Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. I can reproduce your issue on my system when I use Start10. I think it best to move on and upgrade to Start11, which do not have this issue. Refer screenshot below. This was on Start11 v1. Start11 v2 also appear have no issue skinning that taskbar part.

Thanks
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.
Good evening Basj,
So basically what you are telling me is that even though both Windows 10 and Windows 11 each have the news and intrests feature on their taskbars ONLY Start11 received the fix to correct the issue I mentioned above?
Don't get me wrong, the $4 upgrade is certainly not the issue but it's the principle of it. Is Stardock really that hard up for money that it has to bait people into upgrading their software in order to get a software fix?
Start10 is supposed to be a Windows 10 product which is what I am running, why would I want to upgrade to Start 11 which is supposed to be designed for Windows 11 when I have no intention of upgrading to Windows 11 anytime soon and have features pertinent to Windows 11 that will be useless to me?
This is just one of the many , many reasons I stopped using Stardock products eons ago, the ONLY reason I am running Window Blinds and Start10 at the moment is a theme I thought was great was given to me , If I could dissassemble the wba file of the theme and convert it to a msstyle file I would and I could fix the issue in five seconds myself ..... FREE ..... without the need for proprietary software