Portugal Safety and Security Report Wednesday 12th March 2025
Good morning. We start with the collision between a Portuguese-flagged cargo ship and an oil tanker in the North Sea which occurred on Monday. One day after the collision, fires on both ships remain active.
Investigations into the cause of the collision are underway after a White House official refused to rule out foul play amid questions about why the Solong cargo ship appeared not to slow down or change course before hitting the Stena Immaculate oil tanker, which was carrying cargo in the form of 220,000 barrels of jet fuel for the US military. There are reports that there was dense fog in the area early that morning, but even so the vessel’s radar would have shown the presence of the oil tanker. The cargo vessel is reported to have been travelling at 16 knots (30 km/h) just before colliding with the Stena Immaculate oil tanker which was stationary.
Although investigations continue, a 59-year-old man has been arrested after an oil tanker and a cargo ship collided in the North Sea on Monday, police have said. Humberside Police said the man had been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter in connection with the collision following searches for a missing crew member of the Solong.
Environmental experts said the jet fuel leaking from the 183-metre-long tanker was toxic to humans and animals. Simon Boxall, an oceanography scholar at the University of Southampton, said Jet A-1 fuel had “far greater toxicity” than crude oil and that “the impact on ocean life would be devastating”. The British government has not confirmed reports that the Solong was carrying sodium cyanide, a highly toxic chemical, when it hit the tanker although this has been denied by the owners. We await with interest the impact of the leakage on marine life and the results of the investigation into the cause of the accident.
Yesterday marked the 14th anniversary of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami that left more than 22,000 people dead or missing, with over 27,000 people still displaced today. In a memorial ceremony held in the city of Fukushima, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he will pass down the lessons of the disaster to future generations and make Japan, one of the most disaster-prone countries globally, “the world’s foremost disaster prevention country.”
On March 11, 2011, a record 9.0-magnitude quake struck off the coast of Japan’s Tohoku region, triggering a tsunami with waves that reached a maximum height of 40.5 meters. Over 90% of the 15,900 deaths caused by the disaster were from drowning, and 2,520 people are still unaccounted for, according to the National Police Agency.
The tsunami caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, primarily the meltdowns of three of its reactors, the discharge of radioactive water in Fukushima and the associated evacuation zones affecting hundreds of thousands of residents. Many electrical generators ran out of fuel. The loss of electrical power halted cooling systems, causing heat to build up. The heat build-up caused the generation of hydrogen gas. Without ventilation, gas accumulated within the upper refuelling hall and eventually exploded causing the refuelling hall’s blast panels to be forcefully ejected from the structure. Residents within a 20 km radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and a 10 km radius of the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant were evacuated.
Also on 11th March a moderate 5.3 Magnitude earthquake occurred 25 km south-southeast of Faial da Terra, in the Azores in the North Atlantic Ocean and was recorded at the stations of the Azores Archipelago Seismic Network. There were at least aftershocks ranged from 2.1 to magnitude 3.4 (Richter) and this later, according to the information available to date, did not cause any personal or material damage.
CIVISA researcher Rita Carmo told Lusa that events of this magnitude are common in the Azores archipelago. “Let’s say it’s common, but not as frequent as micro-earthquakes. The Azores region is a seismically active region, it’s normal for earthquakes to occur, in fact, we even have many micro-earthquakes frequently, but the truth is that these destructive earthquakes are also part of the history of the Azores. And since the settlement of the Azores, in the mid-15th century, there have been several earthquakes with sufficient magnitude to cause damage,” he explained. The inhabitants of the two islands, he recalled, “must be well aware of the self-protection measures and all the directions issued by the Regional Civil Protection and Fire Service of the Azores (SRPCBA)”.
These act as reminders that we should be prepared for earthquakes especially those of us living in areas such as Lisbon and the Algarve which are of higher risk. How to prepare for earthquakes and action to take during and after can be found here. https://www.safecommunitiesportugal.com/find-information/environment-and-weather/earthquake-tsunami/
Our team wishes everyone a safe and happy week ahead
News
IPMA Tsunami Forecasting Meeting – attended by international experts
At the beginning of March 2025, a meeting dedicated to discussing the problem of the tsunami forecasting took place at the IPMA.
This meeting is part of the activities of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group (ICG) of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) for the Northeast Atlantic, Mediterranean and the Connected Seas Tsunami Early Warning System (NEAMTWS).
The meeting was attended face-to-face by 15 experts in these fields, most of them belonging to the Tsunami Early Warning Centers (TSP – Tsunami Service Providers) from France, Italy, Greece and Portugal, with the online participation of several other experts from Spain, Turkey and Romania.
In particular, a new methodology of probable forecasting and its possible operationalization was discussed, having been agreed to carry out a testing phase to assess its operational potential, and the IPMA should develop work in this regard for the Northeast Atlantic area.
Recall that IPMA, under ICG/NEAMTWS, is one of the Tsunami Service Provider for the Northeast Atlantic, having been accredited in 2019 by the IOC.
Criteria for issuing weather warnings are not the same
The IPMA issues weather warnings for situations of strong winds, heavy precipitation, snowfall, thunderstorms, cold, heat, persistent fog and rough seas.
Some apparently contradictory information about meteorological records and their association with the degree of intensity, i.e., the level of meteorological warning, has raised doubts and even objections. In question, meteorological values that, being higher in relation to others of the same climatic element (for example, wind), represent a lower risk (lower risk meteorological warning).
This is the case of the most significant wind values recorded in the last week in the Madeira archipelago, which DIÁRIO reports in its edition this Tuesday, March 11. The news that the wind blew ‘yellow’ in Areeiro, due to the fact that a gust of 105 km/h was recorded, while in São Jorge a gust of 104 km/h justified an orange warning, gave rise to different interpretations.
Source DN Noticais
X Outage on Monday affects many thousands of users including those in Portugal
Hours after a series of outages Monday that left X unavailable to thousands of users, Elon Musk claimed that the social media platform was being targeted in a “massive cyberattack.”
“We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources,” Musk claimed in a post. “Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved. Tracing …”
Later on Monday, Musk said on Fox Business Network’s Kudlow that the attackers had “IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area” without going into detail on what this might mean.
Cybersecurity experts quickly pointed out, however, that this doesn’t necessarily mean that an attack originated in Ukraine. Security researcher Kevin Beaumont said on Bluesky that Musk’s claim is “missing a key fact — it was actually IPs from worldwide, not just Ukraine.”
Specifically, he said it was a Mirai variant botnet, which is made of compromised cameras. He said while he is not sure who is behind the attack, it “Smells of APTs — advanced persistent teenagers.”
Allan Liska of the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, meanwhile, pointed out that even if “every IP address that hit Twitter today originated from Ukraine (doubtful), they were most likely compromised machines controlled by a botnet run by a third party that could be located anywhere in the world.”
Complaints about outages spiked Monday at 6 a.m. Eastern and again at 10 a.m, with more than 40,000 users reporting no access to the platform, according to the tracking website Downdetector.com. Around 4000 were users in Portugal. By afternoon, the reports had dropped to the low thousands.
A sustained outage that lasted at least an hour began at noon, with the heaviest disruptions occurring along the U.S. coasts.
Downdetector.com said that 56% of problems were reported for the X app, while 33% were reported for the website.
It’s not possible to definitively verify Musk’s claims without seeing technical data from X, and the likelihood of them releasing that is “pretty low,” said Nicholas Reese, an adjunct instructor at the Centre for Global Affairs in New York University’s School of Professional Studies and expert in cyber operations.
Bowel cancer is increasingly affecting young people
Patient association Europacolon is concerned about the increase in bowel cancers and low uptake of screening. The most recent national figures point to almost 7,500 diagnoses per year and 3,500 deaths. Experts also draw attention to the growing number of these tumours in younger people, especially men.
One of the main risk factors for bowel cancer continues to be age and the proof is that the overwhelming majority of diagnoses occur after the age of 50. However, in the medical community, there is notable concern when looking at younger people and observing an increase in cases in 20 years.
A sedentary lifestyle, a diet rich in processed foods, tobacco and alcohol help explain the widespread increase in the disease. In younger people, with the exception of cases of genetic origin, there are still no answers.
“We can admit that there are indeed changes in habits and exposure of intestinal cells that could lead to the development of these neoplasms at earlier ages,” says Flávio Videira, digestive clinical coordinator at IPO Porto.
“The studies that are being carried out do not yet have definitive data, but they indicate that the main cause is, in fact, the way we face life and the environments in which we move”, explains Vítor Neves, president of Europacolon.
The patient association Europacolon appeals to younger people not to underestimate symptoms and to doctors not to ignore statistics.
During the month of the fight against bowel cancer, Europacolon wants to raise awareness of the importance of screening – the search for hidden blood in feces – and criticizes the government.
National data for 2021 indicate an increase of almost 800 diagnoses compared to the previous year. More than 3,500 people died from the disease. Data from 2022, but from the World Health Organization, show an even more worrying scenario. 10,500 diagnoses and 4,800 deaths.
European centre warns that measles virus is circulating in several countries
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) warned today of a “considerable increase” in measles cases in the last year, indicating that transmission of the virus is circulating in several European countries.
Data from the monthly update on this contagious disease point to “continued transmission of measles in several EU/EEA [European Union and European Economic Area] countries, with a sharp increase in reported cases during 2024,” the ECDC said in a statement.
According to the data now released, between 1 February 2024 and 31 January 2025, a total of 32,265 people were diagnosed with measles, with Romania (27,568), Italy (1,097), Germany (637), Belgium (551) and Austria (542) presenting the highest number of cases across the EU/EEA.
During this period, Romania recorded 18 deaths attributed to measles and Ireland one death, the European Union agency added, warning that the continued transmission of the virus is due to “gaps in vaccination coverage against this preventable disease”.
According to the ECDC, which expects cases to rise next spring, eight out of 10 people diagnosed with measles in the EU/EEA in 2024 were unvaccinated.
Preventing measles outbreaks and protecting vulnerable populations requires that at least 95% of the eligible population receives two doses of the vaccine, the statement stressed, adding that vaccination levels in the EU/EEA still fall short of this target.
Provisional data from 2023 indicate that only four countries – Portugal, Hungary, Malta and Slovakia – have reached the coverage target for both doses of the vaccine.
Measles is an infection caused by a virus, characterized by fever, cough, conjunctivitis, runny nose and red spots on the skin.
Then check on the OMV website under “Pesquisa Membros – OMV – Ordem dos Médicos Veterinários” that the person is a registered veterinarian and contact the clinic (making sure the telephone number matches that of mentioned clinic) to confirm the information transmitted in the telephone call. If possible, go to the veterinary clinic in person to check if it is your animal and its health status. If you have lost money to such a scam report this to police.
Global emissions must fall by 45% by 2030 if the world is to have a good chance of limiting temperature rise to the internationally agreed 1.5°C target. However, according to the International Energy Agency, new fossil fuel projects starting after 2021 are incompatible with achieving net-zero emissions by 2050: most of the 169 companies in the Carbon Majors database increased their emissions in 2023.
March 1st is International Civil Protection Day, established worldwide by the International Civil Protection Organization (ICOP) and nationally by Order of the Minister of Internal Affairs. In Portugal and around the world, the celebration of this date aims to raise awareness of the importance of civil protection in safeguarding life, property, cultural and environmental heritage in the face of serious accidents and catastrophes; to pay tribute to all civil protection agents and to promote reflection and dialogue around the risks to which populations and territories are subject, and the role that each of us, citizens, plays in the collective effort to create resilient communities.
The NGO made this estimate by analysing the main changes announced by Meta on January 7, including the replacement of fact-checking with community notes, or the abandonment of its rules on “immigration, gender identity and gender”.
Therefore, she warned: “The next major epidemic or pandemic — which we will certainly have — will be much more complex, much faster, much noisier and with many more social fractures.”
In Portugal the A Terra Treme earthquake awareness exercise is held one year on 5th November to help people be prepared for earthquakes and to practice the action to take in other words “Drop Cover Hold”. We feel that reminding people once a year is not enough and our strategy at Safe Communities is to remind people at periodic intervals throughout the year also using overseas earthquakes as examples.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa therefore argued that there cannot be “understandings, however good they may be, between two or three so-called major powers” about the war in Ukraine, without “Europe being present, being considered, having an active voice, and not being treated as a minor matter”.