Clocks

The Greek women’s water polo team’s return to the Olympics after 16 years did not yield a favorable outcome. The athletes, under the guidance of Alexia Kammenou, appeared emotional during the national anthem and entered the match visibly anxious, paying the price with a heavy defeat against what is currently considered the top team in the world.

Nuclear specialists have chosen to keep the hands of the Doomsday Clock unchanged at 90 seconds before midnight, a symbolic representation of the hypothetical point of global destruction. This precarious position, mirroring last year's setting, underscores the world's vulnerability to imminent catastrophe, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

A meticulously restored 100-year-old clock, identical to the stolen one, is set to be installed within a month on the iconic clock tower in the southern province of Antalya, one of the major tourist attractions in the country.

Swiss watches are in high demand these days, but sales of second-hand timepieces are also booming, driven by Generation Z buyers who want luxury goods but are also sustainability-minded.

Top scientists and security experts moved the "Doomsday Clock" forward on Jan. 24 to just 90 seconds to midnight, signaling an increased risk to humanity's survival from the nuclear shadow over the Ukraine conflict and the growing climate crisis.

The new timing of the clock set by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is closer to midnight than ever before.

For nearly 90 years, anyone in France needing to know what time it is down-to-the-second could ring up the Paris Observatory and get an automated, astronomy-based response.

But the final countdown for the world-first service has begun.

The ongoing restoration works on the historical clock tower in the southern province of Antalya have revealed that the original clock inserted on the outer surface of the tower at the beginning of the 20th century was stolen and a plastic clock was put instead.

After a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and continued fears over nuclear risks and climate change, the symbolic Doomsday Clock remains stuck at the same time as last year.

"The hands of the Doomsday Clock remain at 100 seconds to midnight, as close to midnight as ever," Rachel Bronson, president of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS), said on Wednesday (27 January).

A Turkish watchmaker who repairs antique clocks dating back to Ottoman times dreams of fixing and maintaining these clocks on the mosque grounds, visiting them on a clock-repair caravan tour. (Source: AA)

Some Hierarchs will chime the bells in mourning