Actor Will Smith’s slapping of comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars is still brewing. Although Will Smith apologized to Rock on Twitter on Tuesday, the issue doesn’t seem to have gone away. The Academy even considered removing Will Smith from the list. Interestingly, the Ratings for the Oscars are up.
“Violence in all its forms is toxic and destructive, and what I did at the awards show was unacceptable,” Smith wrote in an Instagram post to Rock on Tuesday after a night of calm, CNN said. Being made fun of is part of my job, but jokes about Jada’s health [Will Smith’s wife] were hard for me to take, so I acted too emotionally. I’m here to publicly apologize for my inappropriate behavior. I was wrong. I’m ashamed. My behavior is not what I want to be. Violence has no place in a world full of love and kindness.”
Simple statement in 28 in the morning, after school at noon and issued a statement, but attitude is more severe, condemned the will Smith hit persons behavior, and revealed that they have “began to review the events is the main type, according to the articles of association, behavior standard and California law to explore further action and consequences”. More than a dozen academy leaders held an online meeting and are “strongly considering” removing Smith from the list, according to people familiar with the matter. People familiar with the matter described the meeting as “heated” and “divisive” with no agreement yet.
It was the bloodiest and most victims of violence in Michoacan in recent years. Twenty people were shot dead Sunday night in an illegal cockfighting ring in the Mexican state of Michoacan in the town of Lustiana Jas in a gang fight, the state attorney general’s office confirmed in a statement Monday. Mexican President Leopoldo Lopez on Monday called the unfortunate incident “a massacre by one group of people against another.”
The violence began around 10:30 p.m. Sunday when a group of men dressed in military uniforms and armed with assault rifles burst into an underground chicken fighting arena in The town of Las Tinahas in Michoacan and went on a shooting spree, Mexican media reported Tuesday. The police analyzed that the attack may have been a fight between criminal groups. Police found the bodies of 16 men and three women at the scene, and one died of injuries while being transferred to a hospital, Mexico’s federal Department of Public Security said in a statement. The intense gunfire alerted residents of neighboring communities, with some reporting that the gunfire could be heard from as far away as miles away, and some even recording the gunfire on social networks. Police are still hunting for the attackers.
Michoacan, where The town is located, and neighboring Guanajuato are two of Mexico’s most violent states. Since 1980, The town of Las Tinahas has been a hub of violence for drug cartels as it has provided growing and producing services, including marijuana, heroin, fentanyl and cocaine. Michoacan has long been one of the centers of drug cartel violence in Mexico, and is the birthplace of Miguel Cervantes, one of Mexico’s most violent drug organizations, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The Mexican government had offered a $5 million reward for information on his location, but so far nothing has come of it. In 2021, michoacan registered 2,732 intentional homicides, accounting for 8 percent of the country’s violent deaths that year.
“Ukrainian ambassador boycotting unity concert!” Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Alexander Melnik, refused to attend a solidarity concert in support of His country at the German presidential palace on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said Monday. On Twitter, he accused the German president of inviting too many Russian musicians. “Ukrainians are not interested in great Russian culture.”
The concert, entitled “For Freedom and Peace – A Concert by the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra at belvedere palace”, is said to “condemn the war of aggression” and send a “signal of unity”. At the concert, musicians from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Germany performed works by Composers from Ukraine, Russia and Poland.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Yuri Melnik, not only refused to attend the concert, but also took to Twitter to blame the German president. The concert was “full of Russian soloists,” he wrote, and the arrangement at the German presidential palace was “a provocation” to Ukraine. As long as Russian bombs fall on Ukrainian cities, “I’m sorry, I’m staying away from this concert.”
“We regret that Melnik did not accept the invitation,” presidential spokesman Gamelin tweeted in response. He also reiterated the concert’s purpose of opposing the war and sending a message of unity. Gamelin refuted the Ukrainian ambassador’s claim that Ukrainian musicians were not invited. Mr Melnik later dismissed the response from the German presidential palace, accusing the Federal president of failing to recognise that “Russia is bombing Ukraine”.
Melnick’s refusal to take part in the music set has caused huge controversy in Germany. Some netizens expressed their understanding, saying that it is difficult for all sides to talk about unity and reconciliation now that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is still worsening. Others say Mr. Melnick’s actions lack diplomatic decorum.