Apple released iOS 26 on Monday, Sept. 15, a few months after the company announced it at the June Worldwide Developers Conference. The update brings call screening, new ringtones and lots of hidden features to your iPhone. It also introduces a Liquid Glass design to your device, and as part of the redesign you can make your app icons and widgets on your home screen clear. This builds on the home screen customization options Apple introduced to the iPhone with iOS 18.
Apple released iOS 18 in 2024 and it introduced a major (and long overdue) change to your iPhone, the ability to customize your home screen. With iOS 18, you can remove app labels, change the color of app icons, arrange apps around the screen in new ways and much more. You can frame your background with your apps or give your iPhone a more personal touch with different colored apps.
Here are the ways you can customize your home screen to make it as fun and unique as you are.
Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source on Chrome.
How to remove app labels
1. Long-press on your background to enter jiggle mode — where your apps are all shaking. 2. Tap Edit in the top left corner of your screen. 3. Tap Customize.
Tapping Customize opens a new menu.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
4. Tap the two different-sized squares in the top-right corner of the new menu that appears at the bottom of your screen.
Tapping the little and big squares change the size of your apps.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
Your app icons will grow and the labels beneath them will disappear. This looks much cleaner to me: I don’t plan on displaying app labels ever again.
If you don’t like this, follow the above steps again and tap the different sized squares once more. The apps will revert to their normal size and the labels will reappear.
How to change the color of your app icons and widgets
1. Long-press on your background to enter jiggle mode — where your apps are shaking. 2. Tap Edit in the top left corner of your screen. 3. Tap Customize.
Then you can choose between Default, Dark, Clear and Tinted app icons and widgets.
These options can change the color of your apps and widgets.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
If you choose Dark from this top menu, Apple’s first-party apps, like Messages, Safari and more, will now have an almost-black background. This change applies to first-party Apple apps and some third-party apps, like the YouTube and Bluesky apps. Other third-party apps, like Instagram and Snapchat, are unchanged.
Choosing Dark will also darken your background, which could reduce the amount of power your iPhone uses and extend your battery life.
Clear will turn your app icons and widgets almost translucent. If you choose Clear, you can also give your app icons and widgets a Light or Dark tint. There’s also an Auto option which will automatically change the tint based on whether light or dark mode is active. These options appear across the bottom of the Customize menu. Personally, Clear with a Dark tint is my new favorite color scheme.
The Clear option also has Light, Dark and Auto tint options.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
If you choose Tinted, you can turn your apps and widgets every other color. Tapping Tinted causes a gradient scale to appear at the bottom of the Customize menu. You can adjust the scale until you get just the right hue. You can also tap the eyedropper icon near the bottom right corner of the menu to select a color from your background that matches your icons more closely. That way you’re not moving the sliders and getting frustrated because the colors aren’t quite matching — a total hypothetical, I swear.
Tinted lets you turn your apps and widgets almost any color.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
How to arrange apps around your home screen
Arranging apps on your home screen is the same process as before. You can either enter jiggle mode by long-pressing on a blank portion of your background and then dragging apps where you want them to go, or press and drag an app to a new location.
You can arrange apps in a pattern or any formation you want.
Apple/Screenshot by CNET
You can place all your apps near the bottom of your screen, have them frame your screen or arrange them in any other number of patterns. Because I’m right-handed, I placed most of my apps on the right side of my screen so I can easily tap them without fear of dropping my phone. This also makes it easy to ensure you see your background if it’s a picture of a loved one or a pet.
The grid is still present, so you can’t place apps on top of each other or too close together. If you enlarge your apps, there will be a sizable gap between your dock across the bottom of your screen and the lowest row of the grid. It looks like it’s big enough to fit another app icon, but you can’t — I tried to no avail.
For more on iOS 26, here’s my review of the OS, how to reduce the Liquid Glass effects in the update and all the new ringtones on your iPhone. You can also check out our iOS 26 cheat sheet.
Watch this: The iPhone 17 Is Here! Top Editors React to Apple’s Awe Dropping Event
A long-tailed comet has been spotted close to the sun, and some astronomers are predicting it could be seen with the naked eye in mid-October — just as another comet is forecast to do the same. It could mean two bright comets will be visible in the night sky at the same time, on the peak night of a meteor shower.
Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN), or SWAN R2 for short, was discovered on Sept. 12 by NASA’s orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory, whose Solar Wind Anisotropies (SWAN) instrument is used to find comets close to the sun. The previously unknown comet was found in SWAN’s images by Vladimir Bezugly, a Ukrainian amateur astronomer, according to Universe Today, and it was initially called SWAN25B. Three days later, the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center classified the object as a comet and renamed it C/2025 R2 (SWAN).
This long-period comet appears to orbit the sun every 22,554 years, according to EarthSky, and its tail is about the same length as five full moons.
Although SWAN R2 is still very close to the sun — passing close to Mars just after dusk, and best seen from the Southern Hemisphere, for now — that’s set to change on Oct. 21, when SWAN R2 will be only 0.27 astronomical units (AU) from Earth, according to The Sky Live. That’s about one-quarter the distance from Earth to the sun.
At that time, the comet could get as bright as magnitude 4, potentially making it visible to the naked eye in dark skies, even in the Northern Hemisphere. Earth may even pass through debris from the comet around Oct. 4-6, which could potentially cause a unique meteor shower. Even if it doesn’t brighten sufficiently to be seen with the unaided eye, the comet should be easily visible through a pair of stargazing binoculars or a good backyard telescope.
This comet has come to light just as another comet is brightening. Discovered in January by the Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona, Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) will get closest to Earth on Oct. 21 — the same day as SWAN R2’s closest approach. Comet Lemmon will be about 0.60 AU from Earth and will be visible in the morning and evening. According to Space.com, Lemmon could also get as bright as magnitude 4, which would make it possible to see with the naked eye in a dark sky.
The best nights to see both comets — if they survive their increasingly close approaches to the sun, which is not guaranteed, and they brighten as predicted — will be Oct. 20-23, when they are closest to Earth. Oct. 21 is the date of the new moon, when night skies will be free of moonlight. Oct. 20-21 is also the peak of the Orionid meteor shower, when about 20 “shooting stars” per hour are expected. You won’t want to miss the prospect of two bright comets and meteors in a dark sky.
Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.
The last bright comet that was visible to the naked eye was C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), in summer 2020, although in October 2024, Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) became visible through binoculars during a close approach to Earth.
Allen & Gledhill has been named Regulatory Law Firm of the Year at the ALB Pan Asian Regulatory Awards 2025, which took place on Thursday, 18 September 2025.
The ALB Pan Asian Regulatory Awards acknowledges the remarkable achievements of compliance professionals within the financial services industry and the supporting professional services firms, and serves as a platform to honor and applaud the excellence of industry pioneers and teams who consistently push the boundaries to drive the industry forward.
Congress prepares to vote of funding bills to avert government shutdown
Today, lawmakers in the House will vote on legislation, known as a “continuing resolution” (CR), to prevent a looming government shutdown at the end of September.
The bill, introduced by Republicans, would fund the government until 21 November. According to Politico, House GOP whip Tom Emmer was confident, as of Thursday, that his party had enough votes. “We’re going to pass this,” he said in an interview.
A reminder, Republicans only have a very thin majority in the lower chamber, and have already heard push back from some members on certain provisions in the bill.
Democrats have, almost unanimously, said they’re bucking the CR as is, taking issue with its lack of health care provisions. “The House Republican-only spending bill fails to meet the needs of the American people and does nothing to stop the looming healthcare crisis,” senate minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a joint statement.
Democrats in the lower chamber also released their own legislation that would keep the government funded until the end of October.
For their part, GOP lawmakers only need a simple majority for their CR to advance to the Senate, where Democrats can use the filibuster to tank it if it lacks 60 votes. However, that requires Schumer to ensure that moderate members of his party don’t end up voting for the legislation if the threat of a shutdown inches closer.
This is the problem the top Democrat faced the last time this happened, back in March, when Schumer ended up voting for the Republican-written bill that kept federal agencies funded. At the time, Schumer faced immense pressure from his Democratic colleagues in the House to push back, but ultimately believed a shutdown would carry “consequences for America that are much, much worse”.
Key events
We’ll get more from the second day of the advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP) later. A reminder that on Thursday the panel voted on recommending that children receive multiple vaccines to protect against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox, instead of a single vaccine that can protect against all four diseases.
As my colleague, Carter Sherman, reports, the committee is scheduled to focus on Covid vaccines today. It will also hold two votes on the recommended timing of the vaccine for hepatitis B – an incurable infection that can lead to liver disease and death.
The committee was originally scheduled to vote on the hepatitis B vaccine on Wednesday, but delayed the vote after the committee chair, Martin Kulldorff, noticed “slight discrepancies” in the wording of the planned votes.
Following Kirk shooting, new poll shows drop in positive direction of the country among Republicans
A new Associated Press-NORC poll shows that there has been a significant drop, among Republicans, that the country is heading in a positive direction.
51% of Republicans said the country is heading in the wrong direction, in a poll conducted between 11 and 15 September. A 22-point increase from the 29% of Republicans who expressed the same feeling in June of this year.
For Democrats, 92% say the country is heading in the wrong direction – a number that’s stayed consistent since Donald Trump returned to the White House for a second term.
More broadly, 39% of adults approve of the way Trump is handing his job as president, while 60% disapprove.
Congress prepares to vote of funding bills to avert government shutdown
Today, lawmakers in the House will vote on legislation, known as a “continuing resolution” (CR), to prevent a looming government shutdown at the end of September.
The bill, introduced by Republicans, would fund the government until 21 November. According to Politico, House GOP whip Tom Emmer was confident, as of Thursday, that his party had enough votes. “We’re going to pass this,” he said in an interview.
A reminder, Republicans only have a very thin majority in the lower chamber, and have already heard push back from some members on certain provisions in the bill.
Democrats have, almost unanimously, said they’re bucking the CR as is, taking issue with its lack of health care provisions. “The House Republican-only spending bill fails to meet the needs of the American people and does nothing to stop the looming healthcare crisis,” senate minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a joint statement.
Democrats in the lower chamber also released their own legislation that would keep the government funded until the end of October.
For their part, GOP lawmakers only need a simple majority for their CR to advance to the Senate, where Democrats can use the filibuster to tank it if it lacks 60 votes. However, that requires Schumer to ensure that moderate members of his party don’t end up voting for the legislation if the threat of a shutdown inches closer.
This is the problem the top Democrat faced the last time this happened, back in March, when Schumer ended up voting for the Republican-written bill that kept federal agencies funded. At the time, Schumer faced immense pressure from his Democratic colleagues in the House to push back, but ultimately believed a shutdown would carry “consequences for America that are much, much worse”.
Trump expected to focus on TikTok and trade in call with Xi Jinping
The president doesn’t have any public events scheduled today, according to the White House.
He’s due to sign executive orders at 3pm EST, but that is closed press for the time being. We’ll let you know if that opens up.
In less than an hour, Trump is expected to have a call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. It’s the first time the pair have spoken since June, and Trump said to reporters yesterday that they’ll focus on TikTok and trade on their call. “We’re very close on all of it,” the president added.
When we have a readout we’ll make sure to bring you the latest lines.
US president Donald Trump suggested that TV networks which cover him “negatively” could be punished by the government, after celebrating ABC suspending late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaking to reporters on his flight back to the US from his state visit to the UK, the president said major US networks were “97% against me”, though he did not offer evidence to prove this figure or detail how this conclusion was evaluated.
Trump suggests punishing TV networks for ‘negative’ coverage – video
Taiwan’s top representative in the United States met privately in Washington this month with a little-known group of intelligence advisers.
The meeting with Alexander Yui, Taiwan’s de facto US ambassador, was described by two sources with knowledge of the matter and amounted to one of the higher-level Taiwan-US contacts to date during Donald Trump’s second term, Reuters reports.
It was also an unusually sensitive meeting for the previously obscure group, the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB), which includes members who have jobs outside of the federal government and has historically played a low-key role in policymaking.
A White House official downplayed the encounter, saying it was not an official, sanctioned PIAB gathering but rather an informal conversation between some PIAB members and a foreign diplomat that was put together by a mutual contact.
Kamala Harris critical of Joe Biden in new book: ‘angry and disappointed’
David Smith
Kamala Harris has revealed she was left “angry and disappointed” when Joe Biden called her hours before her US presidential debate with Donald Trump to suggest powerful associates of Biden’s brother refused to support her.
The former vice-president and Democratic nominee recounts the episode – and other criticisms of Biden – in her campaign memoir 107 Days, obtained by the Guardian before its publication next week.
Harris writes that in September she was in a hotel room in Philadelphia, poised to take on Trump in a potentially decisive debate, when the then president called to wish her good luck – and to ask if she would be back in Philadelphia before the election.
Harris wondered why Biden would ask such a non sequitur. According to the book, he told her: “My brother called. He’s been talking to a group of real power brokers in Philly.” He offered several names and asked if Harris knew them. She did not.
Harris writes: “Then he got to his point. His brother had told him that those guys were not going to support me because I’d been saying bad things about him. He wasn’t inclined to believe it, he claimed, but he thought I should know in case my team had been encouraging me to put daylight between the two of us.”
The then vice-president asked Biden to put the group in touch with her directly. But he was not done with the call. He sought to rewrite the history of his own disastrous debate performance against Trump three months earlier.
Maya Yang
The indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show has prompted impassioned calls for a boycott against Disney, ABC’s parent company, and other major media conglomerates that have refused to air Kimmel’s show.
Boycott calls grew after ABC announced it would indefinitely suspend the popular show following complaints from the Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr. Carr’s complaints stem from Kimmel’s recent monologue in which he addressed the killing of the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk by saying:
Many in Maga land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.
Carr, who was appointed by Donald Trump earlier this year, said Kimmel’s comments were “truly sick” and that ABC had violated its “public interest” broadcast obligations. ABC’s suspension of the show also came after Nexstar Media, one of the US’s largest owners of TV stations, said it “strongly object[ed]” to Kimmel’s comments and would pre-empt, or halt, any of the show’s episodes set to air on its stations “for the foreseeable future”.
Meanwhile, the conservative TV conglomerate Sinclair announced it would run a tribute to Kirk during Kimmel’s time slot on Friday. It also called on Kimmel to issue a formal apology and make a personal donation to Kirk’s family and his rightwing political advocacy group, Turning Point USA.
Overnight, calls to boycott ABC and Disney emerged, with Nelini Stamp, organizing director of the pro-labor union political group Working Families Party, sharing a viral boycott resource guide online that says:
Jimmy Kimmel wasn’t suspended because of what he said. He was suspended because the FCC threatened his employer. That’s state-sanctioned censorship and it is a giant red flag … Authoritarianism isn’t coming, it’s already here. Today it’s Jimmy. Tomorrow it’s the rest of us.
Sam Levin
A Los Angeles protester charged with assaulting a border patrol agent in June was acquitted on Wednesday after US immigration officials were accused in court of lying about the incident.
The not guilty verdict for Brayan Ramos-Brito is a major setback for the Donald Trump-appointed US attorney in southern California and for Gregory Bovino, a border patrol chief who has become a key figure in Trump’s immigration crackdown. The 29-year-old defendant, who is a US citizen, was facing a misdemeanor and was the first protester to go to trial since demonstrations against immigration raids erupted in LA earlier this summer.
Border patrol and prosecutors alleged that Ramos-Brito struck an agent during a chaotic protest on 7 June in the south Los Angeles county city of Paramount outside a complex where the Department of Homeland Security has an office. But footage from a witness, which the Guardian published days after the incident, showed an agent forcefully shoving Ramos-Brito. The footage did not capture the demonstrator assaulting the officer.
The jury delivered its not guilty verdict after a little over an hour of deliberations, the Los Angeles Times reported. Bovino testified earlier in the day and faced a tough cross-examination from public defenders.
Bovino was one of four border patrol agents who testified as witnesses, but was the only one to say he saw the alleged assault by Ramos-Brito, according to the LA Times. Videos played in court captured the agent shoving Ramos-Brito, sending him flying backward, and showed the protester marching back toward the agent, the paper reported. The videos did not capture Ramos-Brito’s alleged assault.
There were multiple factual discrepancies in DHS’s internal reports on the protest, which initially led to charges against five demonstrators, the Guardian reported in July. A criminal complaint suggested Ramos-Brito and others had attacked agents in protest of the arrests of two sisters, but records showed the women had been arrested in a separate incident that occurred after Ramos-Brito’s arrest.
A supervisor later documented the correct timeline and “apologized” for errors, records showed.
DC Democrat challenges long-serving House delegate amid age concerns
Chris Stein
Washington DC’s long-serving delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is under renewed pressure to step down after a city council member announced on Thursday he would challenge her in next year’s election, saying the federal district needs its “strongest fighters” as it faces unprecedented interference from Donald Trump and the Republican party.
Robert White’s decision to jump into the race for the non-voting role in the House of Representatives comes amid mounting concern over the 88-year-old Norton’s ability to continue doing the job at a tense moment for the city.
Trump in August ordered a temporary federal takeover of the Washington DC police department and dispatched national guard and federal agents onto its streets to fight what he called an “out-of-control” crime wave, a claim city leaders disputed.
In a video announcing his candidacy, White, an at-large council member who made an unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2022, referred to Norton as “our lion on the Hill” but implied it was time for new leadership.
“I have never seen my city more vulnerable than we are right now, and in this entire Congress, there is one person whose job it is to protect and stand up for our residents, and we need our strongest fighters,” said White. “I’m ready to take this torch.”
The announcement comes days after Donna Brazile, a former chief of staff to Norton who rose to serve as interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, said that she should not seek a 19th term in the office she has held since 1991.
Though not allowed to cast votes in the House, Norton was known as a tenacious advocate for the rights of the federal district, but has appeared subdued in recent years.
She had been pictured requiring the help of an aide at public appearances, and reads haltingly from prepared remarks at committee appearances, even when the topic concerns contentious proposals to change Washington DC’s laws.
Representatives Don Bacon and Ro Khanna plan to introduce bipartisan legislation that would exempt coffee products from any tariffs imposed after 19 January, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing a copy of the draft legislation.
The exemption would apply to roasted and decaffeinated coffee, as well as coffee husks, skins, and other drinks or substitutes containing coffee, the report said.
Republican Bacon and Khanna, who is a Democrat, said they focused on coffee because they want to help Americans save on a daily staple, according to the report.
“Why are we tariffing American citizens on something that we don’t even grow? It doesn’t make sense,” Bacon told the newspaper. Representatives for Bacon, Khanna and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Coffee is one of the items that are keeping food prices in the United States persistently high since the Trump administration applied a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports at the end of July, including green coffee.
Prices for arabica coffee, the mild variety mostly used by coffee chains such as Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts, have since jumped around 50% at the Intercontinental Exchange in New York. Brazil used to supply a third of all the coffee used in the US, but shipments have dried up since the tariffs were imposed.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that Donald Trump suggested on Thursday that TV networks which cover him “negatively” could be punished by the government after his celebration of ABC suspending late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.
On Air Force One, the president spoke to reporters on his flight back to the US from his state visit to the UK. The president said major US networks were “97% against me”, though he did not offer evidence to prove this figure or detail how this conclusion was evaluated. He said he read the statistic “someplace”.
“Again, 97% negative, and yet I won easily. I won all seven swing states,” Trump said. “They give me only bad press. I mean they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their licenses should be taken away.”
The president’s claim that US TV networks need to be licensed by the government to operate is, however, incorrect. While local TV stations do require a license from the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC says clearly on its website that it does “not license TV or radio networks (such as CBS, NBC, ABC or Fox)”.
Trump supported ABC’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show, saying that the comedian was “not a talented person” who “had very bad ratings”.
“Well, Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else, and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk,” Trump told reporters during his state visit to the United Kingdom, adding “they should have fired him a long time ago”.
According to Nielsen ratings as reported by LateNighter, although Stephen Colbert’s Late Show leads the time slot in total viewers with 2.42 million, Kimmel’s show averaged 1.77 million viewers in the second quarter of 2025 and edged out Colbert in the key 18-49 demographic.
However, there was an 11% drop-off in his show’s viewership the last month. Kimmel also has over 20 million subscribers on YouTube.
Read the full story here:
In other developments:
Barack Obama condemned what he called a “dangerous” escalation by the Trump administration over the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show. “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” Obama wrote on X.
The indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show has prompted impassioned calls for a boycott against Disney, ABC’s parent company, and other major media conglomerates that have refused to air Kimmel’s show. Boycott calls grew after ABC announced it would indefinitely suspend the popular show following complaints from the Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr.
Kamala Harris watched mortified as her running mate, Tim Walz, fell into JD Vance’s trap in last year’s vice-presidential debate and “fumbled” a crucial answer, she writes in a campaign memoir. The former Democratic presidential nominee also admits that Walz had not been her first choice for vice-president in her book 107 Days, obtained by the Guardian ahead of its publication next week.
The Trump administration asked the US supreme court to allow it to fire the Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, as it continues its extraordinary attack on the central bank’s independence. In a filing on Thursday, Donald Trump’s officials requested an emergency order to remove Cook from the Fed’s board of governors, after an appeals court refused to go along with efforts to oust her.
Donald Trump accused Vladimir Putin of letting him down in a joint press conference with Keir Starmer during which the US president piled criticism on his Russian counterpart. Trump said he had hoped to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine soon after entering office, but that Putin’s actions had prevented him from doing so.
Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, has been appointed as the new CEO and chair of the board for Turning Point USA. The organization announced on Thursday that the late CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, who was shot and killed at an event last week, had previously expressed that he would want his wife to lead in the event of his death.
Researchers from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have revealed for the first time how gas flows from vast distances toward the disk surrounding a nascent massive star in the process of star formation.
Massive stars-with more than eight times the mass of the Sun-play a decisive role in cosmic evolution. Their strong radiation, stellar winds, and eventual supernova explosions profoundly reshape the interstellar medium, driving galaxy structure and evolution. Unlike low-mass stars that typically form through relatively simple gravitational collapse, however, massive stars arise within highly dynamic, large-scale gas environments. The step-by-step process of gas transport to form accretion disks had not previously been understood.
The researchers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), combined with maser astrometry-a way to measure the positions of gas using microwaves-to trace the complete process of gas accretion in a massive star-forming region. The microwave data came from the Very Large Array (VLA)-a world-class radio telescope in New Mexico, USA.
The researchers traced gas inflow from ~2,500 astronomical units (AU) to ~40 AU from the protostar. (One AU is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun.) Their findings, published on September 17 in Science Advances, were hailed by reviewers as a “textbook case” for understanding the hierarchical structure and gas accretion processes in massive star formation.
Hierarchical gas kinematic structures. Starting from the upper left and moving clockwise from large to small scales: upper left -“spiral-like” system; upper right – “bar-like” structure; lower right – rotating infalling envelope; lower left – accretion disk. (Image by SHAO)
The researchers made their multiscale, high-resolution observations in the massive star-forming region IRAS 18134-1942, located about 1.25 kiloparsecs from the Sun. Their results reveal a striking layered system of gas flows: At the largest scales, multiple spiral-like streams channel material inward, shaped by the rotation and collapse of the parent cloud. These streams converge into an elongated, bar-like structure that funnels gas further toward the center. Closer in, the gas forms a rotating, collapsing envelope, and finally, within a few hundred AU, settles into an accretion disk exhibiting Keplerian rotation. This entire progression resembles a miniature barred spiral galaxy embedded within a molecular cloud.
The researchers also showed that the rate of gas transport stayed around one ten-thousandth of a solar mass per year in the “spiral” and “bar” structures but decreased to about one millionth of a solar mass per year at the disk scale. This suggests that the envelope and disk together regulate the efficiency of protostellar growth. Moreover, the rotation axis of the envelope is tilted in the opposite sense from the protostellar disk-not a true reversal of direction, but a misalignment likely caused by turbulent inflows delivering uneven angular momentum.
Schematic illustration of the “opposite tilt orientation” between the gas envelope and the protostellar disk. (Image by SHAO)
“Our results show that the internal structures of massive molecular cloud clumps are not random or chaotic, but can exhibit highly ordered, galaxy-like hierarchical patterns,” said Dr. MAI Xiaofeng of SHAO, first and corresponding author of the study. “This provides crucial observational evidence for how massive stars gather mass and form accretion disks in complex environments.”
The study is part of the international ALMA-ATOMS/QUARKS survey, which has collected multiscale data from over 140 massive star-forming regions over the past five years.
“We are now analyzing more systems with ALMA and follow-up observations, together with advanced numerical simulations, to further uncover the complete picture of massive star formation,” said Dr. LIU Tie, project leader and co-corresponding author of the study.
/Public Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) might be of the point-in-time nature, and edited for clarity, style and length. Mirage.News does not take institutional positions or sides, and all views, positions, and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s).View in full here.
India inches closer to 100% FDI in insurance sector
The Indian Ministry of Finance has recently issued a draft of the Indian Insurance Companies (Foreign Investment) Amendment Rules, 2025, which is seen as a precursor to much anticipated move of increasing the foreign direct investment (FDI) in insurance sector from 74% to 100%. This proposal is yet another step of the Indian government towards its goal of “Insurance for All” by 2047.
Background
For quite a few years, the Indian government had been working on the proposal for allowing 100% FDI in the insurance sector to improve the insurance penetration in the country, which currently rests below 5%. In order to increase this number, the government, along with the local regulator, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) came up with the vision of “Insurance for All” by 2047. While realising that insurance is a capital-intensive sector, the government identified the need of more market players to achieve this goal.
With this objective in mind, the Indian Ministry of Finance, on 26 November 2024, put its stamp of approval to the proposal of 100% FDI in the insurance sector, whereby it issued an Office Memorandum inviting comments on various proposed changes to the Insurance Act, 1938 under the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024. The main changes sought to be included in the Insurance Act, 1938 include raising the FDI limit in Indian insurance companies from 74% to 100%, and enabling an insurer to carry out one or more classes of insurance business and activities related/incidental to insurance. The move to increase the FDI limits is indeed being seen as the one to reshape India’s insurance sector through the introduction of well-capitalised foreign insurers.
The Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024 remains to be introduced in the Parliament and is likely to be put forth in the upcoming winter session (November 2025).
Further steps towards 100% FDI
While the changes to the Insurance Act, 1938 (including the increase in the FDI limit) remain to come into force, the Government has already initiated steps to introduce changes to legislations which will need to be amended in light of the proposed FDI increase, and to ensure consistency within the statutory framework.
On 29 August 2025, the Ministry of Finance (Department of Financial Services) issued draft amendments to the Indian Insurance Companies (Foreign Investment) Rules, 2015 (Amended 2015 Rules). The Indian Insurance Companies (Foreign Investment) Rules, 2015 (2015 Rules) were notified by the Central Government to regulate foreign investment in Indian insurance companies and intermediaries. The 2015 Rules were framed under the Insurance Act, 1938 and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999, setting out the framework for FDI and foreign portfolio investment (FPI) in the sector as per the applicable Foreign Exchange Management regulations.
The key amendments proposed in the Amended 2015 Rules are as follows:
The existing reference to 74% foreign investment in Indian insurance companies (contained in 2015 Rules) has been removed and the same has been substituted to allow the foreign investment up to the paid-up capital limit specified under the Insurance Act, 1938. This is to align the limits under 2015 Rules with the proposed increased limit under the Insurance Act, 1938 through the impending amendments.
Deletion of sub clause (a) and (b) along with explanation in sub-rule (1) of Rule 4 of the 2015 Rules which mandated that Indian insurance companies with foreign investment shall have majority of its directors and Key Managerial Persons (KMP) as Indian citizens. The Amended 2015 Rules have only retained the requirement of having one individual among the Chairperson, Managing Director, or Chief Executive Officer of the company as a resident Indian citizen.
Deletion of Rule 4A of 2015 Rules which mandated companies with more than 49% foreign investment to appoint 50% independent directors as part of its Board. The obligation has now been relaxed to 3 independent directors. Further, the obligation on such companies to transfer 50% of net profits to general reserves under specified conditions is also done away with.
Deletion/relaxation of various requirements imposed on insurance intermediaries with majority shareholding of foreign investors, including those related to the residency of directors/KMPs, prior approval of the regulator for repatriation of dividend, composition of the company’s board to be as per the directions of regulators, etc.
Lastly, the Amended 2015 Rules will apply to both the existing companies as well as the new entrants. This means that upon implementation, these Rules are likely to prompt the recalibration of the boards and corporate governance frameworks in the existing joint ventures as well.
The Ministry of Finance invited comments and objections from all concerned stakeholders on the Amended 2015 Rules within 15 days, after which they are to be published in the Gazette of India.
Remarks
The proposal for increase in FDI limit is being hailed as a step towards the growth of the insurance sector, as the move is likely to bring much needed capital fuel, along with global expertise and innovative products. The increased foreign participation is likely to also bring down premiums and promote healthy competition between the domestic and foreign players. The major beneficiary of this competition is going to be the consumer, including the currently unserved/underserved consumers.
The proposed changes to the Amended 2015 Rules make it clear that the government’s intent is not limited to encourage foreign investment in the insurance sector, but it extends to provide a more friendly regulatory environment to both the new foreign entrants, as well as the existing ventures with foreign investment, in terms of managerial autonomy and compliances. The Amended 2015 Rules promise a level playing field across the insurance companies in India.
Introduction of these draft rules mark a significant liberalisation of the Indian insurance sector, aimed at reducing compliance burdens for the companies with foreign investment, enhancing their operational flexibility, and consequently paving way for increased global participation through the proposed 100% FDI limit.
Authors
Sumeet Lall, Partner, CSL Chambers
Siddharth Mishra, Legal Director, CSL Chambers
Palak Rawat, Associate, CSL Chambers
**CSL Chambers, is an associated firm of Clyde & Co LLP, a Full Service Global Law Firm.
For any inquiries, please feel free to contact the authors
Lando Norris set the pace during Friday’s first practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, leading the way from McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc following a lengthy red flag.
After a two-week break, F1 cars burst back into action at the Baku City Circuit when the green light switched on at the end of the pit lane at 1230 local time – plenty of drivers quick to head out on track amid cloudy but dry weather conditions.
Both McLaren drivers received interesting radio messages in the early stages of the session, with Norris being told to return to the pits to “remove something”, which turned out to be a component cover, and Piastri being urged to “back off” and “avoid full load”.
Elsewhere, Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto proved just how slippery the track conditions were by going deep at Turn 3 and taking to the run-off, while Alex Albon lost one of the mirrors from his Williams and George Russell reported that he could smell “burning”.
Just under a quarter of the way into the session, with plenty to talk about already, an issue at Turn 16 triggered the first red flag of the weekend. Replays then showed that the incident had been caused by Williams’ Carlos Sainz running over the kerb and leaving part of it loose.
Norris had risen to the top of the timesheets just before that red flag was thrown, producing a time of 1m 43.747s on Pirelli’s soft compound tyre to comfortably lead Russell (also battling illness and “a serious amount of bottoming”), Leclerc and Max Verstappen.
After a delay that allowed marshals to repair the kerb, the session resumed with around 20 minutes remaining and drivers picked up their respective programmes – Piastri back in the cockpit thanks to McLaren mechanics seemingly rectifying his power unit problem.
Provisional pace-setter Norris continued where he left off to pump in a 1m 42.704s, putting him a full second clear of Verstappen and team mate Piastri, while Lewis Hamilton clipped the wall on the entry to Turn 5 and was forced to return to the pits with front wing damage.
As the final soft-shod laps came in, Piastri got a solid effort on the board to slot three-tenths behind Norris, with serial Azerbaijan polesitter Leclerc – who has topped the last four Qualifying sessions in the ‘Land of Fire’ – half a second adrift in third.
Russell wound up fourth in the lead Mercedes, from Albon (who thumped the wall late on) and the Red Bull cars of Yuki Tsunoda and Verstappen – the reigning four-time World Champion abandoning a lap when he ran out of road on entry to the tight Turn 15.
Sainz made it two Williams cars inside the top 10 positions, followed by the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar (the French rookie another to take to the run-off in the closing stages), and the Silver Arrows machine of Kimi Antonelli.
Sauber duo Nico Hulkenberg and Bortoleto sandwiched Hamilton’s Ferrari in positions 12 to 14, from the Aston Martin and Haas drivers (Fernando Alonso just ahead of Ollie Bearman, Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon), as Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly brought up the rear for Alpine.
Drivers and teams will now regroup in the Baku paddock to dig through the data and ponder any changes before returning to the track for second practice – that session due to get under way at 1600 local time.
New research from the Generation R study suggests that what mothers eat and what supplements they take during pregnancy could have lasting effects on children’s brain structure and behavior, offering some clues to reducing ADHD and autism traits.
Study: Prenatal Vitamin D, Multivitamin, and Folic Acid Supplementation and Brain Structure in Children with ADHD and ASD Traits: The Generation R Study. Image credit: Nemer-T/Shutterstock.com
Proper prenatal vitamin supplementation, especially folic acid, vitamin D, and multivitamins, could partially prevent neurodevelopmental outcomes in children. A recent study in Nutrients explores how vitamin supplementation in pregnancy and overall diet quality relate to brain structure and traits of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the offspring.
Introduction
The mother’s diet fundamentally affects brain development in the offspring. Folic acid and vitamin D supplements are central to neurodevelopment and may reduce the risk of anxiety and depression in the offspring.
Lower availability of vitamins in critical prenatal periods may increase the risk of ASD and ADHD. Earlier large cohort and meta-analysis studies reported a reduction in ASD risk of roughly 30-50% among children of mothers who took folic acid or multivitamin supplements. Similar findings have been reported in other cohorts, particularly among children with a high familial risk of ASD.
Still, evidence on how vitamin supplementation and overall diet are related to brain development, and how these factors may be linked to ASD or ADHD traits, remains limited. The current study’s authors investigated how maternal vitamin D, folic acid, multivitamin levels, and diet influence children’s brain structure, which could partly explain later behavioral traits.
About the study
The study included 3,937 children aged 9-11, from the Generation R cohort in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Maternal dietary quality, vitamin D and folate serum levels, and supplement intake were assessed during pregnancy, along with a history of supplement intake.
The children were assessed by T1 structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to measure cortical and subcortical brain volumes. Their parents filled out questionnaires to help identify ADHD traits at about age 9–10 and ASD traits at about age 13.
Study findings
Multivitamin supplementation was marginally associated with fewer ADHD traits in the offspring. Higher vitamin D levels during pregnancy were associated with children who later showed fewer ASD traits. At the same time, better dietary quality was associated with lower ADHD traits and, more modestly, lower ASD traits, respectively.
Vitamin D and better diet quality were associated with differences in brain volumes, but not always in the same direction: they were linked to larger temporal/parietal volumes and smaller frontal-temporal volumes, and higher diet quality was also linked to larger subcortical volumes.
These changes in temporal and parietal brain volumes were, in turn, associated with fewer traits of either ASD or ADHD. Children with increased subcortical volumes were more likely to have ASD/ADHD traits, however.
Mediation analyses showed that larger temporal and parietal brain volumes in the offspring were partly protective against the occurrence of ADHD, in response to changes in vitamin D levels, multivitamins, and overall dietary quality. With ASD traits, only multivitamin supplementation showed an indirect and minimal effect, partly via changes in frontal-temporal brain volumes, while no direct effect of multivitamins on ASD traits was found.
In this study, the differences were small in all cases. Still, they persisted despite adjusting for the effect of smoking or drinking during pregnancy and the mother’s socioeconomic and educational status. This underlines the importance of the mother’s diet in the offspring’s brain development.
The weak effects warrant further research to determine whether they provide valid evidence for preventive supplementation or dietary recommendations.
The lack of folate-associated effects could be because most women already had good folate supplementation. The authors note that folate levels may have reached a ceiling in this Dutch cohort, limiting detectable associations. Moreover, this observational design means the effects cannot be tracked based on the observed dietary intake or vitamin supplementation differences.
Conclusions
This large population-based study indicates that children whose mothers took multivitamin supplements in pregnancy had slightly lower ADHD scores. Again, mothers who took vitamin D had children with lower ASD scores. Higher dietary quality in pregnancy is associated with lower scores for both conditions.
Associations with brain volumes were mixed. Vitamin D, multivitamin use, and dietary quality are indirectly responsible for the decreased ADHD risk via the associated increase in temporal/parietal brain volume.
Multivitamin use affects ASD traits indirectly via frontal-temporal brain volume, but only minimally. Overall, these factors explained less than 2% of the variation in ASD and ADHD traits, underlining how limited the effects were.
However, the clinical relevance of these findings is doubtful and pending further research. Still, they agree with earlier studies and are biologically plausible. Future research should confirm these results in larger sample groups, focusing on how multivitamins and vitamin D protect against neurodevelopmental disorders.
Dogecoin and Ripple ETFs are off to a flying start | Credit: Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images.
Key Takeaways
The newly launched Ripple ETF has seen the largest day-one trading volume of any ETF launched this year.
The Dogecoin ETF ranks in the top 5 launches for the year.
Price action has been muted, likely because XRPR and DOJE aren’t spot ETFs.
The newly launched Ripple (XRP) and Dogecoin (DOGE) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded a combined $54.7 million on their first day of launch.
Yet their underlying tokens showed little reaction, with both continuing to move sideways.
REX-Osprey’s newly launched Ripple ETF XRPR recorded $37.7 million during its first day of trading, which, according to Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas, makes it the largest day one volume for ETFs in 2025.
Furthermore, he notes that XRPR tallied $24 million in volumes within its first 90 minutes of trading.
He added that this was five times larger than any of the XRP futures ETFs on their first day. Balchunas explains this was larger than he’d expected.
Similarly, the analyst was surprised by the REX-Osprey ETF, DOJE, which notched $17 million in volume traded on day one.
He’d anticipated around $2.5 million, “nothing too special”, and had his predictions “destroyed” in the first hour of trading, during which DOJE had almost clocked $6 million in volume.
For traders and investors hoping these ETFs would become a springboard for the price of XRP and DOGE just as they were for Bitcoin and Ethereum, there’s been some dissapointment.
At present, XRP is trading down 1.82% in the past 24 hours at $3.04, and down 0.5% for the week.
Similarly, DOGE is down 1.97% at $0.27, though conversely, it’s trading up 6.13% for the week.
Things are different this time around.
These two ETFs aren’t spot ETFs. They don’t hold the underlying digital assets directly.
This is because they took a different application route, using the Investment Company Act of 1940, as opposed to the Securities Act of 1933, the latter of which BTC and ETH ETFs were launched with.
The 1940 Act can fast-track the approval window, but it comes with some caveats, namely, in what the ETF is allowed to hold.
These ETFs cannot hold a single asset. For example. XRPR comprises 80% of net assets in instruments that provide exposure to XRP.
More specifically, XRPR invests in a Cayman Island subsidiary that acquires XRP tokens, and it also purchases shares in foreign ETPs that track XRP.
The same can be said for Dogecoin’s DOJE. This is likely the reason that markets have barely responded to the news, they’re not ‘true’ spot ETFs.
That said, there’s plenty of other spot XRP, DOGE, and other altcoin ETFs piling up, and many are expected to launch this year.
The post Dogecoin and XRP ETF See Record $54.7M Volume but Prices Hold Flat appeared first on ccn.com.
In the latest episode of violence in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, at least 11 persons have been killed in two bomb blasts, including three soldiers.
In the latest episode of violence in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, officials on Friday told AFP that at least 11 people have been killed in two bombings.
For decades, as part of the Baloch self-determination movement against what they call unjust Pakistani occupation, armed Baloch groups have waged an insurgency against the Pakistani rule and there have been frequent clashes between these groups and regime forces.
In the first instance, a suicide bomber on Thursday drove an explosive-laden car into a convoy of paramilitary soldiers in the province’s Dasht town near the border with Iran. Two local government officials said three soldiers were among the five persons killed.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
The attack was claimed by Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the leading Baloch group waging the armed movement against the Pakistani rule over Balochistan.
In the second instance, a blast near a border crossing with Afghanistan killed six labourers on Thursday.
ALSO READ —
Pakistan’s proxy war against Baloch people: ISKP’s threats and militarisation of Balochistan
Lately,
violence has surged in Balochistan as the anger against Pakistan and increasing Chinese presence in the province has continued to rise. Last month, in one attack,
at least nine soldiers, including an army captain, were killed. Earlier that month, dozens of fighters launched simultaneous attacks on Pakistani security personnel in various parts of the province and killed at least eight security personnel.
Other than Baloch groups, jihadist groups like the Islamic State have also entered the fray — the Islamic State claimed a suicide bombing in Balochistan’s capital, Quetta, earlier this month in which 15 people were killed.
For decades, Baloch groups waged a movement —including an armed movement— against what they call illegitimate rule by Pakistan over their homeland. Pakistan has responded to the Baloch movement with systematic violence and repression, which has involved
forced disappearances and killings of thousands of people activists, critics, and dissidents over the decades. Pakistan has also been linked to deaths of dissidents waging the movement from exile.
