Hasta La Gadget!

With the Switch launch out of the way and Breath of the Wild runthroughs being completed, it’s time to turn our attention to the next major release for the Nintendo Switch. For some, that next major release is Splatoon 2 in June, but for others, it’s Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which is due out at the end of this month. … Continue reading

KARLSRUHE/DUESSELDORF, Germany, April 12 (Reuters) – German authorities arrested a suspected Islamist on Wednesday in connection with what Chancellor Angela Merkel called a ‘despicable’ attack on a bus carrying players of one of the country’s top soccer teams.

Merkel said she was appalled by Tuesday evening’s incident, in which three explosions went off as the Borussia Dortmund bus made its way to a match. Spanish defender Marc Bartra suffered injuries to his arm and wrist.

The attack forced a 24-hour postponement of the team’s high-profile clash with AS Monaco. Officials said security had been stepped up for the rescheduled match on Wednesday night, and for a second Champions League quarter-final between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.

Ralf Jaeger, interior minister in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia which includes Dortmund, said the investigation was looking “in all directions,” and it was unclear if one or several attackers were involved.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, which handles probes into suspected terrorism, said the explosive devices had contained strips of metal.

Spokeswoman Frauke Koehler said investigators had found three letters near the scene, all with the same content suggesting a possible Islamist motive.

She said the letters referred to the use of Tornado reconnaissance planes in Syria, which Germany has deployed as part of the military campaign against Islamic State, and also called for the closure of the U.S. military base at Ramstein in western Germany.

Investigators had identified two suspects from the “Islamist scene,” searched their apartments and detained one man, she said.

DEFENDER INJURED

The blasts smashed windows on the bus carrying the players to the stadium. Bartra was operated on for a broken bone in his right wrist and shrapnel in his arm, a team spokesman said.

“We all agree that we are dealing with a despicable act,” Merkel said at a business event in the western town of Allendorf.

“We were all appalled yesterday when we heard about the attack on the bus with the players of BVB in Dortmund,” she added, praising Dortmund fans for offering accommodation to AS Monaco fans after the postponement.

Bartra, 26, joined Dortmund for 8 million euros ($8.5 million) last year from Barcelona, after coming through the Catalan club’s youth system. He has made 12 appearances for the Spanish national team.

European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, said there had been no specific intelligence regarding any threat to any of Wednesday’s Champions League fixtures, which also include a match in Spain between Atletico Madrid and England’s Leicester City.

UEFA “is reviewing the security arrangements for tonight’s matches and security procedures will be enhanced accordingly wherever needed,” it said, asking supporters to allow extra time for the possibility of enhanced checks.

Police in Munich said they were deploying an additional 80 officers and strengthening security around hotels and key routes for the match there.

The blasts revived memories of Islamist militant attacks in Paris in November 2015 whose targets included a stadium where France were playing Germany in a soccer friendly.

Security is among the issues at the heart of Germany’s parliamentary election on Sept. 24, a tight battle in which Merkel is running for a fourth term. In December, a Tunisian man killed 12 people when he plowed a truck through a Berlin Christmas market.

(Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr, Paul Carrel, Anneli Palmen and Jens Hack; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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Chrissy Teigen knows that even the tiniest victories ― like digging out your kid’s boogers ― are kind of a big deal when you’re a parent. 

In an interview with Refinery29 for its “Mothership” section, the model and “Lip Sync Battle” host got real about a responsibility she’s taken on that might make some squeamish, but is all in a day’s work for moms and dads. When asked if she’s done anything with Luna, her daughter with singer John Legend, that she never thought she’d do before becoming a mother, Teigen brought up boogers (yes, really). 

“Maybe like five minutes ago, I took my nail up Luna’s nose and scraped the most epic booger out you can ever imagine,” she said. “And I put it in a paper towel and I kind of stared at it for a while, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is like a really amazing booger I got.’ Like you get very excited for being able to clear out your kid’s nose.”

Teigen, known for her funny parenting tweets as well as her thoughts on serious issues, such as postpartum depression, talked about how intently she tries to keep Luna booger-free.

“I try to be as gentle as possible, but once I see it, I can’t go to bed knowing it’s in there,” she said. “I need to get it out.”

During the course of the interview, she also openly spoke about mental health and postpartum depression ― about which she wrote an essay published in Glamour in March ― and encouraged moms experiencing similar symptoms to remember that “there’s a light on the other side.” 

“When I was in the midst of everything, I could never imagine myself on the other side of it,” she said. “Now, I’m able to look at September, October, November, December, and shake my head at how dark and crazy of a period it was. Unfortunately you can only really do that when you’re out of it. There’s no other way to explain it. And there’s no better feeling than being out of it.”

Teigen said she continues to have “good and bad days” and shared appreciation for her mom, who lives with Teigen and helps with Luna. She also spoke of the ups and downs of parenting and reminded moms and dads of the impact of parenthood. 

“It makes you prepared for anything.”

Read more of Teigen’s interview on Refinery29.

The HuffPost Parents newsletter, So You Want To Raise A Feminist, offers the latest stories and news in progressive parenting.

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Warning: Spoilers coming at you fast and furious below.

The “Fast and the Furious” franchise lives its life one impossible moment at a time.

“Fate of the Furious,” the eighth and newest installment, is no different. The first one without Paul Walker seems like it might strike a somber note in the series, but thanks to The Rock’s one-liners, a rogue Vin Diesel and a submarine, “Fate” fits right in with this family of movies.

“Fate of the Furious” doesn’t outshine “Furious 7.” In fact, it seemingly ignores major plot points from the previous film. But it makes for an enjoyable ride if you don’t think about it. So don’t think about it!

Since the franchise is known for being over-the-top, here are five of the most unnecessary or ridiculous moments from “Fate of the Furious” that are also just so necessary.

1. The moment everyone forgets Jason Statham’s character is a mass murderer.

Does anyone remember “Furious 7”? Jason Statham’s character, Shaw, starts the movie by murdering a bunch of people at a hospital. He’s also the person who killed Han (Sung Kang) in the series.

Don’t worry, though. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson remembers … for a while.

The two actors are pit against each other for a good part of the movie until Johnson’s character, Hobbs, tells Shaw he’s gonna punch his teeth so far down his throat he’ll need to put a toothbrush up his butt to clean them. Or something to that effect.

Shaw laughs. Hobbs laughs. All murders are forgiven.

OK, maybe not “all” murders are forgiven ― Shaw committed a lot of murders ― but Hobbs shows concern for him later, indicating his change of heart. 

Yes, it’s a bit baffling. Yes, it needs to happen.

2. When The Rock redirects a torpedo with his hand.

A talked-about moment from the “Fate” trailers, and a standout one from the film, comes when The Rock redirects a torpedo with nothing but his hand.

If you consider things like, you know, the laws of physics, this seems unbelievable.

Well, believe it. In fact, we even asked The Royal Navy over Twitter if this would be plausible, and Hobbs himself chimed in:

Never question The Rock. 

The Royal Navy was so impressed that it reached out and requested The Rock’s services. So it must be true.

3. When Scott Eastwood smashes a car key case with a crowbar.

This seems minor, but it’s perhaps the most unnecessary moment from the entire movie.

Scott Eastwood’s character, called “Little Nobody,” is the new kid on the block ― the verbal and literal punching bag for the main crew at the beginning of the film. Inevitably, there is a turning point, which comes when he smashes a glass case holding a bunch of car keys.

This doesn’t need to happen. If you want some car keys, you can probably just open the case and take them out nicely.

Little Nobody, though, doesn’t do that. With a one-liner he could’ve stolen from any kindergartener, he proclaims there to be no rules and smashes the case with a crowbar.

It seems uncalled for, but everyone’s into it, so we’ll allow it.

4. Every other Vin Diesel moment.

Writing this story went something like: “Oh, and then Vin Diesel does that! Oh, wait, remember, then he does that, too!”

Rather than list out every overblown (but amazing) thing done by Vin Diesel’s character, Dom, we’re grouping them all into one.

For instance, take the moment when Dom and Cipher (Charlize Theron) kiss in front of Letty (Michelle Rodriguez). Like Eastwood smashing the glass case, this absolutely doesn’t need to happen. Cipher and Dom can just leave, given his romantic past with Letty. It also doesn’t really have any implications later. But it is so necessary.  

Also, at one point during a street race, Dom’s car catches fire. As if that wasn’t enough, he has to drive it backwards ― and still wins.

If you’re losing to someone driving in those conditions, you should really think about your life choices.

5. The “Lion King” scene.

We were actually going to leave this one out ― if it weren’t for an incredibly spoiler-y clip released this week:

It’s a good thing we all forgot about Shaw’s murders, or else we couldn’t enjoy the best scene of the whole movie: Jason Statham fighting an airplane full of people while taking care of a baby.

Later, the baby is involved in a very “Lion King” moment that had us just waiting for the classic line: “Everything the light touches is our kingdom.”

But, hey, hakuna matata. It just makes “F8” even more “Gr8.”

“Fate of the Furious” speeds into theaters April 14.

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There isn’t much Caitlyn Jenner can do without making headlines, but news that her tell-all memoir, due out April 25, offers intimate details about her transition has the online gossip rags losing their minds even more than usual.

Radar Online appears to be the only outlet that has gotten its grubby little hands on an advance copy of the book, entitled The Secrets Of My Life, and it made quick work of leaking some of the juiciest bits, including Jenner reportedly revealing that Robert Kardashian told her he knew O.J. was guilty of murdering Nicole Brown Simpson. 

Yet even that alleged bombshell seems to be no match for the portions of the book that confirm and detail Jenner’s gender confirmation surgery.

According to Radar Online, and subsequently substantiated by People magazine, Jenner explains that the decision to undergo surgery was “complex” but ultimately it she wanted to “have all the right parts” and she feels “not only wonderful but liberated.” 

Radar also states that Jenner writes she is opening up about the procedure because “I believe in candor” and so that “all of you can stop staring.” She adds, “You want to know, so now you know. Which is why this is the first time, and the last time, I will ever speak of it.”

If she sounds a little defensive, it’s not without good reason. When it comes to transgender issues, cisgender (or non-trans) people, aided and abetted by the media, have largely been at best cluelessly insensitive and at worst rude, demeaning and obsessive to the point of fetishizing when inquiring about trans experiences and especially trans bodies.

In fact, a web search of “Caitlyn Jenner surgery plans” reveals pages of stories guessing whether or not she has undergone any procedures, and if so, which ones, and if not, when she would. 

This is in part due to the mistaken belief that in order for someone to be transgender, and to transition, they must engage in a surgical transition. While we’ve seen increasing visibility for the transgender community in recent years ― which in turn has helped to educate people about the diversity of trans lives and experiences ― outdated, inaccurate and offensive tropes and stereotypes about trans people still exist.

There are, of course, lots of different ways to be trans ― and to be a woman or a man or both or neither ― and surgically confirming one’s gender is just one option. For some people, like Jenner, gender confirmation surgery may make them feel like they possess the body parts that correspond to their idea of their gender. Others may choose to have certain kinds of surgery, like facial feminization or breast augmentation, but not others. Some trans people use hormones. Some don’t. Some trans people never medically or surgically or hormonally transition. And others aren’t at all concerned about how certain “parts” adhere to ― or don’t adhere to ― their gender identity.

The bottom line is there’s no universal or “right” path to becoming one’s authentic self and no matter how someone chooses to transition, it isn’t anyone else’s business. What’s more, asking trans people about their anatomy or their transition is fundamentally invasive (and in many situations unwelcome) and puts the spotlight on the wrong elements of trans lives.

Laverne Cox made this point beautifully clear in 2014 when she visited “The Katie Couric show” for a segment about being transgender that also featured model and former “RuPaul’s Drag Race” star Carmen Carrera. After Couric made an “awkward inquisition” about Carerra’s genitals, Cox explained why that kind of question was inappropriate and problematic.

“I do feel there is a preoccupation with [trans bodies and surgery],” Cox told Couric. “The preoccupation with transition and surgery objectifies trans people. And then we don’t get to really deal with the real lived experiences. The reality of trans people’s lives is that so often we are targets of violence. We experience discrimination disproportionately to the rest of the community. Our unemployment rate is twice the national average; if you are a trans person of color, that rate is four times the national average. The homicide rate is highest among trans women. If we focus on transition, we don’t actually get to talk about those things.”

Cox concluded, “By focusing on bodies we don’t focus on the lived realities of that oppression and that discrimination.”

It was a teachable moment for Couric and her viewers and, to her credit, she apologized for her questions on a follow up segment. 

“I learned that it’s very, very upsetting to the transgender community because they feel that people are too often fixated on this and that your anatomy actually has very little to do with your gender identity,” said Couric, who has since become a passionate ally and advocate for the trans community. 

In reality, most people still have lots to learn about what it means to be transgender and asking questions comes with the territory. And some trans people might be happy to share their experiences. Some trans people find it empowering. Others want to help raise visibility and start discussions. And that’s awesome. But just because some people are open to discussing their lives doesn’t mean transgender people must answer personal questions about their experiences or their bodies (or should even be asked those questions in the first place). There are also plenty of legitimate resources on the web to learn more about what it means to be transgender ― including why and how some people surgically transition, as well as what kind of questions are inappropriate to ask a trans person and why.

Imagine if someone sauntered up to you and asked how big your penis was or inquired about the size of your labia. And then imagine if they wanted to use that information to decide if you were a “real man” or a “real woman.” Does that sound OK to you? No? Yah… probably not.

What’s going on under Caitlyn Jenner’s designer clothing is nobody’s business but her own (and, depending on the day, maybe her doctor’s). She ― and every other trans person ― doesn’t need to tell us what procedures she’s had done or why. Our collective fascination with the bodies of trans people simultaneously ignores and exacerbates the discrimination and unbelievable violence that trans people face on a daily basis. It’s time we all play a role in changing that.

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