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North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a controversial bill that would ban most abortions after 12 weeks, setting up a likely override effort from the state legislature, where Republicans have a supermajority.

In front of an exuberant crowd, North Carolina’s Democratic governor vetoed legislation Saturday that would have banned nearly all abortions in his state after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Hundreds of abortion-rights activists and voters watched on a plaza in the capital of Raleigh as Gov Roy Cooper affixed his veto stamp to the bill. The veto launches a major test for leaders of the GOP-controlled General Assembly to attempt to override Cooper’s veto after they recently gained veto-proof majorities in both chambers. The bill was the Republican response to last year’s US Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade. "We’re going to have to kick it into an even higher gear when that veto stamp comes down,” Mr Cooper told the crowd. “If just one Republican in either the House or the Senate keeps a campaign promise to protect women’s reproductive health, we can stop this ban.” Andrea Long, a 42-year-old mother of three from Cary, said she was honored be part of an “electric” crowd on what she called a “historic day for freedom” in North Carolina. “I couldn’t stop crying tears joy seeing the governor hold up the veto stamp, but I know it’s an uphill battle to keep this momentum going,” Ms Long said. Mr Cooper, a strong abortion-rights supporter, had until Sunday night to act on the measure that tightens current state law, which bans most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Mr Cooper spent the week on the road talking to North Carolinians about the bill’s lesser-known impacts and urging them to apply pressure upon key Republican lawmakers who hesitated about further restrictions during campaigns for office last year. The legislation passed along party lines in the last week in the House and Senate. Republicans have pitched the measure as a middle-ground change to state abortion laws developed after months of private negotiations between House and Senate GOP members. It adds exceptions to the 12-week ban, extending the limit through 20 weeks for rape and incest and through 24 weeks for “life-limiting” fetal anomalies. But Mr Cooper has said repeatedly the details contained in the 47-page bill show that the measure isn’t a reasonable compromise and would instead greatly erode reproductive rights. He cites new obstacles for women to obtain abortions — such as requiring multiple in-person visits, additional paperwork to prove a patient has given their informed consent to an abortion and increased regulation of clinics providing the procedure. Mr Cooper and allies have said those changes in practice will shut down clinics that cannot afford major upgrades mandated by new licensing standards and make it nearly impossible for women who live in rural areas or work long hours to access abortion services. Compared to recent actions by Republican-controlled legislatures elsewhere, the broad prohibition after 12 weeks can be viewed as less onerous to those in other states where the procedure has been banned almost completely. But abortion-rights activists have argued that it’s more restrictive than meets the eye and will have far-reaching consequences. Since Roe was overturned, many patients traveling from more restrictive states have become dependent on North Carolina as a locale for abortions later in pregnancy. Republicans call the legislation pro-family and pro-child, pointing to at least $160m in spending contained within for maternal health services, foster and adoption care, contraceptive services and paid leave for teachers and state employees after the birth of a child. Mr Cooper has singled out four GOP legislators — three House members and one senator — whom he said made “campaign promises to protect women’s reproductive health.” Anti-abortion groups accused Cooper of trying to bully them. One of those House members is Rep Tricia Cotham of Mecklenburg County, who voted for the bill mere weeks after she switched from the Democratic Party to the GOP. The move gave Republicans a veto-proof supermajority if all of their legislators are present and voting. Ms Cotham has spoken out for abortion rights in the past and even earlier this year co-sponsored a bill to codify abortion protections into state law. Rep Ted Davis of Wilmington — another targeted legislator — was the only Republican absent from last week’s initial House vote. The Senate margin already became veto-proof after GOP gains last November. Mr Davis said last fall that he supported “what the law is in North Carolina right now,” which was a 20-week limit. Davis has declined to comment on the bill, but House Speaker Tim Moore said recently that Davis is a “yes” vote for an override. 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North Carolina’s Democratic governor has vetoed legislation that would have banned nearly all abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy

By Julia Harte North Carolina Democratic Governor Roy Cooper said he would hold a rally on Saturday to

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Felipe Massa has reiterated calls for Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 F1 title triumph to be investigated after new remarks surfaced from Bernie Ecclestone. Brazilian driver Massa, then racing for Ferrari, missed out on that year’s title by a single point in dramatic circumstances at the final race in Brazil as Hamilton – then driving for McLaren - claimed the point he needed on the final lap in wet conditions. Yet new comments, by former F1 supremo Ecclestone, about that year’s infamous ‘Crashgate’ scandal in Singapore has encouraged Massa to assess all his potential options as to whether the Championship result could be overturned. Speaking about Ecclestone’s comments for the first time on camera, 42-year-old Massa labelled Hamilton’s first F1 title win an ‘injustice’ and ‘not fair’. “You fight them to the last corner of the last race, pass the chequered flag as the champion and then everything changed,” he told Sky Sports in Miami. “For sure, a fight on the track. “Then you discover what has happened in Singapore. People, important people like Bernie [Ecclestone], like Max Mosley, like Charlie Whiting - they knew in 2008 and they didn’t do anything. “That is really a massive surprise for me. It’s really [an] injustice and I think definitely we need to study everything that happened because it’s not fair what has happened.” Ecclestone revealed in March that both he and then-FIA president Max Mosley knew of the Crashgate scandal in 2008, but refused to publicise the chain of events to avoid the sport a “huge scandal.” WHAT WAS CRASHGATE? Crashgate rocked the sport when the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix in 2008 saw Renault’s Fernando Alonso win the race before it emerged that his team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr. had deliberately crashed to bring out a safety car which played into Alonso’s hands. That safety car prompted a Massa pit stop that Ferrari mishandled, with Massa eventually finishing the race 13th while Hamilton came home third – a difference of six points, a swing which ultimately impacted the title result. While Renault and team boss Flavio Briatore were punished in 2009, the result of the race stood despite Massa’s protestations, with the FIA’s statues making clear that overturning the classification from each season is impossible once the FIA Awards Ceremony for that year is complete, a rule set in the FIA International Sporting Code. “We decided not to do anything for now,” Ecclestone told F1-Insider. “We wanted to protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal. That’s why I used angelic tongues to persuade my former driver Nelson Piquet to keep calm for the time being. “Back then, there was a rule that a world championship classification after the FIA ​​awards ceremony at the end of the year was untouchable. So Hamilton was presented with the trophy and everything was fine. “We had enough information in time to investigate the matter. According to the statutes, we should have cancelled the race in Singapore under these conditions. “That means it would never have happened for the championship standings. And then Felipe Massa would have become world champion and not Lewis Hamilton.” Upon hearing this new information come to light, Massa told Motorsport.com last month that he will look into his – albeit slim – legal options, noting the example of Lance Armstrong’s doping revelations and the stripping of his Tour de France victories. “There is a rule that says that when a championship is decided, from the moment the driver receives the champion’s trophy, things can no longer be changed, even if it has been proven a theft,” Massa, who ultimately did not win an F1 world title, said. “At the time, Ferrari’s lawyers told me about this rule. We went to other lawyers and the answer was that nothing could be done. So I logically believed in this situation. “But after 15 years, we hear that the [former] owner of the category says that he found out in 2008, together with the president of the FIA, and they did nothing [so as] to not tarnish the name of F1. “This is very sad, to know the result of this race was supposed to be cancelled and I would have a title. In the end, I was the one who lost the most with this result. So, we are going after it to understand all this. “We have already seen other situations happening in sports, such as Lance Armstrong, who was proven to have doped, and he lost all the titles. What is the difference?” Despite Massa’s comments, his options appear slim, with the FIA’s own International Sporting Code stating protests and reviews expire 14 days after a competition and four days prior to that year’s prize giving ceremony. He also cannot use the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which has no jurisdiction over the FIA on issues like this, with the independent International Court of Appeal the highest authority in the sport. CAS may only be involved in F1 matters relating to the FIA’s Anti-Doping Disciplinary Committee. Massa’s best-finish in F1 turned out to be that 2008 season as he retired in 2017 while Hamilton has gone on to win six more titles with Mercedes, holding the joint-record of seven F1 World Championships with Michael Schumacher. Read More Lewis Hamilton would be taking gamble by leaving Mercedes, says former rival Inspired by Schumacher, meet the Hong Kong billionaire targeting a new Formula 1 team Is a bright Ferrari future being hampered by the past? The Miami Grand Prix could already have a problem – and it comes in the form of Las Vegas Max Verstappen urged to ‘take leaf out of Lewis Hamilton’s book’ after George Russell clash

Samantha Womack has said she would’ve delayed her own cancer treatment in solidarity with striking NHS staff who “shouldn’t be eating from food banks”. The former EastEnders actor, 50, announced she had been diagnosed with “brutal” breast cancer in August last year – shortly after Dame Olivia Newton-John died from the disease. Last December, NHS doctors and nurses went on a nationwide strike demanding better pay amid a cost-of-living crisis and rising inflation. Describing herself as a “huge advocate” of England’s national health service, she called it “one of the best gifts we have” in an interview with Press Association. She added: “But when you’ve got the people who are working as hard as they are doing the hours they are, not being supported, even if it would have delayed my own personal treatment, “I would have been out there fighting with them, because I’m absolutely desperate for them to be paid properly and appropriately for what they do,” she continued. “They certainly shouldn’t be eating from food banks.” She also told the agency Newton-John’s death made Womack want to share her own diagnosis, “because I thought everyone knows someone that’s got cancer”. “It was very poignant for me when I got my diagnosis that she had lost her battle and they happened within the same timeframe,” she explained. Womack, who played Ronnie Mitchell on the hit BBC soap until 2017, told fans in January 2023 that she had overcome breast cancer. The British actor is now lending her support to a campaign enabling greater access to a new AI breast cancer diagnostic tool called Digistain. The UK’s first breast cancer risk profiling solution, Digistain helps patients better understand their cancer and the specific treatment that will most benefit them. Womack said she didn’t know about Digistain when her cancer was diagnosed, and that she was “anxious not to have chemotherapy” if she didn’t require the “brutal treatment”. “I knew that there was a test called the Oncotype test, which is very similar....(but) it’s incredibly expensive so it’s just not available to most people,” she added. Womack said the test gives a ratio of how beneficial chemotherapy would be and she was “on the fence” so had two rounds before making the decision to stop. Last October, Womack gave fans a health update while receiving the treatment, explaining that she had gotten her appetite back but was struggling with migraines. Elsewhere in the interview on Friday (12 May), Womack reflected on life after being given the all-clear and how it has changed her perspective. “It’s apparent in every little thing that you think,” she continued. “It’s a bit like learning to think and speak in a different language and it’s quite exhausting, because you’re not quite the same person that you were so everything is just slightly shaded in a different colour.” Read More Rainy bike rides and jellybean bribes: The secrets of royal coronation photographer Hugo Burnand Taylor Swift fans react to new photo ‘confirming’ Matty Healy romance: ‘I’m going to cry’ The Bear star Jeremy Allen White’s wife Addison Timlin reportedly files for divorce Meghan is ‘cuckoo’ in royal nest and her ‘woke hang-ups’ will destroy marriage, says Labour grandee Robert De Niro reveals name of newborn daughter as he shares first photo of seventh child

Johann Rupert, the controlling shareholder of Swiss luxury goods conglomerate Richemont, dismissed talk of a takeover by bigger

Richemont, the Swiss luxury goods maker that owns the Cartier brand, reported earnings that beat analysts’ estimates as