90 Seconds to Midnight

Dispatch from Tel Aviv

One year on from the October 7th attacks on Israel, David Patrikarakos is in Tel Aviv to hear how that day sparked one of the most dangerous and uncertain periods in the recent history of the Middle East. 

First, David talks to IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Reserve Peter Lerner to get the latest on the Israel’s military operations in both Gaza and Lebanon, before sitting down with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to hear why he thinks Benjamin Netanyahu is the biggest obstacle to a peaceful resolution of the conflict and the safe return of the hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

Producer: Max Bower 
Editor: Alex Graham 
Executive Producer: Bella Soames 
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini 
Host: David Patrikarakos 


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The Doomsday Clock is the symbolic countdown to human extinction; a universally recognised, annual indicator of the world’s vulnerability to man-made global catastrophe. If the clock strikes midnight, the world will have ended. 
Today, the clock sits as close to midnight as it has ever been – just 90 seconds away. 
And is it any wonder?
Ongoing wars in the Ukraine and Middle East. The continued expansion of nuclear arsenals around the world. The advance of generative AI and its potential for disinformation. The climate crisis. The list of potentially world-ending dangers feels increasingly – and depressingly – long. 
The Doomsday Clock is set annually, but, given the scale of the challenges facing humanity on a daily basis, as of September 5, we will be setting our own version of the clock each week. 
Welcome to 90 Seconds to Midnight: the Daily Mail’s new weekly global news podcast, promising listeners informed analysis, discussion, and on-the-ground reporting about the week’s most influential geopolitical flashpoints. Hosted by the Mail’s Special Correspondent David Patrikarakos, every episode ends with one question: are we closer, or further away, from midnight?