In partnership with
A stray bullet from a street-dealer dispute has put a tourist in hospital in the heart of Lisbon, and the police are moving in. It's Wednesday, 12 August. Thirty-three degrees. Air quality: 34 (Good). Here's what you need to know.
🗞️ TOP STORY
A TOURIST SHOT BY A STRAY BULLET IN THE BAIXA, PROMPTING A POLICE CRACKDOWN
A tourist has been shot and wounded in Lisbon's Baixa, the busy downtown grid of streets around Rua Augusta, and the government has responded by putting more police on the ground.
On Monday evening, a 42-year-old Swedish woman was hit in the abdomen by a stray bullet on Rua Augusta as she bought pastéis de nata. Police say the shot came out of a dispute between two men who sell "hashish" to tourists in the area: one of them pulled a small-calibre pistol, fired at the other, missed, and hit the tourist instead. She was taken to hospital and is expected to recover.
The men at the centre of it are a familiar sight downtown, the ones working the Baixa and Rossio offering tourists "hashish" that is nothing of the sort, usually pressed bay leaves passed off as the real thing. It is a long-running nuisance most residents learn to wave away, but on Monday it turned violent.
The PSP, the Public Security Police, arrested a suspect at his home on Wednesday morning, a man already known to them and flagged in a domestic violence case. A shotgun was found at the property, though not the pistol used in the shooting, and he now faces charges of attempted murder and domestic violence. A second man believed to have been involved is still being sought.
In response, the Interior Ministry says it is strengthening the presence of the PSP and the Municipal Police in the Baixa and other tourist-heavy areas. The Interior Minister, Luís Neves, spoke with police leadership and the Mayor, Carlos Moedas, and the ministry says the reinforcement that has been in place downtown since June will now be adjusted and kept up.
For anyone who spends time in the Baixa, this changes little day to day. The shooting was a targeted dispute between dealers rather than a random attack, and the woman hit was an unlucky bystander. The practical point is the familiar one, that the "hashish" hawkers are best ignored rather than engaged, and that there will be noticeably more police about for a while.
Bottom line: a rare shooting in the city's tourist core has forced a quick police response, and thrown a spotlight on a street trade Lisbon has tolerated for years.
⚡ QUICK HITS
A new form of the weight-loss drug Wegovy is on its way to Portugal. Novo Nordisk, the company behind Wegovy, says it plans to bring newer versions of its semaglutide treatment to the Portuguese market: an oral pill, already approved by the European Medicines Agency but with no confirmed launch date here yet, and a stronger 7.2-milligram injectable pen expected in the coming months at around 400 euros, in line with its rival Mounjaro. For now only the lower-dose injectable version is sold here, at 150 to 200 euros. The drugs remain a private expense, not covered by the national health service for weight loss, though a state subsidy scheme is expected later this year.
Two chains now control half of everything Portugal spends on groceries. Recent figures show Continente, owned by Sonae, and Pingo Doce, owned by Jerónimo Martins, together take more than half of the country's supermarket spending, with Continente leading on about 27 percent and Pingo Doce close behind on roughly 22. The rest is divided among the discounters and international chains, Lidl, Auchan, Intermarché and Spain's fast-growing Mercadona, in one of Europe's more concentrated grocery markets. For shoppers, it goes some way to explaining why the same two logos seem to sit on every high street.
Portugal's first high-speed railway can finally start being built. The opening section of the long-promised Porto-to-Lisbon high-speed line, the 71-kilometre stretch from Porto to Oiã in the Aveiro district, has cleared its last environmental hurdle, so construction can begin this month after months of delay. It is being built by a consortium of Portuguese firms led by Mota-Engil, and that first section is due to open in 2030. The full line through to Lisbon, which will eventually cut the trip between the two cities from about three hours to one hour and fifteen minutes, is not expected until after 2032.
Smart starts here.
You don't have to read everything — just the right thing. 1440's daily newsletter distills the day's biggest stories from 100+ sources into one quick, 5-minute read. It's the fastest way to stay sharp, sound informed, and actually understand what's happening in the world. Join 4.5 million readers who start their day the smart way.
A quick note: today's ad comes from one of our network partners, 1440 Media. Partnerships like this one are what keep The Lisbon Letter free to read every morning, and we thank them for it.
🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY
DUÍCHE (ESTRELA)
Some places do one thing and do it properly. DUÍCHE, on the Calçada da Estrela near the Estrela gardens, makes gourmet sandwiches, and that is more or less the whole menu. It was opened a couple of years ago by Alexandre Leão, who swapped Paris for Lisbon and built the place around the kind of substantial, cooked-filling sandwich his mother used to make on Sundays.
These are not sad little triangles. The chicken piri-piri, at eleven euros, is the best-seller, roast chicken with a bacon jam and a spicy mayo, while the roast beef, at twelve-fifty, is the owner's own favourite, shredded beef with flamengo cheese, chimichurri, gravy and pickles. There are pulled pork, turkey, tuna and importantly vegetarian versions too, the bread comes from a bakery over in Alcântara, and the crispy smashed potatoes on the side are worth adding. Most people spend ten to fifteen euros.
Worth knowing before you go: it is a small, lively neighbourhood spot, as good for a takeaway as for eating in, and it is a daytime, lunchtime sort of place rather than a dinner one, so time it accordingly.
Insider tip: order a sandwich and the smashed potatoes to go and carry them two minutes to the Jardim da Estrela across the way, one of the city's loveliest gardens, with a bandstand, a pond and plenty of shade, which on a hot day beats any dining room.
📅 WHAT'S ON
The solar eclipse (tonight, from about 6:40pm) The rare partial eclipse everyone has been waiting for, with roughly 94 percent of the sun covered over Lisbon at its peak around 7:35pm, low in the west over the Atlantic. You must use certified eclipse glasses marked ISO 12312-2, never look without them, and a clear western horizon helps.
O Sol da Caparica (13 to 16 Aug, Costa da Caparica) One of the summer's big Portuguese-language music festivals, a short hop across the river from the city.
Operafest: The Marriage of Figaro (14 and 15 Aug, Cloisters of the Cartuxa Convent, Caxias, Oeiras) Mozart in the open air of a former convent. operafestlisboa.com.
Cascais Atlantic Sunsets (Saturday 15 Aug, Forte de Santo António da Barra, Estoril) Armand Van Helden and Groove Armada headline the second seafront sunset date. shotgun.live.
Out Jazz (Sunday 16 Aug, Parque Urbano do Jamor, Oeiras) The free Sunday afternoon jazz session, in its August home at Jamor.
A heads-up: Saturday 15 August is Assumption Day, a national public holiday, so some shops, museums and services may run on holiday hours.
See you tomorrow morning.
Reach Lisbon's English-speaking community, every morning. Advertise.