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Lee Juhyun contributed to this report.

After U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met last June in Singapore for the first time, Trump declared on his way home “there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea.”

“I have solved that problem,” a triumphant Trump said three days after his summit with Kim.

But on Wednesday’s one-year anniversary of the Singapore meeting, a nuclear deal seems more elusive than ever, with working-level talks stalled and public disagreements emerging among U.S. officials over how to respond to North Korea’s provocations.

Trump remains publicly optimistic about his relationship with Kim. On Tuesday, Trump said he received another “beautiful letter” from the North Korean leader. He did not elaborate on the letter’s contents other than to say it was “very warm,” “very nice,” and “very personal.”

But there is little evidence Trump’s personal relationship will convince Kim to abandon his nuclear weapons, which he has long viewed as crucial to preserving his rule.

“I think it’s exactly where we were a year ago,” said Darcie Draudt, a North Korea researcher and visiting scholar at Seoul’s Yonsei University. “It’s the actual day-to-day interactions, the on-the-ground, mid-level exchanges that are really going to do the work. And we really haven’t seen that.”

Talks stalled

The two sides haven’t held working-level talks in months and North Korea hasn’t responded to multiple requests to restart the negotiations, according to U.S. officials.

North Korea has also stopped cooperating on major inter-Korean projects, such as a joint North-South effort to recover the remains of soldiers who died in the 1950s Korean War.

Amid the stalemate, Washington and Pyongyang are again teetering on the edge of a period of hostility. North Korea last month restarted ballistic missile tests for the first time in almost a year and a half.

“Its nuclear and ballistic missile programs not only are left intact, they are also advancing and growing, since they were never bound to an agreement,” said Soo Kim, a policy analyst at the RAND Corporation and a former CIA analyst.

Fundamental disagreements?

In Singapore, Trump and Kim agreed to work “toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” U.S. officials later acknowledged Washington and Pyongyang do not share a common understanding of the word “denuclearization.”

A February summit between Kim and Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam had been expected to at least lay out a path forward. But instead, the meeting underscored the breadth of disagreements between the two sides, with Trump leaving early and declaring Kim “not ready” to make a deal.

Trump has insisted Kim abandon his entire nuclear weapons program before the United States relaxes sanctions against the North. Kim wants an incremental approach that would see the U.S. ease sanctions gradually in exchange for limited steps to dismantle his nuclear program.

Cracks in US strategy

The Trump administration’s strategy toward North Korea is increasingly marked by inconsistencies, if not outright contradictions.

Not only have U.S. officials given conflicting statements about whether they are open to a step-by-step denuclearization process, Trump at times openly disagrees with his top advisors over Korea policy.

After North Korea conducted several short-range missile and other weapons tests in early May, White House National Security Advisor John Bolton pointed out the launches violate United Nations Security Council resolutions.

“My people think it could have been a violation,” Trump acknowledged, adding: “I view it differently. I view it as a man — perhaps he wants to get attention, and perhaps not. Who knows? It doesn’t matter.”

At various points over the last month, Trump has seemed to suggest the North Korean launches never happened. At other moments, Trump has said the tests were unimportant because the short-range missiles were not capable of hitting the United States.

The launches are a potential embarrassment for Trump, who has long pointed to a lack of North Korean missile and nuclear tests as evidence his talks with Kim are succeeding.

Stalemate to continue?

Trump regularly says he is in no rush to reach a deal with North Korea, insisting that Kim understands it is in his interest to give up his nuclear weapons.

But, North Korean officials continue to say the exact opposite, warning they will not give up their weapons unilaterally and setting an end-of-the-year ultimatum for the United States to change its approach.

“The arrogant and unilateral U.S. policy will never work on the DPRK, which values sovereignty,” the official Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday, using an acronym for North Korea’s official name.

The agreement signed by Kim and Trump in Singapore “is in danger of being a blank sheet of paper because the U.S. is turning a blind eye to its implementation,” KCNA said.

“There is a limit to the DPRK’s patience…now is the time for the U.S. to withdraw its hostile policy concerning the DPRK,” it continued.

But it is in neither side’s interest to dramatically escalate tensions, said Khang Vu, U.S. East Asia policy researcher and contributor to the Australia-based Lowy Institute think tank.

“Kim Jong Un understands that he can potentially benefit from sanctions relief and inter-Korean trade as long as he carries on with the denuclearization process, even through a vague commitment,” Vu said.

Meanwhile, Trump may feel constrained by the upcoming 2020 presidential election season.

…

West Virginia was once a thriving coal-producing state.  But as mines started closing, miners — and many others in the coal industry — found themselves without jobs.

James Scyphers was one of those affected.  Today, the former coal miner is thrilled to be working above ground.

From coal to gold

On this perfect summer day on a rural farm near Beckley, West Virginia, he tends to a busy hive of bees. Dressed in a pair of old jean overalls and a beekeeping veil to protect his head, he carefully lifts a frame from the hive and inspects it to make sure his bees are doing well.

​​The Vietnam veteran worked in construction, and was a coal miner for 16 years, but he traded in his hard hat for a veil.

“It takes a special breed to be in a coal mine,” he says. “A lot of times underground, you’re working in water and dark conditions …and at times it’s miserable. This is not miserable. This is a real enjoyable job.”

Scyphers loves being outdoors, and has come to respect, and appreciate, honeybees. “I have learned that they’re the most fascinating insect and I learn more about them every day. I have not had a better job in my 40-some years of working.”

The work is also benefiting him financially.

He lives on Social Security and a small minor’s pension, so beekeeping, he says, has provided a nice boost in income.

ABC’s of beekeeping

Scyphers found his job through the Appalachian Beekeeping Collective, a nonprofit program that teaches displaced workers — and other low-income West Virginians looking to earn extra income — how to become beekeepers.

After completing a free, five-week program, aspiring beekeepers are given bees, hives and all the necessary supplies to get them started. Mentors work with them one-on-one throughout the beekeeping season, and help them harvest the honey for cash when the season ends.

​​Mark Lilly has been keeping bees in West Virginia for more than 20 years. He is both mentor and educator with the collective, and says the initiative was created to address the dramatic drop in employment in the region.

“In my previous job, I traveled a lot of these areas, so for the past 30 years, I’ve watched them slowly die,” he says. “So you see the people now have, like hopelessness, and I think we’re the starting point, maybe, to bring some hope to some of these communities.”

“So if we can teach a family to maybe generate $3,000 to $5,000 of additional income [a year], if you’re only making $30,000, that’s a huge, huge improvement in your lifestyle,” he adds.

Getting a buzz on…

But it’s the one-on-one mentoring that’s the best part of the program for veteran Mike Davis, who gets a visit from Lilly every month. “We go through the bees and even though we went through the class, actually being in the boxes with the bees, handling them, seeing what it is that we’re talking about, you can visualize the concept so much easier.”

And there are other benefits, he adds. “It gives you something to look forward to on a daily basis, you’re anticipating the growth of your hive … The bees are not only calming, it’s like, they’re friends; similar to dogs that other people have, I have that same affection for my bees.”

Then there’s the honey that comes from those bees.

Liquid gold

“This area of southern West Virginia is the largest forage in the world,” he explains. “We don’t have pesticides, insecticides, because we don’t have commercial farming. So we have the trees, we have a lot of water, the conditions are great for the bees.”

And that translates into great tasting honey. Since West Virginia is home to some of the most diverse species of plants in the world, it creates tremendous nectar sources for the bees.

“The honey that these bees make, it tastes different than anywhere else,” says Cheryl Flanagan, who left the corporate world to live in West Virginia. “I’ve lived all over the states, and this honey has a smokier, richer, really deep flavor to it. And it’s the best honey I’ve ever tasted.”

Flanagan loves her new hobby.

“Two months ago I knew nothing about bees. Today, I am learning hand-in-hand with the master beekeeper, and I am amazed at how absolutely different than what I thought bees were like.”

Worried at first her bees would sting, Flanagan soon discovered that the industrious insects were just not that into her. “They have a whole community, it’s very sophisticated, they know what they’re supposed to do as soon as they’re hatched … It’s just amazing to me to be a part of that, and the more I learn, the more I want to know.” 

Protecting natural treasures

And that is the main objective of the program, says Terri Giles, Vice President of Government Relations for Appalachian Headwaters, which oversees the beekeeping collective.

The non-profit organization has several programs in place for creating long-term jobs for West Virginians while helping restore the state’s damaged ecosystems.

 She feels deeply protective of the honeybees.

From bulldozers to bees

The Appalachian region has been an “extraction” site for the country and for the world, Giles explains. “Unfortunately, in the past, they came here and extracted salt, they extracted timber; they extracted coal, now they’re extracting natural gas. So always throughout this region, this band of wealth from extraction has always benefited someone else.”

Until now.

“So we have another source of income in this central Appalachia, and that is the nectar of the hardwood forests that surround us,” she explains. “No one can take that away. We can sell our honey outside of the state and the money comes back into the pockets of the people in Appalachia, helping the region.”

Band of gold

Beekeeping is a local tradition. The Appalachian Beekeeping Collective hopes that its program will help more West Virginians connect to their roots, and come to appreciate the honeybees for the unique product they produce and the economic opportunities they provide.

Giles believes West Virginia honey will eventually become an agricultural staple.

“I look here and I see what used to be a thriving railroad community, even in the ‘70s when I was growing up, has turned into a community with not a lot of options. This beekeeping collective that we are sponsoring is giving people options, but better yet, it’s giving people hope for the future.”

…

Vietnam has imposed anti-dumping tariffs on certain goods from China that were getting around tariffs levied by the United States in its trade dispute with Beijing.

The Southeast Asian country’s Ministry of Industry and Trade decided after a 5-month review to levy a temporary anti-dumping tax of 2.46% to 35.58% on several Chinese-origin aluminum products, effective June 5.

Vietnam had emerged as one of the top beneficiaries last year of the Sino-U.S. trade dispute because tariff-weary shippers based in China were tapping the country as an alternative, low-tariff place to manufacture exports headed to the United States. 

But some manufacturers were just relabeling products made in China as “Made-in-Vietnam” for trans-shipment to the United States. 

Vietnam’s anti-dumping tariffs are “an efficient response from the Vietnamese side with regards to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s anti-circumvention tariffs to be placed on aluminum extrusion exported from Vietnam,” Hanoi-based financial market analysis firm SSI Research said in a note Monday.

The note calls the tariffs “a very bold move for Vietnam to enact” as “a country that has emerged as the region’s largest beneficiary nation of the (Sino-U.S.) trade war.”

Avoiding tariffs in China

Chinese exports of semi-finished aluminum parts  doubled in 2018, as the Sino-U.S. trade dispute broke out, to 62,000 tons, SSI Research found. Of that load, a “significant quantity is believed to be shipped from China to avoid anti-dumping and countervailing tariffs,” the note said.

“Some U.S. imports were detected supposedly coming from Vietnam, but were found to be actually Chinese products, which were thereby trying to avoid anti-dumping duties that were applied to Chinese products in the U.S.,” said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at the market research firm IHS Markit.

Other Asian countries, Indonesia and Malaysia for example, have imposed their own tariffs on Chinese steel imports. Chinese exporters can sell for less than domestic peers in those markets – which are trying to develop their own steel or aluminum industries – because of a supply surplus and massive production scales.

Vietnam is absorbing an outsized share of the China spillover because of a shared land border and relatively low manufacturing costs, said Song Seng Wun, an economist in the private banking unit of CIMB in Singapore. Manufacturing drives the Vietnamese economy, helping it grow at 6%-7% a year.

Favor with Washington

The spike in imports from China had hurt Vietnam’s own aluminum industry and put it at risk of more scrutiny by the government of U.S. President Donald Trump, economists believe. The Vietnamese anti-dumping tariffs in place for 120 days will help protect Vietnam’s so far stable relations with the Trump Administration as they help stop U.S.-bound trans-shipments from China without paying tariffs. 

“I do see the Vietnamese trying to be tough on trans-shipments,” said Frederick Burke, partner with the international law firm Baker McKenzie in Ho Chi Minh City. 

“As far as the Vietnamese are concerned, it’s just criminal, just taking advantage of their position, smuggling in and smuggling out,” he said. “It’s ruining their reputation and they get no benefit out of it.”

Chinese aluminum extrusions, a term for semi-finished parts, are subject to anti-dumping duties on top of the 10% tariff that the United States levies on countries worldwide. Manufacturers in Vietnam buy extrusions from China to make doors, walls and other parts of structures.

Although Trump’s government has largely targeted China over trade, the U.S. Treasury labeled Vietnam a possible currency “manipulator” last month. Vietnam, like China, also runs a trade surplus with the United States, the same condition that sparked the Sino-U.S. spat that’s now in its second year with the prospect of escalation later this month.

“We certainly can see that the sweeping power of President Trump can (be) fairly extensive, so I think at this point there’s less inclination by the Vietnamese to upset the Americans than the Chinese,” Song said.

After a series of public “consultations,” the Ministry of Industry and Trade will decide before year’s end whether to extend the tariffs, SSI Research says.

If Vietnam did not impose its own tariffs, Washington would most likely investigate specific companies suspected of exporting Chinese aluminum from Vietnam and “order customs officers to pay closer attention to goods with certificates of origin from Vietnam,” said Maxfield Brown, senior associate with the business consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates in Ho Chi Minh City. 

…

A Chinese woman charged with illegally entering President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort will be allowed to act as her own attorney.

Federal Judge Roy Altman granted Yujing Zhang’s request Tuesday to fire her public defenders and represent herself.

Altman found Zhang competent and intelligent, but strongly tried to talk her out of her decision. She insisted, however. She asked that the hearing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, be conducted in English but struggled at times understanding the judge. For example, she didn’t know “counsel” is a synonym for lawyer. Altman ordered that she be provided with law books and the evidence against her. He told her to study.

The 33-year-old Zhang has pleaded not guilty to charges of trespassing March 30 at Mar-a-Lago and lying to Secret Service agents.

…

The federal government is appealing a court injunction against a Trump administration action that prohibits family planning organizations from referring pregnant women to abortion clinics.

Last month, the administration changed a public health law known as Title X, which from 1970 until now had required health care providers to make information about abortion available to low-income individuals at little or no cost.

The Baltimore Daily Record reported Monday that Maryland Judge Richard Bennett became the fourth judge to try to block the U.S. Health Department from enforcing the changes. Bennett filed an injunction at the end of May. The injunction states that the Title X changes violate the terms of President Barack Obama’s health care law.

…

U.S. President Donald Trump held up a piece of paper along the lawn at the White House Tuesday, saying it was his new immigration deal with Mexico that contains mystery provisions, even as Mexico says it has no idea what he is talking about.

“I’m going to let Mexico do the announcement at the right time,” Trump told reporters on a sun-splashed day in Washington. “I just give you my word. In here’s the agreement.”

Asked if Mexico had agreed to become a safe third country to house migrants seeking asylum in the United States, Trump said, “I’m not going to say one way or the other.”

Earlier on Twitter, Trump said, “Biggest part of deal with Mexico has not yet been revealed!” 

But on Monday, Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard held up a paper and pointed to the previously announced details, including Mexico’s deployment of 6,000 troops to its border with Guatemala to thwart the surge of Central American migrants heading to the United States.

“There is no other thing beyond what I have just explained,” Ebrard said.

He said that if migration is not slowed, the two countries would discuss other options.

Trump had threatened to impose a 5% tariff on Mexican products arriving in the U.S. starting this week, but backed off when Mexico pledged to ramp up efforts to block migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala heading north to the U.S.

“Tariffs are a great negotiating tool, a great revenue producers and, most importantly, a powerful way to get companies to come to the U.S.A. and to get companies that have left us for other lands to come back home,” Trump tweeted. 

Maria, Dagan, Steve, Stuart V – When you are the big “piggy bank” that other countries have been ripping off for years (to a level that is not to be believed), Tariffs are a great negotiating tool, a great revenue producers and, most importantly, a powerful way to get……

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2019

…Companies to come to the U.S.A and to get companies that have left us for other lands to come back home. We stupidly lost 30% of our auto business to Mexico. If the Tariffs went on at the higher level, they would all come back, and pass. But very happy with the deal I made,…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2019

“We stupidly lost 30% of our auto business to Mexico,” he said. “If the Tariffs went on at the higher level, they would all come back, and pass. But very happy with the deal I made, if Mexico produces (which I think they will).”

….If Mexico produces (which I think they will). Biggest part of deal with Mexico has not yet been revealed! China is similar, except they devalue currency and subsidize companies to lessen effect of 25% Tariff. So far, little effect to consumer. Companies will relocate to U.S.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2019

Trump has provided little clarity about any undisclosed portions of the agreement with Mexico.

“It’s just another aspect of what we’ve done,” Trump said during a brief event Monday on the White House South Lawn.

Asked by VOA why — if there was such an agreement — Mexico is denying it, Trump replied: “I don’t think they’ll be denying it very long. It’s all done.”

It could be related to plans for a regionwide asylum agreement if enforcement measures agreed to last week between Washington and Mexico City do not halt a surge of migrants from Central America to the United States.

“We trust that the measures we have proposed will be successful,” Ebrard said. “But if they’re not, we’re going to have to participate in this kind of discussion.”

He said further talks would only come after seeing how well the current agreement performs over the course of 45 days, and stressed the need to prove the worth of measures, such as investing in development in Central American countries so that people do not feel the need to leave their homelands to escape poverty and violence.

…

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives reached a deal Monday for the Justice Department to turn over crucial documents collected by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice by trying to thwart his probe of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
 
Congressman Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the Justice Department would be opening Mueller’s “most important files to us, providing us with key evidence that the special counsel used to assess whether” Trump and others “obstructed justice or were engaged in other misconduct.”

Nadler said that all members of the Judiciary panel — Democrats and Republicans alike — would be able to see the documents, which he said “will allow us to perform our constitutional duties and decide how to respond to the allegations laid out against the president” by Mueller.

With the agreement, Nadler said he would withdraw a vote set for Tuesday whether to hold Attorney General William Barr in criminal contempt of Congress for failing to comply with the House committee’s subpoena for the information.

Nadler said he is giving the Justice Department “time to demonstrate compliance with this agreement. If the department proceeds in good faith and we are able to obtain everything we need, then there will be no need to take further steps.” But he said if the agreement collapses, it “will have no choice” but to pursue a court case to try to obtain the underlying documents from the Mueller probe that it is seeking.

The agreement did not address the committee’s request for testimony from former White House counsel Donald McGahn, who was a key witness for Mueller, but has declined to testify, complying with the wishes of the White House. Mueller’s team interviewed McGahn for 30 hours, with the lawyer telling prosecutors that Trump pressured him to try to get Mueller ousted from overseeing the investigation, a demand he ignored.

The full House is voting Tuesday whether to go to court under civil, not criminal, law to enforce subpoenas against both Barr and McGahn.

Several investigations

Nadler’s committee and others in the House are pursuing several investigations of Trump, along with the obstruction allegations, including about his business affairs, taxes and administration policies during his 29-month presidency. Trump has vowed to fight all Democratic subpoenas, but Nadler’s agreement for information from the Mueller probe signals there also is room for negotiation rather than to let every dispute end in a legal fight in a courtroom.

On Monday, the Judiciary panel heard from former White House counsel John Dean, who was instrumental 46 years ago in the downfall of another U.S. president, Richard Nixon. At the time, Dean testified before Congress about White House corruption that led to Nixon’s resignation as he was about to be impeached.  

Mueller declined to exonerate Trump of obstruction allegations after a 22-month investigation. But he said that in any event Trump could not have been charged because a Justice Department policy prohibits filing criminal charges against sitting presidents. Subsequently, Barr and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said criminal charges against Trump were not warranted.

About a quarter of the 235 Democrats in the 435-member House, along with one Republican, have called for Trump’s impeachment or the start of an impeachment inquiry. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has resisted such calls, saying she prefers continued investigations by several House committees.

Last week, the political news site Politico reported that she told Democratic colleagues that she does not want Trump impeached, but “in prison,” after facing criminal charges once he leaves office.

Trump retorted, “She’s a nasty, vindictive, horrible person.”

…

A helicopter crashed onto the fog-shrouded roof of a midtown Manhattan skyscraper on Monday, killing the pilot and unnerving a city still scarred by memories of the Sept. 11, 2001, airplane attacks on the World Trade Center.

The crash on a rainy, gray day atop the 54-story AXA Equitable Center forced office workers to evacuate in one of the city’s busiest areas a few blocks north of Times Square.

The pilot was the only person aboard the chopper when it plunged into the building and burst into flames, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference. No injuries, either to people in the building or on the ground, have been reported.

“The helicopter is pretty obliterated at this point. It was obviously a very hard hit,” de Blasio said, adding nothing indicated “an act of terrorism.”

Nicolas Estevez was standing across the street from the building when a 12-inch (30 cm) piece of metal that appeared to be from the helicopter landed on the pavement just feet away.

The crash, which sent people streaming out of the building within seconds, reminded him of Sept. 11, Estevez said.

“I saw the explosion and the smoke coming out,” he said.

Key mystery

A key mystery in the crash is why the Agusta A109E was flying at all in a rainstorm in tightly controlled airspace above midtown Manhattan.

To enter that vicinity, de Blasio said, the pilot would have needed approval from the air traffic control tower at LaGuardia Airport across the East River in Queens, “and we need to find out if that happened.”

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement, “FAA air traffic controllers did not handle” the helicopter’s flight, but a spokeswoman for the agency declined to say whether the aircraft was observing prevailing flight restrictions.

The pilot was identified as Tim McCormack, who was going to land at Linden Airport in New Jersey, said Paul Dudley, the airport’s director.

“Tim McCormack is a well-respected, highly trained veteran pilot who also had tremendous local knowledge, having flown in this area for many years,” Dudley said in a phone interview. “We’re all saddened and shocked.”

McCormack worked for Daniele Bodini, founder of the real-estate firm American Continental Properties Group, Dudley said.

The chopper took off from a heliport on Manhattan’s east side at 1:32 p.m. and crash-landed on the building 11 minutes later, officials said.

The site is about half a mile from Trump Tower, where U.S. President Donald Trump maintains an apartment. The area has been under a temporary flight restriction since his election in November 2016.

Felt like a shove

Nathan Hutton, who works in information technology for the French bank BNP Paribas on the 29th floor, said the building shook when the helicopter slammed into the roof.

“It felt like you were just standing there, and someone takes their hand and just shoves you,” he said. “You felt it through the whole building.”

Trump called New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was at the scene soon after the crash, to offer assistance if needed, the governor’s office said.

Cuomo said the crash likely stirred memories of Sept. 11 for many city residents.

“If you’re a New Yorker, you have a level of PTSD from 9/11,” he said.

In addition to BNP Paribas, the AXA Equitable Center, built in 1985 houses offices for corporate tenants such as law firms Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Sidley Austin, and investment manager New Mountain Capital. Le Bernardin, one of New York City’s most celebrated restaurants, is also in the building.

The skyscraper is managed by Los Angeles-based CommonWealth Partners. CommonWealth office manager LeAnn Holsapple said the company had “no comment at this time.”

Manhattan has only three approved heliports after they were banned in New York City in 1977 after a rotor blade snapped on a helicopter on top of the former Pan Am building, killing five people.

…

It’s a comedy night at Johns Hopkins University. Members of the university’s Stand-up Comedy Club are performing dialogues, cracking jokes, doing funny moves and face gestures.

They might be a little bit nervous at the beginning, but the experience is invigorating. Their jokes bring lots of laughter to normally busy, often stressed-out, students.
 
But comedy, as club member Ariella Shua says, is serious work. In their weekly meetings, students try out and rehearse the jokes they wrote over the week.
 
“Whoever is reading, we read all of the material, and then we would go joke by joke and see what works and what doesn’t,” she said. “So, it starts as an individual project for yourself and becomes a group effort.”
 
Since joining last year, Shua has become a better observer of what’s going around her. She doesn’t go anywhere without her notebook.
 
“It’s in my backpack all the time,” she explained. “Whenever I just have a thought in my head that seems like, ‘Oh, this is strange,’ or when I see something or overhear someone saying something in the library, I just write it down. Later, when I’m trying to write my own set, I go walk through that notebook to see if there is anything in there that I can use.”
 
A funny break
 
Along with achieving academic excellence, universities across the United States encourage their students to explore their potential and develop interests beyond their major. Joining an on-campus club is a good way to do that. Whether they are cultural, social, political or recreational, these clubs give students a voice and a chance to hone various skills, from community engagement to being funny. That is what the Stand-up Comedy Club offers.
 
Club president Nicholas Scandura finds that writing is one of the many skills he has developed since joining the club.

“Writing jokes is really fun,” he said. “It takes a lot of critical thinking.”

The club gives its members a sense of community. When they meet, they share funny experiences, tell jokes and laugh.

“It’s just a nice, relaxing break,” Scandura said.
 
Over the past decade, stand-up comedy clubs have become common on college campuses in America.

“Now that it’s become a popular pop culture, everyone wants to do it,” he said.
 
While students use the stand-up comedy format to express themselves and exercise their freedom of speech, they usually stay away from certain controversial topics.
 
“If you offend people, if you say something and people are going to hate you for saying it, why are you up saying it? Scandura said.
 
Funny in real life
 
Last year, sophomore Harry Kuperstein joined the club and discovered it was a natural fit for his personality. Observing ironies and funny aspects of different situations improved his perspective on life. Becoming an active member also helped him work on the future skills he will need as a neurosurgeon.
 
“Elements of, say, talking to patients as a doctor.  I think that being good in scripting and just having jokes ready to go might help smooth these interactions and make you a better public speaker,” he said.
 
Fellow club member Alex Hecksher Gomes, a computer science major, credits the club for helping him develop his own style and discover the secrets of writing good comedy.
 
“Not always tell the truth. Sometimes, it’s funny to go after your imagination,” he said. “You kind of get stuck in doing it, if you just follow what actually happened. Also, don’t always go with your first idea. I definitely thought some things that I said were funny, and then looked back. And where I got to with the joke was a lot funnier than when I started.”
 
‘Tomato Show’
 
Despite the workshops, rewritings and run-throughs, some ideas just aren’t funny.

Club member Benjamin Monteagudo said performing in front of a student audience doesn’t mean comedians won’t receive harsh criticism. Last year, they came up with an idea to keep the audience involved and get their feedback.
 
“We called it ‘Tomato Show,’ where if you were performing very badly on stage, we just let the audience throw tomatoes at us to kind of roll with the joke. So, we spent our entire budget on a big box of foam tomatoes. There were 200 to 300 of them. We gave them to the audience, and it was the best show ever. I think the audience was really engaged because of the tomatoes. And it helped us stay attentive and focused.”

…

Hundreds of firefighters continued to to battle the Sand Fire in Northern California Sunday, as it grew to more than 728 hectares overnight. 

Pacific Gas and Electric Company shut off power to approximately 1,600 customers in Napa, Solano and Yolo counties and about 43,000 customers in Butte, Yuba, Nevada, El Dorado and Placer counties in the Sierra foothills.

As winds, low humidity and heat are expected to continue, the power company said crews are inspecting power lines to check for any weather-related damage and power will be restored when it’s determined to be safe.

​”We know how much our customers rely on electric service, and our decision tonight to turn off power is to protect our communities experiencing extreme fire danger,” Michael Lewis, PG&E’s senior vice president of electric operations, said in a statement.

Last year, Camp Fire destroyed most of the town of Paradise, parts of which are included in the latest shutoffs. Investigators have blamed damaged power lines for sparking that fire. 

The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for parts of the Central Valley and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta at elevations below 305 meters, where there has been less rain recently and the vegetation is driest.
…

From funerals of presidents to the final Sunday sermon of a civil rights icon, the country’s most famous church is an American landmark. But an earthquake years ago shook parts of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., to the ground. In 2019, officials there made child’s play of a fundraiser to rebuild. Arash Arabasadi unrolls the blueprints in this story.
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The Chai Spot is a café in New York City’s “Little Italy” neighborhood that serves a variety of Pakistani chai in a very colorful and cozy environment. It is also the spot that brought two people together as husband and wife, across two very different cultures and families. Khalida and David think chai cafes could help other people find happiness too. Kalsoom Kakar recently visited The Chai Spot and filed this report narrated by Niala Mohammad.
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