Good news for owners of foreign-made drones and routers: the Federal Communications Commission has amended its original deadline that would have banned firmware updates to these devices after March 1, 2027. 

In an announcement posted on May 8, 2026, the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) updated its previous guidance to allow new software and firmware updates to foreign-made drones and routers until January 1, 2029, adding nearly two years to the initial cut-off date.

The main concerns cited by the American government are espionage, unauthorized surveillance, and data exfiltration, all of which can be enabled by backdoor exploits built directly into both drones and routers. The most famous example of such a cyberattack is the ongoing Volt Typhoon “advanced persistent threat” (APT), which attempts to leverage compromised hardware, including routers, to steal data and establish “command and control” channels over American cyber infrastructure. 

And though drones are newer than routers, they have been used in corporate espionage since at least 2022, when drones were used to infiltrate the wireless networks of a major American financial firm. 

From a numbers perspective alone, the size of the vulnerability is frightening: around 60% of America’s routers are manufactured in China, according to Reuters, while more than 80% of the drones operational in the United States were designed and built in China, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

But put yourself in the shoes of someone who just shelled out serious money for a drone or router, only to learn, after the fact, that the government had made your purchase illegal. The Consumer Technology Association, advocating on behalf of precisely those American consumers, issued an open letter to the FTC just last month, urging legislators to exercise leniency, as well as to better clarify which products might be affected by the ban. 

Their efforts are probably responsible for this two-year extension, but expect supply lines and manufacturers to re-localize in the coming years as the full scope of the cybersecurity threat becomes clearer.

Today’s NYT Strands hints are easy if you have good eyes.

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.

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.

NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: We all saw it

The words are related to clarity.

Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Vote for your favorite creators today

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe lucidity.

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 Clear Cut.

NYT Strands word list for May 10

• Overt

• Obvious

• Blatant

• Clear Cut

• Flagrant

• Brazen

• Glaring

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 yesterday’s Strands.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 1 hour ago

“Propaganda” is one of the dirtiest words in Hollywood. Regardless of how they vote, most prefer their movies to be free of any overt political messaging. After all, we get enough of that from our hellish 24-hour news cycle; why would we want to see it on the big screen?

However, some of the most beloved films of the 20th and 21st centuries have secretly served as propaganda. Top Gun is basically one long advertisement for the Navy, which is presented as our only defense against international attackers. Michael Bay’s first Transformers movie is also propaganda, presenting the Army as our main line of defense against enemies both domestic and very, very foreign.

Interestingly, the most successful propaganda film ever made came out in the ‘90s, and it rallied the country together like never before. I’m talking about Independence Day, the rollicking action adventure that had Will Smith punching an alien (maybe it said something about his wife?) and Jeff Goldblum hacking UFOs. Oh, and it had Bill Pullman rallying the entire world together with a speech that had audiences around the world cheering at the screen. The whole thing is so infectiously cool that it’s easy to overlook the obvious: that, from the ground up, this movie is all about how America deserves to rule the entire world.

America (F*ck Yeah!)

Why is Independence Day propaganda, exactly? The most obvious reason is its focus on military might as the only real solution for driving away alien invaders. This isn’t sci-fi like Star Trek, where everything can be solved with peace and diplomacy. It’s not even like Star Wars, in which a coalition of humans and aliens overthrows a fascist Empire. No, this is about how the only solutions to extraterrestrial invasion come in the form of bullets and missiles. Oh, and technology: amid the high-flying internet explosion of the ‘90s, Independence Day posits that a little vibe coding from a quirked-up, military-aligned scientist can instantly overcome the most advanced civilization humanity has ever encountered.

Given the name of the film, it’s no surprise that Independence Day centers on this military supremacy around America. Not in an exclusionary way, of course: characters don’t badmouth other countries, and the film doesn’t portray other nations in a negative light. Instead, it simply situates the United States as integral to the survival and prosperity of the rest of the world. In this light, directly dunking on other countries is unnecessary because the film makes it clear that when the very survival of humanity is at stake, the world will be saved by American weapons, American technology, and gloriously stubborn American gumption.

The Cold War Gets Hot

It’s easy to forget, but Independence Day came out very soon after the Cold War finally ended. That gives the rah-rah propaganda messaging its own special verve, of course. The United States had just effectively defeated its only real existential threat since the end of World War II. Who else, then, could possibly save all of humanity from the deadliest threat since the Soviet Union? Lest that subtlety be lost on viewers, Independence Day drapes itself in flags and patriotic speeches to drive home America’s nascent noblesse oblige: the obligation to use our position as the only dominant world power for good, not evil.

That leads to the obvious question: Independence Day may be blatant American propaganda, but is that an inherently bad thing? Not really. Sure, such cinematic propaganda always runs the risk of glorifying amoral politicians who destroy countless lives while excusing half a century of questionable American interventions and adventurism. But that’s not really the primary thrust of Independence Day. The film arguably serves as a direct extension of the American dream, glorifying the very best the country has to offer. America does not represent a dangerous and nefarious world police in this film; rather, it represents a country that can’t be tamed and will always rise to the occasion in the face of tyranny.

Welcome To Earth

In retrospect, it’s easy for cynics to chalk this up to the pie-in-the-sky idealism of the ‘90s, and that may very well be true. But these days, the heroes of Independence Day are more aspirational and inspirational than ever before. America is bitterly divided along political lines, with people fighting endless culture wars against their fellow countrymen over the stupidest subjects imaginable. It may be simplistic, but Independence Day is a reminder that when the states are truly united, America is unstoppable. If a little bit of celluloid propaganda can help us make our actual future more like the fictional past, a bit of blockbuster propaganda is a small price to pay.

Do you want to experience just how fun propaganda can be? Stoke your own patriotic fervor, or maybe just watch Will Smith punching someone other than Chris Rock? Good news, space cadets: the dream of the ‘90s is alive, right here in your living room. Independence Day is currently streaming on Netflix, and trust me: it’s just as intoxicatingly fun and deliriously dumb as you remember. It may be the most successful propaganda movie ever made, but it’s also an action-packed, weirdly hilarious thrill ride that will instantly appeal to your inner alien lover. Come for the UFOs and stay for the alien autopsy. 

If you want your own anal probe, though, don’t look at me; go ask your partner nicely. Just don’t be surprised if she says “Welcome to Earth” when she does it!