Google searches for ‘World War 3’ at record high
Military escalation in Syria and North Korea are driving war-related searches. Photo: AAP
Google searches for the term “World War 3” has reached its highest ever level amid rising tensions between global superpowers.
Growing fears of an imminent war were illustrated by Google Trends, which monitors what the world’s web users are searching. It shows a number of war-related phrases rising to record levels.
This coincides with the escalation in conflict between the United States and North Korea, and it’s deteriorating relations Russia at an “all-time low”, according to US President Donald Trump.
The record-high numbers dwarf the last peak in November 2015, with almost double the amount of searches.
Oddly however, interest by region shows the Philippines as the highest-rated nation for “World War 3” questions, with South Africa, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand rounding out the top five.
Similarly, a number of related search queries including “Syria war,” Trump world war 3″ and “Syria world war 3” has also attracted their highest search interest ever recorded.
Searches inside for the term “Syria world war 3” came predominantly from inside the US.
The term “going to war” also spiked to its highest ever peak, trumping when the Obama administration was considering a military attack on Syria in August-September 2013.
The majority of searches came from United States, Australia, United Kingdom and Canada.
Tensions between the United States and Russia heightened on Wednesday, after it voted down a UN resolution in the six-year Syrian civil war.
Russia has blocked a Western-led effort at the UN Security Council to condemn last week’s deadly gas attack in Syria and push Moscow’s ally President Bashar al-Assad to cooperate with international inquiries into the incident.
It’s the eighth time during Syria’s six-year-old civil war that Moscow has used its veto power on the Security Council to shield Mr Assad’s government.
In the latest veto, Russia blocked a draft resolution backed by the United States, France and Britain to denounce the attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun and tell Mr Assad’s government to provide access for investigators and information such as flight plans.
The toxic gas attack on April 4 prompted the US to launch missile strikes on a Syrian air base and widened a rift between it and Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that trust had eroded between the two countries under President Trump.