Manchester Arena Bomber Identified As Salman Abedi

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The man suspected in a deadly explosion Monday night outside a concert in Manchester, England, is Salman Abedi, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Abedi killed himself and 22 others outside the Manchester Arena, a U.S. official confirmed to the outlet. Police also arrested a 23-year-old in connection with the attack.

The explosion sent people fleeing just after a concert headlined by American singer Ariana Grande. In addition to the dead, 59 people were injured.

Victims included teenagers and young children. It was the deadliest mass killing in Britain since the 2005 London subway bombings, which left 52 people dead.

Officials did not identify a motive. Abedi was known to British authorities prior to the attack, CBS reported. 

The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement released on Tuesday, though it wasn’t clear whether the terror group had any direct role in planning the attack. 

The explosion occurred just outside the arena at 10:35 p.m., with terrified fans running to safety. Dozens of people described scenes of panic as parents and relatives searched for children who had attended the sold-out show.

“My husband and I were standing against the wall, luckily, and all of a sudden there was this thing. I can’t even describe it,” Elena Semino, a mother who was waiting to pick up her 17-year-old daughter, told The Guardian. “There was this heat on my neck, and when I looked up, there were bodies everywhere.”

The U.K. has remained on heightened alert for months over the threat of a terrorist attack. MI5, the country’s domestic intelligence agency, had previously set the country’s terrorist threat level at “severe,” the second-highest level.

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Donald Trump's Budget Betrays His Pledge Not To Cut Social Security

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WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for next year would cut Social Security Disability Insurance, despite Trump’s vaunted campaign promise not to make any changes to Social Security.

A summary table indicates the Trump budget would cut disability insurance by $72 billion over 10 years, or about 4 percent of the program’s projected cost.

“It’s my absolute intention to leave Social Security the way it is,” Trump said during the presidential campaign, a promise he repeated several times.

Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, a nonprofit that advocates for expanding Social Security benefits across the board, said in a statement on Sunday that the budget amounts to “a flagrant violation” of Trump’s campaign pledge.

The budget would make significantly larger cuts to Medicaid, which Trump also promised not to cut at various junctures on the campaign trail. Trump already broke that promise, however, by backing Republicans’ Obamacare repeal bill, which would cut over $800 billion from the program over a 10-year period.

Mick Mulvaney, the director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, said that cutting disability insurance doesn’t break Trump’s campaign promise because most people think only of retirement insurance when they think of Social Security.

“If you ask 999 people out of 1,000, [they] would tell you that Social Security disability is not part of Social Security,” Mulvaney said on Monday. “It’s old-age retirement that they think of when they think of Social Security.”

Social Security may be better known for retirement insurance, but it’s a little odd for a top government official to cite public misperception to argue that a program called “Social Security Disability Insurance” ― a program that is run by the Social Security Administration ― is not actually part of Social Security.

“That is analogous to saying cuts to the Marines are not cuts to our military budget,” Social Security Works president Nancy Altman said Monday.  

“Disability insurance is an essential component of the protections workers earn when they contribute to Social Security with every paycheck,” Altman added. “This budget is an utter betrayal of the voters who believed Trump’s repeated promises.”

More than 10 million Americans receive Social Security Disability Insurance. Monthly benefits average about $1,000. People become eligible for the program after working for years and suffering a debilitating medical condition or injury.

Although Republicans claim that the disability rolls are swollen with malingerers, only about 28 percent of people are awarded benefits when they first apply, and appeals can take years. The Social Security Administration inspector general testified to Congress in 2014 that the program has less than a 1 percent fraud rate.

The budget would reduce disability spending primarily by testing new ways of enticing disabled workers back into the labor force. Bob Greenstein, director of the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said similar efforts in the past “have consistently shown limited results or proved not cost-effective.”

Although they are part of the same social insurance program, Social Security Disability Insurance pays out benefits from a trust fund that is formally independent from the fund used for retirement and survivors benefits. Since many members of the massive baby boomer generation are becoming disabled before they’re old enough to receive retirement benefits, the disability fund faces more immediate financial challenges than the program as a whole.

In October 2015, a budget deal in Congress diverted some revenue from the retirement insurance trust fund to avert a near-imminent funding gap. If Congress fails to act, the program will again face a shortfall in 2022.

Most of the proposals in Trump’s budget are unlikely to become law. Presidential budgets are generally position statements for Congress to consider when it sets spending levels each year.

Mulvaney has been very open about his desire to get Trump to consider cutting Social Security. Mulvaney hinted in April that the White House would specifically target the disability program, which he claimed had become a “permanent unemployment program.”

Republicans in Congress have said they hope Trump comes around to the idea of cutting Social Security, which they have long believed is too generous.

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Pregnant Comedian Responds To Annoying Comments In Hilarious Twitter Rant

A pregnant comedian is pushing back against the unsolicited questions and comments expectant mothers hear all too often.

On Monday, Chelsea Peretti went on a hilarious Twitter rant about people who approach pregnant women in public. 

“IF U C A PREG WOMAN OUT & ABOUT & FEEL INCLINED 2 SHOUT SOMETHING IN HER FACE ABOUT HOW SHE LOOKS – GET READY FOR A SHOUT BACK ON UR LOOKS,” the “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” actress tweeted.

Peretti and her husband, Jordan Peele, announced in February that they are expecting their first child.

Judging by her tweetstorm, she is fed up with day-to-day interactions with strangers about her current state. The mom-to-be wrote some LOL-worthy responses to recurrent questions and remarks like, “You’re so big!” and “Are you excited?”

“’UR BABY LOOKS READY TO DROP!’ ‘THANKS MISS, UR PANTS LOOK HEMMED AT A WEIRD LENGTH’ Good talk,” she tweeted.

“’WHEN ARE U DUE?’ WHAT DIFFERENCE COULD IT POSSIBLY MAKE IN YOUR LIFE AS A STRANGER AT THE GROCERY STORE,” she added.

Peretti also shared some amazing outfits she found for her baby shower that will help her avoid comments about her pregnant body.

The comedian is clearly so over pregnancy. When one Twitter user responded to her rant with “You gotta get that baby out, gurl. You getting salty,” she had yet another hilarious comeback:

“NO SHIT SHERLOCK! GLAD TO HAVE U ON THE CASE.”

Hang in their mama!

H/T Refinery29

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Philippine President Duterte Declares Martial Law After ISIS-Linked Attack

May 23 (Reuters) – Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday declared martial law in southern Mindanao province after fighting raged in southern Marawi City between the army and militants linked to Islamic state.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella made the announcement in Moscow, where the president is on a visit.

A meeting with Dmitry Medvedev will be canceled on Wednesday but Duterte will remain in Russia, Foreign Minister Alan Peter Cayetano said in a televised news conference.

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College Athlete Stages Photo Shoot To Start Conversation About Gender And Identity

This article originally appeared on Outsports

Isaac Gotterer is a Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Theater major at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. In conjunction with a class project, Gotterer did a photoshoot in the campus gym lifting weights while wearing a sports bra and boots with 5-inch heels to make a point about gender and identity.

“I identify as genderqueer,” the sophomore tells Outsports, “which means, for me, I identify outside the gender binary. I don’t feel like a man or women or anything in between and I never have.

“I always had felt the gym was an exclusionary place for non-cisgender people. I felt like I had to conform to typical binary gendered attire when I worked out, so I would wear ‘masculine’ shorts and tank top. This photoshoot was to explore what would happen if a visible queer body went into a cisgender-dominated space. It showed almost what I felt on the inside when I work out — glamorous and powerful.”

Gotterer was the captain of the varsity soccer, cross-country skiing and tennis teams in high school, so they (Gotterer uses they/them or he/his pronouns) certainly know the athletic world. As they were discovering their identity, Gotterer realized the Wesleyan college club soccer team was not a place for non-cisgender folk. (Cisgender denotes a person whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with the sex assigned at birth.)
As for the reaction to Gotterer’s attire at the gym that day? Most men in the gym didn’t know what to do.

“All the cishet, white, boys were so scared of me, which was super fun actually,” Gotterer writes in their essay. “They would almost run away from me and when they would get in my way be really, really apologetic. But numerous times I would catch those same people staring at me from across the gym and, obviously, I would give them an air-kiss or booty smack before they quickly looked away.”

I love Gotterer exploring gender boundaries, even as I admit some terms like genderqueer are ones I am just getting used to. The photos below are terrific and Gotterer wants to thank photographer Celina Bernstein and his costume designer Sofie Somoroff.

Here is the opening of Gotterer’s college essay, followed by the photos.

Click … Click … Click … my 5-inch heels hit the pavement hard as I strut in my sparkling, pink booty-shorts and neon-pink stuffed sports bra with a grey sweater slyly dangling off my shoulder. Then my right foot raises 3 feet off the ground followed by my left foot. When I reach the top, I pause. My extremely hairy thighs flex upon the sign that reads: Wesleyan University: Freeman Athletic Center (visitor parking →). I tower over all the cars whooshing passed with my Farrah Fawcett-esque wig resting on my shoulder in a side ponytail.

Some cars driving by give me beeps of support while others give a different kind of beep. Standing up there, vulnerable, I could just feel which beep was which. Well, also I assume that the old-white-dudes beeping don’t mean it like, “You go girl! Express that gender! Yessss!” So, when those types of beepers go by I give a little booty shake-and-wink in their direction. Suddenly, the camera begins to flash as I move about the sign — straddling it, lying on it, kissing it — until it is time to venture inside. The moment I have been preparing for — with meetings, emails, trips to the costume shop, online stalking for looks I’m interested in, and even emotional prep.

When I get inside, I change quickly into my knee-height boots and lace-leggings right outside the gym. I walk in. There’s a woosh. All eyes on me. I feel the muscular jocks with their cut off sleeves and Muscle Milk-filled intestines stare at me and think, “Huh. It’s a dude, right? But it’s a chick too?”

In that moment I stop and think. How can genderqueer bodies look athletic or be athletic? or even play sports? If my body is outside of the binary of gender do I have to a choose a binaried gender in order to workout?

Photos by Celina Bernstein; costumes by Sofie Somoroff.

Isaac Gotterer can be reached via email (igotterer@wesleyan.edu); Twitter (@isaacgotterer) and Snapchat (igotterer).

For more from OutSports, check out these stories:

This gay college football player found total team acceptance from day one

For this bisexual high school football coach, being tolerated by Christians is enough

Fans raise money to pay Ryan Getzlaf’s fine for homophobic slur

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Put a Wookiee in Your Car with the Chewbelta Chewbacca Bandolier Seatbelt Cover

So you fancy yourself a Han Solo sort, huh? You are a rogue and a scoundrel, but what you lack is a Wookiee co-pilot for your very fast hunk of junk. Well, here is the next best thing the “Chewbelta,” a Chewbacca bandolier seatbelt cover.

Put it on the passenger side of your car so that every passenger becomes your trusted Wookiee sidekick. Maybe give them a bowcaster too. Or wear it yourself and be both pilots while navigating traffic and pretending it’s an asteroid field.

I guess you could also get yourself a life sized wookie and strap it into the passenger seat, that way you can use the carpool lane and have an authentic wookie co-pilot. Grab one today for just $20(USD) over on Amazon.

Microsoft Confirms Specs And Price Of New Surface Pro

We had been hearing for some time now that Microsoft was going to launch a new Surface device in the near future, even if it wasn’t going to be the Surface Pro 5. At its event in Shanghai today, Microsoft officially announced the new Surface Pro. It has confirmed the price and specifications of this new product.

The Surface Pro looks and feels similar to previous Surface Pros but it has actually been redesigned completely from the inside out. There are over 800 new custom parts that take up 99 percent of the space inside the device so that it’s thin and light while being powerful. This is the lightest Surface Pro that Microsoft has ever made, starting at just 1.7lbs and 8.5mm thin.

It can be configured with up to 7th Generation Intel Core i7 processor while promising a battery life of 13.5 hours. The hinge has a 165-degree range of motion which will enable users to immerse themselves in the “Studio Mode.” It’s inspired by Microsoft’s Surface Studio and is perfect for drawing, writing, and sketching on the go.

The new Surface Pro has a high-resolution 12.3 inch PixelSense Display with 267ppi and 3:2 aspect ratio. Colors are enhanced by the PixelSense Accelerator. It even has support for LTE Advanced.

It’s compatible with the new Surface Pen and Surface Dial so that users can choose from a variety of input experiences that suit their requirements.

Microsoft has also launched new Signature Type Covers for the Surface Pro. Draped in Alcantara, the improve keyset only has 1.3mm of key travel for faster and more accurate typing. They will be offered in Platinum, Burgundy, and Cobalt Blue.

The new Surface Pro and Type Covers can be pre-ordered today and they will ship worldwide on June 15th. The new Surface Pen will be available in a few weeks. Prices for the Surface Pro start at $799.

Microsoft Confirms Specs And Price Of New Surface Pro , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.