The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight, the closest the world has ever been to global catastrophe in its estimation. The new setting moves the clock forward from its previous position of 89 seconds to midnight from a year ago. The Doomsday Clock was created two years later, in 1947, as a metaphor for the likelihood of a human-made global catastrophe. The Clock was farthest from midnight in 1991, when the end of the Cold War pushed it 17 minutes away. It was 90 seconds to midnight in 2023 and 2024, then 89 and finally 85 seconds today.

Source: The Hindu January 27, 2026 18:15 UTC