It’s 2026 and there are just 85 seconds until the fateful midnight.
Hands advanced four seconds and never put us so close, symbolically, to the end of the world. Nuclear weapons, climate change, disinformation and political violence are dangers to be faced.
The Doomsday Clock (also known as the Apocalypse Clock or Doomsday Clock, in English), which symbolically measures the proximity of the end of the world, is closer than ever to catastrophe, in a context of growing concerns about nuclear weapons, climate change and disinformation.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the needle to 85 seconds to midnightthe theoretical point of the end of the world: we have four seconds less than defined on the same day as .
The Chicago-based nonprofit created the clock in 1947, during the Cold War tensions that followed World War II, to warn the public about how close humanity was to destroying the world.
A year of Trump
The announcement comes a year after the start of the second term of US President Donald Trump, who destabilized the world order, ordered unilateral attacks and withdrew the United States from several international organizations.
Russia, China, the United States and other relevant countries “have become increasingly aggressive, hostile and nationalistic”said the group of scientists when announcing the advance of the clock.
“Hard-won global understandings are unraveling, accelerating a large-scale, winner-takes-all power struggle and undermining international cooperationwhich is essential to reduce the risks of nuclear war, climate change, misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence and other apocalyptic dangers”, they warned.
The team of scientists did not forget the risks of the possible “” — a type of chemically synthesized life that is a mirror image, at the molecular level, of the life that evolved naturally on Earth. They fear that mirror organisms could replace natural microbes or other organisms and that these life forms could escape the immune system, leading to new deadly pandemics.
Risks of the arms race
The committee warned of the growing risks of a nuclear arms race, taking into account that the treaty New STARTon the reduction of nuclear weapons between the United States and Russia, expire on February 4thand that Trump is pushing to implement an expensive missile defense system — the “” — that would put weapons into orbit.
The bulletin also highlighted the record levels of carbon dioxide emissionsthe main factor in global warming. Also in this area, Trump radically reversed US policy on combating climate change.
Another cause for concern among scientists is the disinformation.
“We are living in an information apocalypse, the crisis that underlies all crises, fueled by predatory technology that spreads lies faster than facts and thrives in our divisions,” he declared. Maria RessaFilipino investigative journalist and winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.
“Global leadership failure”
“It is clear that the Doomsday Clock is about global risks, and what we have seen is a global leadership failure”, the nuclear policy expert told Alexandra Bellpresident and CEO of the Bulletin.
“Regardless of the government, a shift towards neo-imperialism and an Orwellian approach to governance will only serve to push the clock to midnight”, he believes.
This was the third time in the last four years that scientists have brought the clock closer to midnight.
“In terms of nuclear risks, nothing in 2025 showed a trend in the right direction,” said Bell: “Long-standing diplomatic structures are under pressure or collapsing, the threat of explosive nuclear testing has returned, proliferation concerns are rising, and three military operations were taking place under the shadow of nuclear weapons and the associated threat of escalation. The risk of nuclear use is unsustainably and unacceptably high.”
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, an organization founded by Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer and other nuclear scientists at the University of Chicago, first set the Doomsday Clock at seven minutes past midnight in 1947.
Last year, it advanced further, but only by a second: it went from 90 seconds recorded in — the same as in — to 89 seconds at midnight. In we were 100 seconds away from the Last Judgment, the same time as , while in we were two minutes away from the imagined end.
