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For the next 100 days, a sensitive issue for the Harris campaign and the White House is, Where and when should Joe Biden be seen? It matters not just for the election, but also for his own legacy.

鈥� Stocks fall: Stocks tumble on worries the United States economy could be cracking under the weight of high interest rates meant to whip inflation.
鈥� Venezuela election:聽Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia call for Venezuela to release detailed voting tallies, while the United States says it considers the opposition candidate聽Edmundo Gonz谩lez the winner, amid disputed July 28 presidential election results.
鈥� LGBTQ+ rule: A new federal rule to protect LGBTQ+ students from discrimination in schools and colleges based on gender identity takes effect this month, though 26 states are blocking it.
鈥⒙燗mazon fires:聽Fires in Brazil鈥檚 Amazon rainforest region surge to a two-decade high in July, according to new data.

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Good partnerships yield greater perspective. We spoke with Monitor journalists who cover countries in Latin America and Africa about how they find their regions鈥� truest voices, build trust, and then collaborate as co-writers and editors to produce some of their best work.聽

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Last month, a group of Palestinian musicians who fled into Egypt from the war in Gaza met for an evening in Cairo to perform their songs. The event was a celebration of their resilience and Palestinian heritage, as well as a way to affirm 鈥渢hat Palestine is not just about war,鈥� as one organizer put it.

Just weeks before, thousands of Israeli Jews gathered at a park in Tel Aviv for a 鈥渉ealing concert.鈥� Many were survivors or the families of victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on a Jewish music festival near the Gaza border. The Tel Aviv concert, said one organizer, was to show that 鈥渕usic is the best therapy for our community.鈥� The motto of the event: 鈥淲e will dance again.鈥�

In June, a similar festival in New Jersey brought together some 1,300 American Jews. The purpose, said one organizer, was to 鈥減ick up the pieces through the spiritually replenishing magic of a live music festival.鈥� One attendee told The Jerusalem Post, 鈥淎s a proud Jew, I will counter evil, blind hatred, and darkness with friendship ... and great music.鈥�

By its very nature, music creates a receptivity in a listener, offering universal tones that can forge bonds with others and inspire an alternative way of living. Or, as a 2015 report by the United States Institute of Peace stated, the performing arts can 鈥渆mbody a kind of power that rests not on injury or domination, but rather on reciprocity, connectivity, and generativity.鈥�

A good example in the U.S. is an instrumental group in Milwaukee called the Black String Triage Ensemble. Founded in 2019, the all-volunteer Black and Latino musicians rush to scenes of shootings and other tragedies to perform a concert on the streets as an act of healing, offering comfort through music.

鈥淲herever we show up and we play together is a place of prayer鈥� and asking for peace,鈥� Dayvin Hallmon, founder of the group, said in a PBS documentary. 鈥淲e love out loud through our music.鈥�

The goal of the ensemble is to prevent violence from happening to anyone in the community, a thought similar with what many Israeli and Palestinian musicians 鈥� now divided by war 鈥� may be trying to do. They seek to rescue their humanity through song.