On 14 August, Health Minister Ana Paula Martins said emergency-room waits are better than two years ago — a day after the SNS's own live data showed patients queuing over eleven hours at a Lisbon-area hospital, and as interior obstetric emergency rooms kept closing for the summer.
Portugal's education authorities have placed 20,404 teachers in schools for 2026/27, up more than 1,500 on last year, with the definitive lists out on 14 August and teachers due on 1 September. The shortage still bites hardest in Greater Lisbon, the Setúbal Peninsula and the Algarve.
At the Festa do Pontal, PM Luís Montenegro said the €20-a-month Green Rail Pass will be widened to cover suburban trains inside the Lisbon and Porto areas, 'probably in September.' It was a rally pledge, not a decree, and it overlaps with the Navegante and Andante passes.
Parpública has agreed to buy 13.7% of REN, the national grid operator, from Amancio Ortega's Pontegadea, putting the Portuguese State back into the power grid it left more than a decade ago. The price was undisclosed and the deal awaits Court of Auditors approval.
Three weeks after an exam-marking meltdown left university applications looking like they might crash, the first phase closed with a record 60,391 candidates — the strongest demand since 1996 and more applicants than the 56,790 public seats on offer.
New figures put Portugal 2030 execution at just 20.8% at the end of July, with barely €210 million spent in the whole month. As the EU's n+3 'guillotine' deadline nears, the country has approved billions it has not yet managed to pay out.
