Warner Music Group Pulls Out of Russia

cracked a bald wisecrack about Smith’s actress wife, who’s been open about her ongoing struggle with alopecia. In response, Smith, 53, who had just won the Best Actor Oscar for his work in “King Richard,” strolled onto the stage and slapped the comic across the face — before taking a seat and warning Rock to “keep my wife’s name out of your f—king mouth.”Brzezinski, 54, for one, didn’t take kindly to Smith’s fight knighting, insisting that his soulmate was more than capable of defending herself, the Wrap reported.“Jada Pinkett Smith is one of the most empowered, helpful to women, women that I’ve ever, you know, seen out there in front,” Brzezinski said on Monday’s episode.

coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and to ease the current cost of living crisis in the UK.In a statement following the announcement, the Music Venue Trust said that it “warmly welcomes the Business Rates discount, which will maintain the 50 per cent Business Rates for grassroots music venues that the government announced pre-pandemic.”It continued: “However, with no action for businesses on energy bills, or NI liability, or VAT or any support for the sector to recover from the crisis, the outcome of the budget is that none of the extraordinary financial pressures being placed on venues have been mitigated or alleviated.“This budget has failed to respond to inflationary increases from rent, supplies, & services running in excess of 20% across the sector.

Gogglebox fans had plenty of praise for Mica Ven following her criticism of the Homes for Ukraine scheme. Mica Ven and her partner Marcus Luther are favourites on the Channel 4 reality show and often have viewers in stitches at their antics.

Actor and former boxer Mickey Rourke is speaking out about the Russia-Ukraine war, calling it a "nightmare kind of scenario" in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, and noting he prays to God that Russian President Vladimir Putin puts an end to it.  "I had the time of my life," Rourke told Fox News Digital of visiting the country four years ago for a professional fight. "The people couldn't have been nicer, more polite, more respectful." While he was there, Rourke said he met with Putin. "He took us to a very famous museum in St.

Mike Myers is back.

Mike Myers is back.

Elon Musk is looking to throw down with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Tesla co-founder, 50, challenged Putin, 69, to a one-on-one fight amidst Russia’s tragic invasion of Ukraine. “I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat,” Elon wrote on Twitter March 14. “Stakes are Ukraine,” he added. Elon wrote Putin’s name in Russian and Ukraine in Ukrainian.

Billionaire Elon Musk has challenged Vladimir Putin to a 'single combat' fight for Ukraine.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSony Music has suspended all of its operations in Russia, the company has confirmed to Variety. “Sony Music Group calls for peace in Ukraine and an end to the violence. We have suspended operations in Russia and will continue our support of global humanitarian relief efforts to aid victims in need.,” the company said in a statement.Sources tells Variety that the company’s staffers will continue to receive their salaries for an undetermined time; the artists’ situation is still being worked out.Universal Music Group announced that it is suspending its operations in the country on Tuesday.

Good Morning Britain (GMB) spoke to the deputy mayor of Mariupol, Sergei Orlov, on Thursday morning (March 10) following Russia's air strike on the Ukrainian city.

Universal Music Group has become one of the latest media companies to suspend operations in Russia amid the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The music publishing giant on Tuesday said it was closing its offices in Russia, effective immediately. Meanwhile, major Western food and beverage companies Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Starbucks are also pulling out.

Variety reports.“We are adhering to international sanctions and, along with our employees and artists, have been working with groups from a range of countries… to support humanitarian relief efforts to bring urgent aid to refugees in the region.”According to Variety, a source has revealed that while the company’s staffers will continue to receive their salaries for an indeterminate amount of time, artists will likely see their recording activity frozen.Universal are the latest business to announce their withdrawal from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, with the attack drawing widespread condemnation around the globe.Earlier this month, Live Nation announced they would not be promoting shows in Russia or doing business with the country, saying in a statement they were joining “the world in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”.Spotify, meanwhile, shuttered its Moscow office in response to the invasion, and said it would restrict the discoverability of content owned and operated by Russian state-affiliated media. They stopped short of shutting off service to Russian users, saying they believe it’s “critically important to try to keep our service operational in Russia to allow for the global flow of information”.One company who has suspended their service in Russia is Netflix, who shut down streaming in the country last week.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorUniversal Music Group has suspended all of its operations in Russia, the company has confirmed to Variety. “Effective immediately, we are suspending all operations in Russia and closing our offices there. We urge an end to the violence in Ukraine as soon as possible. We are adhering to international sanctions and, along with our employees and artists, have been working with groups from a range of countries (including the U.S., U.K., Poland, Slovakia, Germany, Czech Republic and Hungary) to support humanitarian relief efforts to bring urgent aid to refugees in the region.”A source tells Variety that the company’s staffers will continue to receive their salaries for an undetermined time, although artists will presumably see most if not all of their recording activity paused.  All three major labels — Universal, Sony and Warner — have local labels and operations in Russia; while reps for Sony and Warner did not immediately respond to requests for comment, sources both companies are likely to announce decisions about their status in the country within 24-48 hours.

Saturday Night Live” cold open, they celebrated Russia’s Ukrainian invasion with an “all-star” Fox News special.On the “Fox News Ukrainian Invasion Celebration Spectacular,” from Mar-a-Lago, Ingraham (Kate McKinnon) and Carlson (Alex Moffat) welcomed Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) — who sang “My Funny Valentine” in tribute to his pal, authoritarian Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Also appearing were Steven Segal (Bowen Yang), and Donald Trump Jr.

Chris Willman Music WriterHit songwriter Ross Golan, who has crafted smashes for Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, One Direction and Demi Lovato, has started a petition on Change.org asking the music community to stop licensing songs in Russia for as long as the nation wages war on Ukraine.The petition, posted Thursday afternoon here, was put up for the purpose of allowing songwriters to make their voices heard in requesting that collection agencies sever ties with their counterpart orgs in Russia, to ensure that they won’t be profiting from the rogue-superpower nation while the bloody siege of its neighbor country continues.“Currently, a portion of our royalties are going directly to the Russian government, which in turn funds their invasion into Ukraine,” Golan says. The petition — credited to “And the Writer Is,” the podcast Golan started to spotlight writers and their issues — reads: “The global songwriting business stands with Ukraine.