Humanity is closer than ever to catastrophe, according to the atomic scientists behind the Doomsday Clock.

The ominous metaphor ticked one second closer to midnight this week. The clock now stands just 89 seconds away — its first move in two years and the closest the clock come to midnight in its nearly eight-decade history.

Atomic scientists on Tuesday moved their "Doomsday Clock" closer to midnight than ever before, citing Russian nuclear threats amid its invasion of Ukraine, tensions in other world hot spots, military applications of artificial intelligence and climate change as factors underlying the risks of global catastrophe.

The clock is ticking on humanity.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has moved its Doomsday Clock forward for 2025, announcing that it is now set to 89 seconds to midnight –— the closest it’s ever been to catastrophe.

Israel used U.S.-supplied white phosphorus munitions in an October attack in southern Lebanon that injured at least nine civilians in what a rights group says should be investigated as a war crime, according to a Washington Post analysis of shell fragments found in a small village.

A new report reveals how federal agencies failed when investigating an illegal biolab in California run by a Chinese fugitive.

The House Select Committee on China published its final report Wednesday showing failures on the part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies, including the FBI, in catching or preventing a hazardous lab being run in California.

The lab was run by a Chinese fugitive, with backing from the Chinese government.

The last of the United States’ declared chemical weapons stockpile was destroyed at a sprawling military installation in eastern Kentucky, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced Friday, a milestone that closes a chapter of warfare dating back to World War I.

Workers at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky destroyed rockets filled with GB nerve agent, completing a decadeslong campaign to eliminate a stockpile that by the end of the Cold War totaled more than 30,000 tons.

A Ukrainian official is warning Russian forces are preparing for “the heaviest of battles” in the strategic southern region of Kherson as Ukrainian troops continue their advance on the occupied area. Thousands of residents are still evacuating. On Tuesday, President Biden warned Russia against using nuclear or radioactive weapons in Ukraine following Moscow’s unsupported allegation that Ukrainians would deploy a “dirty bomb.” The U.S., along with Kyiv and European allies, have rejected Russia’s accusation.

President Joe Biden raised concerns Wednesday over the potential of Russian forces to use chemical weapons in Ukraine.

Biden brushed off most questions from reporters while departing the White House for Brussels but told reporters, "I think there's a real threat," when asked what the likelihood for "chemical warfare" in Ukraine really is.

Biden will meet with other NATO and European leaders in Brussels on Thursday before traveling to Poland for bilateral meetings with President Andrzej Duda.

France's President Emmanuel Macron says he has "proof" that the Syrian government attacked the town of Douma with chemical weapons last weekend.

A report by U.N. experts finds that North Korea supplied the Syrian government with materials that could have been used to produce chemical weapons on several occasions in the last two years, lending weight to long-standing suspicions that Syria is continuing to use these weapons on its own people.