Mount Fuji is yet to see any snow on its slopes this year, with forecasters saying the absence of the white stuff has set a new record.

The active volcano southwest of Tokyo is the country’s highest peak at 3,776m. It usually sees its first snow of the year in early October.

But as of today, there was still no snow on Japan’s highest mountain, Yutaka Katsuta, a forecaster at Kofu Local Meteorological Office, was quoted as saying by AFP.

Since records began 130 years ago, this is the latest date in a calendar year the iconic mountain has gone without snow.

The previous record was 26 October in both 1955 and 2016.

Last year, the first snow on Japan’s highest peak was seen on 5 October.

This year, Japan experienced its hottest summer since records began in 1898, Kyodo News+ reported the Japan Meteorological Agency as saying back in September.

Around 200,000 to 300,000 people climb Mount Fuji every summer.

News of the record-breaking lack of snow comes a day after the United Nations warned global climate action plans are “falling miles short” of what is needed to stop climate change from “crippling” economies.

Mr Katsuta told AFP global warming may have contributed to the delay in Mount Fuji’s snowfall.

Archaeologists have discovered thousands of previously unknown ancient structures, including pyramids, hidden deep in Mexico’s jungle.

More than 6,600 structures linked to the Maya civilisation have been found in the southern state of Campeche on the Yucatan Peninsula.

Experts analysed lidar data, a method of scanning the land from above using lasers.

The Maya were one of the most dominant civilisations in Mesoamerica and built cities with elaborate ceremonial buildings and massive stone pyramids in what we now know as Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Pyramids – like those in Calakmul, in the Mexican state of Campeche – were found by researchers led by Luke Auld-Thomas from Tulane University, New Orleans.

“For the longest time, our sample of the Maya civilisation was a couple of hundred square kilometres total… by archaeologists who painstakingly walked over every square metre, hacking away at the vegetation with machetes,” he said.

But instead of deploying teams on the ground, archaeologists in his team analysed existing mapping data over an area of 47 square miles.

They uncovered anomalies in the landscape – revealing pyramids, houses and other Maya infrastructure.

Their results, published in the journal Antiquity, showed a dense, diverse array of totally unstudied Maya settlements dotted throughout the region.

It included an entire city which the team called Valeriana, named after a nearby freshwater lagoon.

The urban centre included two major hubs of “monumental architecture, linked by continuous dense settlement and landscape engineering”.

“We didn’t just find rural areas and smaller settlements,” Mr Auld-Thomas said.

“We also found a large city with pyramids right next to the area’s only highway, near a town where people have been actively farming among the ruins for years.”

“The government never knew about it; the scientific community never knew about it,” and he predicted, “there’s a lot more to be discovered”.

Last year a Mexican team found an ancient Mayan city thought to date back to 1,000AD in the same region.

But unlike the US researchers, that group did not benefit from lidar technology. They trekked through 60km of roads covered in thick vegetation to discover the ancient site.

The ancient Mayan civilisation reached its peak from 300AD to 900AD, and descendants are said to still live in the region.

Apple Intelligence is rolling out on certain iPhones, iPads and Macs around the world. 

The artificial intelligence (AI) now helps Apple users with things like writing, emailing and photo curation.

“This is the beginning of an exciting new era,” said Apple chief executive Tim Cook on X.

But, for many users in the UK, it won’t be immediately available until they change their settings.

In order to install Apple Intelligence, in the UK, users with iPhone 16s, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad with A17 Pro or M1 and later, and Mac with M1 and later can follow these steps:

• Download the latest system update, iOS 18.1, in settings

• Change the language of the device and Siri to English (US) and then restart the device

• Once it has restarted, head to the Apple Intelligence section of the settings and click to join the waitlist. You may have to wait for a few hours but soon, it’ll start installing

Although a number of features are yet to roll out, the current update does add some new functions.

When you’re writing emails, texts, or documents, there are some new AI features that can lend a hand. They can help you curate your emails, suggest smart replies, and even change the tone of your writing. For example, this paragraph was rewritten by Apple Intelligence to make it sound more friendly.

Users can also search with more natural language in the memories section of the Photos app.

When Sky News tested this feature, however, Apple Intelligence struggled with matching phrases like “kitties napping in the sun” with the many pictures of kitties napping in the sun that were on the user’s iPhone.

There’s also a “clean up” feature to remove unwanted people from photos, but while that is new to iPhones, other devices have had that ability for a while.

“My pixel 4xl has been doing better than this for more than a year,” said one X user on a post showing the process.

While Apple Intelligence is a huge technological advancement for the company, it is not necessarily groundbreaking among its competitors.

Google and Samsung both released their AI systems earlier this year, but Apple elected to wait, hoping its heightened security features would set it apart.

Most Apple Intelligence requests will be processed on the device, and if the request is complex and has to be sent to Apple’s servers, it’ll be encrypted and anonymised.

Once the full version rolls out in December, Siri will be integrated with ChatGPT.

If Apple Intelligence can’t answer your request, it’ll pass it to OpenAI’s chatbot, but users will receive a notification if their request is being sent out of the Apple systems.

NASA has identified nine potential landing spots for next year’s Artemis mission, when people will land on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

“Finding the right locations for this historic moment begins with identifying safe places for this first landing and then trying to match that with opportunities for science from this new place on the Moon,” Jacob Bleacher, NASA’s chief exploration scientist, said.

The moon’s south pole has never been explored by a crewed mission and has permanently shadowed areas that could preserve resources such as water.

“The moon’s south pole is a completely different environment than where we landed during the Apollo missions,” said Sarah Noble, Artemis lunar science lead at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

“It offers access to some of the moon’s oldest terrain, as well as cold, shadowed regions that may contain water and other compounds. Any of these landing regions will enable us to do amazing science and make new discoveries.”

The landing sites on the moon’s south pole will now be investigated to see whether any are suitable for the landing.

The sites were chosen by the Artemis III geology team for their “scientific promise”, according to NASA.

They each have the potential to provide new insights into rocky planets, lunar resources and the history of our solar system.

“Artemis III will be the first time that astronauts will land in the south polar region of the Moon. They will be flying on a new lander into a terrain that is unique from our past Apollo experience,” Mr Bleacher said.

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When Artemis III lands on the moon in 2025, it will be the first time a woman and a person of colour will step onto the lunar surface.

The mission will help NASA prepare for expeditions to Mars.

The teenager accused of stabbing three girls to death in Southport now faces two further charges.

Axel Rudakubana, 18, from Lancashire, faces one charge of the “production of a biological toxin, namely ricin, contrary to Section 1 of the Biological Weapons Act 1974”.

He also faces a terror charge of possession of information “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, contrary to Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000”.

This came after police said they found ricin and an al Qaeda training manual, during a search of his home.

He had already been charged with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder following the mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop in July.

What is ricin?

Ricin is found naturally in castor beans.

When the beans are processed to make castor oil, it leaves a mash that contains the toxin.

It’s classed as a biological substance because of its origin, but it doesn’t spread from person to person like a virus or bacteria.

But like a chemical, it can cause cross-contamination, for example through contact on clothing.

The UK Health Security Agency says there is no evidence that any member of the public, or the emergency services, was exposed to the ricin allegedly found at Rudakubana’s home.

Anybody who had been exposed would have developed the first symptoms within 24 hours or so.

If it’s inhaled it causes progressive breathing difficulties, ultimately causing respiratory failure and death.

If it’s ingested it initially causes diarrhoea and vomiting that can be severe enough to result in dehydration.

Days later the body’s organs begin to shut down, possibly causing death.

Skin contact causes irritation, but isn’t itself serious. The risk is that people who pick it up on their fingers, for example, then ingest it.

Roughly 2-6% of cases of ingestion result in death.

The fatality rate from inhalation is unknown.

No information has been given by police on what form the ricin was found in.

But in previous cases, it has been processed as a powder, mist, pellet or dissolved in water or acid.

In 1978, the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was assassinated in London by an operative, thought to be from the Bulgarian secret service, who used an umbrella to inject a pellet of ricin under his skin.

In 2013, letters tainted with ricin were sent to President Obama, the New York mayor, and others.

On that occasion, nobody came to harm.

Several people have been reported missing after flash floods struck Spain, sweeping cars through the streets.

Shocking images and videos have emerged from eastern and southern parts of Spain, showing heavy rainfall turning once-busy roads into muddy rivers.

Flooding caused havoc, running from the provinces of Malaga in the south to Valencia in the east.

Videos shared by Spanish broadcasters showed floodwater rising into the lower levels of homes and even carrying cars through the street.

A high-speed train with almost 300 people on board was derailed near Malaga, but authorities said no one was hurt.

Rail lines elsewhere were also disrupted.

The national government office for the Castilla La Mancha region told radio channel Cadena Ser that six people in the region were missing.

One truck driver was missing in L’Alcudia, Valencia, according to Spanish news agency EFE.

Also in Valencia, the mayor of Utiel, Ricardo Gabaldon, told RTVE that several people were trapped in their homes.

In Letur, near the Sierra de Segura, thirty people were trapped after the river running through the town burst its banks.

In some places, rescue services used helicopters to lift people from houses and cars to safety.

Storms are forecast to continue through the week until Thursday, according to the country’s weather service.

Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years.

Scientists have warned that increased episodes of extreme weather, like flash floods, or the wildfires seen elsewhere in Europe in the summer, are likely linked to human-driven climate change.