A new club at UC San Diego in La Jolla is rooted in Chinese art, language and food, but its primary focus is on bridging the gaps among different cultures.

When second-year UCSD student Lydia Xie moved from Singapore to San Diego, she began to notice a general lack of understanding about Chinese culture, she said. Her interest grew as she read a social media thread of UCSD students discussing international students’ tendency to socialize with people from the same background.

Looking to foster cross-cultural sharing and understanding, Xie decided to form a new campus club, Lotus Bridge @ UC San Diego.

“We do have some Chinese student organizations on campus, but based on my understanding, they’re usually focused on having Chinese international students in those groups,” Xie said.

“[There’s] nothing wrong with that,” she added. “I think that is great for them to be finding community here in a foreign country. But for me … I would love to have a platform where we can share Chinese culture to other people who might not be as familiar with it.”

Lotus Bridge aims to unite diverse cultures, hold activities such as dessert-making and foster teamwork and leadership, Xie said. The group registered as a student organization in September, followed by a promotional push on social media starting Jan. 7 and its first general meeting Jan. 22.

Xie is the group’s founder and president. Other founding members are UCSD students Helena Ren, Qianqian Yang, Anny Ma and Chloe Zhang.

Yang, a fourth-year visual arts student, said she got acquainted with the group through a social media post.

“It kind of just popped up,” she recalled. “I never saw this before on campus, so I really wanted to join.”

Ma said the club offered a meaningful way of getting connected with the university in her freshman year as a sociology student.

Ahead of its first meeting, the club set up a table by the university’s Geisel Library to quiz fellow students on Chinese culture, such as when the Mid-Autumn Festival takes place (this year it’s Sept. 25) and how many tones are in the Mandarin language (four).

People who registered for the meeting were asked to fill out a form, with one of the prompts asking them about their level of familiarity with Chinese culture. On a scale of 1-10, most respondents scored themselves between three and seven, Xie said.

At the event, guests baked Chinese peach blossom pastries at Marshall College’s Umoja Community Kitchen. The pastries are a popular dish year-round, including during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

“[By] learning to make traditional pastries, we can understand the festival and the folk tales behind them,” Ma said. “We hope through baking, we can promote cross-cultural communication and enable people from different backgrounds to experience Chinese culture.”

Xie said she hopes the introductory event and others to follow will create unity among UCSD students.

“I think success for this club is just about boosting people’s understanding of Chinese culture,” she said. “I really want to build a community where everybody can be more empathetic and more understanding of people from different backgrounds.”

According to the Center for Student Involvement, UCSD is home to 692 student organizations for the 2025-26 academic year. See a full list at studentorg.ucsd.edu.

To learn more about Lotus Bridge @ UC San Diego, visit @lotusbridgeatucsandiego on Instagram. ♦

The San Diego County Gun Owners PAC (Political Action Committee) calls the fatal shooting of Minnesota man Alex Pretti by ICE agents “tragic and deeply troubling.”

The executive director of that organization, Michael Schwartz, told NBC 7 he’s calling for full transparency and due process moving forward.

“Both sides, Mr. Pretti and whoever the border agent was involved in the shooting, deserve a thorough investigation,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz says gun owners are loyal to principles, not parties, and believes it’s important to not turn Alex Pretti’s death into a political narrative.

“The Second Amendment has never been a Republican, Democratic or Libertarian or Green or any party issues, it’s nonpartisan. When people no matter their party do something to support the Second Amendment, we sing their praises and when they do something against it, we harshly condemn them. You saw that in this case, you saw Gun Owners of America and the National Rifle Association quickly come out with statements that were bashing certain Trump Administration officials and saying, hey we need to investigate this shooting,” Schwartz said.

On Tuesday, when talking about the most recent deadly ICE shooting in Minnesota, President Donald Trump said, “You can’t have guns. You can’t walk in with guns.”

Schwartz disagrees with what the Trump Administration has recently said about those legally carrying a firearm.

“I am completely opposed to some of the statements by Trump employees, like Kash Patel and others, who implied that somehow being a concealed carry permit holder somehow makes you more dangerous to law enforcement or implies that you’re a criminal,” Schwartz said.

According to Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, strict regulating of public carry laws are associated with lower rates of firearm crimes. Schwartz believes the rise of physical interactions between citizens and ICE might provide an opportunity.

“I think law enforcement needs to be better educated on who a concealed carry permit holder is. The fact that they go through a background check and training and the fact that as a group they tend to commit fewer crimes than the general public. Educating on who they are and what their motivation is is important to all levels of law enforcement,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz says gun rights advocates have been concerned with government overreach for decades surrounding the Second Amendment and will be closely following how current events play out.

While California has some of the most restrictive gun carry laws in the nation, it’s interesting to note that San Diego County has gone from 11,000 carry permits to over 26,000 in last seven years.

An investigation is underway after one person was shot and injured by an Escondido Police officer early Tuesday.

Police were called to a transitional house on the 100 block of S Elm Street, on reports of a man who cut himself and was armed with a knife, San Diego Police Homicide Lt. Lou Maggi said.

Police tried to negotiate with the man, who then barricaded himself inside a bathroom. Officers then left to try to de-escalate the situation, Maggi said.

Police were called again after the man had left the bathroom and was roaming the outside of the property. A K-9 officer arrived to find the man in an alleyway with a “24-inch stick.” After multiple calls from the officer to drop the weapon, the man then charged at the officer, prompting the officer to shoot the man, Maggi said.

The man was shot multiple times and taken to a local hospital in critical condition. The Escondido officer involved in the shooting was not injured.

Neither the man nor the officer has been identified at this time.

The other residents at the transitional housing were safely evacuated.

The San Diego Police Department is investigating the incident per a memorandum of understanding that prevents law enforcement agencies from investigating use-of-force cases involving their own officers.

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