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Easter Sunday evokes memories of the moment Bernhard Langer Lorded it at Augusta back in 1985

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.




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'It got a little ugly': Tiger Woods reveals his Masters Champion Dinner ended in a FOOD FIGHT...

Tiger Woods revealed that his traditional Masters Champions Dinner with his family ended in a food fight. The reigning champion had a version of the traditional meal under quarantine with his family.




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Rory McIlroy boosted by moving Masters to November in search of career Grand Slam

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. 




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PGA Tour 'plans to use ONE MILLION COVID-19 test kits to help complete season'

The rigorous testing procedures put forward by the PGA Tour will involve players, caddies and officials being sent testing kits - already on mass order - to their homes.




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Postponing Ryder Cup is the leader in the clubhouse as optimism fades over holding contest this year

DEREK LAWRENSON - WORLD OF GOLF: There is still a window before the Ryder Cup organisers make a final decision on whether it will go ahead as planned. But it's fair to say the mood has changed.




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McIlroy vows to never taking winning for granted as he hits balls for the first time in seven weeks

World No 1 Rory McIlroy insists he will never take winning for granted as he waits to make a return to the game after the coronavirus lockdown.




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Thomas Bjorn smashes a window at home while trying to show fans how to perform a chip shot

Bjorn is taking some time away from the fairway during coronavirus lockdown and he decided to help others looking to improve their skills by filming a video on how to hit a chip shot.




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Why the rush to make Ryer Cup call, asks former captain Paul McGinley

EXCLUSIVE BY DEREK LAWRENSON: As he goes on his six-mile lockdown walks, wearing a 50lb fitness coat, the straight-talking Irishman has a weight on his shoulders and a lo on his mind.




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Padraig Harrington accidentally reveals Luke Donald as one of his vice-captains for the Ryder Cup

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.




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JACI STEPHEN: Whisper it... but was that final all a bit half-baked?

The Great British Bake Off is a reminder of the pleasures of this simplest of human activities, albeit an often salutary lesson in how hard it is to get right, as the three finalists discovered




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Trump's protocol ambassador forced out amid internal probe

Chief of Protocol Sean Lawler has left his post, following reports of a possible internal probe of allegations of intimidation and harassment.




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Putin brands treason the 'gravest crime' as he shrugs off Skripal row ahead of May meeting

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.




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Oscar winning director Oliver Stone asks Vladimir Putin to be his 22-year-old daughter's godfather

The Platoon director, pictured left with Putin and inset with his daughter, spoke to Putin on June 19 for his latest film about Ukraine.




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From Russia with Love! Putin sinks to new depths as he gives Bond-style mini-submarine a spin

The Russian President used the craft, a C-Explorer 3.11, to explore the Soviet Shchuka-class submarine Shch-308 which sunk in the Baltic Sea in October 1942 after hitting a German mine.




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Putin orders Russian army to tackle massive wild fire

Environmentalists have warned that the scale of the blazes, across central and east Russia, could accelerate global warming, aside from any immediate effects on the health of inhabitants.




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Trump said Putin 'appreciated' his offer to help combat massive Siberian forest fires

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.




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Jon Huntsman quits as ambassador to Russia and will return to Utah

U.S. diplomat Jon Huntsman has resigned as Donald Trump's ambassador to Russia.




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Ambulances covered in protective film transport Russians 'who suffered radiation poisoning' in blast

The spike in radiation in Russia yesterday may have been caused when one of Vladimir Putin's top secret Zircon hypersonic missiles exploded during tests, according to news reports in the country.




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Bullock says Ken Cuccinelli heading immigration policy is as bad as Putin in charge of elections

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




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Putin takes swipe at Macron as he says 'yellow vest' protests would NEVER be allowed in Russia 

Vladimir Putin vowed to prevent the emergence of mass protests yesterday speaking to French President Emmanuel Macron in southern France .




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Kremlin-backed TV network airs note-by-note mashup of Trump praising Putin with 'Señorita' song

'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.'




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Vladimir Putin casts his ballot in Russian local elections

Putin (pictured today) voted in Moscow elections which have taken on a rare significance after a series of candidates were detained and barred from the ballot, sparking mass protests.




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CIA asset was key source for the golden showers anti-Donald Trump dossier claims Russian

Oleg Smolenkov, the Kremlin aide named in Russia as the CIA's asset at the heart of Putin's regime tracks closely to a source described in the Steele dossier, claims Ilya Shumanov.




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If you want transcripts of Donald Trump's calls to Vladimir Putin you'll have to ask us: Kremlin

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.'




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Alcohol consumption in Russia has plunged 43 per cent since 2003

The WHO released the report on Tuesday that put a decrease in the country's alcohol consumption down to a raft of measures brought in under sport-loving President Vladimir Putin.




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Smiling Hassan Rouhani of Iran and a far less impressed Vladimir Putin pose for bizarre selfie

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




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Greta Thunberg mocks Putin as she changes her Twitter bio to 'kind but poorly informed teenager'

Greta Thunberg, 16, changed her Twitter biography after Vladimir Putin called her 'a poorly informed teenager' who was being 'used by adults' at an energy forum in Moscow on Wednesday.




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Russia 'has deployed secret GRU unit known as 29155 to spread turmoil in Europe'

The unit is comprised of veterans from Russia's bloodiest wars, including hardened service personnel who fought in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Ukraine.




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Holes in Iranian oil tanker hit by two missiles revealed for first time as Putin visits Saudi Arabia

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Saudi Arabia today, where he is set to seal oil agreements as well as use his influence to defuse rising tensions in the Gulf following a tanker attack.




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Kurdish fighters in Syria claim Turkey has launched new offensive

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.




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Putin's Soviet spy file declassified: Russian president's KGB profile is released to the public

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.




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Putin boasts Russia is creating hypersonic and laser weapons 'which other countries do not possess'

Russian President Vladimir Putin has asserted that Russia will continue to expand its weapons development during a meeting with top officials and prosecutors on Wednesday.




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Donald Trump says he 'would love to go' as Vladimir Putin invites him to Moscow

President Donald Trump said he is considering heading to Moscow to join the May 9 celebrations of the victory over the Nazis, saying he was 'thinking about it.'




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Putin says dead scientists died trying to create a weapon that 'has no equal in the world'

Russian President Vladimir Putin (main) told widows of the scientists who died in a nuclear explosion earlier this year their husbands were working on an unmatched nuclear weapon.




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Has Britain let Putin get away with a string of murders on our soil?

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.'




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Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping open giant gas link between the two countries

Vladamir Putin and Xi Jinping discussed the new 'Power of Siberia' pipeline during an elaborate televised ceremony. The 3,000km pipeline will supply China with 38billion cubic feet of gas annually.




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Russian TV shows rare glimpse of one of three nuclear briefcases

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.




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Vladimir Putin's TV channel boasts about nuclear-powered cruise missile which killed five

Russia 24, a state-owned Russian news channel, has boasted of the capabilities of the nuclear-powered cruise missile Burevestnik, known as Skyfall to NATO, which has 'unmatched' power.




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Russia boasts that intercontinental hypersonic missile is OPERATIONAL

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu informed Mr Putin that the first missile unit equipped with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered Russian combat duty, the Defence Ministry said.




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Vladimir Putin's armed forces are slammed as sexist for holding 'ridiculous' beauty contests

The Russian missile force - charged with guarding the country's nuclear weapons - has held a Makeup Under Camouflage event and female paratroopers have been required to sew.




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Ivanka Trump is roasted after suggesting Americans could spend their night making shadow puppets

Ivanka Trump's idea quickly backfired when people responded to her tweet with their own shadow puppets - not shaped as an animal but a middle finger.




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Russian paratroopers wearing oxygen masks and white camouflage jump from 33,000ft over the Arctic

The paratroopers reportedly jumped from a height of 10,000 metres (32,808 feet) from an Ilyushin Il-76 strategic airlifter.




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Monsoon Blockchain Partners With Industry Giants in the US and Asia to Engineer the Next Generation of Fintech

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/

 

(Graphic: Business Wire)

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 25th. 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.

 

 




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Justin Bieber helps raise $12.5K for Kobe Bryant's Mamba foundation after purchasing $1200 art

Justin Bieber's $1200 art purchase has helped raise $12.5K for Kobe Bryant's Mama fund. The artists created 260 mini versions of Justin's and donated 24% of profits to the Mamba On Three fund.




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Justin Bieber and wife Hailey cut casual looks as they head to church alongside Demi Lovato

Justin Bieber cut a casual figure while heading to church on Wednesday night with his wife Hailey.




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Justin Bieber preps for tour with stop by the dance studio before releasing his new album Changes

The Canadian crooner looked like he was in full preparation mode as he made his way to the dance studio on Thursday. The Yummy singer, 25, seemed like he was in high spirits.




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Love Island viewers brand Natalia 'disrespectful' as she pulls Jamie away from a chat with Demi

Love Island fans have slammed new girl Natalia Zoppa as 'disrespectful' after she pulled bombshell Jamie Clayton away mid way through a chat with Demi Jones.




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Justin Bieber says Kobe Bryant's death has reminded him to 'live life to the full'

The 25-year-old singer was a friend of the basketball icon - who died in a helicopter crash in January - and Justin has admitted the tragic incident has reminded him of his real priorities in life.




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Justin Bieber admits he was 'reckless' 'crazy' and 'wild' during his relationship with Selena Gomez

The Sorry hitmaker, 25, who married Hailey in 2018, added that he initially told the model that he wouldn't be faithful as he was still dealing with 'unforgiveness' from the previous relationship.




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Justin Bieber gets in the swing of things as he enjoys golf with Masters champion Bubba Watson in LA

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.