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 and Connections puzzles.Today'sStrandspuzzle might make you hungry. There's a tasty batch of holiday flavors that all kind of sound like Starbucks offerings. Today's Strands puzzle wasn't too tough, but if you need more hints and answers, read on. Also, I go into depth about therules for Strands in this story.If you're looking for today's Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visitCNET's NYT puzzle hints page.Read more:NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So FarHint for today's Strands puzzleToday's Strands theme is:Pass the eggnog.If that doesn't help you, here's a clue: Timely tastes.Clue words to unlock in-game hintsYour 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:HOLIDAY, BINE, CANE, ROOM, MOOR, READ, BERRY, GINGER, BREAD, COOT, MINT, PEPPERAnswers for today's Strands puzzleThese 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've got 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:COCOA, CRANBERRY, GINGERBREAD, PEPPERMINTToday's Strands spangramToday's Strands spangram isHOLIDAYFLAVOR.To find it, start with the H that's the first letter in the top row, and wind down and over, staying close to the top of the letter grid. The completed NYT Strands puzzle for Dec. 23, 2024. NYT/Screenshot by CNET

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer?Click here for today's Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections and Strands puzzles.Today's New York TimesWordleanswer describes a place where some people like to go, especially in winter, to warm up. It is not e place I would ever choose to go, but to each their own. (I'll take a hot tub any day.) The word itself has three vowels, and one is repeated, so it could be a stumper. If you need hints and answers, read on. Today's Wordle hints Before we show you today'sWordleanswer, we'll give you some hints. If you don't want a spoiler, look away now.Wordle hint No. 1: RepeatsToday's Wordle answer has one repeated letter.Wordle hint No. 2: VowelsThere are two different vowels in today's Wordle answer, but one of them is repeated, so you'll see three vowels total.Wordle hint No. 3: EndingToday's Wordle answer ends with a vowel.Wordle hint No. 4: First letterToday's Wordle answer begins with the letter S.Wordle hint No. 5: MeaningToday's Wordle answer can refer to a small room used as a hot-air or steam bath.TODAY'S WORDLE ANSWERToday's Wordle answer is SAUNA.Yesterday's Wordle answerYesterday's Wordle answer, Dec. 22, No. 1282, was BRAWN.Recent Wordle answersDec. 18, No. 1278: HEFTYDec. 19, No. 1279: STRAYDec. 20, No. 1280: FLASHDec. 21, No. 1281: BLADE

Days after furloughing dozens of its employees without pay, EV startup Canoo told the remainder of its staff they will be on a mandatory unpaid break through at least the end of the year, TechCrunch reported Friday. A company email seen by the outlet said employees would be locked out of Canoos systems by the end of Friday, with their benefits continuing through the end of this month.The report follows Canoos announcement last week that it was idling its Oklahoma factories and furloughing employees while it worked to finalize securing the capital necessary to move forward with its operations. As TechCrunch notes, the company reported that it had only about $700,000 left in the bank last month.Also on Friday, the company announced a 1-for-20 reverse stock split, effective December 24th. Canoo says the consolidation aims to keep its stock listed on the Nasdaq exchange and attract a broader group of institutional and retail investors.Canoo was founded in 2017 to sell electric vans and trucks to adventure-seeking customers but has mostly only ever made vehicles for the US government. As The Verges Andrew Hawkins wrote last year, analysts have warned of its risk of insolvency as its teetered on the edge of running out of cash since 2022. Canoo has lost a steady stream of executives since then, including all of its founders and, more recently, its CFO and general counsel.

Elon Musks AI company, xAI, is testing out a standalone iOS app for its chatbot, Grok, which was available only to X users until now.The app, currently live in Australia and a few countries in beta, can access real-time data from the web and X, and offers generative AI features like rewriting text, summarizing long paragraphs, a little bit of Q&A, and can generate images from text prompts, too. Grok is an AI-powered assistant designed to be maximally truthful, useful, and curious. Get answers to any question, generate striking images, and upload pictures to gain a deeper understanding of your world, the listing reads.xAI is also preparing a dedicated site, Grok.com, to make the chatbot accessible on the web. Currently, the site says coming soon when you log in with an xAI account.Grok was available only to Xs paying subscribers until recently. In November, the company started testing a free version of the chatbot, and rolled it out to all users earlier this month.The company says its chatbots image generator model excels at photorealistic rendering, and doesnt apply major restrictions on its image-generation capabilities, allowing users to create images using pictures of public figures and copyrighted material.

In this episode, we dive into the extraordinary visual effects of Universal Pictures Wicked, directed by Jon M. Chu. As a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, the film not only tells the origin story of Elphaba and Glindatwo witches whose lives take drastically different pathsbut also transports audiences to a vividly reimagined Oz.Join us as we discuss the VFX that brings Ozs animals, spellbinding magic, and the stunning world of Shiz University to life. We break down the challenges of creating the films effects for pivotal scenes, such as the gravity-defying flight sequences and the Wizards grand, mechanical illusions. Plus, we discuss how the visual effects team balanced fantastical elements with the emotional core of the story, ensuring the magic of Oz feels both epic and personal.In this VFXShow, we discuss and review the film, but later this week, we will also post our interview with Wickeds VFX supervisor, Pablo Helman.Dont forget to subscribe to both the VFXShow and the fxpodcast to get both of our most popular podcasts.This week in OZ:Matt Lion Wallin * @mattwallin www.mattwallin.com.Follow Matt on Mastodon: @[emailprotected]Jason Scarecrow Diamond @jasondiamond www.thediamondbros.comMike Tin Man Seymour @mikeseymour. www.fxguide.com. + @mikeseymourSpecial thanks to Matt Wallin for the editing & production of the show with help from Jim Shen.

Conor McGregor (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)Zuffa LLC via Getty ImagesConor McGregor sent a stern message to DAZN on social media during the networks stream of BKFC: Hollywood.According to McGregor, DAZN, the streaming partner for BKFC, wasnt giving the winner of the events fights an interview opportunity.An angry McGregor took to X and posted this ultimatum or threat.He doubled down after the initial post and tagged several official DAZN accounts.McGregor is part-owner, but he may not have the power to pull BKFC from its contract with DAZN. BKFC was founded and is still owned by David Feldman, and if the promotion is under contract with DAZN, its probable that no one could simply make the decision to pull the product from the service.MORE FOR YOUMcGregor infamously fired Platinum Mike Perry in July after he lost to Jake Paul in a boxing match. That decision doesnt appear to have stuck considering Perry was in the BKFC ring on Saturday night calling out former UFC champion Robbie Lawler.Surprisingly, Feldman wasnt asked about McGregors comments during the post-event presser.However, McGregors complaints may still draw some negative attention to the broadcast. BKFC is making some noteworthy moves in combat sports. A massive $25 million tournament is in the works and Feldman mentioned a huge acquisition that he will be announcing shortly.According to Feldman, its going to change combat sports.The distribution that DAZN provides is key to BKFCs continued advancement. While most have become accustomed and perhaps even oblivious to McGregors online rants, openly criticizing a business partner is a little dicey.McGregor knows the importance of mic time for combat sports athletes. He has accomplished just as much to help establish his personas with the mic as he did in the Octagon.McGregor wants to give the fighters under the BKFC umbrella an opportunity to make themselves household names. They need interview time to accomplish that goal. Perhaps the broadcast will be restructured moving forward to allow at least some of the winners an opportunity to connect with the combat sports universe following a win,Here are the result of BKFC: Hollywood along with the performance bonuses that were awarded.BKFC on DAZN: Hollywood ResultsMike Richman def. Jared Warren via KO in Round 1 (0:44) - KO of the NightWins BKFC World Light-Heavyweight TitleChristine Ferea def. Christine Vicens via TKO in Round 4 (1:22) - Fight of the NightDefends BKFC World Womens Flyweight TitleLeonardo Perdomo def. Levi Costa via KO in Round 1 (0:47) - Performance BonusBryan Duran - def. Kasim Ruffin via TKO in Round 1 (1:59) - Performance BonusGee Perez def. Cary Caprio via TKO in Round 1 (0:44)Justin Ibarrola def. Derek Perez via TKO in Round 2 (1:04)Edgard Plazaola def. Alex Castro via KO in Round 4 (1:25)Sabah Homasi def. Eduardo Peralta via KO in Round 2 (1:02)Tyler Randall def. Austin Lewis via KO in Round 1 (1:46)Francesco Ricchi def. Blake LaCaze via Unanimous Decision (50-43x2, 48-45)Brock Walker def. Chino Bloom via KO in Round 4 (1:04)

Why you need a new email address in 2025NurPhoto via Getty ImagesYour inbox is under attack. The FBI has issued yet another warning ahead of the holidays, highlighting an alarming surge in email and website threats, just as multiple cyber reports claim this is the most dangerous holiday season yet. Even though Google blocks more than 99.9% of spam, phishing and malware in Gmail, its not enough. But now change is on the way. And for Gmails 2.5 billion users, 2025 looks like being the year your email address should finally change.With more than 2.5 billion users, Gmail, the worlds largest email provider, is now deploying ground-breaking AI models [to] significantly strengthen Gmail cyber-defenses, including a new LLM trained on phishing, malware and spam. But as McAfee has just warned, that AI revolution works both ways. As AI continues to mature and become increasingly accessible, cybercriminals are using it to create scams that are more convincing, personalized, and harder to detect.Email remains an appallingly basic technology. Despite all its advances, the core architecture remains the same. Anyone can access anyone elses inbox with just an email address. Those addresses are basically given away for freeharvested, leaked, stored, searchable. This month, Mailmodo says, spam messages [will] account for more than 46.8% of email traffic.This is why enterprises are looking for new solutionsTeams, Slack, even instant messaging platforms. because even with all the advances and the outside sender and untrusted sender warnings, too many emails get through.The answer is to restore some semblance of address security and not give away real email addresses like confettia situation made worse given email address are often a primary user credential alongside passwords to log into sites and services. Apple has tried to address this with Hide My Email, to keep your personal email address private... you can generate unique, random email addresses that forward to your personal email account, so you dont have to share your real email address when filling out forms or signing up for newsletters on the web, or when sending email.MORE FOR YOUAnd as I reported in November, Google is developing something similar for Gmail. Discovered by Android Authority in an Android APK teardown, Shielded Email consists of a system to create single-use or limited-use email aliases that will forward messages along to your primary account.This is a major step forwards and you should make use of this when it arrivesas should Apple users now. Just look at one warning issued to marketeers when Hide My Email was released: Now users can create a limitless number of fake addresses they dont even check, dramatically reducing engagement. And, worse still, they can easily deactivate them without affecting their primary email, meaning marketing databases could be full of dead addresses. This is important because a low deliverability rate can affect sender reputation, meaning your carefully crafted campaign ends up in spam.While Google assures that by spotting patterns and responding rapidly, [its Gmail] LLM alone blocks 20% more spam than before and reviews 1,000 times more user-reported spam daily, the threat will get worse again in 2025. McAfee says that AI is giving cybercriminals the ability to easily create more personalized and convincing emails and messages that look like theyre from trusted sources, such as banks, employers, or even family members. They can craft these scams quickly and with precision, making them more difficult to detect and increasing their success rate. As AI tools become more accessible, these types of attacks are expected to grow in sophistication and frequency.Email must changeand not just by improving central screening technologies. We need a radically different approach to include the following:On-device AI to flag spam and malicious email that has made it through central screening to inboxes. Too many emails still make it though, even though the actual email address and the presentational sender address dont match, with the latter a clear impersonation. How is it possible in 2024 that my inbox contains emails from Apple Support or X verification, when the senders have random email addresses such as sayio[at]hosai.co.jp.A better opt-in, known sender solutionmimicking secure messaging. Even the differentiation of trusted and unknown senders is too basic. There needs to be better deployment of AI or an easy-button for user to opt into a trusted discussion and advocate for a sender.Rather than upping the ante centrally, email security needs to do a better front-end (device-side) job. This is where safe browsing and malware defenses are now heading, making use of new device AI processing. Email needs a complete rethink to do the same.In the meantime, users need to take control. Yes, you need to use Hide My Email or Gmails new Shielded Email as soon as its available. But if you have an email address that has been doing the rounds for years, then it has become a honey trap for spam and worse.Its time to come up with something new, an email address you will better protect through multiple, throw-away, masked addresses, without giving that primary address away. Using new email masking technologies is undermined if the primary address they link to has already been harvested, sold and leaked. With 2025 just days away and threats surging, maybe make email housekeeping one of your New Year resolutions and think about the risks associated with the addresses youre using now.

Shares in Chinas largest chip maker continued to rally amid buoyant investor sentiment.

Steve Ballmer said his investment strategy is partly influenced by Warren Buffett.But Ballmer, whose net worth is larger than Buffett's, has an unconventional investment portfolio.More than 80% of Ballmer's portfolio is held in Microsoft stock, per The Wall Street Journal.Steve Ballmer has an unorthodox investing approach.The former Microsoft CEO is worth $151 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the ninth richest person the world.That puts him ahead of famed investor Warren Buffett by a nearly $10 billion margin.In an interview published Sunday, Ballmer toldThe Wall Street Journal that his investment strategy is partly influenced by Buffett, who has long said that since most people picking stocks cannot beat the returns of a general index fund. But there's one key difference.The Journal reported that Ballmer keeps more than 80% of his portfolio in Microsoft stock. The rest is held in index funds. Ballmer declined to say how large his stake is in Microsoft."Microsoft's outperformed just about every other asset I could have owned," Ballmer told the Journal.Ballmer's investment strategy goes against conventional wisdom, which suggests that people reduce their risk by diversifying their capital across different asset classes. And the world's wealthiest people typically go beyond stocks and bonds to invest in non-liquid assets like private equity and real estate. Ballmer said he is "mostly dialing out of private equity."To be sure, Ballmer wasn't always going against the trend.The 68-year-old tried diversifying in the past but said he struggled to find money managers who consistently beat the market."The only stock I really study still is Microsoft, because that's still overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly the No. 1 thing that I own," Balmer told the outlet.Ballmer began his career at Microsoft in 1980 and succeeded founder Bill Gates as CEO in 2000.According to regulatory filings, Ballmer held 333 million shares, or a 4% stake, in Microsoft when he stepped down as CEO in 2014.Microsoft's shares are up 16.1% this year. The Seattle-based tech giant has been in front of the AI race with huge bets on startups like Sam Altman's OpenAI and France's Mistral AI.In October, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in an earnings call that the company's AI business is on track to top an annual revenue run rate of $10 billion next quarter.This would make it the fastest business in Microsoft's history to reach that milestone, Nadella added.Ballmer attributes his bumper gains in Microsoft's stock to luck."Forget the stock price. I had luck, essentially, in getting to listen to the right people," Ballmer told the Journal."But I also had luck in terms of my loyalty to the company and not wanting to be a seller as a leader of the business. It turned out to be a great investment thing, too," he added.Ballmer did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Russia's central bank has kept the key interest rate at 21%, bucking expectations of a hike to 23%.Russia's top central banker said she is eyeing "excessive cooling" in the economy.Russia's high interest rates are impacting business investments and profits, business leaders complain.Russia's economy has been running hot on wartime activities, prompting the country's central bank to hike rates up to 21% but it's now worried about too much cooling.Elvira Nabiullina, Russia's top central banker, expressed that concern on Friday when she kept the key interest rate unchanged. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected her to hike rates to 23%."Our politics is aimed at prevention of extreme scenarios, which means that we cannot let the economy overheat further," Nabiullina said at a press conference following the rates decision, according to TASS state news agency."It is necessary to make sure that overheating subsides. That said, it is necessary to avoid excessive cooling, which is why we keep a close eye on this," she said.Nabiullina said the central bank kept the interest rate steady as monetary conditions have "tightened even more than was implied by the key rate increase" in October, when the bank raised the rate from 19% to 21%. Russia started the year with its benchmark interest rate at 16%."Consequently, lending growth notably slowed down in November," she said. "We will need some time to assess how steady this deceleration in lending is and how the economy is adjusting to the new conditions."Russian business leaders complain about high interest ratesNabiullina's comments came as Russia's inflation hovered around 8% in the year to November, compared to the target rate of about 4%. Staples, like the price of butter and potatoes, have shot up this year. But the central bank's three straight rate hikes since June may be working, the top central banker signaled."Tough monetary conditions have evolved in the economy, which are to provide for inflation slowdown in coming quarters," she said, per TASS.Russian business leaders have been complaining about the central bank's high interest rates, which they say are stifling business activities.Sergei Chemezov, the CEO of the defense conglomerate Rostec, said in October that record-high interest rates were "eating up" the profit from the company's orders."If we continue to work like this, then most of our enterprises will go bankrupt," Chemezov said.Economic cracks in RussiaEven Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday acknowledged that his country's economy is not in a good place and he blamed the central bank and federal government.The Russian leader said that the central bank could have used instruments other than interest rates to cool the economy and that the federal government could have worked with economic stakeholders to improve supply."There are some issues here, namely inflation, a certain overheating of the economy, and the government and the central bank are already tasked with bringing the tempo down," Putin said during his marathon annual press conference.Price rises had been an "unpleasant and bad" outcome, he said.Given the sweeping sanctions against Russia's economy, Nabiullina faces a challenging job to keep Russia's seemingly resilient economy going.Economic cracks are emerging as the Kremlin focuses on shoring up its defense industry for its war in Ukraine but at the expense of other sectors, Alexandra Prokopenko, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center fellow wrote on Friday.Prokopenko, a former Russian central bank official, wrote that growth momentum could stall next year, with social and fiscal challenges developing into crises around 2026.