Updated Encouraging News :Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize, Syria's White Helmets MAY Arrive For Oscars

"They are not yet on US soil, and we await their arrival with tense anticipation," said the filmmakers of Raed Saleh and Khaled Khateeb. "In these uncertain times, their story is one of the most moving of our generation. We stand ready to welcome them."

On Wednesday, the outlook was grim that the key figures in the Netflix film 'The White Helmets' would obtain the necessary paperwork to gain US visas in time for the Oscars. In 48 hours since Hollywood Reporter and websites far and wide rallied around the issue, the situation has improved dramatically. 

“We are eagerly looking forward to coming to the Oscars," said Saleh in a statement. "It will give us an important platform for the voices of Syrian children and women trapped under the rubble as a result of the airstrikes and artillery shelling, and for the voices of thousands of displaced Syrians who have been forced from their homes.”

“It is so important that people see the film. It is important that people understand that Syria has people who want the same things they want: peace, jobs, family and to live without the fear of bombs," added Khateeb. "If we win this award, it will show people across Syria that people around the world support them. It will give courage to every volunteer who wakes up every morning to run towards bombs."

Previously Wed. Feb. 15, 2017: There is deep concern in Hollywood that key international talents will not be present for the Academy Awards due to President Trump's executive order banning Syrians and others from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. 

Director Orlando von Einsiedel and producer Joanna Natasegara's  Netflix film 'The White Helmets' is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. But it appears that the real heroes of the documentary will not be present at the Oscars. 

Every day in Syria, a group of ordinary, unarmed civilian volunteers known as the White Helmets risk their lives to help rescue men, women, and children injured by the incessant air raids destroying the country. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016, the apolitical White Helmets are credited with saving more than 75,000 people since 2012. 

Now it appears unlikely that Raed Saleh, the leader of the White Helmets, and Khaled Khateeb, the photographer who filmed all of the documentary's footage inside Aleppo, will get the necessary travel documents to attend the Oscars. Vogue interviews Einsiedel and Natasegara about their relationship with the White Helmets, and why we must watch their documentary in today's political climate. 

Ivanka Jumps In Dad's Oval Office Driver's Seat On Behalf of Women | Will She Succeed?

Ivanka Jumps In Dad's Oval Office Driver's Seat On Behalf of Women | Will She Succeed?

Women attending the Monday Trump-Trudeau meeting included General Electric Canada CEO Elyse Allan, TransAlta Corp. CEO Dawn Farrell, Accenture North America CEO Julie Sweet, and Monique Leroux, chair of the board of directors for Investissement Québec, according to the AP. GM CEO Mary Barra was represented by Carol Stephenson of GM's board of directors. 

Katie Telford, Trudeau's chief of staff, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, and Dina Powell, an assistant to President Trump and a senior counselor for economic initiatives, attended. The trio is responsible for setting up the new council and recruiting participants like Barra, GE vice chair Beth Comstock, and Catalyst CEO Deborah Gillis.

The week prior Ivanka Trump hosted a small dinner party at the New York apartment of Wendi Murdoch, ex-wife of Fox News media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Attending the private dinner were IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, Deloitte CEO Cathy Engelbert, Xerox chairman Ursula Burns, designer Tory Burch, and television host Mika Brzezinski. Ivanka Trump explained to the women that she wanted to learn about what the leaders were doing in areas like entrepreneurship, equal pay, paid leave, and education.

Planned Parenthood, Birth Control, Abortion Rights

Yes, Ivanka Trump champions the idea of gender equality -- although she refuses to openly support Planned Parenthood. This is relevant because controlling her fertility is the top tool a woman employs to advance her family's welfare and her own career.  

Designer Tory Burch, builder of one of America's most successful fashion brands and an attendee at Wendi Murdoch's private dinner, not only supports a woman's right to control her fertility, but she co-organized with designers Tracy Reese and Diane von Furstenberg New York Fashion Week's campaign to support Planned Parenthood, now under vicious attack by her father's administration. 

Melinda & Bill Gates were more confrontational than ever before in their annual letters and interviews this week, as they aggressively confronted the devastating impacts of now President Trump's expansion of restrictions around the Mexico City policy, governing USAID dollars supporting women's health initiatives worldwide. 

International Artists Launch 'Hands Off Our Revolution' To Counter Rise Of Right-Wing Populism

Anish Kapoor at the Lisson Gallery 24 March 2015 - photo courtesy film maker Laura Bushell

Over 200 leading international artists including Anish Kapoor, recently honored as Genesis Prize Laureate 2017, activist artist Marilyn Minter -- a key leader of anti-Trump protests in America, Steve McQueen, Laurie Anderson and more have publicly lent their names and support to the 'Hands Off Our Revolution' movement.

Top New York Artists Protested Outside Ivanka Trump's Soho Apartment Before Heading to Art Basel

Organized by artist Adam Broomberg, originally born in South Africa and now living and working in London and Berlin as a photojournalist collaborating permanently with Oliver Chanarin, the group articulates the mission statement for 'Hands Off Our Revolution' mission statement:

We are a global coalition affirming the radical nature of art. We believe that art can help counter the rising rhetoric of right-wing populism, fascism and the increasingly stark expressions of xenophobia, racism, sexism, homophobia and unapologetic intolerance.

We know that freedom is never granted – it is won. Justice is never given – it is exacted. Both must be fought for and protected, yet their promise has seldom been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp, as at this moment.

As artists, it is our job and our duty to reimagine and reinvent social relations threatened by right-wing populist rule. It is our responsibility to stand together in solidarity. We will not go quietly. It is our role and our opportunity, using our own particular forms, private and public spaces, to engage people in thinking together and debating ideas, with clarity, openness and resilience.

Lend your own support at the bottom of website landing page

The collective behind 'Hands Off Our Revolution' will take action in:

A series of contemporary art exhibitions and actions that confront, head on, the rise of right-wing populism in the US, Europe and elsewhere. Exhibitions featuring critically engaged contemporary artists and taking place in central art institutions as well as alternative spaces, that will bring into public view statements, questions and reflections on the state we are in. To do what art has always endeavored: to help envision and shape the world in which we want to live.

Proceeds will go to arts & activist causes and building the coalition.

The artists movement was launched in reaction to contemporary events promoting nationalism like the Brexit vote, refugee crisis and the election of Donald Trump as president of the US.

“What is important is that it is not just seen as America’s problem, or Europe’s problem, so we are planning shows in Mexico and Lagos,” Broomberg told the Guardian. The first announcements of exhibitions will be released in March.

Karlie Kloss Apologizes For Vogue Geisha Cultural Appropriation Fashion Editorial

Karlie Kloss Is 'Spirited Away' In Mikael Jansson Images For Vogue US March 2017

Supermodel Karlie Kloss apologized Wednesday afternoon for her controversial March 2017 Vogue US photoshoot, in which she is dressed in stereotypical Japanese geisha garb. The photo spread created a social media firestorm over accusations of cultural appropriation. 

Photographer Mikael Jansson shot the editorial in Japan, reportedly as an homage to a 1966 Vogue shoot by Richard Avedon of German model Veruschka.

Fashionista has plenty to say about this editorial, which we published yesterday. Dhani Mau really let's it rip. 

When Vogue released its March 2017 cover featuring a group of models — diverse both racially and physically — we were honestly thrilled. It seemed like Vogue finally "got it," "it" being that the world isn't full of white, skinny, blonde chicks and that the magazine should make some effort to represent its readers. But if Vogue took a step forward toward inclusivity with that cover, it took about a million steps backward with the total bullshit that is this Karlie Kloss editorial inside the magazine.

Shot by Mikael Jansson and styled by Phyllis Posnick in Japan's Ise-Shima National Park, "Spirited Away" features Kloss — a white lady from Missouri — dressed up as a Japanese fashion Geisha, engaged in a variety of confusing activities, like carrying a basket of cherry blossoms, looking solemn in a forest and being assisted with what is likely some trendy fitness innovation that involves water and, um, human beer koozies? The spread also includes one of fashion's favorite set-ups when it comes to shooting in other countries: using, as a prop, a decidedly unglamorous, often stereotypical human cultural symbol wearing traditional garb — in this case, a sumo wrestler — posed next to the beautiful white supermodel wearing designer clothing.

For her part, Kloss apologized on Twitter, writing: “These images appropriate a culture that is not my own and I am truly sorry for participating in a shoot that was not culturally sensitive. My goal is, and always will be, to empower and inspire women. I will ensure my future shoots and projects reflect that mission.”