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 new site costing £20.7million will be a web version of the Great Russian Encyclopaedia and show 'reliable information in a good, modern way'.

Acclaimed director Rob Reiner (left), 72, tweeted on Saturday that President Trump's (top right) supporters have 'made a pact' with Russian President Vladimir Putin (bottom right).

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.

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.

IAN HERBERT: The cries are laughable if anyone could find it within them to raise a smile about this mendacious, risible, pariah sporting nation.

A Kremlin press release last month showed Putin at his Moscow residence, sitting by a screen with a bright blue taskbar - suggesting that the computer was still running Windows XP.

Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly persuaded President Trump that Ukraine meddled in 2016 election during a July 2017 meeting in Hamburg, Germany.

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.

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.

Mr Young (pictured with girlfriend Noelle Reno) died after plunging onto railings below his £3m London penthouse in 2014 after repeatedly warning police and friends that hitmen wanted him dead.

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. 

MARK ALMOND: He likes to take the world - and Russians - by surprise. Vladimir Putin's lengthy State of Russia speech yesterday was expected to be the usual tedious outline of statistics.

In an address to the nation, Putin - who should step down in 2024 under the current arrangement - described how power was being shifted from the presidency to parliament.

Boris Johnson warned Vladimir Putin there is no prospect of normal relations between the countries until Moscow stops 'undermining the safety of our citizens and collective security'.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has submitted to parliament a package of constitutional amendments widely seen as an attempt to secure his grip on power after his term ends in 2024.

Imran Aliev's body was found in a hotel in Lille, France, last week. The 44-year-old had vocally opposed to both Vladimir Putin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

Russian President Vladimir Putin faced what appeared to be a rare unscripted grilling from a Russian woman who asked him how much he earns on Wednesday.

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.

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.

Boris Johnson and counterparts including Donald Trump, Xi Jinping of China, and Vladimir Putin linked up for a discussion on how to coordinate the response.

Alexander Nekrassov, a British citizen and former Kremlin advisor, has died in London from a 'stroke'. The 63-year-old's death came as a 'bolt out of the blue', according to a British friend.

Dmitry Bosov, 52, one of the richest men in Russia, was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head inside the private gym of his mansion in Moscow on Wednesday 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/

Business Wire India

Please replace the release issued May 4, 2020, with the following corrected version due to multiple revisions.

The corrected release reads: 

RMS LAUNCHES NEW PRODUCTS AND MODELS ON RMS RISK INTELLIGENCE, THE UNIFIED CLOUD PLATFORM FOR GLOBAL RISK

Latest product releases include Risk Modeler 2.0, new and updated HD Models and intelligent applications purpose-built for navigating the growing risk landscape

As the world is changing in profound ways, so is risk. Climate change, pandemic events, and cyberattacks are threats we all now have to consider in new and innovative ways. With better understanding of risks, better decisions can be made, enabling better risk management end-to-end. Today, at the opening of its annual Exceedance conference, RMS, the world’s leading catastrophe risk solutions company, announced significant new model and product releases and updates for RMS Risk Intelligence™ (RI).

RMS Risk Intelligence (RI), first launched in May 2019, is an open, modular, unified, and reliable cloud platform that enables advanced modeling, deeper risk insights and analytics. Leveraging a cloud-native architecture, RI delivers higher performance and scale. With the RMS Risk Intelligence platform, there is no hardware or software to maintain, focused on reducing cost of ownership. The platform enables (re)insurers, the capital market, governments, and other organizations to efficiently operate and manage all their RMS risk models in the cloud, with an intuitive user experience, integrated with advanced risk analytics. RI is compliant with all industry recognized best-in-class security requirements such as GDPR, ISO27001, C5 and SOC2.

This week, during the virtual Exceedance 2020 conference, RMS will demonstrate significant advancements on RMS Risk Intelligence.

Risk Modeler 2.0

Risk Modeler 2.0™ is a break-through product release at RMS, running on RMS Risk Intelligence. Risk Modeler 2.0 provides advanced portfolio and account risk analyses leveraging RMS models and is designed to meet the complex needs of risk analysts and cat modelers. The latest version of the Risk Modeler product enables real-time risk analytics and unified, high performance execution of RiskLink® models and HD Models. It can also be easily integrated with on-premises modeling and other on-premises applications as well as other cloud applications through open APIs, giving customers maximum flexibility and choice. Risk Modeler 2.0 offers an all-in-one RiskLink and RiskBrowser experience, with familiar features along with an enhanced, intuitive user interface that streamlines workflows to reduce the time and steps it takes to complete complex analyses. Risk Modeler 2.0 is a unified modeling and analytics solution for an entire organization to run portfolio and account modeling workflows, promoting real-time risk insights.

Risk Modeler 2.0 provides:

• Global risk model coverage in North America, Europe, and Asia, with RiskLink versions 18.0 and 18.1 of core models, HD Models and specialty models
• Future-proof architecture for model engines that unify execution of RiskLink and HD Models under one roof
• Faster model execution. For some of the most popular RiskLink Models such as North Atlantic Hurricane, North America Earthquake, Europe Windstorm and North America Winterstorm, plus others that run four to six times faster on a one million location portfolio
• Simplified integration with existing systems with support for a rich set of data formats, from Exposure Data Module (EDM), Results Data Module (RDM), event loss tables (ELT) to period loss tables (PLT), and year loss tables (YLT)
• Zero-downtime upgrades and faster access to models with side-by-side model versions in one application
• Intuitive and familiar workflows including for RiskLink and RiskBrowser users
• Simplified usability, with batch processing of multiple steps such as the data upload process, now reduced to one-step
• API integration with third-party tools and in-house applications to enable a fully automated modeling end-to-end process, e.g., importing exposures, running geocoding and hazard lookup services
   

Risk Modeler 2.0 is available to customers in preview today and will be generally available with RiskLink models, with initial HD models in preview, by June 2020.

Risk Modeler with New HD Models

RMS High Definition Models are the next generation of risk modeling, delivering greater analysis and granularity than ever before. RMS HD Models have now all undergone a significant upgrade as they transitioned to the Risk Modeler application, which gives them greater flexibility and computational strength. The following models are in addition to the US Flood and US Wildfire HD Models that have been available through Risk Modeler’s earlier version:

• Updated Europe Inland Flood Model suite that covers 18 river basins and over 8,000 catchments across 15 countries in Europe
• Updated Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and New Zealand Earthquake models that both include sub-peril coverage for tsunami, fire-following, liquefaction and landslides
• Updated Japan Typhoon and Flood Model that incorporates the most recent events such as Typhoons Jebi and Hagibis
• Europe Severe Convective Storm Models, a brand new model suite that covers 17 countries with large pan-European event sets and is fully integrated with our Europe Windstorm Model.
   

All these HD Models are available today, and will be generally available between June and September 2020 in the Risk Modeler 2.0 application. Customers can evaluate and validate these models even earlier with the preview program for Risk Modeler, or through Analytical Services. Customers can access the Europe Inland Flood and US Wildfire Models starting in June on Risk Modeler 2.0, followed by Europe Severe Convective Storm, Japan Typhoon, Japan Earthquake and New Zealand Earthquake Models coming onto Risk Modeler 2.0 shortly after. All HD models will be generally available on the new Risk Modeler 2.0 by September 2020.

Analytical Application Suite

RMS Risk Intelligence also offers a new suite of advanced applications that are tailored for specific portfolio management and underwriting tasks. These include:

• ExposureIQ™ – This new application ensures portfolio managers gain deeper insights into their books with millions of locations, enabling easy discovery of hotspots, diversification and re-balancing their portfolio. The ExposureIQ application provides real-time exposure information combined with wind forecasting events and footprints from RMS Event Response to help gain a quicker assessment of potential losses before, during and after an event. Customers may gain advanced preview access to the Exposure IQ application in June and it will be generally available Sept 2020.
• Next versions of SiteIQ™ and Location Intelligence APIs-Rigorous catastrophe peril risk assessment can now be done in seconds, early in the underwriting process. The RMS SiteIQ and Location Intelligence APIs have been enhanced in these latest versions to provide fast and easy access to over 100 trillion data points and can now deliver over 200 data points per location in some regions, with current (and expanding) coverage of over 70+ countries.

• TreatyIQ™- Harnessing a massively scalable roll-up engine, a trusted financial model, and flexible contract languages, the TreatyIQ application enables property treaty underwriters to achieve greater return on capacity with pricing and portfolio roll-up analytics. The Treaty IQ application will be available in preview in Q3 2020 and will be generally available in Q4.
   

Cihan Biyikoglu, Executive Vice President, Product, at RMS, said: “The significant advancements that the RMS team has made across all our products, HD Models, and especially Risk Modeler have been possible through collaboration with more than 400 RMS customers this past year. The Risk Intelligence unified cloud platform, through its innovative use of the risk data lake, the Risk Data Open Standard (RDOS), unified modeling and IQ applications - securely brings greater scale, capabilities and risk insights to the market. I am also excited about what the future holds in terms of new products and technologies. Further developments of the machine learning and artificial intelligence tools used by RMS will continue to open greater opportunities.”

Karen White, Chief Executive Officer at RMS said, “Risk Intelligence is the world’s first comprehensive global risk platform. The complexity and connectedness of risks continually confront us - we are all experiencing the crisis of COVID-19, along with the persistent crises of climate change, extreme weather and growing cyber threats. Facing all this, our industry needs a modern risk platform that takes advantage of all manner of data, modeling and analytics, in a way that is fast, integrated, and leverages technology in new ways for better insights and outcomes. RMS promised innovation, and with Risk Modeler 2.0 and the IQ applications, we have delivered – with an integrated platform for modeling risk in the cloud at the scale and speed required to take on the future of risk.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

About RMS:

Risk Management Solutions, Inc. (RMS) helps insurers, financial markets, corporations, and public agencies evaluate and manage global risk from natural and man-made catastrophes, including hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, climate change, cyber, and pandemics.

RMS leads the catastrophe risk industry that we helped to pioneer by marrying data and advanced model science with leading-edge technology. Leaders across multiple industries can address the risks of tomorrow through RMS Risk Intelligence™, our open, real-time exposure and risk management platform, enabling them to tap into RMS HD models, rich data layers, intuitive applications and APIs that simply integrate into existing enterprise systems.

RMS is a trusted solutions partner enabling effective risk management for better business decision making across underwriting, risk selection, mitigation, and portfolio management.

Visit RMS.com to learn more and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200504005491/en/

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.

The Beckhams were VIP guests at Justin Bieber's new album preview in London on Tuesday night.

The Canadian star is preparing himself for a return to the mainstream with new album Changes, his first notable output since 2015 and the multi-platinum selling long-player Purpose.

The Baby crooner, 25, also joked that his wife, 23, was 'ignoring him' as she failed to answer his FaceTime call while he was on stage at his new album preview at Indigo at The 02 in London, on Thursday

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

The pop star, 25, was tuned into his headphones as he biked through the luxurious neighborhood on his own. Bieber wore a black sweatshirt, backwards hat, and Nike shorts.

ADRIAN THRILLS: The Canadian heartthrob took a break from music last year to focus on fixing some 'deep rooted issues' after admitting to feeling disillusioned during a world tour that often...

The singer, 25, admitted that in one of his songs he tells the model, 23, to 'take out' her upsets on him 'in the sack,' as he credited Hailey for being a guiding influence in his life.

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.

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.

With the NHL season ramping up towards the playoffs, Jimmy Fallon decided to get some hockey lessons from hockey enthusiast and Canada's own Justin Bieber.

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.

'I just wanna protect her, you know? I don't want her to lose it. I don't want her to go through anything I went through. I don't wish that upon anybody. So if she ever needs me, I'm just a call away.'

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 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.

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.

Hailey Bieber was spotted bundled up while enduring a solo outing in Los Angeles on Sunday evening. On Friday, Hailey and her husband Justin enjoyed an activity-filled Valentines Day.

Justin Bieber plans to start a family in 'due time.' The 25-year-old singer - who is married to model Hailey Bieber - has admitted he'd love to become a dad one day, but he has ambitions to achieve before then.

Bieber, 25, was clad in a red Flâneur hoodie with black shorts and high-top white sneakers as he rode a bike in the luxe locale.

He might be a Bachelorette star and F45 trainer. 

The Never Say Never hitmaker's fans were concerned about him in 2018 when photos emerged of the star in tears, but he has recalled just feeling emotional that day.