Fears about nuclear war are reaching a fever pitch. Another grim sign of the times

‘There is nothing funny about the world’s most powerful man making existential decisions for it unperturbed, even titillated, by death and destruction.’ Photograph: Konstantin Toropin/AP

Intimations of world war three – the big one, nuclear Armageddon – didn’t arise yesterday. But they got more urgent when Donald Trump was elected the second time. In December 2024, Newsweek published a map of the “safest US states to live during nuclear war”. The article was not reassuring. “Nowhere is truly ‘safe’” from such consequences as “contamination of food and water supplies and prolonged radiation exposure”, said the senior policy director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. Another expert noted that “even a ‘small’ nuclear war would ... kill at least a billion people”.

And since 28 February, when the US and Israel began their bombardment of Iran, chatter about a world war has spiked, with everyone from anonymous social media users to Harvard policy wonks weighing in.