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If you like the aesthetic vibes of colonial gothic horror stories such as Jamaica Inn and Wide Sargasso Sea, new Sky TV supernatural thriller Possession is definitely for you. However, a word of warning — the story is going to touch a much more modern nerve.
We're set to follow Claudia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), an ambitious bi-racial lawyer who travels to Jamaica to challenge an inheritance claim made by a local man against a wealthy white aristocrat.
However, she arrives to find the disputed estate is a former plantation that has long haunted her dreams. Cue a terrifying slew of 1800s flashbacks, curses, and misunderstood spiritual connection.
On a surface level, you can see why someone might find this frightening. The drama isn't just tense to the level of consistent jump scares, but is often violently disturbing in its commitment to guts and gore (think Evil Dead levels of supernatural horror).
But then there's a secondary layer of discomfort when you consider the role that different countries have played in the history of colonialism and enslaved people. Culturally and historically, we know how abhorrently the Western world behaved during the Transatlantic Slave Trade, but here, we also understand how regularly spirituality and beliefs were misunderstood and chastised.
With such a distinct 2026 twist, Possession left me shaken in the entirely opposite way to what I expected. But according to star Gugu Mbatha-Raw, it's not the cast and crew's job to make the uncomfortable comfortable.
'The power of drama is posing these lofty subjects in an accessible way'"I don't think it's our job to make the audience comfortable... I think probably it's more our job to take you on a journey," Mbatha-Raw tells me when I ask her if it's possible to make the uncomfortable comfortable.
"Claudia goes on this massive journey and it's a quest to find out about her identity. She's dealing with justice and legacy. But even though there's some weighty themes in the show around the legacy of colonialism and the complexity of reparations, I think that that's the power of drama. Pose these lofty subjects, but in a more accessible way."
"I don't know that 'comfortable' is the word. I think that we celebrate discomfort in this genre, and I think that that's okay. It's okay to have difficult conversations and to not shy away from uncomfortable subject matter. I think there's a place for that in drama and in society."
She continues, "Good stories a place for discovery, and I think we want people to lean in and be like, 'whoa, look at this lush, interesting, rich, vibrant world.' Once they're in, they grapple with some hard truths."
It's certainly an apt way of describing the intense viewing journey that unfolds over just five episodes, each being under an hour long. Simply put, Possession is the kind of TV show that sits with you for days and weeks afterward, leaving you with the kind of internal conversation that unpicks the things that you think you already know.
That's a lot for anybody to take on, particularly when you've simply sat down to unwind with some TV of an evening. But what is art when it doesn't challenge us? If you want my advice: Possession is more than worth a watch — and if you're left feeling disturbed, then that's all the better.
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 Wednesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Wednesday, August 5 (game #885).
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.
NYT Strands today (game #886) - hint #1 - today's themeWhat is the theme of today's NYT Strands?• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Blossoming forth
NYT Strands today (game #886) - hint #2 - clue wordsPlay any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
- WRATH
- LION
- GOON
- FLOW
- HATRED
- BEER
• Spangram has 13 letters
NYT Strands today (game #886) - hint #4 - spangram positionWhat are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?• First side: bottom, 1st column
• Last side: top, 5th column
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #886) - the answers(Image credit: New York Times)The answers to today's Strands, game #886, are…
- CHERRY
- REDBUD
- DOGWOOD
- HAWTHORN
- MAGNOLIA
- SPANGRAM: FLOWERINGTREE
- My rating: Hard
- My score: 1 hint
This game came to me in stages.
First I managed to find CHERRY while searching for non-game words, then in the belief that we were looking for fruit trees I took a hint and was given REDBUD, which changed my thinking completely.
Spotting “tree” and “flower” I managed to put together the spangram and then complete the board. Like the act of gardening and maintaining a FLOWERINGTREE it felt like a long, but rewarding process.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Wednesday, August 5, game #885)- IDEA
- THOUGHT
- OPINION
- PLAN
- NOTION
- CONCEPT
- SPANGRAM: BRAINSTORMING
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.
A new NYT Connections 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 Wednesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Wednesday, August 5 (game #1151).
Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.
What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
NYT Connections today (game #1152) - today's words(Image credit: New York Times)Today's NYT Connections words are…
- SWIMMING POOL
- TENNIS COURT
- FREEWAY
- HOCKEY RINK
- BARCLAYS CENTER
- COLOSSEUM
- SUPERMARKET
- JACOB'S LADDER
- PANTHEON
- BOWLING ALLEY
- LINCOLN LOGS
- SPANISH STEPS
- ALPHABET
- BLOCKS
- FISHING BOAT
- TREVI FOUNTAIN
- CUP-AND-BALL
What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: Things kids play with
- GREEN: Linked by something you must stay in
- BLUE: Well known tourist attractions
- PURPLE: Linked by something you could get caught in
Need more clues?
We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections today (game #1152) - hint #2 - group answersWhat are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: CLASSIC WOODEN TOYS
- GREEN: PLACES WITH LANES
- BLUE: ICONIC ROMAN LANDMARKS
- PURPLE: PLACES WITH NETS
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #1152) - the answers(Image credit: New York Times)The answers to today's Connections, game #1152, are…
- YELLOW: CLASSIC WOODEN TOYS: ALPHABET BLOCKS, CUP-AND-BALL, JACOB'S LADDER, LINCOLN LOGS
- GREEN: PLACES WITH LANES: BOWLING ALLEY, FREEWAY, SUPERMARKET, SWIMMING POOL
- BLUE: ICONIC ROMAN LANDMARKS: COLOSSEUM, PANTHEON, SPANISH STEPS, TREVI FOUNTAIN
- PURPLE: PLACES WITH NETS: BARCLAYS CENTER, FISHING BOAT, HOCKEY RINK, TENNIS COURT
- My rating: Hard
- My score: 2 mistakes
I was utterly confused by today’s game, but somehow managed to get away with just two mistakes.
The only thing I was certain of was that BARCLAYS CENTER is the home of the Brooklyn Nets, but this meager piece of knowledge didn’t help at all. First, I linked BOWLING ALLEY, SWIMMING POOL, HOCKEY RINK and TENNIS COURT thinking these were all amenities every town should have (they are right).
Then after threading together ICONIC ROMAN LANDMARKS with the idea that they all sounded like historical tourist spots, I made another mistake linking ALPHABET BLOCKS, TENNIS COURT, BOWLING ALLEY and BARCLAYS CENTER — reasoning that they all described types of buildings.
Somehow, shuffling around the various options got me over the line, but this really was a game I should have lost.
Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, August 5, 2026, game #1151)- YELLOW: NAVIGATE: DRIVE, MANEUVER, PILOT, STEER
- GREEN: JEANS BRANDS: DIESEL, GAP, LUCKY, WRANGLER
- BLUE: HOUSE STYLES: CAPE COD, MISSION, RANCH, TUDOR
- PURPLE: WHAT "STOCK" MIGHT REFER TO: BROTH, CATTLE, INVESTMENT, MERCHANDISE
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.
It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.
It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
A new Quordle 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 Wednesday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Wednesday, August 5 (game #1654).
Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.
Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
Quordle today (game #1655) — hint #1 — VowelsHow many different vowels are in Quordle today?• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Quordle today (game #1655) — hint #2 — repeated lettersDo any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.
Quordle today (game #1655) — hint #3 — uncommon lettersDo the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.
Quordle today (game #1655) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 2.
If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:
Quordle today (game #1655) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?• A
• B
• C
• B
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
Quordle today (game #1655) — the answers(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)The answers to today's Quordle, game #1655, are…
- AMUSE
- BRAND
- CEDAR
- BLURB
After seeing the two B-words immediately I made a wrong guess with my third word.
Fortunately, the letters I had left meant that after guessing “pause” AMUSE was the only alternative, while CEDAR was just a case of rearranging five letters.
Daily Sequence today (game #1655) — the answers(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1655, are…
- WEARY
- THREE
- SUNNY
- TOPIC
- Quordle #1654, Wednesday, 5 August: MOUND, WRONG, STOOD, WEIRD
- Quordle #1653, Tuesday, 4 August: GOOEY, TARDY, HUMAN, CHALK
- Quordle #1652, Monday, 3 August: FUNGI, MUDDY, DEBUT, MANIA
- Quordle #1651, Sunday, 2 August: BOOTH, EASEL, REACH, MAKER
- Quordle #1650, Saturday, 1 August: OMEGA, BIRCH, SMOCK, EERIE
- Quordle #1649, Friday, 31 July: MANIA, SINGE, STOOL, LOFTY
- Quordle #1648, Thursday, 30 July: MODAL, IDLER, CHUMP, LUMPY
- Quordle #1647, Wednesday, 29 July: GAWKY, ALLOY, AUDIT, LATCH
- Quordle #1646, Tuesday, 28 July: SMITE, ROACH, RUDDY, GLOBE
- Quordle #1645, Monday, 27 July: TAFFY, FIGHT, GUILD, WAGER
- Quordle #1644, Sunday, 26 July: STOMP, LIMIT, FUNKY, STEAD
- Quordle #1643, Saturday, 25 July: SALON, SHEEN, BURST, GOURD
- Quordle #1642, Friday, 24 July: DOLLY, EDIFY, LAGER, PRANK
- Quordle #1641, Thursday, 23 July: LADEN, EVICT, WOVEN, SHIRE
- Quordle #1640, Wednesday, 22 July: COYLY, SINGE, AWASH, AWOKE
- Quordle #1639, Tuesday, 21 July: TRUSS, AXIAL, SWINE, THING
- Quordle #1638, Monday, 20 July: ICING, SLICK, GAILY, RISEN
- Quordle #1637, Sunday, 19 July: SPURT, ACRID, THRUM, BLEEP
- Quordle #1636, Saturday, 18 July: KNAVE, TIGHT, BLEAT, CHAOS
- Quordle #1635, Friday, 17 July: CUMIN, PALER, GRASS, INBOX
- A former FBI counterintelligence supervisor is accused of memorizing seed phrases from bureau systems
- The agent moved roughly $1 million out of wallets tied to a foreign adversary without having to resort to any sort of hacking
- Investigators recovered ChatGPT conversations in which he asked how to invest the money and how to gain EU residency, and the chatbot's replies recited his age, wife, child, and property plans back to him
Patrick Steven Yaroch, a supervisory special agent in the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, has been arrested and charged with interstate transportation and receipt of stolen goods.
An affidavit filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, claims Yaroch took roughly a million dollars in cryptocurrency from wallets he encountered while investigating a foreign adversary and then used ChatGPT to determine what to do with it.
The theft, as described, required no technical sophistication whatsoever: Yaroch held a Top Secret clearance with SCI access and had spent 2017 to 2025 on a national security squad at the FBI's Boston division working against a single adversarial nation, which NBC News reports was Russia.
An atypical heist with the alleged mastermind acting out of "frustration"Patrick Steven Yaroch encountered the cryptocurrency wallets tied to his work in November 2024. He had researched how wallets work, created one of his own, searched the FBI's holdings for the relevant account information, and memorized the recovery seed phrases.
He then made roughly 10-12 transfers to his own wallet. No encryption was broken, and no protocol was exploited because none was in place for a man with his security clearance; he simply read a phrase off an internal system and remembered it.
The incident is particularly interesting because he self-reported, effectively turning himself in to his colleagues: on July 28 2026, he contacted a Justice Department employee he had worked with in Boston over Signal, asking to meet. They met at FBI headquarters the next day, where Yaroch reportedly began breaking down almost immediately, and the conversation moved to the other man's office.
He said the situation was "eating him up inside" and that he wanted to give all the money back. He filed an online self-report to the FBI's Security Division and told headquarters personnel he had screwed up. When agents arrived at his Ashburn home that evening, he told them, unprompted and in blunter terms, that he had messed up.
His defense, as per the affidavit, however, is slightly different from what one would expect: His stated motive was not greed. He told his colleagues he had grown frustrated that the FBI could not or would not act against those accounts, described himself as "spinning out of control" at the time, and said he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Despite this, he seemingly had a change of heart after cooperating earlier, asking for a paper containing his wallet seed phrases, which he had volunteered to agents, while declining to continue the interview without a lawyer while asking for time over the next two days.
This culminated in agents obtaining warrants, executing them on July 31 with SWAT securing the house, and recovering an iPhone, a Trezor hardware wallet, the handwritten seed phrases, a Portuguese power of attorney dated June 15, and three passports, one of them diplomatic.
(Image credit: Marjan Apostolovic / Shutterstock)Ironically, the most potentially damning evidence of his intentions comes from his conversations with AI, still on his phone and directly linked to him.
His conversations with ChatGPT convey a very different thought process: On May 28, he asked how to invest or spend a million dollars to maximize profit and return. On June 4, he asked what someone with about a million dollars should do to leave the United States and become a resident or citizen of an EU country. On June 17 he asked whether an American connecting through Turkey needs a visa. On June 26 he asked for help drafting an email to an executive about a job opening and life in Greece.
There is more evidence that he might already have acted based on the answers he received: prosecutors have found a power of attorney authorizing two Portuguese lawyers to register him with the country's tax authority and obtain a Portuguese tax identification number, and unreported foreign travel to Germany in May, Portugal later that month, and Grenada in early July, all in breach of bureau reporting rules.
His current investments seem to be equally erratically reasoned: On July 23, five days before he first confessed, Yaroch moved roughly $1.02 million into Suilend, a lending protocol on the Sui blockchain, reaching it through the Slush wallet app, which he then deleted. He parked the funds there to earn interest. When asked why he chose that service, he said he liked its logo, a water droplet.
When agents looked, the position was worth $933,756, roughly 8% below its level a week earlier. His Kraken account held another $188,570, including about $5,000 in a token called Squid and $1.67 in Bitcoin. Agents ultimately swept $925,426 into government wallets, leaving about $165,582 behind because it was dollars and could not be moved to a crypto wallet.
Yaroch is charged under sections 2314 and 2315 of the federal criminal code, the general provisions on transporting and receiving stolen goods. He is not charged with espionage, with computer fraud, or with theft of government property.
The wallets were not the government's, and that might change how they are treated legally, even as it raises important questions about the security protocols at federal agencies regarding cryptocurrencies, since they both monitor and have seized increasingly large amounts of them over the past few years.
In Yaroch's case, if the allegations hold, government protocols failed to identify the theft for nearly eighteen months before the person responsible reported himself, making the case for a potential review by federal agencies about how they handle such matters.
- Virtual Mac on iPad gets macOS running on compatible iPads
- It requires a jailbroken tablet and specific versions of iPadOS
- Its many limitations mean I don’t think it’s worth the hassle
For years, people have been wondering if Apple is ever going to “merge” iPadOS and macOS into some unholy mutant operating system. While Apple has repeatedly and resoundingly denied that’s ever going to happen, one intrepid developer has taken it upon themselves to do the hard work instead. And while the result lets you run full-fat macOS on your iPad Pro or iPad Air, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone but the hardiest of souls.
Dubbed Virtual Mac on iPad, this GitHub project ports macOS onto Apple’s best iPads. That means it’s nothing like Apple’s Sidecar feature, which lets you use an iPad as a second display for a Mac. In the case of Sidecar, the Mac is doing all the processing. With Virtual Mac on iPad, however, it’s your iPad that’s actually running the operating system.
Unfortunately, getting that to actually happen is more than a little convoluted. You can’t even get started unless you’ve jailbroken your iPad, which means hacking it so it can run apps and systems not authorized by Apple. As well as that, the jailbroken iPad must be running iPadOS 16 to iPadOS 16.3.1 — nothing more, nothing less — in order to harness an exploit that was patched in subsequent editions. The requirements so far will probably be enough to put a lot of people off.
If you’ve persevered, you’ll need to add a specified repository to your device and install Virtual Mac on iPad from there. But you’ll need to be aware that even with macOS successfully set up, you won’t be able to log into your Apple Account — since you’re using a jailbroken device with an unofficial port of macOS, you’ll run into problems if you try to sign in, putting features like Find My and iCloud syncing out of reach.
Is it worth it?(Image credit: Apple)Why would you go to all this effort to run macOS on your iPad? Well, there are a few reasons, including accessing Mac-only apps and getting a more portable platform to run macOS on.
But I certainly don’t think it’s a good idea. Apple’s iPadOS and macOS systems have been designed for very different use cases, and simply shoehorning a platform designed for a Mac onto an iPad isn’t a guarantee of success.
For one thing, macOS is made for large screens and input devices like mice and keyboards, while iPadOS works best on smaller screens operated by your fingers and thumbs. Sure, there’s some crossover — I’m aware that you can use mice and keyboards with an iPad, for example — but that doesn’t escape the fact that Virtual Mac on iPad puts the Mac’s operating system on a device it was never intended for.
As well as that, it requires a lot of effort for seemingly very small rewards. There are only a handful of cases where installing Virtual Mac on iPad is worthwhile, at least in my opinion: accessing apps like Xcode and Terminal that aren’t available in iPadOS, for example, or getting macOS on the most portable device possible.
But Apple’s best MacBooks are still lightweight and easy to carry around, and with a touchscreen MacBook Pro rumored to be just around the corner and Sidecar already a thing, the need for something like Virtual Mac on iPad feels limited. Is it worthwhile to go to all this trouble just for an ounce more portability? I’m sure it is for some people, but that number is likely to be vanishingly small.
At the end of the day, I know there will be some people for whom this is a welcome development. But its complicated installation process and limited use case just reinforce for me that Apple is absolutely right not to merge iPadOS and macOS. They’re meant to be separate, just as Apple intended.


