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Diver exploring World War II-era shipwreck off Florida goes missing
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A 39-year-old man went missing on Sunday after free diving near a World War II-era shipwreck, officials said.
The Coast Guard and the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office launched a search for Virgil Price after he failed to resurface from the area around the Halsey shipwreck, located about 13 miles southeast of Florida’s Fort Pierce Inlet, authorities said. The area is about 130 miles north of Miami.
Florida Freedivers, a freediving and spearfishing educator, identified Price as a team member. Price lives in West Palm Beach.
“This is an incredibly difficult time, as Virgil was family to us and a dear friend to so many,” Florida Freedivers said in a Monday Facebook post.
Price was last seen wearing a green wetsuit with an orange stripe on the hood, yellow weights on his weight belt, and black carbon fiber fins, the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office said.
Last year, Coast Guard Capt. Jason Ingram described diving as “an inherently dangerous activity” after a 44-year-old diver went missing about 7 miles off of Key West, Florida.
St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office
The Halsey was built in 1920, according to Fishing Status, a site that provides data for the fishing community. The ship, owned by American Petroleum Transport Corp., was en route from Corpus Christi, Texas to New York with a cargo of 80,000 barrels of fuel oil, gasoline and naphtha when it was struck by a torpedo. The Halsey split in half and burst into flames after being hit. The 32 crew members boarded two lifeboats and were towed to shore by a fishing boat.
According to Fishing Status, the ship now sits in three pieces on a sand bottom 65 feet under water. The bow and stern are upright, while the midsection is upside down.
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Russian playwright, theater director sentenced to prison on terrorism charges
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A Russian court on Monday convicted a theater director and a playwright of terrorism charges and sentenced them to six years each in prison, the latest in an unrelenting crackdown on dissent across the country that has reached new heights since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.
Zhenya Berkovich, a prominent independent theater director, and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk have already been in jail for over a year awaiting trial.
Authorities claimed their play “Finist, the Brave Falcon” justifies terrorism, which is a criminal offense in Russia punishable by up to seven years in prison. Berkovich and Petriychuk have both repeatedly rejected the accusations against them.
In one hearing, Berkovich told the court that she staged the play in order to prevent terrorism, and Petriychuk echoed her sentiment, saying that she wrote it in order to prevent events like those depicted in the play.
The women’s lawyers pointed out at court hearings before the trial that the play was supported by the Russian Culture Ministry and won the Golden Mask award, Russia’s most prestigious national theater award. In 2019, the play was read to inmates of a women’s prison in Siberia, and Russia’s state penitentiary service praised it on its website, Petriychuk’s lawyer said.
Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP
The case against Berkovich and Petriychuk elicited outrage in Russia. An open letter in support of the two artists, started by the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper, was signed by more than 16,000 people since their arrest.
The play, the letter argued, “carries an absolutely clear anti-terrorist sentiment.”
Dozens of Russian actors, directors and journalists also signed affidavits urging the court to release the two from custody pending investigation and trial.
Immediately after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin unleashed a sweeping campaign of repression, unparalleled since the Soviet era. It has effectively criminalized any criticism of the war, with the authorities targeting not only prominent opposition figures who eventually received draconian prison terms, but anyone who spoke out against it, publicly or otherwise.
Pressure mounted on critical artists in Russia, too. Actors and directors were fired from state-run theaters, and musicians were blacklisted from performing in the country. Some were slapped with the label “foreign agent,” which carries additional government scrutiny and strong negative connotations. Many have left Russia.
Berkovich, who is raising two adopted daughters, refused to leave Russia and continued working with her independent theater production in Moscow, called Soso’s Daughters. Shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine, she staged an anti-war picket and was jailed for 11 days.
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