CYNTHIA ADINA KIRKWOOD

Javali (wild boar) is a sociable and non-territorial animal. It has poor eyesight but a sharp sense of hearing, capturing sounds imperceptible to humans. Its most developed sense is of smell, according to Portugal Hunting. Please do not feed it. In the continuing effort to curb the prolific javali, the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture and Sea plans to pay 50 euros for each male and 70 euros for each female killed beyond the average recorded in recent years, increasing the c

Rama Duwaji is in her studio. Some of the cardboard boxes, which Duwaji used to move into the mayor's residence at Gracie Mansion, became canvases for her drawings, reported Hyperallergic. (Photo by Dahlia Dandashi) What is compelling about Rama Duwaji, an American illustrator, animator and ceramicist, is her openness to experimenting with different media, often based on their portability, (drawing on the subway), because what she is expressing is what matters most.

President of the Republic of Portugal, António José Seguro (Photo by António Cotrim/Lusa) Three days after the Constitutional Court decided that the bill of deportation and asylum was in keeping with the Constitution, Portugal's President António José Seguro promulgated the bill on August 31, stating that reforms in these matters "are desirable" but that "they must be carried out with legal certainty and respecting the Constitution", reported SIC Notícias (August 31). With

American Gwynne Berkeley is at the National Support Center in Anjos, Lisbon. AIMA did not respond to her phone calls or emails. Her wallet was stolen, and she needed a duplicate of her residency permit. Berkeley, 55, said that she loves Portugal but not the bureaucracy. (Photo by Gerardo Santos/Diário de Notícias (September 10, 2024)) Portugal's deportation bill worries the judges who handle the thousands of lawsuits filed by immigrants, reported SIC Notícias (August 30).

(Photo by Paulo Pereira) Ten years ago, the fleshy, succulent tomate coração de boi, with its firm steak-like pulp, was on the edge of extinction in Portugal. Today, there are more than 50 wine producers and farms, principally in the Douro region, which grow the tomato named for its resemblance to the heart of a bovine, popular again among growers though ever-popular with consumers, reported Jornal do Centro (August 7). What accounted for the tomato's change in fortune? In 2

After Portugal's President, António José Seguro, requested a review of the lei do retorno e asilo, citing doubts about respect for the principles of proportionality and dignity, the Constitutional Court decided "not to rule on the unconstitutionality" of the decree, reported SIC Notícias (August 28). The decision, which validated the decree's constitutionality, was announced publicly by the Court on August 28. It was 160 pages long, according to RTP Notícias (August 28). Pres

"It's not about burqas. Also, mind control is not security." Photo by Manuel Fernando Araújo/Lusa) Getty images and others of Muslim women, thousands of kilometers away from Portugal, their eyes often masked with a mesh screen and their entire body covered in a burqa outer garment, tended to illustrate media stories about the much debated "burqa bill". Why foreign photographs and not those of local media? "A handful of Muslim women" in Portugal wear burqas, and

The Embassy of the State of Palestine in Portugal expressed gratitude for the humanitarian and medical support of Dima, 16, and Malak, 7. (Photo from the Embassy of the State of Palestine in Portugal) Two Palestinian girls, who each lost a leg in the bombings of the Gaza Strip, arrived, at Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport, in Porto, in wheelchairs on August 17. However, in six months, they plan to leave the airport on their own two feet and fly to safe haven in Egy

At 11:11 a.m. on August 11, 1999, the birds came home to roost during the total solar eclipse in Cornwall, England, over my Cornish cottage. (Photo by Cynthia Adina Kirkwood) The solar eclipse in Portugal was a certainty. Its beginning and end were beyond cancellation or rescheduling as well as outside the scope of any person's wont. There was comfort in its certainty in this world of so many uncertainties. On August 12, 2026, there were two hours of t

The President of the Republic, António José Seguro (Photo by Paulo Spranger) Like the other two most recent pieces of legislative reform regarding immigration, the third and final piece, which is the granting of asylum, detention and return of foreigners, was sent to Portugal's Constitutional Court for a preventive review of the parliamentary decree. The President of the Republic, António José Seguro, has doubts about the constitutionality of the rules for separating familie

Coimbra native Teresa Anjinho, sworn in as European Ombudsman in February 2025, is responsible for investigating maladministration within the institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the European Union. The European Ombudsman, Teresa Anjinho, concluded that the European Commission committed maladministration by refusing to give public access to environmental documents related to lithium and other mineral extraction and processing projects classified as strategic projects

Walking up the 144 steps of Fonte Fria, where water cascades between the staircases, in the Mata Nacional do Bussaco (National Forest of Bussaco) Wandering around the unique National Forest of Bussaco, designed for spiritual reasons (religious or contemplative), "one can still feel its sacred dimension, just like the Discalced Carmelite's friars had imagined, created and kept from the 17th century up to the first third of the 19th century", according to Desert of the Discalce

Cristina Soeiro, a psychologist with the Polícia Judiciária (Portuguese Judicial Police) has been studying the profile of arsonists for 28 years. (Photo by Raquel Wise/Sábado) In a study of 450 suspected rural arsonists in Portugal, 39 percent had mental health problems and 38 percent had been linked to alcohol consumption. Among recidivist arsonists, mental disorders are highly associated with comorbid alcoholism. Cristina Soeiro, a psychologist with the Polícia Judiciária

Workers in China cut the fruit manually, then hook the large bunches onto tethered cargo lines attached to drones. Madeira is conducting several tests with high-capacity drones to evaluate the remote-control aircraft's performance in transporting bananas from steep slopes with difficult access to trucks waiting below, according to the Regional Secretariat for Agriculture and Fisheries, reported SIC Notícias (July 15). Drones can carry loads of up to 100 kilograms (220 pounds)

The pink color of greater flamingos comes from their food rich in red-pigmented foods, such as algae and shrimp. However, the imposing Three Flamingos, with their long legs and curved beaks, in the City of Olhão, is made of 300 kilograms (661 pounds) of pinkish trash. The mural of street artist Bordalo II celebrates the wading birds, which can be seen in the Parque Natural de Ria Formosa, in the Algarve, with Olhão as its gateway, reported NiT. Greater flamingos, the largest

Echoing its country's marine patrimony, Portugal's Lusíada constellation, which will open "doors to a new generation of maritime communication services", neared completion with the July 7 launch of three more satellites, according to its developer LusoSpace. The new satellites -- named for stellar Portuguese writers Florbela Espanca, Miguel Torga and Cesário Verde and carrying their poetry -- were launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter-17 mission

(Photo by Tiago Petinga/Lusa) The Portuguese Parliament rejected new attempts to legislate on the loss of nationality as an accessory crime penalty, reported Expresso (July 3). Previously, the Constitutional Court had struck down two other versions in May of this year and in December 2025. Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro (PSD), defended a third version of the decree, assuring the Assembleia da República that the measure would be of "rare application" and addr

Aretha Franklin singing My Country, 'Tis of Thee at the first inauguration of President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009 (Photo by Cecilio Ricardo/U.S. Air Force) FIFA's 2026 World Cup ushers in the strains of national anthems into our living rooms, pubs and restaurants from countries around the world. Surprisingly, some songs have more in common with each other than others. Growing up in New York, I sang America, or My Country,´Tis of Thee, after saying the Pledge of Al

During the day, (especially a cloudy one), the marble is hard and mute. At night, however, when the building is lit from within, it takes on a lantern effect, illuminating the striations in the stone, which are laid out in a symmetrical pattern evoking the grain of a textile. "The marble is quiet during the day when the memorial is at its most active, then it comes on as the city gets dark," the architect designer Joshua Ramus, of REX, a New York architectural firm, told the

Thompson Memorial Chapel, an interfaith sanctuary at Williams College, was completed in 1904 in memory of Frederick Ferris Thompson (1836-1899), who, at the time of his death, had been the most generous benefactor in the College's history, according to the College. At the news of his passing, the school suspended all classes and events for the day, and the community gathered in a chapel to pay tribute to Thompson, who had attended Williams. During the Civil War, Thompson orga