Julian McMahon, star of ‘Nip/Tuck’ and ‘Fantastic Four,’ dies at 56

Published

2 months ago

July 5, 2025

Actor Julian McMahon, who was known for playing Dr. Doom in the early-2000s “Fantastic Four” movies and starring in fan-favorite shows including “Nip/Tuck” and “Charmed,” has died. He was 56.

McMahon “died peacefully this week after a valiant effort to overcome cancer,” his wife, Kelly McMahon, said in a statement.

“Julian loved life. He loved his family. He loved his friends. He loved his work, and he loved his fans,” she said. “His deepest wish was to bring joy into as many lives as possible.”

“We ask for support during this time to allow our family to grieve in privacy,” she added. “And we wish for all of those to whom Julian brought joy, to continue to find joy in life. We are grateful for the memories.”

McMahon’s death was also confirmed in a Facebook post by the “Nip/Tuck” series, which was created by renowned television writer Ryan Murphy.

“Warner Bros. Television mourns the loss of our friend Julian McMahon,” the series said in a post accompanied by a photo of McMahon. “Our thoughts are with his family, friends, colleagues, and fans.”

McMahon’s role as Dr. Christian Troy in “Nip/Tuck” earned him a Golden Globe nomination for best actor in a television drama series. The series aired on FX from 2003 to 2010, while McMahon also starred in two of the “Fantastic Four” movies, “Fantastic Four” and “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.”

McMahon’s career took off in the supernatural TV series “Charmed,” which he co-starred in with Shannen Doherty and Alyssa Milano from 2000 to 2005.

Milano shared an image of McMahon and her on Instagram on Friday, calling him a “dear friend” and saying she was “heartbroken” by his loss.

“He made me feel safe as an actor. Seen as a woman. He challenged me, teased me, supported me,” she said. “We were so different, and yet somehow we always understood each other.”

Julian McMahon as Dr. Doom in the early-2000s “Fantastic Four.”United Archives GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

The Hollywood star was born in Sydney, Australia, on July 27, 1968, and hailed from famous parents.

His father, William McMahon, was the prime minister of Australia from 1971 to 1972, and his mother was Sonia McMahon, an Australian socialite and fashion icon.

In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel in 2007, McMahon said he didn’t remember much from his father’s days as Australia’s leader because of his young age.

“It’s a little different there because Australia’s a smaller country. It was the ’70s. Everything wasn’t so public,” he said. “It was a little easier. You weren’t growing up in the spotlight. Paparazzi wasn’t following you around.”

In 2018, McMahon returned to Australia to star in a comedy-drama film, “Swinging Safari,” alongside Australian star Kylie Minogue. Minogue was McMahon’s former sister-in-law from McMahon’s first marriage to Minogue’s younger sister, Dannii Minogue, in the 1990s.

McMahon might have drawn on his scant memories of his father’s premiership for one of his final roles, playing Australia’s prime minister in the murder mystery series “The Residence,” which premiered on Netflix this year.

In addition to his wife, Kelly McMahon, whom he married in 2014, McMahon leaves behind a daughter, Madison, from a previous marriage to model Brooke Burns.

Matt Lavietes

Matt Lavietes is a reporter for NBC News.

Austin Mullen and Joe Kottke contributed.

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Aaron Judge passes Joe DiMaggio with his 362nd career homer

Published

3 hours ago

September 13, 2025

Jimmy Golen

BOSTON (AP) — New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge is done chasing Joltin’ Joe.

After his 362nd home run on Friday night moved him past Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio on the New York Yankees’ career list, Judge said he had no intention on going after another, even more famous DiMaggio record: his 56-game hitting streak.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m getting that one,” Judge said with a chuckle. “We can try, but I think that one’s untouchable.”

One game after Judge homered twice to tie DiMaggio with President Donald Trump at Yankee Stadium to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Yankees captain hit the second pitch he saw from Boston’s Lucas Giolito in the first inning over the Green Monster and onto Lansdowne Street.

The 468-foot shot gave New York a 1-0 lead over Boston as the longtime rivals battle for playoff position. The Yankees won 4-1, extending their lead over the Red Sox in the AL East to 1 1/2 games; both teams are in position for wild-card berths, trailing division leader Toronto, but only one would get the home-field advantage in the first round.

“It’s special, but just like all those guys in front of me on those lists, they weren’t playing for records. They were playing to win,” Judge said. “I’m just trying to follow in their footsteps. I’m here to win.”

Judge reached 362 homers in his 1,130th game. DiMaggio played 1,736 games and hit his last homer on Sept. 28, 1951, at the end of a 13-year career that was interrupted for three seasons because he served in World War II.

Judge broke a tie with Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra for fifth on New York’s career list Tuesday night and now has four homers in his last four games and 47 for the season.

He also walked twice on Friday night and raised his major league-best batting average to .323. The homer was the longest at Fenway Park this season, according to Sportradar, and the longest at the ballpark since his 470-footer last July.

“That was a big shot in the arm for us, to get it going,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after the victory. “Aaron hitting one of those — you know, one of those Aaron blows — definitely got the boys going.”

Babe Ruth hit 659 of his 714 homers with the Yankees; Mickey Mantle (536) and Lou Gehrig (493) are the other Yankees ahead of Judge.

DiMaggio won nine World Series, and Ruth, Mantle and Gehrig all won seven apiece. Judge is chasing his first title.

“I’m trying to help put this team in the best position every single night,” Judge said. “That comes with homers, that comes with big moments like that. It’s pretty cool. But I think all those guys in front of me — and especially DiMaggio — all those guys they played to win in New York and and win for this team. So I’m going to keep trying to do that. And we can talk about the milestones at the end.”

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

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Ukraine war briefing: Poland’s allies decry ‘flagrant violation’; Warsaw sends troops to border to monitor Belarus drills | Ukraine

Published

4 hours ago

September 13, 2025

Guardian staff reporter

Poland and about 40 of its allies on Friday denounced the intrusion of Russian drones into its airspace this week, calling on Moscow to avoid more “provocations”. Before an emergency meeting of the UN security council requested by Poland, deputy foreign minister Marcin Bosacki told reporters that Warsaw and its allies wanted to “draw the attention of the international community to yet another flagrant violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations committed by the Russian Federation”, which had brought “the entire region closer to conflict than at any time in recent years”. The comments were from a statement signed by about 40 countries, including the 26 other members of the European Union, Ukraine, the United States, Japan and Canada. “We take this opportunity to reiterate our call on the Russian Federation to immediately cease its war of aggression against Ukraine, to renounce any further provocations, and to respect its obligations under the UN Charter,” he said. “Escalation cannot lead to peace.”

France, Germany and Denmark will contribute fighter jets and other military assets to an enhanced defence of Poland against future Russian drone incursions, Nato leaders announced at a press conference on Friday. The UK is also expected contribute to the Eastern Sentry mission, which will gradually be expanded from the Arctic in the north to the Black Sea and Mediterranean in the south to better tackle Russian drones and missiles.

The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. The military drills started on Friday, and include exercises close to the border with Poland and Lithuania and in the Baltic and Barents seas. Russia’s defence ministry posted a video showing heavy military equipment – including armoured vehicles, helicopters and navy ships – taking part in the drills. Poland said it would station about 40,000 troops near the Belarus border for the duration of the drills.

Prince Harry laid a wreath at a flower and flag memorial to Ukraine’s war dead in Kyiv’s Maidan Square during a surprise visit to support the country in its fight against Russia, saying he wanted to do “everything possible” to help the thousands of military personnel who have been seriously injured in the war against Russia. During the trip to Kyiv, Harry and a team from his Invictus Games Foundation gave details of new initiatives to support the rehabilitation of the wounded, with the eventual aim of providing help to all areas of the country.

Russia said peace talks with Ukraine were on “pause” as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. “Our negotiators have the opportunity to communicate through channels. But for now, it is probably more accurate to talk about a pause” in talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Speaking at a conference in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said the west should not trust Putin. “Putin’s goal is to occupy all of Ukraine. And no matter what he tells anyone, it is clear that he has set the war machine in motion to such an extent that he simply cannot stop it unless he is forced to fundamentally change his personal goals,” he said. The Ukrainian president also called on allies to encourage China to use its leverage with Russia to stop Moscow’s offensive.

Trump told Fox television his patience was being taxed by Russia’s refusal to end its invasion. “It’s sort of running out and running out fast, but it does take two to tango,” Trump told Fox television. “It’s amazing. When Putin wants to do it, Zelensky didn’t. When Zelensky wanted to do it, Putin didn’t. Now Zelensky wants to and Putin is a question mark. We’re going to have to come down very, very strong,” he added. The Ukrainian president has long been open to efforts to meet and agree a ceasefire.

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Musk’s XAI Just Laid Off Hundreds of Workers Tasked With Training Grok

Published

5 hours ago

September 13, 2025

Jake Swearingen

Elon Musk‘s xAI laid off at least 500 workers on its data annotation team on Friday night.

The company sent out emails notifying employees that it was planning to downsize its team of generalist AI tutors, according to multiple messages viewed by Business Insider.

“After a thorough review of our Human Data efforts, we’ve decided to accelerate the expansion and prioritization of our specialist AI tutors, while scaling back our focus on general AI tutor roles. This strategic pivot will take effect immediately,” the email read. “As part of this shift in focus, we no longer need most generalist AI tutor positions and your employment with xAI will conclude.”

Workers were told that they would be paid through either the end of their contract or November 30, but their access to company systems would be terminated the day of the layoff notice.

The data annotation team is xAI’s largest team. The workers play a key role in developing Grok by teaching the chatbot how to understand the world by contextualizing and categorizing raw data.

The main Slack room used by data annotators had more than 1,500 members on Friday afternoon; screenshots viewed by Business Insider Friday evening showed that number down to a little over 1,000, with that number continuing to decline over the course of reporting this story.

On Friday night, xAI posted on X that it was hiring for roles and plans to grow its team of specialist AI tutors by “10X.”

Specialist AI tutors at xAI are adding huge value. We will immediately surge our Specialist AI tutor team by 10x!

We are hiring across domains like STEM, finance, medicine, safety, and many more. Come join us to help build truth-seeking AGI!https://t.co/htpc2RijLG

— xAI (@xai) September 13, 2025

The layoff notices were sent out only a few days after several senior-level employees, including the team’s former head, recently had their Slack accounts deactivated, Business Insider reported earlier this week.

In the days that followed, workers were pulled into one-on-ones to review their responsibilities, projects, and achievements, nine workers told Business Insider. They were asked if there were any coworkers they wanted to highlight for their hard work, the workers said.

XAI told workers on Thursday night to prepare for a reorganization of the data annotation team.

In a team-wide announcement on Thursday night, the company asked some workers to drop everything and focus on a series of tests to determine their roles at the company going forward, asking staff to complete them by Friday morning West Coast time. The tests would be used to sort annotators and their supervisors based on their strengths and interests, according to a screenshot viewed by Business Insider.

The notice for tutors to prepare for testing was posted by Diego Pasini, who ten workers said recently became the team’s leader. Pasini asked workers to take at least one test by the following morning. The tests covered traditional domains like STEM, coding, finance, and medicine, as well as quirkier specialties like Grok’s “personality and model behavior” and “shitposters and doomscrollers.”

The company also listed tests for workers aiming to improve the chatbot’s safety, including by “red teaming” the bot, as well as tests dedicated to audio and video content.

Pasini joined xAI in January, according to his LinkedIn profile. He is “on leave” from his undergraduate studies at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, his LinkedIn shows.

Pasini and a representative for xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The announcement said the tests were aimed at supervisors and generalist tutors. XAI divides its teams between STEM, coding, finance, legal, and media specialties, as well as a large pool of generalist tutors who are tasked with a wide range of assignments, from annotating video and audio to writing.

Two workers said the STEM and coding tests took place on CodeSignal, a skills assessment platform, while other tests were hosted on Google Forms.

More than 200 workers responded to Pasini’s message with a green check-mark emoji, and over 100 replied to the post with questions and comments, according to a screenshot viewed by Business Insider.

One worker expressed frustration with the short time span that was given for the tests, according to a screenshot viewed by Business Insider.

“Doing this after people have gone home for the day is pretty shady,” the worker wrote. The worker’s Slack account was deactivated shortly after, multiple workers said.

Do you work for xAI or have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at gkay@businessinsider.com or Signal at 248-894-6012. Use a personal email address, a nonwork device, and nonwork WiFi; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.

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