• The Pentagon’s warnings about the threats it faces are falling on deaf ears. Geoff Dyer explains why “if the military is to fend off much bigger cuts to its budget in the coming years, it will need to present a more convincing story about the threats that America faces, one that focuses on specific challenges rather than a blanket sense of fear and trepidation.”
• Pavel Dmitrichenko, a star dancer at the Bolshoi, confessed to organising the acid attack on the theatre’s director, Sergei Filin.
• Benedict Mander, our correspondent in Venezuela, looks at why many Venezuelans who forgave Hugo Chávez for his economic blunders are unlikely to be so generous towards the next leader.
• John Gapper argues that those yearning for recognition of their wealth should consider giving their riches away.
• Witnesses in a Guardian/BBC documentary have alleged that the Pentagon sent a US veteran of the “dirty wars” in Central America to oversee sectarian police commando units in Iraq that set up secret detention and torture centres.
• Chinese parents constantly bemoan the laziness of their children and the young people have had enough. James Palmer looks at the growing divide between the old and young in China: “It’s not just a generation gap. It’s a values gap, a wealth gap, an education gap, a relationships gap, an information gap.”

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