SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 29, 2023--

Taiwan’s exports of integrated circuit chips dropped for a sixth consecutive month in June on slowing global demand.

It’s the most unexpected food trend of the year so far, and now McDonald’s has broken its silence on the Grimace shake going viral. In case you missed it, TikTok has been completely obsessed over a limited edition purple-coloured milkshake over recent days. Grimace has been a mascot in McDonald’s marketing for decades and the fast food giant honoured the 52nd birthday of the character by introducing the new item to menus in the US. Only, since then, TikTok users have made it the focus of a strange trend – which sees them drink it, then pretend to be dead after consuming it. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Typically, the clips see someone sip the drink, before cutting to them in a fake crime scene looking like they’ve been poisoned. Gen Z is always finding new ways to surprise us, and the odd trend has racked up millions of hits. @wheresxander the foot twitch… it’s grimace taking over. #grimaceshake #grimacesbirthday Now, McDonald’s has addressed the trend with a lighthearted Tweet. The official account posted a picture of a Grimace mascot, writing: “meee pretending i don't see the grimace shake trendd.” The milkshake is only set to be on the menu for a limited time, but it looks like the trend isn’t going anywhere just yet - and the memes keep coming thick and fast. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Hey, remember Mark Zuckerberg's special metaverse app that people (fairly or not) dunked on last

Four volunteers have entered a simulated Mars habitat as part of a year-long Nasa experiment to test astronauts’ resilience to isolation and other psychological stress factors. The CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) mission will see the participants live and work in a 158-square-metre (1,700-square-foot) habitat at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. It is the first of three one-year simulated Mars missions, which each aim to assess the health and performance of crew members when living in confinement with limited resources. Participants will take part in simulated spacewalks, science experiments and habitat maintenance, while also attempting to grow crops for food. “The simulation will allow us to collect cognitive and physical performance data to give us more insight into the potential impacts of long-duration missions to Mars on crew health and performance,” said Grace Douglas, CHAPEA principal investigator. “Ultimately, this information will help Nasa make informed decisions to design and plan for a successful human mission to Mars.” The four members of the CHAPEA mission are research scientist Kelly Haston, structural engineer Ross Brockwell, emergency medicine physician Nathan Jones and microbiologist Anca Selariu. Each were chosen after Nasa put out a call for “healthy, motivated” applicants in 2021. There have been several previous research projects involving simulated Mars habitats, with the Mars-500 missions between 2007 and 2011 seeing volunteers spend months locked inside a facility in Mosco, Russia. The HI-SEAS program in Hawaii also saw participants spend time living in isolation, though one mission lasted just four days after one of the crew members suffered an electric shock. Nasa plans to return humans to the Moon within the next three years as part of its Artemis missions, which the US space agency hopes to use as a foundation to eventually send astronauts to Mars. Private space firm SpaceX also plans to send people to Mars aboard its Starship rocket, which is currently under development at the company’s Starbase facility in Texas. SpaceX boss Elon Musk said a second attempt at an orbital flight test will be made before the end of August, after the first attempt in April ended in a large explosion just minutes after take off. The 480 million kilometre (300 million mile) journey to Mars is expected to take around seven months, with the planet’s orbit meaning that a travel window only opens up every 26 months. This means that any return mission would likely take close to four years to complete. Read More Elon Musk to launch biggest ever rocket after dramatic failure Elon Musk eyes ‘highly habitable’ planet that’s ‘practically next door’ Elon Musk eyes ‘highly habitable’ planet that’s ‘practically next door’ Apple releases urgent update to iPhone and iPad users Twitter hacker who took over Musk, Obama, Biden accounts gets prison sentence

The death of a Taylor Swift fan in the midst of a heat wave in Brazil is another

Carmakers and steelmakers are sealing deals for green steel, and using them to tout their environmental credentials. The

Xbox Series S owners now have the option of a "Designed for Xbox" portable screen,

Microsoft Corp. will make it possible for users of its Azure Government cloud computing service, which include a

Kai Cenat was over the moon with joy as he jumped around his room screaming when Pokimane agreed to DM her number to him

This week’s new entertainment releases include an album from Foo Fighters and some lost songs by the late Kenny Rogers, a new gritty HBO series from “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson called “The Idol” starring Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd

Standard Life has confirmed plans to create a commercial pensions dashboard, to help its four million customers have greater awareness around their retirement savings. It has partnered with financial technology company Moneyhub to deliver the dashboard, which will eventually be embedded into Standard Life’s existing customer app. The pensions dashboard will also be available to customers through Standard Life’s online desktop. We are excited to extend our collaboration with Moneyhub to develop and launch one of the UK’s first fully functional commercial pensions dashboards Gail Izat, Standard Life Standard Life said the initiative would help customers to find and view their state, workplace and personal pensions. Work has been under way within the pensions industry for several years to develop pensions dashboards, where people will be able to see their pension savings online, in one place. In June, pensions minister Laura Trott said the Government remained “as committed as ever” to making pensions dashboards a reality. The Government previously said more time was needed for the complex build of pensions dashboards to be set up. Standard Life said it was putting “the building blocks in place” so that it could be ready to hit the ground running with its dashboard, adding that the timeline for its delivery was dependent on the Government programme. The Government’s pensions dashboards programme has been urging providers to continue with their plans and Standard Life has seized the initiative Samantha Seaton, Moneyhub The pension provider added that it had been preparing to finalise plans so that it would be ready for launch when the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) regulatory approval process was in place. As well as finding and viewing pension data, Standard Life said its pension scheme members would be able to go further by connecting to and seeing their bank accounts, credit cards, savings, property valuations, Isas, loans, mortgages, and other financial products, in one place. Standard Life’s parent company, Phoenix Group, anticipates extending dashboard access to all of its 12 million UK customers “in due course”. Gail Izat, managing director of workplace at Standard Life, said: “It may seem obvious but simply knowing how much all your pensions are worth will allow you to plan for the future and understand what you can do today to have enough money to allow you to live your desired lifestyle later in life. Pensions dashboards will transform the way people plan for retirement. We remain committed to their delivery Department for Work and Pensions “We are excited to extend our collaboration with Moneyhub to develop and launch one of the UK’s first fully functional commercial pensions dashboards, while leading the way in shaping the future of retirement saving by giving customers greater certainty and a truly holistic view of their finances.” Samantha Seaton, chief executive of Moneyhub, said: “The Government’s pensions dashboards programme has been urging providers to continue with their plans and Standard Life has seized the initiative.” A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spokesperson said: “Pensions dashboards will transform the way people plan for retirement. “We remain committed to their delivery and to working closely with the pensions industry to ensure the record number of people saving for retirement have the support they need to make informed choices about their financial futures.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live BBC reviews Russell Brand’s time at corporation as YouTube demonetises content BBC removes some Russell Brand content as monetisation suspended on YouTube How does Russell Brand make money online?