Five worlds — Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — will arc across the pre-dawn sky all week in a spectacular “planet parade” that is now in its final phase. This week, a crescent moon will join, shining close to Jupiter before featuring in a rare close conjunction with Venus and bright star Regulus. With Saturn’s opposition on Sept. 21, it’s a huge week for planet-spotting.
This planet parade — the last until October 2028 — is best seen above an unobstructed eastern horizon about an hour to 45 minutes before sunrise.
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Key Facts
This planet parade — the last until October 2028 — is best seen above an unobstructed eastern horizon about an hour to 45 minutes before sunrise. Of the three visible planets visible to the naked eye, Venus will shine low in the east, Jupiter in the east-southeast and Saturn in the west-southwest.
On Monday, Sept. 15, through Wednesday, Sept. 17, a waning crescent moon will move past Jupiter and the “twin” stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux. It’s a great time to look for delicate “Earthshine” on the moon’s dark side — sunlight reflected by Earth’s icecaps and clouds back onto the lunar surface.
The showpiece of the “planet parade” this week comes on Friday, Sept. 19, when a slender 6%-lit waning crescent moon, Venus and Regulus — the brightest star in the constellation Leo — align in just a degree of the sky before dawn. In binoculars, all three will be visible in the same field of view. Shining together in a patch of sky small enough to be covered by your extended thumb, it’s the closest comparable grouping until 2041, according to When The Curves Line Up,
Uranus is close to the Pleiades, a star cluster high in the south, while Neptune sits above Saturn. Both require large binoculars or a telescope to see.
The showpiece of the “planet parade” this week comes on Friday, Sept. 19, when a slender 6%-lit waning crescent moon, Venus and Regulus — the brightest star in the constellation Leo — align in just a degree of the sky before dawn.
Stellarium
Saturn At Its Biggest, Brightest And Best
Saturn reaches its annual opposition on Sunday, Sept. 21. It will rise at sunset, reach its highest around midnight and set at sunrise. It’s the best time this year to view the ringed planet, whose disk is at its largest. Through a telescope, its rings are visible, though in 2025 they’re seen almost edge-on from our point of view.
The “planet parade” before sunrise on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.
Stellarium
Venus Begins To Fade
September sees Venus rise closer to sunrise. After most of 2025, first as a bright Evening Star and then a Morning Star, Venus is now about half as bright as it was in April, when it reached its brightest. It will eventually disappear into the sun’s glare in December, moving behind the sun from Earth’s point of view on Jan. 6, 2026.
Further Reading:
ForbesWhen To See The Next ‘Blood Moon’ Eclipse In North AmericaBy Jamie CarterForbesGet Ready For The Best Northern Lights Until 2035, Experts SayBy Jamie CarterForbesBlood Moon 2025: The Difference Between A Lunar And A Solar EclipseBy Jamie Carter
TAIPEI: China launched two probes targeting the US semiconductor sector Saturday ahead of talks between the two nations in Spain this week on trade, national security and the ownership of social media platform TikTok.
China’s Ministry of Commerce announced an anti-dumping investigation into certain analog IC chips imported from the US.
The investigation will target some commodity interface IC chips and gate driver IC chips, which are commonly made by US companies such as Texas Instruments and ON Semiconductor. The ministry separately announced an anti-discrimination probe into US measures against China’s chip sector.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is set to meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Madrid between Sunday and Wednesday, He’s office said.
US measures such as export curbs and tariffs “constitute the containment and suppression of China’s development of high-tech industries” such as advanced computer chips and artificial intelligence, a Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson said.
The announcements of the probes follow the US on Friday adding 23 Chinese companies to an “entity list” of businesses that will face restrictions for allegedly acting against US national security and foreign policy interests. The list includes two Chinese companies accused of acquiring chipmaking equipment for major Chinese chipmaker SMIC.
The meetings between Bessent and He in Madrid will be the latest in a series of negotiations aimed at reducing trade tensions and postponing the enactment of higher tariffs on each other’s goods.
US and Chinese counterparts previously held discussions in Geneva in May, London in June and Stockholm in July. The two governments have agreed to several 90-day pauses on a series of increasing reciprocal tariffs, staving off an all-out trade war.
Bessent described the talks during the last round in Stockholm as “very fulsome.”
“We just need to de-risk with certain, strategic industries, whether it’s the rare earths, semiconductors, medicines, and we talked about what we could do together to get into balance within the relationship,” Bessent said at the time.
US President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden placed curbs on China’s access to advanced semiconductors including restrictions on the sale of chipmaking equipment to the country. While Washington cites national security concerns, China argues the curbs are part of a US strategy to contain its growth.
Sri Lanka made a strong statement in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Pathum Nissanka’s 50 and Kamil Mishara’s calm finish helped the Charith Asalanka-led side beat Bangladesh by 6 wickets.
Sri Lanka’s Dominant Start
With this win, Sri Lanka began their Asia Cup campaign in style. They also looked like the only team from the other group capable of challenging India later in the tournament.
Bangladesh’s Top Order Struggles
Bangladesh’s batting was a horror show. Two maiden overs at the start left them reeling at 53/5. Only Jaker Ali (41*) and Shamim Hossain (42*) fought back, adding 86 runs for the sixth wicket and taking the total to 139/5.
Clinical Chase from Sri Lanka
In reply, Sri Lanka batted with authority. Pathum Nissanka (50 off 34) and Kamil Mishara (46*) led a clinical chase, reaching 140/4 in just 14.4 overs.
Player of the Match
Mishara’s unbeaten knock earned him the Player of the Match award. The win came with 32 balls to spare, underlining Sri Lanka’s dominance.
A Team to Watch
Sri Lanka have now cemented their status as the second-best team in the tournament so far. They have pace in the powerplay, spin in the middle overs, and a calm batting approach.
Can Sri Lanka Challenge India?
Most importantly, they seem the only team from the other group that can truly challenge India in the knockouts. For Bangladesh, fixing their top-order issues is crucial to stay in contention.
Sri Lanka’s message is clear: they are here to compete. A commanding win, a confident start, and a growing reputation — they may be the ones to stand up to India.
Jhansi is a senior writer with extensive experience covering Telugu movies and the broader Indian cinema landscape. With a keen focus on U.S. updates related to Telugu people and Indians, as well as immigration-related t…
It’s a new moon phase tonight, and it’s day 22 of the lunar cycle, a series of eight unique phases of the moon’s visibility. The whole cycle takes about 29.5 days, according to NASA, and these different phases happen as the Sun lights up different parts of the moon whilst it orbits Earth.
Let’s find out what’s happening with the moon tonight, Sept. 14.
What is today’s moon phase?
As of Sunday, Sept. 14, the moon phase is Third Quarter, and it is 49% lit up to us on Earth, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Observation.
There’s less and less to see each night, but there’s still plenty to spot tonight. Without any visual aids, catch a glimpse of the Tycho Crater and the Copernicus Crater. If you have a pair of binoculars, pull them out to see the Gassendi Crater and the Alphonsus Crater. And with a telescope, look out for the Schiller Crater and the Fra Mauro Highlands.
When is the next full moon?
The next full moon will be on Oct. 6. The last full moon was on Sept. 7.
What are moon phases?
According to NASA, moon phases are caused by the 29.5-day cycle of the moon’s orbit, which changes the angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Moon phases are how the moon looks from Earth as it goes around us. We always see the same side of the moon, but how much of it is lit up by the Sun changes depending on where it is in its orbit. This is how we get full moons, half moons, and moons that appear completely invisible. There are eight main moon phases, and they follow a repeating cycle:
Mashable Light Speed
New Moon – The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).
Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).
First Quarter – Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.
Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.
Full Moon – The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.
Waning Gibbous – The moon starts losing light on the right side.
Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) – Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.
Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.
The summer has been a cold one for the labor market in the United States. Not only were just 22,000 new net jobs added in August, but for the first time since December 2020, jobs were lost in June. The onset of the winter of employment had been a reality for some time in some sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing and the mining and oil sectors. It also happened in construction, where job losses over the past three months were confirmed on Friday. This is an area of the economy where around 34% of workers are foreign-born, and the onslaught of anti-immigration policies is opening a deep rift that affects not only them but also U.S.-born workers, businesses and ongoing projects.
A number of construction industry firms attested to this situation in a late August survey conducted by the Associated Contractors of America and the National Center for Construction, Education and Research (AGCE and NCCER, respectively). Nearly a third of companies reported having been directly or indirectly affected by immigration policies in the past six months, compounding the problem faced by 92% of respondents, who reported difficulty finding workers. Specifically, 5% of respondents said their sites have been raided by immigration agents, and an additional 10% have seen their workers leave due to rumors of possible action by authorities.
The raids don’t just affect individuals without work authorization. AGCE Chief Economist Ken Simonson explains that many immigrants with work authorization also fear Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) because of how a raid could affect their family members or other nearby communities at risk if they were dragged in by a mass arrest. Twenty percent of respondents say their subcontractors have also lost employees. The most affected states are Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, Nebraska and South Carolina.
The Federal Reserve has also acknowledged the complication arising from ICE’s actions. Last week, the monetary authority published its latest report on regional economic conditions, the so-called Beige Book, in which it referred more than a dozen times to the problems that anti-immigration action is creating in the labor market in the twelve Fed districts.
“Half of the Districts noted that contacts reported a reduction in the availability of immigrant labor, with New York, Richmond, St. Louis, and San Francisco highlighting its impact on the construction industry,” the report reads. Specifically, in the case of the New York Federal Reserve, it noted that the drop in immigrant workers has led to project delays. Solutions are being sought. Some employers are opting to offer four-day workweeks to retain workers, according to the report.
In the case of the Richmond Fed (which includes North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and most of West Virginia), difficulties in finding workers among immigrants in this sector have increased. “Multiple construction contacts encountered increased difficulties finding workers due to the available immigrant labor pool, and they were not optimistic about future labor availability,” the Beige Book states.
The lack of immigrant labor not only fails to open doors to American-born workers, it also negatively impacts them, says Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a progressive think tank. In a recent report he explained that deportations also affect national workers in several ways. One of the most notable is the breakdown of the complementary ties that exist in jobs involving both foreign and native-born labor. The labor chain is broken. “when there are fewer immigrant roofers and framers to build the basic structure of homes, there will be less work available for U.S.-born electricians and plumbers,” he explains, providing an example that can be applied to other industries and cuts across several sectors. The reduction in the immigrant population and its activities also reduces consumption and investment, which reduces job creation.
Official figures on job demand and openings, hires, and resignations compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) complete the employment picture. The so-called JOLTS report for July reflects how job openings across the country are declining overall, but, counterintuitively, they have grown in the construction sector. Specifically, they rose from 242,000 in June to 306,000 a month later. This is 77,000 more job openings than in the same month last year.
Industry economists acknowledge that these are highly volatile data, but Anirban Basal, chief economist at Associated Contractors and Constructors (ABC), explained in a note that bids have risen to the highest level in more than a year. “Given the continued decline in nonresidential construction spending, this increase in bids is attributable to immigration policy and its effects on the labor force, rather than to increased demand for construction workers.”
AGCE’s Simonson says these job postings often contain many anticipated jobs that need to be filled for other phases of construction, but other data from the JOLTS report also shows a deterioration for the sector, such as those referring to people leaving their jobs because they have a better option. Job turnover for these employees is the lowest in the last nine years, suggesting concerns about job security in a difficult labor environment and pressure from tariff costs. “There are no opportunities,” Simonson says.
This economist says the current labor shortage is the main reason why projects of all kinds are experiencing delays because there aren’t enough qualified workers to hire. Seventy-eight percent of firms surveyed by AGCE and NCCER say they have at least one project that has been delayed in the last 12 months, and 45% attribute the cause to a shortage of workers and the shortage of their subcontractors.
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It’s Tuesday at the Arena Mexico. In the front rows that are filled with tourists, phones are raised to film the fighters with commentary in English, French and Japanese. In the stands, there’s a torrent of insults and cheers typical of local long-term fans. The scene reflects a recent change: once the poor man’s sport in Mexico City, lucha libre — a popular form of wrestling in Mexico — has become a tourist and cultural attraction with a global reach. The more diverse audience has boosted profits and transformed the way people fight, as well as hiking prices and shutting out regular fans. Wrestling along with the neighborhoods themselves is being gentrified and the fight against it is on.
Rodolfo Hernández runs the taco stall located in front of the wrestling venue in the Doctores neighborhood: “It’s madness,” he says. “Before, it was ordinary people, but now it’s foreigners, celebrities and important people who arrive with bodyguards.” Outside his business stands the double-decker bus in which the foreigners to whom Hernández refers arrive: Europeans, Asian people and North Americans get off wearing lucha libre masks. Between photos, the guide introduces them to the art of shouting and whistling and asks them to make a choice that should not be taken lightly: “Good guys or bad guys?”
Seven years ago, the Mexican Wrestling Council (CMLL) managed to have its sport declared an intangible cultural heritage of Mexico City, which turned it into a tourist attraction. Ernesto Ocampo, editor-in-chief of the specialized portal Superluchas, explains that lucha libre emerged as entertainment for the lower classes in neighborhoods where there were no cinemas or theaters, but that today it is recognized as a national symbol “on a par with mariachi or tequila.”
Tourists outside the Mexico City Arena where wrestling masks are sold. Aurea Del Rosario
Among the crowd outside the Arena, are Francisco and David, from Spain. They recognize that the sport is not exactly their bag but were told it was unmissable. “It’s very different from anywhere else in the world,” David says.
But there’s a flip side. Ulises Torres, a specialist in social studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), states that luch libre is going through a process of cultural gentrification. “This implies the appropriation of designs and masks and the transformation of the spaces where the fights take place,” he says.
José Ángel Garfías, a research professor at UNAM specializing in entertainment, agrees: “Ticket prices have risen by up to 50% in some cases, premium services are multiplying and interaction with the public, which was an essential part of the environment, is being lost,” he explains.
Both Torres and Garfías believe that the gentrification has shut out the original fans. Torres draws a parallel with other sports such as boxing, which left neighborhood gyms to become an industry based in Las Vegas; or baseball, which is increasingly exclusive due to the cost of tickets, and soccer shown mainly on paid platforms.
Wearing a mask and cape, Edmundo complains about the gentrification and the prices before entering the arena. “It was a working-class sport that was ignored and now it’s become so fashionable it’s hard to get in,” he says.
Edmundo is with his six-year-old son Javier, who has caught the bug from him as he did from his own father. Edmundo believes that the boom could be positive, but he hopes that watching the fights will not become an activity for the privileged few. “I want to keep bringing my son,” he says.
The audience at the Arena México.Aurea Del Rosario
Tickets for a lucha libre show at the Arena Mexico vary depending on the location and range from 150 pesos ($8) in the highest stands to more than 800 pesos ($43) for the front rows. On special dates, they can double and reach 1,500 ($80). At the Arena Coliseum, prices are lower. A ticket ranges between 100 ($5) and 400 ($21) pesos. The Turiluchas tourist experience, which includes the trip and the show, ranges from 700 ($37) to 1,600 ($85) pesos, depending on the event.
The current boom is due to a combination of factors, according to Ocampo. Social networks have helped promote the masks. But the CMLL says that the boom is the result of years of work. “These are cyclical phenomena, and we cannot deny the convening power that the wrestler Místico has, coupled with the alliances we have with countries such as the United States, Japan and England,” he says.
For example, on September 25, CMLL will present a spectacle in collaboration with Pokémon, in a bid to attract foreign audiences. But the crowds are not just made up of tourists; they also include the wealthy. “People who didn’t come before are coming,” the wrestler Máscara Dorada pointed out in a controversial interview recently. “You see well-dressed people in the front row; wrestling is having an impact and they are drawn to it.” Social networks slammed him as classist.
A tourist from Vancouver wears a wrestler mask inside the Arena México.Aurea Del Rosario
Beyond the imagery, the magic of lucha libre has been around for 90 years. Behind the masks there are men and women who start from scratch, train hard and reach unexpected heights. Garfías explains that fans identify with the wrestlers because they represent the fight against impossible odds and the desire to overcome hardship that is so ingrained in Mexican culture.
“El Santo and Blue Demon created Mexican wrestling cinema and built an image of real and accessible superheroes that their followers could see for themselves when they went to the ring on Sundays,” says Garfías.
But those days are long gone, and now lucha libre is an international business. In Garfías’ analysis, AAA — the other major development within the Mexican industry — is already “completely gentrified,” while El Consejo is moving more cautiously under market pressure. Last April, the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from the U.S., the largest wrestling company in the world, absorbed AAA and, according to experts, may also be interested in buying CMLL. “When people come along who don’t understand wrestling, there are profound changes,” Garfías says.
Garfías does, however, recognize that the sport is more profitable these days. There is more economic spillover, better salaries for the wrestlers and greater visibility. Street vendors outside the Arena Mexico agree. Their profits have skyrocketed, and they welcome the arrival of tourists.
Foreign visitors and longtime fans together shape the new face of Mexican lucha libre, as emotions, micheladas, and languages blend. Some celebrate the sport’s rise to a new cultural status, while others lament the loss of authenticity. Torres insists this isn’t a battle of good versus evil — or técnicos versus rudos — but calls for preserving its popular tradition.
Crowds at Arena Mexico.Aurea Del Rosario
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