The Doomsday Clock which visually represents how close the planet is to destruction, has moved one second forward to 89 seconds to midnight.

Founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, and University of Chicago scientists, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the Doomsday Clock two years later, using the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) to convey threats to humanity and the planet.

Reset every year, it now stands closer to midnight than at any previous time (it stood at seven minutes to midnight in 1947 and during the Cuban Missile Crisis).

In making the decision to move the clock forward a second, the ongoing war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East were combined with the increasing impacts of climate change; including sea-level rise, extreme weather and global surface temperature surpassing previous records; and causes such as emissions rising have left a question mark over any progress.

Other issues considered were the biological factors, rising antagonism between ideological blocs and disinformation.

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