Puzzle fans working through Tuesday’s New York Times Connections game have their solution: puzzle #1129, released July 14, 2026, sorted 16 words into four groups spanning synonyms for a contract, computer edit menu commands, types of baskets and a clever visual category built around symbols commonly represented by arrows, according to multiple outlets tracking the daily puzzle.

Connections challenges players to organize 16 seemingly unrelated words into four hidden groups of four, with each group linked by a shared theme, color-coded by difficulty from yellow, the easiest, through green, blue and finally purple, traditionally the most difficult and often built around wordplay or non-verbal connections rather than straightforward meaning. Players select four words at a time and submit a guess, with the game indicating correct groupings by color and offering a “one away” warning when a guess is close but not quite right. Four incorrect guesses end the puzzle.

Tuesday’s yellow category centered on synonyms for a contract, grouping the words agreement, bargain, deal and understanding, all terms describing a formal or informal arrangement reached between parties. The green group asked players to identify common edit menu options found in most software applications, linking copy, cut, delete and paste, a set of commands familiar to anyone who has worked within a standard computer text-editing interface.

The blue category, one level up in difficulty, gathered different kinds of baskets, connecting Easter, grocery, laundry and picnic, each pairing with the word “basket” to form a recognizable everyday phrase. The puzzle’s purple group, traditionally its trickiest, required players to identify concepts commonly symbolized with arrows rather than described through a shared verbal meaning, linking recycling, shuffle, this side up and U-turn. According to puzzle guide NerdsChalk, that final category relied on visual rather than verbal logic. “The connection is visual rather than verbal. Each item is commonly represented by arrows. Some appear on signs or packaging,” the guide noted, pointing to how each of the four concepts is typically depicted through arrow-based iconography, whether on a recycling symbol, a shuffle button on a music player, a shipping label reading “this side up,” or a road sign indicating a permitted U-turn.

One puzzle guide covering Tuesday’s board described the overall design as blending practical, everyday vocabulary with more conceptual, symbol-based thinking. “Today’s grid featured a combination of practical everyday vocabulary and conceptual connections,” NerdsChalk wrote. “Solvers likely spotted one or two categories quickly, but distinguishing between similar meanings and identifying the symbol-based group may have taken extra thought. The puzzle rewarded careful observation and attention to context.” The same source offered a general strategy tip for approaching similarly structured puzzles going forward. “The 14 July 2026 Connections puzzle balances straightforward action words with trickier conceptual links, making it satisfying once everything clicks,” the guide wrote, advising players to “lock in obvious verb groups early, then examine remaining words for structural patterns or shared cultural references.”

Connections was developed internally by the Times and rolled out widely in 2023 following a beta testing period, building on the momentum generated by Wordle, which the paper had acquired the previous year. Since its full launch, Connections has become one of the more popular entries in the Times’ expanding games section, which also includes Wordle, Strands, the Mini Crossword, Sudoku and Pips, part of a broader strategy by the paper to build a suite of daily puzzles that keeps readers returning to its platform consistently.

The category names themselves remain hidden from players at the outset of each puzzle, requiring solvers to infer each group’s connecting theme purely from the 16 scrambled words presented on the board. That design choice has made the game notably prone to misdirection, since certain words are often deliberately chosen because they could plausibly fit into more than one category before a puzzle’s true structure becomes clear. Tuesday’s board illustrated that tendency well, given that words like “deal” and “cut” carry multiple everyday meanings that could have initially pointed solvers toward the wrong grouping before the puzzle’s true categories became apparent.

The NYT’s own official guidance for tackling Connections encourages players to start with the categories they feel most confident about, think through alternate meanings or uses of ambiguous words, and pay attention to shared word endings or suffixes that might hint at a hidden pattern, strategies that align closely with the kind of layered thinking Tuesday’s board rewarded, particularly given the shift required to solve the visually oriented purple group.

Beyond the standard Connections puzzle, the Times has also continued expanding into sports-specific content through its ownership of The Athletic, with Connections: Sports Edition offering a spinoff format that resets daily at midnight Eastern time alongside the main puzzle, asking players to group 16 sports-related terms into four themed categories drawn from teams, players and league-specific vocabulary.

For players who prefer working through Connections gradually rather than seeing the full solution at once, most puzzle-tracking outlets offer graduated hint systems that follow the game’s own difficulty ladder, presenting clues from the yellow category through purple in ascending order of difficulty. That structure allows players to request a partial nudge, such as a thematic hint for the purple category alone, without necessarily spoiling the remaining groups if they would still like to solve those independently.

Access to the daily Connections puzzle, along with Wordle and the Mini Crossword, remains free through the Times’ games app and website, while the publication’s full puzzle archive, spanning more than 1,100 previous Connections boards, requires a Times Games subscription to access. The paper has continued to build out tools surrounding its puzzle offerings in recent years, including performance-tracking features that let players monitor their solving statistics over time, similar in spirit to the Wordle Bot analysis tool available for that game.

Wednesday’s Connections puzzle is scheduled to reset at midnight Eastern time, continuing the game’s daily rotation. Players looking for hints ahead of the next release can typically expect updated guides to appear across puzzle-tracking sites within hours of each new puzzle going live, following the same category-by-category format used to break down Tuesday’s grid.

Major League Baseball unveiled the full rosters for the 2026 All-Star Game on July 4, setting the stage for Tuesday’s Midsummer Classic at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies each sending five players, more than any other franchise in either league.

Starters were determined by fan voting, with Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani and Toronto Blue Jays infielder Ernie Clement receiving the most votes in their respective leagues, allowing both to skip the second phase of balloting entirely. The remainder of each 32-player roster was filled out through player voting and selections made by the commissioner’s office, which ensures all 30 MLB teams have at least one representative. In the American League, the New York Yankees, Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays led all clubs with four selections apiece. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts will lead the National League squad, a reward for guiding Los Angeles to last year’s World Series title, while Blue Jays manager John Schneider will helm the American League.

American League Starters: Catcher Shea Langeliers (Athletics); first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Blue Jays), though he later opted out with back discomfort; second baseman Ernie Clement (Blue Jays); shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (Royals); third baseman Junior Caminero (Rays); outfielders Mike Trout (Angels), Byron Buxton (Twins) and Aaron Judge (Yankees); and designated hitter Yordan Alvarez (Astros).

American League Reserves: Catchers Dillon Dingler (Tigers) and Adley Rutschman (Orioles); first basemen Yandy Díaz (Rays) and Nick Kurtz (Athletics); second baseman Travis Bazzana (Guardians); third baseman Miguel Vargas (White Sox); infielder Kevin McGonigle (Tigers); outfielders Cody Bellinger (Yankees), Randy Arozarena (Mariners) and Riley Greene (Tigers).

American League Pitchers: Bryan Baker (Rays), Dylan Cease (Blue Jays), Aroldis Chapman (Red Sox), Jacob Latz (Rangers), Parker Messick (Guardians), Drew Rasmussen (Rays), Joe Ryan (Twins), Cam Schlittler (Yankees), Cade Smith (Guardians), Ranger Suárez (Red Sox), Louie Varland (Blue Jays) and Michael Wacha (Royals).

National League Starters: Catcher Drake Baldwin (Braves); first baseman Freddie Freeman (Dodgers); second baseman Ozzie Albies (Braves); shortstop CJ Abrams (Nationals); third baseman Max Muncy (Dodgers); outfielders Brandon Marsh (Phillies), Juan Soto (Mets) and Andy Pages (Dodgers); and designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (Dodgers), who was originally expected to get one or two at-bats but was ultimately ruled out due to knee discomfort ahead of a scheduled offseason procedure.

National League Reserves: Catchers Hunter Goodman (Rockies) and William Contreras (Brewers); first basemen Matt Olson (Braves), Sal Stewart (Reds) and Bryce Harper (Phillies); second baseman Luis Arraez (Giants); shortstop Otto Lopez (Marlins); outfielders Corbin Carroll (Diamondbacks), Pete Crow-Armstrong (Cubs), Jordan Walker (Cardinals) and James Wood (Nationals); and designated hitter Kyle Schwarber (Phillies).

National League Pitchers: Chase Burns (Reds), Jhoan Duran (Phillies), Raisel Iglesias (Braves), Max Meyer (Marlins), Mason Miller (Padres), Jacob Misiorowski (Brewers), Eduardo Rodriguez (Diamondbacks), Cristopher Sánchez (Phillies), Chris Sale (Braves), Paul Skenes (Pirates), Logan Webb (Giants) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Dodgers).

The rosters underwent several notable changes in the days between their initial announcement and Tuesday’s game. Commissioner Rob Manfred added future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander to the American League roster as a special Legends Pick on July 8, honoring the veteran right-hander even though hip and hamstring injuries have kept him out of action since March 30 and will prevent him from pitching in the game itself. Verlander subsequently announced that 2026 will be his final season. Judge was later ruled out due to injury, with Boston Red Sox outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela added as his replacement on the American League roster, while Buxton was also scratched after landing on the injured list. Guerrero’s decision to skip the game to rest his back led to Kurtz being elevated into the American League’s starting lineup, with catcher Willson Contreras added to the roster as a further replacement. On the National League pitching staff, right-handers Riley O’Brien, Jesús Luzardo and Braxton Ashcraft were all added following a mix of injuries and scheduling conflicts that opened additional roster spots. Brewers right-hander Jacob Misiorowski, while officially named to the roster, is not expected to pitch in the game itself.

Tuesday’s Midsummer Classic caps a multi-day celebration of the sport in Philadelphia that also included the 2026 MLB Draft, held July 11 and 12, the annual Futures Game showcasing top prospects on July 12, and the T-Mobile Home Run Derby on July 13, which streamed exclusively on Netflix for the first time in the event’s history, ending ESPN’s run as its broadcaster since 1994.

This year’s National League pitching staff has drawn particular attention for its depth, with nine qualified National League starters carrying sub-3.00 ERAs entering All-Star week, a group that includes several pitchers who did not even make the final roster. Ohtani himself enters the break with a 1.47 ERA on the mound, a figure that ranks among the best in baseball despite his absence from Tuesday’s lineup, alongside other standout arms including San Francisco’s Logan Webb and Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sánchez, both of whom did earn selections to the National League staff.

The 2026 All-Star Game also carries added significance tied to the 250th anniversary of the United States, with MLB incorporating commemorative elements into the Midsummer Classic festivities held in Philadelphia, a city with deep historical ties to the nation’s founding. Every one of MLB’s 30 franchises has at least one representative on this year’s combined rosters, continuing a long-standing tradition designed to ensure balanced representation across the league regardless of team performance during the first half of the season.

First pitch for Tuesday’s game is scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern time, broadcast live on FOX from Citizens Bank Park, bringing together the sport’s top performers from the season’s opening half for what promises to be one of the more closely watched All-Star Games in recent memory, both for the caliber of talent on display and the celebratory backdrop surrounding the event’s return to Philadelphia.

Andy Burnham will walk into Downing Street next week with an in-tray already overflowing, but business has told him exactly where to start: energy bills that sit 45 per cent above the G7 average and act, in the words of the CBI and Energy UK, as an “anchor” holding back the economy.

Stripping a suite of green levies out of business energy bills could cut costs by a fifth and deliver a £130 billion boost to the economy by 2050, according to a report from the two lobby groups published on Tuesday, compiled with analysis from Cornwall Insight and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.

For smaller firms the stakes are immediate. Retailers, food and drink producers and hospitality businesses, the sectors least able to hedge or absorb energy costs, stand to benefit most from the recommendations. That will resonate with the eight in ten SME owners who already fear what a Burnham premiership will mean for their business.

The problem is not new, but it is getting worse. Britain’s electricity prices put firms at a competitive disadvantage, stifle investment and have contributed to the country’s sluggish productivity growth since the 2008 financial crisis, official price data shows. The war in the Middle East has compounded the pain, with the UK’s heavy reliance on imported gas pushing factory costs up at their fastest pace since Black Wednesday.

The report’s central charge is that successive Conservative and Labour governments have spent decades loading the cost of the net-zero transition onto electricity bills. Its remedies include scrapping the renewables obligation, a scheme launched in 2002 requiring suppliers to provide a set quantity of renewable energy, and ditching a two-decade-old levy on businesses using electricity generated outside the UK. The lost revenue, it argues, should be recouped through general taxation or a public fund.

Dhara Vyas, the chief executive of Energy UK, said: “Energy is an essential service that underpins both daily life and economic growth. Yet years of making policy decisions with little regard to the impact on business energy users has left the UK with some of the highest industrial energy costs in the developed world.”

Louise Hellem, the CBI’s chief economist, said: “With a new prime minister coming into office, it’s clear that reducing business energy costs must be a day-one priority. If we want to tackle the cost of living and invest in public services, we need stronger economic growth, and that can’t happen while firms are navigating sky-high energy bills.”

Whether Burnham listens may hinge on who he installs next door. Ed Miliband, seen as his most likely choice to replace Rachel Reeves as chancellor, has rigorously pursued the fastest possible route off fossil fuels as energy secretary, drawing criticism from business groups who argue the private sector is shouldering too much of the net-zero burden. Sowing early tension between Numbers 10 and 11 is the last thing Burnham needs, with voters having deserted Labour over Reeves’s £25 billion payroll tax raid and the botched winter fuel U-turn.

Reeves is expected to strike a valedictory note at the Mansion House dinner this evening, saying the government has been “fixing the foundations, restoring economic stability, and proving our capacity to deliver radical change”.

Burnham, for his part, wants to reindustrialise the economy. The report’s verdict is blunt: that will be impossible “on the back of some of the most expensive electricity in the developed world”. With one in four manufacturers already moving production abroad or weighing it up, SME owners will learn a great deal from the new prime minister’s first appointment, and his first bill.

Paul Jones

Harvard alumni and former New York Times journalist. Editor of Business Matters for over 15 years, the UKs largest business magazine. I am also head of Capital Business Media’s automotive division working for clients such as Red Bull Racing, Honda, Aston Martin and Infiniti.

Project backers say it would boost local economies and improve Peak District environment

A 14-mile tunnel beneath the Peak District mountains could cut journey times between Manchester and Sheffield by 30 minutes, according to an ambitious proposal.

A Norway-inspired dual carriageway would see the snakes of traffic commuting between Manchester and Sheffield removed from the national park, and sent underground instead.

The Woodhead railway line between the major northern cities would also be restored under the plans. The fast line between the two major northern cities closed to the public in the 1970s and then entirely in 1981.

This scheme, named ‘Trans-Pennine Connect’, aims to make transport between south Yorkshire and the north west better. By putting that traffic underground, they say they can hand the Peak District landscape back to nature.

This in turn, they say, could boost the productivity of the region and inject millions into the local economy. The construction of the Mottram bypass is currently ongoing, there is belief Trans-Pennine Connect would link to this scheme and take traffic through the tunnel towards Sheffield – improving journey times.

Fresh plans to build the stretch of 14-mile dual carriageway come years after the government shelved a similar scheme – estimating a £10.6bn cost. Now Future Works, a group of infrastructure experts, believe this can be done for just under £2bn.

Michael Dnes, the co-founder of Future Works, says he had guilt about this scheme never getting off the ground during his time working at the Department for Transport. And when he left DfT in 2024 he sought out a cheaper way of getting it done.

He looked to Norway for answers – who built the world’s longest road tunnel, the 24.5km Lærdal in Norway, for around £130 million.

Rather than using the standard British approach of a tunnel-boring machine, Future Works has looked into the drill-and-blast method applied to tunnels in Norway. This system replaces giant machinery with more traditional mining techniques, the natural strength of the rock and small expert crews.

Although this would not work in many areas of the UK, the expert teams believe this ‘drill-and-blast’ method could work in this area due to the geology of the Pennines. This is because the tunnels built in Norway go through mountains with similar rocks.

A spokesperson for Future Works, said: “High demand for the route means that the project could pay for itself, without the need for Westminster funding.

“Scandinavian tunnels are often owned by local councils, who recover the costs through tolls. Equally, northern pension funds have hundreds of billions in investment capital that could be mobilised to build the project.

“Many options exist – public, private and partnership. Future Works was set up by infrastructure experts Michael Dnes and Alex Griffiths, with a combined expertise in more than £100bn of infrastructure projects. They aim to create a shovel-ready scheme, and to bring this through the planning system faster than the 10+ year processes that have become the norm in UK planning.

“Work could begin before the end of the decade, with the road and railway open in the mid-2030s.”

Now the ‘Trans-Pennine Connect’ scheme has been revealed, the next stage is to generate funding in order to actually get it started

. To find all the planning applications, traffic diversions, road layout changes, alcohol licence applications and more in your community, visit the Public Notices Portal.

Campaigners have called on City Hall to introduce a London-wide “Right to Grow” framework to help communities turn unused public land into food gardens.

Several councils, including Hounslow, Southwark and Hackney, have already introduced the policy to turn wasteland into allotments, community gardens and orchards.

However, the Greater London Authority (GLA) is now being urged to develop a standardised model for all 32 boroughs and the City of London.

A new report from the London People’s Assembly on Food, Nature and the Right to Grow outlines 12 demands to make the capital “greener and more edible” by 2035. City Hall said it was increasing access to green spaces.

These include dedicated community growing officers in every borough and embedding food growing into future health and planning strategies.

Campaigners say demand for growing space heavily exceeds supply.

At least 30,500 Londoners are on allotment waiting lists, with 16 boroughs closed to new applicants, according to a 2023 Freedom of Information request published by Greenpeace.

In Camden, waiting times can reach up to 12 years. In Islington, there are just 106 allotment plots available for around 17,000 households without garden access.

Parents are being encouraged to donate unwanted school uniforms and prom outfits and swap them for something else, or take what they need for free, at a new pop-up event.

Peterborough City Council said the pop-up shop would be open on 31 July on Bridge Street, next to the Town Hall.

It said the event was “built around the principles of reduce, reuse and recycle… and supporting families with the cost of the new school year”.

Labour cabinet member for children’s services at the council, Katy Cole, said: “It can be an expensive time for families when it comes to thinking about uniform for the new term in September, so I would encourage them to pop along to this event if they can.”

The council said it had held a similar event last summer and wanted to provide “another opportunity to support local families while promoting sustainable living”.

Residents can donate their clean, good-quality school uniform items or prom dresses that are no longer needed, and take ones they may require.

Liberal Democrat cabinet member for environmental services, Chris Wiggin, said the event was “diverting textiles from waste by prioritising reuse and recycling instead of being discarded as waste”.

“This is an important way to minimise the overall impact that clothing has on our environment.”

The pop-up shop will be open from midday to 17:00 BST at unit 31 on Bridge Street.

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Andy Burnham should abolish national insurance, stamp duty, inheritance tax and the 45p top rate of income tax if he wants to revive Britain’s stalled growth, a right-leaning think tank has urged, in what would amount to the biggest shake-up of the UK tax system in generations.

Policy Exchange, in a report published on Tuesday, argues that the incoming prime minister should make cutting the UK’s tax burden, on course for a post-Second World War peak, one of his first economic priorities when he enters Downing Street next week.

For the millions of small firms writing a national insurance cheque every month, the most eye-catching recommendation is the last one. The think tank describes NI as “one of the most economically damaging features of the UK’s tax system” and wants it scrapped entirely, for employees and employers alike. That would wipe out at a stroke the levy behind the £28bn jump in employers’ NIC bills that has been blamed for redundancies and hiring freezes across the high street.

Family firms would also feel the difference. Alongside stamp duty, Policy Exchange wants inheritance tax gone altogether, a striking proposal at a time when tighter inheritance tax reliefs are already forcing family businesses to rethink succession plans rather than invest in growth.

The catch, and it is a substantial one, is the price tag. The think tank says the whole package should be funded by shrinking the state to 33 per cent of GDP. Under current plans, public spending is heading for 42.7 per cent of GDP by 2030-31, so the report is proposing a reduction in the size of government with little modern precedent.

Policy Exchange is careful to sequence the medicine. The first step would abolish the most “economically damaging distortions” in the system, including the withdrawal of tax allowances above certain earnings thresholds. These cliff edges can leave workers facing marginal rates of more than 100 per cent, meaning an employee can be better off turning down a pay rise, a quirk that will be familiar to any owner who has watched a valued manager decline extra hours.

Step two would scrap the 45p rate and inheritance tax while cutting spending to 41 per cent of GDP, protecting the planned rise in defence expenditure. Only then would national insurance go, funded by the full retrenchment to 33 per cent.

The staging is a tacit acknowledgement of the ghost at this particular feast: the September 2022 mini-budget, whose unfunded tax cuts triggered a gilt market crisis severe enough to require emergency intervention from the Bank of England. Policy Exchange argues that matching cuts in spending, introduced gradually, would avoid a repeat. The Truss package, by contrast, was barely offset at all and landed amid double-digit inflation forecasts.

Sir Sajid Javid, the former chancellor, lends the report his endorsement in a foreword. “The tax burden now stands at a 70-year high. More than that, the system’s structure has itself become a brake on growth. The most damaging examples of this do harm that is far out of proportion with the revenue they raise. Fix that, and we will begin to fix the economy,” he said.

Whether any of it lands with the incoming administration is another matter. Burnham has so far signalled only modest “room for movement” on tax, centred on rebalancing business rates towards online warehouses, while pledging fiscal discipline. With the tax take forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility to hit a post-war high, SME owners hoping for the full Policy Exchange programme should probably not hold their breath. But the report puts the size of the state, and who pays for it, squarely on the new prime minister’s desk.

Jamie Young

Jamie is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, bringing over a decade of experience in UK SME business reporting.
Jamie holds a degree in Business Administration and regularly participates in industry conferences and workshops.

When not reporting on the latest business developments, Jamie is passionate about mentoring up-and-coming journalists and entrepreneurs to inspire the next generation of business leaders.