aug. 2-6 to attend the World Youth Day and visit the Shrine of Fatima, the Vatican said on Monday. World Youth Day, a global gathering of young Catholics, is being held in Lisbon from Aug. 1-6. The Vatican said Francis would take advantage of the trip to travel also to the Shrine of Fatima in central Portugal on Aug. 5. The Catholic Church teaches that the Madonna appeared to three Portuguese children 100 years ago in what was then an impoverished farming village. The pope last visited the shrine in 2017 when he declared two of the children saints.

LONDON/LISBON, May 19 (Reuters) - Portuguese insurer Fidelidade is exploring a potential stock market listing of its private healthcare subsidiary Luz Saude, six people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Luz Saude reported operating income of 599 million euros in 2022, a 10.6% jump from the year before, driven by growth in private healthcare services. They come after Fidelidade acquired the remaining 49% of Luz Saude it did not already own from parent Fosun in September. An IPO would mark a return of Luz Saude to the stock market after the healthcare group stopped trading on Euronext Lisbon in 2018. It could also awaken Europe's IPO market, after activity levels plunged last year on the back of soaring interest rates and economic uncertainty.

☆ Pent-up demand promises record tourist season for southern Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Giselda Vagnoni | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

What's more, there appears to be growing demand for the luxury end of the spectrum. Portugal registered more than 2.8 million of foreign visitors from January to March, the best first quarter on record, according to official data. Airlines such as Lufthansa, easyJet and Ryanair have confirmed robust summer bookings while Ryanair, in anticipation of strong demand, has just ordered 150 new 737 Max-10s and optioned another 150. Italian travel and tourism company Alpitour forecasts turnover 30% higher this year. "We already see a very strong demand to book Christmas holidays in 2023.

☆ A secretive annual meeting attended by the world's elite has A.I. top of the agenda
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Karen Gilchrist | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is one among a number of business and political leaders set to join the annual Bilderberg Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will join forces with key leadership from firms like Microsoft and Google this week as a secretive meeting of the business and political elite kickstarts in Lisbon, Portugal. Artificial intelligence will top the agenda as the ChatGPT chief meets with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, DeepMind head Demis Hassabis, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the annual Bilderberg meeting. All in, around 130 participants from 23 countries are set to attend the private meeting — a similar number to previous years. However, the event's organizers say that the discrete nature of the event is to allow for greater freedom of discussion.

☆ An influencer mobilized her followers to spam Air France until they found her bag. Want to find your lost luggage? Just get 1.7 million TikTok followers.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Victoria Paris, 24, issued a very public complaint against Air France, and asked her followers to "wage war" on the airline. Her 1.7 million TikTok followers obliged and spammed the airline's social media comments with demands for her bag. The same day she mobilized her fans, Air France reached out to let Paris know that it located and shipped her bags back to her. When an airline loses your luggage, it typically results in a weeks-long process to retrieve your items — that is, unless you're an influencer with 1.7 million TikTok followers. Air France did not immediately respond to Insider's request to comment on the incident.

☆ You can fly with your pooch on a specialist pet airline that offers a seat, drinks, and snacks on a private jet for around $9,000
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Private airline company K9 Jets is offering pet-friendly flights on a private jet. The airline is offering flights from New York, Lisbon, and London. Private airline company K9 Jets is offering pet-friendly flights on board a private jet. The airline is offering flights from New York, Lisbon, and London. Passengers looking to book one of the airline's private flights can register their interest via the company's website.

☆ Severe drought spreads in Portugal, officials seek EU help
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Around 90% of mainland Portugal is suffering from drought, with severe drought alone affecting one-fifth of its territory, twice as much as in March and nearly five times the area reported a year earlier. Some parts are in an extreme drought situation, which did not exist at the same time in 2022. The northeast and southern regions were particularly badly hit, and the dry weather conditions were expected to continue. With temperatures above normal for this time of the year, the agency said April 2023 was the third-driest and fourth-warmest in the last 92 years in mainland Portugal. Neighbouring Spain has registered the driest start to a year since records started, its weather agency AEMET said on Wednesday, with less than half the average rainfall during the first four months of 2023.

☆ A Ukrainian donation drive built an 'Army of Drones' and picked up an unusual system called a 'Shahed Hunter' for Kyiv's forces
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

It has used the funds to purchase thousands of UAVs, and systems to hunt Russian drones. The Shahed Hunter system is a network of radars and signal jammers that can detect Russian drones from around 25 miles away, Fedorov said. It's unclear where, exactly, the Shahed Hunter systems have been used or how many times they have been deployed. But Fedorov noted that Ukraine needs more of the systems to defend against continuous waves of Russian drone attacks. On Sunday night alone, Ukraine's air defense systems shot down 35 drones — 30 of which targeted Kyiv, according to the country's defense ministry.

☆ Former Goldman Sachs partner launches fund of up to $550 mln in Portugal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Sergio Goncalves | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LISBON, May 9 (Reuters) - Fortitude Capital, founded by former Goldman Sachs (GS.N) partner Antonio Esteves, Brazilian bank BTG Pactual (BPAC3.SA) and Portuguese asset manager Atrium, has launched its first fund with a target size of up to 500 million euros ($550 million). He said that, contrary to the majority of funds in Portugal, the first Fortitude fund would be mostly funded by private investors and its founders will be the fund's biggest investors. He added that Portugal, only sporadically on the radar of global private equity funds and international investment banks, was always short of private capital and very dependent on national banks. In Portugal, private equity funds are normally funded by public money and tend to be up to 100 or 200 million euros. The first investment should be 50 million euros in the agricultural sector "in the next two months", with an investment of 350 million euros also in the pipeline by the end of the year.

☆ Orcas keep attacking sailboats, sometimes sinking them. Scientists are looking for answers.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Joshua Zitser | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Orcas keep attacking sailboats off the coasts of Portugal, Spain, and Morocco. One sailor shared his encounter with killer whales, after a pod of orcas sank a boat last year. Orca attacks have sometimes immobilized sailboats, but local media said that, in this instance, it caused so much damage that the vessel started to sink. The passengers, who were sleeping at the time of the attack, were traveling from Lisbon to the Algarve, per the local media outlet Portugal Resident. And that number comes from a collaboration of scientists collecting reports, not from local media outlets.

☆ Portugal's president to address the nation after rift with PM
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LISBON, May 4 (Reuters) - Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will address the nation at 8 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Thursday, a spokesperson for the presidency said, after his rift with Prime Minister Antonio Costa increased the risk of a political crisis. The conservative president had made clear he wanted Galamba out and said he disagreed with Costa's decision after previously having warned that he could disband parliament if the government lost credibility. Costa's Socialists won an outright parliamentary majority in January 2022, but his third government in a row has been plagued by instability, although analysts see it surviving - for now at least. More than 10 ministers and secretaries of state have left their posts in the past year, at least two of them linked to scandals at airline TAP. Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; editing by Andrei KhalipOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

LISBON, May 2 (Reuters) - Portugal's infrastructure minister submitted his resignation on Tuesday as a scandal around state-owned airline TAP widened, just four months after his predecessor resigned over the same issue, but the prime minister said he would keep him in the job. Galamba's predecessor, Pedro Nuno Santos, resigned in December in the wake of a scandal involving an irregular severance payment to a former executive board member of TAP. Ourmières-Widener has since been fired after an official inspection found that the severance was illegal. On Sunday, Costa said that neither he nor any member of the government had given orders to SIS to recover the laptop. ($1 = 0.9089 euros)Reporting by Sergio Goncalves and Catarina Demony; Editing by Andrei KhalipOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Jeremy Selwyn/WPA Pool/Getty Images Camilla stands next to Queen Elizabeth II during a Diamond Jubilee pageant on the River Thames in June 2012. Chris Jackson/Getty Images From left, Camilla, Charles, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip attend the state opening of Parliament in May 2013. From left are Camilla, Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Louis, Duchess Catherine, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince William. Frank Augstein/WPA Pool/Getty Images In pictures: Britain's Queen Camilla Prev NextShe reportedly met Prince Charles at a polo match in Windsor in 1970 and they became friends. From left are Camilla, Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Louis, Duchess Catherine, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince William.

☆ In a Superclub’s Shadow, Paris F.C. Tries to Raise Its Game
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Tariq Panja | James Hill | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On a frigid Saturday evening earlier this year inside the Stade Charléty, a World War II-era stadium tucked alongside a highway, the stands are barely a quarter full. Only about 3,000 fans have turned up to watch Paris F.C., a crowd so small that when the home team goes to salute its support after its victory, the players need only to go to one corner of the stadium. On Sunday, another Paris team takes the field, and fans around the world tune in to ‌watch. ‌That yawning gulf between the teams is something that the owners of Paris F.C. They argue that the Paris region, with its population of more than 12 million, deserves an elite league rivalry, the kind that courses through European cities like London and Lisbon, Madrid and Milan.

☆ Pope says Vatican involved in secret Ukraine peace mission
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] Pope Francis holds a news conference as he returns to the Vatican following his apostolic journey to Hungary, aboard the plane, April 30, 2023. Vincenzo Pinto/Pool via REUTERSABOARD PAPAL PLANE, April 30 (Reuters) - The Vatican is involved in a peace mission to try to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Pope Francis said on Sunday, declining to give further details. When it is public, I will reveal it," the pope told reporters during a flight home after a three-day visit to Hungary. Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal met the pope at the Vatican on Thursday and said he had discussed a "peace formula" put forward by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Pope Francis, 86, has said previously that he wants to visit Kyiv but also Moscow on a peace mission.

☆ Four people shot dead in Portugal, CNN Portugal says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

LISBON, April 30 (Reuters) - A man shot three people dead and then committed suicide on Sunday in the Portuguese city of Setubal, about 45 km (28 miles) south of the capital, CNN Portugal said. PSP police commissioner Joao Freire told Reuters that "there are four bodies, which were supposedly the result of a shooting, but the causes and details are not yet known". The police criminal cases agency PJ was at the scene investigating, Freire said. CNN Portugal said the shooting took place at around 8 a.m. in a poor neighbourhood of Setubal called Bairro Azul, and that the gunman committed suicide when police officers arrived on the scene. Reporting by Sergio Goncalves Editing by Frances KerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

ALCARACEJOS, Spain, April 27 (Reuters) - Residents of a small town in southern Spain gathered at the main square to collect drinking water as large swathes of the Iberian Peninsula braved unseasonally hot weather that have exacerbated a long drought. Meteorologists expected temperatures to hit almost 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in some areas of Spain this week. She recalled times when they had running water for only a few hours a day, but never needing to carry the bottles home. [1/5] A bird walks at the Sierra Boyera Reservoir, which is at 0.01% of its capacity, in Belmez, southern Spain, April 26. Residents can receive up to five litres (1.3 gallons) per day from a truck that drives through the affected villages.

☆ Microsoft stock rallies on earnings and bullish A.I. outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A sign for Microsoft Corp. at the company's office in the central business district of Lisbon, Portugal, on Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022. Microsoft shares sustained a nearly 8% jump in pre-market trading Wednesday, a day after reporting third-quarter results that beat analyst expectations on the top and bottom lines. Shares held their gains after a British regulator blocked Microsoft's planned acquisition of video game company Activision Blizzard on Wednesday morning. Analysts responded positively to Microsoft's AI prospects. Morgan Stanley reiterated its overweight rating on the stock and increased its price target to $335.

☆ Jeronimo Martins' first-quarter profit jumps 59%, margin narrows
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Patricia Vicente Rua | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LISBON, April 26 (Reuters) - Portugal's second-largest retailer Jeronimo Martins (JMT.LS) on Wednesday posted a 59% jump in first-quarter net income as higher prices to offset soaring inflation boosted sales, though its margins narrowed. The company booked a net profit of 140 million euros ($154.71 million) between January and March. Consolidated sales in the first three months of the year rose 23.4% to 6.8 billion euros, driven by its Biedronka chain in Poland, where sales increased 26% to 4.8 billion euros. Consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew 20.1% to 446 million euros in the quarter. The company plans to invest around 1 billion euros this year, 45% of which in Poland where it wants to open between 130-150 stores and remodel about 350 stores.

☆ Portugal NOS' quarterly profit drops 15% as 5G capex ups amortisations
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Sergio Goncalves | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LISBON, April 26 (Reuters) - Portuguese telecommunications firm NOS (NOS.LS) posted on Wednesday a 15% fall in first-quarter net profit as amortisation costs rose after strong investments to bring its fast-speed 5G network to almost everyone in Portugal. NOS, whose businesses include cable television and cinemas, made a net profit of 34.9 million euros ($38.55 million) between January and March. Consolidated revenue rose 2.2% to 381.4 million euros in the quarter from a year ago, of which 369.2 million euros were from its core telecommunications business. Its 5G network covered 88% of Portugal's population in March, said NOS, which a year ago was in the initial phases of the new technology roll-out. Operating costs rose 7% year-on-year to 869.9 million euros in the first quarter due to soaring inflation.

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