Doomsday Clock remains just 90 seconds away from global catastrophe for 2024 – amid wars in Ukraine and Gaza

The world continues to be in a ‘time of unprecedented danger’.

Scientists updated the Doomsday Clock on Tuesday, revealing that they are keeping it 90 seconds before midnight, just like in 2023, which is the theoretical point of annihilation.

The unchanged clock – a symbolic timepiece showing how close the world is to the end – was attributed to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, an acceleration of the nuclear arms race and the advancement of AI.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which decides where the hands are placed, said this is the closest it has ever come to a global catastrophe.

This is a developing story…more updates to come.

Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the bulletin, said: “Conflict hotspots around the world carry the threat of nuclear escalation, climate change is already causing death and destruction, and disruptive technologies such as AI and biological research are advancing faster than their safeguards.’

She added that leaving the symbolic timepiece unchanged from the previous year “is not an indication that the world is stable.”

Every January since 1947, the Bulletin determines how close humanity is to annihilation by removing the power from the clock.

Established by American scientists involved in the Manhattan Project, which led to the first nuclear weapons during World War II, the Doomsday Clock is a symbolic countdown to show how close humanity is to global catastrophe.

Artist Martyl Langsdorf was commissioned to create the clock and was instructed to create an image that would “scare people into rationality,” according to Eugene Rabinowitch, the first editor of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

The Doomsday Clock started in 1947 with the clock set to seven minutes to midnight, but now it’s only 90 seconds to midnight

Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the bulletin, said keeping the symbolic timepiece unchanged from the previous year is “not an indication that the world is stable.”

The time is determined by the group of scientists who look at events throughout the year.

The group wonders whether humanity is safer or at greater risk this year than compared to the previous and the same question, but compared to the 75+ years that the Doomsday Clock has existed.

And so they determined where time will stand.

Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, which will reach its second anniversary next month, has escalated tensions with the West to the most dangerous level since the Cold War.

“A lasting end to Russia’s war in Ukraine seems remote, and Russia’s use of nuclear weapons in that conflict remains a serious possibility. Over the past year, Russia has sent numerous nuclear signals of concern,” Bronson said.

She further explained that Putin’s announcement to use nuclear weapons also contributed to the Bulletin’s decision.

In addition, in October 2023, the Russian parliament passed a law that revokes ratification of the global treaty banning nuclear weapons tests.