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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 SEE ALSO: How to play Pips, the newest NYT game

Here are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026:

Across___ Glenn, Olympic figure skater who's a three-time U.S. national champion

• The answer is Amber.

Popcorn size that might come in a bucket

• The answer is Large.

"Lies and the Lying ___ Who Tell Them" (Al Franken book)

• The answer is Liars.

Close-up map

• The answer is Inset.

Prepares a home for a new baby

• The answer is Nests.

DownBold poker declaration

• The answer is AllIn.

Only U.S. state with a one-syllable name

• The answer is Maine.

Orchestra section with trumpets and horns

• The answer is Brass.

"Great" or "Snowy" wading bird

• The answer is Egret.

Some sheet music squiggles

• The answer is Rests.

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

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 today's Mini Crossword.

Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.

Released in August 2025, the Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.

Currently, if you're stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move onto the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.

How to play Pips

If you've ever played dominoes, you'll have a passing familiarity for how Pips is played. As we've shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don't necessarily have to match.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for February 18, 2026

The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible – and common – for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.

Here are common examples you'll run into across the difficulty levels:

• Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.

• Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.

• Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.

• Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.

• Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.

If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for February 17, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for Feb. 18 Pips

Greater Than (3): Everything in this purple space must be greater than 3. The answer is 4-1, placed horizontally.

Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. The answer is 4-1, placed horizontally; 1-1, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (5): Everything in this orange space must be greater than 5. The answer is 5-5, placed horizontally; 5-1, placed vertically.

Equal (5): Everything in this light blue space must be equal to 5. The answer is 6-3, placed horizontally.

Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 5-1, placed vertically.

Medium difficulty hints, answers for Feb. 18 Pips

Less Than (3): Everything in this purple space must be less than 3. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally.

Number (11): Everything in this space must add up to 11. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally; 4-3, placed vertically; 5-5, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (4): Everything in this light blue space must be greater than 4. The answer is 5-5, placed horizontally.

Number (8): Everything in this space must add up to 8. The answer is 4-3, placed vertically; 5-1, placed vertically.

Greater Than (1): Everything in this dark blue space must be greater than 1. The answer is 6-1, placed horizontally.

Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. The answer is 5-1, placed vertically; 1-0, placed horizontally.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for Feb. 18 Pips

Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. The answer is 1-4, placed vertically; 1-0, placed vertically.

Less Than (2): Everything in this orange space must be less than 2. The answer is 1-0, placed vertically.

Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. The answer is 1-4, placed vertically; 4-3, placed vertically.

Greater Than (2): Everything in this green space must be greater than 2. The answer is 4-3, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-6, placed vertically.

Number (12): Everything in this space must add up to 12. The answer is 2-6, placed vertically; 6-1, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this purple space must add up to 2. The answer is 6-1, placed vertically; 1-2, placed horizontally.

Number (2): Everything in this red space must add up to 2. The answer is 1-2, placed horizontally.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 1-3, placed vertically; 4-5, placed horizontally.

Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 1-3, placed vertically; 3-5, placed horizontally.

Equal (5): Everything in this orange space must be equal to 5. The answer is 4-5, placed horizontally; 5-5, placed vertically; 3-5, placed horizontally; 5-6, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 5-0, placed vertically.

Greater Than (5): Everything in this red space must be greater than 5. The answer is 5-6, placed vertically.

Less Than (3): Everything in this dark blue space must be less than 3. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically; 2-4, placed vertically; 5-1, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 5-1, placed vertically.

Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. The answer is 2-4, placed vertically; 4-4, placed vertically.

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 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 strainer.

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

SIEVE

Hurdle Word 2 hint

Committee.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for February 18, 2026 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

BOARD

Hurdle Word 3 hint

A fantasy.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for February 18 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for February 18, 2026 Hurdle Word 3 answer

DREAM

Hurdle Word 4 hint

Madness.

Hurdle Word 4 answer

ANGER

Final Hurdle hint

Honest.

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

FRANK

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

YouTube suffered a global outage on Tuesday, with thousands of people reporting issues with the platform from around 8:00 p.m. ET. Now, we know what caused it.

In a statement posted to the official TeamYouTube X account, the company revealed that the outage was caused by a problem with the recommendations system. This algorithmic system is responsible for offering you videos it thinks you'll want to watch based on your past viewing habits. The company provided additional details on a Google support page.

"Update: An issue with our recommendations system prevented videos from appearing across surfaces on YouTube (including the homepage, the YouTube app, YouTube Music and YouTube Kids)," the company explained. "The homepage is back, but we're still working on a full fix — more coming soon!"

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It provided a further update within the hour: "We're also seeing a small number of reports that some people are unable to login to YouTube TV. This is related to the broader issue across YouTube, and we're also working on a fix here."

Finally, around 10:15 p.m. ET, the company shared a "final update," which stated: "The issue with our recommendations system has been resolved and all of our platforms (YouTube.com, the YouTube app, YouTube Music, Kids, and TV) are back to normal! We really appreciate you bearing with us while we sorted this out."

Crowdsourced outage tracker Downdetector saw a spike in activity for YouTube on Tuesday evening, with the platform receiving more than 1.6 million user error reports in the last 24 hours. (Disclosure: Mashable and Downdetector share the same parent company, Ziff Davis.) Approximately half of these reports came from the U.S., with users encountering issues with the video-sharing platform's app and website, though people across the globe were impacted.

Mashable was unable to use YouTube in Australia, with attempts to access the website resulting in a blank screen showing only YouTube's sidebar and search bar.

Credit: Amanda Yeo / Mashable

The internet has seen several high-profile outages in recent months, affecting companies such as Verizon, Microsoft 365, and TikTok. In some ways, maybe this latest outage is a sign that we should all go outside and touch some grass.

SEE ALSO: Why does the internet keep crashing so much lately?

UPDATE: Feb. 17, 2026, 10:26 p.m. EST This article has been updated with additional statements from YouTube/Google.

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult to solve if you keep up with the latest styles.

Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?

The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for February 18, 2026 Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Old-school do's

• Green: Awesome

• Blue: Cluck

• Purple: Lotion

Here are today's Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Retro hair directives

• Green: Retro slang for cool

• Blue: Chicken descriptors

• Purple: ___ Cream

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections #983 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Retro hair directives: CRIMP, CURL, FEATHER, TEASE

• Retro slang for cool: BAD, FLY, RAD, WICKED

• Chicken descriptors: BANTAM, CRESTED, FREE-RANGE, LEGHORN

• ___ Cream: HEAVY, SHAVING, SOUR, TOPICAL

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for February 18, 2026

Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.

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

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Connections.

Today's NYT Strands hints are easy if you've been watching the Olympics.

Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

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

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for February 18, 2026 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for February 18, 2026 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Cold competition

The words are related to sports.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe cold activities.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is vertical.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Zodiac Signs.

NYT Strands word list for February 18

• Luge

• Hockey

• Curling

• Winter Sports

• Bobsled

• Snowboarding

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Strands.

Today's Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you're a boss.

If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for February 18, 2026 Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

What's the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for February 18, 2026 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

A tycoon.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

There are no recurring letters.

Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordle starts with the letter M.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. The Wordle answer today is...

Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to today's Wordle is...

MOGUL

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

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

Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

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

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Wordle.

YouTube suffered a global outage on Tuesday, with thousands of people reporting issues with the platform from around 8:00 p.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. PT. Now we know what caused it.

In a statement shared to the official TeamYouTube X account, the company revealed that the outage was due to a problem with the recommendations system. This algorithmic system is responsible for offering you videos it thinks you'll want to watch based on your past viewing habits.

In some ways, maybe this outage is a sign that we should all go outside and touch some grass.

"Update: An issue with our recommendations system prevented videos from appearing across surfaces on YouTube (including the homepage, the YouTube app, YouTube Music and YouTube Kids)," YouTube wrote approximately an hour and a half after the outage began. "The homepage is back, but we're still working on a full fix — more coming soon!"

It provided a further update within the hour: "We're also seeing a small number of reports that some people are unable to login to YouTube TV. This is related to the broader issue across YouTube, and we're also working on a fix here."

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Crowdsourced outage tracker Downdetector received a spike in reports about YouTube on Tuesday evening, with over 1.6 million pouring in over the last 24 hours. (Disclosure: Mashable and Downdetector share the same parent company.) Approximately half of these reports came from the U.S., with users encountering issues with the video sharing platform's app and the website, though people across the globe were impacted.

Mashable was unable to use YouTube in Australia, with attempts to access the website a resulting in a blank black screen adorned only with YouTube's side bar and search bar.

Credit: Amanda Yeo / Mashable

Updated on Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 9:15 p.m. ET — As of this writing, YouTube appears to be working again. So far, Google and YouTube have not announced the cause of the outage, or confirmed that the problems are resolved.

Updated on Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 9.26 p.m. ET — YouTube has revealed the cause of the outage. In a statement on X, the company said it was due to an issue with their recommendations system, which stopped videos from appearing. "The homepage is back, but we're still working on a full fix – more coming soon!"

Updated on Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 10:19 p.m. ET — YouTube has announced that the issue has been solved.

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Original story follows.

If you can't watch YouTube videos right now, you're not alone. A Tuesday evening YouTube outage affected users across the globe, with problems starting around 8:00 p.m. ET. Early reports are sketchy, but here's what we know.

The platform DownDetector received 837,973 user error reports (and rising) in the U.S. alone, with 46.7 percent of users reporting problems accessing the YouTube app and 21.1 percent reporting problems with the website. Users in Canada, Brazil, the UK, and Germany are also reporting problems. (Disclosure: Mashable and Downdetector share the same parent company.)

Mashable editors in both the U.S. and Australia were unable to access YouTube's website and app. Attempts to access the website resulted in a blank black screen with only YouTube's sidebar and search bar appearing.

The YouTube homepage goes dark... Credit: Amanda Yeo / Mashable

YouTube acknowledged the outage on X, urging users to check the Google Support page for more information.

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The initial update from YouTube simply read, "Hi everyone, We’re aware some of you are having issues accessing YouTube right now. Our teams are aware, and we’ll provide updates as soon as we have them."

An additional update from YouTube read, "We are aware of the ongoing issue impacting YouTube homepage, recommendations, search and uploads and are working to fix it. Please follow along in our Community for updates. Our support agents do not have any additional information to share with you at this time."

YouTube is the largest streaming service by far in the U.S.

At this time, the cause of the outage is unknown. Mashable reached out to Google for more information (YouTube is owned by Google), and we'll update this story if we receive more information.

This is a developing story ...