If all the women waiting for NHS gynaecological appointments in the UK were to stand in line, they would stretch from London to Exeter.

That's according to a report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), which found that about 750,000 women across the four nations are waiting for NHS appointments – a number that has more than doubled since February 2020, according to the BBC.

Women are waiting for treatment for conditions from "fibroids and endometriosis to incontinence and menopause care", but also for urgent appointments for suspected cancer. "Women are being let down," said Dr Ranee Thakar, president of the RCOG. Change is "urgently needed".

Why is the waiting list so long?
"Gynaecology is the only elective specialty that solely treats women," said Thakar. The disproportionately long waiting list reflects the "persistent lack of priority given to women and women's health".

Women's health has long been "under-treated and under-researched", said the i news site. "There is apparently five times more research into erectile dysfunction, affecting 19% of men, than into premenstrual syndrome, which affects 90% of women."

What is the impact?
More than three-quarters of women waiting for care reported worsening mental health, Thakar wrote in The Guardian. More than two-thirds said they were "unable to take part in daily activities", including work, socialising and caring responsibilities, due to severe pain or symptoms.

Women's absences from work due to health conditions like severe period pain and ovarian cysts cost the economy nearly £11 billion per year, according to a recent report by the NHS Confederation. Unemployment due to menopause symptoms also costs about £1.5 billion a year.

What can be done?
The NHS Confederation report recommended "allocating ringfenced funding" to women's health, to help close the "gender health gap at pace".

The RCOG is calling on Labour to deliver "an urgent package of support for women" on the waiting list, said The Times. Labour is "overhauling women's healthcare", said a government spokesperson. A 10-year plan backed by a £22.6 billion increase in day-to-day health spending will bring down waiting times, so women get "the support they need when they need it".

A "surreal" new BBC drama about a strange phenomenon known as "the Hum" is "not as far-fetched as you think", said Radio Times.

"The Listeners", adapted from Jordan Tannahill's novel of the same name, follows a group of people who are plagued by a mysterious, persistent, rumbling sound. And it's estimated that "4% of the global population are affected by the Hum", said Tannahill in The Guardian.

Real and severe disturbance
The "earliest reliable reports" of the Hum emerged in the UK in the mid-1970s, said Tannahill, "most notably from Bristol", where letters began appearing in a local paper about a "low rumble" heard by dozens of city residents.

Then a series of Sunday Mirror articles about the Hum prompted a "flood of mail" from readers across Britain who had been suffering from "the same maddening sound", said How Stuff Works. Scientists at Southampton's Institute of Sound and Vibration Research noted the news reports and, in 1977, published a study in Applied Acoustics about a "particular environmental noise phenomenon which appears to be a cause of real and severe disturbance to certain people".

The Hum makes sufferers anxious and depressed, said How Stuff Works, and "in one tragic case" has been "linked to suicide". The sound has been compared to the rumble of a lorry idling and becomes "worse at night, making it hard to sleep". It can also "cause crippling headaches, nausea, nosebleeds and diarrhoea".

Extreme fringe theories
But what causes this phenomenon? Early theories about the Bristol Hum suggested it "came from large industrial fans used at a nearby warehouse", said Tannahill. Then marine scientists argued that an outbreak in Hythe might have been caused "by the mating call of male midshipman fish", which "emit ever-louder drones, sometimes for hours".

In 2015, a team of French scientists suggested that the Hum was caused by "ocean waves extending down to the ocean floor and shaking the Earth".

"As with any mystery", said Ellie Harrison in The Independent, the Hum has been used "as a jumping-off point for wild conspiracy theories". These include everything from 5G masts to "extreme fringe theories around military and government sonic weaponry and mind control", said Tannahill.

Pembrokeshire: Pantygrwndy Fawr, Cardigan
An enchanting 17th-century house, with impressive views of the Preseli Mountains, set in 3.5 acres with the option to purchase further pasture and woodland. 6 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, study, outbuildings, garden, parking. OIEO £900,000; Country Living Group

Hampshire: Knockwood House, Nether Wallop
Grade II farmhouse with mature gardens of 1.6 acres. 6 beds, 3 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, 2-bed cottage, garden, paddock, barn; and 3.3 acres available separately. £2.35m; Myddelton & Major

Devon: Burch Farm, Twitchen
On the edge of Exmoor, this Grade II farmhouse is set in approx. 47 acres. Main suite, 5 further beds, 2 baths, kitchen/dining room, 3 receps, self-contained 2-bed cottage, outbuildings, pond, garden, parking. OIEO £1.35m; Savills

Somerset: Greendown House, Chewton Mendip
Overlooking the Mendips, this Victorian country house has 15.8 acres (a further 12 acres are available separately). 5 beds, 3 baths, kitchen, 4 receps, outbuildings, 2-bed cottage, garden, parking. £2.35m; Savills

Who's the vice-president elect? Elon Musk or JD Vance?
Jackie Calmes in the Los Angeles Times
 J.D. Vance, the man "soon to be first in the line of succession", has been "cut out of the clique" since the election, writes Jackie Calmes, while Elon Musk "has been so ubiquitous" at the president-elect's side that Donald Trump's advisers are "getting sick of him". We know what Trump wants Musk to do but "Vance, not so much". But "at least by his virtual invisibility" he's not taking a risk like Musk of "stealing the spotlight from the narcissist in chief" because "that never ends well".

Hancock’s appearance at Covid Inquiry underlines idiocy of the entire exercise
Madeline Grant in The Telegraph
 The Covid inquiry is expected to cost taxpayers £208 million and it is not expected to report until 2026 or 2027, writes Madeline Grant, so "imagine being a silk seconded to that cushy gig". Yesterday, it was "the turn of the Nation's Sweetheart", Matt Hancock, to appear and it showed that "the longer the inquiry drags on, the more memories fade, and the more ludicrous it all seems". It is a "ridiculous exercise".

The women of the Royal Family's supporting cast have shone in an extraordinarily turbulent year
Russell Myers in The Mirror
"First up, let's hear it for the ladies," writes Russell Myers. As "her elder brother, the King, was forced to take a backseat" because of his treatment for cancer, Princess Anne has "quite literally been the hardest working royal in the room". The Princess of Wales and Duchess of Edinburgh have also been busy and there are "benefits" in this collaboration "especially in times of need". It "could be and very much should be" the future of the monarchy.