Wes Streeting said the NHS has a problem with "basic, everyday sexism" - and that the changes would stop women from being "ignored, gaslit, humiliated and disrespected".

The strategy reveals how women's health outcomes "have gone in the wrong direction" - with a drop in female life expectancy, and figures suggesting only the wealthiest third of women can expect to remain in good health until retirement.

The authors highlight how gynaecology waiting times have more than doubled in eight years, higher rates of heart attack misdiagnosis for women, and decade-long waits for endometriosis diagnoses.

Issues in cancer care and reviews into poor maternity care were also identified.

"At the heart of these challenges is a systematic failure to listen to women," the authors wrote.

"If our approach to health and care does not work for all women - 51% of the population - then simply put: it does not work," they added.

The report sets out 117 action points and makes several pledges on how care will improve, including:

• Shorter waits for gynaecology care

• A pledge to "eliminate the diagnostic odyssey facing women" with conditions such as endometriosis and fibroids

• Fewer painful procedures without informed consent or a choice of pain relief

• Easier access to contraception and abortion care

• A promise to be "listened to and taken seriously at the first time of asking" and fewer cases of repeating the same story

• A new £1m menstrual education programme to ensure girls are better equipped to recognise the difference between healthy and unhealthy periods

• Redesigning clinical pathways for heavy periods, urogynaecology and menopause to speed up diagnosis and treatment

Ministers also pledged to improve healthy life expectancy in the poorest parts of the country to at least 61 years from 50.5 years.

The report also pledges that the government "will do more to prevent the health conditions that cause economic inactivity", amid rising levels of working-age women out of work due to long-term sickness.

Officials said that to help reduce variation in how GPs listen to and respond to women, patient survey data will be used to inform a quality improvement programme within two years.

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Dr Alison Wright, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, welcomed plans for "tackling the gynaecology waiting list crisis, raising menstrual health awareness and supporting sustainable abortion services".

"With over 565,000 women still waiting for gynaecological care, there is a clear opportunity to embed Women's Health Hubs within the neighbourhood health model," she added.

Emma Cox, the chief executive of Endometriosis UK, said: "Diagnosis times for endometriosis are going up, not down and it's now taking an average of nine years, four months - rising to 11 years for diverse ethnic communities - which is totally unacceptable.

"Leadership and decisive actions will be vital to drive these times down."

The incident unfolded outside a Walmart in Omaha, Nebraska on Tuesday morning.

Officials allege the suspect had approached a female shopper and a three-year-old boy who she did not know.

She then displayed a large knife she had shoplifted from the store and "took possession of the child".

All three then left the supermarket, with the suspect holding the boy at knifepoint.

The police were called and gave the suspect commands, at which point she began "swiping the knife at the child, cutting him across the face".

Bodycam footage was released that showed her holding a knife over the boy as he sat in a trolley.

At least one officer fired at the woman, who died at the scene. She has been identified by local media as 31-year-old Noemi Guzman.

The child is being treated in hospital for a large laceration to one of his hands and the left side of his face but is expected to survive.

Scott Gray, deputy chief at the Omaha Police Department, said it is unclear what provoked the suspect - but stressed that it appears to have been an isolated incident.

A Walmart spokesperson said "violence like this is unacceptable", with the company confirming it is cooperating with the investigation.

Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said: "The responding officers acted with professionalism and direct action to intervene and save a child's life.

"The community can be reassured in knowing that Omaha police officers stand ready to act with courage and decisiveness in the most serious situations to protect the public."

The city's mayor said the police's quick actions helped prevent a larger tragedy.

One source said the heads of the army, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and other top brass were due to meet this week to discuss the funding pressures.

A second source said the squeeze is because the current budget is insufficient simply to deliver the programme of record - let alone ambitions set out in a major review of defence that was published last June to rebuild and rearm in response to escalating threats.

A third source said that the Ministry of Defence - like all government departments - has to operate within the agreed budget set out by the Treasury.

Defence officials had been holding out for the possibility of more money being made available faster as part of a major, 10-year plan to invest in new equipment and capabilities.

However, the government has still not signed off on the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) - even though it should have been published last autumn.

It means that there is no let-up in the financial squeeze, leading to further demands on military officers and civil servants to look for new ways to cut costs.

The revelations about the in-year cash crisis emerged as Lord George Robertson, the lead author of the prime minister's Strategic Defence Review and a former Labour defence secretary, prepares to issue a devastating critique of the government's record on defence.

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In a speech this evening, he will accuse the prime minister and his chancellor of "corrosive complacency" that has left the armed forces "underprepared" for the threats they face.

Lord Robertson, also a former head of the NATO alliance, will take particular aim at Rachel Reeves, her apparent lack of interest in defence and the incompatibility of vast welfare spending with supercharging the defence budget.

He will accuse "non-military experts in the Treasury" of "vandalism", adding: "We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget."

Asked about the claim that military chiefs have been urged to find £3.5bn in efficiencies and other savings in-year, a Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: "The defence budget is rising to record levels as this government delivers the biggest boost to defence spending since the Cold War, totalling £270bn this parliament alone.

"Demands on defence are rising, with growing Russian aggression, the crisis in the Middle East and increasing operational requirements.

"We are finalising our Defence Investment Plan that we will publish as soon as possible, putting the best kit and technology into the hands of our forces, rebuilding British industry to make defence an engine for growth and doubling down on our own commitment to NATO."

A request to make efficiency savings is different to a budget cut. Military chiefs have repeatedly been requested over the years to find ways to do things cheaper or more efficiently.

They will typically draw up lists of options - including extremely unpalatable ones that could not be accepted - in a back and forth with defence and Treasury officials to try to make the in-year finances work.

In a defence review in 2015, however, much of the investment plans to buy more military kit were predicated on billions of pounds in unspecified efficiency savings that were never achieved, leaving the armed forces more hollow.

Nancy Pexton, 70, allegedly stabbed and slashed her sibling, Jennifer Abbott, at her flat in Camden in north London on 10 June last year.

Ms Abbott, a film director, was found dead by a neighbour on the floor of her living room with gaffer tape over her mouth three days later.

Ms Abbott's son Brad Carlson told jurors at the Old Bailey on Tuesday about the "bubbling" resentment between his mother and aunt.

Over video-link, he told the court he had received several messages from Pexton expressing her "anger and resentment and furiousness" towards Ms Abbott.

Mr Carlson added: "She was angry - I think there was at times a feeling of disrespect.

"I think a feeling that she was unappreciated and that my mother had not shown gratitude for some of the things Nancy had done and been there for her," he said.

Mr Carlson, who bought his mother the Rolex, said he "wanted people to get along" and encouraged them to make "peace".

He said: "I asked my mother to be more gentle and sometimes more careful in her words. Sometimes people need to be treated more gently."

He added that he felt "empathy" and "love" for Pexton.

Pexton was arrested on 18 June after her sister's watch was discovered in her bag.

She has denied murdering her sister and claimed Ms Abbott gave her the Rolex to "keep for her", jurors heard.

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The court heard Pexton called Ms Abbott nine times on the day she died, with the final call lasting just over 15 minutes.

Prosecutor Bill Boyce KC told the court it was "no coincidence" Ms Abbott was not seen or heard from after she took her corgi dog, Prince, for a walk that morning.

He alleged Pexton was the last person to see Ms Abbott alive having fatally attacked her in her home and leaving just before 2pm.

The court also heard that Ms Abbott had told her nephew Feras Abukhait she thought Pexton was "capable of anything", and she feared for her safety.

Ms Abbott allegedly told Mr Abukhait that Pexton had attempted to murder two of her boyfriends and hired two people to beat up someone called David.

Ms Abbott also asked her nephew if she should apply for a restraining order and wrote a note about it on a scrap of paper, jurors heard.

The trial continues.

The plan, which was first announced earlier this year, will see successful applicants granted a one-year work and residency permit in the nation of 50 million people.

Applicants will be able to apply online from Thursday and in person from 20 April, with the window closing on 30 June, and they will need to prove they have been living in Spain for at least five months.

Also, they must have arrived in the country before 1 January, and don't have a criminal record.

Spain's socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez said the measure was "an act of justice and a necessity" and that people already living and working in the country should "do so under equal conditions" and pay taxes.

However, the country's opposition, the centre-right Popular Party, has criticised the move, with party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo calling it unsustainable.

The measure puts Mr Sanchez, who has already been an outlier on issues such as the Iran war, at odds with other European leaders, who have been trying to reduce arrivals and increase deportations to tackle illegal migration.

In a letter published on Tuesday, the prime minister said that Spain needed immigrants due to its ageing population and said that public services would "suffer" without new workers.

He also said that it was "thanks to the dynamism of migrants that the Spanish economy is currently the fastest growing in Europe".

Spain's economy is estimated to have grown by 2.8% last year and is forecast to grow by more than 2% this year, according to the IMF.

The Funcas think-tank estimates that there are around 840,000 undocumented migrants in Spain.

The country's population has sharply risen in recent years to include around 10 million people who were born outside the country, or one in every five residents.

Many are from Colombia, Venezuela and Morocco, having fled poverty, violence or political instability.

Major questions remain about how the immigration system will handle the expected caseload within the short timeframe.

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Immigration offices across Spain have raised the possibility of strike action in protest at the measure, saying the country's systems are unprepared to handle it.

The Sanchez government's measure was fast-tracked via a decree that amends immigration laws, enabling it to bypass parliament, where it lacks a majority, and a previous 2024 amnesty attempt stalled.

It's not the first time that Spain has granted amnesty to immigrants in the country illegally.

It has done so six times before between 1986 and 2005, including under conservative governments.

The issue is likely to become a key issue ahead of next year, when local and general elections are expected in the country.