Looking for Saturday’s Connections tips and answers instead? You can find them here:

ForbesToday’s NYT “Connections” tips and answers for Saturday, September 28thFrom Kris Holt

Hey people! I hope you have a fantastic weekend.

In case you missed it, The New York Times And The athlete debuted a sports-based version of Connections last week.

I’m glad to have a second game Connections I’ll play every day, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do that well. I don’t know much about North American sports, even though I’ve lived in Canada for well over a decade. I am first and foremost a European footballer and not a footballer. For example, I know almost nothing about the college sports system and am bad with team logos. But I have good general knowledge, so I might be able to master trickier games.

Like the regular one Connectionswe will be writing down clues and answers for each day’s games for the foreseeable future. I will share tasks in this regard with my colleagues Paul and Erik.

At least today NYT Connections Hints and answers are coming soon.

How to play connections

Connections is a free, popular one New York Times daily pun. You will receive a new puzzle every day at midnight. You can play on that NYT Website or gaming app.

You will be presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to divide them into four groups of four by figuring out the connections between them. The groups can be items you can click on, names of research participants, or words preceded by a body part.

Each puzzle has only one solution, and you have to be careful when it comes to words that could fit into more than one category. You can mix up the words to perhaps better see the connections between them.

Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to understand, blue and green are in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult. The purple group often contains puns.

Select four words that you think go together and click Send. If you guess and are wrong, you lose a life. When you’re close to finding the right group, you may see a message saying you’re one word away from the right group, but you still need to figure out which word to swap.

If you make four mistakes, the game is over. Let’s make sure that this doesn’t happen with the help of some tips, and if you really find it difficult, even with today’s ones Connections Answer. Like with Wordle and other similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats.

What are today’s connection notes?

Scroll slowly! Right after the clues for each of today’s Connections Groups, I will reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you what words appear in them.

Today’s 16 words are…

• PLAY
• JUSTICE
• THROW
• ENERGY
• HONOR
• HAPPEN
• HOLD
• SHINE
• DISCARD
• SHEET
• CONDITION
• FULFILL
• CEILING
• WORK
• HOLD
• PULL

And the clues for today’s groups are:

• Yellow group – stick to your word
• Green group – cozy covers
• Blue Group – Things you can do if you hold some of 52
• Purple Group – Agencies

What are today’s sorority groups?

Do you need additional help?

Be warned: We’re starting to get into this Spoiler territory.

Today’s groups are…

• Yellow group – keep it as a promise
• Green Group – Bedding
• Blue group – actions in card games
• Purple Group – Cabinet Departments

What are today’s connection solutions?

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today Connections Answer.

This is your final warning!

Today Connections Answers are…

• Yellow group – keep a promise (FULFILL, HONOR, KEEP, UPHOLD)
• Green Group – Bedding (blanket, pillowcases, sheet, throw)
• Blue group – actions in card games (DISCARD, DRAW, PASS, PLAY)
• Purple Group – Cabinet Departments (ENERGY, JUSTICE, LABOR, STATE)

I was very happy that I had a perfect game and was able to extend my winning streak to three. This is what happened to me:

🟪🟪🟪🟪

🟨🟨🟨🟨

🟩🟩🟩🟩

🟦🟦🟦🟦

I immediately thought of the purple group from which JUSTICE and WORK jumped out at me. The yellows were then easy enough.

It took a moment for the final two groups to reach their conclusions. At first I thought there might have been something to the pairing of THROW and DISCARD, but I figured out the greens and then the blues without making a mistake.

That’s all for today Connections Hints and answers. Be sure to check out my blog for tips and the walkthrough for Monday’s game if you need them.

PS Outside of reality TV shows, it’s very rare that you can watch something and be able to say with certainty that someone’s life was changed forever in that moment. One of my all-time favorite videos on YouTube shows Pharrell Williams listening to the brilliant “Alaska” by Maggie Rogers (then a student) for the first time and absolutely raving about the song:

After a town council shakeup, Micah Foster was suddenly mayor of his tiny eastern Wyoming agricultural town. A wave of resignations last April meant that in addition to getting up at 2 a.m. each day for his regular job—delivering bread to grocery stores for Bimbo Bakeries—Foster found himself running his 400-person town.

In June, as Foster was still adjusting to his new role, he got some good news. Lingle was awarded a $1.4 million American Rescue Plan Act grant to upgrade aging sewage pipelines—a big deal for any small town, sparing it from having to borrow the money because it cannot possibly raise rates high enough to cover such an expense. Lingle even secured the required 10% match from the state, Foster said.

But there was a hitch. To complete the required engineering plan, the town still needed the cooperation of BNSF Railway to cross its tracks on the south side—a slow process and an effort that the town’s small, overworked staff struggled to accomplish.

Wyoming officials, in July, reminded town leaders that the engineering plan must be complete, contracts signed and the project “shovel-ready” by Oct. 1, or the state would be forced to revert, or claw back, the grant to pre-empt the federal government from taking the money back—from Lingle and the state.

“There’s no way we can get that done,” Foster said, adding, “We’re not Cheyenne,” referring to the capital city’s advantage in having a full professional staff. “We don’t have an engineer on staff to do this and push it. So we were happy [when initially approved for the grant] and then we were sad.

“It’s like dangling a carrot in front of you but it was never really there,” he added.

Many Wyoming towns and entities that have been awarded ARPA grant dollars administered by the state worry they may suffer the same fate. In August, the Office of State Lands and Investments hosted a webinar with municipalities and others, striking a tone of urgency as staff reiterated the Oct. 1 deadline to prove ARPA grant projects are ready for shovels to hit dirt, or lose the money.

“We want to have this opportunity to make long-term investments with these dollars,” Wyoming Grants Management Office Administrator Christine Emminger told attendees. “So create the pressure on your contractors to get these dollars obligated, get them contracted at your local government or your entity level. Because if they are not contracted, and you do not provide that evidence to the Office of the State Lands and Investments (OSLI), we will have to go back and recapture those dollars.”

More than 50 of 159 state-administered ARPA grant recipients for water and sewer projects have yet to file completed compliance documents to avoid recapture, according to state officials.

“OSLI is in regular communication with all the entities that have not yet provided the necessary information, and are making every effort to provide assistance, where possible,” Gov. Mark Gordon’s press secretary Michael Pearlman told WyoFile. 

The state is also facing a tight deadline, and is at risk of losing potentially tens of millions of federal dollars that budget-strapped communities desperately need. Wyoming’s mineral royalty revenues, which used to fund such water infrastructure funds, are drying up due to the declining coal industry.

State officials, under the guidance of the governor’s office, will determine in October which ARPA grants to claw back, then rush to “redeploy” those dollars before the federal government’s Dec. 31 deadline, they say. Though Gordon has indicated his priorities for redeploying ARPA dollars, exactly who and what projects the state might choose before the end of the year is yet to be determined.

“Any funds available after the Oct. 1 deadline may be deployed to local governments to reimburse or reduce local matches for previously approved water infrastructure projects,” according to an Aug. 19 press release from the governor’s office.

Meanwhile, there’s an increasingly urgent need among Wyoming towns to update water and sewer systems.

The neighboring oil boom-and-bust towns of Midwest and Edgerton in the middle of the historic Salt Creek oilfield are relying on ARPA dollars to help cover an estimated $5 million cost to replace 7 miles of potable water pipeline at risk of corrosion due to acidic soils in the oilfield.

In the neighboring towns of Kemmerer and Diamondville (with a combined population of about 3,000) in the state’s southwest corner, town officials have described a chicken-and-egg dilemma to fund long-overdue upgrades necessary to not only meet current demands, but to meet the needs of construction workers arriving for the $4 billion Natrium nuclear energy project already underway. The construction workforce is expected to peak at 1,600 in 2028, although many of the workers will commute from other nearby towns, according to officials. Project developers, backed by both the U.S. Department of Energy and Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, say it’s up to local government entities in Wyoming or the federal government to make any needed investments.

Human-caused climate change plays a role, too, forcing many towns to consider increasing competition for secure sources of water made more scarce due to warming and drying trends.

Cascading Water Challenges

Sometimes when you patch a leak, you spring another one down the line. Then another, and another.

That was the challenge for city water crews in Rawlins over Labor Day weekend. They chased and patched six leaks at gushing “weak points” in the aging municipal water system that serves both Rawlins and neighboring Sinclair without major interruptions to water deliveries, according to officials.

It’s a routine that many water crews in Wyoming towns have become well practiced at in recent years: Fixing one leak in a frangible network begets another—a result of depressurizing then re-pressurizing segments of pipe. The problem worsens when you’re dealing with an aging system long overdue for upgrades.

And towns like Rawlins aren’t just patching leaks. They’re looking at systemwide water and sewer upgrades vital to simply meet existing demand, not to mention potential population growth and previously unfathomed pressures of climate change.

In March 2022, Rawlins residents were under a boil order for nearly a week due to a “catastrophic” failure in the 100-plus-year-old wood-stave pipelines that deliver the majority of water to the municipal system from springs 30 miles south of town. 

In addition to the expense and task of gradually upgrading the wooden pipelines—nearly 2 miles have been replaced so far—the town also brought back online a long-derelict pre-water treatment plant so it can supplement its water supply by pumping from the North Platte River, as needed. Flow from the springs that provide Rawlins and Sinclair most of their water varies greatly, depending on seasonal snowpack, according to city officials. And those seasonal flows are only becoming more unpredictable.

All told, it will take nearly $60 million for necessary water system upgrades, according to Rawlins officials. They’ve already had some success landing grant dollars from state and federal sources, including ARPA dollars. But to secure those grants, and other funds in the form of loans, water users have been asked to pony up.

The average residential water utility bill has increased by about $30 per month since 2022, officials say. 

“Our rates were too low to support the maintenance and the work that we have to do on our lines,” Rawlins City Manager Tom Sarvey said. 

“A lot of these grants or loans require that you show community buy-in,” Rawlins spokesperson Mira Miller said. “So you can’t apply for these things if you can’t show that you are charging your customers a fair rate.”

Rawlins—because it’s been in emergency mode for the past two years—is confident about the security of its state-administered ARPA funding so far, according to officials. But many other towns with pressing water system improvement needs aren’t so sure.

Many small towns, even those that clearly qualify for federal grants, struggle to complete engineering and other required planning in the arduous process due to a basic lack of resources and expertise, Wyoming Association of Municipalities Member Services Manager Justin Schilling said.

“Municipal government, it’s a constant rotation of people, so they might not have been aware how urgent [completing grant requirements] was,” Schilling said. “So, we had a bunch of these small communities that got a lifeline tossed to them, but because of engineering delays, the state’s got to pull it back and slide it to shovel-ready projects so that it doesn’t just go back to the feds.”

State officials, in their August webinar with ARPA recipients in the state, fielded about a dozen questions from concerned community leaders.

“I know the process has been cumbersome,” State Loan and Investments Grants and Loans Manager Beth Blackwell told attendees, adding that state officials knew all along that the ARPA requirements were going to be a major challenge for many small, resource-strapped towns to meet. “My staff is working extremely hard, and it’s just, we’ve got to make sure that at the end of the day, the state’s not on the hook to paying these funds back.”

In Lingle, without the ARPA grant, there’s no alternative plan in the works to fund the wastewater system upgrades, Mayor Foster said.

Manchester United have provided Erik ten Hag with talent worth around £600m. Can you remember the 21 players signed during the Dutchman’s reign?

Ten Hag is under huge pressure after another poor performance in Sunday’s home defeat to Tottenham. About it We have conclusions. Sixteen of them.

One of Ten Hag’s defenses is that he hasn’t yet built the team in his image. But United have signed 21 players during his time at the club, including 13 from Sunday’s 20-man squad.

You have 365 seconds to remember the 21 players who cost United a total of around £600m.

As always, record your times on the leaderboard and brag about Below The Line.

If you liked this and need more reasons to avoid work, we’ve got you covered There are many more quizzes here. And our friends at Planet Football has more.

In the meantime, make sure you don’t miss these…

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👉 Wasteful Tottenham were still laughing at Manchester United’s humiliation in defeat at Old Trafford
👉 Ten Hag sacking inevitable but Man Utd players ‘stealing for a living’ and Rashford ‘just gave up’

If trashy shock in the style of Full Moon Demonic toys or Puppeteer is not a viewer’s mood, they won’t understand the genius of it Frankie freako. Writer-director Steven Kostanski not only captures the spirit of the little monster movies of the late ’80s and early ’90s; he reproduces it in a shockingly accurate format. Seriously, don’t tell anyone what time period this film is from, or they’ll think it’s from a time long gone.

The premise alone turns out to be outrageous and completely unbelievable. Frankie freako introduces Conor Sweeney – played by, well, Conor Sweeney – who many people see as “a square.” This man’s favorite band is undoubtedly U2 because he lacks any real excitement in his life and needs something to spark the magic. After Kristina (Kristy Wordsworth) goes away for the weekend and is tired of being seen as boring, he dials 1-900-555-FREAKO to save his life and three goblin-like creatures – Frankie Freako (Matthew Kennedy), Dottie Dunko (Meredith Sweeney) and Boink Bardo (Adam Brooks) arrive at his house. If Conor is looking for excitement then it’s more than he bargained for as Frankie and his friends get up to a lot of mischief and mayhem.

Accept the absurdity of the puppets and the plot

Through Action Pants FX’s impressive creature design and puppetry, Steven Kostanski brings Frankie and his friends to life. In any case, the film emphasizes practical effects over CGI and is a wonderful reminder of the days when filmmakers had to get creative when creating their monsters. Even the character’s movements tickle the funny bone, evoking memories that remind older viewers of films like living beings And Ghoulies. In addition, Kostanski gives the film a cheeky touch Home alone There is also humor as Frankie, Dottie and Boink stage a variety of traps and mishaps around Conor’s house.

Kostanski doesn’t ask the audience to suspend their disbelief here, like every other part of this Frankie freako is in on the joke. It’s a ridiculous story filled with ridiculous characters, and the film demands that the viewer accept the absurdity rather than question it. Again, this isn’t for everyone, and the real “squares” might find it too childish for their own tastes and release another episode of CSI instead.

Until the third act there is fun and games

The strangeness of Frankie freako However, in the third act it becomes too silly for its own good. It’s okay to be crazy and go off in unexpected directions, but the plot spirals out of control when the focus of the story shifts to Frankie, Dottie, and Boink rather than Conor. Think about it Gremlins in comparison. The audience understands the Gremlins’ motivations and knows where they come from (well, sort of), but the film continues to revolve around how Billy and his family deal with them rather than bringing them together to fight a Gremlin God. There’s no need to find out more about Frankie and his friends in this film – that could have been left for a possible sequel.

The ending also falls flat when Kristina returns from her weekend trip. Considering how humorous and satisfying the previous two acts were, this one feels rushed and forced in comparison. It is not in the least absurd or ridiculous; It’s just boring, which is a shame given the sensational build-up to the final act.

Is Frankie Freako worth watching?

This needs to be emphasized again Frankie freako is not for everyone. The little monster subgenre of horror comedy already appeals to a niche audience. There’s also the fact that it’s intentionally made to look like it was made in the ’80s, which might turn off viewers even more. That said, if absurd characters and crazy storylines are someone’s thing, it’s time to go crazy!

RELATED: Review of the film “Invoking Yell” – This black metal horror shocks and frightens the senses

Frederico Coutrim is not your typical Uber driver. While he’s ferrying passengers around San Francisco, he’s also working on something big — an app that could make it easier for people from different countries to communicate. It’s called TransChatMe and it translates messages in real time, so you don’t have to copy and paste them into a separate translation app. You simply write your message in your language and it will be automatically translated into the recipient’s language. It’s designed to make conversations smoother, especially for people who don’t speak English fluently or are trying to communicate with someone who speaks a different language.

Frederico came up with the idea while driving for Uber. As a Brazilian living in the United States, he often encountered passengers who spoke different languages. He noted how difficult it can be for people to communicate when they don’t speak a common language, especially in everyday situations. Whether it’s directing a driver, placing an order at a restaurant, or just having a casual conversation, the language barrier can be frustrating. So Frederico decided to develop a solution.

TransChatMe could be particularly helpful for gig workers like Uber drivers, delivery people and their customers, who often come from different backgrounds and may not speak the same language. With this app, anyone can send messages in their language and have them translated instantly, making interactions smoother and more efficient.

Frederico’s story gained traction when a passenger in his Uber noticed a poster in the car asking for help. Frederico needed 1,000 downloads of the app to pitch it to investors, so the passenger’s friend, Reshan Khanna, shared the story on social media. Her post quickly gained attention and within 24 hours more than 200 people had downloaded the app. She wrote: “I’m chatting with our Uber driver who’s building a startup and looking for feedback. If anyone works in related fields, please reach out.”

Frederico was overwhelmed by the response and sent a heartfelt thank you email to Reshan. He wrote that her contribution brought light to a dark time and gave him the motivation to keep moving forward.

It’s inspiring to see how a person’s everyday job can become a platform for innovation. Frederico’s passion for solving a real-world problem helps bridge communication gaps, one conversation at a time.

South Korean regulators on Monday welcomed productive talks with messaging app Telegram over a deepfake porn crisis in the country.

In August, media and authorities in South Korea uncovered a sprawling network of Telegram chat rooms, often set up in schools and universities, where users shared AI-generated deepfake porn depicting female students and staff.

The revelations sparked public outrage, the president promised tough action, and lawmakers have recently taken steps to criminalize owning or viewing deepfake porn.

The telecommunications regulator said on Monday that Telegram had fully complied with its requests to remove 148 videos last month, with the longest removal lasting 36 hours.

“Telegram accelerated our two-way communication by deleting all deepfake videos requested by the committee and immediately providing us with the results,” said Ryu Hee-lim, chairman of the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC).

“We assess the results of our first meeting positively and expect that illegal information in Telegram will be blocked and deleted more quickly,” he added.

The KCSC said the company claimed to “deeply understand the situation in Korea, where deepfake sex crimes have become a societal problem,” and promised a zero-tolerance policy toward such content.

Cybersecurity startup Security Hero recorded nearly 96,000 deepfake videos online worldwide last year, 53 percent of which featured South Korean singers and actresses.

Telegram’s “sudden move” to cooperate with South Korean authorities may be linked to the arrest in France of the app’s boss Pavel Durov, who is accused of failing to act against criminals, a cybersecurity professor told AFP.

“Telegram’s marketing argument is that it never partners with any government and that it is more secure than any other messaging app. “So they essentially lose their biggest selling point if this collaboration continues,” said Kim Seung-joo of Korea University.

KCSC’s Ryu said the commission had asked French authorities for urgent cooperation, without giving details.

Separately, South Korea’s police agency said on Monday that there had been “some progress in communications” with Telegram.

“I can’t give details at this point because it’s still in the early stages,” Woo Jong-soo, head of the National Police Agency’s investigation bureau, told reporters.

Police told AFP that this was the first time Telegram had responded since the agency requested information from members on the platform.

Police said they had received hundreds of reports of deepfake crimes and arrested 387 suspects.

Telegram did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

hs/ceb/rsc/smw

WASHINGTON — The biggest crisis of Tim Walz’s time as Minnesota governor came in the hours and days after the killing of George Floyd, which divided the country on issues of race, policing and civil order.

The 46-year-old’s death in May 2020 at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin sparked thousands of protests on the streets of Minneapolis, with riots, looting and vandalism occurring across the city – and across the country. In the days that followed, Walz deployed the National Guard in his state to quell the unrest.

But the heated debate over how to handle the events remains a key talking point for Republicans. Ahead of Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate in New York City between Republican candidate JD Vance and Walz, Republicans have put the Minnesota governor’s handling of the protests and controversy surrounding Floyd’s murder back in the spotlight.

WASHINGTON – Some Democrats fear that the corruption scandal involving New York City Mayor Eric Adams could hurt Vice President Kamala Harris in the neck-and-neck presidential race and hamper the party’s bid for control of the House of Representatives.

The nervousness comes as Adams, who was indicted on federal corruption charges on Thursday, has refused to resign while suggesting he is the victim of a White House vendetta.

“While he is innocent until proven guilty, I certainly do not believe he has been targeted by the Biden-Harris administration,” the Rev. Al Sharpton, a Democratic kingmaker, told USA TODAY. “This is garbage.”

The embattled mayor claims he is the victim of federal retaliation for complaining about the financial burden of accepting 210,000 asylum seekers from the southern border.

The 23-year-old was eliminated from the Japan Open on Sunday after his quarter-final duel against Frenchman Ugo Humbert.

Draper required treatment for an abdominal problem and, after trying to keep going, was forced to retire trailing 7-5, 2-1.

Draper’s camp says he doesn’t yet know the extent of the injury but believes the turnaround from Tokyo to Shanghai is happening too quickly.

Get well soon, @jackdraper0 😐

Unfortunately, with the score at 5:7, 1:2, Draper had to retire due to injury.#kinoshitajotennis pic.twitter.com/0a3lpf2Ak1

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) September 29, 2024

The Japan Open was Draper’s first ATP tournament since reaching the semifinals of the US Open earlier this month.

The world number 20 played for Great Britain in the Davis Cup a few days later, but lost both games.

Afterwards, Draper complained that the current tennis schedule was too busy.

“It’s a mental calendar,” he said. “There is literally no break. It’s really mentally and physically challenging.”

Draper had a first-round bye in Shanghai and would have faced either Hugo Gaston or Jaume Munar in the second round.

Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and world number one Jannik Sinner are in the draw.

The game at Elland Road was Sheaf’s first start since the final game of last season after he suffered an ankle injury and after just over an hour of play the midfielder said he was “feeling good physically” but knows “It will take a while for him to get fit again.”

“I’m happy to be out there, it’s been a frustrating time for me personally,” he said.

Now that he is back, Sheaf also knows that his role as captain – along with that of the other experienced players in the squad – is crucial to City finding their form and easing the pressure on boss Mark Robins.

“We had a good chat after the game – some positives came out of it,” said Sheaf.

“We have to remember that we do this because we love it. The gaffer said: ‘It’s Saturday afternoon, what do you want to do?’

“The games are tough – you want to look deeper and enjoy these moments.”

“We have to show a little more courage and more quality on the ball. There are many things we can do better.”