Doomsday Clock reset imminent amid Israel-Hamas war and threats from Iran, North Korea and Russia’s ‘unhinged’ Putin

Is the end near?

Our planet is the closest it has ever been to a global nuclear holocaust, members of the scientific community have warned over the past two years. Sometime this month, they will announce whether we have moved steps closer to annihilation.

Each year, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists sets a “Doomsday Clock,” a def-con-eqsue metaphor that determines how close existing world conflicts are pushing Earth to the brink of no return.

After two years of extreme conflict, the Doomsday Clock will be reset this month. Pictured is a Russian missile test launch from 2018. AP

For two consecutive years, 2023 and 2024 — following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and amid the ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas and the latter’s allies — the clock has been set at just 90 seconds to midnight.

For context, it clocked in at seven minutes to midnight in 1963 following the near-catastrophic Cuban Missile Crisis.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine are putting global powers in a position to prepare for the worst. POOL/AFP via Getty Images

In Eastern Europe, there aren’t many assurances that headstrong Russia is seeking alternatives to a nuclear strike. The nation’s leader, Vladimir Putin, moved nuclear arms into nearby Belarus as a thinly veiled threat to end the Ukraine conflict in 2023. In November, he doubled down on threats to both that country and the U.S.

The war, during which Russia has begun allying with North Korean troops, has become much of a “stalemate,” Dr. Haydn Belfield, a research associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, told the Daily Mail.

However, he warned that the worst could be coming.

“We are probably closer to nuclear war than at any point in the last 40 years,” Belfield asserted.

“Putin might seek to break with nuclear escalation and brinksmanship,” he told The Daily Mail, adding that the Russian leader may be “even more unhinged” than his predecessors.

Rachel Bronson, CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, previously told The Post how hellbent the Russians are on capturing Ukraine.

Since 2023, the Doomsday Clock has been at its worst-ever position — 90 seconds to midnight. Getty Images

“There is a trend toward seemingly making [Russia’s nuclear arsenal] more usable — that is very, very similar to what we saw in the’ ’40s, ’50s and early ’60s … to show the West that [they’re] serious about how important Ukraine is,” Bronson said.

And the world seems to be following suit.

“Every major nuclear power is investing in their nuclear arsenal in a way to suggest that world leaders believe they may be usable,” she added.

As terrifying as the Russia and Ukraine scenario is, it remains just one piece of the international puzzle.

Belfield said that tensions over China’s threats to neighboring Taiwan — a major international supplier of smart chips — are also putting Western nations on high alert. In March, it was reported that U.S. troops were stationed in the surrounding islands of China as threats have escalated.

Fighting between Israel and Hamas, plus its allies, is also pushing the world to a dangerous scenario. Pictured is an Israeli strike in Beirut, Lebanon. AP

The Middle East situation “could pose unpredictable threats, regionally and globally,” the Bulletin warned in 2024 as well.

On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed worry over Iran’s growing nuclear program and said its expansion is leading “nearly to the point of no return.” In November, Israeli forces counterattacked an Iranian nuclear facility.

In addition, North Korea launched a ballistic missile test on Monday and pointed fingers at the arms powers of the U.S., South Korea and Japan.

“This reality clearly shows to which direction we should advance and what we should do and how,” the Workers’ Party of Korea announced.

Beyond direct conflict between nations, the Bulletin — whose first board of sponsors included Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb” — said last January that other factors are now at play.

The aftermath of Russian missiles striking a Kyiv children’s hospital last July is pictured. AP

One is how extreme weather events like wildfires and floods may lead to “dangerous human and economic impacts” that can worsen international tensions.

Another is looming increasingly each day: the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence was listed as a primary consideration for the Doomsday Clock.

“Of particular concern are lethal autonomous weapons, which identify and destroy targets without human intervention,” the Bulletin wrote. “Decisions to put AI in control of important physical systems — in particular, nuclear weapons — could indeed pose a direct existential threat to humanity.”

Russia is a primary reason why experts fear the world is so close to nuclear war. Pictured is a Russian nuclear-powered submarine. AP

Last fall, drone technology utilized in the Ukraine conflict was reported to be enhancing advanced technological warfare.

Other weapon experts have expressed that a new arms race will involve whichever nation develops AI faster.