The Doomsday Clock, which is revised annually to indicate how close humanity is to catastrophic disaster, has moved forward by four seconds to just 85 seconds before midnight – the closest it has ever been.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the body that oversees the Doomsday Clock, created it in 1947 to evaluate the risk of extinction from multiple threats.

When the clock strikes midnight, it signals that humanity has failed to prevent complete annihilation.

The latest Doomsday Clock update was revealed at 3pm on Tuesday (January 27) from Washington DC, US. Alexandra Bell, the bulletin's chief executive, declared that humanity has fallen short in its attempts to maintain a habitable planet.

"Every second counts and we are running out of time," she said. "It's a hard truth, but this is our reality.

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"Overall, 2025 has been a pretty bleak picture in terms of advancing existential risks."

Board member John Wolfsthal noted that whilst deciding how far to move the clock usually proves challenging, they encountered 'no such challenges this year'.

The clock has been creeping closer to midnight in recent years, advancing from 90 seconds to midnight in 2023 to 89 seconds to midnight the subsequent year.

This represents a dramatic shift from 1991 – when it was at its furthest distance from midnight at 17 minutes – after the US and Soviet Union agreed to reduce their nuclear stockpiles. While some are understandably concerned by this development, critics have labelled the clock as a "fear tactic" aimed at the public.