SYRIA: It was going to be the year the farmers of eastern Syria and Iraq bounced back, but instead mysterious crop fires—some claimed by ISIS—are destroying acres of wheat and barley in large swaths visible from space.

FRANCE: British Prime Minister Theresa May—in perhaps her last official act as head of government before her resignation takes effect tomorrow—joined French President Emmanuel Macron to dedicate a new British war memorial at Ver-sur-Mer, a small coastal town in Normandy, as part of today’s 75th anniversary of the largest sea and air assault in history.

BRITAIN: Pomp was the order of the day as U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in London Monday to begin a state visit coinciding with Thursday’s 75th anniversary of D-Day. Low-brow controversy quickly overtook the visit as Trump responded with insults to an op-ed by London Mayor Sadiq Khan questioning the visit. Trump’s U.K.

IRAQ AND SYRIA: Farmers expected a good wheat and barley harvest after years of drought and war, but fires have scorched thousands of acres of grain fields, part of the latest strategy by ISIS factions and, in some areas, Syrian forces, to drive residents from their land.

NORTH KOREA: U.S. President Donald Trump, in a news conference in Japan, went against national security adviser John Bolton and other top officials, saying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “is a very smart man” who has not violated UN sanctions this month or launched ballistic missiles.

So a rabbi walks into a room full of journalists, turns a light on—and it’s no joke.

Lord Jonathan Sacks, for 22 years the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, was the keynote speaker for London’s 2019 Religion Media Festival this spring, one of those unheralded events that signifies more than it advertises. 

TURKEY: According to extensive new research from professors at Israel’s Ben Gurion University, Turkey’s Christian communities disappeared as a result of “a staggered campaign of genocide” that over three decades murdered 2 million Christians in “bouts of slaughter” a century ago. By combing through extensive government archives, the academics have documented a targeted campaign to eliminate Christians—of which the Armenian Genocide is just one part.