Sriram Krishnan, the White House’s senior policy adviser on artificial intelligence, is stepping down. The former Andreessen Horowitz partner was tapped by President Donald Trump to help shape the administration’s AI strategy during his second term. He will leave at the end of June, according to the Washington Post.

Krishnan played a central role in the administration’s AI action plan. In May, he helped broker an agreement with Google, Microsoft, and xAI to give the US government early access to their AI models before public release. The arrangement lets the government assess capabilities and security risks during a 30-day review window.

White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks credited Krishnan with work on “policy initiatives and international diplomacy” as part of efforts to ensure “American AI dominance.” White House spokesperson Kush Desai called him “a critical asset for President Trump’s push to cement American dominance in technology and innovation.”

Krishnan said he plans to continue working with the White House as an outside adviser. He is reportedly starting a new institution focused on AI policy. “After a break, I’ll be working on helping tackle some of the large challenges facing America on AI,” he wrote on X.

The departure follows a busy stretch of AI policymaking. On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order outlining a voluntary framework for cybersecurity threats posed by AI, stopping short of mandatory testing. On Friday, he directed national security agencies to work with more than one AI provider, a move that followed the Pentagon’s feud with Anthropic over contract terms.

Anthropic had been the only vendor approved for classified military use until the Defence Department blacklisted it as a supply chain risk after the company refused to allow its models to be used for autonomous weapons or mass surveillance. The administration has since signed classified AI deals with Nvidia, Microsoft, and AWS.

Krishnan’s exit also raises questions about Andreessen Horowitz’s influence on AI policy. The firm has been a significant force in shaping the administration’s approach, with Bloomberg previously reporting on its rising role in Trump-era AI decisions. Whether Krishnan’s new institution maintains that pipeline remains to be seen.

Looking for the most recent regular 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 and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one. If you’re struggling with the puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

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

Yellow group hint: Hoops roles.

Green group hint: Think Tom Brady.

Blue group hint: They excel in beam and floor exercise.

Purple group hint: The Big Apple.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: First words of basketball positions.

Green group: Things a QB does with the football.

Blue group: Women’s gymnastics all-around gold medal winners.

Purple group: Ends in a New York team, in singular form.

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

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is first words of basketball positions. The four answers are point, power, shooting and small.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is things a QB does with the football. The four answers are hand off, pass, spike and tuck.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is women’s gymnastics all-around gold medal winners. The four answers are Biles, Douglas, Lee and Liukin.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ends in a New York team, in singular form. The four answers are Allegiant, Chalamet, Granger and inkjet.

New dummy unit photos shared by leaker Sonny Dickson on X offer the clearest look yet at Apple’s first foldable iPhone, expected to launch later this year alongside the iPhone 18 lineup. The images confirm several design details that have been circulating in the rumor mill for months, and one that is more surprising.

What the dummy unit reveals

The iPhone Fold dummy shows a book-style foldable with a roughly 7.8-inch inner display when open, putting its screen real estate close to an iPad mini. The front camera sits in the top-left corner of that inner screen. The outer display measures around 5.5 inches, and the closed phone takes on a short and wide form factor, closer to a passport than a standard iPhone.

Two rear cameras are visible on the outside of the device. Face ID is notably absent, which aligns with rumors suggesting that the device will use Touch ID through the side button for both unlocking and Apple Pay.

Only one color?

The more eyebrow-raising detail from Dickson is the color situation. Although earlier leaks have claimed the Fold would come in black and white, Dickson now suggests white may be the only option at launch. Apple has launched new product lines in limited colorways before, gradually expanding the palette with later generations, so this isn’t completely out of the question.

iOS 27, expected to be unveiled shortly at WWDC 2026, could reveal more about how Apple is building the software experience around the foldable form factor. Foldable-specific features like split-screen multitasking and an iPad-style UI have been reported as part of the update, and the keynote may include additional cues about the device itself.

The opening keynote of WWDC has been presented by Tim Cook every year since 2012, but as his time as CEO draws to an end, there is speculation over whether he’ll make one last appearance.

Tim Cook does appear, unsurprisingly, to have already handed over the reins to the incoming CEO John Ternus for Apple’s future planning. But Cook remains CEO until September, so the first time we’ll see Ternus hosting an event will be the iPhone launch later that month.

Speculation by Bloomberg backs up the idea that Cook will have one last hurrah. However, it argues that Cook will quickly hand over to Apple’s Craig Federighi for the majority of the keynote video. This is fairly typical of WWDC, though.

Federighi is always prominent at the annual software developer conference, as he’s Apple’s Senior Vie President of Software Engineering. But he is now also effectively leading the company’s moves in AI, and this year Apple Intelligence is expected to be featured prominently.

Beyond that, Bloomberg maintains that whether we do or not, we should see Mike Rockwell introducing the new Siri. He was behind the Apple Vision Pro and in April 2025 moved over to managing the AI team.

There will also be multiple people presenting various segments of the keynote video. The report says Jeff Norris should present about visionOS, and David Clark should do the watchOS portion.

Separately, if this video follows the format of previous ones, it will include at least a nod toward Apple’s health features. That means Dr Sumbul Desai is likely to appear too.

Apple doesn’t tend to speak about personnel changes at WWDC, but then it’s been 15 years since there was one as big as a new CEO. It’s conceivable, then, that Tim Cook will open the event and John Ternus will close it.

But it’s more likely that, at least in terms of presenters, WWDC 2026 will follow its familiar form and be book-ended by Tim Cook.

Dual used High End Vienna 2026 to preview the CS 629Q, a fully automatic direct-drive turntable that looks backward and forward at the same time. That is not always a good thing in hi-fi. Sometimes it means “heritage-inspired” wood trim slapped on something that might be too clever for its own good. In this case, Dual might have come up with something that actually inspires users to actually want to listen more.

The CS 629Q is still a prototype, with global availability expected in mid-2027 and pricing expected around €1,800. That means nobody should treat this as a finished retail product just yet. But the concept is interesting because Dual is returning to one of the things it historically did rather well: automatic turntables that were genuinely useful, not disposable convenience machines.

A Fully Automatic Direct-Drive Turntable

The Dual CS 629Q is a fully automatic turntable built around a newly developed direct-drive motor. According to the manufacturer, the motor has been engineered specifically to work with Dual’s automatic mechanism, with the goal of delivering smooth operation and stable speed control.

The automatic functions include start, stop, repeat, and electronic speed selection for 33, 45, and 75 RPM playback. The new model also adds a pause function, which is not exactly revolutionary in consumer electronics, but in the world of high-end turntables may cause some people to clutch their felt mats in horror.

That is part of the appeal. The CS 629Q is aimed at listeners who want vinyl playback without pretending that manually cueing a tonearm is some sacred religious ceremony. Ever tried putting on a record after one drink too many? That stylus suddenly looks very expensive, and your hands start negotiating with gravity.

Bluetooth Remote App Control

The CS 629Q also includes Bluetooth connectivity and app control, allowing users to operate the turntable remotely. That follows the direction Dual has already taken with the CS 529, which includes Bluetooth for audio and remote-control functions, but the CS 629Q pushes the idea into a more premium direct-drive platform.

There is always a risk with app-controlled hi-fi products: the app becomes the product’s weakest link. But Dual’s approach makes sense if the core mechanical platform is solid. Automatic operation is not new for the brand. Remote-controlled automatic operation is not completely new either. The CS 629Q appears to bring that history into a more modern control environment.

Dual’s Automatic Turntable Legacy Still Matters

Dual’s first fully automatic direct-drive turntable, the CS 701, arrived in 1973. The CS 650 RC followed in 1979/80 with remote-control functionality. That history gives the CS 629Q more credibility than it would have coming from a brand with no automatic-turntable lineage.

This is not Dual chasing a gimmick because someone in marketing discovered Bluetooth. The company has a real history with fully automatic and remotely controlled record players. The CS 629Q looks like an attempt to modernize that idea for listeners who want convenience without buying a flimsy plastic deck with a ceramic cartridge and all the dignity of a hotel ice machine.

The Bottom Line

The Dual CS 629Q could become one of the more interesting turntables to watch heading into 2027. It is fully automatic, direct-drive, app-controllable, and expected to land around €1,800. That gives it a very specific lane: high-end vinyl playback for people who still appreciate convenience.

The risk is obvious. If the app experience is clunky, the automatic mechanism is noisy, or the direct-drive platform does not deliver the expected speed stability, the CS 629Q becomes an expensive novelty.

Because the CS 629Q remains a prototype, Dual has not yet published the deeper specifications, including cartridge, tonearm, platter construction, dimensions, weight, output options, or final pricing. For now, the story is the concept: a fully automatic direct-drive turntable with app-based control, aimed at bringing Dual’s automatic turntable heritage into a more modern platform.

Not every vinyl listener wants to perform a small ceremony every time they play Side B. Some just want the record to spin correctly, the arm to behave itself, and the music to start without drama. Radical stuff, apparently.

Price & Availability

The upcoming Dual CS 629Q will join the existing range of automatic turntables.

For more information: dual.de

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The WWDC swag bag for 2026 has arrived, with attendees getting a bag, a bottle, and a collection of pins, including one of Little Finder Guy.

Each year, visitors to Apple Park taking part in the WWDC festivities can pick up exclusive Apple merchandise from the on-site Apple Store. At the same time, attendees can pick up a swag bag, made specifically for the developer event.

The 2026 swag bag was picked up by Canoopsy, who posted pictures to X on Sunday. The merchandise consists of:

• A black tote bag with WWDC branding
• WWDC 26 water bottle
• A selection of stickers
• A selection of pin badges

There are four pins in the photographs, consisting of the Apple skull and crossbones, an Apple 50 pin that’s different from the employee anniversary pin, Clarius the Dogcow, and Little Finder Guy. The latter was an unexpected social media phenomenon, prompting its inclusion in the bag for 2026.

The bag is relatively similar to the 2025 edition, except for some changes in style, and that the stickers replace the lanyard.

Apple’s swag bag is just one early surprise in its WWDC week of events, which will provide the first access to the company’s fall software updates, including iOS 27 and macOS 27.

We have an idea of what the solar system’s past was like: It was violent and chaotic. However, we are still studying how violent it was. Current models suggest that at some point after their formation, the giant planets went through a phase of such extreme instability that one or even two bodies the size of Uranus or Neptune were ejected into interstellar space. If that scenario occurred, we may find clues in the most unexpected places in the solar system, such as the moons of Jupiter and, especially, those of Uranus.

A recent article published in Icarus analyzed 122 possible scenarios of such instability to assess how the satellite systems of the “left behind” planets would have reacted. The researchers concluded that it would be extremely difficult to explain the current characteristics of Uranus’ moons without some episode of violent instability. And that type of instability only appears in models where more giant planets existed than we see today.

Most likely, the authors point out, the moons of Uranus were destabilized at least twice in the past: First by the impact that tilted the planet, and then by close encounters between giant planets during the instability. That chaos, fueled by the presence of one or more planets that were later ejected, would have destroyed and rebuilt the system of moons to what we see today.

Miranda, the moon of Uranus considered the most unusual in the solar system.

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NASA

The Solar System and Chaos

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune did not always have their current positions in the solar system. According to the planetary-instability model, they were born a little closer to the Sun and closer together. After millions of years, they migrated towards their current orbits.

But there are details of this model that do not fit with the observations. For one thing, the current orbits of Jupiter and Saturn are eccentric, while there are specific structures such as the Kuiper belt that seemingly should have prevented Neptune from moving into its current position. In the simulations, the planets did not reach where they are today.

It is therefore possible that the solar system at one point had more planets, and these were the ones that “pushed the others.” Under this hypothesis, the puzzle of the solar system fits better. The problem is, those bodies, if they existed, are gone—they were ejected and left no physical traces or fragments. This leaves the idea of missing planets in the realm of hypotheses, waiting for sufficient evidence to be accumulated to confirm it.

The Unusual Moon

The new Icarus study tested the missing planets hypothesis using the moons of Uranus as direct evidence. It used a total of 122 solar system evolution simulations. In 85 percent of the scenarios, the Uranus moon system collapsed. Only in a handful of scenarios did its moons survive, and, in all of them, the hypothesis of lost and ejected planets fit very well.

The report points to Miranda, the smallest moon in Uranus’ major system. Astronomers consider it to be the most unusual in the solar system. It is patchy, as if sewn together from scraps, too icy for its size, and quite small considering the rest of Uranus’ moons. It is also geologically active.

Astronomers think that Miranda is the debris of a larger body. The study reinforces that idea and proposes that it is the clearest example of traces of planetary instability.