Time to stock up on loo roll, folks

The clock is now set to 89 seconds to midnight, moving one second closer than it has been for the previous two years.

Scientists cited nuclear threats, potential misuses in biological advances, climate change and AI were all key factors in the decision.

The initiative was first launched by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in the 1940s in response to the threat of nuclear war.

They set the Doomsday Clock to a time based on how far away the board believe humanity is from destruction. The closer it goes to midnight, the bigger the threats facing the world.

When it was first introduced in 1947, it was set to seven minutes to midnight. The safest ever time came in 1995, when it was fourteen minutes to midnight.

In 2023, scientists set the clock to 90 seconds to midnight, citing the war in Ukraine, political tensions, climate change and illnesses.

Now, the needle has moved even closer to midnight at 89 seconds away, with the Bulletin saying it should serve as "a warning to all world leaders".

"The factors shaping this year's decision - nuclear risk, climate change, the potential misuse of advances in biological science and a variety of other emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence - were not new in 2024," the Bulletin's chair, Daniel Holz, said.

"But we have seen insufficient progress in addressing the key challenges, and in many cases this is leading to increasingly negative and worrisome effects.

"Setting the Doomsday Clock at 89 seconds to midnight is a warning to all world leaders.

"The war in Ukraine continues to loom as a large source of nuclear risk. That conflict could escalate to include nuclear weapons at any moment due to a rash decision or through accident and miscalculation."

Holz added that Putin's repeated nuclear threats have been "disturbing."

"In addition, Russia's recent backtracking from important arms control treaties is an alarming sign of increasing nuclear risk," he added.