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Tom Watson Is The Latest To Want Answers On The PGA Tour’s 2023 Deal With Saudi Backers
LA – Tom Watson, an eight-time major winner, wrote PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan on Monday to clarify the new business relationship between the Tour and Saudi investors in LIV Golf. Watson also questioned whether the arrangement was the only approach to address the Tour’s financial difficulties.
In the letter, obtained by The Associated Press and addressed to Monahan, the PGA Tour board, and “my fellow players,” Watson asked several questions, including that one.
He claimed that the hypocrisy in ignoring the moral issue “compounded” the questions.
The day after Wyndham Clark won the U.S. Open and became the sport’s newest major champion, attention returned to a problem that had dominated golf for the previous three years. The PGA Tour announced on June 6 that it had partnered with the European Tour and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to house commercial enterprises under one roof.
During a meeting two weeks ago at the Canadian Open, Monahan, who has referred to it as a “framework agreement,” had few responses for the players. Before the Travellers Championship in Connecticut on Tuesday, a meeting of the Player Advisory Council is scheduled.
Monahan, who left for a “medical situation” on Wednesday, is not anticipated to go. The daily management of the trip is under the direction of two of his senior executives.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Public Investment Fund, was listed as the chairman of the new firm and Monahan as the CEO in the Tour’s release on June 6. Ed Herlihy and Jimmy Dunne, two other PGA Tour board members, would join them on the executive committee.
Tom Watson, an eight-time major winner.
According to a person who has read the agreement, it guarantees that the Tour would maintain a controlling voting interest in the new commercial organization regardless of how much the PIF invests.
According to the source, the arrangement provides for a financial contribution from PIF and the pooling of the three companies’ existing and future golf-related assets. The source spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the contract has not been made public. LIV Golf would be a part of that.
According to the deal, the PGA Tour would nominate most of the new company’s board members. The PGA Tour would still completely control how its competition is managed.
Important information, such as LIV Golf’s future, still needs to be added. Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson have stated that they are preparing for the 2024 season.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, hinted on Sunday that congressional hearings would take place in the coming weeks.
The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is presided over by Blumenthal. On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” he claimed that the subcommittee wanted specifics on the factors that led to the purchase, the people involved, and the organization’s structure and governance.
Blumenthal remarked, “There are very, very few details. But keep in mind; he added, “What we have here is essentially an oppressive, autocratic foreign government taking control over an iconic, beloved American institution for the clear purpose of cleaning its public image.”
All legal disputes were resolved as part of the agreement. To avoid having to give depositions in the litigation, the PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf filed a request on Friday to dismiss with prejudice the antitrust complaint LIV players filed in August, the countersuit the Tour filed in September, and even a PIF appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They are not resubmittable.
Tom Watson, an eight-time major winner.
Monahan said the lawsuits had caused the Tour a “significant” blow. A trial date was not anticipated until at least the middle of 2024, with plenty of filings in between.
Is the PIF the only practical solution to the Tour’s financial issues, Watson questioned in his letter? Was there or is there a backup strategy? And once more, what transaction exactly?
He made two references to hypocrisy, particularly about criticism of the Tour’s cancellation from organizations like 9/11 Families United.
“My loyalty to golf and this country live in the same place and have held equal and significant weight with me over the course of my lifetime,” stated Watson. “Please educate me and others in a way that allows loyalty to both, in a way that makes it easy to look the families of 9/11 in the eye and ourselves in the mirror.”
Tom Watson, an eight-time major winner.
Among his inquiries, Watson is not by himself. Since last summer, the Justice Department’s antitrust division has scrutinized the golf industry. Now, it is beginning to investigate whether the Tour’s relationship with the Saudis violates federal antitrust laws. Since the deal is still being finalized and is just a few weeks old, the investigation is still in its early stages.
According to Monahan, everything in the framework agreement would require board approval.
According to Blumenthal, a hearing might happen “within weeks.”
“The American people deserve a clear look at the facts here,” he declared. “Again, I’m not going to predict the results. But the Saudis need to hire a single player or seizing control of a single team in this situation. They are effectively running the entire sport, and it’s not just one Saudi player. There is a regime.
SOURCE – (AP)
MONTREAL — Lionel Messi played the entire game despite a first-half injury scare, Benjamin Cremaschi broke a tie in the 59th minute, and Inter Miami rallied from a two-goal deficit to defeat Montreal 3-2 on Saturday night, its fifth consecutive Major League Soccer victory.
Luis Suarez scored his 11th goal of the season for Inter Miami, while Matías Rojas scored from a free kick. Montreal (3-5-3) got goals from Jules-Anthony Vilsaint and Bryce Duke.
AP – VOR News Image
Messi Plays Through A Scare, Inter Miami Rallies Past Montreal 3-2 For Fifth Straight Win
Inter Miami (8-2-3) extended its unbeaten record to seven games (5-0-2) despite Lionel failing to score or assist for the first time in nine MLS appearances this season. Inter Miami is 7-0-2 in those nine games, with one loss coming against Montreal in March when Lionel did not participate.
Playing in Canada for the first time, Lionel abandoned the game late in the first half due to a problem with his left knee caused by defender George Campbell’s foul. The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner as the world’s best player collapsed immediately, clutching his knee and moaning in agony.
Inter Miami’s medical personnel entered the field to treat Messi, who stood up after around two minutes and headed to the Miami sideline. He was not subbed out, allowing him to return moments later.
AP – VOR News Image
Messi Plays Through A Scare, Inter Miami Rallies Past Montreal 3-2 For Fifth Straight Win
And for some reason, the match shifted at that moment.
Inter Miami was behind 2-0 when Messi was injured; when he returned, the score was 2-1, and it was tied moments later. Rojas scored on a free kick that Messi would normally take to put Inter Miami up, and Suarez added a goal from a corner kick late in the first-half stoppage time.
Suarez became the third player in MLS history to score 11 goals in his first 800 minutes of the season, following Mamadou Diallo (11 in 2000) and Ola Kamara (11 in 2021).
The game-winning goal occurred when Rojas threw a ball into open space, and Cremaschi ran it down. Then, he made a second attempt to nudge the ball just clear of two defenders and into the net for a 3-2 advantage. Messi had two final-minute chances to extend the lead, which he missed narrowly.
AP – VOR News Image
Messi Plays Through A Scare, Inter Miami Rallies Past Montreal 3-2 For Fifth Straight Win
Inter Miami was met by hundreds of fans when it arrived at its hotel Friday night, and Montreal, thanks in part to Messi’s signing with Major League Soccer last summer, sold out its 15,000 season tickets for the first time since joining in 2012. Messi has scored in 31 nations.
The match drew an announced sellout crowd of 19,619 spectators, including one dressed in a Messi tracksuit and sporting a goat mask in tribute to Messi’s status as the Greatest of All Time.
SOURCE – (AP)
A zoo in China has been accused of attempting to trick visitors over dog pandas by dyeing two dogs black and white to resemble panda bears. Videos circulating on Chinese social media show the two “panda dogs” at an exhibit at Taizhou Zoo, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, which opened on May 1.
Though the dog pandas are designed to resemble pandas, which are unique to China and an iconic symbol of the country, their swinging tails reveal their identity.
Zoo administrators claimed Chinese state media that they were Chow Chows, a fluffy dog breed native to northern China, painted black and white to resemble gigantic pandas, and that they had explicitly sold them as “panda dogs” without making any misleading claims.
The dogs are still at the zoo, officials told NBC News by phone on Friday, and the number of people visiting them is “at a normal level.”
Despite the fact that the zoo does not have real pandas, state media and others have attacked it for misleading visitors and mistreating the dogs.
“It is not funny at all to dye Chow Chow dogs to attract tourists,” one Weibo user said. “Their fragile skin and naturally thick coats make them susceptible to skin diseases.”
Zoo administrators defended the exhibit, claiming that the dogs were unharmed.
“Normal people dye their hair,” a spokesman told NBC News. “Dogs can also dye their hair. It is the same as hair.
In 2019, a dog cafe in the southern province of Sichuan prompted animal rights issues with its six Chow Chows that had also been dyed to resemble bears.
In 2020, in the same province, a “panda” walked by a woman in a viral video was discovered to be a dyed Chow Chow.
Other Chinese zoos have also been accused of keeping phony animals, usually dogs disguised as wolves or African cats.
After a video showing one of its Malayan sun bears standing like a person went viral in July, a zoo in the eastern province of Zhejiang denied that the bears were humanoid.
Experts refuted the story, and the zoo stated that a person wearing a fur suit would not be able to tolerate such hot summer conditions.
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CAPE Florida’s Cape Coral — This weekend, a very powerful solar storm approaching Earth may cause communications outages and cause the northern lights to appear in the United States.
For the first time in almost 20 years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a rare geomagnetic storm watch. The entire weekend is under scrutiny, beginning on Friday.
VOR News Image
Strong Solar Storm Could Disrupt Communications And Produce Northern Lights In US
According to NOAA, the sun started to create powerful solar flares on Wednesday, which led to five plasma explosions that might have disrupted Earth’s power infrastructures and satellites in orbit. A coronal mass ejection, or eruption, can produce billions of tons of solar plasma.
The flares appear to be connected to a sunspot that is 16 times the diameter of Earth, which is why NOAA is classifying this as an uncommon occurrence. In 2003, a strong geomagnetic storm destroyed power transformers in South Africa and knocked out power in Sweden.
VOR News Image
Strong Solar Storm Could Disrupt Communications And Produce Northern Lights In US
According to NOAA, the most recent storm may cause northern lights as far south as Alabama and Northern California in the United States.
An amazing natural occurrence is the aurora borealis, sometimes known as the northern lights. The night sky in Earth’s polar regions is home to these vibrant, dancing lights. When charged solar particles clash with atmospheric gasses, these lights are created.
VOR News Image
Strong Solar Storm Could Disrupt Communications And Produce Northern Lights In US
Though the lights are usually observed in green, pink, and violet hues, they can occasionally be seen in other colors as well. Countless people travel to locations like Alaska, Canada, and Scandinavia every year to see this amazing show in person since it is such a stunning sight.
SOURCE – (AP)
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