Doomsday Clock moves to two minutes to midnight as Trump stokes nuclear tensions

Today, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock to two minutes to midnight, the closest it has ever been.

Reflecting fears over Donald Trump’s fiery confrontations with North Korea, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the clock to two minutes to midnight, a level not seen since 1953 at the height of the Cold War nuclear arms race.

Bulletin official Lawrence M. Krauss said, ‘To call the world nuclear situation dire is to understate the danger, and its immediacy.

‘North Korea’s nuclear weapons program appeared to make remarkable progress in 2017, increasing risks for itself, other countries in the region and the United States.’

The Earth is now closer to oblivion than any time since the early days of hydrogen bomb testing.

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The Bulletin was founded by concerned US scientists involved in the Manhattan Project that developed the world’s first nuclear weapons during the Second World War.

In 1947 they established the Doomsday Clock to provide a simple way of demonstrating the danger to the Earth and humanity posed by nuclear war.