Quercus has called for a total ban on all plastic bags in Portugal where two billion are used each year, many of which end up littering the land and polluting the sea.

Despite the astounding drop in use of plastic bags in the country, an estimated 70%, Quercus has urged the Government to take urgent steps, once and for all, to ban the use of plastic bags.

Portugal weather service scientists agree that there is a close to zero chance that a direct bolt of lightning caused the killer fire in Pedrógão Grande.

A new IPMA report concludes that there is “a close to zero chance (but not zero) of the occurrence of a cloud-to land discharge in the vicinity of the fire ignition site."

This is what the president of the Portuguese Institute of Atmosphere and Sea (IPMA) wrote to the Government in his letter accompanying a full report on the local weather systems at the time of the fire which killed 64 people.

The main US base now is the Lajes airbase on Terceira (pictured left) but American military presence in the Açores started 100 years ago with at Ponta Delgada on the island of São Miguel.

The reason for an Allied military presence was the German Navy which had been sinking US and Allied shipping in the Atlantic. The governments of the US and Portugal formed an agreement and the first base was created in this strategic area that was an ideal mid-Atlantic refuelling point.

The council of Vila do Bispo is pleased that the road works in its area now are completed but now that the traffic cones and workmen have gone, locals now are complaining to the council that the EN125 road has been designed to slow down traffic to a frustrating crawl in many sections.

Rotas do Algarve Litoral had been instructed by Infraestrutura de Portugal to paint solid white lines along sections of renewed road where previously overtaking has been allowed. This leaves only three sections of road where vehicles can overtake between Lagos and Vila do Bispo and guarantees frustration and risky driver behaviour.

The government has requested an independent report on the failure of the SIRESP communications system which led to confusion, poor decisions and avoidable deaths in the devastating Pedrógão Grande fires.

The selection of the Telecommunications Institute by Minister for the Interior, Constança Urbano de Sousa, looked all very right and proper until it was pointed out today that this institute is a private body funded by a company that also is a shareholder in SIRESP SA.

Last weekend's mysterious fire that, happily for the Algarve’s waste company freed up scarce landfill space by buring tonnes of dumped rubbish, is under the spotlight from environmental organisation, Almargem, which has demanded an independent inquiry.

The Sotavento Sanitary Landfill run by Algar is located in Vale do Zebro near Cortelha in Loulé, and "had a 20-year shelf life at the time of its inauguration in the year 2000. The increase in the volume of waste deposited, due in part to the unexpected and recent increase in the percentage of recyclable waste into the common waste, has led to its current depletion." (i.e lack of available space).

From Saturday July 1st, accommodation rental websites such as Airbnb, risk fines up to €32,500 if they run ads for properties in Portugal without displaying AL registration numbers.

A new decree law from the Ministry of the Economy reads that "The electronic platforms that make available, advertise or market accommodation ... must demand and display on the platform the respective National Tourist Registry number."

The GNR today has stepped up its traffic patrols and roadside inspections until Sunday evening in the first of five stages of the annual ‘Operation Hermes - travelling with security' that runs until the beginning of September.

According to the GNR, the objective is "to guarantee security during trips to and from summer resorts and the various events being held of this time of the year."

This means that most of the activity will be in the Algarve.