Week in Review: Explosions Rock Damascus, Europe Boosts Arms Spending, China Launches Carrier, and Much More

This week, a number of stories showing “wars and rumors of wars”:

• Massive explosions in Syria’s capital appear to show Israel’s determination to prevent Iran from arming Hezbollah.
• Iran’s army is restructuring itself to play a more offensive role going forward.
• Fresh evidence of Iran aiming to control Middle Eastern waterways by force.
• A new report shows that Europe is reversing its trend of declining defense spending, and responding to an aggressive Russia by boosting its militaries.
• China launched its first domestically produced aircraft carrier, a sign of its determination to rule the waves.
• We’ll also talk about a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in America—Germany’s foreign minister prioritizing a meeting with an anti-Israel group over one with Israel’s prime minister—the pope visiting Muslim-dominated Egypt—a crackdown on dissent in Russia—and the bizarre irrationality of the supposedly rational “March for Science.”

All this and much more!