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

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle features some complicated words. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. 

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Fringe group

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Almost on the outside.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

• DARK, RAGE, MORE, NEST, DINE, DINES, DINER, DINERS

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

• EDGE, BRINK, BOUNDARY, VERGE, MARGIN, EXTREMITY

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is OUTERLIMITS. To find it, look for the O that is six letters down on the far-left row, and wind down, over, and up.

Scammers are sending fake “Notice of Default” traffic violation text messages impersonating state courts across the U.S., pressuring recipients to scan a QR code that leads to a phishing site demanding a $6.99 payment while stealing personal and financial information.

This is a new variation of the widely sent toll violation and unpaid parking ticket scams that users received in 2025, which claimed to be from state toll agencies.

This new campaign started a few weeks ago, with someone sharing a text targeting New York residents with BleepingComputer, and many other people reporting similar texts online for other states, including California, North Carolina, Illinois, Virginia, Texas, Connecticut, and New Jersey.

Unlike the previous campaign, which included a text message and links to phishing sites, this new variation instead includes an image of an alleged court notice with an embedded QR code.

“This notice constitutes a final and urgent warning regarding an outstanding traffic violation involving your registered vehicle within the State of New York,” reads the fake court notice.

“This matter has now entered the formal enforcement stage.”

The text message shared with BleepingComputer claims to be from the “Criminal Court of the City of New York”, stating that there is an unpaid parking or toll violation that must be paid immediately or the person must appear in court. Included are instructions to scan a QR code to settle the unpaid balances.

Scanning the QR code brings the targeted person to an intermediary site that first prompts you to solve a captcha to prove you are human. The QR codes and CAPTCHA are used to make it harder for automated security software and researchers to analyze the phishing campaign.

Solving the CAPTCHA redirects you to another phishing site that impersonates the state’s DMV or another agency, claiming there is an unpaid toll or parking ticket. In all examples seen by BleepingComputer, this outstanding balance is $6.99.

For example, phishing sites that impersonate the New York DMV use the hostname “ny.gov-skd[.]org” or “ny.ofkhv[.]life”.

Clicking continue will take you to a page where you can enter your personal and credit card information to pay the alleged charge.

This form is used to steal your data, including your name, address, phone number, email address, and, eventually, your credit card information.

This information can then be used for a wide variety of malicious activities, including follow-on phishing attacks, financial fraud, identity theft, and the sale of your data to other threat actors.

As a general rule, if you receive a text from an unknown phone number or email address requesting payment of a bill, ignore it.

State agencies have repeatedly stated in response to these scams that they do not use text messages requesting personal information or payment information.

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We got to share in a rare moment of collective awe this week as four astronauts blasted off toward the moon, beginning a 10-day journey that will take them farther from Earth than any humans have traveled in the last 50 years. It’ll still be a little while before they reach their destination — the Orion spacecraft is expected to loop around the moon on Monday — but they’ve already seen some pretty incredible stuff on the way there. Here’s the latest on the Artemis II mission, and other interesting science stories from this week.

Artemis II crosses the halfway point

After years of planning, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, are finally on their way to the moon for the Artemis II mission. This test flight is a crucial step in NASA’s plans to send humans to the surface of the moon again for the first time since Apollo 17, and the high-stakes launch went off without a hitch on Wednesday.

The Artemis II crew is now more than halfway to the moon, according to NASA. When Orion reaches the moon on April 6, the astronauts will have a six-hour window of opportunity to observe the partially lit lunar far side, which can’t be seen from Earth. If you’re curious about where exactly the astronauts are at any given moment, you can track the mission by visiting NASA’s Artemis Real-Time Orbit website. And, if you just want to see what space looks like from Orion, here’s a livestream from outside the capsule. The moon is now in view!

The crew did experience some technical difficulties after leaving the ground, though all were resolved fairly quickly. Early Thursday morning, Wiseman contacted mission control to troubleshoot some issues with a Surface Pro he was attempting to use, noting, “I have two Microsoft Outlooks and neither one of those are working.” Relatable. The Artemis II crew was also greeted by a malfunctioning toilet not long into the flight, and astronaut Koch had to work with the ground team to figure out a fix — which they thankfully were able to do. In a livestream later, the astronaut joked that she is now a space plumber.

Small issues aside, the Artemis II mission is off to a pretty amazing start. The Orion spacecraft completed its translunar injection burn on Thursday, officially taking it out of Earth orbit and putting it on its way to the moon. Commander Wiseman shared some pictures of the view from Orion’s windows afterward, and they are breathtaking. In one unbelievably crisp shot of Earth, you can even see two auroras. And there’s plenty more observations to come.

Students discover a nearly pristine ancient star

Using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), a group of undergraduate students at the University of Chicago has discovered what’s thought to be one of the oldest stars ever observed. Their analysis indicates that the star, called SDSSJ0715-7334, was born in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud billions of years ago before eventually making its way to the Milky Way.

The star was one of 77 that the students selected for closer observation after poring through the SDSS data in their “Field Course in Astrophysics” class, which is led by Professor Alex Ji, the deputy Project Scientist for SDSS-V. SDSS-V is an ongoing all-sky survey that’s mapping the Milky Way. After creating their list, they set out to observe the stars during a field trip to Carnegie Science’s Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, and honed in on SDSSJ0715-7334 on day two. The team found it’s made mostly of hydrogen and helium, with very little carbon and iron. In the paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the researchers note that this composition could be the product of a primordial supernova.

“This ancient immigrant gives us an unprecedented look at conditions in the early universe,” said Ji in a statement. Ji added, “The star has so little carbon that it suggests an early sprinkling of cosmic dust is responsible for making it. This formation pathway has only been seen once before.”

Before you go, be sure to check these stories out too:

• What’s going on with Donut Lab’s so-called super battery?

• SpaceX has reportedly filed for the biggest IPO in history

• Charming Kitten relies on deception rather than exploiting technical software vulnerabilities
• Fake identities build trust before phishing attacks compromise sensitive user credentials
• Operations extend across Apple and Microsoft platforms, affecting diverse users globally

Iran-linked cyber operations are drawing renewed attention for relying less on advanced code and more on human manipulation to gain access to sensitive systems.

At the centre of this activity is Charming Kitten, a group associated with Iran’s security apparatus which has spent years targeting officials, researchers, and corporate employees.

AI skeptics aren’t the only ones warning users not to unthinkingly trust models’ outputs — that’s what the AI companies say themselves in their terms of service.

Take Microsoft, which is currently focused on getting corporate customers to pay for Copilot. But it’s also been getting dinged on social media over Copilot’s terms of use, which appear to have been last updated on October 24, 2025.

“Copilot is for entertainment purposes only,” the company warned. “It can make mistakes, and it may not work as intended. Don’t rely on Copilot for important advice. Use Copilot at your own risk.”

A Microsoft spokesperson told PCMag that the company will be updating what they described as “legacy language.”

“As the product has evolved, that language is no longer reflective of how Copilot is used today and will be altered with our next update,” the spokesperson said.

Tom’s Hardware noted that Microsoft isn’t the only company using this kind of disclaimer for AI.  For example, both OpenAI and xAI caution users that they should not rely on their output as “the truth” (to quote xAI) or as “a sole service of truth or factual information” (OpenAI).

No one wants the tunes buffering when they have friends round for a barbecue or a stuttering podcast as they try to finish yard work. While the average router might fill your home with Wi-Fi, it doesn’t always extend to the patio or deck, much less the end of your backyard. But you can get great Wi-Fi coverage in your outdoor spaces, and I will show you the best options.

You may also want to read up on how to make your Wi-Fi faster, how to buy a router, and whether you should opt for a single router or a mesh system.

Adjust or Move Your Router

Before you think about spending any money, try adjusting or moving your wireless router. Routers send out Wi-Fi signals in a rough circle, so I always recommend placing your router in the center of your home. Moving it slightly closer to your backyard or wherever you want to extend Wi-Fi is the simplest option. Ensure it’s positioned high and in the open. You may need a longer Ethernet cable. If your router has adjustable antennas, I also strongly recommend moving them and testing the signal strength in your problem spot (this can make a surprising difference).

If you have a mesh system, try moving one of the nodes to the back windowsill of your home to extend Wi-Fi into the backyard. If you’re able, running an Ethernet cable between your main router and the node nearest your outside space for wired backhaul can also extend range and speed significantly. If you have an outbuilding, you could even consider running an armored Ethernet cable from your main router to a mesh node or access point out there.

Use Your Smartphone as a Hot Spot

If you get a decent cellular network signal on your phone in your garden and you have plenty of data, it might be worth using your phone as a hot spot, which enables other devices to piggyback on your mobile network connection. We have a full guide on how to use your smartphone as a hot spot, but it’s very easy to do. Here’s the quick version:

• On an iPhone: Open Settings, Personal Hotspot, toggle on Allow Others to Join, and set a Wi-Fi Password.
• On an Android: Open Settings, Network and Internet (or Connections on a Samsung phone), choose Hotspot and tethering, toggle Wi-Fi hotspot on, and pick a name and password.

The problem with this is that it will use up your data allowance, tie up your phone, and drain your battery fast. But it’s a good solution in a pinch.

Upgrade Your Setup

If the two options above don’t fix your Wi-Fi woes, it might be time to upgrade your hardware. We have guides to the best routers, best mesh systems, and best Wi-Fi extenders. If you’re currently using an old or ISP-provided router, simply snagging a new one could make a big difference to your range. Most routers have a rough estimate of the square-footage range, but the construction of your home and other factors will impact it.

Switching from a single router to a mesh system is a better upgrade if you need to extend that Wi-Fi coverage. I’m not keen on Wi-Fi extenders, but they can sometimes be the most cost-effective way to get Wi-Fi to a single trouble spot. If you recently upgraded or already have a mesh, there are still other options.

Get an Outdoor Router

Folks with a mesh system can often add an outdoor router or node easily. Outdoor routers are weatherproof and generally have an IP rating determining what kind of weather they can withstand. They often come with fixings to mount on an exterior wall, fence, or pole, but you must consider how to run a power cable to an outlet. The right outdoor router for you depends entirely on your mesh system.