Technology

The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.

With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.

So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

Here are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Tuesday, March 25, 2025:

AcrossGrouchy homeowner in Pixar's "Up"

• The answer is Carl.

Sneezy sound

• The answer is Achoo.

Speedy sound

• The answer is Vroom.

Pick up on

• The answer is Sense.

Facebook message status after "Sent" and "Delivered"

• The answer is Seen.

Down#1 seed in the N.B.A.'s Eastern Conference, informally

• The answer is Cavs.

Farmers' lots

• The answer is Acres.

French wine region

• The answer is Rhone.

Like lips that sink ships

• The answer is Loose.

Anomaly taken as a sign, say

• The answer is Omen.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Featured Video For You The Wordle Strategy used by the New York Times' Head of Games

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Mini Crossword.

The Trump administration accidentally texted an Atlantic journalist its plans to bomb Yemen last week. It seems obtaining confidential information on U.S. military operations is now easier than ever.

On Monday, The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported that he had been inadvertently added to a Signal group chat with several apparent U.S. government officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Fox News host turned Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth. Goldberg received the invitation to the group last Thursday, two days after he'd accepted a connection request from an account ostensibly belonging to national security advisor Michael Waltz.

SEE ALSO: What is Signal? The basics of the most secure messaging app.

Signal is a secure messaging app with end-to-end encryption, making it popular among journalists, activists, whistleblowers, and others for whom privacy is a primary concern. As such, it isn't completely bizarre that a politician might reach out to a journalist via this avenue. 

However, it's far less usual for U.S. government officials to use Signal to plan military operations. Such highly sensitive information would typically be discussed either in person or via the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet), the U.S. government's secured computer network system intended for sharing such classified information. Employing a messaging system that's also open to civilians is highly unorthodox, to say the least. 

As such, Goldberg initially had "very strong doubts" about the authenticity of the group chat. He wrote that he couldn't believe U.S. officials would communicate about war plans on Signal, nor that a U.S. national security advisor would carelessly add him to such a chat. 

However, he was soon convinced of the Signal chat's authenticity after U.S. airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen took place on Saturday. The chat filled with celebratory messages and emojis within minutes, including a fist, American flag, and fire from Waltz. Two hours prior, a message from Hegseth in the Signal chat had shared the weapons, targets, and timing of the planned strikes.

"The information contained in [the Signal messages], if they had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East, Central Command’s area of responsibility," wrote Goldberg.

This prompted Goldberg to leave the Signal group, as well as reach out to various U.S. officials about it. 

U.S. officials confirm the Signal group chat was real U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared plans to bomb Yemen in the Signal chat. Credit: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images

The U.S. National Security Council (NSC) has since confirmed the Signal chat's authenticity, though did its best to downplay the serious implications and give the egregious breach of security a positive spin.

"This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain," NSC spokesman Brian Hughes wrote in a statement to The Atlantic. "The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security."

Of course, the mere success of an operation doesn't prove that there was never any threat at all.

Despite the blunder, it initially seems as though U.S. officials involved in the Signal chat won't face any serious repercussions. Republicans have quickly come to their defence, with Speaker Mike Johnson rejecting the possibility that Waltz or Hegseth might face disciplinary action.

"What you did see, though, I think, was top-level officials doing their job, doing it well and executing on a plan with precision," said Johnson.

The White House has also publicly stood by them, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying in a statement that "President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including national security adviser Mike Waltz."

However, POLITICO reports that internal discussions among White House officials are considering ejecting Waltz, with Trump to make the decision within the next few days.

For his part, Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social to deride The Atlantic, posting a link to an article from conservative satirical website The Babylon Bee entitled "4D Chess: Genius Trump Leaks War Plans To 'The Atlantic' Where No One Will Ever See Them." He also shared a screenshot of an X post from his close advisor Elon Musk, in which the billionaire shared the same article and wrote, "Best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of The Atlantic magazine, because no one ever goes there."

Hegseth specifically lashed out at Goldberg, accusing him of "peddling hoaxes" and attempting to discredit him despite the Signal messages having been confirmed to be authentic. However, Hegseth also broke rank by outright denying The Atlantic's report.

"Nobody was texting war plans, and that's all I have to say about that," Hegseth said on Monday.

Meanwhile, Democrats are criticising the incident, with some calling for an investigation.

"Incompetence so severe that it could have gotten Americans killed," Rep. Seth Moulton wrote on X. "There is no world in which this information should have been shared in non-secure channels."

JD Vance badmouthing Elon Musk was a deepfake, but the Signal chat was not JD Vance was also the subject of a viral deepfake audio clip over the weekend. Credit: Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

Excluding information which Goldberg noted could cause harm, his Atlantic article provided a thorough account of the messages exchanged in the Signal group chat. Interestingly, this included Vance expressing some disagreement with President Donald Trump — a rarity for him as of late. 

Vance expressed dissent about the planned attacks, stating that bombing the Houthis in Yemen to defend international shipping routes would be "bailing Europe out." His reasoning was that a larger percentage of Europe's trade passes through the Suez Canal as compared to the U.S.' trade.

"I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now," Vance reportedly wrote on Signal. "I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself."

The vice president's private opinions recently came to attention via a separate incident, with AI-generated audio of Vance criticising Musk going viral over the weekend. In the clip, the deepfaked vice president's voice stated that Musk was "cosplaying as this great American leader" and "making us look bad."

Vance responded to the audio on X, calling it "a fake AI-generated clip," while his communications director William Martin stated that it is "100% fake and most certainly not the Vice President." Several deepfake detection tools and companies have also concluded that the audio was likely generated by AI.

In contrast, Vance's Signal messages have been confirmed to be authentic.

"Vice President Vance unequivocally supports this administration’s foreign policy," Martin said in a statement to The Atlantic. "The President and the Vice President have had subsequent conversations about this matter and are in complete agreement."

The vice president and president disagreeing behind closed doors is a much different matter to doing so in the public eye, where a united front is important. Even so, it's an interesting look at the Trump administration's emoji-filled internal communications, disagreements, and military planning — as well as the ill-advised platform on which they're conveyed.

If you're planning on observing the night sky, going for a night hike, or trying to snap a shot of the Moon, the phase is incredibly important. Here's everything you need to know about the current Lunar phase, as well as what you can expect in the near future.

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint

A device used to call someone.

SEE ALSO: Apple’s new M3 MacBook Air is $300 off at Amazon. And yes, I’m tempted. Hurdle Word 1 answer

PHONE

Hurdle Word 2 hint

A woven hairstyle.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for March 25, 2025 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

BRAID

Hurdle Word 3 hint

A short trip.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for March 25 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for March 25, 2025 Hurdle Word 3 answer

JAUNT

Hurdle Word 4 hint

A glimmer.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for March 25 Hurdle Word 4 answer

GLEAM

Final Hurdle hint

The opposite of height.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answer

WIDTH

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

If you can't splurge for a Google Pixel Watch, Google's Fitbit sub-brand is an amazing option if all you need is something to track your workouts. The Fitbit Inspire 3 is the cheapest in the lineup, but it's still pretty good, and it has just hit a new all-time low price, so you better act quickly.

A lot of ultra-wide monitors out there also happen to come with ultra-tall price tags. So any discounts we can get on the best models are always welcome. Case in point—this excellent monitor by Samsung is very, very cheap as I write this.

Your PC's performance can be better or worse depending on several factors, but a really important one is storage speed. For the best possible performance, you need an NVMe SSD for your boot drive. And one of Crucial's best ones is currently at an excellent price.

Last month, the $61.5 billion-valuated AI startup Anthropic set up a gaming livestream on Twitch. Gaming livestreams are nothing new on Twitch, but this one is a little different: Claude, Anthropic's AI model, is attempting to beat Pokémon Red.

We are now one month in, and the livestream is still going. However, Claude has not progressed all that much. And, at this rate, Anthropic's AI agent may possibly never be the very best, like no one ever was.

According to Anthropic, when it first launched the "Claude Plays Pokémon" project, previous versions of its AI agent Claude failed at some very basic tasks. For example, according to Anthropic, Claude 3.5 would try to run away from almost every battle in June 2024.

SEE ALSO: In 2024, Pokémania is evolving

A few months and a few versions of Claude later, Anthropic said there was a stark change. In February 2025, Anthropic gave Claude 3.7 Sonnet a whirl at playing Pokémon. 

"Within hours, Claude defeated Brock. Days later, it trounced Misty," Anthropic said. "Progress that older models had little hope of achieving."

Anthropic said that Claude 3.7 Sonnet could plan ahead, remember objectives, and learn from its mistakes, unlike previous versions of the AI agent. It also built a knowledge base, saw the screen, and simulated button presses.

However, the progress Claude 3.7 Sonnet originally made in the game seems to have stalled.

For example, livestream viewers watched as Clause 3.7 took 78 hours to get through Mt. Moon in the game. On Reddit, gamers estimated that it would typically take a child just a few hours to advance through the same stage.

SEE ALSO: Hands-on with the Claude AI app: It's pleasant to use, but janky

Claude can be seen going in circles, stumbling around the same paths, and often knocking into walls as it tries to get around the game.

The livestream is engaging, especially as a text box lays out Claude's "thinking" as the AI agent tries to figure out what moves to make next.

According to Anthropic engineers in an interview with Ars Technica, Claude has an easier time with aspects of the game which involve text, such as Pokémon battles. However, it struggles with the more visual aspects of the game, such as moving around from town to town on the map.

Claude 3.7 Sonnet has gone much further in the game than previous Claude models, so there's been progress. However, for those warning that AI will soon be able to take over the world, we're nowhere close to that being a reality yet. Claude still has 151 Pokémon to catch.

The Pixel Tablet is still yet to see a successor, but it remains one of the best Android tablets your money can buy. If you don't really want to go for an iPad, you can grab one of these at a record-low price, just for today.

UGREEN's NASync lineup offers exceptional hardware for the price. Still, a discount is much appreciated. The four-bay DXP4800 Plus is currently on sale for $595, its lowest price since launch.

Retro console gaming fans love to extol the virtues of playing on original hardware, but what about retro PC gaming? There's a distinct subculture of people who go out and find old computer parts to build period-accurate computers, so they can enjoy retro PC games as intended.

With so many distractions around, staying focused can be tough, but proper habits can make all the difference. I used to lose a lot of time to constant interruptions, but by adopting better practices, I've become more focused and productive. Here’s how you can achieve the same.

MagSafe products are awesome, and while the technology hasn't seen mass adoption yet on other devices under the Qi 2 umbrella, it's a great improvement to your standard wireless charging experience. If you have an iPhone with MagSafe, this 3-in-1 pad from Belkin is just what you need—and it's heavily discounted, too.

TL;DR: Mashable readers can grab a lifetime device license for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more with a one-time purchase of Microsoft Office 2019 for Windows for A$47.

Opens in a new window Credit: Retail King Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows AU$47 at the Mashable Shop
AU$363 Save AU$316 Get Deal

Your credit card is exhausted from all of today’s subscription fees. While you probably don’t want to cancel your favorite streaming apps or say goodbye to two-day shipping with Prime, you could swap your Microsoft 365 subscription for a Microsoft Office lifetime license.

Instead of spending A$11 monthly (or A$111 yearly), you can pay once and use the apps as much as you’d like. Through 30 March at the Mashable Shop, the Windows software suite is on sale for A$47 — an 86% discount.

What apps are included?

Microsoft Office 2019 isn’t the newest version available, but it’s the cheaper one for people who just need to use the apps and don’t care about what they look like inside. It also has a classic, timeless design and isn't weighted down by unnecessary AI features.

Here's a list of the apps you get:

• Word

• Excel

• PowerPoint

• Outlook

• OneNote

• Publisher

• Access

Differences between Microsoft 365 and a lifetime license

This purchase is a no-brainer if you aren’t taking full advantage of Microsoft 365’s OneDrive storage, mobile app access, and cloud-based backups. Those just wanting the apps should be more than comfortable with a Microsoft Office download.

You might actually like this license more than the subscription. The apps are downloaded directly onto your PC instead of hosted on the cloud. While this does mean there are no built-in cloud backups, you don’t have to worry about the hassle of trying to work offline.

Plus, now that Microsoft added Copilot’s AI features to Microsoft 365, you might be looking for a way to escape them. Not everyone is crazy about having a virtual robot interfere with their work, and these classic apps won’t ever bug you about it.

The price drop on this lifetime license to Microsoft Office 2019 for Windows ends soon, so get your download for A$47 until 30 March at 11:59 p.m. PT.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

T-Mobile's G4AR Home Internet gateway now supports 5G Standalone (5G SA) service. This 5G SA implementation should provide a decent boost in upload speeds for T-Mobile customers with the correct gateway, and it lays the groundwork for future, more dramatic improvements.

BUY TWO GET ONE FREE: Target is offering a buy two get one free deal on select books, movies, and music during its Circle Week sale, which runs through March 29.

Opens in a new window Credit: Target / Sony Pictures / Macmillan Publishers Buy two get one free select books, movies, and music Get Deal

Book lovers are always looking for ways to get free books. And Target Circle Week is making it a little easier with its buy two get one free deal.

Through March 29, you can get a free book at Target when you buy two other eligible books. The buy two get one free deal also applies to select movies and music, so you can mix and match your haul. Target Circle Week deals are exclusively available to Target Circle members. So, be sure to sign up if you haven't already. Don't worry; it's free.

There are plenty of BookTok favorites and bestsellers included in the sale, including The Housemaid by Freida McFadden, Funny Story by Emily Henry, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas, The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins, and How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix. Not to mention, most books included in the sale are already discounted significantly. For instance, A Court of Thorns and Roses is down to just $10.05 from $18 (44% off). If you're an old-school reader who prefers a physical book in your hands, you could definitely do some damage during Circle Week.

As far as movies go, you could grab Wicked, Nosferatu, Deadpool Vs. Wolverine, The Wild Robot, and Inside Out 2. Meanwhile, the music selection includes Lady Gaga's Mayhem (Target exclusive vinyl), Sabrina Carpenter's Short N' Sweet (Deluxe vinyl), Wicked: The Soundtrack (Target exclusive vinyl), and so much more. There are 50 pages and thousands of options to choose from. Just be sure to shop before Target Circle Week concludes on March 29 if you want to score a book, movie, or album for free.

For modern audiences, "Mac" and "gaming" are not two words that seem to go together. However, across the history of Apple, the company has experienced highs and lows when it comes to the gaming industry.

After a brutal data breach and a wave of lawsuits, 23andMe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy — and now, the consumer genetics company is looking for a buyer. On the table are the business, the brand, and the DNA profiles of more than 15 million users.

The bankruptcy filing, submitted on Sunday, March 23, caps off months of turmoil following a major hack in October 2023. That breach exposed the personal and health-related genetic data of at least 7 million customers. The fallout was swift and far-reaching, resulting in more than "50 class action and state court lawsuits" alleging that 23andMe failed to adequately protect its users' most sensitive data.

SEE ALSO: 23andMe files for bankruptcy, CEO steps down

Now, in an attempt to streamline its legal mess, the company has entered Chapter 11 — a move that also opens the door for a potential sale. According to court filings, 23andMe is in debt to a mix of pharmaceutical firms, health insurers, AI startups like Aganitha AI and CoreWeave, marketing agencies, and pharmacies.

Meanwhile, California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a pointed warning to 23andMe users last Friday: don’t wait.

"Given 23andMe’s reported financial distress," he said in a statement, "I remind Californians to consider invoking their rights and directing 23andMe to delete their data and destroy any samples of genetic material held by the company."

How to delete 23andMe data

With 23andMe officially up for sale, there’s no telling who might end up owning the company — or what they’ll want with the genetic data of millions of users. Over the years, 23andMe has repeatedly claimed it takes data privacy seriously. But at that same time, it partnered with pharmaceutical companies and suffered a massive breach.

If you’re thinking about pulling the plug on your data before a potential buyer steps in, you can do that through the 23andMe app:

• Head to the “23andMe Data” section

• Tap “View,” then “23andMe Data”

• Select “Permanently Delete Data”

One odd wrinkle: on the deletion page, 23andMe includes a Q&A that attempts to reassure users. It reads:

“If the company does change ownership in the future, your data will remain protected under the current 23andMe Privacy Policy unless you are presented with materially new terms, with appropriate advanced notice to review those material changes as required by law.”

In other words, your data stays private... until it doesn’t.

Apple's AirPods 4 was one of the company's biggest surprises last year. They pack a similar punch to the AirPods Pro, and yet, they manage to be considerably cheaper. If they weren't cheap enough for you yet, you might want to check out this deal happening right now before it's gone.

The AirPods Max headphones will turn five years old this year, but they're still a gift that keeps on giving—which is good considering their price point. With a new update, your AirPods Max are now getting a couple of really cool, and useful, additions.