Year: 2024

 

SNS 24 Line launches new teleconsultation service

 

The teleconsultation service is intended for users who meet the clinical conditions for remote medical care, after screening carried out by the service, the Ministry of Health’s Shared Services (SPMS) announced today.

The new SNS 24 referral service (808 24 24 24) launched on Tuesday and will be in a pilot phase for three months, with the aim of “reinforcing access to health care and optimizing resources of the National Health Service (SNS)”, said the SPMS in a statement.

“After screening and clinical assessment carried out by the healthcare professional from Linha SNS 24, the user may be referred to Teleconsulta Linha SNS 24. It is the healthcare professional who makes this referral. It does not include monitoring of chronic diseases, medication renewal or assessment of test results”, he stresses.

According to the SPMS, the video call teleconsultation is carried out through an online transmission platform (streaming), which can be accessed via the SNS 24 Portal, using the link that the user received via SMS, or via the SNS 24 App, if the mobile application is installed.

“This new referral service is carried out via video call by doctors specializing in general and family medicine, with access to integrated information systems, allowing them to make a medical diagnosis and, if necessary, prescribe therapy, as well as establish a health care plan for the user”, it says.

To carry out the teleconsultation, the user needs access to a mobile phone and a device with a camera, microphone and internet connection, and must also ensure that they are in a quiet environment, without external interference, to preserve the privacy of the consultation.

During the consultation, it is ensured that the doctor may determine the need for face-to-face care, if the symptoms or severity of the patient’s condition require it.

“Without any costs to the user, the Teleconsultation Linha SNS 24 will make it possible, in certain clinical situations, to avoid trips to face-to-face health services, maintaining the convenience, efficiency and safety of a medical consultation. It also allows the optimization of hospital and health center resources”, highlights the SPMS.

The SNS 24 Line Teleconsultation is integrated into the SNS and all consultations will be available in the user’s health record history, with the clinical report being shared with the user at the end of the consultation.

 

 

 

PSP and GNR begin operations to combat crime and accidents during Christmas and New Year

 

The “Christmas and New Year 2024/2025” Operation will continue until January 2nd, covering the entire period in which greater movement of people and more road traffic is expected.

The National Republican Guard (GNR) and the Public Security Police (PSP) will begin this Wednesday to increase patrols during the Christmas and New Year period, with the aim of reducing general crime and road accidents.

In a statement, both security forces explain that the operations will continue until January 2, covering the entire period in which greater movement of people and more road traffic is expected.

GNR focuses on roads and party venues

The GNR states that Operation “Christmas and New Year 2024/2025” includes patrolling in places with the highest number of people, residential, entertainment, industrial and commercial areas, ensuring public safety and tranquility.

At the same time, inspection and road safety actions will be carried out during the Christmas and New Year periods, on roads with the highest traffic flow, to ensure that festivities and travel take place safely throughout the country, as Commissioner Armindo Teixeira explained to SIC.

In the first phase of prevention and awareness, before the festivities, the GNR advises people to inform the authorities in their area of ​​residence when they are away from home, check that the home alarm is properly activated, never leave doors and windows open or any signs that indicate absence.

In a second phase, during the Christmas period (between 20 and 26 December), which corresponds to the period of greatest influx and concentration of citizens, road patrols will be directed towards prevention, inspection, advice and safety.

During the New Year period (between December 27 and January 2, 2025), patrolling in places of celebration and concentration of people will increase.

The PSP will focus on having greater visibility in areas with the highest levels of traffic, namely historic and commercial areas, airports and other public transport hubs, tourist areas and nightlife areas.

It is also worth remembering that the “Safe Showcase” operation will run until December 20th, precisely with the purpose of reinforcing visibility and proximity policing in commercial areas, especially in streets with “traditional commerce”, reinforcing the feeling of security of traders and buyers.

During the period in which the “Safe Festivities” operation is taking place, and since the Christmas season also means prolonged absences from homes, to celebrate this festive season in other locations, the PSP will provide surveillance to private residences, similar to what is done during the “Safe Summer” program.

Both the PSP and the GNR stress the need for families to avoid publicising these outings during periods of absence from their homes, particularly through social media, ensuring that they always leave doors and windows closed.

In the area of ​​road safety, the PSP and GNR will be particularly attentive to drivers’ risky behaviour, namely speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol and dangerous maneuvers, as well as improper use of mobile phones, driving correctly in the right-hand lane and failure to use seat belts and/or child seats.

In the week before Christmas, the PSP reminds that inspections will also focus on the control and security of air borders, as well as private security activities in large urban centers.

Authorities advise planning trips to avoid times of day when traffic is expected to be heaviest, taking a break every two hours, adjusting your speed to the weather conditions, the state of the road and the volume of road traffic, and driving attentively, cautiously and defensively.

 

 

 

 

On 16^th December, The launch of Holidays Road Safety Campaign

 

“The Best Gift is to be Present”, from Ministério da Administração Interna included in the Christmas and New Year campaign 2024/2025 of Autoridade Nacional de Segurança Rodoviária subordinated to the theme “Safer Holidays”.

The campaign runs until January 5, 2025, with the aim of “appeal to all who use the roads and streets to do so safely, calling on them to prioritize life in this festive period, where commutes are more frequent and longer, wishing that everyone arrives to Christmas dinner, family gatherings, or fun places, and return safely.”

In addition to this road safety campaign, simultaneously, awareness, prevention and monitoring actions will take place from Guarda Nacional Republicana Autoridade Nacional de Emergência e Proteção Civil and Polícia Segurança Pública

The launching ceremony of the campaign was presided over by the Minister of Internal Administration, Margarida Blasco, and included the presence of the Secretary of State for Civil Protection, Paulo Simões Ribeiro, the President of the ANEPC, Duarte Costa, among other guests, and included an intervention from the National Emergency Commander and Civil Defence André Fernandes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“We won’t get there with campaigns and inspections”. Portugal continues to be the country in Europe with the most road insecurity

 

The president of the National Road Safety Authority (ANSR) regretted this Monday that Portugal continues to be “the country in Europe with the most road insecurity” and called on the Government to approve the National Road Safety Strategy this year.

Rui Ribeiro, who has led ANSR for almost six years, took advantage of the presentation of the 2024/2025 Christmas and New Year campaign “Safer Holidays” to highlight that reducing road accidents cannot be achieved through awareness-raising and inspection campaigns, and that a change in strategy is necessary.

The president of ANSR announced that the National Road Safety Strategy – Vision Zero 2030, which aims to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on the road by 50% by 2030, was delivered to the Government at the end of 2022, appealing to the Minister of Internal Administration, Margarida Blasco, and the Secretary of State for Civil Protection, Paulo Simões Ribeiro, to approve this document that is “so needed” by the country.

Rui Ribeiro explained that in 2021, ANSR called on a group of international and national experts and defined a strategy that involved “looking at what is being done in Europe and adapting it to the national reality and completely forgetting what had been the paradigm until now”.

“We won’t get there with campaigns and monitoring,” he said, noting that “there has never been so much monitoring and so good monitoring in Portugal as in recent times,” in addition to the fact that there are campaigns.

According to Rui Ribeiro, in the first seven months of 2024, inspections increased by 80% compared to the same period in 2023 and doubled between 2019 and 2023.

“One of the objectives of this inspection was to achieve the inspection rate and the rate of offenders. In terms of inspection, we can say that Portugal is working very well and fulfilling its purpose and being a deterrent. All indicators show that the inspection has been successful,” he said, regretting that a reduction in road accidents had not been achieved.

According to the president of ANSR, it is estimated that from 2017 to today around 5,000 people have died on Portuguese roads and more than 19,000 have been seriously injured.

In this sense, he stressed, it is essential to approve the National Road Safety Strategy, which is based on five principles: “Safe users, safer vehicles, safer infrastructure, safer speed and post-accident intervention.

“Portugal cannot be considered one of the safest countries in the world while it is one of the countries with the greatest road insecurity in Europe,” he added.

 

Also present at the presentation of the 2024/2025 Christmas and New Year campaign “Safer Celebrations”, the Minister of Internal Administration told journalists that the strategy will be approved and implemented “as quickly as possible”, but did not provide any date.

Speaking at the campaign presentation, Margarida Blasco stated that “the State has a decisive role in this matter” of road safety, and is “responsible for raising awareness, monitoring and discouraging risky behaviour”.

“This is the role we are fulfilling”, he explained, considering that there is also “an individual responsibility for each one of us”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five arrested for drug trafficking in Porto. Group had been operating for two years

 

The group drew up “daily delivery routes” and passed through “pre-established locations”, which they referred to “their buyers through communication platforms”.

Five people – four men and one woman, aged between 41 and 59 – were arrested during an operation by the Public Security Police on suspicion of drug trafficking in several municipalities in the Porto Metropolitan Area.

In a statement sent to newsrooms this Sunday, the authority explained that Operation Toking “focused on an investigation into a drug trafficking network that had been supplying the municipalities of Gondomar, Maia, Porto and Valongo for approximately two years”.

The group plotted “daily delivery routes” and passed through “pre-established locations”, which they referred to “their buyers through communication platforms”. “In some cases, more than 60 daily deliveries were identified”, indicated the PSP.

The operation began last Monday, December 9, and lasted “a few days”, culminating in nine house searches and one non-house search.

It was possible to seize approximately 260 doses of narcotics, including cocaine, heroin and hashish, 4,200 euros in cash and three vehicles, in addition to various material associated with criminal activity.

Three of the suspects were subject to the coercive measure of house arrest, while the rest were subject to periodic presentations at the police station in their area of ​​residence.

 

Recommendations to avoid being scammed during online Christmas shopping

 

Christmas has become a prime setting for online fraud, due to the amount of shopping that takes place, and some people take advantage of this to launch scams adapted to this time of year. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has released a series of recommendations and warnings to ensure that nothing goes wrong this holiday season.

Fraudsters are “persistent in their attempts to deceive” users through a variety of channels, including text messages, malicious emails, malicious web pages and social media posts with false information, according to a note from Meta, with care being taken at this time to avoid being deceived.

Some attempts begin before the Christmas shopping season begins. For this reason, Meta recommends paying attention to emails and text messages received, avoiding sharing personal information and checking whether the website you are shopping on is trustworthy.

In addition to these more general tips, Meta adds others that are more relevant to this time of year. This is the case of fake Christmas gift boxes, advertisements that are shared through posts on social networks, promising gifts and prizes that do not exist. If someone comments on these posts, the scammers redirect them to messaging applications or Google websites, where they ask for data such as email address, telephone number, address or income level, so that they can be selected to win the prize.

Another scam involves discounted or free Christmas decorations, offering artificial Christmas trees and other decorations at “extremely low” prices. The scammers use videos of real people decorating the premises posted online and add voiceovers generated by artificial intelligence (AI) to describe the products and offers. If someone responds to these ads, they are redirected to websites, some created using Shoptify’s services, to make a fake purchase. Ultimately, the product, which does not exist, never reaches the user.

Meta also mentioned scams based on holiday vouchers. In this case, they follow the same modus operandi as the previous ones: they offer fake gift cards with the aim of tricking users into providing personal information in order to receive them. Specifically, they direct victims to pages that imitate social networks and ask them to fill out a form with their gender, age, income, employment status and level of interest in cryptocurrencies in order to participate in the prize draws. To make the situation more realistic, the websites present fake reviews claiming to have won previous prize draws “even though they thought it was a scam”.

PREVENTION

Firstly, Tobac said it is essential to “think like a hacker” and therefore be especially careful with recurring Christmas themes that can be used as a hook by cybercriminals to lure users into scams. This is the case, for example, with ads related to discounts that are “too good to be true”.

So, while users search for Christmas gifts and offers online, they should be aware of possible phishing attacks in emails and messages, as fraudsters often send their cyberattacks through these formats, pretending to be a well-known brand or even a bank.

In the same vein, sharing personal information on any online platform should also be avoided, as criminals often try to trick people into entering their bank details, for example. This also means that you need to be vigilant when it comes to payment, as they often tempt victims to pay in advance or use payment methods that cannot be reversed.

Anti-scam tools on WhatsApp and Instagram

To avoid falling victim to scams distributed through its main channels, Meta has asked customers to use its latest security tools, launched this year, on both the Facebook Marketplace shopping service and on WhatsApp and Instagram.

In the case of WhatsApp, if you receive a message from an unknown person, a context card appears with additional information about the user who wrote it. The same happens when you are added to an unknown group.

In particular, it details information such as whether the number belongs to a contact stored on the device or whether it is part of a common group. Similarly, in the case of an unknown group, information is displayed on whether it was added by a known contact, who created the group and the description of the group.

 

 

PJ dismantled one of the largest drug laboratories in Europe in the municipality of Lourinhã

 

The PJ – Polícia Judiciária dismantled 3^rd December in the municipality of Lourinhã, what it considers to be one of the largest cocaine laboratories, which had other European countries as its main destinations. It was a warehouse located in the parish of Reguengo Grande, which was closed by the police authorities as part of the ‘PACOBA’ operation.

Artur Vaz, director of the PJ’s National Unit for Combating Drug Trafficking, revealed in a press conference some details of the operation that began about a year ago and ended with the dismantling of what the PJ says is one of the largest industrial laboratories for extracting, transforming and packaging cocaine in Europe.

In May, the PJ had already seized almost a ton of cocaine and has now intercepted another half a ton that was allegedly being trafficked by the same drug trafficking network. “Given the quantities involved and taking into account the national reality, everything points to [the drugs] being destined for other European markets ” and not for exclusive national consumption, Artur Vaz explained to journalists.

The PJ arrested “seven individuals allegedly belonging to an organized criminal group “, four Portuguese and three foreigners (two Colombians and one Moroccan), some of whom “were already referenced” by the authorities, added the PJ director, who did not want to reveal the status of each of the elements in this trafficking network.

It was in this warehouse in the municipality of Lourinhã that the PJ found an industrial laboratory “ for processing cocaine paste, packaging and packing ”, where there were around 460 kilos of processed cocaine and another 32.5 kilos in the process of being processed. “ We believe this is the largest laboratory found to date in Portugal”, announced Artur Vaz.

When the inspectors of the Judicial Police arrived at the scene, they caught three of the detainees red-handed working on the “transformation of drugs in the laboratory”. The judicial authorities issued 20 search warrants for homes and other homes, as well as four arrest warrants. The PJ also seized two firearms, a press, various laboratory equipment, large quantities of chemical products, a large amount of cash, as well as several light and heavy vehicles.

The operation carried out last week follows the seizure of almost a thousand kilos of cocaine, which arrived in Portugal in May in a shipping container from Colombia. The container entered the country via the Port of Setúbal and contained the drug hidden at the bottom of cardboard boxes carrying around 20 tonnes of bananas. According to the police chief, since December last year the PJ has “detected and dismantled five laboratories of this type in various regions of the country”, and there is no evidence to suggest that there were any connections between the different drug trafficking network

The investigation into Operation ‘PACOBA’ by the PJ will continue and is being carried out as part of an inquiry led by the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP). It began following the exchange of information within the framework of international cooperation and in close collaboration and coordination with the police and judicial authorities of Colombia (National Police), Spain (National Police) and the United States (DEA – Drug Enforcement Administration, HSI – Homeland Security Investigations and CBP – Customs and Border Protection). This police operation also included the participation of the PJ’s Scientific Police Laboratory and the support of the National Republican Guard.

 

Online sexual abuse against children is on the rise at a dangerous rate

 

The president of the Child Support Institute (IAC) warned today that sexual abuse against children on the internet “is increasing in a particularly dangerous way” and called for reflection and concrete actions because “there is a lot to do”.

In an interview with the Lusa news agency, when her second term as director of the IAC, where she worked for around 20 years, ends, Dulce Rocha highlighted online sexual abuse as the main current danger for children and young people.

He argued that it is necessary to call on the various platforms and stop the dissemination of abusive content, giving as an example the case of the United Kingdom, where “very restrictive laws on abusive content” were approved, which allow it to be blocked.

Dulce Rocha pointed out that “it has been very difficult to achieve consensus” among the member states of the European Union and warned that “currently, both hate speech and abusive content are increasing in a frightening way”.

“There is a lot to do and MEPs cannot just worry about financial issues [because] the issue of children’s safety is fundamental,” she said.

“If we don’t have safety in children, we don’t have safety anywhere,” she added.

She warned that the fact that “the child is in the room does not mean that he is safe” and that, therefore, there should be more dialogue in families and schools, since children and young people “know much more about the internet than adults”, but adults understand the issue of dangers and insecurity much better.

“When they are on [social] networks, many children, many young people, escape us and this is becoming a bit dramatic and we should all sit down at the table to better understand how it works and how we can protect these children”, Dulce Rocha concluded.

 

 

 

Global overview

The month recorded a global mean temperature of 14.10 °C, 0.70 °C above the 1991–2020 mean (Fig. 1). The month is estimated to have been about 1.62 °C warmer than the 1850–1900 pre-industrial average, and is the 16th month in a 17-month period in which the global mean surface air temperature exceeded 1.5 °C.

In Portugal

November 2024 was classified as extremely hot in terms of air temperature and dry in terms of precipitation

It was the warmest November in the last 94 years; the mean value of the average air temperature, 15.14 °C, presents an anomaly of + 2.69 °C in relation to the 1981-2010 normal value.

The mean value of the maximum air temperature, 19.29 °C, was the 4th highest value since 1931, with a positive anomaly of 2.50 °C in relation to the mean value.

The average minimum air temperature, 10.99 °C, was 2.89 °C higher than normal, being the 3rd highest value since 1931 and the 2nd highest since 2000.

During the month, air temperature values ​​were almost always above the monthly average value, with 6 October standing out when 20% of the meteorological stations in the IPMA network recorded maximum temperature values ​​above 25 °C. On 6 November, the highest value of the month was recorded, 27.9 °C, at the Alcácer do Sal meteorological station.

Regarding precipitation, in November, the total monthly precipitation, 67.1 mm, was lower than the average value for 1981-2010 (-50.3 mm).

During the month of November, the most significant precipitation occurred on the 1st, 4/5, 14 to 16 and 24/25.