How a NewsWords edition is made

Public news sources, automated checks, and a human who approves the final puzzle. Here is what happens before an edition goes live.

Start with reporting.

Preparation reads current public World news feeds from BBC News and The Guardian, keeping the supplied headline, summary, outlet, publication time and original URL. It looks for names and terms present in that source material. The initial daily edition focuses on World news.

Build and screen the puzzle.

A crossword-filling program constructs the grid. AI assists with selecting candidate answers and writing clues. A separate model screens the candidate, while deterministic checks catch problems such as answer leakage and incomplete clue bundles. Automated opinions are evidence for the editor, not permission to publish.

Put a human in the middle.

The reviewer sees related findings grouped by answer, a small audit sample of otherwise unflagged answers, and the full clue set. They can confirm unchanged clues, explain edits, or reject the puzzle. Operational screening errors send every answer into the human review queue.

Approve the exact edition.

The editor approves the final text. Publication verifies that the puzzle matches its approval and reruns deterministic checks. Unreviewed candidates, incomplete reviews and changed approved text cannot be published through this workflow.

Keep the reporting attached.

News-linked entries name their outlet and link to the original story. NewsWords is an independent puzzle project and is not affiliated with those publishers. Source summaries can be incomplete, news can develop, and human review is not a guarantee against error. Check the publication date and follow the reporting for the wider context.

Published editions are preserved as dated documents. You can report a puzzle issue with its date and clue number.