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Mark Zuckerberg Dethroned: Three 22-Year-Old Mercor Founders Become Youngest Self-Made Billionaires
Mercor’s 22-year-old founders have become the world’s youngest self-made billionaires after a $350 million funding round valued the AI recruitment startup at $10 billion, surpassing Mark Zuckerberg’s record. Mercor, a fast-rising recruitment startup powering AI model training for Silicon Valley’s biggest labs, has created the world’s youngest self-made billionaires. Three 22-year-old cofounders, including two Americans of Indian origin, have dethroned Mark Zuckerberg as the world’s youngest sel
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Soho House Acquired for £2 Billion as Ashton Kutcher Joins Board
Private members' club chain Soho House has been snapped up for $2.7bn (£2bn) by a consortium involving Hollywood actor turned investor Ashton Kutcher. The group opened its first club in London in 1995, and now has 46 Soho Houses in Europe, North America and Asia, as well a string of other up-market hospitality businesses. It is widely regarded as being a popular haunt of A-list celebrities, and one of its London venues was reportedly where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had their first date.
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Remembering James Van Der Beek: Dawson’s Creek Star Passes Away at 48
James Van Der Beek, best known for playing Dawson Leery on Dawson’s Creek, has died at 48 after a years‑long battle with colorectal cancer. His wife, Kimberly Van Der Beek, announced that he “passed peacefully this morning,” saying he met his final days with “courage, faith, and grace,” and asked for privacy for their family in an Instagram post titled “Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning.” Van Der Beek revealed in November 2024 that he had been diagnosed with st
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After Sonya Massey’s Death, An Illinois Jury Delivers a Rare Murder Verdict
In July 2024, Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson responded to a 911 call from 36‑year‑old Sonya Massey, a Black woman in Springfield, Illinois, who had reported a possible intruder at her home. Body‑camera footage shows deputies asking her to check a pot of hot water on the stove, warning “we don’t need a fire while we’re here,” then Grayson shouting that he would shoot her “right in the face” before ordering her to drop the pot and firing as she ducked and apologized; investigators l
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Seventeen’s Tiny Desk Proves K‑Pop Has Officially Cracked the “Serious Music” Canon
Seventeen just made Tiny Desk history as the first K‑pop group to perform an in‑office concert at NPR, delivering a nine‑song medley with a live band squeezed behind the famous shelves. The set, which Music Connection highlighted in its January “Song Biz” column, strips away arena‑scale production in favor of tight harmonies, reworked choreography for a cramped stage and arrangements tailored to Tiny Desk’s intimate, musician‑forward format. With only part of the group present and an audience o
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The Max Mara Art Prize for Women Goes Global, Starting With Jakarta
The Max Mara Art Prize for Women is entering a new phase, bringing in New York–based curator Cecilia Alemani to oversee its 10th edition and adopting a nomadic format that debuts with Jakarta’s Museum MACAN. As noted in ArtAsiaPacific’s “Weekly News Roundup: January 26, 2026”, the prize, launched in 2005 for women artists working in the UK and long tied to London’s Whitechapel Gallery, will now travel to a different country for each edition while still offering a six‑month residency in Italy and
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