In Iceland, lava has been spewing from a 2.5-mile long fissure in the ground, following a volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula.
Following weeks of intense seismic activity, it sent lava and smoke more than 100 metres into the air.
Last month authorities evacuated the nearly 4,000 people living in the fishing town of Grindavik about 25 miles southwest of capital city Reykjavik.
The Icelandic government said "The eruption does not present a threat to life” and “There are no disruptions to flights to and from Iceland”.
In Northern China a 6.2 magnitude earthquake has led to the deaths of at least 118 people.
Search and rescue operations were being carried out in the Gansu and neighbouring Qinghai provinces, and according to media reports the quake left more than 500 people injured, severely damaged houses and roads, and knocked out power and communication lines.
It was reported rescue efforts were being hampered by temperatures in the region, which were as low as -14C.
In tech news, Google is rolling out an update to its Bard AI chatbot in the UK, called Gemini, which it says is the first AI model to beat “human experts” in its range of intelligence tests.
The tech giant says it will initially power text-based prompts, but will expand in the coming months to be able to “operate and combine” different types of information across words, pictures, video and sound.
The Bard upgrade will also be built into the Pixel 8 Pro smartphones, powering new features such as “summarise” in its recorder app, as well as “smart reply” in Google keyboard.
Researchers from the Natural History Museum say new dating analysis of existing human remains suggests early Homo sapiens existed in Europe much earlier than first thought.
They used a technique called ‘direct uranium-series dating’ which measures the proportion of uranium isotopes in fossils and can date specimens which are hundreds of thousands of years old.
They discovered that both a Homo sapien skull fossil and a Neanderthal skull fossil both found in a cave in Greece were likely deposited there at the same time, suggesting Homo sapiens were present in Europe over 150,000 years earlier than previously thought.
Also in this episode:
TomTom joins forces with Microsoft to bring generative AI into cars, Boots expected to launch 'AI personal shopper', Scottish climate changing faster than expected, and the Christmas veggies that may cut your cancer risk.
Listen above, find us on Apple, Spotify or wherever you stream your podcasts.
