The U.S. approved a new COVID-19 vaccine made by Moderna late Friday but with limits on who can use it — not a replacement for the company’s existing shot, but a second option.
The new vaccine, mNexspike, is a step toward next-generation coronavirus vaccines. It’s made in a way that allows for a lower dose — a fifth of the dose of its current COVID-19 vaccine, Spikevax — by refining its immune target.
The approval “adds an important new tool to help protect people at high risk of severe disease from COVID-19,” Stephane Bancel, Moderna’s CEO, said in a statement Saturday.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the new vaccine for use in all adults 65 and older, and for people age 12 to 64 who have a least one health condition that puts them at increased risk from the coronavirus.
That’s the same limit that the FDA set in licensing another COVID-19 vaccine option from competitor Novavax.
Moderna’s existing vaccine doesn’t face those limits and has long been used for anyone ages 6 months and older. The company said it expected to offer both options this fall.
The FDA’s approval was based on a study of 11,400 people age 12 and older that compared the new low-dose vaccine with Moderna’s existing vaccine. It found the new vaccine was safe and was at least as effective — and more by some measures — than the original shot, the company said.
The news came just days after the Trump administration canceled funding for Moderna to develop a vaccine against potential pandemic flu viruses, including the H5N1 bird flu, despite promising early study results.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
By SETH BORENSTEIN and GABRIELA AOUN ANGUEIRA Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — With predictions for a busy hurricane season beginning Sunday, experts in storms and disasters are worried about something potentially as chaotic as the swirling winds: Massive cuts to the federal system that forecasts, tracks and responds to hurricanes.
“My nightmare is a major catastrophic storm hitting an area that is reeling from the impact of all of this nonsense from the Trump administration and people will die. And that could happen in Florida, that could happen in Texas, that could happen in South Carolina,” said Susan Cutter, the director of the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute at the University of South Carolina.
Representatives of both NOAA and FEMA say the agencies are prepared.
Experts: DOGE cuts diminish FEMA
About 2,000 full-time staff have left FEMA since Trump took office in January, a loss of roughly one-third of the agency’s full-time workforce, amid Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) mandated cuts. Scholars who study emergency management are concerned by both the reduction in capacity and the “brain drain” of experienced staff.
“There’s really been a brain drain within FEMA in addition to the loss of overall employees,” said Samantha Montano, who teaches emergency management at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. She noted that many who left were in critical management positions.
Experts in storms and disasters are more worried about something potentially as chaotic than the swirling winds: Massive cuts to the federal system that forecasts, tracks, prepares for, responds to and recovers from hurricanes. (AP Video Produced by Julián Trejo Bax)
The agency is run by an acting chief, David Richardson, a former Marine Corps officer who served overseas and worked as the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for countering weapons of mass destruction. He does not appear to have any experience in managing disasters. Emergency management requires knowing where to get things, who to call, how things work and how to get it done quickly — which comes from experience and establishing relationships with state officials, Montano and Cutter said.
What’s happening reminds former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Craig Fugate of 2005, the year Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana and exposed inexperienced and poorly prepared governments at all levels, especially the then-FEMA chief who came from a horse-rearing association. Fugate said he’s especially worried about top experienced disaster people leaving FEMA.
FEMA canceled various emergency management trainings this spring, moved others online and restricted travel to events such as the National Hurricane Conference. Some trainings have resumed.
“Given the reduction in staffing, being unable to do trainings, participate in conferences, there’s potential that the federal government’s ability is diminished,” said former Florida Emergency Management chief Bryan Koon, now president of the disaster preparedness firm IEM.
FEMA has also cut disaster resilience programs. Making areas more survivable saves up to $13 for every dollar spent, said Lori Peek, director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado.
The federal government promises to be ready for hurricane season, which runs through November.
“FEMA is shifting from bloated DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens,” Associate FEMA Administrator Geoff Harbaugh said in a email. “FEMA is fully activated in preparation for hurricane season.”
FEMA’s relationship with states
Richardson promised to push more responsibilities to the states. He warned that the agency will only do what the law requires and shift more costs to states.
But Koon noted that states haven’t budgeted for FEMA’s changes, adding: “The biggest issue right now is just the uncertainty.”
Some states — which coordinate disaster operations — are experienced in catastrophes, have well trained staff and will do fine, such as Texas and Florida, Fugate said. But it’s the poorer states that worry the experts.
The feds often pick up the entire bill in big disasters and most of it in smaller ones. In the Trump administration, disaster declarations have been denied or delayed. When disaster declarations were issued for nine states last week, some had been pending for two months and others were only partially approved.
“We’ve just relied on FEMA for so much for so long and not knowing who’s going to fill the gap and how we’re going to fill it is really scary,” said University at Albany emergency management professor Jeannette Sutton.
Hurricane center dodges NOAA cuts
NOAA, the parent agency of the National Weather Service, has undergone a series of dramatic job cuts, with some people then reinstated. A sizable chunk of the weather service’s 121 local field offices as of late March had vacancy rates of more than 20%, what’s seen by outsiders as a critical level of understaffing. Local weather offices are crucial in helping people translate national warnings into what to do locally.
“It should be all hands on deck and we’re being hollowed out,” former NWS director Louis Uccellini said.
But the National Hurricane Center, which tracks and warns of hurricanes in the Atlantic, Pacific and Caribbean, has been spared. Acting NOAA Administrator Laura Grimm, National Weather Service Director Ken Graham and National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said the agency is prepared for the season with the Miami-based storm center fully staffed and so are the planes that fly into storms.
For the first time this year, the hurricane center will incorporate artificial intelligence into forecasting because it has shown to improve predictions generally, Brennan said.
“Our services have never been better,” Graham said. “Our ability to serve this country has never been better. And it will be this year as well.”
But beyond the hurricane center, weather balloons launches have been curtailed because of lack of staffing. In some places, balloon launches have dropped from twice a day to once a day.
NOAA hopes to get more balloons launched if needed, Brennan said.
Data from the balloons is crucial for understanding steering currents and needed for forecasts, Uccellini said. He said when hurricanes threatened during his tenure he would order the launch of several extra balloons in the Great Plains to help figure out if storms would hit the United States.
“Hurricane forecasts, I’m expecting not to be as accurate this year because of that lack of balloon data,″ said former NOAA meteorologist Jeff Masters, now at Yale Climate Connections.
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Aoun Angueira reported from San Diego.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Prepare Basic Country Beef Breakfast Sausage. Remove from skillet. Basic Country-Style Beef Breakfast Sausage: Combine 1 pound Ground Beef (93% or leaner), 2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage or 1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage, 1 teaspoon garlic power, 1 teaspoon onion power, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper in large bowl, mixing lightly but thoroughly. Heat large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot. Add sausage mixture; cook 8 to 10 minutes, breaking into 1/2-inch crumbles, stirring occasionally.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly spray 12 muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray. Combine sausage, scrambled eggs, cheese and water. Stir in optional filling ingredients, if desired. Roll out one dough ball at a time on unfloured surface to 4 to 5-inch diameter circle. Place approximately 1/4 cup of sausage filling into the center of the circle. Gather edges of dough and pinch together. With hands roll dough back into ball. Place seam-side down into a muffin cup.
Bake 24 to 27 minutes or until rolls are golden brown.
NEW YORK (AP) — Taylor Swift has regained control over her entire body of work.
In a lengthy note posted to her official website on Friday, Swift announced: “All of the music I’ve ever made now belongs to me.”
The pop star said she purchased her catalog of recordings — originally released through Big Machine Records — from their most recent owner, the private equity firm Shamrock Capital. She did not disclose the amount.
In recent years, Swift has been rerecording and releasing her first six albums in an attempt to regain control of her music.
“I can’t thank you enough for helping to reunite me with this art that I have dedicated my life to, but have never owned until now,” Swift addressed fans in the post. “The best things that have ever been mine … finally actually are.”
“We are thrilled with this outcome and are so happy for Taylor,” Shamrock Capital said in a statement.
Swift’s rerecordings were instigated by Hybe America CEO Scooter Braun’s purchase and sale of her early catalog and represents Swift’s effort to control her own songs and how they’re used. Previous “Taylor’s Version” releases have been more than conventional re-recordings, arriving with new “from the vault” music, Easter eggs and visuals that deepen understanding of her work.
“I am happy for her,” Braun said Friday.
She has also released new music, including last year’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” announced during the 2024 Grammys and released during her record-breaking tour.
So far, there have been four rerecorded albums, beginning with “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version)” in 2021. All four have been massive commercial and cultural successes, each one debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Fans have theorized that “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” would be next: On May 19, “Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s Version)” aired nearly in full during the opening scene of a Season 6 episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Prior to that, the song was teased in 2023’s Prime Video limited-series thriller “Wilderness” and in Apple TV+’s “The Dynasty: New England Patriots” in 2024. Also in 2023, she contributed “Delicate (Taylor’s Version)” to Prime Video’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty.”
But according to the note shared Friday, Swift says she hasn’t “even rerecorded a quarter of it.”
She did say, however, that she has completely rerecorded her self-titled debut album “and I really love how it sounds now.”
Swift writes that both her self-titled debut and “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” “can still have their moments to reemerge when the time is right.”
Representatives for Swift and HYBE did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Musk is leaving his position spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency, and he’ll be rededicating himself to running his businesses, including electric automaker Tesla, rocket company SpaceX and social media platform X.
Trump credited Musk with “a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington” and said some of his staff would remain in the administration. Musk, who wore all black including a T-shirt that said “The Dogefather,” nodded along as the president listed contracts that had been cut under his watch.
“I think the DOGE team is doing an incredible job,” Musk said after accepting a ceremonial key from the president. “They’re going to continue to be doing an incredible job.”
He left a searing mark on the federal bureaucracy, including thousands of employees who were fired or pushed out. Some government functions were eviscerated, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, which had provided a lifeline for impoverished people around the world. Boston University researchers estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have already died as a result of the USAID cuts.
Despite the upheaval, Musk also fell far short of his goals. After promising to cut $1 trillion or even $2 trillion in federal spending, he lowered expectations to only $150 billion in the current fiscal year.
It’s unclear whether that target has been hit. The DOGE website tallies $175 billion in savings, but its information has been riddled with errors and embellishments.
Trump said Musk had led the “most sweeping and consequential government reform effort in generations.” He suggested that Musk is “really not leaving” and “he’s going to be back and forth” to keep tabs on what’s happening in the administration.
Musk, the world’s richest person, recently said he would reduce his political donation s. He was Trump’s top donor in last year’s presidential campaign.
Trump appeared eager to end Musk’s service on a high note.
“This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way,” Trump wrote on social media on Thursday evening. “Elon is terrific!”
As a special government employee, Musk’s position was designed to be temporary. However, he had speculated about staying “indefinitely,” working part time for the administration, if Trump still wanted his help.
Musk has brushed off questions about how DOGE would continue without him, even suggesting it could “gain momentum” in the future.
“DOGE is a way of life,” he told reporters recently. “Like Buddhism.”
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Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer contributed to this report.
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — When it came to a picking a name for his business, Ralph Rodriguez rolled the dice. He went with Fort Liberty Pawn & Gun.
It’s going to cost him about $30,000.
“That’s signage, uniforms, stationery, business cards, advertising, and state licensing changes and federal changes,” he said.
When he was filing his incorporation papers last fall, Rodriguez knew one of President Donald Trump’s campaign promises was to restore the names of Confederate officers — like Gen. Braxton Bragg — to military installations rebranded under the Biden administration. But it seemed to Rodriguez that he should go with the installation’s name as it was at the time.
Ralph Rodriguez can be forgiven for feeling like a pawn. He chose to name his pawn and gun store after Fort Liberty, and is having to spend thousands to rebrand after the Army changed the installation back to Fort Bragg. (AP video/Allen G. Breed)
“We were trying to attach ourselves to the military base and show support for them, because we know that’s going to be our customers,” he said with a shrug. “I could care less about Braxton Bragg.”
Less than a month into Trump’s second term, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the installation rechristened Fort Bragg, this time in honor of World War II paratrooper Roland Bragg of Maine.
Two things immediately went through Rodriguez’s mind.
“The first thing I said was, `It’s going to be expensive.’ And the second thing was, `Who’s going to get mad about THIS?’”
People were telling Rodriguez he should call his shop Fort Bragg Pawn & Gun even before Trump won the election. After all, it’s located on Fort Bragg Road.
Then shortly before the grand opening in December, someone vandalized his sign.
“We came to work and we seen a yellow line across the `Liberty,’” he said.
Rodriguez is used to catching flak for his Michigan roots or the peace sign tattoo on his right arm. And then there’s his wife’s crystal shop next door.
“My customers call her side the `liberal containment center,’” he said with a chuckle.
And what do her customers call his?
“`Trumpers,’” he said. “Or, you know, `mega gun nuts.’”
As a sop to her husband’s clientele, Hannah Rodriguez carries a few stones carved in the shape of pistols and hand grenades.
“Crystals and pistols,” she said with a giggle.
But when it comes to Bragg vs. Liberty, it’s no laughing matter.
“Look, there’s no middle ground in Fayetteville. They’re extremely either right or left,” Ralph Rodriguez said. “If you tilt one way or another man, you’re going to lose customers … But we would definitely have lost more if we would have kept it Fort Liberty Pawn and Gun.”
Several other businesses in and around Fayetteville also went with Liberty, including the local federal credit union. It has already changed back, though it will take a while to redo all the signs.
At least one company is sticking with the name Liberty.
“We came up with this whole name based on the alliteration, because I’m a big writer geek,” said Sabrina Soares, broker in charge at the real estate firm Fort Liberty Living. “So, we’re probably just going to keep it as is.”
In 2023, the state spent $163,000 to change all the Fort Bragg highway signs to Fort Liberty. Switching them back is expected to run over $200,000.
Rodriguez figures he got off easy.
On a recent sultry afternoon, retired Army officer and mayoral candidate Freddie de la Cruz stopped by to chat and check up on a purchase: a semiautomatic 12-gauge shotgun, painted with the Stars and Stripes, which he’s planning to raffle off.
He said Rodriguez shouldn’t be so hard on himself.
“It was a smart move there,” he said. “At the time.”
Retired Army Master Sgt. Sidney High said he has no problem coming into a shop called Fort Liberty.
“It doesn’t bother me at all,” he said, resting his cola on a glass gun case. “I call it Fort Bragg all the time anyway. So, it doesn’t make any difference to me.”
Rodriguez figures it will take about six months to get everything switched over. He’s looking forward to putting this chapter behind him.
“I just want to be in business,” he said. “I want to be happy. I want everybody else to be happy. And it’s hard. It’s hard, and you can’t keep both sides happy.”
Just to be safe, he’s keeping both names on the paperwork.
Cut top 1/3 off loaf. Scoop out middle of loaf base, reserve bread pieces. Place hallowed loaf on shallow-rimmed baking sheet.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine corned beef, cream cheese, olives, provolone, giardiniera and red peppers in large bowl; mix well. Place beef mixture in hallowed loaf. Bake in 350°F oven 35 to 40 minutes or until dip is bubbly. Serve with carrots, celery, crackers and bread pieces, as desired. (You may bake this dip in 8 by 8-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray for 20 minutes until golden and bubbly.)
DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Ben Griffin resumed the great play that brought him his first individual PGA Tour victory last week, hitting two shots in the water and still posting a 7-under 65 on Thursday in the Memorial on a course with rough as dense as a U.S. Open.
Griffin isn’t taking victory laps after winning at Colonial. He just kept making birdies, along with an eagle on the par- 5 seventh hole with a 3-wood into 12 feet. He led by two shots over Collin Morikawa, with Max Homa another stroke behind.
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler wasn’t at his best and still managed a 70, his 19th consecutive tournament in which he opened with a round par.
Griffin was playing so well that his two water balls — on the par-5 11th and par-3 12th — only led to bogeys when such mistakes punished so many other players.
“Yeah, a couple water balls — really need to go to the range and work on my game to clean that stuff up,” Griffin said with a laugh.
He knew this was a good one. Muirfield Village was soft enough from rain the past two days that good scores were available provided shots came from the fairway, and not from rough that Justin Thomas had said was comparable to what they will face at Oakmont in the U.S. Open.
“Basically a U.S. Open we’re playing,” Keegan Bradley said. “I’m going to be playing back-to-back U.S. Opens here. But the course is very fair, setup nice. Just a tough test.”
The numbers bear that out, whether it was only 13 players who broke par in a gentle wind, or the eight players who made triple bogey on seven of the holes at Muirfield Village.
Griffin set the pace early by going out in 31, and then ran into a few problems with the water. He tried to reach the green on the 11th, came up short and into the water, and missed a 10-foot par putt. On the 12th, his tee shot bounced back down the slope into the water. He saved bogey with a 6-foot putt.
But what a finish — a 15-foot birdie on the par-3 16th, a 12-foot birdie on the 17th and holing out from just over 50 feet up the ridge on the 18th for a third straight birdie.
“It was an incredible day,” Griffin said. “Kind of building on what I was doing last week, making a ton of birdies, staying aggressive. This is one of the toughest golf courses we play on tour and you’ve got to be on your game to make birdies and give yourself a lot of looks.”
Shane Lowry played alongside Griffin and had a 69, one of only six players to break 70. It might not have felt that good the way Griffin was playing.
“I told him when we finished, ‘Keep it going, things will turn around for you pretty soon,’” Lowry said with a smile. “He pretty much holed everything he looked at today. It was good. We bounced off each other, we all played really nicely.
“My 3 under doesn’t look that great beside his 7 under, but 3 under is a good score out there on this course,” he said. “It’s pretty difficult.”
Homa keeps trying to piece together his game that allowed him to reach No. 10 in the world when he played the Memorial last year. Now he is at No. 87 and faces a long week — a tough test at Muirfield Village, and then 36 holes of U.S. Open qualifying Monday.
“I told my coach last night this is the best my swing has felt in a really long time. Then the whole game kind of felt like that,” Homa said. “I didn’t need to shoot a low number to validate that, but it just feels nice.”
Nick Taylor had one of the 10 double bogeys — two others made triple bogey — on the par-3 12th, but the Canadian rallied with two birdies on his last three holes for a 69.
Scheffler won the PGA Championship and tried to get as much rest as he could ahead of Colonial, where he still tied for fourth. He worked a little more in the days heading into Memorial and spent too much time in the rough and battling for pars.
He does that well, too, dropping only two shots despite hitting six of the 14 fairways and twice failing to convert birdie chances on the par 5s on the back nine.
The last time he was over par to start a tournament was the U.S. Open last year.
“I felt like I scored pretty well. If I want to keep doing that, I’ll have to be a little sharper the next few days,” Scheffler said. “But overall, a good job posting a score. Yeah, 2 under on this place any day is pretty good.”
No need telling that to Thomas (80) or Daniel Berger (81). And then there was Adam Scott, who was 7 over for his round through six holes. He played even par the rest of the way for a 79.
NEW YORK (AP) — A big rally for stocks that began in Asia on Thursday lost steam after sweeping into Europe and the United States amid uncertainty about what will happen next after a U.S. court blocked many of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
The S&P 500 rose 0.4% after giving up more than half of an early gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 117 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.4%.
It’s a downshift after stocks initially leaped nearly 2% in Tokyo and Seoul, where markets had the first chance to react to the ruling late Wednesday by the U.S. Court of International Trade. The court said that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act that Trump cited for ordering massive increases in taxes on imports from around the world does not authorize the use of tariffs.
The ruling at first raised hopes in financial markets that a hamstrung Trump would not be able to drive the economy into a recession with his tariffs, which had threatened to grind down on global trade and raise prices for consumers already sick of high inflation. Trump has said he wants to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, and he warned the process could cause some pain for U.S. households.
But the tariffs remain in place for now while the White House appeals the ruling, and the ultimate outcome is still uncertain. The court’s ruling also affects only some of Trump’s tariffs, not those on foreign steel, aluminum and autos, which were invoked under a different law.
Trump “is still able to impose significant and wide-ranging tariffs over the longer-term through other means,” according to Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, chief investment officer of global equities at UBS Global Wealth Management.
Such uncertainty helped dampen the excitement in financial markets as trading headed through Europe into the United States, where the moves were much more modest than in Asia. The U.S. court’s move was nevertheless seen as a positive for financial markets.
“The bar is raised for President Trump to resurrect his tariffs,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.
“Markets are pricing that this is a better type of uncertainty than what we’ve had since Liberation Day,” which is what Trump called his April 2 announcement of a worldwide set of sweeping tariffs.
The S&P 500 has pulled within 3.8% of its all-time high after dropping roughly 20% below at one point last month.
The chip company has grown into one of the U.S. market’s largest and most influential stocks because of the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology, and its 3.2% rise was the strongest force by far lifting the S&P 500.
C3.ai, an AI application software company, jumped 20.8% after it reported stronger profit than analysts expected for its latest quarter. It also said the U.S. Air Force increased the maximum possible value for its contract by $350 million to $450 million. The company’s revenue last quarter totaled $108.7 million.
E.l.f. Beauty was another big winner and rose 23.6% after the cosmetics company delivered a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also said it agreed to buy Hailey Bieber’s Rhode skincare brand in a $1 billion deal. Rhode had $212 million in net sales in the 12 months through March.
Bieber, a model and the wife of singer Justin Bieber, will be Rhode’s chief creative officer and head of innovation and also a strategic advisor to the combined companies.
They helped offset a drop for Best Buy, which fell 7.3% even though it reported a stronger profit than expected. Its revenue fell short of analysts’ forecasts.
The electronics retailer also cut its forecasted ranges for revenue and profit over the full year on the assumption that “tariffs stay at the current levels for the rest of the year, and there is no material change in consumer behavior from the trends we have seen in recent quarters,” Chief Financial Officer Matt Bilunas said.
Many companies have recently said that the uncertainty caused by tariffs is making it too difficult to offer any financial forecasts for the upcoming year.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 23.62 points to 5,912.17. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 117.03 to 42,215.73, and the Nasdaq composite gained 74.93 to 19,175.87.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.43% from 4.47% late Wednesday.
In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.9% to help lead Asian markets higher, while stocks rose 1.4% in Hong Kong and 0.7% in Shanghai. South Korea’s Kospi rallied 1.9% after the Bank of Korea cut its key interest rate to ease pressure on the economy.
The moves for European stocks were much more muted. France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX both swung from early gains to modest losses.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
BREMEN, 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 pre-Civil War publication, groups of Sacred Harp singers have periodically worked together to revise it, preserving its history and breathing new life into it. It’s a renewal, not a reprint, said David Ivey, a lifelong singer and chair of the Sacred Harp Publishing Company’s revision and music committee.
“That’s credited for keeping our book vibrant and alive,” said Ivey.
First published in 1844 by West Georgia editors and compilers Benjamin F. White and Elisha J. King, revisions of the shape-note hymnal make space for songs by living composers, said Jesse P. Karlsberg, a committee member and expert on the tradition.
“This is a book that was published before my great-grandparents were born and I think people will be singing from it long after I’m dead,” said Karlsberg, who met his wife through the a cappella group practice, which is central to his academic career. It’s also his spiritual community.
“It’s changed my life to become a Sacred Harp singer.”
Cuts, additions and other weighty decision making
The nine-member revision committee feels tremendous responsibility, said Ivey, who also worked on the most recent 1991 edition.
Sacred Harp singers are not historical reenactors, he said. They use their hymnals week after week. Some treat them like scrapbooks or family Bibles, tucking mementos between pages, taking notes in the margins and passing them down. Memories and emotions get attached to specific songs, and favorites in life can become memorials in death.
“The book is precious to people,” said Ivey, on a March afternoon surrounded by songbooks and related materials at the nonprofit publishing company’s museum in Carrollton, Georgia.
Sacred Harp singing is a remarkably well-documented tradition. The small, unassuming museum — about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Atlanta near the Alabama state line — stewards a trove of recordings and meeting minutes of singing events.
The upcoming edition is years in the making. The revision, authorized by the publishing company’s board of directors in October 2018, was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It now will be released in September at the annual convention of the United Sacred Harp Musical Association in Atlanta.
Ivey hopes singers fall in love with it, though he knows there is nervousness in the Sacred Harp community. For now, many of the changes are under wraps.
Assembled to be representative of the community, the committee is being methodical and making decisions through consensus, Ivey said. Though most will remain, some old songs will be cut and new ones added. They invited singer input, holding community meetings and singing events to help evaluate the more than 1,100 new songs submitted for consideration.
Singing unites generations of family and friends
Sarah George, who met her husband through Sacred Harp and included it in their Episcopal wedding, hopes his compositions make the 2025 edition and their son grows up seeing his dad’s name in the songbook they will sing out of most weekends.
More so, George is wishing for a revival.
Her hope for “the revision is that it reminds people and reminds singers that we’re not doing something antiquated and folksy. We’re doing something that is a living, breathing worship tradition and music tradition,” said George, during a weekend of singing at Holly Springs.
Dozens gathered at the church for the Georgia State Sacred Harp Convention. Its back-to-back days of singing were interrupted by little other than potluck lunches and fellowship.
Sharing a pew with her daughter and granddaughter, Sheri Taylor explained that her family has sung from “The Sacred Harp” for generations. Her grandfather built a church specifically for singing events.
“I was raised in it,” said Taylor.
They’ve also known songwriters. Her daughter Laura Wood has fond childhood memories of singing with the late Hugh McGraw, a torchbearer of the tradition who oversaw the 1991 edition. While her mother is wary of the upcoming revision, knowing some songs won’t be included, Wood is excited for it.
At Holly Springs, they joined the chorus of voices bouncing off the church’s floor-to-ceiling wood planks and followed along in their songbooks. Wood felt connected to her family, especially her late grandmother.
“I can feel them with me,” she said.
Fa, sol, la, mi and other peculiarities of shape-note singing
Like all Sacred Harp events, it was not a performance. “The Sacred Harp” is meant to be sung by everyone — loudly.
Anyone can lead a song of their choosing from the hymnal’s 554 options, but a song can only be sung once per event with few exceptions. Also called fa-sol-la singing, the group sight-reads the songs using the book’s unique musical notations, sounding first its shape notes — fa, sol, la and mi — and then its lyrics.
“The whole idea is to make singing accessible to anyone,” said Karlsberg. “For many of us, it’s a moving and spiritual experience. It’s also a chance to see our dear friends.”
The shape-note tradition emerged from New England’s 18th century singing school movement that aimed to improve Protestant church music and expanded into a social activity. Over time, “The Sacred Harp” became synonymous with this choral tradition.
“The Sacred Harp” was designed to be neither denominational nor doctrinal, Karlsberg said. Many of its lyrics were composed by Christian reformers from England, such as Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley, he said. It was rarely used during church services.
Instead, the hymnal was part of the social fabric of the rural South, though racially segregated, Karlsberg said. Before emancipation, enslaved singers were part of white-run Sacred Harp events; post-Reconstruction, Black singers founded their own conventions, he said. “The Sacred Harp” eventually expanded to cities and beyond the South, including other countries.
“The Sacred Harp” is still sung in its hollow square formation. Singers organize into four voice parts: treble, alto, tenor and bass. Each group takes a side, facing an opening in the center where a rotating song leader guides the group and keeps time as dozens of voices come from all sides.
Christian or not, all singers are welcome
“It’s a high. I mean it’s just an almost indescribable feeling,” said Karen Rollins, a longtime singer and committee member.
At the museum, Rollins carefully turned the pages of her first edition copy of “The Sacred Harp,” and explained how the tradition is part of her fiber and faith. She often picks a Sunday singing over church.
“I like the fact that we can all sing — no matter who we are, what color, what religion, whatever — that we can sing with these people and never, never get upset talking about anything that might divide us,” she said.
Though many are Christian, Sacred Harp singers include people of other faiths and no faith, including LGBTQ+ community members who found church uncomfortable but miss congregational singing.
“It’s the good part of church for the people who grew up with it,” said Sam Kleinman, who stepped into the opening at Holly Springs to lead song No. 564 “Zion.” He is part of the vibrant shape-note singing community in New York City, that meets at St. John’s Lutheran Church near the historic Stonewall Inn.
Kleinman, who is Jewish but not observant, said he doesn’t have a religious connection to the lyrics and finds singing in a group cathartic.
Whereas Nathan Rees, a committee member and Sacred Harp museum curator, finds spiritual depth in the often-somber words.
“It just seems transcendent sometimes when you’re singing this, and you’re thinking about the history of the people who wrote these texts, the bigger history of just Christian devotion, and then also the history of music and this community,” he said.
At Holly Springs, Rees took his turn as song leader, choosing No. 374, “Oh, Sing with Me!” The group did as the 1895 song directed — loudly and in harmony like so many Sacred Harp singers before them.
“There’s no other experience to me that feels as elevating,” he said, “like you’re just escaping the world for a little while.”
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