- William Lawrence defeats Republican Tom Barrett in Michigan’s 7th District
- British citizen tests positive for Ebola virus in DR Congo
- Kosovo loses €43.8 million in EU Funding
- World leaders respond to US midterm election results as shift in power noted
- US markets rise following Democratic control in midterm elections
- Former RBC employee convicted of fraud and unauthorised data access
- U.S. election results prompt global reactions to Trump’s losses
- Ancient padlock from Ann Francis shipwreck cracked, revealing 400-year-old mystery
Hunt for Tube hero who gave blind man his shoes after he lost one through the gap The hunt is on find an ‘absolute hero’
Get you up to speed: Progressive William Lawrence beats GOP Rep. Tom Barrett in key Michigan district
Progressive William Lawrence defeated one-term Republican Rep. Tom Barrett in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, according to projections by WTX US News. The immediate confirmed situation is that Lawrence’s victory follows a closely watched race amid scrutiny of his past social media posts.
William Lawrence’s campaign faced scrutiny over previously deleted social media posts, including controversial remarks aimed at former Democratic Senator Joe Manchin. As a climate activist, Lawrence positioned his campaign around cost of living concerns and opposition to data centre developments, contrasting with Tom Barrett’s local-level approach to such regulations.
William Lawrence’s victory over Tom Barrett has drawn attention from political analysts who view it as a shift towards progressive policies in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District. In the wake of the election, Barrett’s campaign strategy and his past criticisms of Donald Trump are likely to be scrutinised as the Republican Party reassesses its approach for future elections.
What remains unclear — The impact of Lawrence’s past social media posts on his future political career is yet to be determined.
William Lawrence defeats Republican Tom Barrett in Michigan’s 7th District
Caitlin Yilek
Politics Reporter
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at WTXNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.
Read Full Bio
/ WTX US News
Washington — Progressive William Lawrence beat one-term Republican Rep. Tom Barrett in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, WTX US News projected.
The race was one of the most closely watched in the nation.
Barrett, who was first elected in 2024 and flipped the Lansing-area district red, was one of the first House Republicans to break with President Trump and vote on war powers resolutions to end the war with Iran without congressional approval. Still, Barrett campaigned with Mr. Trump this summer and had his endorsement.
Lawrence, a climate activist who co-founded the Sunrise Movement and is a former member of the Democratic Socialists of America, defeated two moderate candidates who split the vote in the Democratic primary. Lawrence said he let his DSA membership lapse before the primary to “make clear” to voters in his district that he would represent them. Lawrence centered his campaign on the cost of living and opposing data centers.
Barrett also campaigned on data center regulations, though did not go as far as Lawrence in calling for a federal moratorium on their development. Instead, Barrett said the decision should be made at the local level.
After the primary, Lawrence’s old social media posts came under scrutiny, including one that was directed at moderate former Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. The deleted post from December 2021, which was reported by CNN, said, “Our generation says f*** you for everything … Hurry up and die so that we can get started.”
Lawrence distanced himself from past posts, including another in which he called to defund the police, saying they no longer aligned with his current beliefs.
In:
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
G20 waters down support for Ukraine amid pressure for peace talks
FT.com Tweet
The Tech Titan Who Led His Company From a 68-Square-Foot Jail Cell
WSJ Business Tweet
Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
What to Watch
Amazon prime - TV & Netflix
What to Watch
Love Sports
- Good News
- Readers Digest
Subscribe to Updates
Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

