A Norwich City youth football coach who hit a man in the head with a metal pole for not wearing a Covid mask has been jailed.

Conor Murphy was queuing for food at a McDonald's in June 2021 when he became enraged by a group of four who weren't wearing face coverings.

After becoming increasingly irate, the 29-year-old went back to his car where he found the metal pole, before returning to attack one of the men.

Iranian authorities have proposed new measures to enforce the compulsory wearing of the hijab in the country, including the use of surveillance cameras to identify and punish women who fail to comply with the dress code amid months of nationwide unrest sparked by the death of a young woman while in police custody for allegedly not wearing her head scarf properly.

In a public session of the Iranian parliament on March 14, Bijan Nobaveh a member of the Cultural Commission revealed that the body has proposed seven new measures related to the hijab, which have been fully endorsed by the leadership and discussed at the National Security Council.

Under the new proposals, physical punishment will not be allowed. Violators instead will be punished according to a predetermined table. The surveillance cameras will be used to monitor public spaces for women not wearing the hijab, and offenders will be punished subsequently with measures that include cutting off their mobile phone and Internet connections. Police and judicial authorities will be tasked with collecting evidence and identifying violators.

The Canadian Cancer Society is advising men it describes as "trans women" who have had "bottom surgery" to discuss cervical cancer screenings with their doctors while acknowledging that men do not have cervixes.

Men with a "neo-cervix" or "neo-vagina" created via surgery have "a very small risk" of developing cancers in these tissues, claimed the Canadian charity in a section titled "As a trans woman, do I need to get screened for cervical cancer?":

If you're a trans woman, you may not have given much thought to Pap tests and cervical cancer. And if you haven't, that makes a fair amount of sense. After all, in order to get cervical cancer, you need to have a cervix — that is, the organ that connects the vagina to the uterus.

If you're a trans woman and have not had bottom surgery, you aren't at risk for cervical cancer.

If, however, you're a trans woman who has had bottom surgery to create a vagina (vaginoplasty) and possibly a cervix, there's a very small risk that you can develop cancer in the tissues of your neo-vagina or neo-cervix. The risk depends on the type of surgery you had, the type of tissue used to create your vagina and cervix and your personal health history. Talk to your healthcare provider to figure out your specific cancer-screening needs as part of your overall pelvic health following surgery.

It can be difficult to make cancer screening a priority, especially when there's not a lot of information out there about cervical cancer risks for trans women. You may also be concerned about things like experiencing transphobia during the screening process. Maybe you feel you have more pressing health concerns. Or maybe you just don't want to think about cancer screening.

Still, it's important to take care of your health by getting the cancer screening you need. Screening means checking for cancer before there are any symptoms. Here's the bottom line: if you're a trans woman who's had bottom surgery, discuss your personal risk for cancer in your neo-vagina or neo-cervix with your healthcare provider, and come up with a plan for cancer screening that works for you.

San Francisco regulators moved forward with regulations banning future sales of certain natural gas-powered appliances as part of the Democrat-led city's climate agenda.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which oversees air pollution and emissions regulations for the nine counties surrounding San Francisco, greenlighted amendments to regulations Wednesday evening related to eliminating nitrogen oxide emissions from natural gas furnaces and water heaters in the region. The action requires all commercial and residential furnaces and water heaters to be electric by 2027.

"The 1.8 million water heaters and furnaces in the Bay Area significantly impact our air quality, resulting in dozens of early deaths and a wide range of health impacts, particularly in communities of color," Dr. Philip Fine, the executive officer of the Air District, said Wednesday in a statement.

"This groundbreaking regulation will phase out the most polluting appliances in homes and businesses to protect Bay Area residents from the harmful air pollution they cause."

New warnings have been applied to dozens of beaches across the UK today after sewage water was discharged into the sea - with the newly-crowned 'best beach in the UK' among those affected

Members of the public have been told to steer clear of 83 beaches across the country due to sewage leaking into the water.


New pollution alerts from swimming charity Surfers Against Sewage from been unveiled following heavy rainfall over recent days, which has caused waste water to be discharged into the sea.

The UK has been downgraded in an annual global index of civic freedoms as a result of the government's "increasingly authoritarian" drive to impose restrictive and punitive laws on public protests.

The Civicus Monitor, which tracks the democratic and civic health of 197 countries across the world, said the UK government was creating a "hostile environment" towards campaigners, charities and other civil society bodies.

The UK's willingness to clamp down on civic freedoms such as the right to peaceful assembly means it is now classified as "obstructed" - putting it alongside countries such as Poland, South Africa and Hungary.

Farmers-Citizen Movement is projected to become the equal largest party in the senate, in a blow to Mark Rutte's four-party coalition

A farmers' protest party angered by new green laws triumphed in shock Dutch election results, prompting its leader to ask: "People, what the f--- happened?"

Caroline van der Plas's Farmers-Citizen Movement (BBB) is projected to become the equal largest party in the senate, taking 15 seats from none before the vote.

The Left-wing GroenLinks/PvdA is also expected to win 15 seats, in the wake of months of turbulent farmer protests against government plans to cut nitrogen emissions.

Mark Rutte, the centre-Right Dutch prime minister, insisted his coalition government would survive, after its four member parties lost eight of their combined 32 seats in the 75-seat senate

The oil transport company says it has uncovered evidence of a plot to attack the connector supplying oil to western European markets

Workers at the Russian oil pipeline transport company Transneft have reportedly found several explosive devices at the Novozybkov oil-pumping station of its Druzhba pipeline in the Bryansk region near Ukraine, according to company spokesperson Igor Demin.

Speaking to TASS, he stated that on Tuesday evening and on Wednesday morning, the devices were found in destroyed plastic cases of "non-industrial production" with a striking warhead in the form of steel balls.

"Presumably, the destruction of the cases occurred after hitting the ground when falling from drones," Demin suggested. He added that on Wednesday afternoon another explosive device was seen being dropped from a UAV, "likely similar to the other two [devices]."

Kentucky transgender daycare worker Maria Childers is accused of sexually abusing a baby while changing the child's diaper, according to official documents obtained by WPSD Local 6.

The Paducah Police Department got a complaint of the alleged abuse on February 8 from the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services after an anonymous tip came in about trans-identified male Childers, 25, who was employed at the Explore Learning Academy in November when the crime allegedly took place.

The New Scientist carries a story dated 11 March 2023 with this headline:

A nationwide shortage of power grid transformers is causing delays across the US for everything from infrastructure for electric vehicles to new homes.

Across the US, new houses sit unfinished - construction can't be completed until they are connected to the electricity grid. Utility companies worry about how quickly they can restore power after damage caused by hurricanes and other natural disasters. And nationwide efforts to modernize aging electrical grids face delays of months or even years.