Doomsday Clock reveals humanity is closer than ever before to complete annihilation

And you thought these guys just told the time!

Every few years the boffins over at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists analyse a number of global existential threats to give judgement on just how close humans are to full self-sabotage.

Threats which are assessed include nuclear weapons, climate change, and disruptive technologies (AI).

The panel that decides the 'time to midnight' is made up of a group of experts including Nobel laureates.

While the clock isn't updated every year, having been changed 26 times since its establishment in 1947, it was evaluated last year.

In 2025, the clock was set at just 89 seconds to midnight, the closest to Armageddon humanity had ever been...

UNTIL NOW.

Yep, that's right - it surely comes as very little surprise to anyone who has been merely existing on this planet in the last 12 months that things definitely haven't got better.

Donald Trump, despite his claims for a Nobel Peace Prize, hasn't helped one bit, the Middle East remains a contentious area and AI is threatening to make everyone unemployed.

And that is just the tip of the perpetually melting iceberg thanks to climate change.

So, it comes as no surprise that over the last year we have got a whole four seconds closer to the end of the world, with the clock now sitting at 85 seconds to midnight.

Cheery stuff.

The Doomsday Clock's website reads that it is "a design that warns the public about how close we are to destroying our world with dangerous technologies of our own making."

It added that the clock is "a metaphor, a reminder of the perils we must address if we are to survive on the planet."

In their 21-page document detailing their latest update, the organisation summarised the latest change.

It read: "Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic.

"Hard-won global understandings are collapsing, accelerating a winner-takes-all great power competition and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing existential risks.

"Far too many leaders have grown complacent and indifferent, in many cases adopting rhetoric and policies that accelerate rather than mitigate those risks.

"Because of this failure of leadership, the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board sets the Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to catastrophe."