CYNTHIA ADINA KIRKWOOD

"Portugal, therefore, is everywhere in Masurca Fogo (1988), and nowhere at all. The Lisbon that appears on stage is not the Lisbon of monuments or political history. It is a city dissolved into sensation: dazzling white light that erases contours; sudden rain; music drifting from an unseen source; afternoons that seem immune to urgency; public squares where people remain together without speaking; the perpetual awareness of the sea just beyond vision," according to Ivan Nech

Mário Centeno, co-author of the recently published Contas Certas -- Crónica de Uma Mudança Política em Portugal (Accurate Accounts -- Chronicle of a Political Change in Portugal) (Photo from CNN Portugal) The ex-Governor of the Bank of Portugal and ex-Minister of Finance, Mário Centeno, said that the state's finances are only not in worse shape because of contributions from immigrants. However, he warned that these contributions are decreasing because many fore

Prime Minister of Belize, John Briceño (left), and President of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, flanked by the other's flag (Photo from Agencia Guatemalteca de Noticias, SCSP Archive) There are more than 150 territorial disputes worldwide, according to National Geographic (March 29, 2014), but the ones with which we are most familiar are those in which ugly domination spills blood and there is no peace. Israel and Palestine. Russia and Ukraine. Belize and Guatemala have c

O Dos Castelos, a poem of the great Portuguese writer, Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa, was published in Mensagem (1934). It inspired his good friend, Portuguese modernist José Sobral de Alameda Negreiros, to draw his own version of Europe, a map not limited by geographic reality but corresponding to the symbolic persona taking shape in the poem, according to Portugal, the "Staring Face" of Europe (May 27, 2015), Big Think. The poem emphasizes Portugal's significance within

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