Technologies
Bold new mission to asteroid belt will study Venus and seven unknown worlds
The United Arab Emirates announces plans for an ambitious journey across the solar system.

Hot on the heels of the Hope Mars mission, the United Arab Emirates has announced it will begin building another interplanetary probe for launch in 2028, with the goal of visiting Venus and seven worlds in the asteroid belt over the next 12 years.
The mission, announced Tuesday by the vice president of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, will perform a flyby of the hellacious second planet from the sun in mid-2028, swinging around the planet on its way back past Earth and toward the asteroid belt. It will be built in the next seven years, and its journey will see it rack up more than 3.6 billion kilometers (more than 2.2 billion miles).
«The UAE is determined to make a meaningful contribution to spaceexploration, scientific research and our understanding of the solarsystem,» tweeted Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi, on Tuesday.
The aim of the mission will be to explore seven objects in the asteroid belt, a region of space between Mars and Jupiter stacked with millions of odd-shaped rocks that orbit the sun. Objects within the belt have been studied by space agencies, like NASA, in the past, but the UAE’s ambitious mission will aim to image seven asteroids — and then touch down on one to collect a sample.
If it can achieve all that, the UAE would become the fourth country to touch down on the surface of an asteroid. It won’t be easy.
«This mission is in the order of five times more complex than EMM,» said Sarah bint Yousif Al Amiri, the chair for the UAE Space Agency, in a press release.
As with the Hope mission, the UAE agency will work with Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The name of the mission will be announced at a later date.
Venus has become an increasingly popular target for space missions in the past year. NASA plans to launch two spacecraft to the planet, and both India’s space agency and the European Space Agency are preparing their own probes to explore it, too.
While many of the Venus explorers have been discussed for years, there’s been plenty of hype about its potential habitability since a 2020 study discovered elevated levels of phosphine — a gas associated with life on Earth — in the cloud decks of the hothouse planet. Since publication, the findings have been disputed and the data reanalyzed, with a June 2021 study suggesting that the planet’s atmosphere is too dry to support microbial life.
Technologies
McDonald’s Snack Wrap: When Is the Viral Food Favorite Returning?
The Minecraft Meals were a huge hit, but the return of the snack wraps already have online buzz.

McDonald’s is riding a viral wave. The fast-food chain’s Minecraft Happy Meals and adult Minecraft Meals hit restaurants on April 1 and sold out quickly. Diners ordering a Happy Meal these days will find a Squishmallow theme meal instead. But there’s more viral buzz about another McDonald’s product online. People are eagerly awaiting the return of Snack Wraps, a chicken-tortilla entree that’s been missing from US locations of the Golden Arches since 2020.
Read more: Review: McDonald’s Minecraft Meals Feature The Hottest Nugget Sauce Ever
On April 15, McDonald’s tweeted «snack wraps 0x.14.2025,» hinting the wraps would return on the 14th of an upcoming month. This leaves fans having to check their McDonald’s mobile app or local restaurant menus on the 14th of every month, hoping the wraps will make an appearance. The wraps didn’t appear in restaurants on May 14, so now fans must check again in June. A representative for McDonald’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
snack wraps 0x.14.2025
— McDonald’s (@McDonalds) April 15, 2025
Snack Wrap fever
Snack Wraps first came out in 2006, and were meant to be a chicken item that would appeal to drive-thru customers. There are different versions, but the basic one includes white-meat chicken strips known as McCrispy Strips wrapped in a flour tortilla with cheese and lettuce with either ranch, honey mustard or salsa. McCrispy Strips are a reworked version of a chicken item formerly known as Chicken Selects.
Zach Ciampa, who regularly covers new food releases under the social-media handle Snach With Zach, said there’s been an intense fanbase out there for the wraps. «Regarding McDonald’s Snack Wrap, it’s by far the most requested item I’ve ever seen my audience ask or demand to come back,» he told CNET. «Not just the most requested in recent memory, but the most requested of all time. And that’s not limited to McDonald’s.» Ciampa said the only similar fast-food items that come close to the same level of interest are Dairy Queen’s S’mores Blizzard and Taco Bell’s Caramel Apple Empanada, both of which also made recent returns.
«I’ve been covering food releases for years, and in that time, I’ve seen countless comments to the tune of ‘We don’t want this. We want the Snack Wrap,’ and, ‘Can you tell us when the Snack Wrap is coming back?'» he said. «A couple years ago, the chances of its return were pretty bleak. However, things escalated pretty quickly in late 2023 when McDonald’s did indeed announce that the Snack Wrap would return in a new form. Since then, details have slowly but surely trickled out, and the hype has steadily grown.»
While Snack Wraps left McDonald’s locations in the US back in 2020, they remained available at Canadian and UK restaurants. The current online McDonald’s Canada menu includes several tortilla-wrapped items, including ones with crispy chicken, grilled chicken, buffalo chicken and chicken with a sweet chili sauce.
Technologies
Is IRS Direct File Going Away? What the Trump-Backed Budget Means for the Free Service
Technologies
Uber Introduces Its Own Version of Prime Day: Uber One Member Days
The industry-leading rideshare company is creating a new weeklong event full of deals, promotions and savings to coincide with Memorial Day sales.

If you’re an Uber One member, you’ll be able to take advantage of a massive new promo. The first Uber One Member Days event will run from Friday, May 16, to Friday, May 23, to coincide with Memorial Day sales on other tech shopping platforms.
Uber One Member Days is structured very similarly to Amazon’s various Prime Day sales — paying members will have access to rotating benefits over the course of the event, timed with Memorial Day, compounded with the usual perks of an Uber One membership.
During each day of the Uber One Member Days promotion, you’ll have the chance to access new deals across Uber, Uber Eats and Uber-partnered brands. Uber is one of the best food delivery services, but it can be prohibitively expensive. These deals can help put delivery within reach, at least during Member Days.
While the full list of deals and promos won’t be available until Member Days begins, Uber has offered some insights into what the benefits will look like.
Uber One members will be able to knock 50% off the price of shared rides, 20% off Uber Black and 40% off the Comfort Electric during the Member Days week.
Uber One already offers a breadth of evergreen benefits to anyone who uses Uber and Uber Eats, including $0 food delivery, up to 10% off orders at participating locations, 6% money back on any rides taken and more. The newest benefit alongside Uber One Member Days is that you can get 10% of your Uber One credits back when you use Uber Rent or take Lime rides on Uber, sweetening the membership deal a little bit more.
If you aren’t an Uber One member but you want to take advantage of the exclusive Uber One Member Days deals, you can get a free one month membership by signing up here — just be sure to keep an eye on the payment details if you don’t plan to continue the subscription after your first month.
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