Record breaking RonaldoRecord breaking Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo has now equalled the record of games played in the Champions League, held by former sportsman Iker Casillas, following Manchester United's defeat by 2-1 at Young Boys.

With 177 appearances, Ronaldo is now on par with Iker Casillas and is expected to surpass this total during his time with Manchester United.

Despite a disappointing result for the Red Devils, Ronaldo opened up the scoring on the night with a goal in the 13th minute, following an assist from fellow countryman Bruno Fernandes. The team went down to 10 men after Wan-Bissaka was sent off, leaving Young Boys able to make a comeback with a goal in the 66th minute from Ngamaleu, while Siebatcheu put the final nail in the coffin at 90+5 with another goal.

It may not been the result that Manchester United were looking for however, it places Ronaldo firmly in the Champions League football hall of fame, with the 36 year old joining the retired Spanish goalkeeper, who was his teammate at Real Madrid and played 27 games for FC Porto in the competition, during the 2015/16 and 2018/19 seasons.

Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United has been highly publicised and has pushed his number of appearances for the team now up to 53 in the Champions League.

41 suspected cases of Jansen vaccine “failure”

The national pharmacovigilance system has detected 41 cases of “suspected vaccine failure” in people who received the Janssen vaccine, 36 of which were considered serious, the National Medicines Authority (Infarmed) said today.

"We have been notified of 41 cases of suspected vaccine failure with the Janssen vaccine, of which 36 were classified as serious," said the regulatory authority to Lusa.

On Monday, the French Medicines Agency (ANSM) indicated that a "significant number" of cases of failure of the Janssen Covid-19 vaccine, which works with a single dose, had been detected in that country.

"A significant number of cases of Janssen vaccine failure have been reported, including severe forms (death, resuscitation) as well as an above-normal presence of patients vaccinated with Janssen in the intensive care of two CHU (University Hospital Centers)," said the ANSM.

In Portugal, according to Infarmed, out of a total of 36 serious situations detected, “five led to hospitalisation and 31 were considered clinically relevant”.
“Considering that in Portugal more than one million doses of this vaccine have already been administered, this would represent an incidence of four reported cases per 100,000 vaccines”, added the national regulator, guaranteeing that this number of notifications “is far below the expected value, taking into account the results obtained in the clinical trials used for the approval of this vaccine”.

In France, among people vaccinated with the Janssen vaccine, 32 cases of infection with covid-19 were reported, corresponding to an incidence of 3.78 cases per 100,000 people.

Of these 32 cases, 29 were serious and there were four deaths (of people aged between 73 and 87 years).

In March of this year, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) granted conditional authorisation for the vaccine from Janssen, a pharmaceutical company of the Johnson & Johnson group - one of the four that is part of the Portuguese vaccination plan - for people to from 18 years old.

Cheers to beer

The brewing sector in Portugal is regarded as having a “big impact” on the country thanks largely to it representing around 1.5 percent of GDP.
João Bernardo Duarte, one of the authors of the "Macroeconomic Impacts of the Brewing Sector" study, along with Pedro Brinca, highlighted the "great impact" that the sector has on GDP.

During the last decade, 2019 represented a "historic milestone in the beer industry in Portugal, as it was the year with the highest production volume since 2014, reaching 710 million litres, and the highest volume of domestic consumption since 2010, recording a peak 550 million litres of beer," according to the study.

The sector is responsible for "51,739 direct and indirect jobs - 1.69 percent of the jobs created and/or maintained in Portugal. In the year preceding the current pandemic, the sector proved to be highly productive, attributing around €2,602 million in added value to the Portuguese economy, 1.53 percent of the national GDP".

Who are the main parties for the local elections?

Don’t be surprised if you find many different parties on the ballot paper for the next local elections. Here are the summarised history and values of the Portuguese parties with parliamentary seats.
On 26 September, both Portuguese and foreign residents will be called to the polls to choose their local authorities in an election that takes place every four years. However, understanding politics in Portugal can be a challenge.

While in the UK and in the US there are only two parties in the parliament, in Portugal the electoral system allows for a greater plurality of parties in parliament, which allows for small parties to have more importance in the political panorama, even in local elections.

Furthermore, at the moment, nine parties with parliamentary seats are running for the local elections. In addition to these nine, that can compete alone or in coalition, there are groups of people who can stand as candidates independent of parties.

Socialist Party (PS)

Located on the centre-left, it is one of the main parties and is currently the ruling party in Portugal, with António Costa as a Prime Minister. The party, founded in 1973, won in 2017 in 161 councils, being the most voted for party in the last municipal elections.

This party is linked to the social-democracy developed in the mid-twentieth century, sharing values of freedom, equality, socialism and solidarity. The PS has a lower degree of conservatism, in relation to other centrist parties, and agrees with state intervention in the economy to improve social justice.

Social Democratic Party (PSD)

Founded in 1974, the Social Democratic Party is, as its name suggests, a party linked to the values ​​of social democracy and, together with PS, is one of the two main parties in Portuguese politics.

What differentiates this party from the previous one is that it is centre-right, which means that it focuses on more liberalising ideas in terms of the economy and is associated with more conservative values. Although commonly known as PSD, on the ballots you will find it in its official form - PPD/PSD.

Four years ago, PSD had its worst municipal result ever, having lost eight councils in relation to 2013.

At the moment, PSD is running alone in 153 municipalities and integrates 146 coalitions with CDS-PP.

CDS-PP

Founded in 1974, this party was traditionally (before Chega and Iniciativa Liberal) the rightmost party in parliament, in spite of being mentioned as a center-right. This party usually presents more conservative proposals than PSD, with a strong emphasis on stronger immigration legislation, opposition to European federalism and tax cuts. CDS-PP is officially an anti-abortion and anti-euthanasia party, defending the right to life.

Portugal to support Mozambique in water supply

The Portuguese minister of Environment and Climate Action has expressed Portugal's openness to support and share experiences with Mozambique in the expansion of water supply systems.
“Portugal wants to intensify the sharing [of experiences] with Mozambique”, declared João Pedro Matos Fernandes, in Maputo.

The plan to expand Mozambique's water supply systems is scheduled for a 10-year period, and over the period, the country expects an additional 1.8 billion dollars (1.5 billion euros) to be invested in the construction and modernisation of infrastructure, with the support of the private sector and partners, with the aim to guarantee universal access to the resource.

Under the plan, Portugal will disburse one million euros, over the next three years, to support Mozambique in carrying out a “set of studies that are necessary for it to meet the objective of having other management models for water services”, said João Pedro Matos Fernandes.
According to the Portuguese official, the experience that Portugal has acquired with the transformation of the sector over the last 25 years will be shared with Mozambique, but it is important to realize that the realities and challenges are different.

"Environmental issues are always linked to territories and no two territories are alike", stressed the Portuguese government official.

EU's “unique position” to “build bridges”

The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has highlighted the “unique position” of the European Union (EU) to “build bridges” in the fight against terrorism and climate change and on the issue of migrations.
“Twenty years after 9/11, a year and a half after the start of this pandemic and a month after the withdrawal [of US troops] from Afghanistan, we have to realise that the world is multipolar and has to be more multilateral: it is not a matter of choice, it is a matter of facts”, declared the Portuguese head of state.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stressed that “the EU has to play an even more important role, as much as itself, but also relatively to allies in NATO, partners and in general with the whole world”.

“And we are in a unique position to build bridges in climate, health, [fighting] terrorism, migration, energy, digital and, of course, human rights,” he said.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa thus defended union between the EU countries: “We have to be more united. We are all different, but there is something we have in common, which are the values ​​and principles of the European project”.

“We must be successful in the transition from pandemic to endemic, in the recovery from the social and economic crisis, in our political and social cohesion and we cannot waste time and we must learn the lessons of the past”, added the Head of State.

Ryanair launches new Porto to Clermont-Ferrand route

Low cost airline Ryanair, has announced a new winter service connecting Porto and Clermont-Ferrand, operating two weekly flights from November as part of Ryanair’s Winter 2021 schedule.

Ryanair’s Director of Commercial, Jason McGuinness, said: “We are delighted to announce this new route from Porto to Clermont-Ferrand operating two weekly flights from November. Ryanair remains committed to re-building Portugal’s tourism industry and strengthening connectivity as Ryanair continues to grow in Europe and travel returns to pre-Covid levels.