Suppose the Russian hack wasn’t?

RUSSIA: There was no hack of Democratic National Committee emails, and the documents that turned up in the hands of WikiLeaks just before the Democratic National Convention last summer were “synthetically tainted” to look like they came from Russian sources. Those are the shocking findings of several credentialed investigators you aren’t hearing about from most media. More surprising is that the two outlets now looking into this are Salon and The Nation, a liberal magazine. And making it harder to see why other media are ignoring this: The group undoing the Russian hack scenario—an alleged breach that’s brought U.S.-Russia relations to the brink while spilling a lot of figurative ink—is the same crack (and cranky) group of forensic investigators and former National Security Agency officials who in 2003 debunked faulty intelligence leading up to the Iraq War.

SYRIA: Thousands of civilians trapped in Raqqa, the ISIS capital in northern Syria now under siege from a U.S.-led coalition, are coming under fire from all sides as the battle for control of the city enters its final stage. The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces now control more than 60 percent of the city and former ISIS stronghold.

Behind the scenes in Syria, U.S. and Russian military commanders are talking to one another all the time, utilizing a hotline linking their air commands a dozen times a day.

TURKEY: American pastor Andrew Brunson, imprisoned since last October, faces three new charges, including espionage and an attempt to overthrow the government. State-run newspapers report the new charges mean he could face four consecutive life sentences. At a hearing yesterday, the pastor told the court, “I am a defender of Jesus Christ. … I am a religious man who builds a church and does it in the knowledge of the state. I will never support any Islamic movement.”

Brunson, who has worked for 23 years in Turkey (backstory here), was transferred recently to the maximum-security prison in Buca. The increased severity of his case comes despite rumors of a prisoner swap, U.S. President Donald Trump bringing up the case in his May meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also talking to Erdogan about the case and meeting with Brunson’s wife, Norine, during his March visit to Ankara.

IRAQ: Iraqi forces arrested an infamous ISIS slave trader, responsible for buying and selling Yazidi women and girls, after one of the Yazidi girls he once held hostage reported his presence in a camp for displaced people.

FRANCE: A 50-year-old mission church–turned–outreach ministry is using skits and safari games to build bridges with Muslim neighbors in Bethoncourt.

BRITAIN: To hear famed composer John Rutter and others tell it, St. Sepulchre Without Newgate Church in central London has lost its raison d’être. But a look at the church’s website and this analysis show St. Sepulchre may be recovering its mission, and growing, needing its worship space more for worship and other activities than for outside musicians.

RESOURCES: The Notre Dame University–based research project “Under Caesar’s Sword” has released a seven-session study series for high school students and adult groups aimed at deepening Christians’ response to persecution. It’s available online and through Notre Dame’s extended learning program in an interactive online classroom setting.

HEAVENS: Monday’s total eclipse of the sun from the other side, aboard the International Space Station, was also breathtaking. And meanwhile on Earth, a camera in Wyoming caught the space station transiting the sun in a silhouette made possible during the eclipse: