According to multiple media reports, supporters of Chelsea Manning have been unable to reach her for six days.
She is currently serving time at the Fort Leavenworth military correctional facility and attempted suicide earlier in the year.
She has missed numerous previously scheduled calls with supporters and her attorney has been unable to get additional information about her whereabouts.
She was sentenced to 14 days in solitary confinement for the attempted suicide. It is not clear whether she began to serve the sentence or not.
SIXTH day of no calls from Chelsea. We *still* have *no idea* what is going on. We continue to be very worried. https://t.co/0ORLZdVHgS
— Chelsea Manning (@SaveManning) October 10, 2016
Manning is serving a 35 year prison sentence for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks while on active duty.
This is a developing story. Stay with RISE NEWS for more as we get it.
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This App Will Let You Swipe Right To Match With Donald Trump
By Klaudia Balogh
Swipe left for no, swipe right for yes, but this time not because you want to match with the blue-eyed girl or the handsome guy on your screen.
With the Voter app, you can use the Tinder model to find the 2016 candidate of your dreams.
Swipe one way or the other whether you agree or disagree with a political view, such as subsidizing student loans, labeling GMO foods, increasing funding for renewable energy or requiring background checks to buy a gun.
According to a Census data from 2012, only 45 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 29 voted during the election, compared to 72 percent of Americans 65 and older.
Voting begins at the basic awareness level. The more the public knows about the parties and candidates, the more likely they are to make a decision as to which one they support.
Pew Research Center conducted a study during the summer of this year about the political interest and awareness of Millennials and found that only 26 percent names politics and government as one of the top three topics they are interested in, making them the group that’s the least interested in the subject.
Social media apps are out to change that. They are designed to capture Millenials’ attention quickly and educate them in a way that’s most convenient to them — through their smart phone.
Voter is a matchmaker for politics, or you can call it the Tinder of politics. The app brings up different questions about political views and based on whether you agree or disagree with them, by swiping left or right, it will show you a percentage how closely your views align with each party and candidate.
Founders Hunter Scarborough and Suneil Nyamathi say they created Voter to make political data more available and deliver it faster to the 18 to 29-year-old generation who is best approachable through their phone.
“According to Pew, 57 percent of 18 to 29 year olds get political news from social networking apps and nowhere else,” Scarborough said in an interview with GovFresh “The stage is primed to engage Millennials and younger generations on their turf.”
To make sure the data the app uses is accurate, Voter partners and gathers resources from organizations including GovTrack.us, the Sunlight Foundation, Google’s Civic API, OpenSecrets, and Project Votesmart.
“To ensure the highest level of accuracy, we hold politicians accountable to their actions, analyzing candidates’ voting records, public agenda, personal views, speeches and more,” the 25 year old Scarborough said to GovFresh.
Another company that takes politics to social media platforms is Brigade with Facebook’s co-founder Sean Parker being behind the wheel of its development.
The Brigade team wanted to start small with discussion tools that will engage users to talk about their political views, what they agree or disagree with, make survey questions, create groups that follow similar issues and keep up a conversation on hot topics and debates.
Through Brigade users can take a stand on their civic identity. CEO Matt Mahan told The Guardian, it “really comes down to ‘What you believe and care about?’ and ‘What have you done about those things?’”
Starting social media sites and apps that will trigger the political interest of Millennials has been a challenge.
Both Voter and Brigade aim to increase mass civic participation and bring politics to a level where users can not only see the different parties and ballots in a simple setup, but can also share their views on related subjects.
Citing a Gallup poll Scarborough said that 82 percent of Americans do not trust the news and other media when it comes to politics. And with that lack of trust in traditional sources of information, perhaps these new tools will democratize the way voters pick their candidates moving forward.
“When we were thinking about how to engage people in politics, most people say they don’t care about politics. They hate politicians,” Parker told TechCrunch. “Congressional approval ratings are at a historic low. Trust in government is at a historic low. From one point of view, the system is about as broken as it can be, but when we interview users, we find that everyone has an issue they care about or something that they want to change the world.”
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Cover Photo Credit: Voter App/ Facebook
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Millennial Intelligencer- A Country in Flames: Syrian Army Armed with Russian Thermobaric Weapons
Syria is on fire.
Confirmed sightings have been made in the country of both RPO-A “Bumblebees” and TOS-1 “Burratinos”.
Both of these platforms utilize thermobaric warheads, which disperse their fuel when approaching their target and ignite, creating large fireballs.
The Syrian Army has become infamous for its utilization of “barrel bombs” in the four year civil war. The inherent inaccuracy of the crude platform has lead to an abhorrent number of civilians being incinerated by the al-Assad Regime.
Despite Russian claims to the contrary, barrel bombings still occur, and with an alarming frequency. The Syrian Network for Human Rights claims that since the beginning of the Russian intervention into Syria, 120 people, including children, have been killed.
Thus the provision of the shoulder carried RPO to the Syrian army is alarming. The mission of the platform is primarily to destroy light skinned targets (i.e. infantry, cars) or clear out indoor spaces with either the six to seven meter fire ball, or the ensuing overpressure.
This will prove vital to Syrian Army forces in urban settings when fighting either FSA units or ISIS.
WATCH: Video showing force of American designed thermobaric warheads
Meanwhile, the Russians have been moving in both 2S19 Msta and TOS-1.
The former is a former of self propelled artillery with conventional 152 mm shells. The latter, is a T-72 chassis with an attached Multiple Rocket Launcher (MRL), equipped to fire 24 220 mm thermobaric warheads at one time.
While the “Burratino” can be used against population centers, the more likely target will be forests, or other concealment in which FSA units are hiding. These artillery pieces have been deployed to the Latakia region, implying that the Russians intend to assist a Syrian Army operation in that part of the country.
Nonetheless, the platform presents another potential means of horrific death for the Syrian people, and makes the possibility of removing al-Assad more remote.
(The ongoing civil war in Syria is a nightmare for the people of Syria. UNICEF has a specially earmarked page for Syrian children and mothers, should you feel the urge to help.)
Have a news tip? Send it to [email protected] Like to write? You can become a Rise News contributor.
Cover Photo Credit: Freedom House/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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This Gun Loving Miami Teen Is In Jail On A Child Porn Charge After His Dad Turned His Phone Over To Police
What You Need To Know About This Story:
-An 18 year old student at Miami Krop Senior High School is in jail after his father turned over the teen’s phones to police.
-Sean Mesa was arrested on charges of possessing child pornography and a charge of improper display of a firearm after police were given his phones to look at concerns his father had regarding his gun use.
–The Miami Herald reports that federal and local investigators knew about Mesa before his father turned over the electronic devices because of various social media posts he has made in the past.
-Mesa’s father was apparently motivated to turn over the phones after the Parkland shooting.
-From the Herald:
“Mesa came to the attention of U.S Homeland Security Investigations’ Violent Gang Task Force, which forwarded his Instagram and Snapchat photos “recklessly displaying firearms and pointing them at the camera,” according to an arrest warrant.
Miami-Dade Schools Detective John Messenger went to Krop High on Tuesday to try to “engage in a friendly conversation to understand what Sean Mesa’s fascination with firearms was.”
Mesa, however, bristled — telling him ‘he likes guns and it was his right to post on social media whatever he wished.'”
-After the police visited Mesa at school, his father agreed to turn over the phones to authorities.-During the search on the phones, the US Secret Service found video of a 10 year child being sexually abused. Mesa allegedly had shared in a group chat.Do you know Sean Mesa? Send us a tip to [email protected]
This story is from The Miami Monster, a new brand focused on telling the true stories of what life is like for a young person living in South Florida. Be sure to also follow our founder Joel Franco on Twitter to keep up to date with the latest breaking news in the area. You can send news tips to [email protected]
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