Volunteers helping to clean up the oil spill on Russia’s Black Sea coast are appealing to Russian President Vladimir Putin for more assistance, as they grapple with environmental havoc across more than 35 miles of coastline.

Two Russian tankers carrying thousands of tons of fuel were badly damaged in stormy weather near the Black Sea earlier this month, leading to an oil spill, according to Russian state media. The tankers were carrying more than 9,000 tons of oil, according to TASS, much of which spilled into the Kerch Strait between mainland Russia and annexed Crimea.

Putin last week labelled the spill an “environmental disaster.”

At least 3,700 tons of heavy oil were spilled, though the actual volume may be higher, according to Greenpeace Ukraine. Video from the scene showed blackened waves washing the heavy fuel oil known as mazut onto rocky shores. In one video, a bird – its wings thick with oil – could be seen squawking in distress as it was pummeled by waves, unable to lift its wings and fly away.

In a video message addressed to the Russian president and prime minister on Tuesday, volunteers said that local authorities in Russia’s Krasnodar region did not have the means to clean up the oil spill.

“Local authorities are not coping, they do not have the resources for this. The only resource is ordinary people with shovels, such a catastrophe cannot be defeated with shovels!” one volunteer said in the video, as they requested federal resources and specialists to be sent to the area. They also appealed for foreign specialists to be sent, warning that the scale of the pollution will have an international impact.

“It was recently announced that 5,000 volunteers and rescuers are working to eliminate the consequences. We believe that in such a vast disaster area, even 50,000 people with shovels are not able to solve the problem and save the situation,” the volunteer added.

On Thursday, Putin suggested the captains of the vessels were to blame for the incident. “Why am I saying that this is a big disaster and a catastrophe? Because almost 40% of the fuel has leaked,” he said, adding that efforts to recover the vessels were hampered by the ongoing storm.

Russia’s Investigative Committee will open a criminal case into the incident, Russian state media TASS reported.

Haiti’s online media association said two reporters were killed and several others were wounded in a gang attack on Tuesday on the reopening of Port-au-Prince’s biggest public hospital.

Street gangs have taken over an estimated 85% of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and they forced the closure of the General Hospital early this year. Authorities had pledged to reopen the facility Tuesday but as journalists gathered to cover the event, suspected gang members opened fire in a vicious Christmas Eve attack.

Robest Dimanche, a spokesman for the Online Media Collective, identified the dead journalists as Markenzy Nathoux and Jimmy Jean. Dimanche said an unspecified number of reporters had also been wounded in the attack, which he blamed on the Viv Ansanm coalition of gangs.

Haiti’s interim president, Leslie Voltaire, said in an address to the nation that journalists and police were among the victims of the attack. He did not specify how many casualties there were, or give a breakdown for the dead or wounded.

“I send my sympathies to the people who were victims, the national police and the journalists,” Voltaire said, pledging “this crime is not going to go unpunished.”

A video posted online by the reporters trapped inside the hospital showed what appeared to be two lifeless bodies of men on stretchers, their clothes bloodied. One of the men had a lanyard with a press credential around his neck.

Radio Télé Métronome initially reported that seven journalists and two police officers were wounded. Police and officials did not immediately respond to calls for information on the attack.

Johnson “Izo” André, considered Haiti’s most powerful gang leader and part of a gang known as Viv Ansanm, which that has taken control of much of Port-au-Prince, posted a video on social media claiming responsibility for the attack.

The video said the gang coalition had not authorized the hospital’s reopening.

Haiti has seen journalists targeted before. In 2023, two local journalists were killed in the space of a couple of weeks — radio reporter Dumesky Kersaint was fatally shot in mid-April that year, while journalist Ricot Jean was found dead later that month.

In July, former Prime Minister Garry Conille visited the Hospital of the State University of Haiti, more widely known as the General Hospital, after authorities regained control of it from gangs.

The hospital had been left ravaged and strewn with debris. Walls and nearby buildings were riddled with bullet holes, signaling fights between police and gangs. The hospital is across the street from the national palace, the scene of several battles in recent months.

Gang attacks have pushed Haiti’s health system to the brink of collapse with looting, setting fires, and destroying medical institutions and pharmacies in the capital. The violence has created a surge in patients and a shortage of resources to treat them.

Haiti’s health care system faces additional challenges during the rainy season, which is likely to increase the risk of water-borne diseases. Poor conditions in camps and makeshift settlements have heightened the risk of diseases like cholera, with over 84,000 suspected cases in the country, according to UNICEF.

Brazilian authorities are investigating after a bridge collapsed Sunday, killing at least four people and sending trucks loaded with sulfuric acid and pesticides plunging into a river, raising concerns about water contamination.

More than a dozen people are missing after the 533-meter-long Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira bridge – which connects the northeastern cities of Estreito and Aguiarnópolis – gave way. Four trucks, three cars, and three motorbikes fell into the Tocantins River, according to the state-run Agencia Brasil news agency.

Three women and one man died in the collapse, Agencia Brasil reported, citing the Maranhão Fire Department.

The trucks were carrying about 25,000 liters of pesticides and 76 tons of sulfuric acid, according to the National Agency for Water and Basic Sanitation, raising concerns about environmental damage. Authorities warned residents not to drink or bathe in the river’s water.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sent his condolences to the families of the victims in a post to social media Monday, and said his government will support local authorities in dealing with the emergency.

Brazil’s National Department of Transport Infrastructure has opened an investigation into the cause of the collapse, the government said in a statement.

The Navy will also deploy equipment and boats to continue the search for the 13 people who are missing, the government said.

The government also said it will hire a new company for the design and construction of a new bridge that will be ready in about a year.

A passenger plane crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on Wednesday, local authorities said, without specifying the number of people on board.

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations said its teams found the aircraft on fire upon arrival on the scene.

“Rescue units began extinguishing the fire. Currently, information about the victims is being clarified, and according to preliminary information, there are survivors,” the ministry said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Russia launched aerial attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector “on a massive scale” overnight into Wednesday, local authorities said, with explosions reported across the country amid intensified bombardments that have left Ukraine in a precarious position while the war grinds into a third winter.

At least three people were injured in the northeastern city of Kharkiv – less than 20 miles from the Russian border – Ukraine’s national police said, adding that residential buildings and civilian infrastructure were damaged in the attack. At least seven missile strikes targeted the city, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

Russia attacked “the energy sector again on a massive scale,” Ukraine’s energy minister German Halushchenko said on his Facebook page. Ukraine’s energy operator imposed emergency blackouts in several parts of the country, the minister added.

Poland scrambled fighter jets in response to a Russian missile threat in western Ukraine, according to the Polish Operational Command.

Wednesday’s attack follows a deadly Russian strike on the city of Kryvyi Rih on Christmas Eve. At least one person was killed and 17 others were injured after a Russian missile struck a residential building in the city – the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

And last Friday, at least one person was killed and several embassies were damaged in a Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv. That attack came a day after Russian leader Vladimir Putin challenged Ukraine to a “duel” in his end-of-year conference, prompting Zelensky to call the Russian leader a “dumbass.”