Few performances are as daunting as the one-person play.

That’s why Jake Gyllenhaal had to find a way to conquer that fear when he took on the role of Abe in the second half of “Sea Wall/A Life.”

“Before I did it, I was terrified,” Gyllenhaal said of “A Life,” after the play’s Broadway opening. Tom Sturridge stars in “Sea Wall,” the other half of the pair of one-act monologues.

Gyllenhaal admits that nervousness extended to the rehearsal room. But then he found confidence in an unlikely place. The story of Alex Honnold’s 3,000-foot (914-meter) climb of the El Capitan rock formation at Yosemite National Park.
 
“I was sort of quaking in my boots thinking about it. Then I saw `Free Solo,’ that documentary about the free climber Alex Honnold that won the Academy Award. Amazing, amazing documentary, and I thought to myself, if he can do that without any rope I can do a monologue. And then that was it,” Gyllenhaal said.

From then on, it was smooth sailing.
 
It was a little different for Sturridge.  “I feel like weirdly – like before I walk on stage I feel fear. But I feel safest on the stage,” Sturridge said.

Both actors say the lack of an onstage partner to play off of can add to the stress; there isn’t a safety net if you blow a line. But Sturridge uses the audience.

“Normally when you’re on stage you’re pretending to be in a room and pretending like you’re in Russia and 1920s and you’re pretending the audience don’t exist. But with this, I’m having a conversation with real people who are different every night. And if I blow a line, then we just change the conversation,” Sturridge said.

“Sea Wall/A Life,” a pair of plays written by Nick Payne and Simon Stephens, respectively are tragic comedies that deal with love and loss.

Gyllenhaal says the emotional value shifts with each audience.

“It’s very emotional through all of it. But it changes every night. It’s different. Sometimes I’m telling the story, I’m just telling it. Sometimes things happen. Sometimes I hear someone in the audience have an emotional response. He was laughing or crying, and it makes me feel something,” he said.

“Sea Wall/A Life” plays on Broadway at the Hudson Theater until Sept. 29.

Washington’s top two intelligence officials are spending their last day on the job Thursday, preparing to leave the nation’s intelligence community in the hands of an acting director as U.S. President Donald Trump oversees an overhaul of his intelligence leadership.

The departures of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and his top deputy, Sue Gordon, come as tensions rise between China and a protest movement in Hong Kong, and while other potential crises simmer in the Persian Gulf, on the Korean Peninsula and elsewhere.
 
Trump announced Coats’ resignation on Twitter late last month and followed up less than two weeks later with a tweet about the resignation of Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Sue Gordon, who had been in line to become the acting director.

 
But in a note accompanying her resignation letter, Gordon made clear her departure was an “act of respect & patriotism, not preference.”
 
“You should have your team,” she wrote.
 
Trump selected Coats, a former Republican lawmaker and one-time U.S. ambassador to Germany, to be his top intelligence official shortly after taking office.
 
But while Coats quickly won praise from lawmakers and veterans in the U.S. intelligence community for “speaking truth to power,” his public assessments repeatedly clashed with the president’s own assertions.

Read also: US Intel Chiefs Warn Washington Risks Losing Friends, Influence

Most recently, Coats and other U.S. intelligence chiefs stoked Trump’s ire this past January when they testified before Congress, contradicting the president’s assessment of Iran, of U.S. efforts to denuclearize North Korea as well as the president’s declarations that the Islamic State terror group had been defeated.
 
In a series of tweets, Trump declared Coats and the others, “are wrong!” and further suggested, “Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!”

NEW: @POTUS taking a shot at his intelligence chiefs on #Iran – calls them “extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers…They are wrong!” pic.twitter.com/hkwCZDw7OT

— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) January 30, 2019

 
Coats also publicly split with the president in July of last year, when he told an audience at a security forum that Trump’s decision to meet alone with top Russian officials at the White House was, “probably not the best thing to do.”

There was also this moment from the #AspenSecurity Forum in July 2018, when outgoing @ODNIgov Dir Coats was asked about @POTUS’ White House mtg w/#Russia FM #Lavrov & then Amb #Kislyak…

“[Sighs] Probably not the best thing to do”https://t.co/KjNaAOeAEw

— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) July 28, 2019

 
For now, the U.S. intelligence community will be led by Joseph Maguire, a retired admiral and former Navy SEAL, who until now had been serving as director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC).
 
Maguire has garnered praise both from intelligence officials, including Coats, and from key lawmakers.
 
“I’ve known Admiral Maguire for some time, and I have confidence in his ability to step into this critical role,” Richard Burr, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said last week.

 
During his NCTC confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee last year, Maguire assured lawmakers he would not allow politics to influence how intelligence would be presented to the president.
 
“I am more than willing to speak truth to power,” he said told lawmaker at the hearing last year. “To color and shape the information to please other folks would be a disservice.”

Before naming Maguire as his acting director of national intelligence, Trump announced he planned to nominate Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe to the post. But Ratcliffe withdrew his nomination days later, following growing questions about his credentials and experience.

A “humbled and honored” @RepRatcliffe tweets he asked @POTUS to nominate someone else to @ODNIgov

“I do not wish for a national security and intelligence debate surrounding my confirmation, however untrue, to become a purely political and partisan issue” pic.twitter.com/pg8ScbEBsx

— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) August 2, 2019

 
Read also: Trump’s Pick for National Intelligence Director Withdraws
 
Trump has said he is considering several candidates to serve as a permanent director of national intelligence, but told reporters last week, “I’m in no rush because we have a great acting [director].”
 
“That’s a job that everybody wants, DNI. Everybody” Trump said. “We’ll come up with somebody that’s great. We have a lot of choice. A lot of people want the job.”
 
Reaction from Intelligence Community
 
Despite such assurances, some former U.S. intelligence officials are leery, expressing concern that Trump will ultimately seek to appoint a political ally, like Congressman Ratcliffe, instead of an experienced intelligence hand.
 
Trump “is clearly ignorant of the wounds he inflicts on US national security,” Larry Pfeiffer, a former CIA chief of staff and former senior director of the White House Situation Room, tweeted last week following the news of Gordon’s resignation.

Sue Gordon’s forced resignation as deputy DNI today is an assault on inteligence. @realDonaldTrump is clearly ignorant of the wounds he inflicts on US national security.

— Larry Pfeiffer (@LarryPfeifferDC) August 8, 2019

Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a former veteran CIA officer who served as the spy agency’s Europe division chief, was even more pessimistic.
 
“This is a sign Trump is going to do something unacceptable in his efforts to control intelligence&law enforcement and consolidate power,” he tweeted.

Deputy Director of National Intelligence reportedly just met Trump and decided to resign. I know Sue Gordon personally. She’s a loyal American. This is a sign Trump is going to do something unacceptable in his efforts to control intelligence&law enforcement and consolidate power. https://t.co/jotSnj3x95

— Rolf Mowatt-Larssen (@AmericanMystic) August 8, 2019

Some key lawmakers have also expressed distress at the way Trump has handled the country’s intelligence agencies.

“The  president has shown that he has no problem prioritizing his political ego even if it comes at the expense of our national security,” Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner, a Democrat, said in a statement last week.
 

A newspaper in Gibraltar says the United States has applied to seize an Iranian supertanker that authorities in the British overseas territory were seeking to release from detention.

The Gibraltar Chronicle says the development means a last minute application by the U.S. Department of Justice to extend the ship’s detention prompted the Supreme Court to adjourn its decision until later Thursday. 

The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The tanker was seized last month in a British Royal Navy operation off Gibraltar. It’s suspected of violating European Union sanctions on oil shipments to Syria, and its seizure deepened international tensions in the Persian Gulf.

The Gibraltar government says it is seeking to “de-escalate” the situation over the Grace 1.

Opinion polls show that former Vice President Joe Biden continues to lead the large pack of Democratic presidential contenders for 2020. But concerns about Biden’s age and his habit of making verbal gaffes have some Democrats questioning whether he would be the best candidate to go up against President Donald Trump next year. VOA national correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington on Biden’s status as the Democratic Party frontrunner.
 

Malaysian police said Thursday there were no signs of foul play in the death of a 15-year-old London girl who mysteriously disappeared from a nature resort, with an autopsy showing she succumbed to intestinal bleeding because of starvation and stress.

Nora Anne Quoirin’s body was discovered Tuesday beside a small stream about 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) from the Dusun eco-resort after she disappeared from her family’s resort cottage Aug. 4.

Negeri Sembilan state police chief Mohamad Mat Yusop said the autopsy found no evidence the teenager had been abducted or raped. She was estimated to have been dead two or three days and not more than four when her naked body was found, he said.

“For the time being, there is no element of abduction or kidnapping,” he told a news conference at a police station.

“The cause of death was upper gastrointestinal bleeding due to duodenal ulcer, complicated with perforation … it could be due to a lack of food for a long period of time and due to prolonged stress,” he said.

Mohamad said there were also some bruises on the girl’s legs but wouldn’t cause her death. Samples taken from her body will be sent to the chemistry department for further analysis, he said.

The girl’s family can take her body back to their country if they wish, he added.

Quoirin’s family has said she wasn’t independent and wouldn’t wander off alone because she had learning and physical disabilities. Police believe she climbed out through an open window in the living room of the cottage but said they were investigated all aspects including possible criminal elements.

Police from Ireland, France and the U.K. are in Malaysia to assist in the investigation. The girl’s mother is from Ireland and her father is French, but the family has lived in London for 20 years.

The Paris prosecutor’s office Wednesday said it has opened a preliminary investigation into the girl’s death, on potential charges of kidnapping and sequestration. The prosecutor’s office wouldn’t elaborate. French authorities often open such investigations when French citizens are victims or otherwise involved in suspected crimes abroad.

Quoirin’s family arrived Aug. 3 for a two-week stay at the Dusun, a small resort located in a durian orchard next to a forest reserve 63 kilometers (39 miles) south of Kuala Lumpur.

Her family Wednesday thanked the more than 350 people who helped search for the girl and said that their hearts were broken.
 

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that trade talks with China could wait until tensions in Hong Kong had eased, tweeting: “Of course China wants to make a deal. Let them work humanely with Hong Kong first!” 
 
Trump also praised Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling him a “great leader” and saying he could quickly resolve the unrest in Hong Kong if he wanted to. “I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it. Personal meeting?” Trump tweeted. 
 
Trump has previously said little about the protests in the semiautonomous Chinese city, except to make it clear he believes that Hong Kong and China need to “deal with that themselves.” He has urged the two sides to exercise caution and voiced hopes that the situation will be resolved peacefully.  
  
His more extensive comments Wednesday came as U.S. stock markets tumbled, in part because of uncertainty over Trump’s trade standoff with Beijing. Investors have also been rattled about the widespread protests in Hong Kong. Flights resumed at Hong Kong’s airport after two days of disruptions that descended into clashes with police. 
 
While Trump has been reticent to take sides, some Republican and Democratic members of Congress have voiced their support for the protesters. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for example, issued a statement last week saying that “dreams of freedom, justice and democracy can never be extinguished by injustice and intimidation.” 
 
The demonstrations are against what many Hong Kong residents see as an increasing erosion of the freedoms they were promised in 1997 when Communist Party-ruled mainland China took over what had been a British colony.  

Trump said he knew Xi well and called him a “great leader who very much has the respect of his people.” 
 
Trump also voiced optimism about the off-again, on-again trade negotiations with China. Administration officials publicly and privately have voiced beliefs that a trade deal is still a ways off even as the president voices frustration about the lack of progress.  

Unhappy with the pace of negotiations, Trump announced two weeks ago that the U.S. would apply 10% tariffs on about $300 billion in Chinese imports, beginning Sept. 1. But the administration moved Tuesday to delay the tariffs on a wide range of Chinese-made products, including cellphones, laptop computers, some toys, computer monitors, shoes and clothing. And it’s removing other items from the list based “on health, safety, national security and other factors.” 
 
Trump tweeted that delaying the tariffs would help China more than the U.S.: “The American consumer is fine with or without the September date, but much good will come from the short deferral to December.” 

Christy Lee and Kim Young-gyo contributed to this report which originated on VOA’s Korean Service.

WASHINGTON — The recent missile tests by North Korea, including one Saturday, show potential weapons that are designed to circumvent any preemptive strikes that would destroy them on their launch pads before being fired, experts said.

North Korea wants to “be able to roll out a launcher, fire immediately, and not give the U.S. and South Korea an opportunity to attack the launcher and destroy them before they can launch their missiles,” said Bruce Bennett, a senior defense and analyst at the Rand Corp.

North Korea said Sunday it

KATHMANDU, NEPAL — A Nepal government committee formed after a bad mountaineering season on Mount Everest has recommended requiring climbers to have scaled tall peaks, undergone proper training, and possess certificates of good health and insurance that would cover rescue costs if required. 
 
A report by the committee released Wednesday says people must have successfully climbed a peak higher than 6,500 meters (21,320 feet) before they can apply for permits to scale Mount Everest. Each climber would also be required to have a highly experienced guide. 
 
Of the 11 people who died during the spring climbing season this year, nine were climbing from the southern side of the peak in Nepal, making it one of the worst years on the mountain.  
  
The government was criticized for allowing too many climbers on the world’s highest peak.  
  
Mountaineering authorities were also criticized for not stopping inexperienced climbers who had difficulty coping with harsh conditions on Everest and slowed down other climbers on the trail to the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) summit. 
 
The government is expected to amend its mountaineering regulations following the recommendations. 
 
The March-May climbing season is when weather conditions are best for climbing the Himalayan mountain. 

Canada’s ethics commissioner said Wednesday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau improperly pressured the country’s former attorney general to halt the criminal prosecution of a company, a development that could imperil his re-election chances. 

The report comes just before the official start of campaigning for the Oct. 21 general election and it threatens to re-inflame a scandal that rocked the government earlier this year, causing a drop in poll ratings that had since abated.

Ethics commissioner Mario Dion said Trudeau’s attempts to influence the former attorney general and justice minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, were contrary to the constitutional principle of prosecutorial independence.

“The prime minister, directly and through his senior officials, used various means to exert influence over Ms. Wilson-Raybould,” Dion wrote. 

“The authority of the prime minister and his office was used to circumvent, undermine and ultimately attempt to discredit the decision of the director of public prosecutions as well as the authority of Ms. Wilson-Raybould.” 

Trudeau said at a news conference that he takes responsibility “for everything,” but said he “can’t apologize for standing up for Canadian jobs.”  

Wilson-Raybould believes she was demoted from her role as attorney general and justice minister to veterans’ affairs minister in January because she didn’t give in to pressure to enter into a remediation agreement with a Canadian company accused of bribing officials in Libya.

That potential solution would avoid a potential criminal conviction that would bar Quebec engineering giant SNC-Lavalin from receiving any federal government business for a decade. The company is a major employer with 9,000 employees in Canada and about 50,000 worldwide.

The report said Trudeau “directed his staff to find a solution that would safeguard SNC-Lavalin’s business interest in Canada.”

“What happened over the past year shouldn’t have happened,” Trudeau said. “I take responsibility for the mistakes that I made. At the same time, we learned many lessons.”

But Trudeau said he didn’t agree that any contact with the attorney general on the issue was inappropriate. He said his job is to consider the impact decisions have on Canadians.

He noted that deferred prosecution agreements are frequently used in many countries and it would be up to his new justice minister on whether the company gets one. 

The scandal led to multiple resignations, including that of Gerry Butts, Trudeau’s top aide and best friend. And it damaged the party for weeks. Butts has since rejoined Trudeau’s re-election campaign team. 

Opposition Conservative leader Andrew Scheer renewed calls for police to investigate and called SNC-Lavalin a “Liberal” linked corporation that defrauded some of the poorest people on earth. 

Scheer said Trudeau hasn’t lived up to promises to be open and honest when he was elected.

“Trudeau may not face a court of law for his role in this scandal, but he will have to face the Canadian people over the next few weeks,” Scheer said. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it is “examining this matter carefully with all available information and will take appropriate actions as required” and declined further comment. 

Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said the report is very damaging and said the scandal could topple Trudeau’s Liberal government. 

“The SNC-Lavalin controversy is certainly reignited and fits with the Conservative narrative that the Trudeau is no angel,” Wiseman said. “I expect the Liberals to drop in the polls by 5% or so. Whether they can recover by election day is an open question. I wouldn’t bet on it.”

A vaping industry group sued the U.S. government on Wednesday to delay an upcoming review of thousands of e-cigarettes on the market.

The legal challenge by the Vapor Technology Association is the latest hurdle in the Food and Drug Administration’s yearslong effort to regulate the multibillion-dollar vaping industry, which includes makers and retailers of e-cigarette devices and flavored solutions.

The vaping group argued that the latest deadline of next May to submit products for review could wipe out many of the smaller companies. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Kentucky. 
 
E-cigarettes first appeared in the U.S. more than a decade ago and have grown in popularity despite little research on their long-term effects, including whether they can help smokers quit cigarettes.

In recent years, health authorities have warned of an epidemic of vaping by underage teenagers, particularly the leading brand Juul, known for its high nicotine content and easy-to-conceal device, which resembles a flash drive. 
 
Nicotine is what makes both cigarettes and e-cigarettes addictive, and health experts say the chemical is harmful to developing brains.

San Francisco-based Juul is among 800 member companies of the vaping association. 

Moving deadlines
 
The 2009 law that gave the FDA power over the traditional tobacco products did not mention e-cigarettes. And it wasn’t until 2016 that the agency expanded its own regulations to include the devices. But since then FDA regulators have repeatedly pushed back the timeline, at one point until 2022, to begin reviewing the legions of vaping products that have come to market.

Frustrated by the delays, anti-tobacco groups including the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids sued the FDA to speed up the process. In June, a federal judge sided with the groups and set a deadline of next May for all companies to submit their products for federal review. The FDA did not appeal the decision.

The vapor group’s lawsuit said the FDA has now set five different deadlines.

“It is time for FDA to stop moving the goalposts and changing the rules in the middle of the game to the detriment of our manufacturers and small businesses,” said Tony Abboud, the group’s executive director, in a statement.

Vaping executives have long said that most companies will not be able to afford to conduct large, expensive studies needed for FDA review. Only products that meet FDA standards would be permitted to be sold. 
 
The FDA declined to comment on the lawsuit. 

Tunisia’s independent electoral body says 26 candidates have qualified to run in the country’s early presidential election on Sept. 15, out of 96 who were seeking the job.

The number of candidates could increase when the final list is announced on Aug. 31, after the appeals process.  
 
Among those sure to bid for Tunisia’s highest office, according to Wednesday’s announcement, are Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and his defense minister who resigned to run in the presidential race, Abdelkrim Zbidi. Lawyer Abdelfattah Mourou plans to be a candidate for Islamist party Ennahdha, which now holds the most seats in parliament. 
 
The early election follows the July 25 death of Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, 92, the North African nation’s first democratically elected president.