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Chef Phila Lorn was not necessarily aiming for “quote-unquote authentic” Cambodian food when he opened Mawn in his native Philadelphia two years ago. So when he approached some Cambodian teen patrons, he braced himself for questioning.“Someone’s going to say something like, ‘That’s not how my mom makes her oxtail soup,’” Lorn said. “So I walk up to the table. I’m like, ‘How is everything?’ And the kid looks up to me and he goes, ‘It doesn’t even matter, dude. So glad you’re here.’”It was at that moment that Lorn realized Mawn — the phonetic spelling of the Khmer word for…

United States President Donald Trump commuted the federal drugs-and-extortion sentence of former Chicago gang leader, Larry Hoover, on Wednesday. Hoover has been serving multiple life sentences following both state and federal convictions over the past five decades. For his federal conviction, Hoover is currently being held at the ADX Florence prison, a federal prison formally known as the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, in Florence, Colorado. Commuting a sentence means reducing its length or severity, or ending it entirely. The US president has the power to commute federal sentences, but not state sentences. Here is what we know. Who…

BREMEN, Ga. (AP) — “The Sacred Harp” hymnal is beloved by those who sing from it, carrying on the Christian songbook’s more than 180-year-old legacy.They are young and old — and all ages in between. Some have been singing from the hymnal all their lives, just as their parents and grandparents had done before them. Others became immersed in the shape-note singing tradition as adults and found fellowship as well as music. As the Sacred Harp community awaits the latest edition of their songbook, here’s a look at who these singers are and why this a cappella group practice is…

BREMEN, Ga. (AP) — “The Sacred Harp” is a pre-Civil War compilation of sacred songs that uses music notes shaped like triangles, ovals, squares and diamonds, and it is getting an update. Sung in four-part harmony, “The Sacred Harp” is central to its more than 180-year-old American folk a cappella singing tradition that is as much about the community as it is the music. It’s no accident “The Sacred Harp” is still in use today, and a new edition — the first in 34 years — is on its way.Since the beginning, groups of Sacred Harp singers have periodically worked…

BREMAN, Ga. (AP) — Singers at Holly Springs Primitive Baptist Church in West Georgia treat their red hymnals like extensions of themselves, never straying far from their copies of “The Sacred Harp” and its music notes shaped like triangles, ovals, squares and diamonds.In four-part harmony, they sing together for hours, carrying on a more than 180-year-old American folk tradition that is as much about the community as it is the music. It’s no accident “The Sacred Harp” is still in use today, and a new edition — the first in 34 years — is on its way.Since the Christian songbook’s…

BREMEN, Ga. (AP) — A Christian hymnal called “The Sacred Harp” is at the heart of a more than 180-year-old American singing tradition that is as much about the community as it is the music. Initially published in 1844, a new edition of the songbook — the first in 34 years — is being released later this year by the Sacred Harp Publishing Company. The refresh is meant to breathe new life into the hymnal while preserving its history and role in the a cappella group practice known as Sacred Harp singing. “The Sacred Harp” is a shape-note songbook, which…

Panel of judges finds the president overstepped his authority by imposing across-the-board duties on imports from trading partners.A United States trade court has ruled that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he imposed blanket tariffs on imports from US trading partners, issuing a permanent injunction that immediately halts the tariffs and demands a government response within 10 days. The Court of International Trade, based in New York, said the US Constitution grants Congress exclusive authority to regulate commerce with other countries that is not overridden by the president’s emergency powers to safeguard the US economy. “The court does not…

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — In a bookstore in Kenya’s capital, the proprietor arranged a shelf exclusively carrying books by Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, who died Wednesday in the United States.Nuria Bookstore owner Bennet Mbata, who has sold African literature for more than 30 years in the capital, Nairobi, said he enjoyed reading Ngũgĩ’s writing and is sad “he’ll never write again.”Kenya President William Ruto on Thursday paid tribute to the man he called “the towering giant of Kenyan letters,” saying Ngũgĩ’s courage shaped thoughts around social justice and abuse of political power.“His patriotism is undeniable, and even those who…

NEW YORK (AP) — When Angelina Rivera was a third grader, she wanted to be a scientist and was excited by bugs, rocks and everything in the natural world.But a family trip to visit relatives in Honduras changed her perspective. Police stopped her family’s car and aggressively questioned her father about a crime someone else committed the night before. The experience left Rivera, then 8, shaken but also realizing that people may be treated differently based on their appearance and location.Over time, that pivotal experience evolved into an interest in politics. After studying international relations in college, Rivera, now 22,…

HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese students studying in the U.S. are scrambling to figure out their futures after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday that some students would have their visas revoked.The U.S. will begin revoking the visas of some Chinese students, including those studying in “critical fields”, and “those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party,” according to the announcement.China is the second-largest country of origin for international students in the United States, behind only India. In the 2023-2024 school year, more than 270,000 international students were from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign…