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Azores

The apron at Lajes Field on Terceira in the Azores: tanker aircraft and fighter jets parked beside the runway, with grassland and the Atlantic beyond.

The Lajes Agreement Everyone Cites Was Signed 75 Years Ago and Repealed in 1995, and the Text That Replaced It Opens a Narrower Door Than Most People Assume

Portugal and the United States signed the Lajes defence agreement on 6 September 1951. Article XI of the 1995 accord repealed it by name. The text now in force rolls over every year, and it sorts American requests into three categories with very different answers.

The Portugal Brief 06 Sep 2026

The blue facade of the Palacio da Conceicao in Ponta Delgada, seat of the Azorean regional government, framed by two tall palm trees with a bare flagpole in front of the entrance.

Fifty Years Ago on Tuesday the Azores Swore In a Government of Their Own, and the Argument It Started Is Still About Money

The first Azorean government took office on 8 September 1976, four days after the assembly elected that June, under a 33-year-old Mota Amaral. Fifty years on the design has held and the funding has not, and a working group has eighteen months to rewrite the regional finances law.

The Portugal Brief 06 Sep 2026

A Mobi.E electric vehicle charging post standing in an empty blue-painted bay outside a Portuguese supermarket, an electric vehicle parking sign behind it.

Twenty-Seven of Forty EU-Funded Charging Posts Remain Uninstalled in the Azores, and Broken Ones Still Show as Operational in the Apps

The Bloco de Esquerda filed a requerimento in the Azorean parliament on Saturday. About 6,000 electric vehicles circulate in the region against 99 public charging points, and 27 of the 40 posts bought under the LIFE IP CLIMAZ project have never been installed.

The Portugal Brief 05 Sep 2026

View from the grounds of the Azores Legislative Assembly in Horta across the channel to the cloud-capped volcano of Pico, with the harbour and town below

Growing Slower Costs the Azores 20 Million Euros of VAT, and Looking Richer Per Head Costs Another 33 Million

The regional finance secretary told deputies in Ponta Delgada that updated population figures will cost about 53 million euros in 2027. The larger half turns on a cohesion-fund threshold that steps down 15 points at exactly 90 percent.

The Portugal Brief 02 Sep 2026

The painted sea wall of Horta marina on Faial in the Azores, covered in sailors' murals, with the white town and green hills behind

A Study of 1,577 Pieces of Litter on Faial and Pico Traced Most of It to Lobster Boats in Maine

Okeanos researchers at the University of the Azores read the identification tags on stranded lobster-trap plastic: 63 percent came from the United States, 76 percent of those from Maine, carrying dates from 1983 to 2023.

The Portugal Brief 02 Sep 2026

An aerial view over the red tiled roofs and white houses of Horta on Faial in the Azores, with the stone facade of the former Jesuit college and its church at the centre.

A Century After the Faial Earthquake Brought Down 4,138 Houses, the Horta Museum Is Marking It With an Evacuation Drill for a Hundred Children

At 8.42 on 31 August 1926 the Faial to Pico channel moved, and 4,138 houses on an island of twenty thousand people came down. A historian marking the centenary asks whether the rebuilding that followed was ever properly supervised.

The Portugal Brief 30 Aug 2026

Two black and white dairy cows walking along a narrow tarmac lane between green pastures on an Azorean hillside, with the Atlantic behind them and a cattle warning sign.

Unileite Trims Another Two Cents From São Miguel's Milk Price, and the Azores Farm Federation Puts the Year's Loss at €15 Million

September is the second general step down on the island this year, after Bel's 1.5 cents and August cuts by Lactogal, Insulac and Prolacto. Jorge Rita says diesel is rising 16.3 cents a litre, and the €23 million of war-related aid paid on the mainland never reached the Azores.

The Portugal Brief 29 Aug 2026

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