A world half-marathon record was broken at a race in China this weekend. But the winner wasn't an Olympian or even a competitive racer. It was a bright red humanoid robot. Nickname? Lightning.

The autonomous robot was competing in a robot versus human half-marathon race in Beijing, China, an annual event featuring the country's top robotics companies in a foot race test against their human counterparts.

Lightning was built by Honor, a Chinese robotics and smartphone maker. The company tested other running robot variants at the race, including the bots that took home second- and third-place titles.

Mashable got an early look at Honor's new line of AI-powered humanoid bots at the latest Mobile World Congress. The bots had an impressive stability (many of these two-legged bots are prone to tumbling) and even a crowd-pleasing dance performance. The company also debuted a new "Robot Phone," featuring a robotic eye and arm that juts out from the smartphone to take photos and respond to requests.

During Sunday's race, the company showed that the new era of humanoid robots aren't just dancers, but competitive athletes, with Lightning taking home the gold in a 50-minute and 26-second sprint — that's six minutes quicker than the fastest human and nearly two hours faster than its time in last year's race. Honor engineers explained that the robot's fast upgrade came from modeling its design after top athletes, including elongated legs and an internal liquid-cooling system.

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Chinese robotics companies have been accelerating their development of humanoid robots over the last several years in direct competition with U.S. manufacturers. Lightning's record-breaking win was taken as a sign that the country's investments may be paying off.

Still, many of the robots needed assistance to cross the finish line. In addition to starting line stumbles and a few falls, about 60 percent of the competing bots were remotely operated by their human teams.

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The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult if you have a sweet tooth.

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.

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.

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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: Lippy

• Green: Gowns

• Blue: Played in Vegas

• Purple: Sweet treats

Here are today's Connections categories

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

• Yellow: Cheeky

• Green: Dress measurements

• Blue: Cards in Texas Hold 'Em

• Purple: Last words of candy brands in the singular

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 #1043 is…

What is the answer to Connections today

• Cheeky: ARCH, FRESH, SASSY, WISE

• Dress measurements: BUST, HIPS, LENGTH, WAIST

• Cards in Texas Hold 'Em: FLOP, HOLE, RIVER, TURN

• Last words of candy brands in the singular: CAP, DUD, KID, MINT

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.

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 yesterday's Connections.

Today's NYT Strands hints are easy if you're constantly changing.

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: Small change

The words are related to changes.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe fine-tuning.

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 There I Fixed It.

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NYT Strands word list for April 19

• There I Fixed It

• Adjust

• Modify

• Alter

• Improve

• Tweak

• Refine

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.