Less sex in schools
Public consultation has begun on a government plan to remove ‘sexuality’ and ‘healthy reproductive sex’ from compulsory Citizenship lessons, and increase teaching of financial literacy and ‘entrepreneurship’. Instead of learning about different genders, pupils will learn, among other things, “the importance of saving, and its objectives”. Head teachers have lambasted the plan, saying the government is ‘giving in’ to extreme right-wing ideologies. Parents and even some teachers seem to be welcoming it.
Wide open
Following a brief honeymoon period where former Admiral Gouveia e Melo, seemed a ‘dead cert’ for the country’s next president (elections for which come in January), his popularity has ‘dive bombed’, leaving the field ‘wide open’. According to a new poll, in the space of a month voting intentions for Gouveia e Melo fell 6.7 points, leaving contenders Luís Marques Mendes (PSD) and António José Seguro (PS) with ‘everything to play for’.
Nasty slip
A hotel in Leiria has been condemned (by Coimbra court of appeal) to pay €15,000 in compensation to a former guest who suffered a nasty slip on a wet floor and broke his ankle. The guest initially claimed €99,000 in compensation, complaining there was no warning sign denoting the wet floor. The court ruled that the hotel had “not complied with the duty of safety, diligence and care”.
Cliff fall
A 42-year-old man fell to his death from a cliff above Espingardeiro beach, Porto Covo, in the early hours of Monday morning. He is described as working for the ongoing World Music Festival, and was apparently returning to his tent, with his wife and 11-year-old son, when the accident happened. The wife was treated in hospital for shock, while it took several hours for teams to recover the body.
Drug deliveries
A 45-year-old man who allegedly ran a ‘drug delivery service’, using online platforms, from his home in Carnaxide, Oeiras, has been caught red-handed, delivering cocaine to a client in the Greater Lisbon area. Police discovered a stash of 1,875 doses of cocaine, 934 of MDMA and roughly 18 of hashish in the man’s home, as well as thousands of euros in cash. The suspect is being held in custody.
Fatal delay
A report by IGAS (general health inspectorate) has concluded that an 86-year-old man who died of a heart attack in Bragança during the strike by paramedics last October “could have survived if help had been received immediately”. As it was, with the volume of calls left on hold, help did not reach the man for an hour and 20 minutes. The man had a history of “significant cardiovascular pathology”, and several comorbidities.
350 doctors
The Ministry of Health has authorised the hiring of up to 350 doctors this year for exceptional and urgent situations by public business entities within the SNS state health service, including Oncology Institutes and autonomously managed hospitals, according to a dispatch published today. The doctors to be hired cannot have an employment contract in public functions or an employment contract signed with entities of the SNS, states the dispatch signed by the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins.
Socialist schisms
Socialist leader José Luís Carneiro has made light of schisms within the party, saying they are not a sign of weakness, but of great diversity. “The great wealth of the Socialist Party is this diversity, which is internal, but which is this diversity of welcoming, of being open to civic expressions and political expressions that are expressed in other movements and identities”, he said at an event in Coimbra.
