What concerns many who are sympathetic to Nostradamus as a supposed soothsayer is that 2024 has indeed begun with humanity facing several large-scale conflicts. The conflict in Ukraine, for example, became a full-scale war in February 2022, after Russia poured troops over the border into contested Ukrainian territory. Since then, the Ukrainian fightback has been funded by the Western military bloc NATO, the nations of which have supplied the embattled country with weapons.
Meanwhile, tensions have risen in Asia, where China, an economic superpower, has increasingly given demonstrations of its military might and willingness to expand through the region, especially into the neighboring island nation of Taiwan. The reignited Israel-Gaza conflict which has transfixed the world's media since the fall of 2023 is also leading to greater divisions on the world stage.
Experts warn it is arguable that each of these is at risk of escalating to involve more widespread conflict that in the worst-case scenario could see the world's military superpowers facing off against each other in a new World War, potentially fought with the devastating power of nuclear weapons. If that were to happen, it would have a catastrophic effect on civilization unlike anything humanity has experienced before.
