
In a transition of power presided over by King Charles, Andy Burnham replaces Keir Starmer as the United Kingdom's prime minister. Both are from the center-left Labour Party.
(Image credit: Henry Nicholls)

In a transition of power presided over by King Charles, Andy Burnham replaces Keir Starmer as the United Kingdom's prime minister. Both are from the center-left Labour Party.
(Image credit: Henry Nicholls)

The U.S. attacks were the ninth consecutive day of bombing since peace talks between the two countries collapsed in dispute over a memorandum of understanding focused on the Strait of Hormuz.
(Image credit: Atta Kenare)
A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Sunday, July 19 (game #868).
Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Small talk
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
• Spangram has 9 letters
• First side: left, 4th row
• Last side: right, 6th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

The answers to today's Strands, game #869, are…
Yesterday’s theme was “big talk” and today it’s “small talk”. I’m looking forward to medium talk tomorrow.
Anyway, I digress. After the relatively easy spots of TINY and LITTLE it was on to the more niche descriptions of very small things, with MICROSCOPIC bringing me a little tingle of enjoyment from connecting an 11-letter word.
After yesterday’s odd spangram of “supersizeit” I was expecting a similarly descriptive snake today, so ITSYBITSY took me a while — despite how perfectly it fitted the search. Either way, it's a spangram that demonstrates that small things are more fun than big things.
Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

Russia launched 41 missiles and 125 attack drones across Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force.
(Image credit: Efrem Lukatsky)

A famous Cuban dissident artist and musician, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, arrived in Miami on Saturday after being released from a five-year prison sentence on the condition that he leave his country.
(Image credit: David Santiago)
A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Saturday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Saturday, July 18 (game #867).
Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Big talk
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
• Spangram has 11 letters
• First side: left, 8th row
• Last side: right, 8th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

The answers to today's Strands, game #868, are…
The letter Z helped me get the spangram — eventually, as I got “size” first, then “supersize” before finally SUPERSIZEIT.
Even though I understood the theme immediately and had an idea of the words we were searching for, I really struggled to put them together .
Although rarely used, LEVIATHAN is an incredible word (it features in the Bible, describing a fire-breathing sea serpent).
I was thinking that it really should be the name of a horror or at least a wrestler when a Google search told me that both already exist; the 1989 horror flick made less cultural impact than Dave Batista, who used the nickname Leviathan before becoming The Animal. Every day’s a school day with Strands.
Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

Kyiv's forces are continuing their aerial campaign against energy infrastructure and military targets inside Russia, aiming to undermine Moscow's war effort.
(Image credit: Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vo)
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