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The Doomsday Clock - which shows how symbolically close the world is to nuclear Armageddon - is to remain at 90 seconds to midnight.

Scientists have listed reasons for keeping its hands the closest they have ever been to "Doomsday" - but stopped short of nudging it further forward.

The threat of a new nuclear arms race, the Ukraine war and climate change concerns were all factors, they said.

The clock is set annually by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Since 2007, members have considered the impact of new man-made risks such as AI and climate change, as well as the greatest threat - nuclear war.

In its 2024 announcement on Tuesday, the Bulletin said that China, Russia and the US were all spending huge sums to "expand or modernise their nuclear arsenals" - which added to the "ever-present danger of nuclear war through mistake or miscalculation".

The war in Ukraine had also created an "ever-present risk of nuclear escalation", it said.

A lack of action on climate change and risks linked to "misusing" emerging biological technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools were also cited.