William R. "Bill" Shipp is an American author, reporter and columnist who has covered Southern politics and government for more than five decades. On October 8, 1953, while serving as editor of the University of Georgia's student newspaper - The Red and Black - he wrote a column that angered many in power by saying the university was misguided to deny admission to Horace Ward just because he was black. "There's no logic in excluding the Negro from the white man's way of life at a university," Shipp wrote. After Shipp came home from military service in 1956, he worked full time at the Atlanta Constitution editing and writing during which time over the next 30 years he covered the civil rights movement, along with the early days of the space program, numerous political campaigns, breaking stories all over the world, he was the first to break the news that Jimmy Carter was running for President. As a writer with the Atlanta Constitution and as the independent publisher of Bill Shipp's Georgia, Shipp covered the ins and outs of Georgia politics for over 50 years.

Shipp has served as associate editor of Georgia Trend Magazine. He wrote a twice-weekly column. Shipp was a regular panelist on "The Georgia Gang," a weekly commentary program on news and politics which appeared on WAGA-TV Channel 5 Atlanta. Shipps 80th small birthday party in the basement of a Smyrna, Georgia bank drew 4 former Georgia governors, former U. S. Senator Max Cleland, Chief Justice Harris Hines of the Georgia Supreme Court and a host of other notables. In 1981 Shipp authored "Murder at Broad River Bridge: The Slaying of Lemuel Penn by Members of the Ku Klux Klan," a nonfiction account of the 1964 murder of Lemuel Penn, a black lieutenant colonel in the army reserves who, on his way home to Washington, D. C. was shot to death near the Oglethorpe-Madison county line by Athens members of the Ku Klux Klan. In 1997 Shipp published "The Ape-Slayer and Other Snapshots," a collection of more than 50 essays and columns on subjects both personal and political; the Georgia Magazine Association named Shipp "best serious columnist" for his essays in Atlanta Magazine and in 1994 gave him their "Best Column/Department" awardThe Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, University of Georgia has included Shipp as an honoreeIn 2013 Shipp was inducted into the Atlanta Press Club Hall of Fame.

Shipp was born August 1933, in Marietta, Georgia. He is married to the former Renate F. Reinhold of Heidelberg and they have two daughters

Foreign relations of Portugal are linked with its historical role as a major player in the Age of Discovery and the holder of the now defunct Portuguese Empire. Portugal is a European Union member country and a founding member of NATO, it is a committed proponent of European transatlantic relations. Augusto Santos Silva is the current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal; the focus of Portuguese diplomacy has been to preserve its independence, vis-à-vis, the danger of annexation by Spain, the maintenance of the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, which came into being in 1386, with the United Kingdom as a successor to England, it is still in place today. Other goals have been constant such as the political stability of the Iberian peninsula and the affirmation of Portuguese interests in Europe and the Atlantic. Portugal was a founding member of NATO, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, European Free Trade Area. In 1996, it co-founded the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.

The country is a member state of the United Nations since 1955. The primacy of the United States and inter-governmental organizations such as NATO and the United Nations have been paramount in the affirmation of Portugal abroad. Portugal has been a significant beneficiary of the EU, it was among the top beneficiaries of the EU-15 between 1995 and 2004. Portugal is a proponent of European integration and held the presidency of the European Union for the second time during the first half of 2000, again in the second half of 2007. Portugal used its term to launch a dialogue between the EU and Africa and to begin to take steps to make the European economy dynamic and competitive. In 2002, the euro began to circulate as Portugal's currency. José Sócrates, as Prime Minister of Portugal, presided over the rotative Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the period July–December 2007. In this post, Sócrates and his team focused on the EU-Brazil and EU-African Union relations, as well as in the approval of the Treaty of Lisbon.

Portugal was a founding member of NATO. Portugal proposed the creation of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries to improve its ties with other Portuguese-speaking countries. Additionally, Portugal has participated, along with Spain, in a series of Ibero-American Summit. Portugal held the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe for the year 2002; the chairman-in-office was Portuguese Foreign Minister António Martins da Cruz. Portugal holds claim to the disputed territory of Olivença on the Portugal-Spain border. List of diplomatic missions in Portugal List of diplomatic missions of Portugal