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 knows that it’s summer camp season. If you’re already humming a certain Allan Sherman song, you should have no issues solving it. 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: Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh.
If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Summer fun.
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:
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:
BUNK, LAKE, LODGE, CANTEEN, FLAGPOLE, FIELDHOUSE
Today’s Strands spangram
The completed NYT Strands puzzle for July 7, 2025, #491.
NYT/Screenshot by CNET
Today’s Strands spangram is SUMMERCAMP. To find it, look for the S that’s five letters to the right on the top row, and wind down.
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 could be tricky, but it’s not as tough as yesterday’s bizarre purple category (“ending with homophones of parts of the leg”). Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.
The Times now 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 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: Tells secret stuff.
Green group hint: Memorable event.
Blue group hint: Moves on the court.
Purple group hint: Peak, summit.
Answers for today’s Connections groups
Yellow group: Informant.
Green group: Big impression.
Blue group: Basketball moves.
Purple group: Top ____.
Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
What are today’s Connections answers?
The completed NYT Connections puzzle for July 7, 2025, #757
NYT/Screenshot by CNET
The yellow words in today’s Connections
The theme is informant. The four answers are canary, leak, rat and source.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is big impression. The four answers are footprint, impact, mark and splash.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is basketball moves. The four answers are block, dribble, pass and shoot.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is top ____. The four answers are banana, dog, hat and secret.
It’s hard to nail down the exact cost of making GTA 6, with reports placing it in the astronomical billion-dollar region. Those rumored figures alone secure its spot as the most expensive game ever made, and it will hold on to that title even after the release of GTA 7, according to an ex-Rockstar developer.
The developer in question is Obbe Vermeij, who served as the technical director at Rockstar and worked on several GTA games, including GTA: San Andreas, GTA: Vice City, and GTA 4. During a recent appearance on the Kiwi Talkz podcast, Vermeij offered his two cents on GTA 6’s production and laid out his predictions for its eventual follow-up.
The developer predicted that “GTA 7 will be cheaper to make than GTA 6” since “a lot of that stuff (development) is going to be taken over by AI whether we want it or not.” He added, “So, I think these banks of artists that are just building massive maps or massive cutscenes, I think some of that will be taken over by AI in the next, you know, five years or so.”
Image Credit: Rockstar
Vermeij also issued a general prediction for the games industry, saying the “bulk of the work (game development) is probably going to be replaced by AI,” including the creation of characters and conversations, which could result in some cost savings.
Even in this hypothetical AI-driven landscape, Vermeij conceded that “higher-level creative stuff” will be done by artists. He stated, “I don’t think AI will be doing the creative part. You’re still gonna have artists setting the style and the look, and you’re still gonna have writers writing the story. I don’t think AI can do that.”
His quotes come at a perilous time for the games industry, and just days before some sizable layoffs at Xbox, which were reportedly tied to a shift toward AI automation. With that being said, Rockstar is yet to issue any statements about the use of AI in GTA 6 or future titles.
During a CNBC interview in February, Take-Two chief Strauss Zelnick stated that “we (Take-Two) believe in protecting and paying human beings, and we believe we ought to pay for their work if it’s replicated by AI after their work is done.” He also stressed that the “creative genius is human,” which might just hint at the company’s current plans around AI integration in game development.
With GTA 6 spending a few extra months in the oven (thanks to an unceremonious delay), it will be interesting to see just how much the game’s development ends up costing. Be sure to leave your best guesses on its cost in the comments below.
Aryan Singh
A massive gaming nerd who’s been writing stuff on the internet since 2021, Aryan covers single-player games, RPGs, and live-service titles such as Marvel Rivals and Call of Duty: Warzone. When he isn’t clacking away at his keyboard, you’ll find him firing up another playthrough of Fallout: New Vegas.
Ariel was thrust into the spotlight in late 2004 when Jeremy Clarkson drove its second-generation Atom on Top Gear, with its lack of a windscreen creating an iconic moment, albeit an unpleasant one for the presenter.
That was less than five years after the company was founded, and it continues to build the Atom a quarter century later, as the latest fourth-generation model continues to roll down its production line.
To celebrate its 25th birthday, Ariel has unveiled the new Atom 4RR, the most potent version of its current model yet.
Ariel Atom 4RR
Powered by the turbocharged ‘K20’ 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine from a Honda Civic Type R, Ariel has modified the four-pot to produce 391kW and 550Nm – a healthy 93kW increase over the ‘standard’ 4R, and 19kW more than its famed Atom V8.
On top of the power increase, Ariel has made “a host of internal changes and new components, as well as optimised oil and fuel systems”, however it’s yet to detail exactly what changes have been made.
Apart from its unmissable fluorescent yellow livery, there don’t appear to be too many changes between the Atom 4R and the Atom 4RR, which means wild Formula 1-esque wings and sidepods, as well as exposed pushrod suspension.
Ariel Atom 4R
Ariel says it’ll announce more details soon in the future, expected to be next weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.
What we do know is just 25 examples of the Atom 4RR will be made, representing one-quarter of Ariel’s current annual production capacity.
However, it does have the opportunity to build the 4RR outside of the UK and in Australia, with the Lightspeed Motor Company announcing in May it had secured the exclusive licence to the Atom and its off-road Nomad sibling.
The Ariel Atom’s four generations
Lightspeed said it plans to manufacture and export Ariels in Melbourne, having claimed to “secured the rights to sell the Ariel Atom and Nomad across Asia Pacific”, which it says “unlocks a powerful expansion pathway and local production means competitive pricing, shorter lead times with local compliance”.
The firm claims more than 4000 expressions of interest were taken for the Atom in late 2023 when Ariel partnered with Road and Track as its official dealer Down Under.
“By producing the Atom and Nomad domestically, Lightspeed will eliminate lengthy delays, reduce costs, deliver a strong return to investors and deliver these iconic machines into the hands of passionate Australian drivers faster and more affordably than ever before”.
Australian car industry could be reborn with unexpected brand
The sprint king and queens of the Pacific Mini Games in Palau were crowned over the weekend, with the 100 metre and women’s athletics final taking place on Saturday night.
PNG’s Pais Wisil claimed gold for PNG in the men while Australia’s Keyedel Smith beat out PNG’s Isila Apkup in the women.
Action continues today with the games’ showcase event baseball set to conclude later today in a gold medal showdown between Guam and home nation Palau.
However as for the ABC’s Declan Bryne and Sam Wykes – their time in Palau is finished, but not before some deep reflection on their experience.
A built-in charger for a few extra port is a big plus, especially if you’re looking to declutter and charge several devices at once. Even better is that same charger being used with laptops, tablets, smartphones, and more. That’s exactly what the Anker Prime charger delivers, and right now it’s on all-time low during Amazon Prime Day. What makes this deal fantastic is that it’s open to everyone, not just Prime members, so there’s no subscription to pay to get the discount.
The Anker 100W 3-port Prime charger costs $49, down from its normal price of $69: This 29% price cut provides a fast and quality charging option at an affordable price if you need to charge multiple devices in a time-efficient way. With three ports (two USB-C and one USB-A), this charger can deliver up to 100W of total output, which makes it powerful enough to handle everything from a MacBook to the latest smartphones.
See at Amazon
100W 3-Port Block Charger
With this charger, you can fast charge multiple devices at the same time. Each USB-C port is capable of delivering a full 100W which means you can charge a 14-inch MacBook Pro from zero to 50% in just 30 minutes. This level of speed is a game-saver if you work from your laptop and need to top up quickly between meetings or flights. The third socket, a USB-A, provides you with even greater convenience so you can charge older devices or accessories that are still not on the USB-C bandwagon.
The thin design is also a huge plus: The charger is foldable prongs and it fits well into a bag or even a pocket and is perfect for travel or everyday use. Despite its tiny size, it’s built to last with thicker prongs for a better hold and a drop-proof design that can handle life on the go. The design is slim so it fits comfortably into the wall without shifting or falling out and you can count on it to keep on charging no matter where you leave it.
Anker Prime Charger is designed to work with a wide range of devices including MacBook Air and Pro, iPad Pro and Air, iPhone series, Galaxy S25 Series, Pixel phones, and even wearables like the Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch. Whether you’re charging a laptop, a phone or a tablet, you’ll have the right port and enough power to get the job done.
If you want to charge all of your devices with a single powerful charger, this Prime Day deal is one not to miss.
Meta is asking users to grant its AI access to their unpublished photo libraries as it tests a new feature on Facebook, as first reported by TechCrunch. The company, which also owns Instagram, has admitted to using photos and text from public posts since 2007 to train its generative AI models, raising concerns about how Meta might use expanded access to personal information.
Some Facebook app users are encountering pop-ups asking them to grant Meta AI access to their camera rolls for “cloud processing.” The apparently new feature uses AI to “restyle” photos, group images by themes, like “birthdays or graduations,” and make “personalized creative ideas, like travel highlights and collages.” The notification says that Meta will periodically “select media” from users’ camera rolls based on time, location, and theme. It will not be used for “ad targeting,” it says.
In a statement to Hyperallergic, the company denied that it is using data from users’ photo libraries to train its AI models. However, Meta’s AI Terms of Service, to which users must accept in order to access the service, reserves the right to use “personal information” to “improve AIs and related technology.”
“By tapping ‘Allow,’ you agree to Meta’s AI Terms,” the feature’s pop-up states when users attempt to upload a Story on the app. “Media and facial features can be analyzed by Meta AI. To create ideas, we’ll use info like date and presence of people or objects.”
Facebook settings allow users to opt in or out of “camera roll cloud processing.” (screenshot Valentina Di Liscia/Hyperallergic)
Meta introduced the function with three visual examples at the top, including an apparently enhanced photo of the Eiffel Tower, a trio wearing saturated clothes, and a digital collage titled “weekend recap.”
“We’re exploring ways to make content sharing easier for people on Facebook by testing suggestions of ready-to-share and curated content from a person’s camera roll,” a Meta spokesperson told Hyperallergic in a statement. “These suggestions are opt-in only and only shown to you — unless you decide to share them — and can be turned off at any time. Camera roll media may be used to improve these suggestions, but are not used to improve AI models in this test.”
The spokesperson did not provide an on-the-record response to questions about whether the new feature would be rolled out on its other platforms, when it was introduced, or if it would use data collected from unpublished images to train AI in the future
In the United States, Meta was not required to notify users that it was using public posts to train their AI, according to the New York Times. There are no opt-out options for US users, either. In Europe, however, stricter laws allow those on Instagram and Facebook to opt out of Meta’s data scraping project.
Artists have long raised concerns over the practice of training AI on publicly available images on the internet more generally, which they say allows the artificial intelligence models to replicate their artistic style. Some argue that the generative technology’s learned ability to mimic styles of artists could be detrimental to artists’ livelihoods.
Hamilton said Ferrari had upgrades coming to the car in forthcoming races – these would follow a new floor that was introduced at the previous race in Austria.
The 40-year-old said he wanted “a consistent balance, a car that turns at a low speed, just a more stable car”.
He added: “We were looking great through this weekend. In practice. we were always right up there. Still weren’t able to fully extract everything in qualifying. And then the race is a little bit harder. So that’s where I want to get stronger.”
Hamilton’s third fourth place of the season means he is still to finish on the podium since joining Ferrari at the start of this season.
Team-mate Charles Leclerc finished second-last in 14th after making the wrong call to come in for slick tyres on a damp track after the formation lap. His race spiralled downhill from there.
Leclerc said: “We were kind of nowhere the whole race, and when I say nowhere it’s like really nowhere, I was a second off (the pace) and on top of that I was doing lots of mistakes.
“I was really struggling to keep the car on track so it was an incredibly difficult day.”
Team principal Frederic Vasseur said: “The main issue we had today was that we struggled a lot when we were in the dirty air to overtake.
“We spent our lives overtaking sometimes 10 laps and then we were much faster. I think it was a difficult weekend, difficult for the strategy.”
“Joy always has a plan B,” said Patou’s artistic director Guillaume Henry, describing his fictional character of the season as an “outdoor woman” who is equally comfortable indoors.
That was a good thing given that the rain clouds looming over a post-heat wave Paris prompted a move of the show from the gardens of the Maison de la Chimie to the house’s oh-so-Parisian interiors, geometric parquet flooring, plaster mouldings and all.
As front row guest Susan Sarandon put it in a skit dropped on Instagram earlier in the day, “who the h–l is Joy?”
Despite sharing a name with the house’s historic bestselling scent, his fictional muse of the season doesn’t herald its imminent return, Henry said.
If the wardrobe the designer imagined is anything to go by, she’s a busy bee who doesn’t have time for outfit changes, expecting her sporty chic looks to work overtime from dawn to dusk.
The opening look, a straight black pinafore minidress with a pair of roomy patch pockets on the front, certainly fit the bill.
In pursuit of “fresh air, breathing room and lightness,” the designer imagined an encounter with house founder Jean Patou and his love of Art Deco lines and Christian Lacroix, who filled the house with feminine shapes and polka dots during his six-year tenure that began in 1981.
Cue a fusion with his proclivity for sporty knits, cropped proportions and utilitarian jackets that yielded long collarless styles with a gentle hourglass outline and versions with plunging trapeze necklines; shift dresses that could be dressed up or down with a canny change in accessories, and puffy skirts that came in anything from fine gray suiting to layered lace and exuberant peony prints — with pockets, of course.
A final trio gave a then-and-now vision of evening glamour, between floor-length bustier dresses and a lace bodysuit nodding to Sabrina Carpenter’s custom Patou look during her “Short n’ Sweet Tour.”
While continuing to build on the unfussy chic direction of the Henry era, the collection was in step with the dressier direction that emerged from June’s coed runways.
In the complex world of neuroscience, Huntington’s disease remains a cruel mystery. It slowly strips away a person’s ability to think and move, yet scientists still don’t fully understand why. Researchers at the University at Buffalo have spent over ten years trying to unravel that mystery. Now, they’ve uncovered two tiny but powerful proteins that may hold the key to stopping the disease before it causes irreversible damage.
What Happens in Huntington’s Disease?
Huntington’s disease is a rare but devastating condition caused by a genetic mutation in the huntingtin (HTT) gene. This mutation happens when the gene’s DNA code repeats a sequence—cytosine, adenine, guanine (CAG)—too many times. In people with Huntington’s, the number of repeats often goes beyond 36. That small change has big consequences: the altered gene creates a mutated HTT protein that leads to the death of brain cells.
Most people start to show symptoms around middle age. These can include trouble with movement, thinking, and mood. Eventually, the disease becomes fatal. For years, researchers knew that HTT helped with moving cell parts along thin structures called axons, which are like highways inside neurons. But no one could explain how the mutated version disrupted that process so badly.
The proteomic network on HTT containing light membranes is dramatically altered in HD iPSC-derived neurons. (CREDIT: Nature Cell Death & Disease)
Cell Traffic and Dead Ends
In 2014, the same team at UB discovered that the normal HTT protein worked like a traffic controller. It helps move important cargo along the axons using tiny transport vehicles called vesicles. These vesicles travel thanks to motor proteins like kinesins and dyneins. Without HTT, that cargo gets stuck. Traffic jams form in the neurons, and cells begin to die.
That early discovery led to a bigger question: What tells HTT when to go, stop, or change direction?
This year, the team found the answer. Two signaling proteins, GSK3β and ERK1, help regulate that whole transport system. Both proteins are types of kinases, meaning they add small phosphate tags to other proteins to change how they function. But while both are involved, they have opposite effects.
The Good and the Bad
To test their theory, scientists used fruit flies genetically altered to have the same HTT mutation as in Huntington’s disease. When they blocked GSK3β, the flies showed fewer traffic jams in their neurons. Their cells were healthier, and the flies could even crawl better. But when they blocked ERK1, the opposite happened. More blockages formed, and more neurons died.
“With these findings, we propose that ERK1 may protect neurons in the face of Huntington’s disease, while GSK3β may exacerbate it,” said Dr. Shermali Gunawardena, a senior author on the study and associate professor at UB.
When the researchers increased ERK1 levels instead of blocking it, they saw reduced damage in the cells. That suggests that treatments boosting ERK1 or lowering GSK3β could one day help slow or even stop the disease.
“There’s not much that can be done once cells have died,” Gunawardena said. “So our whole research is trying to figure out these key, early processes that lead to cell death and whether that can be prevented.”
Pathogenic HTT triggers abnormal kinase associations with HTT and on membranes. (CREDIT: Nature Cell Death & Disease)
Zooming in on the Cellular Map
To dig deeper, the team used stem cell-derived neurons from people with and without the HTT mutation. They isolated membrane structures from the cells and used advanced mass spectrometry to analyze the proteins attached to HTT. What they found shocked them: mutant HTT caused a dramatic shift in the types of proteins it interacted with.
In healthy neurons, HTT attached to proteins that support cell communication and transport. But in mutant cells, it was linked with different proteins—many of them involved in stress responses and cell death. This suggested that the mutated HTT protein wasn’t just broken. It was actively interfering with other essential cell processes.
They also saw higher levels of GSK3β and lower levels of ERK1 in the diseased neurons. Even more, the active form of GSK3β was significantly elevated, while the helpful form of AKT1, another regulator protein, was lower. That’s important because AKT1 normally keeps GSK3β in check. When AKT1 is down and GSK3β is up, it creates the perfect storm for neuron damage.
GSK3β and ERK phosphorylate non-pathogenic and pathogenic HTT in vitro. (CREDIT: Nature Cell Death & Disease)
The fruit fly experiments confirmed these results. Blocking GSK3β in flies reduced both transport blockages and brain cell death. On the other hand, reducing ERK1 levels made things worse—more damage, more dysfunction. But when ERK1 was boosted, many of those problems improved.
“The level of ERK1 is clearly important for Huntington’s disease,” said Thomas J. Krzystek, the study’s first author. “Even if we don’t know exactly how it works, the pathway clearly protects neurons.”
A Path to Better Treatments
Scientists now believe that the early stages of Huntington’s disease involve a disruption of HTT’s normal role as a scaffold. In healthy cells, HTT helps bring other proteins together at membranes, like parts on a workbench. These include the motor proteins that move cargo and the membrane proteins that receive signals from the rest of the body. But when HTT is mutated, it can no longer hold these pieces in place.
As a result, entire signaling networks break down. The kinases that should be moving around the cell end up clumping together or disappearing from key areas. That makes it harder for neurons to maintain communication and health.
GSK3 inhibition mitigates larval locomotion defects, axonal transport blockages, abnormal synaptic morphology, and elevated neuronal cell death elicited by pathogenic HTT. (CREDIT: Nature Cell Death & Disease)
Among the biggest disruptions was in a group of pathways related to axon guidance, membrane trafficking, and vesicle transport. These pathways are vital for neuron survival. In the diseased cells, proteins like RAB7 and kinesin-1 showed abnormal patterns. That suggests they were either being trapped by the mutant HTT or unable to reach their proper locations.
These findings are significant because both GSK3β and ERK1 are already targets in other areas of drug development. Small molecule inhibitors for GSK3β and activators for ERK1 exist and are being explored in diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer.
“Future treatment could potentially increase a patient’s levels of ERK1 to mitigate their neuronal cell death,” Gunawardena said. “That would need to be done carefully so it doesn’t affect other processes.”
ERK does not play a major role in axonal transport regulation, unlike GSK3β. (CREDIT: Nature Cell Death & Disease)
Published in the journal, Nature Cell Death & Disease, the work was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, as well as support from UB’s Mark Diamond Research Fund, the Stephanie Niciszewska Mucha Fund, and the BrightFocus Foundation.
Though Huntington’s disease has no cure today, the research brings new hope. By targeting key regulators like GSK3β and ERK1, scientists are getting closer to slowing or stopping the condition before damage becomes permanent. And with each new discovery, the tangled web of HTT and its deadly mutation becomes a little clearer.
