USA - The Doomsday Clock, which has been ticking down to the end of the world for decades, is now officially closer to annihilation than ever before. On Tuesday, scientists with the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the symbolic clock four seconds forward to 85 seconds to midnight. It's also the closest the clock has ever been to midnight in its 79-year history, meaning experts believe humanity has never faced a more dire threat of a world-ending catastrophe than it does in 2026. The group, which decides where the hands are set annually, cited multiple threats to global stability, including nuclear weapons, climate change, disruptive technologies like AI, and the creation of synthetic biological substances called 'mirror life.' Alexandra Bell, president and CEO of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, said: 'Every second counts and we are running out of time. It is a hard truth that this is our reality. This is the closest our world has ever been to midnight.'

MOZAMBIQUE - Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes in Mozambique’s worst floods in a generation, sparking fears that cholera will now strike. Torrential rains across parts of southern Africa since late last year have killed more than 100 people in Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Thousands of homes have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of livestock and poultry have been killed. Officials believe the flooding is the worst seen in the southern African country since 2000, when heavy rains and then a cyclone killed as many as 700 people. Waterlogged streets in many towns have led to crocodile warnings.

USA - The weather front has left 700,000 people without power and cancelled thousands of flights. Cold temperatures are expected to last into the week. At least 22 people are believed to have died, 700,000 are without power and public schools have closed after Winter Storm Fern swept across much of the United States over the weekend. Temperatures plummeted below minus 22F (minus 30C) in some areas, while many parts of the country were blanketed under several inches of snow. An estimated 200 million people, more than half of the US population, spanning from the Rockies to New England, were in the path of Storm Fern and have seen dangerously cold conditions, heavy snow and freezing rain forecast until Monday, AccuWeather’s senior meteorologist said.

UK - Britain’s energy industry faces collapse thanks to Labour’s “chaotic and needless” rundown of the oil and gas sector, one of its biggest union backers has warned. Louise Gilmour, Scotland secretary of the GMB union, says “delusional” net zero policies championed by Ed Miliband are causing “arguably the most destructive industrial calamity in our nation’s history”. Ms Gilmour directly attacks Mr Miliband over the “dismal” effects of his policies, which are killing British jobs and creating jobs in China for the ever growing number of wind farms the Government insists on building. She has backed a new report that says Britain will permanently lose its energy independence unless there is a major shift in Government policy.

IRAN - As the days progress, the US continues to deploy significant forces to the Middle East. The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, along with its strike group, has arrived in the area of responsibility of US Central Command, to provide President Trump with all the capabilities and options ahead of a decision on how to act against Iran. One of the challenges facing President Trump in deciding how to strike is the fact that protests have significantly diminished after weeks of murders by the regime inside Iran. According to reports, President Trump has requested a focused and meaningful operation, an indication that he has no desire to become embroiled in prolonged warfare. And of course: no boots on the ground.

UK - It’s the first and most fundamental piece of information to be recorded about us the moment we’re born. Alongside our parentage, our weight, our length and our head circumference – it’s crucial to our identity. So it’s hard to imagine the bafflement of staff at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust when they discovered – during a recent training session for the trust’s new software system – that there was no option of recording a newborn’s biological sex on the registration forms.

USA - A video by Minnesota state Representative Pam Altendorf, a Republican, details the monument that has been placed in the government building. She explains, “I am on the ground floor, and… I noticed there is a new display here.” She adds, “Let me read it to you: The Democrat Coalition of Satan Worshippers thanks Governor Tim Walz for not standing in the way of spreading Satanism in the state Capitol building. Satan has a special place for you. Let me be the first, I guess, to congratulate Governor Tim Walz for this very special award that has come from Satan Worshippers… You can’t make this up,” she concluded. “I’m speechless.”

EUROPE - At an emergency summit of European Union leaders in Brussels, the building blocks of an empire were beginning to take shape. Donald Trump’s threats over Greenland have exposed Europe’s weakness. Russia’s Vladimir Putin is waging war on its eastern flank. China’s Xi Jinping is a relentless competitor. In a brutal new age of world powers, the EU wants to build a bigger, richer, stronger “super Europe” that is able to resist the dangerous whims of the globe’s autocrats.

EUROPE - Europe is sacrificing industry to net zero “ideology”, the chairman of Siemens Energy has warned. Joe Kaeser said strict zero-emission targets had crippled manufacturing and heavy industry in Germany and beyond. He called on the German government to work on a more “economically feasible plan” for the country to decarbonise. “The critics have a point when they say you risk your economic power [and] society’s wellbeing by being ideological about net zero,” he said. His comments will raise questions about Britain’s approach to net zero, which official forecasts show will add hundreds of billions of pounds to government spending over the next few decades.

UK - Labour has admitted that the Government’s Chagos deal will collapse if Donald Trump refuses to rip up a 60-year-old treaty. Sir Keir Starmer’s surrender of the British island territory was thrown into chaos on Friday night after the Conservatives warned it could violate a US-UK treaty from 1966. This forced the ministers to withdraw the bill which was expected to be debated in the House of Lords on Monday, while government lawyers examined the significance of the historic legislation. The Telegraph can reveal that in a letter sent late on Friday evening, the Government conceded that it would not be possible for the Chagos deal to be ratified without the US agreeing to overhaul its 1966 defence deal with Britain.

USA - The United States government is reportedly seeking new leadership in Cuba and aims to remove the communist regime by the end of this year, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Following the successful ousting of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the WSJ reported that the Trump administration is actively working with insiders within the Cuban government to facilitate regime change in Cuba. US officials believe that Cuba’s economy is on the verge of collapse, worsened by diminishing support from Venezuela. Insiders familiar with the situation on the ground told the WSJ that reports indicate shortages of basic goods and medicines, as well as frequent blackouts throughout the country. The United States government has previously stated plans to weaken Cuba's regime by cutting off vital resources, such as Venezuelan oil. In early January, Trump stated on his Truth Social platform, "THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!" He added, "I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

USA - Donald Trump, only the second sitting president to travel to Davos to attend The World Economic Forum (WEF) since its founding in 1971 — the other was Bill Clinton — delivered a 70-minute speech not designed to win the hearts and minds of the record audience. The day before Trump’s appearance, Mark Carney, prime minister of Canada, received a rare standing ovation when he called for an end to dependence on Trump’s America because its policies had the international system “in the midst of a rupture.” Never mind that European and Canadian dependence on America results from a decision by these dependencies to build generous welfare states while America bore the cost of their defence.

USA - Greg Brockman fancied being a billionaire. “What do I really want?”, the then 28-year-old president of OpenAI wrote in his diary in late 2017. “Financially, what will take me to $1B?” Daydreams of fabulous wealth would, in most contexts, be of little consequence. Yet for Elon Musk, they are a smoking gun: proof of a “secret plot” hatched years ago to sideline the Tesla billionaire from the pioneering AI company that he co-founded and funded as a non-profit organisation, and then to turn it into a for-profit entity to enrich Brockman, chief executive Sam Altman, and his other erstwhile partners.

USA - When Usha Vance, the second lady of the United States, announced she was pregnant with her fourth child this week, Conservatives heralded the start of a “Maga baby boom”. It is the first known time in modern US history that a sitting second lady is expecting a baby while her husband is in office. The White House, in response, labelled itself on social media as “the most pro-family administration in history”. Also pregnant currently are Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokesman, and Katie Miller, the wife of the White House deputy chief of staff. The “America needs more babies” rallying cry has been central to Trump 2.0.

USA - Gold fever is burning hotter than ever after the price of the precious metal smashed through a fresh milestone of $5,000 an ounce on Monday. The surge has reignited speculation that investors are bracing for deep economic trouble - and few are louder about it than Robert Kiyosaki, the bestselling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad.