A recent study has identified just two nations that could withstand a nuclear conflict. This comes amid escalating tensions in recent days, with America and Israel, both nuclear-armed states, engaging in missile strikes against Iran.

Israel has targeted Tehran, the Iranian capital, whilst the Taliban in Afghanistan have initiated an offensive against nuclear-capable Pakistan. The UAE reported yesterday that it continued intercepting missiles aimed at Israel as conflict in the Middle East persists. This has sparked worries that these conflicts could potentially intensify in the weeks ahead.

A new peer-reviewed study has now determined that a nuclear war could result in the deaths of approximately five billion people, according to Unilad.

Fireballs could soar to temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius, whilst a nuclear winter would engulf every corner of the globe, according to scientists writing in the Nature journal. They assert that both Australia and New Zealand would endure.Armageddon specialist Annie Jacobson, author of Nuclear War: A Scenario, drew on scientific research and defense analysts to project the consequences if the world’s 12,000 nuclear weapons were deployed. Speaking on The Diary of a CEO podcast, she stated: “Hundreds of millions of people die in the fireballs, no question.”

Annie noted that catastrophic impacts would extend to regions that survived the initial detonations. She added: “Places like Iowa and Ukraine would be just snow for 10 years, and so agriculture would fail. When agriculture fails, people just die.”

The expert estimates that around three billion people could survive the initial explosions, but their lives would be drastically altered.

She theorizes that Australia and New Zealand would largely endure the nuclear winter and maintain the ability to cultivate crops.

Annie explained that detonating thousands of contemporary nuclear warheads would obliterate a thin layer of gas that shields us from the sun’s harmful rays. In addition to damage to the ozone layer, she warns of the risk of radiation poisoning.

Whilst Australia and New Zealand might endure, she anticipates that the inhabitants there would have to adapt to living in darkness. She predicts that people would be “fighting for food” and “living underground”.

Annie’s forecast follows a series of maps predicting that Iranian missiles could annihilate several countries, including some popular vacation destinations. Reports indicate that the warheads could have a range of up to 1,240 miles.

This implies that favored vacation spots such as Dubai, Cyprus, Turkey, and Egypt could be within striking distance. Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli – one of Iran’s most senior Islamic clerics – this week declared that the nation was “on the verge of a great test”.

He went on to urge “the shedding of Zionist blood, the shedding of [Donald] Trump’s blood” on state television. “Fight the oppressive America, his blood is on my shoulders,” he declared, making a rare appeal for violence from an ayatollah, one of the highest positions in the Shiite faith.