The Doomsday Clock is closer than ever to midnight, amid aggressive behavior by Russia, China and the United States, shaky nuclear arms control, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and concerns about artificial intelligence.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Tuesday set the clock at 85 seconds before midnight, the theoretical point of annihilation. That is four seconds closer than in 2025.
The Chicago-based nonprofit created the clock in 1947 during the Cold War tensions that followed World War II to warn the public of how close humanity was to destroying the world.
The scientists raised concerns about the threat of unregulated integration of artificial intelligence into military systems and its potential misuse in helping to create biological threats, as well as AI’s role in spreading disinformation worldwide. They also highlighted the ongoing challenges posed by climate change.
“Of course the Doomsday Clock is about global risk, and what we have seen is a global failure in leadership,” said nuclear policy expert Alexandra Bell, president and CEO of the Bulletin.
“Regardless of government, a shift towards neo-imperialism and an Orwellian approach to governance will only help push the clock towards midnight.”
It was the third time in the past four years that the scientists moved the clock closer to midnight.
“In terms of nuclear risks, nothing was going in the right direction in 2025,” Bell said.
“Long-standing diplomatic frameworks are under strain or collapsing, the threat of explosive nuclear testing has returned, concerns about proliferation are increasing, and three military operations have taken place in the shadow of nuclear weapons and the associated escalating threat.
“The risk of nuclear use is unsustainable and unacceptably high.”
Conflicts in Ukraine, cited in the Middle East
Bell pointed to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, the American and Israeli bombing of Iran and border conflicts between India and Pakistan.
Continued tensions in Asia, including on the Korean Peninsula and Chinese threats against Taiwan, as well as rising tensions in the Western Hemisphere since US President Donald Trump returned to power 12 months ago, were also cited.
Trump ordered the US military in October to restart the nuclear weapons testing process after a halt of more than three decades. No nuclear power, except North Korea, most recently in 2017, has conducted explosive nuclear tests in more than a quarter century.
According to Bell, a former senior official at the US State Department, no country would benefit more from a large-scale return to such testing than China, given its continued drive to expand its nuclear arsenal.
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