A Storm, a Spill and a Disaster for the Black Sea’s Beaches
The New York Times
Vast stretches of Russian coast have been tarred by heavy fuel oil from two freighters that foundered in a storm.
When a 28-year-old volunteer named Nikolai stepped onto a sandy beach on Russia’s Black Sea coast in a hazmat suit just before New Year’s Eve, he was so overwhelmed by the amount of thick oil film that he almost broke down.
He and other volunteers were tasked with shoveling away the oil-drenched sand, but “the scale is just too big,” he said.
Two weeks into the new year, and four weeks after the spill, President Vladimir V. Putin acknowledged the extent of the disaster and dispatched senior officials to deal with Russia’s largest oil spill in years, which has befouled some of the country’s most popular beaches.
The oil was released by two aging Russian tankers that were damaged during a heavy storm in the Kerch Strait on Dec. 15. At least 2,400 metric tons of oil spewed into the sea, Russian officials said.
The disaster in the strait, which separates the Crimean Peninsula from mainland Russia, raised questions about whether the vessels were part of the so-called shadow fleet that Moscow uses to evade sanctions on its oil industry, sometimes employing ships in shoddy conditions.
One of the vessels, the Volgoneft-212, split in half and sank, killing one crew member. The other, the Volgoneft-239, ran aground near the port of Taman. The two vessels were loaded with a total of 9,000 tons of heavy fuel oil, and the authorities are now working not only to clean up the shores, but also to try to contain additional spills from the ship that ran aground.
Israel says it has killed thousands of the armed group’s members and destroyed much of its infrastructure, but since the cease-fire started Hamas has shown it still holds power in the enclave.
“It took us a few minutes to accept that this pile of rubble was our home,” said Islam Dahliz, whose family was ordered by Israeli forces to evacuate Rafah in May.
The announcement came shortly after President Trump rescinded Biden-era sanctions on Israeli settlers and Jewish extremists raided Palestinian villages in protest against the cease-fire in Gaza.
More than 30 hostages are set to be released during the cease-fire in Gaza. But many Israelis have mixed feelings about the deal because they feel it came at a high price.
Gazans were surveying the vast damage to their neighborhoods on Monday as anxious Israelis awaited news about the condition of the hostages.
Israel said it was still attacking in the enclave because Hamas had not yet handed over names of hostages to be released on Sunday. Hamas said the delay was technical.
Qatar, which mediated the agreement, said the cease-fire deal was set to begin at 8:30 a.m. local time on Sunday.
The truce will begin at 8:30 a.m., according to the Foreign Ministry of Qatar, a mediator in the talks. U.S. and other diplomats see the deal as the best chance to end the 15-month war that has devastated Gaza.
The full Israeli cabinet passed the agreement during a meeting that continued into the Jewish Sabbath, setting up the first reprieve in Gaza in over a year.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had urged the security cabinet to approve the agreement after a day of delays. His office said the deal, which is expected to be greenlit by the full cabinet later Friday, could go into effect as early as Sunday.
The agreement, which would include the release of hostages, was met with cautious optimism. But Israel’s cabinet needs to ratify the deal, and the prime minister’s office said Hamas was reneging on parts of it, an accusation that the group rejected.
Senior officials said a deal had been reached, but negotiators had yet to confirm a start date or other technical details.
The new interim Syrian government says it will hunt down and punish senior security officials and others, but concern is growing about attacks on former low-level members of the Assad regime’s forces.
The negotiations, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, appear to be making progress after months of failed attempts to achieve a breakthrough.
While major ruptures are not expected, Gulf states are urging a tougher stance on Israel and a softening toward Iran, positions that differ greatly from the president-elect’s first term.
Islamic State militants have rampaged across the northern Cabo Delgado Province for more than seven years. The government says the situation has stabilized. Residents tell a different story.
A dispute over a project to cure hams in a bell tower underscored the difficulties that churches in France face trying to pay for restorations.
An image depicting a famous 19th-century painting of Cossacks, with current Ukrainian soldiers standing in for the warriors, has struck a chord as Kyiv battles to assert its identity.