The week's most important Portugal stories, curated from our daily coverage: a seized car in the Interior Minister's hands, a pension report the government will not publish, pay transparency without the numbers, and housing costs at a fresh extreme.
Pedro Duarte asks the PSP to let the câmara hire officers for the Cândido dos Reis nightlife strip, Metro do Porto's 25-year-old Eurotrams lose their air conditioning above 35C, a €75 million Boavista tower swaps luxury flats for 249 mid-market homes, and the Book Fair fills the Palácio de Cristal.
Good morning. Here is your Sunday briefing for 23 August 2026: the day's essential Portugal stories for residents, expats and anyone keeping an eye on the country, running from the
Atlanticoline found the fault during routine maintenance checks and will change departure times and reassign other ships to cover. The vessel works the central group in high season, plus the Flores and Corvo link. No repair timeline has been given.
From 25 August the ISP rebate is 8.16 cents a litre on diesel and 5.40 on petrol, up from 8.05 and 4.96. The ACP forecasts diesel rising about 3.5 cents and petrol about 2.5, so diesel drivers still face a net increase of roughly 2.4 cents.
Alva Rail, registered at the Hotel & Spa Valverde Santar in Nelas, is putting about EUR 21.6 million into the project and naming Belmond and the Orient Express as its reference points. Routes, suites, fares and dates have not been disclosed.
The state company manages 1,000 hectares of the serra under protocols with the DGRSP that let inmates in open regime work outside. Five more are on the scheme now. Nationwide, only 158 of roughly 10,000 people serving sentences hold open-regime approval.
