Stephanie Callaghan

Debate on Iran Bombing: Derrick Broze and Naomi Wolf x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

ℹ️ Glasgow Central station remains closed following a significant fire in a shop next to the station on Union Street. 🚆 No ScotRail services will operate to or from Glasgow Central high level. ScotRail services will not call at Glasgow Central low level, but will pass through the station to stop at Argyle Street and Anderson today. (Monday, 9 March). Please continue to keep an eye on your services via our app and website. See more info here. ⬇️ orlo.uk/LB1rX

🥇 We’re delighted to share the news that ScotRail picked up two Golden Whistles at last night’s Modern Railways Golden Whistles awards, held in London. 🙌 The first award was for the ‘lowest number of cancellations amongst regional operators’ with a rate of 2.17%. The second came in the ‘outstanding team award’ for delivering the biggest driver training programme in Britain. Network Rail Scotland won best operational performance in the ‘minimising delay minutes’ category. 👏 Thanks to everyone involved across Scotland’s Railway whose hard work made this all possible. @NetworkRailSCOT @transcotland @Modern_Railways

Gisèle Pelicot, a women of incredible moral courage who has shifted public consciousness Thank you Gisèle, and thank you Spain for honoring this amazing and inspirational woman #ShiftTheBlame #ShameMustChangeSides

Delroy Lindo called it “a classic case of something that could be very negative becoming very positive.” For families living with Tourette’s, this past week has not felt positive. Since the BAFTAs and what happened with John Davidson, I have been arguing that my son deserves to leave his home and be included in society like everyone else. I have had to explain, again and again, that Tourette’s is neurological. That tics are involuntary. That coprolalia is not belief, not intent, not character. Yet the conversation keeps circling back to whether people like John, and by extension my son, should simply stay home to avoid offending anyone. Stay home. Remove yourself. Do not attend events. Do not exist publicly in case your disability makes someone uncomfortable. That is the reality this week. This is not abstract for me. My son already navigates anxiety and the constant fear of being misunderstood. Inclusion cannot mean only if your disability is convenient. It cannot mean you are welcome as long as you do not embarrass us. My son deserves to leave the house. He deserves to attend events. He deserves to exist in public. And I am exhausted from having to argue that basic truth.

Latest stats out today show unemployment rate in Scotland is significantly below the rate in the UK. With limited powers, we’re building a stronger economy and creating more jobs. Imagine how much more we could do with the full powers of independence.

We have written to the committee considering the SSI for adding sex to the Hate Crime Act in response to a bizarre letter from the Equality Network. Both can be found here: parliament.scot/chamber-and-co…

This failure to uphold the law applies equally to data collection. The law is clear regarding data collection on sex for the purposes of upholding the Public Sector Equality Duty under EA2010 sullivanreview.uk/addendum.php

#Unbuyable bill debate: Siobhan Brown and Maggie Chapman say Nordic model laws make women less safe by driving prostitution underground This argument and evidence alleged to support it were rejected by the European Court of Human Rights in MA & Others v France (2024) Prostitution, not legislation banning the purchase of sex, is the source of harm hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=002-1436…

Tonight I will vote for @AshReganMSP bill. I echo the calls from @MichelleThomson and Ruth Ruth Macguire - to all MSP colleagues: "We have the opportunity to choose courage over complacency" "If this is something you believe in, take a breath and do the right thing tonight"

Well said @ToniaAntoniazzi 💯% agree with you. Yet another generation of extremely vulnerable young women do not have the luxury of time. Action now needed. Time for MSPs to be bold.

I am in support of this bill along with the organisations below. The fact that at Stage 1 it is not perfect is not a good enough reason: the fact that women will never get anywhere near equality whilst being traded by men as commodities is a damn fine reason.

GET THIS COMPANY OUT OF THE NHS

BREASTMILK She thought she was studying milk. What she uncovered was a conversation. In 2008, evolutionary anthropologist Katie Hinde was working in a primate research lab in California, analyzing breast milk from rhesus macaque mothers. She had hundreds of samples and thousands of data points. Everything looked ordinary—until one pattern refused to go away. Mothers raising sons produced milk richer in fat and protein. Mothers raising daughters produced a larger volume with different nutrient balances. It was consistent. Repeatable. And deeply uncomfortable for the scientific consensus. Colleagues suggested error. Noise. Statistical coincidence. But Katie trusted the data. And the data pointed to a radical idea. Milk is not just nutrition. It is information. For decades, biology treated breast milk as simple fuel. Calories in. Growth out. But if milk were only calories, why would it change depending on the sex of the baby? Katie kept digging. Across more than 250 mothers and over 700 sampling events, the story grew more complex. Younger, first-time mothers produced milk with fewer calories but significantly higher levels of cortisol—the stress hormone. The babies who drank it grew faster. They were also more alert, more cautious, more anxious. Milk wasn’t just building bodies. It was shaping behavior. Then came the discovery that changed everything. When a baby nurses, microscopic amounts of saliva flow back into the breast. That saliva carries biological signals about the infant’s immune system. If the baby is getting sick, the mother’s body detects it. Within hours, the milk changes. White blood cells surge. Macrophages multiply. Targeted antibodies appear. When the baby recovers, the milk returns to baseline. This was not coincidence. It was call and response. A biological dialogue refined over millions of years. Invisible—until someone thought to listen. As Katie reviewed existing research, she noticed something unsettling. There were twice as many scientific studies on erectile dysfunction as on breast milk composition. The first food every human consumes. The substance that shaped our species. Largely ignored. So she did something bold. She launched a blog with a deliberately provocative name: Mammals Suck Milk. It exploded. Over a million readers in its first year. Parents. Doctors. Scientists. People asking questions research had skipped. The discoveries kept coming. Milk changes by time of day. Foremilk differs from hindmilk. Human milk contains over 200 oligosaccharides babies can’t digest—because they exist to feed beneficial gut bacteria. Every mother’s milk is biologically unique. In 2017, Katie brought this work to a TED stage. In 2020, it reached a global audience through Netflix’s Babies. Today, at Arizona State University’s Comparative Lactation Lab, she continues reshaping how medicine understands infant development, neonatal care, formula design, and public health. The implications are staggering. Milk has been evolving for more than 200 million years—longer than dinosaurs walked the Earth. What we once dismissed as simple nourishment is one of the most sophisticated communication systems biology has ever produced. Katie Hinde didn’t just study milk. She revealed that nourishment is intelligence. A living, responsive system shaping who we become before we ever speak. All because one scientist refused to accept that half the story was “measurement error.” Sometimes the biggest revolutions begin by listening to what everyone else ignores.

NEW Nerve investigation reveals extent of Palantir's enmeshment in UK state operations Peter Thiel's surveillance co. has deals with government bodies totalling at least £670m – inc. £15m contract with nuclear weapons agency By @carolecadwalla @charlienotold + Max Colbert 🔗⏬

Thirty-five female journalists crowded into the White House Red Room that March day. There weren't enough chairs. Many sat on the floor. Male reporters watched from the doorway, smirking. The manager of the Associated Press said these gatherings wouldn't last six months. Eleanor Roosevelt's strategy was brilliantly simple: If news organizations wanted access to the First Lady—if they wanted to know what was happening inside the White House—they would have to hire female reporters. No exceptions. At first, she covered household topics. But when Prohibition ended and reporters asked the President if beer would be served at the White House, FDR smiled and said two words: "Ask Eleanor." She announced the answer at her next women-only press conference. Male reporters had to beg their female colleagues to tell them what the First Lady said. Week after week, she made real news. She defended equal pay for equal work, low-cost housing, civil rights, and the minimum wage. The tactic worked spectacularly. The Associated Press brought on Bess Furman. United Press hired Ruby Black. The New York Herald Tribune sent Emma Bugbee for a few days—she stayed for months, her stories landing on the front page. Over twelve years, Eleanor Roosevelt held 348 women-only press conferences. Ruby Black called it "a New Deal for newswomen." But Eleanor wasn't finished rewriting history. After FDR's death in 1945, President Truman appointed her as a delegate to the United Nations. Her male colleagues assigned her to a committee they considered unimportant—humanitarian and cultural concerns. They assumed she'd do the least harm there. They were wrong. She was unanimously elected to chair the UN Commission on Human Rights. For three years, she navigated Cold War politics and united 18 nations with competing interests to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On December 10, 1948, the UN General Assembly voted. Forty-eight nations in favor. Zero opposed. When it passed, every delegate rose to give Eleanor Roosevelt a standing ovation. She called it "an international Magna Carta for all mankind." She considered it her greatest achievement. And she was right. From a woman who sat in a parlor with female reporters on the floor—to the architect of the document that defines human dignity for all humanity. Eleanor Roosevelt didn't just break glass ceilings. She built ladders so others could climb up after her.

Congratulations to everyone at Noble Primary School on being awarded Gold Rights Respecting School status by UNICEF UK, the highest level of recognition for embedding children’s rights into school culture. Read more: northlanarkshire.gov.uk/news/bellshill…

“Can I bring my baby to the interview?” The message came in at 11 PM: “Hi, I have an interview with you tomorrow at 2 PM. My childcare fell through. Can I bring my 8-month-old? I understand if you need to reschedule.” Old me would have rescheduled. Unprofessional. Distraction. Red flag. New me replied: “Absolutely. See you tomorrow.” She showed up with her baby on her hip. She apologized three times before even sitting down. Ten minutes in, the baby started crying. She tried to soothe him while answering questions. She apologized again. I stopped the interview and said: “Hey. You’re managing a fussy baby, answering complex questions, and staying calm under pressure. That’s literally the job. Handling chaos while staying professional. You’re already proving you can do it.” Her eyes filled with tears. We hired her. She’s been with us for a year now. The most reliable team member we have. Why? Because when you’re used to handling a screaming infant at 3 AM and still showing up to work the next day, workplace stress feels like nothing. Working parents, especially mothers, are some of the most organized, efficient, and resilient people you’ll ever hire. Yet we lose them because our hiring processes are built for people with zero caregiving responsibilities. If your interview process can’t accommodate a parent facing a childcare issue, you’re not filtering for professionalism. You’re filtering for privilege.

Today GDA is proud of our CEO, Tressa Burke for declining the Prime Minister's nomination for an MBE in the New Year Honours “I feel that I cannot accept a personal honour because disabled people are being so dishonoured at this time." theguardian.com/world/2025/dec…