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U.S. agriculture officials halted live cattle crossing the border in July due to concerns about the flesh-eating maggot which has been found in southern Mexico and is creeping north.

(Image credit: Fernando Llano)

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Aug. 6

Under the terms, ESPN will acquire NFL Network, NFL Fantasy and the rights to distribute the RedZone channel to cable and satellite operators and the league will get a 10% equity stake in ESPN.

(Image credit: Kamil Krzaczynski)

The Department of Health and Human Services will cancel contracts and pull funding for some vaccines that are being developed to fight respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flu.

(Image credit: Mark Schiefelbein)

Two years after passengers hoping for a glimpse of the Titanic wreckage died in the Titan submersible implosion, the Coast Guard issued a scathing report, saying the tragedy shouldn't have happened.

(Image credit: Image provided by the U.S. Coast Guard)

It's reportedly "preparing to introduce" the unique form factor later this year.

• Microsoft's VP for OS Security has provided his vision of Windows in 2030
• It will be multimodal and involve 'more talking to our computers'
• AI will power the ability to 'do much more sophisticated things'

Ever wondered what Windows will be like at the turn of the decade, when 2030 rolls around?

Windows Central discovered a video clip uploaded on Microsoft's YouTube channel in which its Corporate VP for OS Security, David Weston, provides his vision for Windows in 2030 (you can watch it below).

In the short interview, Weston delivers answers to some set questions which are mostly on the topic of security (unsurprisingly, given that's his expertise), AI, jobs, and the business world. He does address the title of the video at one point, though, and gives us his thoughts on how Windows might look by the end of the decade.

Weston observes: "I think we will do less with our eyes and more talking to our computers. And I truly believe that a future version of Windows, and other Microsoft operating systems, will interact in a multi-modal way."

"The computer will be able to see what we see, hear what we hear, and we can talk to it and ask it to do much more sophisticated things. I think it will be a much more natural form of communication."

Weston adds: "The world of mousing around and typing will feel as alien as it does to Gen-Z to use MS-DOS."

Much of the rest of the video discusses AI and jobs, as mentioned, and how we can expect AI to take over grunt work to free us humans up to do more interesting and creative tasks (or that's the long-held theory anyway).

And indeed, how future security experts will be AI bots that you'll interact with just like a real person, talking to them in video chats and meetings, or emailing to give them tasks.

Analysis: Far-fetched?

To me, this doesn't feel like a vision of Windows in five years' time (well, it's nearer four if we want to nit-pick, and I do), but a good deal further out than that. Although Weston does hint that this is a broader vision of a 'future version of Windows', and I get the gist: the future is 'multimodal' - moving away from the simple mouse and keyboard as the main inputs for the PC - and, of course, everything's built around AI (naturally).

Will the future of Windows be like this, though? I'm certainly not betting against it being focused heavily on AI, as that very much looks to be the case. In general, AI feels like an almost irresistible force in terms of where computers are heading, and Microsoft is clearly trying to jam more AI into Windows wherever it can - a path that the software giant is doubtless going to forge ahead with.

Today, I've been writing about clues hidden in the background of Windows 11 that suggest another AI agent might be coming to the taskbar in the desktop OS. That possible addition would live alongside the agent already introduced to the Settings app, which is a smart addition.

With powerful NPUs potentially set to be included in desktop chips soon, as well as Copilot+ laptops, AI is likely to become much more widespread in the world of PCs pretty swiftly. I'd even go as far as to guess that the next version of Windows won't be Windows 12, but Windows AI (or Windows Copilot maybe, if that's still the brand for AI), the focus on this arena is likely to be that strong.

There are promises, lofty ideas, and marketing around AI, though - and then the reality of what Microsoft can achieve. Remember when Copilot was first introduced to Windows 11? We were told it would be able to change a swathe of settings in the operating system based on a vague prompt from the user (like 'make me more productive'). That still hasn't happened, and appears to be firmly on the back burner.

Which is to say that while I don’t doubt that Microsoft has these big ambitions, whether a very different way of working with a Windows PC will happen in 2030 seems doubtful to me.

Granted, I can indeed envision that talking - giving voice commands (which are coming along nicely in Windows 11) - could become a much more important, but still supplementary, part of the Windows experience and interface. And AI (presumably) doing more sophisticated things, yes, fair enough - maybe even manipulating Windows settings in one fell swoop at the behest of the user will be realized in a manner that works well.

Hey, maybe Windows AI, or Windows 2030, or whatever it ends up being called, will finally get rid of the legacy Control Panel, as a commenter on Weston's video amusingly observes. Hah - it makes me feel giddy just to imagine it. This is a battle Microsoft has been fighting for far too long, after all,

But mouse-and-keyboard usage is being made to feel like the equivalent of us being forced to revert to the days of DOS, all text and tinkering with the config.sys and autoexec.bat files to get a PC game to work? That feels like more than a stretch, and something much, much further away in the Windows computing timeline - but I could be wrong.

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• Microsoft is prepping Windows XP Crocs, dubbed the '50th Anniversary Exclusive'
• It'll be the first version of Windows to take this step, if true
• The Crocs come with six Jibbitz and a carrying tote

Yes, Microsoft is still celebrating its 50th anniversary, and while the company has done a lot of looking back, it’s also looking forward. Err, at least taking a step forward.

Sure, we’ve seen some iconic Windows ugly sweaters, including one with Minesweeper and one with Clippy, but Windows XP is going where no other version of Windows has ever gone before – to Crocs.

TechRadar's confirmed with the tech giant that the Microsoft 50th Exclusive Crocs – aka the Windows XP Crocs – are official, and got five images of the shoes.

According to a report from The Verge, Windows XP Crocs are currently available for internal order by Microsoft employees – priced at $80 – with the story noting that the employees “get first dibs” ahead of a “worldwide launch.”

Image 1 of 5

(Image credit: Microsoft)Image 2 of 5

(Image credit: Microsoft)Image 3 of 5

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(Image credit: Microsoft)Image 5 of 5

(Image credit: Microsoft)

We’ve seen other collaborations from the Croc brand, with plenty of Disney properties included – I mean, kachow, Lightning McQueen Crocs that light up – along with fashion houses, and even McDonald's. The Windows XP Crocs, though, take the iconic green hills and blue skies wallpaper to the shoe form.

And I know what you’re thinking, but the images of the Windows XP Crocs do indeed confirm the existence of a Clippy Jibbitz (aka what Crocs calls their shoe charms). The Windows XP Crocs will come with an iconic helper as well as a pointer, the MSN butterfly, a classic Internet Explorer logo, the recycling bin, and a folder. That comes to a whopping six Jibbitz in total.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

You also get a drawstring tote that's inspired by the classic, now iconic, Windows XP wallpaper. Microsoft did confirm the existence of the Crocs to us and shared these images, but didn't share anything more on pricing or availability.

At a reported price tag of $80, the Windows XP Crocs aren’t cheap, but if you’re a Microsoft collector or someone who’s also opted to get the previous ugly holiday sweaters, they might be the perfect shoe to add to your collection. Of course, I think many would be happy if Microsoft goes the route of other retro, nostalgia-fueled drops – it could be a fresh skin for Windows or even another wallpaper drop, and that would still be a great way to honor the 50th.

You might recall that Microsoft dropped a limited 50th anniversary edition of the Surface Laptop, which looked pretty snazzy. It’s also a more subtle way to celebrate 50 years of Microsoft than, say, blue and green Crocs.

Stick with TechRadar as once we learn more about pricing and how to get a pair of the Microsoft 50th Exclusive Crocs, we'll be sure to update this post.

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• The Yamaha True X Surround 90A is a new four-box Dolby Atmos soundbar
• 12 up-firing drivers, four oval full-range drivers and three tweeters in the bar
• Newly developed subwoofer, and rear speakers are also stand-alone Bluetooth speakers

What's better than having a couple of upward-firing Dolby Atmos speakers? Having a dozen of them. That's what Yamaha has delivered in its new True X Surround 90A soundbar system, aka the SR-X90A.

The True X Surround 90A is a high-end, high-spec home theater soundbar system with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support, and that builds on the firm's True X 40 and 50 models, while incorporating tech from Yamaha's Sound Projector range.

According to Yamaha it delivers "an amazing home theater experience that goes beyond the realm of conventional soundbars".

Yamaha True X Surround 90A: key features and pricing

(Image credit: Yamaha)

The SR-X90A takes the same beam technology from the YSP-1 soundbar and applies it to a dozen up-firing speakers powered by Yamaha's YDA-141 amplifier. There are six speakers dedicated to the height channels projecting upwards at each end of the speaker, and according to Yamaha the results rival true ceiling-mounted speakers.

The very best Dolby Atmos soundbars tend to use four up-firing speakers (in the case of the Samsung HW-Q990F) or even five in the case of the LG S95AR. Some custom-install Dolby Atmos home theaters might use six in-ceiling speakers. 12 up-firing speakers is… hardcore.

The soundbar also features the Surround:AI processing from Yamaha's AV receivers, which is the first time it's been made available in a soundbar.

Those up-firing speakers are teamed up with newly developed eye-shaped oval drivers, which Yamaha says can deliver powerful audio without making the soundbar massive. There are four of these large oval drivers to cover the full frequency range, in conjunction with three tweeters. The speakers are arrange in left, center and right configurations on the soundbars front.

There's a newly developed subwoofer too, which keeps Yamaha's patented symmetrical flare port, and which has an internal plate to control the airflow in order to reduce vibrations from air turbulence and speaker movement. Yamaha says port noise is reduced by up to 20dB compared to more conventional designs.

The True X Surround 90A uses Yamaha's True X wireless connectivity for soundbar, subwoofer and satellite speakers, and the rear speakers it comes with can also be used as stand-alone Bluetooth speakers.

The system also has Yamaha's MusicCast network system for multi-room audio and in-app customization and configuration, and it's Apple AirPlay compatible too.

The True X Surround 90A will be available from September 2025 with an expected recommended retail price of £2,499 / AU$4,499 (about $3,300) – you can expect a more concrete US price closer to the time, depend on the latest tariff situation.

But before then, you can expect our early verdict on this soundbar – it's on its way to us, and this looks like a very exciting addition to the world of the best soundbars.

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Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Aug. 6, No. 317

The committee asked the DOJ for files related to its investigation of Jeffrey Epstein. It is also looking to question Bill and Hillary Clinton, among several other former government officials.

(Image credit: Eric Lee)

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Aug. 6, #787.

The next flagship model for the most popular AI platform is expected soon.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for Aug. 6, No. 1,509

If you struggled to solve many of the Wordle puzzles served up last month, then don't be too hard on yourself: it was the toughest month in the game's history.

I've crunched the numbers and, by my reckoning, it left every other month so far in the dust for difficulty, with an average score for the 31 games of 4.22.

That's according to the daily figures reported by WordleBot, the game's AI helper tool, which records the average among the many thousands of people who play. In turn, I've kept a list of those averages since the 'Bot launched in April 2022, meaning I now have a spreadsheet ranking 1,221 games by difficulty.

The bad news is that rather than being merely a statistical anomaly, that tough run may point the way towards Wordle's near future. My daily Wordle hints might well be even more useful from here on.

Wordle's month from hell

Regular Wordlers will be in no doubt as to the game's difficulty last month, with a string of near-impossible words causing all kinds of problems.

There was TIZZY, for instance, with its repeated letter Zs and average of 4.9, and POPPY with its triple Ps and 4.8 score.

FOIST might not look as difficult, but that was a classic example of Wordle's letter-trap games, where the first letter can be changed to make several other words, in this case JOIST, HOIST, and MOIST; that one also came in at 4.8.

SAVVY, with its double Vs, also hit that score, while BALER at 4.7 was one of the nastiest ER games we've had recently. EXILE (4.6), NERVY (4.5), and FRILL also caused problems, and the fact that LORIS (4.2) can be considered easy in this company points towards the overall difficulty.

July 2025 in Wordle: the 10 toughest

Game

Answer

Date

Average score

My score

1497

GOFER

Friday, 25 July 2025

5.6

5

1482

JUMPY

Thursday, 10 July 2025

5.2

5

1493

TIZZY

Monday, 21 July 2025

4.9

4

1475

POPPY

Thursday, 3 July 2025

4.8

6

1487

FOIST

Tuesday, 15 July 2025

4.8

4

1500

SAVVY

Monday, 28 July 2025

4.8

4

1477

BALER

Saturday, 5 July 2025

4.7

4

1484

EXILE

Saturday, 12 July 2025

4.6

4

1488

NERVY

Wednesday, 16 July 2025

4.5

4

1503

FRILL

Thursday, 31 July 2025

4.4

4

But the two worst last month were JUMPY and GOFER – with scores of 5.2 and 5.6, respectively.

Only 21 games in Wordle's history have passed the 5.0 mark (with another nine at exactly that score), so to get two in the space of two weeks is the stuff of nightmares.

JUMPY's problem was that J at the start; as my analysis of every Wordle answer shows, J is the least common letter in the game by far, so spotting it is rarely easy. The existence of LUMPY, DUMPY, and BUMPY will also have been a factor.

With GOFER, meanwhile, it was the combination of an ER ending (the most common in the game) and the not-so-common letters G and F that caused the issue. Its 5.6 score places it as the equal fourth hardest ever, behind only PARER, MUMMY, and CORER, and level with ROWER.

If you failed to solve any of them – or even all of them – then it's entirely understandable; Wordle is a simple game, but it can be fiendishly tricky at times.

Tougher than the rest

WordleBot only launched in April 2022, a couple of hundred games into the series, so it's possible that December 2021 or March 2022, or another month, was even more difficult. But I doubt it. I've played every Wordle so far and lost only once, and I certainly don't recall anything like July 2025.

To confirm my hunch, I tallied the average score for each day to get the overall average for July, then repeated the process for each of the other 38 months for which I have full details.

One thing I found interesting was that July 2025 wasn't just the most difficult so far – it was the most difficult so far by a long way.

The month's overall average of 4.22 might not sound that much higher than that for October 2024, the next highest in the list at 4.15, but it's statistically significant given that there's only a 0.04 difference between months #2-7 in the list.

Plus, it's a whopping 0.57 guesses harder than the easiest month, December 2023 – which came in at 3.65 – and way higher than the game's overall average of 3.97.

Hard times are coming

One notable feature of July's Wordles was that there were five 'non-original' answers among the 31 games.

When Josh Wardle created Wordle, he and his partner drew up a list of 2,315 words which would form the game's answer list, then scheduled them to appear one a day for the next six or so years.

The New York Times removed a few of those when it bought Wordle in 2022, then left the list more or less unchanged for the next year. Then, in March 2023, it gave us GUANO – the first 'extra' solution added to the original pool and the start of a new era for Wordle.

More have followed since then, 17 in total, including such gems as UVULA, SNAFU, PRIMP, and MOMMY, all of which have been hard in their own right. But these words have been spaced apart, with most months seeing just one or none at all.

There have been exceptions, with June 2023, November 2024, and May 2025 all having two, and January 2025 having three. But to get five in a month, as we did in July, was unprecedented.

(Image credit: New York Times)

And all were difficult: ATRIA was a 4.1, NERVY a 4.5, LORIS was 4.2, TIZZY 4.9, and GOFER that immense 5.6. The average across those five games was a staggering 4.66; these were all genuine head-scratchers.

And the thing is, the NYT is going to have to keep adding more of these as time goes on. That's because we're now past 1,500 Wordles, meaning we have only around 800 original games left, with as yet no idea what will happen to the game when that list runs out.

The smart thing for the NYT to do is extend it for as long as possible, which means adding more words. And there lies the problem. Wardle's list already covers many of the most obvious five-letter words in English, so we can expect the majority of the newly added words to be more difficult than the average.

So you can forget about classic Wordle start words such as STARE, CRANE, and SLATE being added – they've all already been and gone. So too ultra-common English words such as HOUSE, TODAY, and BELOW; they've all been past Wordle answers too. Instead, you can look forward to more like BALSA, KAZOO, BEAUT, SQUID, and TAUPE; uncommon words, slang words, words with uncommon letters…

August initially continued the July trend, with BANJO and DAUNT both coming in at 4.4, but the next few games were a little easier; maybe the NYT was giving us all a breather. But don't be surprised if things get tougher again soon, because this game is only going one way from here. Don't say you weren't warned.

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Images included in Apple's latest software update reveals the display size for the Apple Watch Ultra model coming this fall.

The Trump administration wants to make it easier for companies to use drones for business — from delivering coffee to inspecting power lines to working on farms.

(Image credit: Jeff Roberson)

• Google DeepMind just unveiled Genie 3, its latest world model
• Unlike Genie 2, this model allows for real-time interaction and delivers it all in 720p
• This means you can generate an environment, explore it, and change it on the fly

Google’s AI world model has just received a significant upgrade, as the technology giant, specifically Google DeepMind, is introducing Genie 3. This is the latest AI world model, and it kicks things into the proverbial high gear by letting the user generate a 3D world at 720p quality, explore it, and feed it new prompts to interact or change the environment all in real time.

It’s really neat, and I highly recommend you watch the announcement video from DeepMind that’s embedded below. Genie 3 is also keenly different from, say, the still impressive Veo 3, as it offers video with audio that goes well beyond the 8-second limit. Genie 3 offers multiple minutes of what Google calls the ‘interaction horizon,’ allowing you to interact with the environment in real-time and make adjustments as needed.

It’s sort of like if AI and VR merged; it lets you build a world off a prompt, add new items in, and explore it all. Genie 3 appears to be an improvement over Genie 2, which was introduced in late 2024. In a chart shared within Google’s DeepMind post, you can see the progression from GameNGen to Genie 2 to Genie 3, and even a comparison to Veo.

Google's also shared a number of demos, including a few that you can try within the blog post, and it's giving us choose-your-adventure vibes. There are a few different scenes you can try on a snowy hill or even a goal you'd want the AI to achieve within a museum environment.

Google sums it up as, “Genie 3 is our first world model to allow interaction in real-time, while also improving consistency and realism compared to Genie 2.” And while my mind, and my colleague Lance Ulanoff’s, went to interacting in this environment in a VR headset to explore somewhere new or even as a big boon for game developers to test out environments and maybe even characters, Google views this as – no surprise – a step towards AGI. That’s Artificial General Intelligence, and the view here from DeepMind is that it can train various AI agents in an unlimited number of deeply immersive environments within Genie 3.

Another key improvement with Genie 3 is its ability to persist objects within the world – for instance, we observed a set of arms and hands using a paint roller to apply blue paint to a wall. In the clip, we saw a few wide stripes of rolled blue paint on the wall, then turned away and looked back to see the paint marks still in the correct spots.

It’s neat, and similar to some of the object permanence that Apple’s set to achieve with visionOS 26 – of course, that’s overlaying onto your real-world environment, so maybe not quite as impressive.

(Image credit: Google DeepMind)

DeepMind lays out the limitations of Genie 3, noting that in its current version, the world model cannot “simulate real-world locations with perfect geographic accuracy” and that it only supports a few minutes of interaction. Genie 3's minutes of capability are still a significant jump over Genie 2, but it’s not enabling hours of use.

(Image credit: Google DeepMind)

You also can’t jump into the world of Genie 3 right now. It’s available to a small set of testers. Google does note it’s hoping to make Genie 3 available to other testers, but it’s figuring out the best way to do so. It’s unclear what the interface to interact with Genie 3 looks like at this stage, but from the shared demos, it’s pretty clear that this is some compelling tech.

Whether Google restricts its use to AI research and training, or it explores generating media, I have no doubt we’ll see Genie 4 here in short order … or at least an expansion of Genie 3. For now, I’ll go back to playing with Veo 3.

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