As infrastructure failures in Portugal and IMT, particles in the Azores and other TSF highlights
The Prevention and Investigation of Aircraft Accidents and Railway Accidents (GPIAAF) found “systemic” and old failures of Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP; manager of the Portuguese railway) and of the Mobility and Transport Institute (IMT, as national authority) which helped cause the Alfa Pendular accident in Soure, which in July 2020 killed two people and injured 44 others – three of them seriously. The final investigation report, which the TSF had access, confirms the human error of the two employees.
In reaction to the arts of the report, IP rejected, this Friday, responsibility for the derailment of the Alfa Pendular train. “From the reading of the report, it is evident that no failure in the functioning of the infrastructure was found. The existing signaling at the Soure Station, in terms of location and visibility, fully complies with current technical and regular regulations and, at the time of the accident, it worked as planned, “underlined IP in a press release.
The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) has detected the arrival of particles in the form of sulphate aerosols in the Azores archipelago from the eruption of the volcano of Cumbre Vieja, which, since last September 19, the island of La Palma, in Canary Islands.
Félix Rodrigues, a specialist in atmospheric physics and chemistry and a doctorate in atmospherics, classifies the information released by the IPMA as, at least, hasty. For this professor at the University of the Azores, there is no doubt that the fog that occurs in the islands of the central and eastern group is caused by dust from the Sahara desert and confesses to TSF who was surprised by the IPMA communication.
With the entry into force of the new measures to combat Covid-19, Portugal stops travelers arriving in national territory to comply with prophylactic isolation. In a note released, the Ministry of Internal Affairs explains that “it maintains the recognition, in conditions of reciprocity and as long as they meet the necessary requirements, of the vaccination and recovery certificates issued by third countries to holders who must have administered vaccines approved by the European Agency of Medicine (Janssen, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer)”.
In the US, US drugmaker Merck announced that molnupiravir, an experimental drug to treat severe cases of Covid-19, reduces the risk of hospitalization or death by about 50%, according to the results of interim clinical trials cited by BBC. Now, the drugmaker is going to ask the regulator of the United States of America (USA) to authorize the emergency use of the drug to treat people infected with SARS-CoV-2.
The president of Chega, André Ventura, announced that he will resign and ask for new changes to be called for in the direction of the party. The decision follows the decision of the Constitutional Court, known this Thursday, that the statutes assumed by Chega at its penultimate congress are illegal.
On the side of the CDS, Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos wants the party to be on the side of the Portuguese and respond to their needs. To do so, he announced that he would re-candidate for the party’s leadership and, in order to assess the results of the municipal changes, asked the national council to schedule a meeting to analyze the results.
