Ha, the latest update from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on January 27, 2026, the Doomsday Clock stands at 85 seconds to midnight- the closest it has ever been in its nearly 80-year history.

This represents a move forward by 4 seconds from the 2025 setting of 89 seconds to midnight.

It’s a stark symbolic warning- not a literal prediction.

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But if Congress overrides President Trump on renewable energy the world can win a reprieve.

It is now 85 seconds to midnight

2026 Doomsday Clock Statement

Science and Security Board
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Editor, John Mecklin
January 27, 2026

Founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the Doomsday Clock two years later, using the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero) to convey threats to humanity and the planet.

The Doomsday Clock is set every year by the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes eight Nobel laureates. The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to global catastrophe caused by man-made technologies.

It is now 85 seconds to midnight

A year ago, we warned that the world was perilously close to global disaster and that any delay in reversing course increased the probability of catastrophe. Rather than heed this warning, Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead 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 the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence, and other apocalyptic dangers.

Far too many leaders have grown complacent and indifferent, in many cases adopting rhetoric and policies that accelerate rather than mitigate these existential risks. Because of this failure of leadership, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board today sets the Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to catastrophe.

Even as the hands of the Doomsday Clock move closer to midnight, there are many actions that could pull humanity back from the brink:

• The United States and Russia can resume dialogue about limiting their nuclear arsenals. All nuclear-armed states can avoid destabilizing investments in missile defense and observe the existing moratorium on explosive nuclear testing.
• Through both multilateral agreements and national regulations, the international community can take all feasible steps to prevent the creation of mirror life and cooperate on meaningful measures to reduce the prospect that AI be used to create biological threats.
• The United States Congress can repudiate President Trump’s war on renewable energy, instead providing incentives and investments that will enable rapid reduction in fossil fuel use.
• The United States, Russia, and China can engage in bilateral and multilateral dialogue on meaningful guidelines regarding the incorporation of artificial intelligence in their militaries, particularly in nuclear command and control systems.

…Read more: https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/2026-statement/

Not all the Manhattan Scientists were on board with the Bulletin’s gloomy view of the world.

Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb, very much one of the Manhattan scientists, was an early critic of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ gloomy view of the world.

Teller and Bulletin founder Robert Oppenheimer had a serious split, especially after Teller claimed in 1954 testimony that Oppenheimer’s should not have a security clearance, despite Teller also testifying he did not believe Oppenheimer had leaked or was going to leak any secrets.

In the 1930s Oppenheimer had significant ties to the academic communist movement, via his stormy relationship with communist radical girlfriend Jean Tatlock, though there is no evidence Oppenheimer ever passed any secrets to the Soviet spies who kept trying to recruit him.

Teller also apparently harboured concerns Oppenheimer might be working to undermine progress on Teller’s H-bomb project. 

The US Department of Energy vacated the revocation of Oppenheimer’s security clearance in 2022, though by then all of the main players including Oppenheimer were long dead.

Teller also wasn’t a fan of climate alarmism, as PBS discovered to their embarrassment in 2012.

Why did PBS FRONTLINE electronically alter the signature of one of the world's most distinguished Physicists in their report "Climate of Doubt'?

Freeman Dyson, who missed out on being one of the Manhattan team but was a significant figure in the mid 1900s nuclear science community, also wasn’t a fan of climate alarmism.

Freeman Dyson: Democrat Supporter, Climate Skeptic

But no doubt this “Bulletin of Atomic Scientists” charade will continue. After all, one of their founders was Einstein.

My only question, when will they move to advancing by small fractions of a second? After all they’ve already burned through most of 7 minutes, they’ve only got 85 fake doomsday seconds left before we hit midnight, and it would all be terribly embarrassing if they ran out of time before the world ends.

Perhaps they’ll start rationing doomsday predictions or find embarrassingly weak excuses to wind the clock back a bit.