Already a member? Not a member? Sign up Explore our Food Tours → The story goes that a monk arrived in a Portuguese village He grabbed a rock and carried it door to door asking people if they would be kind enough to supplement it so he could make a meal a bit of sausage and some salt-preserved pork and seasonings – a hodgepodge of ingredients that tells a much more practical origin story for the dish’s unique name and they would serve this soup there,” she tells us “A customer said it was ‘dark as the cobblestones of the street.’” Even if that wandering monk really did exist But she tells us that the dish was made in Almeirim long before this “We cook all the ingredients together at the same time – there’s no refogado,” says Hélia referring to the almost obligatory Portuguese cooking technique of frying chopped onions and garlic in olive oil a base for so many of the country’s dishes When the smoked meats are done Cubed potatoes and chopped cilantro are added to the soup after this and the dish is left to simmer until the beans have just started to break apart the sharp edges of the potatoes have melted and the collagen of the various meats has become intertwined with the broth “The difference is in the cooking time,” says Hélia when asked what makes the sopa de pedra at O Toucinho unique If you want to take a bit of Almeirim back with you and make sopa de pedra at home a tiny shop directly next door to the restaurant O Forno sells all the requisite smoked meats (chouriço Caralhotas can be bought at just about any restaurant in Almeirim or at Caralhotas da Caldeira where Emília David has been recognized for the rolls that she bakes in her home-based This article was originally published on May 11 loading map - please wait...Map could not be loaded - please enable Javascript!→ more information Sunday's FC Alverca game against Uniao Almeirim was postponed as players from both teams stood together at midfield in prayer. Carlos Rodrigues/Getty ImagesFC Alverca's Brazilian midfielder Alex Apolinario has died in hospital four days after collapsing on the pitch during a third division game in Portugal suffered a cardiac arrest in the 27th minute of his team's league game against Uniao Almeirim on Sunday After being attended by Alverca's medical staff the former Cruzeiro player was rushed in an ambulance to the nearest hospital where he was placed in a medically induced coma The club said in a statement: "With deep regret we report according to the information provided by the medical staff of Vila Franca de Xira Hospital the brain death of our athlete Alex Sandro dos Santos Apolinario "FC Alverca Futebol SAD will provide all the necessary support to his family At this time of mourning all FC Alverca activities are cancelled." Apolinario joined Alverca in January 2019 after a brief loan spell at Athletico Paranaense from Cruzeiro expressed their sadness in a statement that said: "Cruzeiro laments the death of Alex Apolinario We wish strength and serenity to the family and friends of Alex at this delicate time." Sunday's game was postponed as players from both teams stood together at midfield in prayer Read today's Portuguese stories delivered to your email Almeirim council (Santarém district) plans to invest 1.5 million euros in a building it acquired for 250,000 euros to create a nursery with a capacity to accommodate 96 children Pedro Ribeiro (PS) confirmed that the project is in works with the expectation of it being launched to public contest in the beginning of 2024 in an investment the municipality will try to apply for the Resilience and Recovery Plan (PRR) the municipality will advance with the works anyway as it has the goal of answering the demand for every child in the council following the example of what already happens with kindergartens and education up to 12th grade “Our goal is to meet 100% of the nursery’s demand It’s fundamental that we support our families and our economy and obviously our children’s wellbeing,” the mayor declared the almost hundred spots created in this nursery won’t be enough to reach the goal but the Social Solidarity Particular Institutions (IPSS) “have come to make an effort in adapting so that 100% offer can be a reality.” The future nursery will be nestled in a building next to the theatre with a “very pretty” façade which will be preserved It’ll accommodate three baby rooms with a capacity of 30 children two rooms for 1-year-olds that also fit 30 children and two rooms for two-year-olds that’ll fit 36 children Ameirim Council inaugurated a nursery for 60 children of up to 3 years of age this year in the old GNR building which then served as a Court in an adaptation budgeted to around half a million euros Pedro Ribeiro has been one of the mayors of the “very few” municipalities that have nurseries in this country that have been fighting for the Social Security Bases Law to allow deals with local governments putting an end to the situation that forces the council to assume full responsibility for the functioning of the nurseries the contrary of what happens with the IPSS “The argument [next to the minister of Labour and Social Security] has been made I believe the situation will be resolved next year,” Ribeiro stated sharing his “hope” that the next State Budget “will solve this injustice.” Almeirim has “a great offering,” Pedro Ribeiro confirmed that “the big task” is to not leave any family without an answer We appreciate that not everyone can afford to pay for our services but if you are able to we ask you to support The Portugal News by making a contribution – no matter how small You can change how much you give or cancel your contributions at any time Send us your comments or opinion on this article Reaching over 400,000 people a week with news about Portugal The trip from the heart of Almeirim municipality to the rural community of Cafezal takes nearly three hours on the fast boat referred to as “the flyer” by the people living on the river it’s another three hours by motorboat,” says Otacílio França Alves ASMACARU was founded in 2001 to organize the Brazil nut production chain so that its members could increase and even diversify their income the fruit of one of the Amazon’s most emblematic trees these giants can live for up to 500 years on dry ground The association’s members organize themselves by the different areas where the nut trees grow or what they call the “placements.” Cafezal holds a permanent concession for harvesting nuts in seven of these areas The distribution of the Brazil nut trees is broad and disperse: the distance from one placement to another can be as much as 10 kilometers (6 miles) Residents of the Paru River that runs through this region have understood this for decades “Our community has been living off nut gathering for five generations now,” Alves says “You can’t separate the income that gathering provides from the meaning this work holds for our families Forest management lies at the heart of these riverine communities’ way of life in forest resource management from the University of São Paulo being a nut gatherer means your existence is integrated with the forest The economic activity produces culture and identity The knowledge is passed down from father to son,” she says Caramez says the counterpoint to deforestation as a paradigm for development isn’t just leaving the forest intact but rather managing it appropriately so that the forest can be both exploited and conserved at the same time “What these people provide are amazing foods and medicines that we need more of all the time people are calling more and more for the preservation of heritage products that also represent culture and forest maintenance,” she says Building inclusive, resilient economies is crucial to combating crises like climate change and biodiversity loss, according to “The State of the World’s Forests” report published last year by the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization The idea is that actions need to emerge from command policies that create subsidies to equip populations with the ability to live in harmony with nature and acquire the tools to formulate strategies for management of their own territories communally The Paru region is a living example of the report’s message “The people who live there are the main players in conservation The Brazil nut defines personal and collective relationships People don’t just work together because it’s economically advantageous but also because of traditional elements at play — from living in that place that community — that give it all meaning,” she says 80% of the municipal territory is composed of protected areas and 41% of the population is distributed between about 150 communities in the rural zone the empowerment of the nut gatherers has opened up new possibilities Alves became Paru’s first agro-extractivist to enter public office elected to the City Council where he served as president until 2022 the more we can strengthen the communities,” he says The groves of nut trees where sustainable extraction is practiced are located below the Panama waterfall in the region surrounding Paru State Forest This conservation unit spans 3.6 million hectares (8.9 million acres) and is home to a rich diversity of Amazonian fauna and flora Studies carried out by the Emílio Goeldi Museum have recorded 300 plant 95 fish and 55 mammal species in the state forest But destructive exploitation of the forests here also persists. In November 2022, deforestation alerts from the environmental research institute Imazon showed that Paru State Forest was the Amazon’s fifth most-deforested conservation unit in the previous month illegal mining and logging are some of the challenges facing state authorities in Pará Beyond the boundaries of the conservation unit the communities’ gathering areas are at the center of a long-running conflict dating back to the beginning of the 20th century when landowner José Júlio de Andrade seized some 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of rainforest his supposed titles to the land were passed down from one company to another A study by the Amazônia 2030 project published in January showed how 386,000 hectares (954,000 acres) whose illegal land title was held by the company Jari S/A were taken back Even though state authorities began proceedings in 2018 the territory has not yet been reallocated to the communities in the region “After we carried out the inventory of the placements with maps and numbered the trees we were given possession for an undetermined period of time The idea has always been to use the region for extracting nuts,” Alves says There’s no precise count of how many Brazil nut placements exist but there are an estimated 417 million of the trees throughout the Amazon “The average is between 0.005 and 37 trees per hectare,” says biologist Diego Oliveira Brandão from the Earth system science postgraduate program at the National Space Research Institute (INPE) “Distribution varies because of natural factors like climate and sunlight as well as traditional Indigenous practices in the pre-Columbian period.” Some 300,000 people across the Amazon make a living from the Brazil nut production chain and nearly 190 municipalities are involved in the trade But close scrutiny reveals weak links in the chain. 2021 data from the national statistics agency show that Almeirim was only the seventh-ranked municipality in Pará for Brazil nut production with some 210 metric tons of the fruit that year These numbers don’t match up with the actual distribution of productive trees who notes that the entire region is highly productive “This is true because the nut groves are very condensed But because the harvest is only tallied when the nuts arrive at the processing plants the municipalities with the most processing plans lead the production rankings adding that the whole system remains largely informal The Brazil nut is among the country’s top three agro-extractive products but it’s subject to wild price fluctuations on the market Nearly 99% of the nuts that leaves the Lower Jari River Basin for the Lower Amazon Basin are transported without documentation the climate crisis is already having significant impacts The repercussions of a severe drought in the Amazon in 2016 are still being felt on the market today “The harvest came to a halt because of the drought A can of nuts today sells for 30 reais [$6] we were selling at 175 [$36],” says Cleberson Evandro Nascimento the owner of Só Castanhas Comércio e Serviços Ltda. “Many people had to take out bank loans in 2018 expecting that the price would go up again the large European players took Brazil nuts out of their mix of imported products,” he says adding that many people couldn’t pay back their loans Some processing plants started the year with 15,000 boxes weighing 20 kilos [44 pounds] each in stock including the war in Ukraine,” Nascimento says and now the EU is spending more money on grain Pará accounts for 18% of the national Brazil nut production That’s especially remarkable given that the state’s production originates from just one region “If we think about the fact that it’s one single river valley the Vale do Jari is one of Brazil’s main nut-producing regions but the nuts come from many different places it all comes from one specific place,” he says An average harvest in the valley usually yields around 80,000 bags or 4,000 metric tons — of which 1,500 metric tons come just from the Paru River region “It’s worth noting that at least 70% of our nut groves have never been harvested,” Nascimento says Another problem with the production chain is the lack of incentives that would add value to the product Most of the nuts arrive at the consumer’s table in the same state in which they left their region of origin: unprocessed The exception in Cafezal is the 5% of the annual harvest that’s processed into cookies for the National School Lunch Program But because they lack adequate infrastructure for processing the nuts not even the most organized community on the Paru River has the autonomy to manufacture derivative products like nut flour or oil used in cosmetics Nor do they have sufficient storage infrastructure to keep their product for long periods If they could vacuum pack the nuts so they lasted longer then the nuts would be available year-round an environmental and renewable resources engineer at the Pará state agency responsible for assisting farmers agrees that subsidies would strengthen the production chain “Minimum price policies would guarantee better financial returns for extractivist families Even though they are protected by federal law Brazil nut trees are still widely logged for their wood This is a symptom of lacking incentives that focus on harvest of the fruit,” he says The Cafezal community spends four months a year collecting nuts coming back from time to time to get more supplies and see our families,” says Otacílio França Alves the families fish for food and tend fruit and vegetable gardens All the meals they cook while they’re in the rainforest revolve around Brazil nuts “Cupuaçu [fruit] and cocoa juice mixed with nut milk — this is what we drink before going hunting,” Alves says Their main source of protein is wild game roasted over charcoal made from burning the fruit husks after extracting the Brazil nuts This process helps clean up the nut groves and disperse the seeds The gatherers are active players in forest ecology “They spread seeds just by cracking open the fruit,” she says there’s a trail of natural regeneration along the pathways used to transport the nuts than in the places where they originated Burning the husks transforms the organic material into charcoal which These people have much to teach us about changing landscapes by creating diversity and these fertile soils,” Caramez says occurs throughout the rainforest and is a legacy left behind by Indigenous Amazonians this ancient forest management is evident in some 20 dense nut groves located in the regions accessible by the communities alone Caramez says these are an inheritance from the ancient inhabitants of the region “Natural tree generation can’t produce nut groves like this The abundant resources are the result of thousands of years of Indigenous occupation of the land,” she says “Extraction isn’t only important because it provides income to riverine families,” says Aldemir Pereira da Cunha an agro-extractivist cooperative founded in 2021 “Preserving ways of life and standing forests will help withstand climate changes and the loss of biodiversity.” The 2022 FAO report shows that nearly half of the planet’s forests and land used for agriculture (4.35 billion hectares or 10.75 billion acres) are inhabited by Indigenous peoples and local communities It’s estimated that small property owners generate gross annual income of up to $1.29 trillion lack of research funding and technological challenges are all constraints on the potential of agro-extractivism to flourish Locals are still waiting for the date of this year’s Cafezal Brazil Nut Festival to be determined; the flooding means they still haven’t held the festival highlighting this riverine community’s vulnerability to climate change impacts He says changes in the hydrological cycle have led to unseasonal cycles of drought and flooding that have increased the mortality rate of Brazil nut trees Deforestation also contributes to regional climate change “The forest has been replaced by a savanna-like open canopy that isn’t typical of the Amazon much less of the regions where the nut trees grow,” Brandão says You can’t have a Brazil nut production chain without standing forest.” the gatherers prepare them to be broken open so the all-important nuts can be extracted Book: A perfect storm in the Amazon The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa as protected areas become battlegrounds over history and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins and trying to forge a path forward […] Skogsaktiebolaget Eternali´s (publ) ("Eternali" or the "Company") wholly owned subsidiary Eternali Brasil Ltda has entered into an agreement to acquire five eucalyptus plantations in the state of Pará The acquisition covers 1,300 hectares of land with approximately 400 000 metric tons standing eucalyptus The eucalyptus plantations have undergone all the criteria to be approved for FSC certification In accordance with Eternali's long-term plan to acquire plantation of fast-growing eucalyptus in Brazil the Company is now entering its first agreements of acquisition The eucalyptus plantations are located in the Almeirim region of the state of Pará within easy reach of several deep-sea ports which opens for export to the global market The plantations have been operated and managed by a joint service organisation (a cooperative) called Coopmar for several years Eternali intends to use the existing harvesting and transport services of the cooperative and will therefore be able to offer prospective customers a quick and turnkey solution The plantations have been approved for FSC certification and the certification process will be finalized by Eternali after the acquisition is completed In addition to the acquisition of the 1,300 hectares of regrowing plantation land another 1,500 hectares of land are also acquired which are set aside in accordance with Brazilian legislation for the protection and conservation of biodiversity - We are proud that Eternali has now acquired its first plantation assets fully in line with our vision to create value in the green transition The eucalyptus clone that grows on the plantations is a result of more than 50 years of development which guarantees a quality wood raw material We are also satisfied with the well-established logistic chain that are already implemented and enables a direct start of our operations at these plantations We are now taking a big step towards starting an operating and cash flow-generating business while at the same time confirming our plan regarding the production and delivery of fast-growing wood raw materials The acquisition is expected to be completed in January 2023 after the ongoing due diligence process is finalized and final surveying of the land is done The purpose of the cooperative is to provide services for its members technical assistance and certification services Coopmar has many years of experience as a service provider and in supplying wood fibre to the pulp and paper industry The cooperative has machinery and staff to produce approximately 15,000 m3 of trees per month The plantations consist of the eucalyptus specie Urograndis and have clones carrying 50 years of research and development made by one of the oldest pulp mills in Brazil which is among the highest values in the world About 80 percent of the trees consist of the clone 3267 with a base density of about 530 kg per m3 Her grandfather had fled the dictatorship of Salazar and she was raised in Almeirim in the Ribatejo countryside north of Lisbon away from the traditional Bairro Alto fado houses of the Portuguese capital As each and every young Portuguese person of her generation blues or bossa nova rather than the traditional fado singing “My ears were turned toward so many different rhythms and styles,” Cristina said “that fado made no sense compared with the capabilities of other music.” She fell in love with fado on her eighteenth birthday when her grandfather presented her with a record of unpublished songs of Amalia Rodrigues Suddenly she discovered the passion and emotion within the music and the close ties linking poems The same applies to a whole new generation of young musicians who in the past decades have contributed to the social and political restoration of the music adapting it to and blending with new trends this amateur singer who studied psychology and thought about forging a career in journalism took advanced courses in vocal technique and took up her new vocation Cristina Branco’s stage debut in a Dutch club brought immediate success (first in the Netherlands then in France) and spawned the release of her album Live in Holland in the Netherlands Post-Scriptum, released in 2000, Post-Scriptum was again the Choc de l’année du Monde de la Musique thus confirming the promising and dazzling start of the young fado singer Her art is completely linked to the stage by her presence Cristina Branco has now sung in every major scene of World music: in Lisbon at the Theâtre des Abbesses in Paris and at the magnificent Concertgebouw in Amsterdam where the exceptional acoustics allowed her to sing without amplification Cristina Branco has also performed in Belgium The art of Cristina Branco is inseparable from that of Custodio Castelo He plays the Portuguese guitar and composes most of the fados she sings the subtlety of the connections he achieves between words and music and his instinctive understanding of Cristina’s tones are all integral ingredients of the expressive fado Fados convey passionate moods with the famous ‘saudade,’ the fatalistic sadness inherited from the country’s maritime past to create a unique and haunting atmosphere One cannot but recognize Cristina Branco’s style within the genre Portuguese guitar and bass guitar blended with a voice create mesmerizing traditional fados and original pieces The words are carefully chosen pieces from famous poets (such as Pessoa) and the not-so-famous so Cristina is on the edge of modern Portuguese culture she dedicated a whole album to a Dutch poet of the beginning of the 20th century From there, Cristina embarked on the next voyage other musical journey with Ulisses (2006) she was fortunate to find some outstanding traveling companions Cristina moved beyond the acoustic frontier with the piano playing of Ricardo Dias He gave new color to Cristina’s titles and also played one of the most beautiful original works on the album the composition “Navio Triste.” Joining Dias were Cristina’s usual companions: Castelo on the Portuguese guitar (in homage to his spiritual master Castelo plays on the guitar owned by Paredes who passed away in 2005); Alexandre Silva on the Spanish guitar; Fernando Maia on the bass guitar; and finally Christina gracefully intertwined the myth of Ulysses with the Portuguese idea of ‘Saudade” — a feeling of longing for something you are fond of that is gone but might someday return Cristina’s Ulissesinvites the listener to travel with her to explore this longing in places throughout her native Portugal and in other lands that have brought her a sense of melancholy “Ulisses was a challenge,” Cristina said Cristina takes the listener to Argentina for “Alfonsina y el Mar,” sung in Spanish; to the United States for the reprise of “A Case of You” by Joni Mitchell; to France for the musical adaptation of “Liberte,” the poem by Paul Eluard sung in French; and even to Africa for a moving rendition of “Choro,” which features the music of composer Custodio Castelo Cristina and her musicians have long been interpreting “Choro” on stage but Ulisses offered the first recorded cut of this song The Portuguese musical tradition called “fado” was born of the mixed-race population in Lisbon Fado musically reflects the city’s African and Brazilian heritage often utilizing a 12-string Portuguese guitar and a six-string Spanish guitar Please enter an answer in digits:sixteen − three = Mercadona continues to grow its presence in Portugal opened its first store in Portugal in 2019 and will end the year with 49 there During 2023 it has opened 10 new supermarkets in the neighbouring country The company is also building its second distribution warehouse in Portugal Comentar es una ventaja exclusiva para registrados “The new automatic warehouse in Almeirim represents an investment of €15 million euros and aims to double the storage capacity reduce the total stocks of finished products in the operations in Portugal and eliminate double transport reducing the CO2 footprint [carbon dioxide] by about 1,000 tonnes per year,” the company announced in a statement Sumol+Compal now has over 12,000 square meters (m2) of storage with a capacity for 30,000 pallets The warehouse has equipment that will allow it to process more than 600 pallets per hour The new infrastructure is part of the investment plan of €45 million planned for the period 2019-2022 The company also added that the centralisation of operations in Almeirim and the investment in technology will ensure “greater energy efficiency which reaches a reduction of 50 percent in equipment consumption” On a warm August morning two years ago in an orchard somewhere west of Aomori City in Japan’s Tōhoku region (about 4 hours from Tokyo by train) we watched blackcurrant farmer Kenji Hayashi scoop dark magenta gelato into paper cups an electric blackcurrant explosion tempered with sugar and brightened with lemon juice trying to finish our gelato before the heat turned it into a puddle how did you make the gelato?” We asked him This is apparently how Ayumi Chiba of Gelato Natura meets all her fruit suppliers: drinking at bars Natura stocks around 60 different flavors on a seasonal basis strawberries – if it’s made in Aomori prefecture and almost certainly met the supplier at a bar she’d go for a drink and more often than not wind up making deals with melon growers apple farmers and pumpkin purveyors over a bottle of dry sake “There seems to be a lot of sake involved here,” we say to her It’s hard to say how old Chiba might be at a glance The first time we encountered Chiba in summer 2020 she was enthusiastically answering questions about her favorite drinks within five minutes of meeting She made no secret of her love for a tipple or several and then finishing with sake during a night out they’d met sometime in 2017 at a hashagu-kai a kind of club event where you drink sake and mosh (She mimed this for us.) The two were dancing he realized who she was and begged her to make gelato with his blackcurrants He even followed up the next morning to ensure she’d remember him through the haze of a hangover His eagerness to work with Chiba isn’t surprising Aomori City has fewer than a dozen ice cream shops and two of which are branches of Gelato Natura Chiba opened the first branch with her father 17 years ago followed a few years later by Gelato Natura Due They’re something of a local institution – the most popular gelaterias in town by a long shot “And he borrowed an ice cream machine from a friend he met while drinking,” she explains Chiba and her father frequently butted heads the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami struck which prompted many in Japan to rethink their entire lives doing a year-long working holiday in New Zealand and building up her savings at office jobs in Tokyo and Osaka (Fun fact: New Zealand has the highest yearly per capita ice-cream consumption in the world — a mind-boggling 28.4 liters a year Returning to the family business was in many ways inevitable but her time away had given Chiba fresh perspectives She used to make order sheets in Microsoft Word It’s miles ahead of how business is still done in some parts of Japan Chiba notes that many customers still place their orders by phone or fax and prefer paying by bank transfer rather than credit card Chiba decided that Gelato Natura’s selection — think matcha black sesame and vanilla — needed a facelift she had the gregarious personality to connect with potential suppliers plus more than a touch of gelato-making genius a pink sorbet with a refreshing acidity and lightness Besides the apple flavors, corn is another surprise bestseller – it’s simply kernels of fresh corn stirred into milk gelato. Their rum raisin is uncommonly vibrant: the secret is to let it sit around for six months and let the flavors deepen. Hayashi’s blackcurrant gelato is only available on his online shop – “We couldn’t sell it at the shop it’s so expensive you’d cry,” says Chiba – but there’s usually a blackcurrant and milk version on sale With tart scarlet-purple blackcurrant rippled through a beautifully creamy base Chiba’s goal is to reach a point where she can have a weekend of some kind but she’d love a winter break at some point she’s still tweaking and refining recipes; lately she’s been experimenting with roasted Haruka sweet potatoes on a charcoal grill while simultaneously tending to chores Building relationships with farmers and sourcing produce also keeps Chiba busy One of her blueberry suppliers shuttered during the pandemic so she found someone else to replace him and introduce her to a sweet potato farmer to boot But she hasn’t yet found a supplier of the one fruit she’s searched for since coming home: plums but they might be in Nanbu [a region of southeast Aomori prefecture],” she muses *Every member of this Aomori-based idol group has a different variety of apple as their stage name. Apples are a recurring motif in their music, such as in a recent single, “Baked Apple.” Mercadona is preparing to open 11 new stores in Portugal this year. Seixal (Fernão Ferro) and Barreiro (Lavradio) are the next locations for the Spanish supermarket Also noteworthy is the inauguration of the Almeirim (Santarém) logistics block, which will be the company's largest in the Iberian Peninsula and is scheduled for the second half of the year, according to NM Mercadona opened its first logistics block in Póvoa de Varzim (Porto) about to complete five years since the first opening in Portugal and with a view to continuing its expansion project the company's largest in the Iberian Peninsula" The company reveals that it has "more than 5,000 employees and the new stores continue to reveal the strong investment made in Portugal where the company continues to create stable and quality jobs" The ad-free version is ready for purchase on iOS mobile app today we couldn't find that page";var n=e.querySelector("h2");return n&&n.remove(),{staticContent:e,title:t}},d=function(e){var t=document.createElement("button");return t.innerText=e,t.classList.add("error-page-button"),t},f=function(e){var t=document.createElement("div");t.id="recirculation-404",t.classList.add("brand-hint-bg");var n="\n \n \n \n \n \n '.concat(e,' Tick here if you would like us to send you the author’s response According to the Irish Sun he was playing for Portuguese third tier side FC Alverca against Uniao de Almeirim when he lost consciousness and fell to the ground in the 27th minute of the game But his club confirmed the tragic news of his death on Thursday A statement read: "It is with deep regret that we report according to the information provided by the medical staff of the Vila Franca de Xira Hospital the death by brain death of our athlete Alex Sandro dos Santos Apolinário "FC Alverca Futebol SAD will provide all the necessary support to their families At this time of mourning all the activities of FC Alverca are canceled." On site medics used a defibrillator on Apolinario on the pitch before he was taken to hospital coaches and staff from both teams were seen in tears during the troubling incident And some were seen kneeling down and praying before a prayer circle was formed A statement from the local emergency services on Sunday read: "We received a warning at 11:30am to help a male victim at FC Alverca Sports Complex and two minutes later we drove two vehicles and four men to the stadium A post shared by FC Alverca Futebol SAD (@fcalverca) A post shared by FC Alverca Futebol SAD (@fcalverca) the greater the likelihood and quality of life of survival “Now we are concerned about the recovery of the man and not the football player Emergency services commander Alberto Fernandes said: "The resuscitation manoeuvres continued in the vehicle that took him to the hospital "It was 25 minutes from the fall until the player left for the hospital "The doctors wanted to remove him stably." Alverca wrote: "FC Alverca Futebol SAD informs that the athlete Alex Apolinário apparently suffered in the 27th minute of the game in front of UFC Almeirim A post shared by FC Alverca Futebol SAD (@fcalverca) The athlete was immediately attended to by the health professionals of FC Alverca Futebol SAD who are always present in the team's games and training we would like to thank the firefighters and the ambulance who quickly arrived on the stadium's lawn and helped our player "We also want to thank the solidarity provided by all athletes and staff at UFC Almeirim in this very delicate moment that we have been through and we are experiencing today "Right after the prayer wheel made by everyone present Alex Apolinário had his situation stabilised and was removed to the Vila Franca de Xira Hospital to continue with his recovery "We wish and pray for the complete rehabilitation of Alex Apolinário." entre em contato com: Apoio ao cliente e anexe o código do erro Tienda online de Mercadona donde podrás comprar todos nuestros productos y recibirlos en tu casa Servicio gratuito que te permite gestionar todas tus facturas de forma sencilla Creado por Mercadona para que nuestros proveedores Un modelo de recursos humanos reconocido por ofrecer puestos de trabajo estables y de calidad Blue Peter star Helen Skelton has finally completed her epic Amazon challenge for Sport Relief.Crossing the finish line Helen became the first woman to kayak 2,010 miles down the Amazon River on her own She started her journey on 20 January near Nauta in Peru and finished on 28 February she also set a record for the longest distance kayaked by a woman in a day paddling her way through 75 miles of Amazonian waters a sunken support boat and even a splintered kayak Helen said it had been tough but there were enough highs to make it more than worthwhile my shoulders are sore and the muscles in my neck are making it hard to differentiate between my head and my shoulders," she said "But to be honest I am proud of the war wounds "I reckon that you shouldn't shy away from things because they're tough or you might fail Get stuck in and you never know where you might end up." If you want to rise to your own challenge for Sport Relief find out how you can get involved by visiting the Sport Relief site through the link on the right