The Doomsday Clock, a metaphorical measure of how close humanity is to destroying the world through technologies of its own making, especially nuclear weapons, stands at 85 seconds to midnight as of January 27, having moved four seconds closer. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which created the clock at the start of the Cold War, announced on Tuesday that it has advanced by four seconds compared with a year ago, bringing it closest to a global catastrophe in its history. The announcement comes as Donald Trump, who often describes himself as the president of peace, completed one year in the White House of his second term. The first year of Trump's presidency is marked by shattering norms, withdrawing from established multilateral organisations, ordering unilateral actions abroad and deploying massive force at home, even after opposition from local authorities.&nbsp;Also Read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/first-lady-melania-trump-makes-rare-political-statement-as-anti-ice-unrest-grips-minnesota-1769525629288">First Lady Melania Trump makes rare political statement as anti-ICE unrest grips Minnesota</a>&nbsp;Major powers such as Russia, China, the United States and others have "become increasingly aggressive, adversarial and nationalistic," said a statement announcing the clock shift, concluded after consultations with a board that includes eight Nobel laureates, AFP reported.&nbsp;"Hard-won global understandings are collapsing, accelerating a winner-takes-all great power competition and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence and other apocalyptic dangers." The Doomsday Clock board cautioned against increased risk of a nuclear arms race after the "New START" nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia set to expire next week without a sign of renewal. &nbsp;"For the first time in over half a century, there will be nothing preventing a runaway nuclear arms race," Daniel Holz, a University of Chicago physicist who chairs the Bulletin's Science and Security Board, told a virtual news conference, as quoted by AFP.&nbsp;The board voiced its concerns about Donald Trump's threats to resume nuclear testing and push a costly 'Golden Dome" missile defence system, which is expected to further militarise space. It also raised alarm over Trump's ICE crackdown in Minnesota, noting "History has shown that when governments become unaccountable to their own citizens, conflict and misery follow."<h2>What is the Doomsday Clock?</h2>The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic "design" created in 1947 by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (including former members of the Manhattan Project). It serves as a metaphor for how close humanity is to destroying the world through technologies of its own making.&nbsp;Midnight: Represents the theoretical point of "annihilation" or global catastrophe.&nbsp;Who sets it? The Bulletin’s Science and Security Board, a group of global experts in nuclear technology and climate science, in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 9 Nobel Laureates.&nbsp;The Scale: It began at 7 minutes to midnight in 1947. Its "safest" point was 17 minutes to midnight in 1991, following the end of the Cold War.&nbsp;However, the clock is not a tool to predict the future; it acts as a call to action. The bulletin underlined that the hands can be moved back if world leaders act responsibly and embrace diplomacy to solve conflicts and work towards the climate issues the world is facing.&nbsp;

This is the closest the symbolic clock has ever been to a global catastrophe in its 79-year history, surpassing the previous record of 89 seconds set just last year.

The Doomsday Clock, a metaphorical measure of how close humanity is to destroying the world through technologies of its own making, especially nuclear weapons, stands at 85 seconds to midnight as of January 27, having moved four seconds closer. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which created the clock at the start of the Cold War, announced on Tuesday that it has advanced by four seconds compared with a year ago, bringing it closest to a global catastrophe in its history. The announcement comes as Donald Trump, who often describes himself as the president of peace, completed one year in the White House of his second term. The first year of Trump's presidency is marked by shattering norms, withdrawing from established multilateral organisations, ordering unilateral actions abroad and deploying massive force at home, even after opposition from local authorities. Also Read: First Lady Melania Trump makes rare political statement as anti-ICE unrest grips Minnesota Major powers such as Russia, China, the United States and others have "become increasingly aggressive, adversarial and nationalistic," said a statement announcing the clock shift, concluded after consultations with a board that includes eight Nobel laureates, AFP reported. "Hard-won global understandings are collapsing, accelerating a winner-takes-all great power competition and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence and other apocalyptic dangers." The Doomsday Clock board cautioned against increased risk of a nuclear arms race after the "New START" nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia set to expire next week without a sign of renewal. "For the first time in over half a century, there will be nothing preventing a runaway nuclear arms race," Daniel Holz, a University of Chicago physicist who chairs the Bulletin's Science and Security Board, told a virtual news conference, as quoted by AFP. The board voiced its concerns about Donald Trump's threats to resume nuclear testing and push a costly 'Golden Dome" missile defence system, which is expected to further militarise space. It also raised alarm over Trump's ICE crackdown in Minnesota, noting "History has shown that when governments become unaccountable to their own citizens, conflict and misery follow." What is the Doomsday Clock? The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic "design" created in 1947 by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (including former members of the Manhattan Project). It serves as a metaphor for how close humanity is to destroying the world through technologies of its own making. Midnight: Represents the theoretical point of "annihilation" or global catastrophe. Who sets it? The Bulletin’s Science and Security Board, a group of global experts in nuclear technology and climate science, in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 9 Nobel Laureates. The Scale: It began at 7 minutes to midnight in 1947. Its "safest" point was 17 minutes to midnight in 1991, following the end of the Cold War. However, the clock is not a tool to predict the future; it acts as a call to action. The bulletin underlined that the hands can be moved back if world leaders act responsibly and embrace diplomacy to solve conflicts and work towards the climate issues the world is facing.

This is the closest the symbolic clock has ever been to a global catastrophe in its 79-year history, surpassing the previous record of 89 seconds set just last year.

Is world closer to the end? As Doomsday Clock moves nearer to midnight, a year into Trump’s term

At least four million premature deaths from cancer and other diseases have been caused, affecting every single human on the planet, due to the nuclear weapons testing conducted worldwide between 1945 and 2017. A total of nine countries are known to possess nuclear weapons, including Russia, the United States, China, France, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea.&nbsp;A new report by the humanitarian group Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) indicates that the consequences of earlier tests continue to be felt across the globe. Reacting to the final nuclear test conducted by France in French Polynesia in 1996, a 37-year-old lawmaker, Hinamoeura Cross, from Tahiti, who was seven, said, “They poisoned us”, according to a report in AFP.&nbsp;Seventeen years later, she was diagnosed with leukaemia, in a family where her grandmother, mother and aunt had already battled thyroid cancer. Nuclear detonations are known to have caused long-lasting and far-reaching damage to human health, communities and ecosystems.&nbsp;The NPA report, running to more than 300 pages, says a persistent culture of secrecy, limited international involvement, and a lack of reliable data have left many affected communities still searching for answers. "Past nuclear testing continues to kill today," said NPA chief Raymond Johansen, and voiced hope that the report will "strengthen the resolve to prevent nuclear weapons from ever being tested or used again".&nbsp;Watch: https://www.wionews.com/videos/delhi-pollution-delhi-parking-costs-to-jump-during-pollution-alerts-1769070042144/embed<h3>The issue gains fresh relevance after Trump announces nuclear testing</h3>Following US President Donald Trump's announcement last November that Washington could resume nuclear testing, the issue has gained fresh relevance. In response, Ivana Hughes, a Columbia University chemistry lecturer and head of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, who contributed to the NPA report, said, "This is very, very, very dangerous." "The nuclear testing period shows us that the consequences are extremely long-lasting and very serious," she told AFP.&nbsp;The heaviest burden of past tests has fallen on communities living near test sites, today located in 15 different countries, including many former colonies of nuclear-armed states. Survivors continue to suffer higher rates of disease, birth defects and psychological trauma, with the consequences extending far beyond the test sites. "Every person alive today carries radioactive isotopes from atmospheric testing in their bones," report co-author and University of South Carolina anthropology professor Magdalena Stawkowski told AFP.&nbsp;The report said hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are already known to have died from illnesses linked to past nuclear detonations. It cited strong scientific evidence tying radiation exposure, even at low levels, to DNA damage, cancer, cardiovascular disease and inherited genetic effects.&nbsp;"The risks that radiation poses are really much greater than previously thought," report co-author Tilman Ruff told AFP. Atmospheric tests conducted up to 1980 alone are projected to result in at least two million additional cancer deaths over time, Stawkowski said.&nbsp;Tilman Ruff, a public health researcher at the University of Melbourne and co-founder of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, stated that a similar number of premature deaths from heart attacks and strokes is also expected.&nbsp;Ionising radiation, particles capable of breaking DNA bonds in cells and triggering cancer, is “highly biologically damaging”, Ruff said, adding that “there is no safe threshold”. The risks vary across populations, with foetuses and young children most vulnerable, and girls and women about 52 per cent more susceptible to radiation-induced cancers than boys and men.&nbsp;Also read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trump-unveils-gaza-board-of-peace-at-davos-1769077933537">Trump unveils Gaza ‘Board of Peace’ at Davos, says Hamas ‘must give up weapons’</a> &nbsp;

The NPA report, running to more than 300 pages, says a persistent culture of secrecy, limited international involvement, and a lack of reliable data have left many affected communities still searching for answers. 

At least four million premature deaths from cancer and other diseases have been caused, affecting every single human on the planet, due to the nuclear weapons testing conducted worldwide between 1945 and 2017. A total of nine countries are known to possess nuclear weapons, including Russia, the United States, China, France, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea. A new report by the humanitarian group Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) indicates that the consequences of earlier tests continue to be felt across the globe. Reacting to the final nuclear test conducted by France in French Polynesia in 1996, a 37-year-old lawmaker, Hinamoeura Cross, from Tahiti, who was seven, said, “They poisoned us”, according to a report in AFP. Seventeen years later, she was diagnosed with leukaemia, in a family where her grandmother, mother and aunt had already battled thyroid cancer. Nuclear detonations are known to have caused long-lasting and far-reaching damage to human health, communities and ecosystems. The NPA report, running to more than 300 pages, says a persistent culture of secrecy, limited international involvement, and a lack of reliable data have left many affected communities still searching for answers. "Past nuclear testing continues to kill today," said NPA chief Raymond Johansen, and voiced hope that the report will "strengthen the resolve to prevent nuclear weapons from ever being tested or used again". Watch: https://www.wionews.com/videos/delhi-pollution-delhi-parking-costs-to-jump-during-pollution-alerts-1769070042144/embed The issue gains fresh relevance after Trump announces nuclear testing Following US President Donald Trump's announcement last November that Washington could resume nuclear testing, the issue has gained fresh relevance. In response, Ivana Hughes, a Columbia University chemistry lecturer and head of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, who contributed to the NPA report, said, "This is very, very, very dangerous." "The nuclear testing period shows us that the consequences are extremely long-lasting and very serious," she told AFP. The heaviest burden of past tests has fallen on communities living near test sites, today located in 15 different countries, including many former colonies of nuclear-armed states. Survivors continue to suffer higher rates of disease, birth defects and psychological trauma, with the consequences extending far beyond the test sites. "Every person alive today carries radioactive isotopes from atmospheric testing in their bones," report co-author and University of South Carolina anthropology professor Magdalena Stawkowski told AFP. The report said hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are already known to have died from illnesses linked to past nuclear detonations. It cited strong scientific evidence tying radiation exposure, even at low levels, to DNA damage, cancer, cardiovascular disease and inherited genetic effects. "The risks that radiation poses are really much greater than previously thought," report co-author Tilman Ruff told AFP. Atmospheric tests conducted up to 1980 alone are projected to result in at least two million additional cancer deaths over time, Stawkowski said. Tilman Ruff, a public health researcher at the University of Melbourne and co-founder of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, stated that a similar number of premature deaths from heart attacks and strokes is also expected. Ionising radiation, particles capable of breaking DNA bonds in cells and triggering cancer, is “highly biologically damaging”, Ruff said, adding that “there is no safe threshold”. The risks vary across populations, with foetuses and young children most vulnerable, and girls and women about 52 per cent more susceptible to radiation-induced cancers than boys and men. Also read: Trump unveils Gaza ‘Board of Peace’ at Davos, says Hamas ‘must give up weapons’

The NPA report, running to more than 300 pages, says a persistent culture of secrecy, limited international involvement, and a lack of reliable data have left many affected communities still searching for answers.&nbsp;

How many premature deaths were caused by nuclear weapons testing from 1945 to 2017? Report reveals shocking facts

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Is world closer to the end? As Doomsday Clock moves nearer to midnight, a year into Trump’s term

Nuclear tests from 1945–2017 caused million premature deaths: Check report