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**Analysts Interpret Trump 2.0 Nominee Cabinet: Policy Implementation Likely to Proceed More Smoothly**UNITY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The search for a woman who is believed to have fallen into a sinkhole in western Pennsylvania shifted to a recovery effort after two treacherous days of digging through mud and rock produced no signs of life, authorities said Wednesday. Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson Trooper Steve Limani said during a news conference that authorities no longer believe they will find 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard alive, but the search for her remains continues. “We’ve had no signs of any form of life or anything” to make rescuers think they should “continue to try and push and rush and push the envelope, to be aggressive with the potential of risking harm to other people,” Limani said. He noted oxygen levels below ground were insufficient. Emergency crews and others have tried to locate Pollard for two days. Her relatives reported her missing early Tuesday and her vehicle with her unharmed 5-year-old granddaughter inside was found about two hours later, near the sinkhole above a long closed, crumbling mine. Rescue workers continue to search for Elizabeth Pollard, who is believed to have disappeared in a sinkhole while looking for her cat, Wednesday in Marguerite, Pa. “We feel like we failed,” Limani said of the decision to change the status of the effort from a rescue to a recovery. “It’s tough.” Limani praised the crews who went into the abandoned mine to help remove material in the search for Pollard in the village of Marguerite, about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh.. “They would come out of there head to toe covered in mud, exhausted. And while they were getting pulled up, the next group’s getting dropped in. And there was one after the next after the next,” Limani said. Authorities said earlier that the roof of the mine collapsed in several places and was not stable. “We did get, you know, where we wanted, where we thought that she was at. We’ve been to that spot," Pleasant Unity Fire Chief John Bacha, the incident's operations officer, said earlier Wednesday. “What happened at that point, I don’t know, maybe the slurry of mud pushed her one direction. There were several different seams of that mine, shafts that all came together where this happened at.” Searchers used electronic devices and cameras as surface digging continued with the use of heavy equipment, Bacha said. In coming days, they plan to greatly widen the surface hole, with winter weather forecast in the region. Rescue workers search through the night in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, Tuesday in Marguerite, Pa. Sinkholes occur in the area because of subsidence from coal mining activity. Rescuers used water to break down and remove clay and dirt from the mine, which has been closed since the 1950s. Pollard's family called police about 1 a.m. Tuesday to say she had not been seen since going out at about 5 p.m. Monday to search for Pepper, her cat. The temperature dropped well below freezing that night. Limani said the searchers met with her family before announcing the shift from rescue to recovery. The top of a sinkhole is seen Tuesday in the village of Marguerite, Pa., where rescuers searched for a woman who disappeared. Police said they found Pollard's car parked behind Monday's Union Restaurant in Marguerite, about 20 feet from the sinkhole. Hunters and restaurant workers in the area said they had not noticed the manhole-size opening in the hours before Pollard disappeared, leading rescuers to speculate the sinkhole was new. Pollard lived in a small neighborhood across the street from where her car and granddaughter were found by state police. It's unclear what happened to the cat. In an era of rapid technological advancement and environmental change, American agriculture is undergoing a revolution that reaches far beyond the farm gate. From the food on consumer plates to the economic health of rural communities, the transformation of U.S. farming practices is reshaping the nation's landscape in ways both visible and hidden. LandTrust explores how these changes impact everyone, whether they live in the heartland or the heart of the city. The image of the small family farm, while still a reality for many, is increasingly giving way to larger, more technologically advanced operations. According to the USDA, the number of farms in the U.S. has fallen from 6.8 million in 1935 to about 2 million today, with the average farm size growing from 155 acres to 444 acres. This shift has profound implications for rural communities and the food system as a whole. Despite these changes, diversity in farming practices is on the rise. A landmark study published in Science , involving data from over 2,000 farms across 11 countries, found that diversifying farmland simultaneously delivers environmental and social benefits. This challenges the longstanding idea that practices boosting biodiversity must come at a cost to yields and food security. The adoption of precision agriculture technologies is transforming how farmers manage their land and resources. GPS-guided tractors, drone surveillance, and AI-powered crop management systems are becoming commonplace on many farms. These technologies allow farmers to apply water, fertilizers, and pesticides with pinpoint accuracy, reducing waste and environmental impact while improving yields. However, the digital divide remains a challenge. More than 22% of rural communities lack reliable broadband internet access, hindering the widespread implementation of AI and other advanced technologies in agriculture. While technology offers new opportunities, farmers are also facing significant economic challenges. The USDA's 2024 farm income forecast projects a 4.4% decline in net farm income from 2023, following a sharp 19.5% drop from 2022 to 2023. This financial pressure is compounded by rising production costs and market volatility. Climate variability adds another layer of complexity. Extreme weather events, changing precipitation patterns, and shifting growing seasons are forcing farmers to adapt quickly. These factors could reduce agricultural productivity by up to 25% over the coming decades without significant adaptation measures. But adapting requires additional financial resources, further straining farm profitability. In the face of these challenges, many farmers are turning to diversification as a strategy for resilience and profitability. The Science study mentioned earlier found that farms integrating several diversification methods supported more biodiversity while seeing simultaneous increases in human well-being and food security. Agritourism is one popular diversification strategy. In 2022, 28,600 U.S. farms reported agritourism income, averaging gross revenue of $44,000 from these activities. Activities like farm tours, pick-your-own operations, and seasonal festivals not only provide additional income but also foster a deeper connection between consumers and agriculture. The changing face of agriculture is directly impacting consumers. The rise of farm-to-table and local food movements reflects a growing interest in where our food comes from and how it's produced. If every U.S. household spent just $10 per week on locally grown food, it would generate billions of dollars for local economies. However, the larger challenges in agriculture can also lead to price fluctuations at the grocery store. The USDA's Economic Research Service projects that food-at-home prices will increase between 1.2% and 2.2% in 2024. Looking ahead, several innovations are poised to reshape agriculture: The transformation of American agriculture affects everyone, from the food we eat to the health of our environment and rural communities. Consumers have the power to support sustainable and diverse farming practices through our purchasing decisions. As citizens, they can advocate for policies that support farmers in adopting innovative and sustainable practices. The challenges facing agriculture are complex, but they also present opportunities for innovation and positive change. By understanding and engaging with these issues, everyone can play a part in shaping a more resilient, sustainable, and equitable food system for the future. This story was produced by LandTrust and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Viant Technology (NASDAQ:DSP) Shares Down 5.5% – Here’s Why

In the men's singles category, Chinese players have been a force to be reckoned with for decades. Led by the legendary Ma Long and Fan Zhendong, the Chinese men's singles players have consistently showcased their exceptional talent and skill on the global stage. With a combination of lightning-fast reflexes, impeccable technique, and unwavering determination, Chinese players have dominated the men's singles category, earning the coveted top spots in the world rankings.Trump “takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute”, according to the submission. “Instead, he respectfully requests that the court consider staying the act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case.” This would permit permit the “incoming administration the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case”, it added. Trump’s brief noted that he officially returns to the White House a day after the law banning TikTok takes effect, calling it “unfortunate timing” that “interferes” with the president-elect’s “ability to manage the United States’ foreign policy and to pursue a resolution to both protect national security and save a social-media platform that provides a popular vehicle for 170 million Americans to exercise their core First Amendment rights”. The filing further stated that Trump “has a particularly powerful interest in and responsibility for those national-security and foreign-policy questions” and that “he is the right constitutional actor to resolve the dispute through political means”. It asserted Trump “alone possesses the consummate deal-making expertise, the electoral mandate and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national-security concerns”.

In conclusion, the 0.2-point increase in the SME Development Index in November is a positive indicator of the growing strength and resilience of small and medium-sized enterprises in China. With continued support, innovation, and entrepreneurship, SMEs are well-positioned to drive economic growth, create employment opportunities, and lead China towards a more prosperous and sustainable future.The Nintendo Alarm Clock, with its sleek design and nostalgic charm, quickly captured the hearts of gamers and Nintendo enthusiasts alike. Featuring classic Nintendo characters and iconic sound effects, the alarm clock promised to not only wake you up in style but also transport you back to the golden age of gaming every morning.In the Women's Doubles division, China once again asserted its dominance with the pairing of Wang Manyu and Sun Yingsha claiming the coveted World No.1 position. Wang Manyu and Sun Yingsha's exceptional partnership, strategic brilliance, and unwavering determination have propelled them to the zenith of success, solidifying China's unparalleled reign in the world of table tennis.

Word count: 534As more and more people flocked to the websites hosting Sora, the servers began to strain under the weight of the traffic. Users waited eagerly in virtual queues, hoping for a chance to interact with the AI model and experience its capabilities firsthand. The sheer volume of visitors caused some sites to crash temporarily, prompting a frenzy of tweets and messages lamenting the temporary loss of access.

Campus cameras showed a gay student leaving his Ole Miss apartment the day he disappearedIt looked like a recipe for disaster. So, when his country's swimmers were being accused of doping earlier this year, one Chinese official cooked up something fast. He blamed it on contaminated noodles. In fact, he argued, it could have been a culinary conspiracy concocted by criminals, whose actions led to the cooking wine used to prepare the noodles being laced with a banned heart drug that found its way into an athlete's system. This theory was spelled out to international anti-doping officials during a meeting and, after weeks of wrangling, finally made it into the thousands of pages of data handed over to the lawyer who investigated the case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for that same drug. The attorney, appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, refused to consider that scenario as he sifted through the evidence. In spelling out his reasoning, lawyer Eric Cottier paid heed to the half-baked nature of the theory. "The Investigator considers this scenario, which he has described in the conditional tense, to be possible, no less, no more," Cottier wrote. Even without the contaminated-noodles theory, Cottier found problems with the way WADA and the Chinese handled the case but ultimately determined WADA had acted reasonably in not appealing China's conclusion that its athletes had been inadvertently contaminated. Critics of the way the China case was handled can't help but wonder if a wider exploration of the noodle theory, details of which were discovered by The Associated Press via notes and emails from after the meeting where it was delivered, might have lent a different flavor to Cottier's conclusions. "There are more story twists to the ways the Chinese explain the TMZ case than a James Bond movie," said Rob Koehler, the director general of the advocacy group Global Athlete. "And all of it is complete fiction." In April, reporting from the New York Times and the German broadcaster ARD revealed that the 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine, also known as TMZ. China's anti-doping agency determined the athletes had been contaminated, and so, did not sanction them. WADA accepted that explanation, did not press the case further, and China was never made to deliver a public notice about the "no-fault findings," as is often seen in similar cases. The stock explanation for the contamination was that traces of TMZ were found in the kitchen of a hotel where the swimmers were staying. In his 58-page report, Cottier relayed some suspicions about the feasibility of that chain of events — noting that WADA's chief scientist "saw no other solution than to accept it, even if he continued to have doubts about the reality of contamination as described by the Chinese authorities." But without evidence to support pursuing the case, and with the chance of winning an appeal at almost nil, Cottier determined WADA's "decision not to appeal appears indisputably reasonable." A mystery remained: How did those traces of TMZ get into the kitchen? Shortly after the doping positives were revealed, the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations held a meeting on April 30 where it heard from the leader of China's agency, Li Zhiquan. Li's presentation was mostly filled with the same talking points that have been delivered throughout the saga — that the positive tests resulted from contamination from the kitchen. But he expanded on one way the kitchen might have become contaminated, harkening to another case in China involving a low-level TMZ positive. A pharmaceutical factory, he explained, had used industrial alcohol in the distillation process for producing TMZ. The industrial alcohol laced with the drug "then entered the market through illegal channels," he said. The alcohol "was re-used by the perpetrators to process and produce cooking wine, which is an important seasoning used locally to make beef noodles," Li said. "The contaminated beef noodles were consumed by that athlete, resulting in an extremely low concentration of TMZ in the positive sample. "The wrongdoers involved have been brought to justice." This new information raised eyebrows among the anti-doping leaders listening to Li's report. So much so that over the next month, several emails ensued to make sure the details about the noodles and wine made their way to WADA lawyers, who could then pass it onto Cottier. Eventually, Li did pass on the information to WADA general counsel Ross Wenzel and, just to be sure, one of the anti-doping leaders forwarded it, as well, according to the emails seen by the AP. All this came with Li's request that the noodles story be kept confidential. Turns out, it made it into Cottier's report, though he took the information with a grain of salt. "Indeed, giving it more attention would have required it to be documented, then scientifically verified and validated," he wrote. Neither Wenzel nor officials at the Chinese anti-doping agency returned messages from AP asking about the noodles conspiracy and the other athlete who Li suggested had been contaminated by them. Meanwhile, 11 of the swimmers who originally tested positive competed at the Paris Games earlier this year in a meet held under the cloud of the Chinese doping case. Though WADA considers the case closed, Koehler and others point to situations like this as one of many reasons that an investigation by someone other than Cottier, who was hired by WADA, is still needed. "It gives the appearance that people are just making things up as they go along on this, and hoping the story just goes away," Koehler said. "Which clearly it has not." Get local news delivered to your inbox!Microsoft Introduces Groundbreaking Zero Water Vapor Data Center Design: Saving Over 1.25 Billion Liters of Water per Facility Every Year

The review process for the language-themed programs will be rigorous and thorough, ensuring that each performance meets the high standards of the Spring Festival Gala. The programs will be judged on criteria such as linguistic accuracy, cultural authenticity, and entertainment value, among others. Only the most outstanding and captivating programs will be selected to be featured in the Gala.

Kiyan Anthony, with his parents, Carmelo Anthony and La La Anthony, announced his intention to play basketball for Syracuse University at a private event in the Red Hook neighborhood in Brooklyn Friday, November 15, 2024. On the far right is former professional basketball player Lenny Cooke. (N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com) N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com Trish LaMonte | tlamonte@syracuse.com Dear reader, Last Friday night was an exciting one for Syracuse University basketball fans as Carmelo Anthony’s son, Kiyan, announced his decision to play for the Orange next year. Syracuse.com | Post-Standard reporter Mike Waters and videographer Scott Trimble were the only local journalists at Kiyan’s celebration in Brooklyn. Mike covered Melo during his national championship run with Syracuse in 2002-03 and convinced the future hall of famer to participate in our groundbreaking documentary on that team, “ Will to Win .” Twenty years later, Mike reported on the recruitment of Melo’s son. Along the way, he told Kiyan he wanted to cover his announcement. “I also tried to get word to Carmelo through some mutual acquaintances,” Mike said. “When it was announced that Kiyan would reveal his decision on his father’s podcast, I really thought I might be out of luck. But two days before the podcast was set to air, Kiyan sent me a text and said to come down to Brooklyn to his reveal party.” Mike said the celebration, held in a renovated warehouse space in Brooklyn after Kiyan’s announcement on Carmelo’s “7pm in Brooklyn” podcast, had a graduation party feel to it, with many of Kiyan’s close friends and relatives in attendance. “Right after Kiyan told the guests that he had decided to attend Syracuse, staffers pulled back a large black curtain to reveal another large room with Syracuse decorations. There were orange and blue balloons, a Carmelo Anthony Syracuse jersey, Syracuse banners, more balloons that spelled out Syracuse. It was Carmelo and La La’s surprise for their son,” Mike said. As you might expect, Mike says the event was an emotional one for Carmelo. “Carmelo choked up (twice) while addressing the guests and talking about Kiyan’s recruitment and the whole process,” he said. As a four-star recruit and top 40 prospect, Kiyan’s commitment to Syracuse is significant, but Mike believes it will be important for the program off the court, too. RECOMMENDED • syracuse .com What record did JJ Starling set in Syracuse’s 2OT win over Youngstown State? (Mike’s Mailbox) Nov. 21, 2024, 8:00 a.m. JJ Starling, Eddie Lampkin rescue Syracuse in win over Youngstown State (Donna Ditota’s Quick Hits) Nov. 16, 2024, 3:54 p.m. “His name and profile are huge. I think he will attract other recruits. I think he’ll inject some excitement into the program. Fans are going to want to see the son of Carmelo Anthony when he suits up for the Orange,” Mike said. “And Kiyan’s decision means we’ll see more of Carmelo Anthony at SU games and in the community. At the party, Carmelo told me that he plans to be much more involved in SU athletics and in the Syracuse community. I know he’s got some business projects in the works and I also think the SU athletic department would love to have him promote their NIL efforts.” If it all goes well, maybe Mike will get another chance to cover an Anthony make a run at the Final Four with Syracuse. If you missed it, you can read all about Kiyan’s celebration and see photos and videos here . Mike was also on Brent Axe’s podcast this week talking about the significance of the commitment.

In a thrilling showcase of strength and determination, the weightlifting world witnessed a historic moment at 12:13 when the North Korean women's team snatched the lead, redefining the landscape of the sport. The competition between weightlifting powerhouses North Korea and China has reached a fever pitch, with a riveting showdown at its peak.The holidays are a time of getting together with family -- and fixing their technology. As the duly-appointed nerd in my family, I find it helpful when we're together to make sure iPhone updates like the latest iOS 18.2 are installed on on everyone's devices. Not just for security (though that is a big part), but to set them up with all the new features that have come out over the past several months, such as Apple Intelligence tools such as Genmoji and Image Wand , new text formatting in Messages , changes to the Maps app and more. But where to start? Right here: I've put together my list of eight features and settings you should change right now, including some of the top-tier features and a few that fly under the radar. If you have an iPhone that runs Apple Intelligence , be sure to check out the features you're going to use most . (Or if you have no interest in them, learn how to turn off Apple Intelligence .) For more on what's new in iOS 18 , learn about improvements to the overhauled Calculator app and the Mail app. Don't forget to consult the iOS 18 upgrade checklist , which includes making sure you have a proper backup before upgrading. Change the default buttons on the lock screen In real estate, location is everything, and the bottom corners of the iPhone lock screen are the prime spots, each an easy thumb press away when your device is still locked. Before iOS 18, those posts were held by the flashlight and camera buttons, with no way to change them. In iOS 18, you can finally replace them with other buttons -- or remove them entirely, a balm for folks who unknowingly activate the flashlight (believe me, there's a better way to turn it on ). You can add buttons to recognize music via Shazam, enable Dark Mode, set an alarm/timer, enable Airplane Mode, open your Wallet, send money via Tap to Cash and more. Here's how: 1. On the iPhone's lock screen, touch and hold anywhere on the display until you see the Customize button. You'll need to unlock the phone using Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. If it opens the home screen, swipe down from the center-top of the screen (not the right edge, which brings up Control Center. 2. Tap Customize and then choose Lock Screen . 3. Remove one of the buttons by tapping the – (minus) button on the icon. 4. To replace the button with another function, tap its space (now with a + icon) and then choose the one you want on the next screen. (You can also opt to leave that space empty with no button.) 5. Repeat those steps for the other button if you want to change it. 6. Tap Done when you're finished. 7. Tap the lock screen again to exit the customize mode. Remove a lock screen button by tapping the – (minus) button, and then choose a new control to replace it. Set up some of the new tasks available on the Action button The Action button on the iPhone 15 Pro , iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro replaced the dedicated mute switch found on every earlier iPhone model with a configurable control. By default it serves the same purpose -- hold it to turn Silent Mode on or off -- but you can configure it for other actions like opening the Camera app, performing multiple actions at once or even ordering coffee . In iOS 18, the Action button gets new capabilities. You can bypass Control Center and choose a control of your choice, such as opening the Remote interface for navigating Apple TV or using Shazam to identify a song. To choose a different action for the Action button, go to Settings > Action Button . Swipe sideways to select and activate one of the available actions. For the Controls, Shortcut and Accessibility options, tap the Choose button to pick which specific action to run. iOS 18 now lets you program the Action Button with your favorite Control Center control. Give your home screen a radical new look You wouldn't think that putting icons where you want is a radical new feature, but that's because iOS has always had a locked arrangement. Apps get added from top to bottom, left to right. You could rearrange the order in which icons appear and move them to other screens, but that was about it. In iOS 18, apps can be positioned nearly anywhere. You no longer need to deal with a wallpaper image of your kids or pets being obscured by icons. They still adhere to a grid -- Apple isn't about to sanction anarchy -- but can be placed freely. Also, Dark mode finally applies to all of the iPhone's home screen, with options for coloring icons and affecting the brightness of the wallpaper image. Here's how to customize the looks. Arrange apps: Touch and hold the home screen to enter "jiggle mode," and then drag the icons to new positions. It will still slide them around to fill spaces, but with patience, you can move them into the spots you want. Position app icons where you want so this very good girl isn't covered. You can also quickly turn compatible apps into widgets that display more information. Maps, for instance, can be a map of your current location with shortcut buttons to search for places or bring up a list of nearby places (such as dinner spots). Touch and hold the app icon and look for a row of resize buttons in the menu that appears. Once expanded beyond the standard icon size, you can drag the handle in the bottom-right corner of the new icon. To get it back to its single icon size you need to touch and hold again and choose the single-icon button Some apps can be expanded into larger icons that act like widgets. Set Dark mode: If you've ever subjected yourself to the retina blast of black text on a white background late at night in a darkened room, you will appreciate the new Dark mode option for the home and lock screens. iOS has previously included a Dark mode, where light backgrounds switch to black or dark gray, text switches to white or light gray and other interface elements are dimmed to coexist in a dark environment. That's never been applied to the home and lock screens in any significant way -- only the dock and some widgets -- until iOS 18. First, touch and hold the home screen to enter jiggle mode. Tap the Edit button in the top-left corner and choose Customize from the menu. At the bottom of the screen, choose a mode for the icons and background: Automatic , Dark or Light (I'll get to Tinted in a moment). In Dark mode, the icons gain black backgrounds, and folders and the Dock become dark gray. (Developers have the option of making Dark mode icons for their apps. In the meantime, apps not yet optimized get a generally darker appearance.) In the home screen's Dark mode, icons and the background are given a darker treatment. In Dark mode, the background image also changes. Apple's default iOS 18 wallpaper dynamically changes from light to dark as the day progresses, or you can choose colors that offer both a light and dark option. If you use a photo, its overall exposure is reduced to dim the light output. If you want dark icons but aren't a fan of the dimmed photo treatment, tap the sun icon in the corner of the options sheet at the bottom of the screen to toggle back to Light mode just for the background. Tinted icons: A new and different option is to tint all of the app icons so they share the same color. In the Customize options at the bottom of the screen, choose Tinted as the icon style. You can then adjust the Hue (the slider with the color spectrum) and Luminosity (the slider with the dark to light range) to choose the color tint you prefer. Apply a universal tint to all app icons, with controls for adjusting the hue and luminosity. What if you want to match a color from a background image? Tap the eyedropper button and then drag the reticle to pinpoint the color you want -- the border indicates the selected color. The tint is applied not only to icons but to widgets as well. For a widget such as Photos, the images it displays show up as duotones to match the theme. Large icons: Do the labels below each app icon seem redundant to you? Now you can remove the labels and increase the size of the icons with one setting. Open the Customize options as described above and tap the Large button. Make the home screen icons larger and hide the app labels. After making any of these changes, tap anywhere on the screen to apply them and exit the Customize interface. Change up how the Control Center looks Control Center was once a convenient place to quickly access controls such as playback volume and Airplane mode, but under iOS 18 it's a configurable playground. You can position controls where you want, resize many to reveal more information and add new controls on multiple screens. Swipe down from the top-right corner to reveal the Control Center (or swipe up from the bottom on the iPhone SE). To enter edit mode, touch and hold or press the + button at the top-left corner. Just as with moving apps, drag a control to another slot on the screen to reposition it. Many of the controls also include a bottom-right handle that can resize the control -- in most cases, it reveals the name of the control and its current status (such as Flashlight Off ). Rearrange the controls in Control Center and, for some, expand them to reveal more information (or just make the button a larger target for pressing). Control Center also now spans multiple screens. Swipe up to view controls for media currently playing, Home controls for smart lights and appliances and a page dedicated to the communication options that appear when you long-press the Connectivity block containing Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Cellular and others. Look closely and you'll see that those screens are actually individual controls expanded to occupy the entire Control Center area. You can rearrange the order of those screens by moving their controls. Suppose you want Home controls to be the first swipe instead of Now Playing: In the editing mode, drag the large Home control up to the previous screen (Now Playing will shift to the right to make room). Some controls get their own screens, such as Home. Normally it's on the third screen, but here it's been moved to the second screen. To remove controls, tap the – (minus) button that appears. You can also add other controls: Tap Add a Control and scroll through the available options ranging from starting a Screen Recording to a host of accessibility options. Read more : Best iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro cases Lock or hide any of your sensitive apps Our phones carry some of our most sensitive data, and yet it's not uncommon to hand a phone to a friend to view photos or look up something online. That doesn't mean they're going to snoop, but it doesn't not mean they might be more curious than you're comfortable with. For data you want to ensure stays out of sight or to add a layer of protection in front of sensitive information, iOS 18 adds the ability to lock and hide apps. For example, let's say you keep an ongoing set of lists of gift ideas for family members in the Notes app. You can lock individual notes, but that requires a separate step. Maybe a few ideas were made as individual quick notes or drawings. Instead of micromanaging access, you can lock the entire Notes app by doing the following: Touch and hold the app icon you want to lock and choose Require Face ID or Require Touch ID (or Require Passcode if Face ID or Touch ID are not enabled) from the menu that appears. Confirm your choice by tapping Require Face ID (or similar) in the next dialog. Lock individual apps. To remove the authentication step, touch and hold the app and choose Don't Require Face ID (or similar). Nothing outwardly indicates that an app is locked -- you'll find out when you try to open it. There's one more level of app security available, which is to hide apps in a special locked folder. Touch and hold the app and choose Require Face ID and then tap Hide and Require Face ID in the dialog. Confirm the action by tapping Hide App on the next screen. The app disappears from the home screen and gets slotted into a Hidden folder at the bottom of the App Library (swipe left beyond your last home screen to view the App Library). To access apps there, tap the Hidden folder and authenticate with Face ID. When you choose Hide and Require Face ID to protect an app, it gets put into the Hidden folder in App Library (top). Tap the folder and authenticate to access the app (bottom). iOS 18 imposes some limitations on hidden apps. Some, such as many of the built-in ones like Notes or Reminders, can only be locked and cannot be hidden at all. Also, the Hidden folder locks itself when you launch an app or swipe away from the App Library. Turn off Loop Videos in the Photos app Many apps have implemented a small but annoying (to me) feature, and now Photos under iOS 18.2 has it too: Videos automatically replay when you watch them until you tap the Pause button. That can be fun once or twice, or when viewing short clips. I'm not a fan of having to take action to make them stop each time. Now I can take action once. Go to Settings > Photos , scroll down until you see Loop Videos and turn the option off. A video will play on its own but then stop at the end as it should. Turn off Loop Videos to stop every video from replaying automatically. If you'd rather the video didn't play at all until you tap the Play button, also turn off Auto-Play Motion in the same Settings screen. Adjust the view of your calendar Big new features like locking and hiding apps are great additions but so are the tiny changes that you encounter every day. The Calendar app includes two new ways to view your schedule. In iOS 18, when you're in the Month view in portrait orientation, pinch with two fingers to view more or fewer details. As you "zoom in," individual events appear as colored bars and then as labeled events with times, all while keeping the monthly grid of days and weeks. In the Calendar app's Month view, pinch to zoom in and see more details. The Day view, which breaks down your day hour by hour, now has a new Multi Day view that shows two consecutive days to give you context for what's coming without turning the phone into landscape orientation and viewing the Week view. Tap the View button at the top of the Single Day view and choose Multi Day from the popup menu. The new Multi Day view in the Calendar shows two days at once (right). Improve movie and TV show dialogue in the TV app Trouble hearing dialogue in movies and television shows isn't a new problem -- for example, the Apple TV has had a feature for a while where you can ask Siri, "What did she say?" and it will automatically back up a few seconds, turn on subtitles and replay that section of the video. You can even buy soundbars that can overcome muffled TV speech . There are a lot of reasons it's harder to hear dialogue, but the TV app in iOS 18 includes a high-tech workaround to make dialog easier to discern. While you're watching a video in the TV app, tap the More ( ... ) button and then expand the Audio heading in the menu that appears; if the phone is in horizontal orientation, tap the Audio Adjustments button. Tap Enhance Dialogue and choose Enhance or Boost . They each dampen background noise and raise the dialogue's audio. Turn on Enhance Dialogue in the TV app to discern characters' speech better in noisy scenes. These are just a few new features and changes in iOS 18. Check out our broader coverage of Apple Intelligence , more impressions of the system after using it for months and how these all work together with the iPhone 16 models .