When a 19-year-old Tiger Woods stood over his first-ever putt at the Masters on his debut in 1995, it is fair to say the American prodigy was in for a rude awakening.

The most important day in the Christian calendar has often coincided with a joyous one for golf followers. This year, they should've been enjoying the 18th Masters staged on Easter Sunday.

Augusta announced last month that the 2020 tournament, scheduled for April 9-12, had been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The tournament is now set to be held November 12-15. 

Count the previously buoyant European Tour as another branch of sport staring into a financial black hole owing to the effects of coronavirus.

DEREK LAWRENSON - WORLD OF GOLF: you are loath to argue with a 20-strong selection committee containing players like Nick Price, Curtis Strange and Annika Sorenstam.

DEREK LAWRENSON - WORLD OF GOLF: It was the hardest piece that I've ever had to write - and the lively aftermath was far, far worse. Seve Ballesteros tore into me in front of my peers.

During an interview, Harrington revealed who he'd been in contact with recently before accidentally mentioning 'Luke', referencing Luke Donald, as one of his vice-captains for the event.

'Air' Jordan is now back on sports fans' lips following the airing of ESPN's docu-series The Last Dance, which focuses on his championship-winning season with the Chicago Bulls in 1997-1998.

The House Oversight Committee chairman is demanding the White House hand over records of Trump-Putin meetings, and wants to know if Trump destroyed a translator's notes.

President Donald Trump arrives in Japan for talks with Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and other leaders after demanding from aboard Air Force One that India pull back tariffs.

The Russian President will meet Theresa May at the G20 in Russia today where the Prime Minister will demand he admits to the Novichok attack and hand over the two spies sent to kill Sergei Skripal.

Bernie Ecclestone, 88, also said he thought Putin should be running Europe and that the invasion of Crimea was just to 'bring Russia back together.'

In a phone call between the leaders, Trump is said to have offered American assistance to help stem the blaze, which has now engulfed in excess of 7 million acres of Siberian woodland.

President Donald Trump said Thursday Vladimir Putin 'appreciated' his offer to help with forest fires raging in Siberia, and that the two men did not discuss Russia's election interference.

The Russian president's involvement in the deadly poisoning in Salisbury is understood to have been assessed by British intelligence agencies as well as Scotland Yard.

Steve Bullock, 2020 presidential candidate, on Sunday compared Ken Cuccinelli, the acting Director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services, to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Patrick Byrne, who stepped down last week from the company he founded, made the claim in a lengthy blog post on Tuesday detailing his relationship with Butina.

'I love it when you call me señorita,' Trump appears to sing, one auto-tuned note at a time, with each word drawn from a different speech. 'I wish I could pretend I didn't need ya.'

Donald Trump's absence from an event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Poland in WWII is stoking fears that the security alliance between Washington and Warsaw is weaker than the two governments have let on.

Volodymyr Tsemakh, an alleged separatist in the area where the Malaysian Airlines jet was shot down in 2014, was freed by a Kiev appeals court today pending further investigation.

Vladmir Putin (pictured) said he offered to 'balance everything out' by offering the Kremlin's weapons to Trump at the G20 summit in Japan in June.

The poll on Sunday suggests a tactical voting strategy pushed by opponents may have worked, in order to punish the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin's (pictured) ruling United Russia party.

The CIA pulled a spy with deep access inside the Kremlin out of Russia in 2017 because of leaks, and not because President Donald Trump had compromised the secret agent.

Alexander 'Sasha' Gabyshev, 60, nicknamed the 'new Rasputin,' in reference to the crazed monk who took a malevolent hold over the last tsar of Russia, was halted in Siberia.

Emily Thornberry today accused Donald Trump of 'trying to tear freedom apart' as she demanded the end of the 'strongman era' of world politics.

Rudy Giuliani (left) has pulled out of a scheduled appearance at a Russia-backed trade conference which Vladimir Putin (right) and his top advisor, Sergev Glazyev (center), would also appear at.

The White House is said to have attempted to limit access to President Trump's conversations with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Asked about Democrats' push for the publication of Putin-Trump calls, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded that 'the publication is possible only on mutual accord.'

Vladimir Putin is the only one who can green-light the use of the controversial gene-editing technology, and will have the ear of his daughter Maria Vorontsova, an endocrinologist.

The Iranian president smiled and looked at ease as he sat in front of the Russian premier, who appeared characteristically stern (pictured).

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said Turkey and its rebel allies had launched a large ground offensive against three villages today and forces thousands of civilians to flee.

Mazlum Abdi, the head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), phoned Moscow to 'thank Vladimir Putin (pictured yesterday) and Russia for their keenness in defusing the war'.

Conor McGregor (middle and right) has spoken about the bizarre time the bottle of whiskey he gave to Vladimir Putin (left) was removed by his security staff to check for poison.

A KGB profile belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin has been released to the public at an exhibition of declassified documents at the central state archive in St. Petersburg.

Sergei Skripal had been warned. He had been a double agent, and in 2010, when the Russians released him from jail in a spy-swap, Putin made his intentions clear: 'Traitors will kick the bucket.'

The briefcase, which has a personalised key code, a flash card and is under constant supervision, is said to remotely control Russia's nuclear arsenal.

NORMAN BAKER: If Putin wanted to kill him, why not get him back to Russia first? As for his daughter Yulia, she had only arrived in Britain 24 hours earlier and had been living in Moscow for years.

Head of the Russian Northern Fleet, Vice-Admiral Alexander Moiseev, warned NATO countries risk starting a war over the Arctic and their presence in polar waters.

Alexander Gabyshev was arrested two days into his planned 5,000-mile trek to Moscow, three months after his first journey was cut short when he was detained in September and flown back to Siberia.

U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating whether Russia is targeting Joe Biden in the 2020 election by promoting the controversy in the Ukraine over his and Hunter Biden's roles there. 

Bashir Dokhov fixed a large portrait of Putin to the lift in a Moscow residential block and recorded people's shocked reactions as they entered the lift.

At a meeting discussing amendments to the Russian constitution, Vladimir Putin said: 'As long as I'm president, we will have ''dad'' and ''mom''.'

Vladimir Putin was asked to confirm or deny years of rumours that he uses body doubles to avoid being assassinated, claiming that he was advised to do it back in 2000 but turned down the idea.

Streets in the Russian capital were deserted today with Red Square empty (pictured) after mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced the drastic measures last night.

Business Wire India

Monsoon Blockchain Corporation, Asia’s premier blockchain company pioneering the adoption of highly secure decentralized asset management, has partnered with Asia’s largest digital asset platform OSL of BC Group, DraperDragon Fund, CarbonBlue of BSN, and Academy Award Winning Studio Cross Creek Media. This deal signifies a major move for the blockchain, digital assets, and the expansion of global media and Hollywood. These partners create a global powerhouse in the Asia-Pacific region, which plan to harness industry-leading blockchain solutions for their business needs.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505006164/en/

The Monsoon-OSL deal will explore opportunities to accelerate the drive towards the digitalization of assets, money, currencies, and decentralized blockchain ledgers (where all transactions, storage of payments and data will be inviolably recorded). Combining intellectual property, deal flow, large scale investors, and blockchain capabilities, Monsoon Blockchain is looking to create a digital asset powerhouse in the US and Asia.

OSL is the Hong Kong region’s most comprehensive digital asset platform, providing Software-as-a-Service, brokerage, exchange, and custody services for institutions and professional investors. OSL manages over $1.5B in transactions per month in digital asset trading. After reaching $171 billion this year, the value of business-to-business and cross-border payments carried out on blockchain systems is estimated to exceed an astounding $4.4 trillion by 2024.

Recently, Fidelity International, a spin-off from the U.S. financial services brand Fidelity Investments, invested in BC Group (stock code: 863 HK), the Hong Kong-based operator of crypto exchange OSL. Including custodial accounts, the firm reported $8.3 trillion in assets under administration - a spike from the reported $6.7 trillion in 2018.

Both Monsoon and OSL will participate in launching multiple digital assets and tokens including media and telecommunications tokens, Monsoon Token, and other branded assets within the Monsoon ecosystem. Monsoon has been making worldwide news in blockchain after partnering with China’s largest phone retailer, Dixintong (D.Phone), which generated a reported $2.5 billion in revenue in 2019.

Monsoon will be joining the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), which was recently launched on the Chinese Mainland on April 25th, 2020 and will officially be available for global commercial use by June 25^th. China Mobile, China UnionPay, and Red Date Technology are the founding consortia partners that created the BSN protocol and infrastructure, which has been deployed in over 100 cities in China. The BSN is a global interoperability protocol that allows companies to connect to different blockchain ecosystems, as well as create and run new blockchain-as-a-service applications. The BSN will accelerate the development of digital economies and smart cities deployment by providing global interconnectivity and integrated blockchain cloud computing services for participants on the network.

Additionally, Monsoon has formed a new partnership with CarbonBlue Innovations to integrate cloud computing capabilities on top of the BSN protocol, allowing the creation of new low-cost blockchain cloud computing offerings suitable for developing regions of the world. CarbonBlue Innovations is a leading venture building and investment company that is focused on rapidly commercializing and scaling blockchain, fintech, and digital finance innovation around the world. Not only does CarbonBlue Innovations focus on both fintech infrastructure solutions, but also digital assets and investment banking services to allow the institutional adoption of regulated digital assets.

Michael Sung, Chairman of CarbonBlue Innovations asserted: “Monsoon’s unique cloud computing optimization technologies complement the existing multi-cloud offerings of the BSN and can further enhance our ability to customize blockchain cloud services for the developing world. With this partnership, we will be able to offer compelling low-cost solutions to enable SMEs (small and medium enterprises) globally to join the digital economy, which will massively drive self-sufficiency and financial inclusion in these developing regions.”

Monsoon will also be able to leverage the partnership with CarbonBlue Innovations to create innovative digital asset securitization and digital finance solutions for the market. Leveraging CarbonBlue Innovation’s strong academic and institutional finance affiliations, the new partnership will allow the creation of a vertically-integrated digital asset investment banking platform to address the massive opportunity in the future digitization of the world’s economy. CarbonBlue Innovations is able to provide full-stack solutions, vertically-integrating fintech technology infrastructure, legal/regulatory best practices, and institutional financial engineering expertise for digital finance.

Michael Sung added, “CarbonBlue Innovations has created a strong strategic partnership network consisting of the top digital asset companies leading the industry. Combined with Monsoon’s access to various industry ecosystems and pipeline of tokenization projects, our partnership will enable us to immediately scale to take a leadership position in the market and allow our clients to leapfrog into the future of finance.”

Partnering with Monsoon Blockchain, Cross Creek Media ($1.5B in the worldwide Box office) will expand its digital assets in film, television, and IP into the blockchain universe. The aim of the partnership is to achieve streamlined digital content management systems, and to gain broader access to worldwide audiences. Cross Creek has been a co-financier/producer of such films as Oscar winner Black Swan and has been behind hits American Made,Everest, Black Mass, Bloodshot, Hacksaw Ridge and the upcoming The Trial of the Chicago 7. Cross Creek is well positioned to be the next generation of production houses. Additionally, Cross Creek will announce a token style offering alongside Monsoon Blockchain Corporation. Timmy Thompson, CEO of Cross Creek Media stated: “We are very excited to work with Monsoon and continue developing award-winning properties. Furthermore, we believe Cross Creek's portfolio of new media technology investments perfectly positions us to take advantage of the new distribution paradigms.”

“We are very honored to work with such insightful leaders and innovators, the breadth of participants in this deal demonstrates the significant impact blockchain will have across a wide variety of industries,” Dr. Donald Basile added, “tokenization of asset classes has a tremendous upside on both the investment level and security level. Gartner’s prediction of over $3 trillion of business value added by blockchain seems increasingly likely.”

Monsoon Blockchain Corporation is focused on innovative cloud solutions in the blockchain ecosystem. Dr. Donald Basile, its CEO and founder, is the former CEO of Fusion IO, a company known for playing a major role in implementing the cloud systems at Apple and Facebook as well as partnerships with HP, IBM, and Dell. Recently, Monsoon Blockchain added advisory board members Ken Goldman, President of Hillspire (Eric Schmidt’s family office), and former CFO of Yahoo and Fortinet and Xiaoma Lu, former Dalian Wanda Investments CEO and former board member of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to their team.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505006164/en/

The Montage Beverly Hills hotel is a kingdom of opulence frequented by the rich and famous in one of the world's most famous postcodes - 90210. Ted Thornhill dips his toes into the waters of luxury...

The pop star filmed himself shaving his face and posted it to Instagram stories before declaring himself 'baby face BIEB'.

Justin Bieber shows solid technique as he plays a round of golf with friend and  two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Justin Bieber gushed over a photo of his wife Hailey Bieber decked out in a black shorts ensemble: 'Love this look babe,' he wrote in the caption.

He's been busy promoting his latest album effort.