Ex-energy secretary Ed Miliband’s agenda appears undermined as money is diverted from renewables to defence

Britain is unlikely to hit its targets on green heating after the cuts announced by John Healey this week, experts have warned, as critics of Ed Miliband claim the former energy secretary’s green agenda is being dismantled.

The chancellor unveiled more than £3bn worth of cuts to the energy department’s budget this week, much of which will pay for higher defence spending.

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© Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Vivian Beaumont theater, New York City
Unconvincing performances and an ill-fitting big stage make a retooled version of the classic courtroom drama feel like a missed opportunity

Given the current state of the US military brass, it makes some sense that audiences would want to drift back to an older, nobler idea of the armed services, in which bad actors exist but are rooted out by the good guys in uniform. That perhaps explains the Broadway revival of A Few Good Men, Aaron Sorkin’s 1989 courtroom drama about a cocky military attorney defending two young marines who followed an illegal order with fatal results. The play is at once sharp and misty-eyed, critiquing a hallowed institution while reverently imbuing it with a certain dignity – in some ways, it does for the military what Sorkin’s The West Wing did for the Oval Office.

A Few Good Men was turned into a hit Oscar-nominated film in 1992, starring a then boyish Tom Cruise in the role of recalcitrant navy lawyer Daniel Kaffee and a frightening Jack Nicholson as Kaffee’s ultimate enemy, Colonel Jessep, the hardliner in command of the US military base at Guantánamo Bay, where a marine has died under troubling circumstances. Directed by Rob Reiner, the film is a clever, old-fashioned crowd pleaser, culminating in a classic trial scene punctuated by the line. “You can’t handle the truth!”, Jessep memorably bellows at Kaffee just before confessing to his misdeeds. Those in search of crackling drama and sentimentality about the military should just watch that film, rather than plunking down a considerable sum of money to see the play in its current form at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont theater.

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© Photograph: Emilio Madrid

© Photograph: Emilio Madrid

© Photograph: Emilio Madrid

Pentagon says it has referred leak case to justice department for criminal investigation

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has reportedly dismissed Lt Gen Brett Sylvia, a high-ranking army strategist serving on the Pentagon’s joint staff, following allegations that he disclosed classified information to the public.

The Pentagon announced on Thursday that it had referred an alleged information leak case for criminal investigation, maintaining that the removal of the senior general was essential “to protect sensitive information”, the Washington Post reported.

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© Photograph: Spc. Javan Johnson/Training Support Activity Europe

© Photograph: Spc. Javan Johnson/Training Support Activity Europe

© Photograph: Spc. Javan Johnson/Training Support Activity Europe

Pentagon says it has referred leak case to justice department for criminal investigation

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has reportedly dismissed Lt Gen Brett Sylvia, a high-ranking army strategist serving on the Pentagon’s joint staff, following allegations that he disclosed classified information to the public.

The Pentagon announced on Thursday that it had referred an alleged information leak case for criminal investigation, maintaining that the removal of the senior general was essential “to protect sensitive information”, the Washington Post reported.

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© Photograph: Spc. Javan Johnson/Training Support Activity Europe

© Photograph: Spc. Javan Johnson/Training Support Activity Europe

© Photograph: Spc. Javan Johnson/Training Support Activity Europe

Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia was the second general under Hegseth to be removed as head of strategy, plans and policy on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Nothing done to stop planting weapons on dead Afghans, ADF inspector says, as ‘breakdown of command’ allowed ‘egregious behaviour’

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Some Australian SAS officers knew that soldiers under their command were using “throwdowns” – planting weapons on dead Afghan civilians to portray them as combatants – but did nothing to stop the unlawful practice, a previously unpublished military report has said.

Posted online this week, the executive summary of a 2021 investigation into the “cultural context” of the special operations command by the inspector general of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) is scathing about the “breakdown of command” and the erosion of military discipline during special forces operations in Afghanistan, which “resulted in episodes of potential and actual egregious behaviour”.

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© Photograph: LS Paul Berry

© Photograph: LS Paul Berry

© Photograph: LS Paul Berry

The Republican president has said new strikes on Iran are an option after the midterms and is sending more military resources to the Middle East, despite initially promising Americans a military campaign that would last only a matter of weeks.

As USS Colorado showcases the program in Perth, retired admiral Peter Briggs says personnel is one of the ‘huge issues’ it faces

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Australia faces an uphill battle to recruit and train enough naval personnel to serve on submarines planned for the future fleet of nuclear-powered vessels under the controversial $368bn Aukus deal, a retired admiral has warned.

As the Virginia-class submarine USS Colorado arrived at HMAS Stirling south of Perth on Tuesday for a month of routine maintenance and to help build Australian expertise, retired admiral Peter Briggs said more people needed to be enrolled in the navy’s submarine program.

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© Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

© Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

© Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

Trump has sought to justify the attacks by saying they stem the flow of drugs into the U.S., but critics have questioned the overall legality of the boat strikes as well as their effectiveness.

In 2021, the young soldier took her life after being sexually assaulted by a sergeant major, then sent thousands of messages by her line manager. She was just 19. Five years on, Leighann McCready is still searching for answers

When Leighann McCready phoned her 19-year-old daughter, Jaysley Beck, on 15 December 2021, she got no reply, but brushed away her worries. “Jays always, always answered her phone, but it was early, eight in the morning,” she says. Beck, an army soldier in the Royal Artillery, had been at a party the night before at her Wiltshire barracks. She was probably asleep.

It was a busy time, the Christmas countdown. Soon, Beck was expected to be back home in Cumbria, where her parents – McCready and Anthony Beck – own a village pub. McCready had already bought matching Christmas pyjamas for Beck and her older sister Emilli to wear on the day.

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© Photograph: Centre For Military Justice/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Centre For Military Justice/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Centre For Military Justice/AFP/Getty Images

US military says the restrictions on the electric vehicles at Kadena airbase also apply to delivery drivers and taxis

One of America’s biggest overseas military bases has banned vehicles made by the Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD over security concerns, the US military in Japan said on Tuesday.

The ban, which went into effect this week at Kadena airbase on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, has fueled speculation that similar measures could be taken at other US military facilities as part of Washington’s crackdown on Chinese technology it suspects of being used to collect sensitive information.

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© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, denies charges that he fatally strangled Anna Yagi, 39, in a hotel on the island of Okinawa

Prosecutors in Japan have filed formal charges against a US marine suspected of murdering and robbing a woman while stationed on the country’s island of Okinawa, according to Japanese media.

Devin Jacob Ballard, a 20-year-old lance corporal assigned to Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, is charged with fatally strangling Anna Yagi, 39, at a hotel in the city and stealing from her a backpack containing a wallet, the public broadcaster NHK reported.

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© Photograph: KYODO/Reuters

© Photograph: KYODO/Reuters

© Photograph: KYODO/Reuters

Exclusive: Coordinated airstrikes on territory held by al-Shabaab are driving the civilian population to find refuge alongside a river where rising water levels are a threat to safety. Is it a deliberate military strategy?

The water was rising rapidly. It had already reached Cayni Ali’s waist. Her home, five metres from the flooded River Juba in southern Somalia, never stood a chance. There was nowhere to go. Ali’s city of Jilib was under attack. Repeated airstrikes, said the mother of six, were pinning its population beside the rising river.

“The drones come all the time,” said the 27-year-old. “We hear them constantly. They kill animals, civilians. The town is big but destruction is everywhere.”

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© Photograph: Hugh Kinsella Cunningham

© Photograph: Hugh Kinsella Cunningham

© Photograph: Hugh Kinsella Cunningham