IT'S HERE🤩🐨🦘🦖🇦🇺
Last Saturday’s AMAZING London protest for Sall Grover, in less than 3 minutes!
Banners, chants, speakers... plus a koala, a roo & a dinosaur ...
and the ending of @salltweets speech is absolute gold😂
#IStandWithSallGrover@acts_grassroots@MrMennoTweets
East Riding Council needs to stop spraying toxic glyphosate around our trees. It's bad news for bees, dogs, and even us. Please join me in telling them to ditch the chemicals and sign the petition: https://t.co/PtF5en0cnB via @38degrees
I just signed Dame Judi Dench's petition, calling on the urgent restoration of our ancient woodlands. Please sign this important cause and share it:
https://t.co/URFN7mGTtL via @38degrees
@HeadWarriorTWM A trans person, a concept held together by drugs and surgery compels adult male persons, means their Auntie, mother, or whatever gets their rocks off to indulge in fetish behaviour and an ideology that seems like an x-rated cartoon.
Wants all to join including women and girls.
The judge told her she had two choices: go to prison for six months, or submit to her husband. She was 22 years old, and she had never even met the man. She chose prison.
Then she wrote a letter that would change Indian law forever.
Bombay, 1885.
Rukhmabai sat in a courtroom, listening as a man claimed legal rights over her life. His name was Dadaji Bhikaji. According to the law, he was her husband—married to her when she was just 11 years old in a ceremony arranged without her consent.
After the marriage, she had returned to her mother’s home, as child brides often did. But her life took a different path when her stepfather, a progressive doctor, encouraged her to study instead of sending her away. For the first time, she experienced education—reading, writing, thinking for herself.
By the time she was 22, she was educated, articulate, and certain of one thing: she would not accept a marriage forced on her as a child.
Dadaji disagreed.
In 1884, he filed a case demanding his “conjugal rights,” asking the court to force her to live with him. His argument was simple—law and tradition were on his side. Rukhmabai’s response was unheard of. She refused. She said she had never consented, that the marriage meant nothing to her.
The case shocked society.
At a time when child marriage was deeply rooted in custom, her refusal was seen as rebellion. Newspapers across India and Britain began covering the case. Public opinion split—some condemned her, others supported her courage.
Rukhmabai didn’t stay silent. She began writing letters under a pseudonym, exposing the realities of child marriage and questioning the system that justified it. Her words were clear, direct, and impossible to ignore.
But the law did not favor her.
In 1887, the court ruled against her. She was ordered to either go live with her husband or face six months in prison.
She chose prison.
That decision changed everything.
The idea of imprisoning a woman for refusing to live with a man she did not choose created public outrage. Reformers rallied behind her. Debates intensified, and pressure began building on the colonial government.
Eventually, the case was settled outside court, and she was freed. But the impact of her stand did not end there.
In 1891, the Age of Consent Act was passed, raising the legal age for marriage consummation. It was a small step, but a significant one, and her case had played a crucial role in forcing that change.
Rukhmabai moved forward with her life. She chose to study medicine, traveling to London to train as a doctor at a time when very few women did. She returned to India as one of its first practicing female physicians, dedicating her life to treating women and children.
She never returned to the life that had been decided for her.
Rukhmabai lived into her nineties, witnessing a changing world shaped in part by the stand she took decades earlier. For years, her story faded into the background, overshadowed by others.
But what she did remains clear.
She refused a life chosen for her.
And by doing so, she changed what was possible for others.
South African teenager Bohlale Mphahlele developed an innovative personal safety device designed to look like a simple piece of jewelry.
Known as the Alerting Earpiece, the device is built to resemble a regular earring while discreetly containing a small camera and emergency alert system.
When activated, the earpiece can capture images and send a distress signal to selected contacts. The alert can also include the wearer’s live GPS location, helping trusted individuals or emergency responders locate the person quickly.
The idea behind the design is to provide a discreet safety tool that can be used in situations where reaching for a phone or drawing attention may not be possible.
Mphahlele presented the concept at the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists, where the project received recognition from judges and education officials.
Her invention highlights how young innovators are using technology to address real-world challenges, particularly around personal safety and rapid emergency communication.
EXCLUSIVE: New Sport England guidance ignores risks of mixed-sex changing rooms
@Sport_England revealed its new swimming pool design guidance to delegates at the One Swim England Summit in Birmingham today. The current guidance dates back to 2013 and is widely used by Councils and architects to justify building mixed-sex changing rooms for swimmers.
Ideally, the new guidance would scrap the edict that mixed-sex is the preferred option for new pools (note to Sport England: preferred by predators not women).
In reality (and we know this because we’ve had advance sight of the draft guidelines) Sport England is doubling down on its advice to build mixed-sex changing villages as the default.
Only they’re not called mixed-sex changing rooms anymore, they’re rebranded ‘all-genders’ changing rooms …
Let’s look at the draft guidance in a bit more detail... 1/6
Great to hear WRN's Jane Sullivan in conversation with @JuliaHB1 on @TalkTV earlier, giving the cancellation of a boxing course for women in Bristol a good airing.
It is scandalous that a course intended to benefit young women aged 16-25 was cancelled, rather than offend those who 'identify' as women by prohibiting their own attendance.
Men should not be punching women - even if it is for 'sport'. We hope that King Charles is now aware of this and is taking urgent steps to reinstate the course - for women only. Perhaps Queen Camilla might have a word?
9-year-old lad walking home from football sees something not right.
Three blokes trying to drag a girl into a van.
Most people would freeze… he didn’t.
Started shouting, ran straight at them, caused a scene.
They panicked and ran off. She got away.
Nine years old.
Fair play to the kid that’s proper courage.
It has been 1,639 days, and the doors of schools are still closed to girls in Afghanistan.
As the Taliban have declared, girls are not only denied the right to education, they are not even allowed to ask when schools will reopen.
The Taliban fear educated women.
Meanwhile, the United Nations remains largely silent, offering statements and slogans while Afghan girls continue to lose their future.
Afghan girls do not need more slogans.
They need action.
@hannahsbee@NewStatesman Women, babies and family should be ALL important and the main priority of the NHS . From 'Cradle to grave'. Value our children and mothers NHS please. !!!