Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you’ve finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I’ve also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc’s Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

The model is open for the public to view as part of the Heart exhibition in RCSI’s Humanarium.

Researchers at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences hope to better understand diseases in the mitral heart valve with an artificial model that mimics the valve’s complex mechanisms.

The heart’s mitral valve opens and closes around 100,000 times each day, making its mechanical properties key to healthy heart function.

When the valve does not work properly, blood can leak backwards through the heart in a condition called ‘mitral regurgitation’. This condition affects millions worldwide, with that number growing alongside global life expectancy.

“Advancing our understanding of mitral valve function is dependent on developing synthetic alternatives that capture the valve’s complex mechanical behaviour, which is achieved in this study,” explained Dr Claire Conway, a lecturer in RCSI’s department of anatomy and regenerative medicine, and one of the authors of the new study published in Acta Biomaterialia.

The study was funded through an RCSI Star Lectureship and the Research Ireland Frontiers for the Future Programme, and carried out by the RCSI Tissue Engineering Research Group.

Generally, synthetic mitral valves lack multi-directional mechanical properties and are unable to withstand the blood pressure and flow of a human heart, the researchers said.

This new model makes a marked change by being the “first of its kind” to incorporate the mechanical properties of real heart valve tissue, while also operating under realistic heart pressures and flow conditions, they explained.

The model also allows control over the tension and thickness of the parts that allow the valve to open and close effectively.

“This model captures native anatomy and the fabrication is precise and repeatable,” said Conway. “Physical and digital tests of the valve revealed it successfully functioned under physiological flow and physiological pressure, representing a significant advance in the field.”

Dr Sina Javadpour, first author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at Trinity College Dublin, said: “This model gives us precise control over key features of the mitral valve while still reproducing the way it functions in the heart.

“That makes it a powerful tool for studying valve disease and testing new repair strategies in a controlled laboratory environment.”

The model is open for the public to view as part of the Heart exhibition in Humanarium at RCSI.

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Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle offers some fun categories. I actually liked the purple grouping today! Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Think about The Three Stooges.

Green group hint: Round and round.

Blue group hint: Curiouser and curiouser.

Purple group hint: Not Pa, but close.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Classic slapstick props.

Green group: Things that spin.

Blue group: Featured in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”

Purple group: What “MA” might refer to.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is classic slapstick props. The four answers are banana peel, cream pie, rubber chicken and seltzer bottle.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is things that spin. The four answers are globe, grindstone, gyroscope and roulette wheel.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is featured in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” The four answers are caterpillar, pocket watch, rabbit hole and tea party.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is what “MA” might refer to. The four answers are Massachusetts, master of arts, milliampere and mother.

Frequent flyers and daily commuters have a common frustration. Engine drone on flights, train clatter, and workplace background noise all compete for attention over extended periods of travel or sitting at a computer. Many noise-cancelling headphones provide relief, but they come with software, touch controls, and expensive pricing that appear unnecessary for just basic needs. ONANOFF’s Made for Amazon headphones, priced at $19.99 (was $80), cut through the noise in a refreshingly practical manner.

The over-ear design promotes comfort, with lightweight materials and the softest ear cushions to keep you comfortable even after hours of listening. People have commended the seal’s endurance, even on long, multi-hour flights or back-to-back meetings, because there is no need to fuss with it to ensure a correct fit.

Active noise cancellation is as simple as pressing a single button, and it effectively reduces low-frequency sounds that can be bothersome in contexts such as airplane cabins and autos. Many users have used these for long flights and noted that engine rumbling is practically eliminated, allowing them to listen to podcasts or music without having to crank up the volume to the limit. The experience is heightened by the passive noise isolation provided by the ear cups, which effectively provides a comfortable listening environment without the need to constantly tinker with it.

When it comes to real-world schedules, the battery life is spot on, boasting roughly 20 hours of wireless listening with noise cancellation running, which is enough to span the duration of many flights as well as all of your regular commutes for several days before it needs to be recharged. There is also a useful old-fashioned auxiliary cable available in case you run out of power mid-flight or on a plane with all of its entertainment systems, which serves as an excellent backup option.

The controls are simple and intuitive, with old-school buttons on the ear cups that let you to control music, volume, and calls without having to swipe. There’s also an extra little switch there that activates FOKUS mode, which allows you to prioritize vocal clarity, guaranteeing that your podcasts and phone calls are perfectly clear with no background noise in the mix. It’s especially beneficial when you’re traveling and need to catch up on audio content or make business calls in a congested terminal.

The sound is good and balanced, with just enough bass to give your music weight while not overpowering the rest of the mix. The mids and highs are clear and sharp, letting you to listen to anything you desire, including music, podcasts, and spoken word. They’re not striving to be ultra-high-end, show-off-spec headphones; instead, they provide nice, reliable listening that won’t wear you out after a few hours. If all you need is something practical, this is it.

Pairing with your phone, laptop, or tablet is simple; all you need is a short tap and you’re done. The “Made for Amazon” label indicates that it will perform well in the Amazon environment, but it will also work well with all other Bluetooth devices. There’s no worry, no mess, and no need to set up any ridiculous apps; simply plug in and go.

Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc’s Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy may have been the source of security concerns that led Anthropic to cut off worldwide access to two models on Friday.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Jassy told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other government officials that Amazon researchers used Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 to obtain information that could be used in cyberattacks. The government subsequently imposed an export control ban on the Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models.

An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement that while it’s “not uncommon for governments to seek our counsel on potential security risks,” the company does not “share the details of those discussions.”

The spokesperson also pointed to an update stating that AWS has been affected by the model cut off.

The Information and Reuters similarly reported that Amazon (a major Anthropic investor) had communicated concerns about the security of Anthropic’s models.

David Sacks, Trump’s former AI czar who now co-chairs the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, offered his own account of the discussions, claiming that “a highly credible trusted partner of both Anthropic and the USG […] came forward with a jailbreak.”

Sacks added, “The Admin asked [Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei] to fix the jailbreak or de-deploy the model. Dario refused.”

Anthropic said in a blog post that the capabilities apparently causing government concern are already available in other publicly accessible models.

This post has been updated with a statement from an Amazon spokesperson.

It was published by KPMG, one of the world’s ‘Big Four’ accounting firms.

Professional services firm KPMG has pulled a report titled, “Redefining excellence in the age of agentic AI,” after numerous organizations said the report’s claims about their AI usage were untrue.

Research group GPTZero identified a number of inaccuracies in the report, which was published in October 2025. GPTZero told the FT that the inaccuracies stemmed from AI hallucinations. In other words, the professional services firm appears to have used AI to help write a report about AI. 

UBS, the UK’s National Health Service, Swiss Federal Railways, and Transport for London all told the FT that the report’s claims about their AI usage were either untrue or misleading. A KPMG spokesperson said the firm removed the report from its websites while conducting its own investigation.

“We expect all our people to follow our guidelines on the responsible use of AI, including human oversight to validate content and verify independent sources,” the spokesperson said.

Last month, EY withdrew a report on loyalty rewards programs that appeared to include fake footnotes and AI hallucinations.