Liquid Glass is one of Apple’s more contentious design choices in recent memory. Some love its transparent surfaces and light refractions, while others hate its readability. Over the last year, Apple slowly rolled out ways to tone down the glassy look, and thanks to iOS 27, now you can almost get rid of it entirely.

I wasn’t a fan of Liquid Glass when it showed up in Apple’s operating systems last year. The glassy panels made text hard to read, and the light refractions around app icons and buttons cheapened the refined look of Apple’s mobile platform. Even a year later, I still don’t love it.

Instead of forcing a binary choice between clear and tinted surfaces, there is now a whole spectrum of options.

I wasn’t alone either. There was plenty of blowback online to the point that Apple caved and added a “tinted” surface option alongside the default “clear” aesthetic in iOS 26.1 that turned down the glassy appearance of its new design language. I enabled that the moment it was available and never looked back.

Now that iOS 27 is officially here, a quick dig through the settings shows that Apple has capitulated even further — or rather, it has given users the rare chance to customize the design language of their iPhone as they see fit. Instead of forcing a binary choice between clear and tinted surfaces, there is now a whole spectrum of options, thanks to a new Liquid Glass slider that lets you choose the level of glassy liquidity you want in your iPhone.

RELATED: The latest iPhone security threat has a nasty fix

Moor Studio/Getty Images

To locate the new option in iOS 27, open the Settings app and choose “Appearance.” Tap on Liquid Glass halfway down the page. Here, you will see the new slider with 100% clear on the left and 100% tinted on the right. Above that, you’ll find an example article about Apple Park with a search bar laid on top. Scroll up on the article, and you will see how the search bar interacts with the content underneath it.

Zach Laidlaw/iOS 27 on iPhone 18 Pro Max

It’s here where the mistakes of Liquid Glass are most apparent. As you scroll in clear mode, the words in the search bar mingle with the words in the article, creating an unreadable mess of content that I still find baffling. How did Apple ever approve this?!

Scroll through the same article in tinted mode, and the search bar remains completely legible without taking anything away from the main content. Although it isn’t as fancy, this mode is easiest to read, in my opinion. Meanwhile, the middle option offers a nice blend of both worlds.

Zach Laidlaw/iOS 27 on iPhone 18 Pro Max

The best thing Apple did, though, was make the slider completely moveable from left to right, so you can dial in the exact amount of transparency to fit your preferences and to save your eyes. Finally! We get to choose!

I’ve been using 100% tinted mode since iOS 27 launched, and although I vastly prefer this look to the full transparency of Liquid Glass, it’s still not perfect. Some of the surfaces throughout the operating system, like Control Center, appear the same in both modes, offering more transparency than I’d like. But beggars can’t be choosers, and I’m happy that Apple gave users the option to decide if they want to read their phones or not.

Screenshot by Zach Laidlaw/iOS 27 on iPhone 18 Pro Max

While iPhone will be the biggest benefactor of the new Liquid Glass slider, it’s not the only device in Apple’s lineup to get some relief. You can also find this option in iPadOS and MacOS, officially bringing opaque unity to the hero products in Apple’s ecosystem.

To access the new Liquid Glass slider, update your devices to iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 Golden Gate, all available now.

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​Iphone, Ios, Update, Tech 

A former Wisconsin fifth-grade teacher admitted to sexually assaulting two 15-year-old boys, becoming the second educator from the same elementary school to be convicted of sex crimes involving minors, according to authorities. The teacher is also accused of kissing an 11-year-old student.

Abigail Faust, 25, pleaded guilty to child enticement and second-degree sexual assault of a child under 16 on Sept. 14, the Pioneer Press reported, adding that the prosecution dismissed “nearly a dozen” other charges, including allegations of her kissing a fifth-grade student. However, the charges were read in and still can be considered at sentencing.

‘[The victim] explained that during this time period, he believed he and [Faust] were in an exclusive relationship and that [Faust] referenced the two having a child together some day.’

“What I did was not a mistake or a lapse of judgment,” Faust said in St. Croix County Circuit Court, according to the Pioneer Press.

Faust admitted that she “violated trust” and has been undergoing therapy to understand “why I allowed myself to make those choices,” the paper reported.

Faust is scheduled to appear in court for sentencing on Dec. 15.

Faust had been a fifth-grade teacher at the Rivercrest Elementary School in Hudson. However, she resigned in May 2024 after allegations that she kissed a fifth-grade boy.

KARE-TV reported that court documents allege a student told authorities that Faust kept him after class one day, pushed him against the wall, and kissed his cheek.

The boy later told a therapist that Faust kissed him on the lips after she had requested that he stay after class, and she left her phone number on his desk, according to the criminal complaint.

When police interviewed the boy about the incident, he was uncomfortable, scared, and cried when talking about the situation, the complaint said.

Parents of another boy saw reports about Faust and became alarmed since she had been the family’s nanny since 2021.

The Pioneer Press reported that the teen told a Washington County (Minnesota) deputy that Faust sent provocative Snapchat messages to him in December 2024 followed by pictures of herself wearing lingerie.

Court documents note that the teen said Faust told him she knew what they were doing was “bad” and that they would both be in trouble if their actions came to light.

The criminal complaint states that Faust and the boy kissed and then “went through the motions of having sexual intercourse without actual penetration” in December 2024.

Faust and the boy she had babysat exchanged nude photos, according to court records.

Court docs say Faust told the minor they could have sex if he did well in the sport he was playing.

The Pioneer Press reported that Faust first sexually assaulted the boy in early January 2025 at her home in Hudson and then on two more occasions that month when she spent the night at his family’s home.

Faust sexually assaulted the teen approximately twice a week in the months following, the complaint said.

“[The victim] explained that during this time period, he believed he and [Faust] were in an exclusive relationship and that [Faust] referenced the two having a child together some day,” the criminal complaint states.

In April 2025, the boy went on a family trip to Florida, and Faust took care of the family’s pets.

While the teen was on vacation, Faust began a “sexual relationship” with one of the boy’s 15-year-old friends, the complaint states.

RELATED: Ex-mayor convicted of child sex crimes walks free after 90 days — judge admits key mistake he made in sentencing

People magazine reported that Faust was charged in Washington County, Minnesota, in connection with the sexual misconduct with the 15-year-old boy for whom she worked as a nanny. She pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct earlier this month.

Faust is scheduled to be sentenced in that case on Dec. 8, according to the Pioneer Press.

Another fifth-grade teacher at Rivercrest Elementary School — 27-year-old Madison Bergmann — was charged and convicted of child sexual assault of one of her own students in a separate case.

Prosecutors said the criminal investigation into accusations against Bergmann exposed allegations against Faust.

The criminal complaint states that investigators discovered Faust and Bergmann were friends and texted each other about their inappropriate relationships with the students.

WEAU-TV previously reported that prosecutors accused Faust of knowing about the inappropriate relationship between Bergmann and Bergmann’s victim and failed to notify authorities.

As Blaze News previously reported, Bergmann and her victim exchanged approximately 33,000 text messages, and the relationship became more sexual and explicit over time.

Bergmann pleaded guilty to child enticement and sexual misconduct involving an 11-year-old student.

Bergmann in December 2025 was sentenced to six years in prison.

St. Croix Circuit Judge Scott Nordstrand said Bergmann’s crimes were “deliberate, purposeful,” and “have been devastating to the victim, life-changing for that young boy,” according to the Pioneer Press.

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​Minnesota, Teacher student sex scandal, Wisconsin, Elementary school, Crime 

Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) has made no secret of the impact that Jim Rigby, the pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas, has had on his thinking.

Talarico, the Texas Democrat now battling state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) for a seat in the U.S. Senate, told the New York Times, for instance, that Rigby was one of “the biggest influences on [him] as a Christian, as a human being.”

‘This false shepherd managed to deny virtually every key doctrine of Christianity in less than two minutes.’

“He is my pastor in every sense of the word,” added Talarico, a part-time Presbyterian seminarian who has fought to keep the Bible out of school; attempted to use Scripture to justify abortion; taken money from an associate of dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein; concern-mongered about traditional Christian views; and voted against sparing kids from sex-rejection mutilations.

Hidden-camera footage exclusively obtained by Blaze News appears to show that the pastor who shaped Talarico’s worldview doesn’t think too highly of evangelical Christians.

In a video dated Aug. 30, Rigby was asked by a person off-camera, “What’s wrong with evangelical Christians? Like, how do they read what they read, they claim what they claim?”

RELATED: Talarico’s pivot from ‘God is nonbinary’ is all just an act, admits minister at his church

The woke pastor says in response, according to the video, “My guess is that they’re people who are just not that smart in, like, abstract thinking, which is where a lot of the liberal stuff and the principles of human rights and all that stuff comes up — it’s like they just, it doesn’t show up on their radar.”

“They panic when that stuff is laid out in front of them,” Rigby stated further, according to the video. “They know there’s something they’re not seeing. It’s like they have black and white vision and somebody’s showing them [a] color photograph or something like that.”

Rigby appears to believe that President Donald Trump and even Adolf Hitler have exploited evangelicals and their allegedly simple way of thinking for political gain, claiming in the video that “what Hitler did and what Trump is doing is play off of that.”

The purported Christian pastor apparently complained further about evangelicals’ beliefs in the supernatural, specifically in hell, angels, and demons, suggesting that such beliefs are irrational.

“The church is a huge part of the problem — teaching people from the cradle that things are true because you believe them,” Rigby says, according to the video.

“A belief in hell shuts everything down, because when you think that you could be tortured for all eternity, and you believe in demons and angels and stuff like this, you can’t stay rational for long.”

Rigby adds, according to the video, “If you think that supernatural beings are affecting things, good logic wouldn’t make any sense.”

According to the most recent Pew Research Center Religious Landscape Study, 27% of adults in Texas identify as evangelical Protestants.

Evangelicals are, however, hardly the only Christians who believe in the existence of hell, angels, and demons.

A 2021 Pew survey found that 62% of all American adults and 69% of all American Christians believe in hell. A 2023 Gallup survey found that 69% of Americans believe in angels and 58% believe in the devil.

“It’s not surprising an open and avowed heretic like James Talarico goes to a church led by fellow heretics,” BlazeTV host Steve Deace said in a statement to Blaze News, after reviewing the footage. “What is surprising, though, is how this false shepherd managed to deny virtually every key doctrine of Christianity in less than two minutes.”

“You have to be really committed to doctrines of demons and detesting Christ and His Word to display that level of deception masquerading as conviction,” added Deace.

RELATED: UNDERCOVER VIDEO: ‘Shady as f**k’ scheme paid people to vote for Talarico in ’roundabout way,’ Soros PAC leader caught admitting

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Rigby has issued plenty of other remarks that Talarico might want to distance himself from in the final months of his campaign. The pastor, who expressed hope that Talarico would follow in his footsteps at St. Andrew’s, has, for instance, made headlines for calling for a “true jihad” at a pro-Palestine rally; rejected belief in a literal resurrection; repeatedly cast doubt on whether Christ rose from the dead; emphasized that he doesn’t “believe Christianity is the only way, or even the best way for many people”; and expressed discomfort with the use of the word “God.”

Rigby and the Talarico campaign did not respond to requests for comment from Blaze News.

While supportive of Talarico, his message, and his candidacy, Rigby noted earlier this year, “I do not speak for him and he owes no one an explanation for things I have said.”

Despite noting that they do not speak with one voice, Rigby’s influence on Talarico is unmistakable — particularly in his eagerness to criticize Christians and mainstream Christianity.

Talarico noted, for example, in a March 2021 episode of the “Activist Theology” podcast that despite always getting “drawn back” in, “I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity.”

Paxton has stressed that Talarico “is a threat to our values, our way of life, and the future of Texas.”

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​Christ, Christianity, Donald trump, James talarico, Ken paxton, Steve deace, Us senate, God, Jim rigby, Austin, Presbyterian, Evangelical, Faith, Politics 

An individual identified by the Department of Homeland Security as an illegal alien from Venezuela was shot on Sunday during an immigration enforcement operation in Austin, Texas.

Democratic officials and the liberal media rushed to vilify Immigration and Customs Enforcement and characterize 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez as a victim who has been subjected to inhumane treatment at the hands of federal authorities.

‘He entered illegally under the Biden Administration.’

The DHS has, however, cast doubt on the veracity of the anti-ICE crowd’s various claims regarding Perez’s case.

“Sanctuary politicians and the mainstream media have wasted no time in spreading lies about an ICE officer-involved shooting of an illegal alien in Austin, Texas,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement.

“Contrary to their claims, this person is an illegal alien who has no legal status to be here and has been given some of the best medical care he’s ever received in his life,” continued Mullin. “No amount of smears and false narratives will slow down ICE from doing its job by removing dangerous illegal aliens from our communities and making America safe again.”

The DHS fact-checked numerous claims that have been advanced by Democrats and/or the liberal media since the incident.

RELATED: Texas shuts down rioters, Democrats fan the flames after ICE shooting

Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro (D) and multiple news outlets pushed the claim by Perez’s immigration attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, that the Venezuelan was issued a work permit.

The DHS countered that Perez’s “work permit expired in 2025” and noted that “a work permit does NOT grant legal status.”

As for Goldfinch’s complaint that Perez was ordered removed in absentia, the DHS replied, “Yes. This is why aliens must show up to their removal proceedings. Legal obligations do not end because someone’s address changed.”

The DHS similarly rejected the suggestion by Castro and others that Perez lawfully entered the United States and is here legally, stating, “He entered illegally under the Biden administration. The illegal alien had no valid work permit, had no protective status, and had a final order of removal from a Department of Justice (DOJ) Immigration Judge.”

In a letter to Sec. Mullin dated Tuesday, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) and about 100 other Democratic lawmakers also claimed that Perez “is not receiving the care he needs in detention,” has received no pain medication, and was forced to sleep on the floor.

The DHS said instead that Perez “is receiving medical care around the clock, including pain medication,” and that he “was released from the hospital and arrived at the detention facility just a few hours later, where he slept on a bed.”

Democrats further claimed in the letter that “there is no indication Mr. Garces Perez posed a threat to officers.” However, newly released footage appears to show a car matching the description of Perez’s vehicle speeding away from law enforcement.

“Resisting officers and evading arrest is dangerous for our officers, illegal aliens, and the public,” said the DHS. “We remind the public that resisting officers and evading arrest is a felony and a federal crime.”

His translator at a news conference Monday said, “He asked the ICE officer if he could please at least pull over so that they could detain him. They said no, and they side-swiped him, basically. He did a U-turn to try and find a spot to park so that he could go with them, and they basically ran into him and then shot him.”

Perez is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 30 in connection to his attorney’s effort to challenge his deportation.

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​Democrats, Illegal alien, Markwayne mullin, Venezuela, Deportation, Politics, Immigration and customs enforcement, Texas