The UK's allies are increasingly concerned at a failure by the government to rearm at pace, despite the prime minister declaring "hard power is the currency of the age".

Publishing the defence funding blueprint before Sir Keir meets with Donald Trump and other NATO leaders in Turkey on 7 and 8 July was meant to be a way of allaying such fears.

But, rather than reassuring allies, such a move risks having the reverse effect if Britain fails to set out a credible plan to transform the armed forces from hollowed out to fighting ready.

In a worrying sign, I understand that officials at the Ministry of Defence are scrambling to rush through tweaks to the defence investment plan after John Healey and Al Carns resigned a fortnight ago as defence secretary and armed forces minister respectively.

The pair quit in protest at a failure by Sir Keir and his chancellor to fund the original plan properly.

Mr Carns also criticised its content for not focusing on the right kit, with too much emphasis on large, expensive, legacy programmes such as fast jets, warships and submarines instead of cheap, disposable drones that have transformed the battlefield in Ukraine.

Dan Jarvis, the new defence secretary, has said he is now working hard to secure the "right" deal for the military and to release the defence investment plan before the Ankara summit.

However, this politically dictated timeline could result in a poor outcome for the armed forces, especially if any announcement is ultimately yet more decline dressed up as reprioritised investment, with choices dictated by fiscal constraint rather than what is needed.

The fact Sir Keir himself is only going to be in office for a few more weeks only adds to the lack of credibility and seriousness about what should be the top priority for any government.

None of this will impress fellow member states in NATO.

Most importantly, when it comes to the alliance, the headline metric that countries are judged on - as faulty and fudged as it can be - is defence spending as a proportion of GDP.

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Allies, with the exception of Spain, committed last year to lifting this ratio to 3.5% of GDP by 2035 - an unambitious timeline advocated by the prime minister and Rachel Reeves even though countries such as the Baltic states wanted to go much faster, and are already doing so.

Underlying the incoherency of this distant timeframe is the fact that much of NATO, including Britain, is saying the alliance needs to be ready for possible war with Russia by 2030 - five years before they agreed to hit the new defence spending baseline.

This mismatch between threat and investment is why Mr Healey, the previous defence secretary, could no longer support the prime minister's plan for the UK's armed forces as it would only raise the defence budget to 2.68% of GDP by 2030 from around 2.3% now.

He had instead been pushing to increase the level to 3% of GDP within four years followed by a clear path to move on to 3.5% by 2035 (or sooner). This would unlock tens of billions of pounds of additional money for the military at the speed of relevance.

But the Treasury baulked and the rest is history.

What NATO really needs to see from the UK - a country that prides itself as being a leading member of the alliance - is a credible trajectory for when it will actually hit the new spending targets and be ready to fight a war.

And that is no longer in Sir Keir's gift.

Not only were the vast majority of underage users still on social media, there was little difference in the amount of time they spent on it, according to research published in The BMJ.

Daily social media use stayed the same among 12-13 year olds, reduced from 78% to 69% in 14-15 year olds, and increased by 9% in those aged over 16.

The research suggests that Australia's world-first social media ban has not made "any meaningful difference to how long teenagers spend using high-risk sites", according to Andy Burrows, chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation.

One of the central requirements of the ban was that social media companies take "reasonable steps" to remove underage users from their platforms.

However, the researchers at the University of Newcastle, Australia, found that between 54 and 68% of the underage users were still using their own accounts, and 66% of them had even been asked to verify their ages by the platforms.

One of the concerns around introducing bans like this was that young people would get around them using VPNs, as seemed to be the case last July when the UK started enforcing age verification on adult content.

That doesn't seem to have happened, however, with VPN use "rarely reported" to the researchers.

Instead, the most common way for teenagers to circumvent restrictions, aside from continuing to use their own account, was by using someone else's account or a new account with a fake age.

There had already been some research suggesting Australia's ban wasn't as effective as hoped.

Three months after the ban came into force, 7 in 10 parents told the country's eSafety commissioner that their underage child still had a social media account.

Sky News recently asked the online safety minister why the UK was following Australia's example by introducing a social media ban when the evidence suggested it didn't work.

Kanishka Narayan MP said the UK government will "go further" in what it requires from platforms, asking for "highly effective age assurance" rather than just "reasonable steps" being taken by companies.

That could look like the kind of age verification used in the UK currently to stop children accessing adult content online, or it could be in the form of device-level verification, which the researchers in this latest study suggest "may be needed" to make bans more effective.

Writing separately in The BMJ, Louise Holly, policy and research coordinator at the University of Geneva, called the latest research findings "worrying".

"[The research] should make other countries considering blanket restrictions on children's social media use pause for thought," she argued.

However, Ms Holly pointed out that "these findings should not be interpreted as a failure of children's compliance".

She said: "The law was not designed to change the habits of children, but the practices of selected social media platforms."

The fact that the platforms have not effectively implemented the ban is the cause for concern, she argued - not the fact that children continued to use them.

Robert Alexander, 66, killed Christina Alexander, 60, at their home in Dosthill, Tamworth in June 2025.

He told a jury at Stafford Crown Court that he had acted in self-defence.

After killing her, he changed his clothes, put the bins out, and sat in the lounge with his dogs before calling 999.

"It's all to do with money, dictating to me how I spend my inheritance," he told police.

"She came into my life about eight years ago with nothing."

Prosecution counsel Rebecca Wade KC said he told officers: "I've disposed of my wife."

Jurors heard Alexander previously put his wife in a headlock, strangled her and bit her cheek.

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He also threatened to kill a neighbour when they heard what was going on.

In another incident in June 2021, Mrs Alexander phoned 999 because she was frightened after her husband picked up an iron bar and waved it at her.

She told police she was living under the constant threat of violence from her husband.

It led to him being issued with a domestic violence protection order.

During his trial, Alexander claimed his wife had reached for a knife first and that he had acted in self-defence.

He also argued that depression and autism reduced his responsibility.

Narmina Rafiq from the CPS said: "This was a complex and challenging prosecution involving detailed psychiatric evidence and conflicting expert opinion about Robert Alexander's mental state.

"Alexander told different stories to different people and changed his version of events when it suited him.

"The jury carefully considered all of the evidence and rejected his claims of self-defence and diminished responsibility.

"We were able to demonstrate that his actions were driven by control, both over his wife and over money, and that his self-harm formed part of that pattern, rather than being the result of a serious mental disorder."

Alexander will be sentenced on a date to be confirmed.

The US president's comments came after Ukrainian forces destroyed a key railway bridge in Crimea, as it seeks to isolate the Russian-occupied peninsula.

Sky News US correspondent Mark Stone asked Mr Trump if he thought Mr Zelenskyy was winning during a White House meeting with NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte on Wednesday.

"He's doing pretty well, no matter how you look at it, he's holding his own at least. A lot of people dying on both sides, but I think he's doing pretty well," he said.

"Look, you have to say he's courageous, he's got great equipment, but he's got great men, he's got fighters".

Meanwhile, the leaders of the "E5" - Germany, France, Italy, Poland and the UK - committed their further support for Ukraine at a meeting in Berlin on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: "There are clear signs that as Russian losses mount and their economy struggles, the mood in Moscow is turning against Putin's war.

"So this is a really important moment to ramp up the pressure on their economy with more sanctions and providing Ukraine with more military support."

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced a new almost £290m package to bolster Ukraine's recovery and energy security as she attends the Ukraine Recovery Conference with Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy in Gdansk, Poland on Thursday.

"The UK stands firmly with Ukraine, not only in its fight for freedom today, but in ensuring it has the strength to rebuild for the future - that is essential for the long-term deterrence of Russian aggression," she said.

Ukraine's latest attacks came as it was reported one of Russia's most significant oil refineries is unlikely to resume production for six months after being hit by Ukrainian drones.

Ukrainian forces also struck a major natural gas processing plant and two key satellite communications centres in Russia overnight, military chiefs said on Wednesday.

The operation was part of Ukraine's aerial campaign targeting energy facilities and military industries that has intensified as Kyiv builds bigger and better long-range weapons to ward off Russia's full-scale invasion - which is now in its fifth year.

In response, Moscow has ordered the redeployment of some air defence systems from Russian regions to the capital and Crimea's Kerch Bridge - a crucial link for supplying Russian troops, Mr Zelenskyy said.

He also told reporters communications equipment Ukraine said was being used to help drone strikes from Belarusian territory had stopped operating, days after he warned Belarusia's President Lukashenko to disable them.

"It is important that as many Russians as possible come to understand that it is the Russian leadership's rejection of diplomacy that is prolonging the war," he said on X.

Mr Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by Mr Trump but Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused.

But he said Russia was ready for peace talks with Ukraine after strikes on its infrastructure led to fuel shortages.

Ukraine's attacks on oil refineries have doubled since the start of 2026.

The players - men and women - will limit their contractual media commitments at the tournament to 15 minutes - reflecting that Wimbledon currently pays slightly below 15% of revenues to players as prize money.

The protest will last for the first week of the championships.

Meanwhile Wimbledon organisers have said they are "surprised and disappointed by the move".

Following detailed consultation with players across both tours, player representatives have written to Wimbledon's leadership to inform them of the planned action, while acknowledging the welcome recent 20% increase in prize money compared with last year's championships.

The two-week grass court tournament starts on Monday.

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Sky News has approached the All England Lawn Tennis Club for comment.

During the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris, women's world number one Aryna Sabalenka cut short her press conference as part of the protest by top tennis players over the prize money on offer at Grand Slams.

Sabalenka, men's world No 1 Jannik Sinner and Coco Gauff all expressed "disappointment" at the percentage of revenue players are allocated at the slams.

Some players took a stand against the pay row by leaving media commitments after 15 minutes, a number symbolising their revenue share, which is around 14.4%.

It is still below the 14.9% share a decade ago, despite revenues going up by £280m over that period.

The total prize money this year is £64.2m, which is shared among the 128 men and 128 women at the competition.

The prize for winning the first round is £80,000, with the figure steadily climbing to £3.6m for the eventual winners of the competition.

That figure is £600,000 more than the £3m last year.

"It's not about me. ⁠It's about the players who are lower in the ranking, who are suffering," Sabalenka ⁠said.

"But as the world No 1, I feel like I have to stand up and to fight for those players."

A spokesperson for the All England Club told the Press Association: "We are surprised and disappointed by this action.

"Wimbledon puts the players at the heart of all our decisions and we invest significantly in them every year. This year's total prize money fund has increased by 20 per cent to £64.2 million, which is the largest increase in our event's history.

"This is alongside investing hundreds of millions of pounds in upgrades to our player facilities as part of a three-year transformation to create a world-class player performance environment."